My son is 21 (22 in July) and yes, he was "sheltered" from the things you mentioned in your first paragraph above. He never felt the pressure from peers to be "cool" by having the latest "stuff" or by doing stupid things to impress someone. He never had to deal with the pressure to do drugs or drink or smoke. We were able to instill in him our family's values before he was faced with attacks from those who would have him turn his back on them. Today, he is a fine young man--hardworking, self-confident, and firm in his beliefs. He has many friends, both guys and girls, and a wonderful girlfriend. He is well-liked by people of all ages, from little kids on up to senior adults. He will graduate from college in May, and plans a career in ministry.

:( Breaking news just reported from ESPN. I love, love, LOVE both Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow and I was ecstatic when I thought they might both be on the same team. Then when I heard that the Broncos were going to trade him, and that Tebow wanted to move back to Florida, I hoped it would work out for him to to to Jacksonville. But I guess now I'll have to be a Jets fan. :O

Me too!

But people around here think it's "rot" iron. :001_huh: I guess those are the same people whose children sleep in "bump" beds instead of "bunk" beds. :lol:

:iagree: After doing them in Starting Points, ER said these were books that every Christian should read and study. He didn't do ALL of Starting Points; I modified it to suit us. He had already read the Narnia books, so we didn't read those, and we didn't do the study of (Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life), although we did see the movies.

Every Sunday after church we go with people from our Bible study group to the (cheap!) Mexican restaurant across the street from church. We go out together as a family for a sit-down dinner maybe one time every 4-6 weeks. Dh & I have a dinner date one evening per week.

:001_huh: I'm 51, so I'm to OLD to vote in your poll. :001_tt2: I would have voted "other" if I could have voted. I have some gray, and I don't like it at all, but it's not too much. I have never colored my hair because I'm chicken. :D

Same here. Late fines are 10c per day per item, including books, DVD's, CD's, whatever. All items are checked out for 2 weeks, and can be renewed twice, so you can keep items for up to 6 weeks, unless someone else has requested a particular item.

See what I mean??? :D This post has been up almost 12 hours and it has had NOT ONE response. Since I often wind up feeling like I'm talking to myself because if no one else responds, I sometimes resort to responding to my own post! :lol:

I started a thread similar to this one a little while back because I was wondering exactly the same thing about myself! :D Here it is: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=347221 See? You're not alone!

:iagree: :grouphug:

No advice, really, but I just wanted to share this: As the child of a Michigander who transplanted to the South, I remember how irritating it was when my dad's relatives from Michigan would visit us here in Georgia--or when we would visit them--and they would make fun of the way we talked. I never understood why they thought we were so stupid! One incident that I will never forget occurred when I was about 12. We were visiting family in Michigan, and I was playing with a cousin my age, and she, thinking it was cool, started trying to talk the way I did. Her mom (my aunt) heard her and started yelling at her and even spanked her for talking that way. It wasn't that my aunt thought her daughter was mocking me; it was that she didn't want my cousin to sound "ignorant". :(

That's what I'm thinking too. It sounds like she's pretty sure it's going to end badly, and she wants someone to blame when it happens.

Our Goodwill is pretty moderate, I guess. Small paperbacks are 99c, larger paperbacks are $1.99, hardcovers are $2.99, and textbooks (they have a LOT of used college textbooks because there's a college right across the street) are $3.99. For $3.99, I've picked up almost-new SAT & ACT prep books, BJU & ABeka spiral-bound TE's, Lial's math books, etc. Clothing is a bit overpriced for used merchandise, IMO: adult shirts/tops and pants are $3.50 each, jeans are $5.50 per pair, and shoes are $5 per pair, even for flip-flops. Prices at our Salvation Army are better, but the store is much, much smaller than Goodwill: adult shirts/tops are $2.49, pants and jeans are $2.99, shoes are $2.99, paperbacks are 39c, and hardcovers are 79c, except for children's books, which are all 19c. I have found some GREAT bargains because a lot of homeschool moms donate their used textbooks rather than selling them at the curriculum fair's used book area.

Congrats!

:iagree:

http://vlib.iue.it/history/index.html Continents are further broken down by country. You will find many useful resources, including period maps, transcriptions and/or MP3 audio versions of many primary source documents, such as the Federalist & Anti-Federalist Papers, and much more!

We have 7.23 acres, and we live about 5 miles from the nearest town. Our property is situated well off the road, so we have a lot of privacy. We love it! We have a small pond (about 3/4 acre), and just today, dh & I rode down there on the 4-wheeler to watch the fish just enjoy the peace and quiet. We regularly see lots of wildlife, including deer, foxes, hawks, woodpeckers, and, of course, squirrels.

:iagree:

:iagree:

I would do it this way, which is a combination of your the choices you listed: Spanish 2 Alg. 2 World History OR Geography Writing/Literature (1 sem each) Physical Science Physical Education/Health I would not do Latin 3 AND Spanish 2. Doing both would be overkill, IMO. I would also suggest combining writing & literature over the two semesters, rather than doing them separately, unless you're planning to cover writing skills rather than actually having him do compositions (which are usually done as responses to literature). Physical education is not an academic subject (maybe Health is?) so this is actually a light schedule for 9th grade.

:iagree: Same thing happened to us. :confused: Dh said we should just keep it because we'd save money on shipping anyway. I also posted this comment on a recent thread about Amazon Prime Instant Video: We have linked our Roku to our Amazon Prime account, but everything we've found that looks interesting has a price listed beside it. I haven't found anything free yet. So we just watch Netflix instead. I only use Prime for the free 2-day shipping. And even that's not actually 2-day shipping, or at least, it hasn't been so far. I've ordered two items, and neither one arrived within 2 days, so I'm thinking that Prime isn't all it's cracked up to be. :(

:iagree:

Posting pictures--or trying to! They're not great quality; these were taken by amateurs with cell phone cameras. We're still waiting patiently(?) for the pictures done by the official photographer.

Remember back in January when I posted that EK was participating in the local Junior Miss (now known as Distinguished Young Women) competition? Each year, two girls are chosen for top honors, and EK was one of this year's winners! Each received a $1500 scholarship, and EK also won the Overall Talent Award ($500 scholarship). She is the first homeschooled student to compete locally. She will go on to the state competition, which will take place this summer. We're pretty excited over here! :D :party: