:iagree: Seriously!

Run. Run away from Allstate as fast as you can. We have Liberty Mutual now and are very pleased. Our policies cost almost half of what they did at Allstate and Liberty Mutual will actually allow you to file a claim and fix your car/house unlike Allstate.

All the way.

I have also been pondering and struggling with this one. I tell myself it only has to happen once a month (twice if you count when my VT comes) and I can make it work but I still struggle. Every one in my ward seems to have the expectation that since I am a SAHM I can visit in the mornings during the week. I have told people that I am not just a SAHM but also actively homeschooling my children during the morning and afternoon hours. It all seems to fall on deaf ears. I, honestly, hate having to haul my kids around to go VT. It makes things so much more complicated. (Especially since their friends are in school or the woman I am visiting does not have young kids i.e. no toys in the house to occupy them. So they get bored and restless.) I have been assigned the only other homeschooler in the ward as my companion. However, she has a husband who is home during the day and shares the job of teaching so she can go VT without interrupting the flow of their day as much. It should be better than my last companion who insisted that we fit it in after her baby's nap but before her kindergartener got off the school bus with no care whatsoever if that narrow window of time worked for me. Rant over....

Much of what we do has been mentioned but I'll chime in anyway. This year we are studying the New Testament. We follow the same basic structure for all the standard works. We start the year by reading through the scripture stories book that the church publishes. We do this at a fairly fast clip. Basically, I use it to lay the foundation and get familiar with the stories. I probably won't do this part when we cycle back through. Once we have done that we start reading the actual scriptures and keeping scripture journals. I use Scripture Study for Latter-day Saint Families by Leavitt and Christensen to help guide us through our reading as needed. A lot of the suggestions in the book are a little advanced for my kids at this point but I do like the way it helps me break our reading into manageable pieces each day. For their journals, we put a heading with the chapter and verses we read that day, at least one sentence about what we read and a picture. My son is 7 going on 8 and loves the journaling. My 5 year old dictates to me what she wants written and then draws a very simple picture. We also do scripture memory work and most nights (when we remember) we pull out the gospel art picture kit and discuss a picture. At first I let the kids randomly pick a picture but now we are cycling through them in order. A woman in my ward, who had 6 kids, said one of her biggest regrets was dumbing down the scriptures to her youngest child's ability. She suggested that we work at the level of the older kids and the younger will still learn and glean from the lessons and be prepared for the deeper study as they mature.

I have lived in both Portland and Seattle. We get more rainfall where I live now than they do in those cities but the difference is that it is not a constant rain here. We have rainy months, usually the spring and fall, with a few intermittent rain days the rest of the year. It was just so constant in the NW. We get real good long downpours and huge thunderstorms here and my husband (who grew up in Portland) took some time getting used to that. I think there was only one big thunderstorm the whole time I lived in the NW. I struggled living in the NW because of all the cloudy, drizzly days. And I hated have to bundle up to watch the fireworks on the 4 of July. :tongue_smilie: I loved the summers in the NW but they were way to short for me. I am a sun loving girl. I do miss the NW sometimes but I don't miss the weather.

Pride and Prejudice (1995) North and South (Gaskell) Wives and Daughters Sense and Sensibility Persuasion Emma Downton Abby Upstairs Downstairs (the new one) Cranford and Cranford Returns Northanger Abby Young Victoria 39 Steps Kings Speech National Treasure Amazing Grace Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Gosford Park Ballet Shoes Or as my husband says "Anything British." (There is one non-British movie in that list.)

Wait, they mix melted butter (I'm guessing it is actually margarine) and ketchup and put it over pasta? And eat it? Am I really understanding this correctly?

:iagree: Five months seems a little early to be determining if a child is gifted. At five months my son was just a typical baby. It turns out he is gifted but there is no way we could have predicted that when he was 5 months old.

If you are a resident of Texas then you should follow their regulations. If you are only visiting, even an extended visit, to another state I would not think you have to file with them. We travel all the time and have taken extended visits with family but always complied with our home state's regulations. My mother has a neighbor who homeschools (and lives in) in one state but maintains residency in another state. She notifies to and follows the regulations for the state they have residency in. I don't know if the way they do it is necessarily the correct way but that is what they do.

There is one local school district that does have yard signs and even banners that are usually hung on garage doors for athletics. What is popular here, and seems to be expanding to more school districts, is a yard sign for graduation. I can't remember exactly what they say but something to the effect of "A (insert school name) graduate lives here." We are in SW Ohio.

