Tina, I'm not sure what I'll have to say helps, as it isn't exactly your situation. But we let ds leave home the day he turned 11 to attend a music boarding school -- national and international travel, music 30+ hours most weeks, school full-time, etc. He loved it and overall, it was an enormously positive experience with a few minor bumps in the road (as minor as would happen in a home situation and less than in a typical public middle school situation). We were awarded need-based financial aid to help with the rather significant costs involved. When he was ready for high school, he applied (his choice) to boarding high schools. This gave him to opportunity to attend only one school in the four years (we moved three times to three different states during these years) and gave him enormous opportunities for growth and for study that was tailored to his needs. Again, massive (10's of thousands of dollars) amounts of need-based aid. A pain to apply for, essential in our case. Dd told us loudly and often (LOL) that she was not going to a boarding school, EVER. And we said, sure! We never wanted anyone to go to boarding school in the first place, and that suited us just dandy. She home schooled late elementary and middle school. When she went to an academic camp between 7th and 8th grade, a mutual admiration society was formed between her and her now high school. They recruited her heavily, and what we got was a very small boarding high school nestled in the mountains with a four-year history cycle that is heavily literature-based (lit strongly connected to the history) and writing intensive. Art and music are taught incidentally and chronologically, as they appear in the history cycle. Latin is available to continue through Latin 5, if she chooses. She does independent study in art, caving/mountaineering, field hockey, and community service. Lots of financial aid once she decided to attend, and so there we are. Honestly? We're two generations from Appalachian tobacco farmers scratching out a living on the side of a mountain. We aren't "boarding school" people. When friends of ours sent their 11 y/o back home from Heidelberg to Great Britain for school, I told my husband that they would have to kill me first before I'd let one of my kids go to boarding school. That I would emigrate rather than to do such an awful thing. I wasn't exactly neutral about the matter, let me tell you. But way leads on to way, and you find yourself in a place where you say not only, "How in the world can I possibly say yes?" to a place where you are simultaneously asking "How in the world can I possibly say no?" And only you know if this is right for your child and your family and your situation. How strong they are in their morality. How needy they are. How full of love and family they are -- and they have to be in order to survive all the struggles and temptations that will arise. They have to be centered and grounded already. Talk to other parents. Talk to the kids. Is it a culture of eating disorders and appearances and "show"? Will their academic life be well-nourished? Are their teachers harrassed and harried and sarcastic or griping? Are they invested in what they're doing? When the scale tips to "How can we possibly say no?" then you will find you'll have an easier (but never easy) decision. As long as it remains, "How can we possibly say yes?" you need to hesitate and wait and find out more information. Hope you find the answers you need.

Repeat after me: "You know, mom, you're probably right. But this is what we've decided works for our family just now. This time while the children are little is precious, isn't it? It goes so fast. By the way, did you see what your brilliant grandson drew for you the other day? I know it's here someplace..." Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I'd do it in a skinny minute. You're stimulating the local economy by hiring help. You're helping another family increase income -- perhaps providing opportunities for activities or education, or simply a more nutritious diet for someone else -- and helping your own family in the process. Hire. Enjoy. Feel no guilt whatsoever.

I always thought it was a Southern country mailman thing. Our mailman always blew the horn as a courtesy to let us know we had a package instead of just leaving a package at the mailbox unattended. I was a grown woman before I knew that's now how people get packages!

You're right, of course. The glass is almost always half full.

Thanks for sharing. And for the link. I was wondering if I was mistaken about the original intent of your question. I was not mistaken, after all. You have read the board rules, yes? No?

Agreed! :grouphug:

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have participated in this thread. My comments don't come across how I intend them and there's great misunderstanding all around. So I'm editing all my previous stuff and bowing out. I need to practice more restraint.

Well, haven't tax cuts been part of both platforms since, I dunno, last Feb. or something? Big ol' tax cuts.

Deleted first part. ----------- On a somewhat related note, I'm happy to report that since nobody in our house earned any income last year, we will not be receiving any government handout this year that's cleverly cloaked with the words "Earned Income Credit." We tried not to take it one year, but were "corrected" and direct deposited the correct amount. So we are happily off the dole and very non-stimulated, personally. LOL

Deleted.

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have participated in this thread. My comments don't come across how I intend them and there's great misunderstanding all around. So I'm editing all my previous stuff and bowing out. I need to practice more restraint.

Deleted. Sorry. People can read and believe what they want. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have participated in this thread. My comments don't come across how I intend them and there's great misunderstanding all around. So I'm editing all my previous stuff and bowing out. I need to practice more restraint.

Jennifer, that's REALLY great. I'm glad for you.

Holy cow. Congrats, maybe! Let me know if you need some clothes.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. :D (I'm quoting Seinfeld, not being snarky, btw. ;))

Now THAT was funny! :smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5:

Then don't allow yourself to be "searchable." Let people who you want to interact with know you know you're there, but don't let anyone else "see" you. Then they can't ask you. Seriously though, Sharon, this just sound like it's too much discomfort for you. Just let it be until such time that you feel comfortable with the format, if such a time should come. It's really not a big deal. I had a specific reason for joining FB, otherwise I would have gone my merry way like the 42 years before quite happily.

Will you find me, please? I'll PM you in case you don't want to dig around the WTM fb group for my ID.

Scarlett, you know you can delete anything you post on fb, right?

Same thing that happens when I move, I guess. I'm a HORRIBLE (oh, truly bad) long-distance friend. I hate the phone (let me count the ways), am unreliable with email (people here, even, will say "amen" to that one), and letter? Uh... no. So what happens is that people I care about just become people I used to know and still care about, but who are now my sadly neglected long-distance friends. And I never connect with new friends via facebook. I can't think of how that would work. I either know them IRL or I've come to know them well here from this board. (And I have a few friends on fb who know ME here on this board better than I know them, and that's fine. I know them enough to let them see what I'm saying on my wall (which I keep to a fairly high privacy level) and to want to keep up tangentially with what's going on with them.) I like to see what my classmates from nursing school are up to, and I have one friend from school in MD, my bff, a friend from grade school who it tickles me greatly to have "found" because I admired him so much as a young child, and some people from here. That's all. Oh, and a couple of people who were faculty at Ben's middle school and his sixth grade roommate who is a really neat young man (and his mama). Oh, and my daughter. (My son won't join because he finds it sucks his time away to an extent he doesn't care for.) I can't envision ever forming an actual new friendship off facebook. I don't know how anyone would do that. I formerly (teens, twenties, early thirties) did not like women in general very much at all. Getting past that was the key to joining things like both this board here and facebook. (Not that I don't have male "friends" there, I do, but there's not a whole lot of the messaging back and forth with them, etc.) Anyway, now I find I am needy for goodhearted, intelligent women in regard to support and kindnesses and such. So transitioning to facebook was a good thing for me, although I had an account for two years before I ever did more than peek in every six months or so. People who are good friends have just another way of keeping in touch. People who are more like mere acquaintances have at least some contact. It's just another tool. Someone called it blogging one line at a time. That's kind of it for me. ETA: As to easing into the background, yes, that will happen I think if one stays away. Like leaving a church, or leaving a forum like this one, or moving, or graduating school, or circling the wagons to become a hermit (which I did once for a year out of self-preservation and only "hung out" here on the old board). But it's a "season of life" thing, and it's all good. The connections are no less valued because they (some of them) may be temporary. Also, remember that "late adapters" are naturally reluctant with new technology or applications or popular things, and that's ok. If you find you want facebook, if it meets a need or desire, you'll participate. And if you don't, or if you try it and give it a good shot and still say "meh," then that's ok, too. Don't sweat it too much. I've gone for years shunning this or that thing and just tried to remember why I made my choice and tried not to second-guess myself. Obviously, I don't leave stuff out of my life just to be different or contrary, but because I could see that what I would be gaining simply was not worth what it would "cost" me, sometimes even a "comfort cost." Maybe being a little weirdo when I was a kid made it easier to march to a different drummer when I choose to as an adult. I've gone from being uncomfortable about my odd ways to fully embracing them when I choose to have little parts of my life be non-conformist. So, you know, if you find yourself out of step, just celebrate and embrace your inner weirdo in whatever form she takes! :D

I think I refer to it as such because I used it (with very little exception) for grammar. :-) And also as cultural study, of course.

I think that's a very good point. I worked through the Winston Grammar Basic program with my dd before she plunged into R&S 6.

I'm not using it anymore because we finished R&S 8 in dd's last year of home school, and that's the last book of theirs that I would consider using. My dd did every piece of R&S, every question, every exercise, every day for three years (books 6-8). We did the lesson together, went over the current memory work (lists of helping verbs, prepositions, definitions, etc) for about two minutes, did the class practice together (alternating, then doing any diagramming together with me writing and her "directing"), then she did the daily work and the review on paper. The only things I ever left out were some writing exercises if we were doing another program (we usually were) and in the 8th grade I transferred some of the review work into another section of her day as a fill-in-the-blank exercise. Oh, and we never did the word mixup stuff that was not typical to our speech such as "let" vs. "leave." She may have moaned a bit at first, but after awhile it was like brushing teeth -- not terribly exciting, but necessary and just not really a big deal in the grand scheme of life. She's in 10th grade now and still thanks me periodically (when she watches her fellow Latin students struggling sometimes unsuccessfully with grammatical concepts and when she breezes through that part of her English classes) for giving her R&S grammar. She doesn't even say, "Thank you for making me do R&S." She says "Thank you for giving me R&S."