:iagree: Hitting the like button for this!

:iagree: Me, too! But I had very lax parents, we had stopped going to church for years, and they never set any standards for me about dating or remaining pure for marriage. So, I hope my dd is more level headed at that age. In fact, I remember that last link written down in notes passed to each other in junior high. {sigh} it's no wonder teens / Tweens get in over their heads. Look out how they psyche up their relationships with this crap!

We are using: MFW K: Bible, Character, Math, Language, Literature, Art, Science, Music, History, Social Studies Early Bird Math Book B: for more math practice Hand Writing Without Tears K: more handwriting practice, we are using the book, wooden letters, roll-a-dough, chalk board, and cd, 1 item on the first 5 days of each unit (MFW K has 26 6-day units) La Clase Divertida Level 1: We do the DVD, cd, and art / crafts projects but don't bother with the work book since they are too young, but it's fun Because my ds is 3 and tags along, my dd, 5, will often participate in his activities such as the MFW preschool toys and the Before Five In a Row book we row for each unit and the activities we do to accompany it. But only if she feel like it. The Rod & Staff book, About Three, we are using, he will do while she is doing her math or language work. I tell him what to do and than after he'll quietly color the page. I like that MFW K schedules in the "fluff" fun activities like art, music, science, history, and social studies because I might not bother to think of fun stuff to do on my own and these extras are what motivates my dd to push through math and language which she is less enthusiastic about. I also like that we complete school in about 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. We can have time to do other fun stuff because of this!

I'm going by school age cut offs, so my dd is in K and turned 4 in mid-April, and my son will has a June birthday but will enter K at 5. However, I'm flexible to allowing them to work at their appropriate grade level of work based on their individual abilities.

It can be done, but it would mean likely having them at 7 am sharp. Why does dh think 8:00 am is better than 8:30 as a starting time? Your children are adolsecents, the 14 year old especially, might have trouble getting up early. Their are studies that if high school started later, say 9 am or 9:30 even, students would perform better academically. Something about their hormones makes it difficult for them to go to sleep early and to wake up early. And they actually need extra sleep at this age, at least 9 hours of sleep a night, because they are going through another growth spurt. Maybe if you are struggling to get the school work done in a reasonable time frame, they can start saving some of their independent work for the evenings after dinner, like "homework" time traditionally would be? Just a suggestion. Ifyour kids can get up early, then you probably don't have a problem. :D

I am doing K and pre-k3,so 2 hours is more than enough time to do school time. I have been starting at 10 am and finished before lunch. Last year, we had 2 mornings a week we had activities at 10:30 am so we'd start our day by 8:00 am in order to be finished with school before we went to the activities. Over the summer I've debated whether or not to continue with these activities because I wondered if they rushed us through our school time, but really all that's happened is we get up at 8 am, lounge until 9:30, and then do chores, get dressed and start school at 10 am.

We are using My Father's World from A-Z as our base curriculum for kindergarten. This includes Bible, Character, Science, Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Art, Children's Literature, and Creative Thinking. In addition, we use the Clase Divertida for Spanish and because my dd needs more practice with Math and Language, we are also using Singapore Early Bird Math book B in addition to MFW K math and Handwriting Without Tears Program in addition to MFW K language arts. This is plenty to keep us busy for K I feel. We spend about an 1 1/2 on average a day on school time, with the additions of Spanish and Singapore Math / HWT to our MFW K curriculum. It's been fun! We started our K curriculum in mid-April at the pace of 3 days a week and just started doing 4 days a week now that swim lessons and summer camp is over. I guess summer is pretty much over. All the kids in ps in our neighborhood have started, so the kids can't play during the day with neighbor kids anyway. Have you already purchased a curriculum for K?

Not sure about the Bates family, but Mrs.Duggar nurses and still regains fertility at about 6 months post partum, which causes her to dry out and have to formula feed once pregnant. Perhaps she pumps or bootle feeds and nurses. Who knows? I got my first periods with both of my children when they were only 16 weeks old, and both times I was going through the marathon nursing phase were they nurse non stop, day and night. I was still doing night feedings and feeding on demand. They were sling babies. I go on b/c with my first right after period scare, and with the second after my 6 week post partum exam to be safe :), knowing then I could get pregnant again so soon. When I got pregnant with ds, I had my iud removed and got pregnant on the first try. My dd was 16 months old and still nursing, so I actually had to wean her pregnant! Breast feeding does not work as effective birth control for everyone! Well, at least not for me, but I suppose I am an exception.

