I have a roughed out plan of subjects through high school, with room for some electives each year to allow DD some choice also. I know which math I'm going to be teaching in each grade, which science, which history (except for the years I'll be offering DD a choice, and the year she's doing an independent research project), which languages (again, the languages through elementary and middle school are set, but DD gets a choice of which to add in high school), etc.etc. This plan is extremely flexible, and I actually expect it to change, but it makes me feel better to have a long term plan to look at. As for curriculum, I have a couple years planned out in a number of subjects, but only because the things we are using now work for us. We'll stick with Singapore because it works, and same for AAS, Miquon, SOTW, Elemental Science. For everything else.... I already have bookmarks and pinterest links to possibles through the next couple years. So I guess I'm already sort of "planning" for next year. When it comes time to make a final decision, I'll list out what we're definitely using (see above) and then just look through the stuff I've linked throughout the year to fill in the holes. The bookmarks and pinterest links come from regular browsing on this board and pinterest, not really actively searching for new curriculum.

I'll be joining in with the weekly exercise check in threads. I've lost a not-insignificant amount of weight (somewhere in the ballpark of 35 pounds) just by eating right and being generally more active in life. Now I need to add more purposeful workouts in. :D I'm stating my intentions loudly right now so I have something to own up to. :lol: I'll be checking in later today after heading to the gym. I just do cardio for now because... well... I don't really know what else to do! :tongue_smilie:

If a man tried to "shake my hand" like that, I'd probably stand there dumbfounded. :001_huh: Of course, I hate being touched, and generally try to manipulate situations to avoid it as much as possible anyway, so what do I know about handshaking. :lol:

I have no idea what commercial you're talking about, but I'd hate it too. I guess I just zone out during commercials. :lol: Almost everything I watch is recorded on the DVR, so commercials get fast forwarded through. The rare time I do watch something live, commercials are read through, or internet surfed through, or pottied through.... :D The only commercial I can even think of is the really sad one from the ASPCA with the sad music and all the abused animals in cages. And I know that one because it makes my DD burst into tears. Every. Time. Of course one of our favorite channels around here is the Animal Channel.... :glare:

Many of the other moms at DD's dance school know each other outside of dance. Consequently, while I spend hours of my life sitting there (usually reading, doing schoolwork, or homeschool planning :D) I get to hear some very... interesting conversations. (Think teA, bOOk shelves, husbands, family, etc.etc. :lol:) Last night two moms were discussing a return to school. One of the moms was talking about how her daughter (who I *think* was in 4th or 5th grade?) was FINALLY being challenged and receiving a good education now that she was in a different school, and how in the years before she'd always just sat around bored and didn't learn anything. Really it just made me sad for the state of the public education system. I'm enormously glad that we're able to homeschool, and even with a great public school system, homeschooling would be the best choice for us. But there are families out there that public schools really are the best (or only) option, and those children deserve great educations also!! :glare: Seems a little self righteous of me to get angry and want to change a system that I don't even use, and wouldn't even if it were changed, huh? Anyways. Just my random two cents for the day. :tongue_smilie:

I turned DD at just over a year, because I didn't know any better. I found out about ERF.... about the time she hit the weight limit on all the rear facing seats. (Way back when rear facing stopped at 35 pounds because we didn't have the fancy-schmancy seats we do now. :D) She was harnessed until after her 6th birthday, when she hit the limit on her car seat. She's about 65 pounds now, and rode in a Britax Frontier, which needs to be tethered to use harnessed over 65 pounds. I don't have tethers in my vehicle, so now she rides in a booster (a Graco high back). I'd love to have her back in a harness, because she is so uncomfortable in the booster and complains all the time about it, plus she's a car-sleeper, which ends up with her leaning all over the place. :glare: If only I could win the lottery tomorrow to buy a new seat.... (Oh, and a new vehicle... :lol:)

I need guidance. I sold a few books on Amazon. One of the books I sold was returned today for insufficient address. I googled the address and it appears to be an apartment complex, but the address listed on Amazon doesn't have an apartment number. I'm about to write the buyer and inform him of the situation. Do I ask for the apartment number and resend the package at my own cost? It was only a $15 dollar book in the first place, and cost nearly 4 dollars to send. Plus $1 for the box, and Amazon's fees, and my time/gas going to the post office. Do I just have to suck it up and eat the extra $4 dollars shipping costs? (If that's the right answer- it's okay to tell me. But DD needs a new level of Singapore soon, which is what these sold books are supposed to pay for!! :lol:)

