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AnniePoo

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Everything posted by AnniePoo

  1. Well, you do way more than we do and we are doing enough. Maybe they need to be placed in higher levels?
  2. Everything is going fine, but I'm starting the crave dessert. Chocolate!
  3. White-supremacist, beer-guzzling, stay up late, bad grammar, paycheck-to-paycheck, boisterous, hunting, drive trucks, rural, right-wing
  4. Busy is when the activities I need to do become burdensome.
  5. I went shopping last night. I did some quick prep (maybe 3o minutes) and it's going to make my week so much easier. I did the following: - make 10 salads (for DH and I) - lunch M-F -roasted a bag of sweet potatoes (I add scrambled eggs and greens and eat them for breakfast) -ordered the whole30 collection of dressings from Tessemae's ( detest making dressing) We already eat gluten-free for dinner so there isn't a ton of tweaking to do. Here's hoping this is an easy-peasy whole30.
  6. This ^^^ is the # 1 reason I would send my kids to school. It is getting absolutely exhausting to find ways to integrate my kids into the community. Between driving to ballet, friends' houses, Lego classes, even a trip to the library, I feel like we're just all over the place. Next year we'll add orchestra and choir. I often wonder what it would be like to send a child to school and have PE and music taken care of for free, with no effort on my part. I honestly have no idea what we'll do in the long-run. We just moved into a school district that is actually quite good, yet I still have no desire to put my kids in middle school.
  7. Farrar, I didn't think your post sounded judgmental. Which part did you think was? I find myself torn right now. I watch my oldest's friends start to drop and it becomes even harder for me to find quality friendships for her (since it involves driving and I have other kids to tend to) and then I wonder if it would be easiest on all of us if she just went to school. But she says she wants to keep homeschooling. Whatever...we'll just play this one out. I'm not needing advice or anything. I, too, think that middle school seems like just about the worst possible time to put your kid in school (for social reasons, not academic). You couldn't pay me enough to go back to middle school myself! But then again, I think that there are days you couldn't pay me enough to keep educating my own! I hadn't thought of the expenses ramping up. That makes a lot of sense. Around here, we don't have co-ops and have more traditional drop off programs for homeschoolers. They aren't cheap! I assume if you had 4 kids all taking 2 classes, it would be close to 2K, which most people don't have just lying around.
  8. It seems to me that around 4-6th grade, homeschoolers drop like flies around here. I'm guessing there will be another huge drop off around high school as well. Why do you think this is? I've not been been shielded from the challenges and frustrations of homeschooling and have considered sending some/all of mine to school, but I wan tot know why others do it.
  9. It reminds me of a parenting book a friend gave me to read because it has been life-changing for her. I got the book, eagerly started reading it, and found that the author's OLDEST child (at the time of publication even!) was.....wait for it....9. Seriously. If I'm going to take advice from you, you need to have at least one child make it to adulthood not hating you.
  10. I'd like my spouse and kids to wish me a happy birthday. I'd also like a gift from DH, something from the kids that he helped them make or pick out, and dinner at a restaurant (either sans kids or with well-behaved children). That's it.
  11. I'd like to join! Slache, what are the compliant protein bars?
  12. INTJ here too, though I don't think I'm a super-strong one. I tested that way in high school and I tested again yesterday. Still INTJ. Why do I homeschool? We were planning to move around a lot and I wanted continuity for my kids' education. After we settled, it became clear that my 2nd was exceptionally gifted and wouldn't have fared well in school. My oldest didn't want to go to school so I guess we're sticking with it. I go back-and-forth about how long we'll stick with it. The hardest part of homeschooling is having to be "on" and answer questions all. day. long. Too much chatter directed at me. I LOVE co-ops and groups. I'm actually pretty social for an introvert (but need major decompression time afterward) and I am usually so overloaded from my kids sucking my energy that I welcome the mature conversation and someone to listen to ME for a change. Plus, it gives my kids other people to talk to.