Ok, but OP is not looking at following a Quiverfull lifestyle and is in a position to afford extras for her kids right now, which indicates she isn't struggling financially, so I feel these are separate issues. Wanting to have 6 kids and wanting to forgo b/c and have as many kids as you can, even without the financial means to do so are very different. As for friends arguments, I think that having more than 2 kids is now considered going against the cultural norm now, and so people have trouble seeing past that. There was a cultural shift that accompanied the movement of 2 wage earning households that couples have 2 kids versus historically having larger families. Part of that cultural norm has evolved into the expectation that parents provide things like a college education, car, down payment on a home, etc as a consequence of having only 2 kids and thus it is assumed parents have more resources to allocate to said 2 children. There is nothing wrong with that decision. But there also isn't anything wrong with expecting your children to obtain these things without help either; whether you have 2 children or 6. Ultimately, you have to determine your own values and what you prioritize as being necessary to provide for your children.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way but I could see why you could take it that way :001_smile: I actually have only 2 children of my own and a stepson we share custody of, so relatively speaking, we are a small family. We make a conscious effort to instill the desirable character qualities I described the children of large families having, but I feel like this would stem naturally from a larger family out of necessity. I would also love more children, but right now we're holding off because of financial considerations. My situation, financially is very similar to OP, but the cost of living us pretty high were I live and we don't own a home yet. And, I'm young, so waiting a couple more years isn't an issue. I'd like 2 more maybe.

No, you are not selfish. If having more children is your dream and you are able to do that you should have more. People who say you need to pay for college, cars, etc. for their kids are creating children who are not self reliant. I think the benefits on children from big families outweigh the negatives. Children from big families are going to be less selfish, more self reliant, and have some fabulous memories. If they want a car and college education, they can work for it, and there's nothing wrong with that!

If your children have the ability and desire to go to college, they can and will. Will you pay for it all? No. Should you pay for it all? No! Students who have part time jobs in college and help contribute monetarily to paying for their own education actually get better grades and get better jobs than students who have parents pay their way through entirely. The reason is simple; if your own sweat and blood is going into something you appreciate it, but if mommy and daddy are paying for everything, well, you figure who cares if you have to retake a class, or if it takes longer to graduate, etc. Here are some things to consider in making paying for college less scary... 1) Create a college fund and save what you can save within reason without comprimising your own financial future; for example, don't scimp on your own retirement fund to pay for your kids to graduate debt free; your children will have a lot of time to repay student loans. You will be running out of time to save for retirement. Divide by 3. Every child gets some help from the college fund to be fair. 2)Consider having your child go to community college. That will save you about 1/2 the cost of your children attending a 4 year university. They can live at home, eat at home, pack a lunch to school. The cost of attendence at this point would be tutition per unit, gas and car insurance, and their own personal expenses. They can work part time to cover that. I took 12-15 units a semester and was able to pay for all of those things with a part time job and still transfer with a 3.7 GPA. (See below, I also saved half my paycheck.) Community college is great because it allows young adults to transition into college life with their parents guidance still available and they offer much smaller class sizes so students get much more one on one help. You are odds of getting into a really good college are better as a transfer than as a freshmen. I got into UC Berkeley as a transfer, but not as a freshmen. 3) Starting at age 16, your children can begin working part time and save half of their paycheck for a college fund. I did this working part time my my junior and senior year of high school and the two years I attended community college. I saved 10,000 on my own to put towards college when I transfered. And by the way, it didn't impact my grades at all. I could have very well gotten into college straight out of high school. I had a 3.5 GPA and took AP and Honor classes. I chose to go to community college to get into an even better college (I wanted to go to UC Berkeley and save money on school). 4) If you really both want to graduate without student loans, have your child live at home and go to a state school that is commutable (if that's possible). Tutition in public universities is actually not all that expensive. What's expensive is paying for you student's room and board and basic living expenses. Especially if they decide to go to school somewhere where the cost of living is high and rents are high. If they live at home, they can likely still work part time to pay a portion of the expense of tutition, books, and transportation costs. I have a friend who did this and graduated debt free with good jobs and some work experience to add to her resume. 5) Loans. Yep, they can take out loans. The repayment rate on loans are really not all that bad. Their are also loan forgiveness programs for certain fields, like for teachers who work with underserved students. They also have programs for students for loan repayments based on the income. My friend had a 60,000 in loans and applied for this program and only pays $80 a month. 6) Military. Serve 4-6 years and college is paid for. If you think having your kids work part time creates an unfair burden consider what they might do with all that free time on their hands for a minute. Believe me, students with commitments outside of school have better time management skill and spend less time experimenting with alchahol, drugs, a premarital relationships.

