Oh, and before moving here we lived in a small town in northern MN where on REALLY cold days, people would leave their cars RUNNING and UNLOCKED in the grocery store parking lot. The baggers there KNEW which cars were yours (very small town) and would load your groceries into your running car while you were paying. I wonder if they still do that?

We live in a very small town in northern Wisconsin. We leave the car doors unlocked, sitting in the driveway all the time. We also leave the house unlocked all the time. (Glad my address isn't listed anywhere! :) ) We actually haven't even known where the house key is for the last 9 years. We're pretty sure the house came with one, but don't know where it is. When we leave town (average of once a year?)we'll lock the house up and leave a "secret" way open to get back inside. Yeah, we're a robber's dream place. It only takes one time for something bad to happen, so we should be a little more careful. Hopefully we'll get a little smarter and you won't hear about the grisly killing of the family in the northwoods of Wisconsin some day. :)

But that's me. There are too many unknown factors that relate to you, your family, your support, etc. For me, I treasure my time with my family and know that my influence has just such a limited time. I never feel like I have enough time with them! My husband resigned nearly 4 years ago and has recently gone back to school. I have been floored at how we have limped from job to job to make it work for those 4 years and even saved money?? And yet, we are not stressed. God provides us with the peace as well to know we are fine! And we are! My husband should graduate a year from now and I look forward to some consistency in our lives again, but this has really been a good time for all of us to draw closer and really learn to put needs first, etc. Both seem to be great options! It's always hard to choose between two good choices! And the future is so hard to predict, all you can do is make the best choice for the facts you have in front of you. The questions you need to ask yourself should be practical first of all: How much money do you have now? How long would it last if neither you or your husband had a job? Or if you just had the part time job? What's the minimum amount of money you NEED to earn per month/week to sustain the needs you have now? Do you have family and support close by that can help with the kids if you're both working and they need someone to run them somewhere? Or stay home with them when they're sick? What do your husband and kids think? Do you feel at more at peace with one decision or another? Only YOU can choose what's best for YOU and your family at THIS time! Ask for wisdom from those who know you best! Good luck!

Tanya, I just can't even imagine. Death is always hard to understand and I solely rely on God's grace and my understanding of who He is to ever get through it. I think if it were my child, that would just totally take the wind out of me. I pray for God's strength and peace to hold you, and every parent in this situation. :grouphug:

I am an eclectic teacher as my kids are eclectic learners! It seems like we have every learning style in the book! We use a variety of books - Christian and secular. For me, as long as they are not ANTI-Christ, ridiculing my faith, etc., (in other words: REALLY neutral) a secular book might be the best option for one of our courses. We don't totally eliminate other views (nearly impossible with books we get from the library) and when topics come up (evolution being the main one) we talk briefly about how many people do think that, but this is what we believe and why (and why I think evolution can't possibly be true). I don't want them shocked or rude when it comes up in other conversations with their friends, so I want them to know what else is out there - but only what they need to know. I want them to be respectful (without judgment). As they get older, we teach more about different beliefs. I have pretty lofty goals, don't I? :) All that to say, it's not black and white for us. And I've done a TON of research on lots of curriculum to find "just" the right one. (And it's hard for me sometimes when I buy the curriculum and find out it's actually not!) If you DON'T have the time or desire to look at each book, each level, etc., there are plenty of pre-packaged whole curriculums that are very good (then I would go for Christian). Don't worry about sheltering your children. I always hope I err on the side of sheltering. They can grow up fast enough. (It doesn't take much to expose them to the "real" world.)

Appreciate those smiles! Give your children an extra hug and kiss today! I'm thinking and praying for my cousin and his family today. Their almost 1 year old son (Grayson) has cancer. They just had another MRI done and the cancer was shown to be even worse and they need to try chemotheraphy "right away". I am so sad for them! They do not have a faith. (More sadness.) They were told for years and years they couldn't have children and when a year ago they had twins, they were the happiest couple ever and have been amazing parents - they TREASURE their kids. (Their daughter has no medical problems.) I can't even imagine the heartbreak! Even for people who DO have a strong faith! I have written them prayers for God's strength and peace to be with them, and for wisdom for the doctors. Just makes me have a little more patience with my kids today and I've been giving them extra hugs every chance I get. I so appreciate this time God has given me with them and I need to try to remember that daily!

hoping someone solves this soon! Always looking for the best deals and just seem to miss them!! I subscribe to some announcements online on facebook (Rainbow Resource, Timberdoodle) that announce their sales, but one collective spot would be great instead of just getting a bunch of random announcements to weed through. Something like the coupon sales blogs, etc. they have. Hard to imagine no one's come up with this yet for bookaholics? Or curriculumaholics? :)

In the end, it's still your decision. You are still the parents and until she's 18 you get to decide where she goes to school. Our (14 year old) daughter wants to go because she wants to hang out with her friends. Wrong reason. She's still staying home because we don't think she would really be learning. Academics are hard for her, and so we decided she still needs to stay home to focus better. She also frequently has an attitude problem so we have flat out been clear with her that she will not be going to school any time until we know we can trust her with her attitude and she has to prove it to us by respecting her family first. Our (15 year old) son is going for three hours a day - it does not have to be all or nothing. The problem is we have to drive him there and back, but we only live a mile from the school, not a big deal. We picked the classes (he had some input). This has been a wonderful way to see how the whole situation goes. He is doing great. He also knows we can choose to homeschool him again full-time at a moment's notice. It is a privilege to go to school (an activity, sports, scouts, etc.) and they need to earn that by having good behavior, etc. at home and those extra things can be revoked at any time if they apparently start needing more parental supervision and guidance.

Science - Apologia especially younger ones with notebooking journals. Hope they keep expanding those to the older sciences! Math - Saxon math, but only with Saxon Teacher CDs. We started with Saxon, quit, and came back solely because of the CDs - saved me HOURS EACH WEEK of answering and/or repeating lessons. The Saxon Teacher CDs provide step by step answers to EVERY problem in the book. Again, saved me HOURS of time each week arguing every problem. Before that they were convinced every wrong answer they got was really written wrong in the book and I should show them everything and basically re-teach every lesson. Writing - I'm curious to see if I will add IEW to this list for next year. I'm taking the plunge because of the HUNDREDS of recommendations and tagline recommendations I've seen on the board. :) And to comment on other posts here: You have to PAY TO USE YOUR LIBRARY?? I obviously need to be even more grateful (if that's possible) for ours here! Ours also connects to 27 other area libraries that will send any materials in their database to us for free too!

I SOOOO hope I'm able to post something similar a year from now!! When my 10th graders dreams beyond high school are: to be on Survivor and my 8th grade daughters are: to play hockey as long as possible I get a little worried about where we went wrong and how they will do. It's fine to have those dreams, but they better have some basic academics mixed in there!!! Congratulations to you!!!

Glad it's not just me, but it's getting frustrating because today is my free day to search for curriculum - both ideas and stuff available. :( Hate to go pay full price just because I can't do a search!

Research things and be prepared for all questions. Costs to homeschooling: curriculum (your kids are preschool, you can get A LOT at the library), no income from a second job Savings if you homeschool: $600 a month for child one Childcare savings for child two No $ towards work clothes for you Less $ towards other work-related items (gas, etc.) for you Time savings - you can teach your kids directly instead of volunteering all the time for x number of kids Benefits: Happier you Best teacher-child ratio Teacher is devoted to the best education for your kids However, if your husband is adamant, I would not risk the marriage harmony in this. Only YOU know what you need to do. But researching as much as possible ahead of time would be great, and then going to him to ask him gently what are the sticking points for him would be helpful. Also, I do now work part-time, and our kids go to school part-time. One to a private school for one class a day, and three to public school (our youngest goes one day a week, and our oldest goes three hours a day). All for different reasons. Is there some halfway point to meet him? It doesn't have to be all or nothing. There are a lot of options in the middle as well. Good luck!

Science - Apologia, talks directly to the student Math - Saxon as long as you include the Saxon Teacher CDs (or DIVE, but I prefer Saxon Teacher because they have the option to click on ANY problem throughout the whole book and they will explain it to you step by step) Language Arts - Writing Strands (but you'd have to find something else as well, that's just part of our lessons.) and actually I usually read this. History - Story of the World would probably be possible, we just like to read it together and I ask the questions from the workbook (5 minutes) and assign a project once or twice a week. Foreign Language - Rosetta Stone As you can probably guess, I tend to favor pretty independent curriculum. :) We have 5 kids at five levels, and the ones we do together (Writing Strands and Story of the World) can be geared to a wide variety of ages at the same time and then assignments can be the same, just different expectations for the results.

To me, the bigger issue here is trust. Did you tell him not to drink? Did he drink anyway? And he also lied to you. It doesn't matter that he later told the truth. (Well, I mean, it would be worse if he kept lying to you.) But he initially chose to lie to you. The drinking thing is important, but it's secondary. My child would have serious privileges taken away for disobedience and lying. The trust has been broken, so they will need to be able to earn your trust back. And that takes time and understanding. It won't be a quick talk or a quick consequence. You guys gave him the opportunity to prove you could trust him, and you can't. He needs more supervision again, like a younger child. Your concerns about drinking are not just because you're an overbearing parent, there are LAWS about it - and obviously for good reason, not just to annoy teenagers. These laws were put into place, because the average teenager doesn't yet have the common sense and responsibility that goes along with drinking. And he's just proven that true.

I have struggled to find good government books for any age! Maybe there isn't one watered down enough for me? :) I find it so difficult once we get beyond Schoolhouse Rock. :)

Bright Minds/Creative Thinking Company They have lots of books similar to these games. At first we bought the CDs which I thought all our kids could play and use, but they became more difficult to use on newer computers and more outdated. We sold them and use the books now.

That website seems rather negative. I would say learning Spanish as a second language for familiarity is great. There are many opportunities in the southern US and/or for missionaries to use it. I would say if you want your child to learn a second language where they might be able to get some good job opportunities because of it, possibly consider some other language besides Spanish. Chinese would be an excellent one, for example. There are so many people who live in the US and speak both Spanish and English fluently that they are all going to have an advantage over me when I'm just learning it, so it might be better to focus on a language that will be very needed, even if I don't become fluent at it. If that makes sense. :)

Okay, well, actually there IS a nickjr.de although I'd rather find a pbs related one - those seem to be more educational...still looking....

Are there any fun German internet sites for kids? I'm thinking of something simple for my younger kids, like we have here - pbskids.org or nickjr sites to play simple games?

I only have one good speller and it's my youngest (five year old!?). I used to get frustrated with my kids because they're such terrible spellers and it always came easy for me! I sought the wisdom of a more experienced homeschooler (mom with 11 kids) and she said honestly, from advice she had received she just dropped spelling all together and encouraged the kids to read all the time. GASP! Are you KIDDING ME? But our struggles were huge, my kids were young (4th and 2nd grade) and I thought - what could it hurt? We could always go back to spelling drills if this way failed - I had tried everything else! I switched my focus to content. A year later my kids were older, had read a lot, our spelling subject battles had disappeared, and their spelling had IMPROVED without a single spelling lesson!? Why? Their brains were more developed and now told them what looked right and wrong. At times when they'd struggle and ask me how to spell something, I'd point out there was a rule assigned to it, maybe that would help them. They were better writers because they weren't constantly worried about me correcting their spelling or grammar. Now that they are older (10th, 8th and 5th grades), they use the computer and see the spellcheck or underlines of grammar problems and figure it out themselves - they want it to be right and work on it. They started CARING about 6th grade whether it was spelled right or not and put real effort into spelling things correctly at that time. And my five year old? When you ask him how in the world he knows how to spell "lotion" (he read it off the bottle in the bathroom) or "compound" (he read it off the back of the cereal box) - you see his brain is already wired that way. He didn't learn it from a list of words - he connects it to something. If only we all learned to spell as easily as he did!

We used the book "Yo, Millard Fillmore" as well. Even my five and seven year olds know them. Don't like the similar style states and capitals book, but the president book has been great!

I will be forwarding them the info! They have researched this for YEARS and it has been so hard to narrow down what the problem is, especially when she is SOOOO good with spelling. There just seem to be missing holes. Her mom realized she just couldn't continue on because reading is absolutely foundational for every subject and she's getting further and further behind and thinking she's very dumb. She has probably been tested for different reading and learning problems 10x in the last 5 years and they've never given them any answer other than "she's definitely struggling with something". How UNHELPFUL is that?? Then they'll give her some general ideas of things to do which they've tried, but nothing seems to be the "golden answer". Thankfully, they are willing to keep trying and persevere! I don't know why I didn't think of posting here before, I know you guys have excellent resources! Keep responding if you have any more! Thanks! Jennifer

I have a friend who is struggling to find a good diagnosis or just HELP for her daughter (5th grade). She just pulled her out of school to homeschool her because she's falling further behind. She currently is at a 3rd grade reading level. Spelling - aces it When read to - understands When she reads to herself - not very good comprehension When she reads out loud - vague comprehension Running out the door right now, I can give more details later, but just thought I'd see if anyone has some good ideas!! Seems to be the processing her brain uses to focus on the reading/putting the letters together takes up so much effort, she doesn't get the comprehension.

I have found it was helpful for us to be familiar with the target language for the occasional questions. We borrowed and tried Chinese for a few days and we were ALL lost. We couldn't hear the differences, we didn't have a dictionary, didn't know what we were supposed to do, etc. However, if the kids have a serious interest in ANYTHING - I find the interest will make them better students. Although my kids DID have interest in Chinese. That interest waned quickly down to nothing after we all sat around in front of the computer getting more and more puzzled. :)

Love the age grade/book grade description someone used earlier! :) For us, almost all community sports have birthdate cutoffs. For academic extras we only speak up if necessary - if there is a HUGE difference and it would be relevant. For our homeschool group we tell the kids the groups are by AGE - UNLESS a parent approves to move a child up or down to a different group. We don't want kids moving around at whim because they don't want to do an activity or want to be with a friend. But we understand sometimes a child is really ahead or fits better with a different age group, etc. - that's a parent call.