I just read that the father is picking up the baby to drop off at a babysitter. :001_huh: He has a three hour visitation, and he's using a babysitter? Did I read that right? I understand that thing happen but wow. And Mom is offering a longer visitation when baby is well (and maybe Dad won't need a babysitter?) and he still says no. Well. Maybe he's afraid to miss any schedule times. To the OP- document everything!!!!! Seriously. Mom should go to the store right now and buy a new composition notebook, and document every single interaction with the baby's father. The good, the bad, and the :001_huh:. And you should do the same if you have regular interactions with him, but be sure not to write down anything that your daughter tells you, only the things you actually witness for yourself. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

Someone just tell me what I need. Believe it or not, I'm tired of researching curriculum, I'm tired of planning, I just want to be done with it all. I need health. In my state I have to teach health. I want a workbook program that we can do easily in one-two days a week and get done in a year that will keep the portfolio reviewer off my back. I don't really care if DD learns or retains much. We talk about health and safety all the flippin' time. Isn't that part of parenting???? Why do I have to "teach" this? :glare: I just want something easy that will make my life simple. Oh, she's 6.5. and secular please. :D I know that someone out there knows exactly what I need!! (And cheap. I may or may not have blown the budget on more important stuff, like art supplies and books....)

I think we all would do well to remember that it's really hard to judge anything just hearing second hand information. And, that we don't know who is behind all these computers. Our best friend on the boards may be sitting with their husband and sister wife, shocked at the new side we have revealed. As a teenage employee of a famous movie rental chain, I had a manager comment to me that "We don't hire those types of people here" referring to the gay guy who just requested an application. Me and the girl I was dating at the time, who was also an employee, and who was also standing right there to overhear STILL to this day laugh about it, and it was... 10 years ago? Just a really striking example of you never really know who you are talking too when it comes to sensitive topics like this.... (and, FTR: we were keeping it silent not because of the gender issue, but because she was a manager and I was an employee. An entirely different set of ethics. But, she's still my best friend, and the company is almost out of business, I'll call it a win. :D) Back to the it being hard to judge- it almost seems to me like the wife in this situation is maybe feeling like she doesn't want to have s*x, so she may as well let husband get it elsewhere with her permission instead of behind her back. I wonder how she'll feel when her drive returns and they've already set up shop? How would things go if she wanted to add someone? As someone who doesn't fit neatly into the hetero/homo s*xual box (and doesn't identify as bis*xual either.....) I guess it takes more than this to surprise me. I could see myself in a polygamous relationship just as I could see myself in a monogamous relationship in the same way that I could see myself with either a man or a woman. I evaluate each situation on it's own merits.... does this work for me, does this feel right? Okay then. It should come as no surprise that if my brother (you know.. if I had a brother... :lol:) were to announce something like this I probably wouldn't even bat an eye. Oh, and one more thing that I was thinking of as I was reading 19 pages. The timing of the brother's revelation does seem selfish and bad. However, if this relationship has been going on in secret from the family, the brother may have been feeling cut off and isolated. When you have a secret from the people you love, it changes the relationship. Maybe he wanted to get it out there so that he could go about spending time with his mother while she's ill and not feel the strain of the secret weighing down?

Hey guys, thanks. I didn't need sleep tonight or anything.... :lol: I'm here. http://pinterest.com/kymmie810/ I have a bunch of boards, very carefully labeled and organized, because I'm obsessive like that. :D And I'm constantly adding new stuff. Now... off to browse all the new tabs I currently have open with all your boards. LOL.

Well, I'm a full time college student, soon to be graduate student, then (hopefully...... :D) history professor. Academics pretty much dominate our lives. :lol: DD sees me go off to class a couple times a week, see me doing homework every day, and often accompanies me to campus for meetings and cultural events. Beyond my school work, she also sees me reading in my free time, and together we pursue "academic" hobbies like chess and visiting museums and other such field trips. And we are constantly discussing new ideas, asking why, or how, or looking things up. Google is our best friend. :lol: DD is a very curious child. Maybe she'd be like this anyway, or maybe she is like this because of her environment, who knows. :tongue_smilie:I hope she'll continue to be curious and interested in learning new things for the sake of learning, and I hope she'll continue to see the college community as a benefit and cultural enrichment to our lives, and not rebel from it.

What I do is very similar to this. I'll teach geography every year, I think it is that important. We follow the plan laid out by Leigh Bortins in The Core, and are also working through Evan-Moor Beginning Geography. When we finish EM-BG, we'll do another geography workbook, probably The Complete Book of Maps and Geography. :D We also learn cultural geography through reading, cooking, music, etc. We study a country for a couple weeks or so before moving on. We'll keep this up for as long as it keeps DD's interest. I figure by the time I run out of countries that I can find enough resources for, we can circle back and re-do some, learning deeper material.