Last night's episode had them showing how they get the children involved in laundry, dividing up chores for the whole family and one of their older sons going grocery shopping by himself for the famiy and then bringing home the groceries and everyone pitching in to help put them away. They also had the children practice how to behave when they go out for dinner or out in public and I thought what a great idea. I mean, it seems so logical but I've never tried that. I might have talk before hand about how to behave briefly but mostly I just cross my fingers and hope they aren't too bad. Their kids behaved better than our and we only have 3 :tongue_smilie:! I truely like both families and have actually gleamed some good parenting ideas from them both on occasion.

Checking out the new show on the Bates family on TLC. Has anyone checked it out? I've sparodically watched the Duggars through the years. The first time we saw their sow I was pregnant with our first child and it was this children by the dozen segement and an episode special on the Duggars RV'ing. Anyhow, I like them but miss seeing the "old duggars", when they were not "glamed up" yet. I like the Bates family. They are an interersting family with a little flavor and I love all the fiddle music. And the kids are so cute! I am not necessarily agreeing with their lifestyle, but they do seem like a nice family.

:iagree: I feel like parents who feel out their kids paperwork and applications are really going to hinder them. If they can't do that themselves they won't possibly be able to handle a college level course load! I am in an educational counseling masters program. I've interned at UC Berkeley and in community college. Young adults pushed into going to school by their parents don't do well, and when they go back, those poor grades will still be there. Even if they start at a different community college, and get all a's, those transcripts from the school they did poorly at must be sent to the 4 year college they apply to and averaged into their over all gpa. If it's discovered that information was withheld, their admission is revoked. That being said, I've met lots of twenty something's getting failing classes and getting mostly D's & C's, because when they aren't ready, don't want to be there, and have no real career or academic goal, they don't succeed :(. Mandylubug: So much alike! I was married at 19, had my dd at 21, graduated at 23 from UC Berkeley with a 2 year old and was 9 months pregnant. I started grad school the upcoming fall with 2 month old. I had no help. I applied for school, found my own apartment, applied for scholarships on my own. When I got pregnant, I found my own OB, applied for family housing and childcare myself and applied for financial aid myself. I saught my own internships, decided to apply to graduate school and got accepted into a master's program myself.

I vote for last eight weeks and weeks 4-12 of pregnancy :glare:

I was raised Catholic though no longer attend Catholic church. They do not teach tithing. A reasonable weekly donation is up to the discretion of the family, but an idea donation would be around $20 a week. At least that is what it says on the Catholic school in our town's website on what would be considered a parishioner for the Catholic families tutotion rate, along with regular weekly attendance.

If you want something better written than 50 shades of Grey, try Anne Rice's Belinda or even her Sleeping Beauty Series. And of course, there is Lolita (but that's a classic). Have you read the Hunger Games trilogy? I just read that and it was a good read. Last summer I read every book Phillipa Gregory ever wrote. She's the author of The Other Boleyn girl. She writes mostly on the Tudors but has some other historical time periods. It's all fictional but well researched.

I hope the cooling trend lasts, too because it's been in high 90's the last couple weeks and I don't feel like doing much in that weather either.

We're using La Clase Divertida level 1 with my prek3 and k'er. I think we'll do a level a year without using the workbooks for my k'er, and then repeat them all with workbooks, then start Rosetta Stone in 6th grade for her. For youngest, I am not sure. We could repeat La clase Dicertida 3 times, or try something else. We'll see....

I had 2 Spanish teachers from Mexico, one from Peru and one from Spain. Pronunciation wasn't an issue from any of them. They didn't over emphasize their own country or culture either. In high school I took 2 years of French. Both teachers were Americans, but spent time abroad in college in France and one of them lived and worked there awhile after college too, so over all decent accents.

1) What's your dinner game plan, ie, how do you typically plan for dinner? 2) Can you share a crockpot recipe? 3) A meal to freeze recipe or typical routine (if you do that)? 4) Your families' best loved meal? I am going to school 2 afternoons a week and would love some make ahead and slow cooker ideas! Thanks :)

:iagree: I just watched! Hilarious and the family is likable.

:iagree: I just watched! Hilarious and the fam us likable.