I will keep you in my prayers. I'm too distracted by babies to write a good post, and I'm very sorry for that. I was raised nominally Catholic, found the faith much more deeply as a young adult, and converted to Orthodoxy 5 years ago after 2 years at an Eastern Catholic church. I did feel very at home in the Catholic church and for a long time could never imagine being anywhere else... Until I had to be. There are many problems in the Orthodox church (as anywhere else..all these churches on earth are made of flawed humans..) but theologically I could never be anything but Orthodox. There is truth and then there is the fullness of truth. You know it when you see it..I knew it when I saw it and there was no other place for my heart. It is very very hard to be Orthodox in many places in America with the distance between churches. Twice as hard if you've been hurt in one of the small family like churches. It isn't the same as other faiths where you can hop until you find the right one. I don't know your best solution but I have no doubt God will offer you what you seek.

This happened to me all the time at this age and through college. Once was coming out of the shower just like that. I do tend to have low blood pressure, there was some hormonal influence because it happened roughly around the same time in my cycle, and fatigue was the major trigger. If I had to wake up early for something, I was pretty much guaranteed to throw up or faint. I grew out of the fainting by my mid twenties.

DS9 decided his brain wasn't working right today. He had a million excuses. He only managed math and astronomy. New he's sulking because I won't allow electronics time. Too bad, so sad, kid. DD went to "handwriting camp" run by a homeschooling friend's 12 year old daughter for the afternoon. I'm ridiculously happy to outsource that job. DS5 was rocking out some simple multiplication today. So proud of him :) Kindergarten can be so much fun. Tonight/tomorrow I need to prep for science club, clean my house, prep keto food for the week, and study my subjects. The second season of my favorite Russian tv show came up on Netflix a couple days ago so I admit to less studying while I sneak in bits of episodes in my free time.

That stinks, Critter. :( Baby is being bright into the church this morning! Baptism, first communion, chrismation. Yay. I've decided to go keto starting tomorrow, so that might affect our school productivity although I am going to try for a normal week.

I live in a really small community. I just started science club so that he and another child can have an outlet. I'm hoping we can start a math club, but it won't be until February and it will just be me.. Nothing is going to come out of his school. I'm probably in the best position to get him going (unfortunately?) but it looks like my husband will be taking temporary detail and we'll be leaving for three months Nov through end of January.

What would "finding a mentor" mean specifically? I can definitely ask. There might be scheduling or logistical issues with AOPS classes but it's worth looking into.

Oh thanks! That book and all the materials are free on his website so that is probably why the ridiculous price over an older print edition. Looks like a collection of problems that might be fun to play with. I must have misremembered -- I thought the Knight book was algebra based. Yes I think an algebra based physics might be just what is called for. If the Giancoli book is the one I remember, I quite liked it. I'll have to check it out. I do have this boy and another very bright girl for science club (which is, by their request, meeting "at least" twice a week. ) So maybe I can bring out that book during science club and see how it goes. I could also just look around for used copies and drop off a mini physics library for him hehe :)

Ahh! Yes he's got the same passions! Teleportation is his main focus. He's got some pretty impressive theories :) I'm not a huge fan of Stewart myself.. Love hate I guess since that was my main text quite a few courses in college and I learned to make it work. I wouldn't foist that on a kid though. I don't know the Kreysig book. I had O'Neil. Anyway.. I don't know that he is going to be as accelerated as your son. I wonder if I should just get him the college physics book that regentrude talks about and we'll just tackle the math as it comes? But that might be too hard of an approach, especially since I won't be around.

These are great suggestions. Thanks! I had forgotten about the AOPS forums. That might be another + for AOPS Pre-A. He might actually find some social connection there too. I know at 6th grade he doesn't need fast. I just don't think he's ever had access to anything besides the standard school curriculum so my (possibly wrong) assumptions were that he might like a taste of lots of different things. Kahn Academy could work if he just wants to cruise. I think he wants the calculus so he can do physics, so I should probably try and convince him that he'll be better served by becoming a better problem solver than by rushing through to learn calculus asap.

I had a child in my community *beg* me to teach him calculus the other day. He said he'd learn it himself if only he had the books and then explained me to how limited he is in his current place in school & life. Of course I am super sympathetic. He is a really bright kid, probably top of the community that I live in, but I am not privy to any real academic or testing details. He's in 6th grade now. I've known him since he was a 1st grader and I am friends with his parents. I can't tutor him myself since I'll be traveling a lot of the fall, but I can be available digitally. I also know some other people who could help if I got them involved and sent them in the right direction. He's never seen negative exponents, so my thought was AOPs Pre-A. I am not sure he wants to do that much work though afterschool (I have no idea) so then I thought BA5? But I am not sure he'd want a book with a 5 on it when he is a 6th grader trying to get to calculus, yk? I know we usually talk about resources for going broad & deep instead of fast, but this seems like a kid who might deserve a little taste of fast. We can see about deep later. Do you guys have any ideas for me?

