Ten years ago I couldn't have done it, but now I think I could. DH and I have been married long enough, and we are comfortable and confident enough in what we believe and want that we could generally set up good boundaries and also uphold our end of work and compromise. When we were younger it would have felt oppressive to me (I don't think DH would have cared). There are a LOT of families in our area that do this. People who originate from India tend to live in large households that are integrated, whereas other multi-generational households I know have separate living spaces. I'd be happy to add a separate living space to our home for my in-laws or parents. It would need to have separate laundry and kitchen. The people I know who do this all seem to do well with it - the older parents/grandparents enjoy the relationships they are able to have with the grandkids, while they still have the space they need, and the parents/our generation enjoy the in-house child minders (for instance, a friend can put her kids to bed and go out with her husband - her parents aren't "babysitting" really, but they are there if there is an emergency and it doesn't cost $10/hr to go out).

I had something like this happen - I didn't know how to answer your poll because it seems it is somewhat normal to the people around me, but it is not normal or acceptable to me.

I've done well most of the time. Be sure to really inspect the books in the pictures - I found that some of the ones from a Sonlight core I bought once that were displayed covered by other books in the picture were water damaged. The books still worked, but it was disappointing. In re-reading the listing after purchase and looking through the pictures, I didn't have a right to complain - the seller should have disclosed the damage on the books, but they had been clear they were used books with some marks/wear, their definition of "some" was just way more than mine.

I have a budding songwriter as well, although for us it is more orchestral music, no lyrics. This child is considering buying a midi keyboard for Christmas to plug into the computer. Then there are all sorts of programs that will write the music you play (Scorecloud is a free one I found that looks nice enough - well, it is free to an extent). I would love to find a MOOC for this child - great idea, EndofOrdinary. I will have to spend some time googling.

You may want to consider a different math program. For my dyslexic/dysgraphic child, Singapore was a really poor fit. For us, Beast Academy has been great. It has been a way to have challenge mentally, while working on grade level skills. FWIW, I have another child for whom Singapore has been great, so I am not in any way against the program, just throwing the idea out there. In general, it is hard to do but I found the best thing is to let go of what we "should" be doing in various subjects. I have picked my 1-2 remedial activities, and we do them and we do other things making sure there are some areas of stretching and some areas of sailing. Don't worry about doing "all" of a certain thing. The worst science unit we've ever done was this one textbook people rave about (the only traditional textbook subject we have tried so far). I felt like we had to do each chapter and it was below my kids' levels, but it had some interesting facts here and there (which we didn't know) so I told myself it was adequate and I would just add on the good stuff. I should have scrapped it FOR the good stuff. We did it, the kids didn't hate it, but it was so very much less than what we do when we are free to learn about topics as they interest us and on our own and not in the prescribed textbook manner. And doing the textbook, we used up the time and energy we could have spent on the better books. Now, of course there are good textbooks and I'm sure we'll use some again, but I learned a very good lesson about elementary school level texts - they are very elementary and they are geared towards kids needing to be able to read them on their own so the content and vocabulary is limited. For a gifted child with dyslexia, we read to them anyways, so we might as well read something at the appropriate content level.

Where I live it seems to be a relatively normal thing to do - I've had a couple of babies lay on my bed, and I've gone to a quiet room to nurse (babies nurse better that way (mine did - DISTRACTIONS), and I sure hope I was never causing a problem for my host. People are welcome to nurse in the gathering or find a quiet place. Usually that is just a different room, but bedrooms are fine too.

I think it is an issue with their cards this year. I have heard some friends rumbling about it too. I had a blanket ordered and delivered very promptly. Stinks that you've had troubles. I had some card troubles with them last year, but it was an address issue, not a printing/sending issue. Generally, I find Snapfish to do a decent job and have quite good deals. It didn't work well with cards to order with a deadline, though.

I thought this was going to be some elementary math controversy - what age do you expect your kids to be able to perform "counting on" when doing addition? :) No idea there was a show called that.

If you are buying from lego.com, homeschool buyer's coop has a lego deal going right now - it would be worth it to see if what you want to buy has a discount.

The kindle paperwhite does not do audiobooks (or at least my older one doesn't). The fires do.

Yes, for us we hit that wall (grammar/more than just vocabulary) and the teacher has been great. It is a lot of fun to learn vocabulary, though, and one can do signed spoken English with that. It isn't ASL, but it is a good step with kids. FWIW, we do Latin as well, and enjoy it. What the kids are learning of Latin grammar in the lower level elementary books is very minimal. It starts with vocabulary.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

Signing Time is an easy one - it is done so it is accessible to a small child, but if you just go through the videos quickly, it is fine for a 2nd grader too (my 3rd and 4th grader watch with their little sibling). We have other ones we got from Amazon, but Signing Time is the best start, IMO. You can often get them from the library too. We have also been able to find a teacher - we were stuck at a certain level a couple of years ago, and I just couldn't take the kids farther on my own. So now it is a couple years later, and the kids have forgotten a bit, but they have retained a lot too and they pick things up more quickly (I think) since some things are still familiar. ASL has been great for us because it is something everyone in the family can do - that is how we learn best - when we use what we have. Tsuga makes a lot of great points.

American Sign Language is my #1 recommendation. While it isn't foreign, I believe it qualifies as such in many areas. ASL is very accessible to young kids, and fun. There are a lot of good resources. Latin is good to learn (and Song School Latin is fun for little kids). Otherwise, if there is another language that is prevalent in your area, I'd see what local resources are available and center on those.

When I have wanted to have 3 kids in a stroller, I have used a double stroller and had the oldest sit on the top - in the fold out canopy. It isn't something to do for hours on end, and it wouldn't work with a very young child, but as long as they have the mind not to dive out and they aren't too huge to break it, it works great. In general, having one in a carrier when using a double works well too. Congratulations. :)

To lock things down you use the parental controls and a password. I am not sure about the new ones - my old one is perfect, my newer one is harder to lock down completely. My old one they are stuck in their freetime (and it can shut off after a specified time and at certain times). My new one their freetime will stop after they have used it the allotted time(and you can put time of day limits on it too), but they can switch over to the other kids' freetimes. I don't *think* they can get onto mine (I mean full access on the device), but it only takes a 4-digit numeric code, and I think they may be able to get around it somehow if the device shuts down and back on again (but maybe not?). But anyways, pick a special secret pin for you, go into the swipe down menu at the top and go into settings, then parental controls. You can restrict content types and purchasing, etc. In mine, this is where I manage the child's profile, but if you haven't set one up yet you may need to find the freetime app and go in there and set up their profile. You choose time limits, available hours, and available apps. ETA: I advise getting yourself an app killer app - I had problems with some of the free apps running even after I had backed out of them properly, and it would slow down my kindle. Now I just kill things that I know will stay on and it runs great. The app killer app is free.

You can do a lot to block the information that is on your page for others to see, but even when you do when you "like" things or even visit stuff, people can know it. To give a totally hypothetical situation, say you know a pastor at your church, and they "like" a particular political party just before an election. That "like" is broadcast to all that pastor's FB friends, and since that pastor does not have their settings completely private, the liking of that political party is also either totally public, or at least open to all FB friends. So that pastor, while simultaneously attempting to not talk politically from the pulpit and moments later posting a group post to people in the church reminding them to vote (but being careful not to say parties), has just broadcast their political affiliations- hypothetically, of course. ;) I guess that is a long way of saying that nothing is private on FB. Not even a little "like" click.

Regardless of you pastor's intention, it sounds to me like you would like to be more able to dwell on the positive things in your life. Gratitude can be about noticing the good that is present. It isn't the opposite of noticing the frustrating things, it's letting notice of the frustrating things pass by more easily and holding onto the notice of the good. I've been a more positive person and a more negative person. I suppose right now I am somewhere in-between (perhaps a bit farther on the negative side than I'd like to be as well). Ways to choose gratefulness: -gratitude journal (a couple things each day) -immerse yourself in situations where you experience or see a much worse life than you have (so you see with fresh eyes how positive your positive actually is) -intentionally smile about happy things -tell others about things that are good in your life -don't dwell on the negative thoughts (think them, but don't give them the power of control over your outlook) If you dwell on good things - things of virtue and good character - they will affect you in a positive way. That positive attitude is a growth towards gratefulness.

I can try to parse it for you. The only one missing the "with" is the first sentence. If I may, I will change it to a statement, because a statement is easier for me to do than a question. You are done your homework. noun verb adjective adjective noun subject linking verb subject complement ? ? You are done with your homework. noun verb adjective preposition adjective noun subject linking verb subject complement ----------prepositional phrase----------------------- I could go through all the sentences and label the types of words, but I don't think anyone is actually that interested.

I am spending way too much time on Book Shark trying to whittle down my cart to a manageable cost. I will blame you, but will also be extremely psyched about my purchases once I am able to choose them. Too many good books!

I bolded the bits I wanted to point out. The regional expression here actually does not have the "have" - so it is "ARE you finished your snack?" with a response of "Yes, I am done my apple." So hard on the mind/ears.

They were successful again this year. I left the peel on - perhaps that keeps them from discoloring? Also, sparing with the mixing to keep the texture good.

Having moved to an area where people routinely leave out the "with", I feel your pain. It breaks my little grammatical heart when I hear my kids do it. The one I hear often is "done school" (in addition to the "done lunch/dinner"). For example: "What time are you done school most days?" asks the friendly other homeschooling mom. I want to poke my eyeballs out. FWIW, I have recently been able to point out to my children a little bit about it due to our grammar lessons and how we've been looking at sentence structure. I am hopeful that they will now notice and believe me that it does not sound particularly good.

I did it last year, and IIRC they were normal. Nothing noteworthy either way. My children lamented me not peeling the potatoes, and I'm trying to decide if it will work well with pre-peeled potatoes for this year.

It sounds like you could use some strategies for math and spelling. Math - what I've done with my child like that is 1st - Life of Fred, 2nd - Beast Academy + Rod and Staff 1 minute drills a grade behind (to practice the facts). The drills take way longer than a minute, but que sera, sera. There are a lot of online games for free too, for fact practice. I wouldn't let that hold back your math learning (or make you think she can't handle more). FWIW, for my child like that multiplication came easier than addition (and a nice skip counting song helped). Spelling - it looks like she doesn't know about r-controlled vowels? There is a lot to learn in spelling. A couple of curricula that tend to work with a child like you have are Sequential Spelling and Spelling You See. You can take a look at them and see if they might suit you. Somehow prepositions sound confusing to her - perhaps you could do a unit on them, draw pictures for them, etc. Make them come alive.