I'm dying here - It's hilarious that you thought the Bee Gees were a group of black women! The ONLY explanation for that can be that YOU'RE TOO YOUNG!!! You knew about the Bee Gees, but you didn't live it, like all of us lucky girls born in the 60's! :lol: I loved the Bee Gees. Even now, I think, "wow, that's weird music, but still fun to listen to." Plus they had a younger brother Andy who was quite a heartthrob in the 70's.

I think doing it in three years might be doable, but two years would be pretty tough. For high school the core of the plan would be reading the companion, doing the cool history questions, then (possibly optional) maps and timeline. All years have 34 weeks. The Ancients Companion is shorter, but we are doing year two right now and each chapter is about twenty pages long. It takes 3-4 days to get through each week even if you only read the companion and answer cool history questions. So unless you have very fast readers or very motivated history learners, I think doing it all in 2 years would not work well. Have you considered doing the Notgrass History books - that would fit into the two years you have available.

I'm so sorry for all you and your family are going through, and continuing to pray for you. :grouphug:

If you want something video-based, Tablet Class would be an option. I've been happy with it for my boys.

I have gone to Cincinnati many time, and this has been my experience as well. Talking with curriculum authors & speakers has been a highlight for me every year. I also appreciate the opportunity to look at an entire book rather than just samples. Sometimes samples are just not enough to give a feel for the entire book or answer the lingering questions.

I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. Praying that you will continue to have courage and wisdom to make decisions for what is best for you and your kids, and also praying that your dh can find some help. :grouphug:

This is me. December was cold and snowy, and I was so excited for "real winter". What a joke that was - January & February have been warm and rainy! That is NOT winter for the midwest. My 12 yo ds wishes for actual snow to shovel, too.

Math U See has been very helpful for my super right brain, creative, artistic daughter. She does NOT get math intuitively, unlike the three boys ahead of her. But MUS helps her understand - I think seeing it and building it are the keys for her.

NO. Just - No. Why does the MIL get the decide that your son needs counseling. Is she his parent? Who has the right to say that you need to "face" or "confront" his abuser? Frankly, they have no actual "right' to any communication from you. If you are not a troll (and I hope you are not, but I've been around long enough to see all kind of things on this board), I'm begging you, please, get some boundaries and stick with them. Your one job at this point is to protect your son. He felt violated by this man. That is enough to keep him away, period. You do not have to explain, excuse, defend, communicate, counsel, be flexible, or anything else. And your DH needs to support you in this - if he cannot, then he is asking you to choose between aligning with him and protecting your son. You need to get in your mama bear mode and stay there as long as it takes, for the sake of your son. Get counseling along with your DH to help you learn to deal with the manipulative MIL and work together. Disengage financially from the MIL and any other family members. Work on protecting your own family unit and getting yourselves healthy and functional. Hard and tiring? Yes. But totally worth it for the long term health of you and your family.

Thanks for the update, Rose. I'm sorry for all you've had to go through, but thankful that you were able to connect with him in a good way. I hope that things are working out well for your family in the new location. :grouphug:

12-13-14 year old boys live in another world. oy vey. I'm on my third one now, at least I expected it this time! :lol:

We have found wood laminate to be a "workhorse" as far as being durable...but, you have to test for scratch resistance. More expensive does not equal more durable, it just means it looks nicer. Even then...the wood laminte we put in our basement kitchen looks very nice, and was much cheaper than the wood laminate we put in our main floor. So I've concluded that inexpensive wood laminate can be durable and look nice. At any rate, we've had our main floor wood laminate (kitchen, dining room, foyer) for 9 years and it still looks very nice.

I'm so sorry for your loss - may the Lord bring peace and comfort. :grouphug: What a gift you have in your good relationship and memories with him in his later years, and in all of the remembrances of his kindness and devotion to others. He sounds like an amazing man.

You said that they are not welcome in your home, nor do you want to get into a dinner situation again at this time. So stick with those limits, don't second guess yourself! If you want to allow actually meeting in a place for a short time, maybe meeting for ice cream/dessert, or in a park or at a mall seating area. But if you don't want to set up for that, just meet in a parking lot or tell her to mail them. If she already "forgot" the presents twice (seriously, who does that?!), then she's not really serious about the presents, and I don't think you need to go out of your way to accommodate her whims.