Well, the one thing DD has said she wants for Christmas is "lots of legos" :glare: I hate stepping on legos. Just sayin'. :lol: Anyyyyyyyyyways. She'll be getting a couple lego sets (she really enjoys the city sets, I'm thinking of getting the big motorized train set, a helicopter, and 2 of the smaller sets), some books of course, possibly a digital piano and piano lessons (she was supposed to get it for her birthday last year, but we ended up going with violin instead. She's still doing the violin lessons, but wants to add piano), a tubing trip to Western MD, some babydoll stuff, some hot wheels- as if she needs more hot wheels, .. and three kits that I am putting together for her. One is an arts and crafts kit (self explanatory!) One is a tinker kit (full of electronics and stuff she can take apart, plus tools, goggles, etc.), and the third is a doctor's kit (with a bunch of first aid gear, stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, otoscope, etc.). I'm sticking with tried and trues this year. The only "new" things on the list will be the stuff to take apart, but I think she'll love it, and the doctor stuff, but she's always pretending to be a doctor. Everything else is just more of what she already has and loves. OH! And I should mention that I do all my shopping before Christmas, and then split everything up between Christmas and her birthday in January, so this stuff will be for two holidays. :tongue_smilie:

:glare: It always worries me a little when I see someone with big dogs, because of how many times I've seen situations like this. I have a large, dog-unfriendly dog, and she does not welcome being lunged at- even when the intention is friendly. She just doesn't like strange dogs! If I'm being polite enough to control my dog, you should do the same. And don't let you dog be out of control and try to reassure me with "Oh, but he's friendly!" (See above- my dog isn't!! If you think it through enough to realize you need to reassure me that YOUR dog is friendly, what about the fact that I have my dog on a shortened leash, in a sit stay right at my side- looking right at me, doesn't convey to you that MY dog may not be friendly?? :001_huh:) I sort of agree about the retractable leashes- but I also sort of disagree. I use one with the puppy. We live in an apartment, so no yard. With the retractable leash I can go out in the field and let him run around some, while the big dog and I sit comfortable in one place :D. Long lines just get wrapped around his feet. But I'd never use one for public walks, especially where we might encounter other dogs or children.

Thank you everyone! I'm so happy. :D Eating less and being more active. I know, I know. That sounds so.... like not an answer, huh? But it's true! I was always looking for the magic diet, but I'm a picky, picky eater. None of those fad diets work for me because I'm so picky that I couldn't stick to them. So I still eat my regular foods, just less of them. And occasionally treat myself to good stuff. I've been having a lot of joint pain, but I'm being as active as I can. On good days, I go to the gym. Even when I can't manage a full workout, even the little things. Parking further out in the parking lot. Walking around the entire grocery store once before I start shopping. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or at least walking up the escalator. Playing outside with DD more. Even standing up and jogging in place while watching TV. :lol: Anything to be moving. Oh, and drinking water. With breakfast I have a glass of half chocolate/half regular milk, and with dinner I have a glass of tea, but other than that- water, water, water. Really, no secrets. Just eating less and moving more. The biggest hurdle was reigning in my self control. And I found that if I give myself a little bit of leeway, I'm less likely to fail completely. (For example- I'm going to go have a small piece of peanut butter fudge right now, so that I'm less likely to eat the entire box later. :D)

We have kid stuff in every room, except my mom's bedroom. (And she even has "kid's stuff" there, if you count all the arts and crafts DD has made for her. :D) All DD's arts and crafts are in a toy box in the dining room, right next to the dining room table, which is where she does arts and crafts. Her doll house, and two big bins of toys are in the living room. She doesn't like to play in her room alone. Even when she's playing by herself, she'd rather be out with us. As long as everything is mostly put away at the end of the night, I'm okay with that. She has a bin of kitchen stuff in the kitchen (the stuff she uses to cook with) and a bunch of magnet toys on the fridge, and a bunch of bathtub toys in a basket in the bathroom. And of course all the toys in our room. (We share a room.) She may or may not have too many toys...... :lol: But even if we COULD fit all her toys in our room, I wouldn't force her to keep everything in the room. She likes being with me when she's playing, even if she's not actually playing WITH me. And it doesn't bother me to let her keep a little bit of toys out in the living room. AND I found that if she already has toys out there she's more likely to play with the toys then turn on the TV. When I tried keeping toys out of the living room, she would just be lazy and turn on the TV instead of taking time to drag out toys.

