Travel is a priority for us. I put away a little money here and there to be able to afford to travel and vacation as a family. We wanted to take our kids on a long vacation to see the western part of the country so we saved and saved for a couple years to do it. We let some things go to be able to afford to take the kids on vacation…like waiting years to change the carpet in our house or using old cars with over 200K miles and we purchased a house below our budget so the kids could afford activities and we could afford to go places. We also take trips to visit relatives or camp and cook our own food to keep costs down when we travel. Having those memories is important to us than having newer cars or getting everything done to the house at once. There will be time to finish up the house when the kids are grown and gone. Having said that, sometimes it just isn't possible for us to all be able to go. My dd has done competitions in Ireland for the past several years. The first year, when I thought it might be our only chance to do it because she might never qualify again, the whole family went. We did some fundraisers but most of the trip went on the credit card and we paid it off when we got home with money out of savings. We cannot afford to do that every year (or we'd have no savings). We are lucky to have a community willing to help us through our fundraisers so I can get dd and I over but now, especially with college it is even tougher. My dd has seen a lot more of the world than her brothers because of her music...travel for gigs when it is paid for us and camps she often gets scholarships to attend.

I only have one to plan for…planning finished and everything new (just a vocabulary workbook and the next level of Latin curriculum) purchased. We are finishing up her old vocab workbook and Latin curriculum and continuing with French and writing over the summer a couple days a week at least except for camp weeks. We will start back in full swing the end of August probably the week before Labor Day.

I used to have a friend like this. We'd plan a date and time to get our kids together and I would tell my kids about it and they'd be excited then she'd forget or call last minute to cancel. I stopped telling my kids about any plans until we were actually on our way there. Eventually I stopped trying to make plans with her or made plans very rarely. Over the years our friendship has fizzled out.

I started homeschooling dd in an way where I left everything within her reach and we did what interested her. As she neared K age, we started to do a few subjects daily and that increased as she got older but I have always given her a lot of say in what she learned and how. There are subjects that are mandatory such as math, language arts, science, and history. I home schooled her brothers who had different learning styles so if I have different curriculum for a subject, I will get her input on which she likes best. If she is happy, she works hard and learns more. We start each year off with a conversation about subjects she is interested in and I find time to include her interests as well…these tend to be music oriented. The past couple years I have allowed her to chose which science and history she'd like to do next…for example, this coming year I gave her a choice of continuing world studies from Rome on or doing a year of just American History. She asked to learn French after a trip to Quebec (rather than Spanish) so she is doing French and Latin. I let her try some online French courses and she chose the combination she likes best. We tend to go off on rabbit trails when she finds something she is interested in delving into further.

I read all the Steven King books I could get my hands on when I was 12…of course, very few of them had the same kind of content as Doctor Sleep has in the very first chapter. I will not allow dd to read that one for a long while.

I work in Early Intervention and I know there are many, many children out there where speech is their only issue. What may have looked like play to you was very well therapy. In EI, therapists are supposed to work with the parents teaching them ways to interact with their child to help them progress but the therapists should have explained to you what they were doing and why they were doing it. You may try to have your son evaluated again now that he is a bit older especially if you feel there are still issues with his articulation as therapists may not look at that as an issue until the child is older.

This! I think talking to others doing research would be very beneficial especially talks about their failures and how they picked themselves back up and problem-solved so they could continue on with their work but in a different way.

We look for local places. When we made a 5 week trip to the western part of the country, we found some of the best Mexican and Tex/Mex food I've ever tasted at some places that looked like dives with families obviously running them…all the children in the family watched us each from a window to the kitchen at the best place. No chain restaurants when on vacation.

:grouphug: In your place, I would bring my baby home too. So sorry.

I love my tween! I loved my boys in their tween years as well though there was about a year in each of their lives (around 12-13 for the boys) I could have done without.

I admit it. My dog is very spoiled. She doesn't like the way her nails clip on the new hardwood floors and is afraid of slipping on the two stairs down into the living room so she will bark until I come put her down or sometimes will wait until I get there, touch her, then will go down on her own. (She is tiny at five pounds.) She will also bark for me to lift her on the couch even though I know she can jump up. After she does her business outside in the morning, she expects a special little treat of whatever leftover meat I might have in the fridge. She sleeps on the bed on her own special fluffy blanket. I put her on the bed and she goes right to her own blanket to curl up though if it is a cold night, sometime during the night she will use her paws to dig at my blankets and get underneath to curl up by my tummy. Forgot to add…whenever I sit down even for a minute, she wants up on my lap. When dd practices violin, she has to first play a certain etude of double stops so the dog can "sing" (howl in different keys) then the dog will go and sleep somewhere for the rest of the practice.

:grouphug:

Dumbphones with unlimited texts here for my older two. I like being able to get in touch with them when they are off with friends. I got them phones when they started going to school and needed to contact me everyday after their after school activities so I could pick them up. I don't even spend money on a smartphone for myself…no way I am doing it for kids. My youngest is home with me all the time and has no need for a phone though she is doing a couple things this summer where I am thinking a phone might be useful.

As nice as it sounds to only have pleasant threads, there are board members who have tragedy and hardships in their lives. Being able to share and receive support from their "friends" here is a way for them to go through those hard times. I would hate for someone to feel the need to share while a rule like you propose is in place. So, I vote no.

I recently read this article you might find interesting. When you say your ds does no academic work, you mean no math, writing, science, etc…? In the article, they mention it is important for children with musical talent to have a broad range of knowledge and experience to draw from for their music.

I bought some at Target. I dropped one and broke it and have two dishes with a chip in them but they were hit hard. With regular wear and tear, they seem to hold up well.

I have a night owl. She self-regulates and I allow her to sleep until she wakes on days we don't have to be somewhere in the morning. If she is sleeping in, she needs to sleep. She doesn't sleep late every morning. Normal for her is to go to bed around 10 or 10:30pm and up around 7:30 or 8am. We normally begin school about an hour after she wakes up to give her time to wake up, eat breakfast, and get dressed. We work until she's finished….sometimes that's 2pm and other days it's 5.

I did not test until my youngest came along mostly because she learned differently than her brothers and seemed to already know anything I thought she might need to know. The testing itself, I felt, was not worth the money simply because all it did was confirm what I already knew…she's gifted. I didn't need a test to tell me that. She did qualify for Johns Hopkins CTY program because of it but in the end I decided to not use any of their courses because of the expense. I did do a phone consultation with the Gifted Development Center (I think…it was a long time ago and I don't have time right now to look it up). They sent a pile of paperwork with questions about development, personality profiles for all of us, and wanted all dd's records from the testing we had done. I learned a lot about dd, her personality, and the way she learns from that phone conversation. The information helped me to refrain from trying to fit dd into a learning style that might not have suited her and helped me parent her in a way to fit with her personality type. I still sometimes go back to that information and re-read it…funny how spot on they were about her because now almost 7 years later, I can look back on decisions she made or reactions she's had to certain things and make sense of it because of some of that information.

No, we don't celebrate. We don't really pay attention to grade levels and look at learning as a continuum.

I read it through once completely when I bought it a couple years after I started homeschooling. I re-read chapters now as I need them so before we move on to the next "stage" I read the chapter for ideas then I use it as a guide while doing certain subjects.

I add it to soups of all kinds even if the recipe doesn't call for it. I don't like it raw all that much but I like it sautéed in garlic and olive oil and in omelets.

I always tip the pizza guy at least $5 (more if my bill is higher…20-25%). He gets paid very little.

:grouphug: So sorry you are going through this right now.

Hardwood floors and re-painting. I am in the process of decluttering and have done a lot of rearranging. Still need to remodel the kitchen, update the bathrooms upstairs, and finish the floors….sigh, maybe right before we decide to move someday like we did in our old house.

I would figure out a random way to decide who picks first…draw straws, rocks/paper/scissors, etc…if going to have them pick but in reality, I assigned rooms when we moved a number of years ago. There were specific reasons each child needed the room they got and they were all happy in the end.