  13. I don't find much homeschooling curriculum to be very expensive when looking at the big picture. Even big sets, like MFW or Sonlight are so cheap compared to private education and even many homeschool classes that are outsourced. Or think of it this way: one Sonlight core costs less than a year of ballet for an 8yo (going 1 hr per week). Cheap! For less than the cost of one child in elementary private school around here (about 6K) I can pay for CC tuition for all 3, ballet for one, lego classes for another, preschool for another, babysitting here and there to get a break, and pretty much any curriculum I want. When I look at it that way, it's just doesn't seem very expensive to me.
  14. We have a few and they have their place, but they do get really heavy to hold. I usually have a handful of kids balanced on me while I read and it's a pain if the book keeps falling over.
  15. It helps to invite TWO people to do something at the same time. It takes off so much pressure from everybody.
  16. This happened with my 7yo when we moved in August. He went from a pretty calm, level-headed kid to a mess of tears and sobbing when I go away at night. He will sometimes enter the hallway in the middle of the night in a panic yelling, "where's mom?" Anyway, you're not alone. He does seem to be improving somewhat.
  17. Don't overthink this. I send out over 100 photo cards every year and probably get 25. I don't expect someone to send me one b/c I sent them one.
  18. Contest with credit card company?
  19. Yes, that would be annoying, but It's perfectly acceptable to turn around and say, "Isn't this ballet beautiful? My daughter is having a hard time concentrating though. Would you be willing to chat in the lobby so we can hear? I'll make sure nobody takes your seats." (said in a lighthearted way)
  20. We are Christian and celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday. It became too frustrating to try to have Christmas be religious, so we just gave up. It really has been quite freeing!
  21. For 3rd: Keep spelling, math, handwriting. Add Essentials in Writing. Done.
  22. We used MUS from k-3 (up through gamma). The mere thought of ever doing another level of it makes me want to scream. I have a strong math background and didn't find it to be too light. Honestly, I think it is a solid program. I really wanted it to work for us. What killed it for us was how the year progresses. You start off the year doing the easiest stuff ever. Even halfway through the year you're doing something like single digitx7. Easy peasy. No problem. Then before you know it, BAM it's ramped up so fast that lessons take 4 times as long. Weeks of xxxx multiplied by xxx is enough to make anyone cry. And while mastery is fantastic, I thought my daughter needed a little bit more time to ruminate over the subject material before taking it to the extreme. For example, I think it's nice that in most programs a child learns the basics of division one year, expand on it the next year, then go full-force ahead with challenging problems from then on. MUS doesn't work that way. I think it's just too much too soon without enough time to let the concepts sit and develop. It moves both painstakingly slow and too quickly! I can see us going back to MUS for algebra on up. We'll see. One thing I loved about MUS was how uncluttered the pages were. My oldest is easily distracted and the lack of anything fun to look at really helped her concentrate. FWIW, Singapore can be tear-inducing in other ways (the story problems are HARD!).
  23. My advice? Ditch MFW. Your story basically mirrored mine last year, right down to using MFW. School was great until toddler quit taking his morning nap and then I nearly lost my mind. MFW is fantastic, but it does contain lots of extras that really are not necessary unless you have the time and patience. Right now your 7yo need math & LA and your 5yo needs no more than phonics, handwriting, and basic math. Do stuff around the table when you're there anyway for meals. After breakfast, while still at the table, break out the flash cards and then teach the math lesson to your older child. He can then (hopefully) work on the assignment while you're hanging with the toddler. During morning snack, do something similar. Read aloud while everyone is eating then have child start spelling. Repeat with meals. FWIW, if K is taking longer than 30 minutes, pare down. Looking back over my years homeschooling (I'm 2 years ahead of you), it's obvious that academics are important, but fluff is not. Stick with what is sustainable and don't stress yourself out. Stick with the basics (3 R's), read a bunch of picture books, and call it good. FWIW, I have 4 children. 9, 7, 5, 2
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