We do memory/recitation work. I stayed up way to late last night working on my plan for this year. Most of the plan is still in a scribbled state on notebook pages. While I like to think it will get typed up nice and neatly and all the pages copied and organized, I will probably be working off of my scribbled notes for most of the year. :001_smile: We are basically pulling ideas for Living Memory and a few other sources and lining it all up with other subjects we are studying. My son actually enjoys memory work. Unlike his sister who would rather have her teeth pulled than recite a mother goose rhyme. :tongue_smilie:

:iagree: This is the conclusion I have come to lately. There is a lot of the blind leading the blind in the homeschool community right now. I prefer to look to those who have been there and succeeded (or didn't) than someone who is just starting or only been at it for a few years but is full of opinions etc. There is one blog I just recently came across that espouses much advice for successfully homescooling with neo-classical methods. It turns out her oldest child is only 4 and she has not even really started homescooling yet!?!:confused: We'll see if she is singing the same stress free, perfect homeschool story in a few years... I have to wonder, out of all these people who are doing multiple programs for single subjects, how many are successful and how long until they and their children burn out? And how much of what they present in forums or blogs is accurate and not just the happy, perfect seeming moments? That is why I have started to take the advice/opinions of many with a grain of salt. Don't worry about keeping up with the Jones because they probably arn't worth keeping up with. Do what your head/heart/instincts are telling you to do for your family. Sorry if I got a little off topic with my rant here.

As far as the Ohio law goes, they have 14 days to respond. You are good to go as far as homeschooling goes. They have not complied with the law. You have. If any problems do crop up, which I doubt they will, it is technically to late to do anything because they have passed the 14 day period. I always send my notice of intent certified so I can prove that I sent the letter. Also, in Ohio we are not seeking approval to homeschool. We are simply letting them know that we are going to homeschool and assuring them we will follow the requirments. They in turn are just supposed to send a letter acknowledging they have received your notice of intent. Some districts like to think they are granting "permission" with those letters but they really aren't.:glare: But yes, saying "she do" is quite atrocious.

He supports me but if I decided to send the kids to PS tomorrow he'd simply ask "are you sure? If that is what you want to than that is fine with me." While he has come to the realization that homeschool really is the best option for us he understands how much time and effort goes into it and would support me if I decided to send them to PS. (Which I won't.) He is supportive in many ways. We budget a large chunk of our income for homeschooling (although he does often balk at the amount I spend sometimes), he understands housework will often fall by the wayside and even steps up to the plate and helps with the housework. He is always willing to be my sounding board when I am trying to work through questions, concerns or curriculum choices. He lets me drag him around on "field trips." He is willing to let me run with pretty much any idea I have when it comes to homeschooling.

Reading Alice Through the Looking Glass/in Wonderland makes me want to take a fork to my eyes.

Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast is our "not back to school" tradition! My kids are really looking forward to Thursday morning. This year we have the added bonus of leaving for vacation on the same day all the PS kids are starting school. I am thinking a vacation during the first week of PS might need to become an annual event. :001_smile:

Different libraries have different goals when it comes to their collections. One of my local library systems has a crazy large selection of DVDs and Blu-Rays and tons of computers. Not a single copy of Huck Finn (or most classics for that matter). They also have a lot of programs and events at that library. We do the summer reading program at that one because they have better prizes. ;) I am lucky to live somewhere with access to 3 library systems all within a few miles. So I use them all. Movies from one, obscure books from the one that is larger and most everything else from the small one directly across the street. It is rare if I can't find what I am looking for from one of them. But, if I lived where the only library available was mostly tech focused like the first one I mentioned I am sure I would be endlessly frustrated by the lack of available books.

:iagree: My son reads Jigsaw Jones and Magic Treehouse like there is no tomorrow. Both of those series make me cringe and I do consider them twaddle. I could never read them as read a-louds. I just make sure the books we do read a-loud and the books on his required reading list are of a higher caliber. We get a good mix.

:iagree: My MIL is like that. I just remind myself she does not see the whole picture. She only gets snippets of our time but likes to draw lots of conclusions based on the little bits she does see. She got some crazy idea that my 7 year old son resents his 3 year old brother because she saw the 7 year old pinch his little brother's cheek. She sent a long know it all e-mail about sibling rivalry and cautioned me about the way I am raising them etc. It's a joke. My 7 year old would walk across hot coals for his little brother but all she sees is that one pinch so in her mind they are doomed. She is not there with you everyday in the trenches 24/7. She does not see the whole picture. Don't stress about it. You know what your relationship is like with your daughter whether your mother understands it or not.

I've been waiting more than a week for my order from RR. I get so impatient for packages these days. Amazon Prime has spoiled me rotten.

I have read neither The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff or Odysseus by Geraldine McCaughrean. Which would you, those of you who have read them, recommend for a read a-loud with my 7 and 5 year old children while studying ancient history? I am thinking I will read one now and then when we cycle back through (or whenever they want) they can read the other as an independent read. Thoughts? Opinions?

My deepest sympathies for you and your family. I got a little emotional reading this because my father passed away just over a year ago. It was sudden and my children and I were actually visiting my parents at the time. So glad we were there for my mom but so difficult. Reading your about your lose just made the emotions all come back up again. But, enough about me. It is so very difficult to lose a parent. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

We were engaged 6 months and attending Ricks college (BYU-I) at the time. We were surrounded by people getting married in a 6-8 week time period after getting engaged and they all thought we were nutters for "waiting so long." We got engaged in November and there was no way I was getting married during Christmas break so we waited for the next semester to end and got married in May.

Yes. Absolutely.