We've done several long road trips with our family of 6. We usually just get one room and take a single air mattress. An air mattress is definitely helpful, and if you get two rooms or a suite room you should have floor space for it. Some things that have helped us: * We always stay in hotels with free breakfast. * As much as possible, we get a room with a refrigerator. I pack snacks and lunch food, so we can eat wherever we are - on the road or seeing sights. * We usually eat out at night. I have cooked in a hotel room, but it's a lot of work and extra stuff to pack. So for us, one meal out a day. * I always plan out and reserve rooms in advance. If I am a bit unsure about a night, I will make sure I can cancel & get a refund. I figure out where we will be by looking at the driving hours from place to place, and deciding how many days in each place. * Before we leave on the trip, I try to have a list of potential activities in each place. Ideally I'd have a rough plan for each day, but I don't always have time to get that done in advance. But my goal is to cut down on decision making while we're on the trip, because a lot of big decision making on the go can make it really exhausting. * I try to plan in some margin, for sleeping in, relaxing a bit, and especially for things like doing laundry. For example, I know that I need to do laundry about every 4-5 days, so I make sure I have laundry facilities and time available when needed. * If we are moving from hotel to hotel, I assign responsibilities to all family members for getting in an out of the hotel. So, for examples, unpacking the van, cleaning out the van, putting food in the refrigerator, getting ice for the cooler, pumping up the air mattress, etc. This has made a HUGE difference in my workload and stress level on trips. You trip plan looks pretty ambitious with a lot of stops, but it's a bit dependent on your total time and what kind of margin you can build on. I would suggest that you might enjoy the trip more if you don't try to do quite so much, and then you might be more likely to do it again in the future. :) I hope it all works out well for you - looks like a fun trip to take!

I get the frustration of not having the few things I'm trying to preserve as nice not taken care of by the teens. Perhaps I am the mean mom, but in this situation I would require him to pay for a new towel. The issue is not the medication; the issue is his failure to pay attention to which towel he was using after it had been addressed repeatedly. Teens are old enough to take some responsibility with these things. I wouldn't make a big deal about it (okay, at least not after I expressed my great irritation upon finding the nice towel ruined!). Just require payment, remind him of his responsibility, move on. Hope your day gets better from here!

Wow, changes in her so very quickly. I'm so grateful that you were able to get there and am continuing to pray for you. May the Lord give you strength to walk through this time with courage and peace.

So glad to hear you got the travel plans worked out! I'm so sorry that you and your family have to go through this, and will be praying for you and for all your requests. :grouphug:

Thanks for the update, Cat. So glad to hear that your husband is doing well! It's great to see you here - you've been missed.

I do not think you were rude. You had no advance notice, and some commitments really cannot be dropped without significant consequences. I would not think a friend rude if they were not available spur of the moment. If I tried to plan in advance and they seemed to have no interest in making room for me in their schedule, then that would be a bit rude - and I would consider that they weren't really interested in spending time with me. But last minute - totally unrealistic to set that expectation!

I've used AG with all of my kids starting in 6th or 7th grade (currently using with my 6th & 7th graders together). We do half page a day, so a slower pace, but it's been very age appropriate and doable. We have not used the review books. I would not wait until high school to do grammar - it's hard fit in all the English in high school, with all of the other academic demands, activities, etc. I try to keep English to 1 hours a day - with Writing, Literature, and sometimes Vocabulary that can be a challenge, so I do not want to add Grammar to that as well. I've found it easier to spend more time on Language Arts in jr high, so we focus more heavily on that in 6th-8th grade: Writing, Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary, and Literature. Also, it is my personal opinion that Grammar is best learned in the logic stage - connections! how the words function together in the sentence! Grammar is a foundation; writing and speaking well builds on that foundation.

Your kids are young. YES, they will be okay with focusing on the basics for a time. That's the most important thing for elementary kids snyway - laying the foundations. I am a strong believer that young students do NOT need to be tested. If you are able to get library books, audiobooks, and/or age appropriate videos for them, that will be a huge boost to their learning that requires very little ongoing energy from you. Praying for your family through this hard time.

I have found some really practical fashion blogs that are helping me. My favorite is Not That I Can Do. Another is Putting Me Together, and also Outfit Posts is good for seeing how items can be styled in different ways.

I don't have time to read all of the thread, just want to respond here. It gets tiring being the mom and being responsible for all the things, and frustrating when nobody else cares nearly as much as we do. I get that, and I feel that some days, for sure! In regard to your laundry, I would say that a) it will probably take some time to get them following the schedule/doing their laundry the way you would like. Because they're kids. It's okay. Give it some time, instruction, work with them. If they're not getting it or not caring enough to get it after you've spent several weeks instructing, then apply some consequences. Make it more your problem/responsibility than yours. Also, just generally, the fact that they don't care as much as you do doesn't mean they don't care at all. I just assume that no one else in the house is going to care as much about home management stuff as I do. So I try to narrow down what I feel really strongly about, and try to get the most cooperation on those things. The things I can let go, I try to do that. And the things that are less important to me, I try to accept "less than I'd like to see" and let that be okay. Approaching it in this way helps me stay a little calmer in the midst of the daily crazy. :grouphug: to you tonight. Raising teen boys can be a lot of fun and a LOT of frustration (I have three. Save. me. please.). Hang in there...you probably won't see a lot of "results" from your efforts right now, but you're doing a good job, mom!

Sometimes dealing with third party sellers on Amazon is crazy town. So frustrating - especially at Christmas! Fortunately, Amazon customer service has always made things right for me. In your shoes, I would just write it off as their loss due to their own lack of organization, and move on from there.