I don't know homeschool Spanish academy so I am not saying anything against it. I know I'm butting in a little bit here but I do French conversion over skype to keep up my level. When I need to try lessons with a new tutor and even for a while after until I get comfortable, I find the whole thing terribly stressful. I basically freak out and regret scheduling it for the entire day before and I am completely fried at the end. And this is a language I speak comfortably every day. Face to face with a stranger is just so stressful for introverted me. So I just jumped I to suggest maybe Glossika with Duolingo? There are lots of ways to get pronunciation help that duolingo isn't good for without it being face to face live. You can definitely get to pretty decent level without having to talk to people if that's what he prefers. You could also check out Language Transfer which is a great method. And it's free so that's plus :)

I'm 4 months pp and right about where you are both with feelings about my body shape and the overwhelming need to eat. The last couple weeks I have felt more in control by upping my protein tremendously and restricting my sugar intake to a hot chocolate before bed. I figure step one is just getting back under control. I also started doing the MuTu exercises and kettle bell swings with a fairly small bell. I want to get out and walk everyday but that's not realistic right now between the weather and all the kids.

I totally get it. That's why I can sort of laugh at her antics. Consistency and getting up in the morning are the hardest things about homeschooling for me as the parent.

We survived science club yesterday. The kids were super enthusiastic. And teaching catechism. Less enthusiastic lol. Half the kids parents just drop them off for babysitting. My science club, one of the kids burst through the door and asked if this science club would be run by grade or ability level. When I said ability he gave a fist pump and launched into an explanation of how limited he feels, all the inventions he made up in his head and wants to try, and how he needs to learn calculus but he doesn't have the books he needs. Umm yes you can spend all your free time in my house studying math and building electronics. :D Got math done today, not really much else. Need to do a good day of school tomorrow. My daughter wrote "I hate my book so much" across the front of her light unit.. Does that count as handwriting? Lol. She's such a punk.. She hates everything that involves consistency so that's the real school work for this year. Showing up and working whether we feel like it or not.

What should you say though? I was trying to think about what I'd say and what I've said in the past. Is "Oh no problem" much different? At least where I live, I think sometimes parents over correct their kids out of embarrassment that the kids may offend. I'd like to have people know that I'm not bothered by whatever little things their kids are up to. I can't think of a way to model courtesy and acceptance in a brief grocery store type encounter without saying something short like "it's ok" with a smile. How would you prefer someone handle it?

So as predicted, DD did her math first thing in the morning before anyone noticed. I called her to school and she answered back "Why do I have to come. I already did it". I did make her do a few extra activities but she was right, she had covered the bulk of it. DS9 has an emotional morning. He only did half the math I had planned (which was admittedly maybe too much), handwriting, and history reading. If he does ttrs and Greek today we'll be ok. Science club at 4pm Catechism at 6:20-8pm Oh and DS5 read the first two stories from Run Big Run today! It is so stinkin' adorable to listen to him read. He thinks everything he reads is hysterical and laughs and laughs the whole time. I had no where near this much fun teaching my first to read (I never taught dd) :)

We did great today. I am cheering for myself. My daughter whined and moaned so much she inspired the boys to do their work without complaining. She was so over the top. Knowing her, tomorrow she will do her work in about 15 minutes without a fuss. Tomorrow, we need to charge through school so I can have a long break between school and the afternoon science club & catechism class. I remembered today how draining all the people-ing is going to be and I'm pretty nervous. I did some prep today but I'm not quite as prepared as I'd hoped.

I wanted to love CM style but my kids could never stand short lessons. Block scheduling for sure. My 4th grader seems able to handle more subjects this year so I think okbud might be right about the middle grades.

This is what I wish we had done. I believe those kids who start to write early need earlier instruction. Children who develop their fine motor skills later can wait a little longer. It is very difficult to undo bad writing habits that children formed by figuring out how to write on their own.

Ouch. Being a introvert isn't something wrong that needs to be practiced away.

I feel like I missed a mile in this new thread.. It's only Monday still right?? :) I had a meeting this morning with a friend that was important but also nice socially. Wouldn't have scheduled it in the morning but there wasn't a good alternative. Fortunately, it didn't mess up school too much. I did LA and math with each kid in our shortened school day. Got DS9 through astronomy class online and then took a nap myself with the baby. Yay. Wednesday I start teaching science club & catechesis so I need to prep for those. This week I really want to put more focus on language arts output. DS9 needs to be able to type faster. Both bigger kids need more handwriting, copywork and dictation.

Legends and leagues always confused me. The story was weird and irrelevant and we read it in one sitting. Was I missing pieces? Who knows. The activity pages were less exciting than Evan Moore's beginning geography so we just went with that.

If you were able to find any read by a native speaker I'd be interested in the reader/titles. I did not have success with that.

Well I do like the smell of patchouli so maybe I'm not the best to ask, but I like basil and orange just to wear as a scent.

Your contract is with the GC so your problem is with the GC, actually. I don't even know if you can take legal action against a subcontractor directly (DH says no). Unfortunately, is most likely you don't have a good enough contract to do anything legally speaking. The up side of that is if you do decide to talk to a lawyer, you are looking for prices for writing scary letters, not going to court or anything. My husband's job is essentially your position on a really grand scale and his biggest stress comes at times when he's having to limp along with bad contractors because it would be too costly (time or money) to sue and continue with someone else, and trying to decide where that line is. Don't feel badly about your decisions to try and keep the project going. I doubt you really made anything worse with that one signature. DH says the only option you might have is to not pay the GC for something else until he steps in and fixes the cabinet situation.