Adventures with Atoms & Molecules, maybe?

Maybe, because you weren't forthright in your answer? I mean, M's allergy is an issue, but it's not THE issue. Perhaps, if you were just a little more honest (ya know, between the smoke and the drinking, I'm just not comfortable), you'd feel less guilty (at least not have the added guilt of 'making up an excuse' instead of saying the 'truth').

My possible answer: It could be worse though! All those public schools kids are on drugs, plotting to shoot up the school, rude, obnoxious and ILLITERATE! Except yours of course ;)

Hth, the above is from heav.org (Home Education in Virginia). It is SO easy to hs in VA.

Okay. GOOD! I guess you could understand my concern then (I hope so, anyway). :grouphug:

Never say never, because nevers have a tendancy to bite you in the hiney. I totally understand what you're saying. :( :grouphug: Joanne, please be careful, for your OWN sake. Maybe it's the lingering superstition in me, but statements like that seem like you're just begging to be proven either wrong, or terribly horribly correct. In which case, I would opt for trusting God over my instincts any day.

I always forget that Manassas is PW... All the parts I go to are wonderful :p It just occured to me that the poster should check out forclosures. Goodness knows we've got a ton of them down here, I would imagine you guys have a number of them up there too.

What she said.... and ... The burg is good for VRE, if you don't mind the time and money. It's pretty far, though. I'm putting in a vote for Manassas. :) My brother's in laws live there, I don't know how long it takes to get to DC (really that always depends on the time of day, the weather, the phaze of the moon, the state of the union, etc). It is a beautiful spot, though. You might also check out Goldvein, VA... except that it is quite rural (Faquier Co). The real estate would be loads cheaper and dh's Uncle commutes to DC from there so I imagine it's not too bad.

I think it could appear that way. My family is very close, we're all pretty protective of one another. One xsil thought we were excluding her, we TRIED to include her, but she (for some crazy reason) wanted to drag my brother halfway across the country. Present sil (and ever constant bil, as well as dh) have incorporated all our families together. Now all four families are joined at the hip and (for the most part) we all get together for the holidays. I have no problem loving my brother's and sister's mils and fil as much as the rest of the family :p

My sil did it. She wanted dresses we could wear again and she took into account the fact that all of her bridesmaids were pregnant :p The hope was to make us feel less self conscious and if anyone gave birth before the wedding (I did) then any 'leakage' would be less apparent. That didn't work out too well, because milk is white :glare: Your niece is not alone :grouphug:

Re: taxes... Our local community college has a public library. The library is public, because ALL citizens that pay taxes are paying for that library. The cc is open to all tax paying residents in our county (once you're paying taxes they have to let you take classes, you might not get credits, but you CAN take the class). I find it interesting that the community college operates this way, but the public schools do not. After all, the communities taxes DO pay for the schools. However, ds can't use the school library now that we hs. Legally, in VA, he can take a few classes, but I haven't broached the superintendant about it and don't plan to. As for uniforms, etc... most of the funds for that stuff (at least around here) come from fundraisers. The school pays the coach and they 'let' the kids use the equipment (same stuff they use in PE), but the shoes and any new equipment or uniforms are left up to the teams to raise money for.

That can go round and round. On one hand, you have a victim that is scared to tell on the other you have people that aren't discerning the truth. Many of the pps mentioned how the abuse was only aluded to, or else concealed outright. It's sort of like asking how Christians know someone is repentant. Well, only God knows that, we just have to pray for discernment. The ball is dropped all over the place. I'm not trying to blame the victim, but I can't see blaming their families (cong. or blood) either. Many times the families are either trying to help, and then cut off, or completely decieved as to the situation.

See and there's little to nothing that ANY family (congregational or blood) can do to combat that. Once those blinders are on, even God has trouble being seen :(

They don't claim to know all the answers and are very upfront with their faults :) Add to that, their adult children are very upstanding and doing well (hey, it's the fruit :p) and it's a source I trust. Really, I read more junk coming from non-religious quarters that makes my head explode. than garbage coming from "religious" people, iykwIm.

:iagree:

I would take grace'smom's advice. Traffic around Richmond is not to be trifled with lightly. (It's not the Beltway -for that be grateful-, Virginians from the North can I get an, oh yeah?)

We have been discussing the US Speed Skating Team lately :lol:

It really depends on who you talk to :p I've found MOST people accepting, very few are outright against it, a lot are very pro hs.

They must be changing things on the heav web site... This is a little garbled, but it's a list of what you need :)

You'd need them set up for the rest of this year. You only have to send stuff in at the beginning and end of the year. You can use your master's degree instead of your hs diploma. They just want to know you graduated from something :P I write out my letter of intent, so they don't even 'use' my diploma, just the evidence of English use in my letter ;) Once you actually have a house, then you'll know where you're at. You find the local school board office and send this stuff to the superintendant. :grouphug: Super easy!

Find out what school district you'll be in. Send in a letter of intent (see heav.org), a copy of your high school diploma, and an overview of what you're teaching. If you don't have a high school diploma, write your letter of intent (here, we have to include a copy of the intent form as well), be sure to use good English :p Now, a mastery of the English language is all it takes (no need for a hs dip :) ). Before July (maybe August?) send in scores from a standardized test (we use CAT), or a portfolio showing where the dcs are at and that they are making adequate progress. Then, you send it all in again for the beginning of the next year.

My dad told me he read a book once. Later that year the movie came out and the book ruined it for him. He no longer reads books, because they RUIN movies :001_huh::lol:

Older ds and I are reading a chapter in Proverbs every day with discussions. DD does independant reading and we'll discuss whatever she read. Youngest ds and I are working through a children's Bible together. I think reading the Bible is very important. I think prayer is important. From there, you just have to look at what you're "feeding" them spiritually. Are you giving them a good example? Are YOU growing and relying on God? We recently finished 'A Mother's Guide to the Ten Commandments' (edited to include the dcs). That was nice and now the dcs (excepting the youngest) know the Ten Commandments and can use that knowledge to relate to every day situations. It gets daunting, that's a big book and it's all important. I'm not sure there's any 'most' important thing, it all needs to be there. Living it, reading it, praying, all of it :p For my older two, knowing that Mom is working on herself at the same time seems to encourage them :) hth

Well, we get the UPS rundown :p That's always fun. Then there's the 'what have you learned lately' and that can go anywhere. Nearly everyone in my family loves reading and those who don't are serious couch potatoes, so there's always some interesting new thing to discuss :)