I just started a weight loss thread, so funny!! :tongue_smilie: I wore my old clothes until they were literally falling off of me. But I also had the "comfortable" jeans, the "fat day" jeans, and the "skinny day" jeans. :D So my fat day jeans were gone a long time ago, they were bordering on too big as it was and as soon as I started losing weight I looked as if I were swimming in denim. Then the comfortable jeans were the staple, and when they started to get loose, I switched to the "skinny" jeans. (Not skinny-leg jeans, just the jeans I had that were tighter on me before. :D) Now, all the jeans I own from before look ridiculous. It wasn't bad over the summer because we didn't go many places, but I just went to the thrift stores and found myself some new pants. Shirts were easier because I haven't lost as much weight up top. I don't lose in my chest... unfortunately..... :glare: I wish I would!!! So, the moral of the story is- I wear my clothes until they are falling off, then get new ones. I love just skipping over sizes and going right into smaller sizes that I haven't seen in years. :D

6 months ago I was wearing a size 16. Yesterday I bought myself a new pair of jeans. In size 10. 10!! :D I'm so proud of myself. I've done the weight loss through dealing with severe depression over the loss of my father, and some strange health issues (currently waiting on the results of blood tests- Rheumatoid factor, ANA, Lyme's, Guillan-Barre, and a bunch of other crap. 5 huge tubes worth of my blood worth of tests!! :svengo:) Just had to share with someone. DD doesn't quite get why I'm so excited over a pair of pants. :lol:

I'm thinking of getting a tent. I'd like to do some camping with DD. But... I've never actually BEEN camping. (Okay, once, but we were with friends who did everything. Any other time I've been "camping" was at my family's cabin.) What tents/tent brands are good? Would a 4 person tent fit 2 adults, one 6 year old, an 80 pound dog, and a puppy, plus our stuff for 1-2 nights? (For reference, me, the kid, and both dogs share a queen size bed at night, with some room left over. :tongue_smilie:) Mostly it would probably be DD and I camping with one or both dogs, but occasionally we might be able to convince my mom to come along if we have a big enough tent. :D Is there anything else I need to know, or should get? I'm looking for a good, but cheap tent to be a trial period and see if we like it. What else will we need for couple night camping trips to state parks? (This seems like a bad idea even as I'm typing it out... but I think DD would really have fun...... :tongue_smilie:)

I'd go with M&Ms if it were me. I did a rainbow cake with m&ms for my DD's half birthday a couple weeks ago and it was a big hit. It wasn't too hard for me to decorate, and she loved it. And.... it actually tasted pretty good! :D Don't forget to share pictures!!

I just wanted to thank you for sharing this. We had a rough, rough day over here. I've been dealing with some health issues that can't be figured out, and had a rough day with that, and on top of that, DD decided to be whiny and distracted during math and took over and hour to complete less than 20 minutes worth of work. And that was only with lots of complaining. But the thought of your son laying there giggling... well. It brought tears to my eyes. :001_wub: So sweet. I'm glad he's getting back to happy!! He helped me get back to happy this evening. :D

Could she wear a pair of windbreaker pants? They wouldn't be very warm, but they wouldn't get soaked like cotton pants would. I'm not sure what else. Try looking on dance or gymnastics sites, both would have clothing that provides freedom of movement, and you could look for something that wouldn't irritate her eczema.

Could you put the youngers in school and keep your oldest out? If he mostly works on his own, you could assign him his work, and just make sure to remind him about his due dates each evening. You could give him a day off during the week, and use a couple hours on Saturdays to do work/discussions that requires you to work with him. I know there are a bunch of people on here who have some children at home and others in school.

I haven't read all the responses, so sorry for repeating but- It sounds like your children have it pretty nice. I mean, if you were to come here and say "My children really want to play soccer, but we can't afford the 20 dollar registration fee because we want another child," in my head I might go :001_huh:, but you say they have activities, I'm assuming all that would come after clothes and food, etc. But in the end, the decision to have more children comes between you and your husband, and what you want to provide for your children as they grow up. I personally want to help my daughter with the purchase of a car, and hope to pay much of her college expense, etc.etc. So those long term expenses come into play when I think about family decisions. So for ME, knowing that those are important TO ME, it would be selfish for ME to have another child until I'm more financially stable. But plenty of families don't pay for those kinds of things, and it doesn't mean they love their children any less, and their children aren't necessarily any less successful. I think you should tell those "friends" of yours that you have different views than them, and that they should stop telling you it is selfish to want more children.