Congrats and bravo to you and all your hard work!

I am amazed. How do you do it? What do you eat?

One of my kids broke his arm last year. The total bill was around $15,000. No, he didn't need PT.

How many carbs are you all aiming for? I've been trying to decide what exactly I'm trying to do and 20 is just too hard. I'm fine when it's just me and the kids, but it turns out I have zero willpower when we have guests or go out. I don't want to set myself up to fail :/

Nope, no contract!

Really? Hmmm...

Thanks for sharing this.

Cardio. They've been telling him for awhile to think about taking up running. He looked through the classes today and wants to try kickboxing. Ok, sure. Sounds like a plan.

So, ok. I guess I'll get him a membership and a couple training sessions and let him try it.

We don't have a family membership. I just joined and I asked about bringing him with me. They said he can have his own membership doesn't need an adult with him.

Thanks for the reality check. I joined the gym this morning. I'm going to try starting my days with the elliptical machine followed by a leisurely swim, come home, make breakfast for the boys and start them on their schoolwork. Yes, they're getting enough sleep. Yes, they're eating regular meals and not crap. Yes, they're doing their schoolwork and chores. So, I guess for now, this is fine. We'll get through summer and re-evaluate for the fall.

Ok, would you set him up with a personal trainer the first couple times to make sure he knows how to use the equipment?

It's not about the money. I just didn't realize that at 13 he could get his own gym membership and go by himself. I was surprised.

The membership is only $24.99 a month.

Would you get your 13 year old a gym membership? DS1 is 13 and thinks it will help him with his tae quan do (he's a 2nd degree black belt). The gym is about a mile from our house, he could ride his bike if he wanted to. I asked the gym this morning if they would let him work out and they said he is old enough to have his own membership and can come without an adult.

Everything everyday does look like too much, I agree. My oldest does block scheduling and it works pretty well. Looking at your schedule, you could: Semester Classes: Daily: Math, Latin, Lit and Language Skills Fall: History and Econ Spring: Bio and Religion OR you could loop it: Daily: Math, Latin, Lit and Language Skills M/W: History and Econ T/Th: Bio and Religion F: Finish up whatever didn't get finished I would work on the language skills every day for a short period of time: - Fluency - 5-10 min - Reading comp - 1 passage/ch/whatever you're working on - Spelling - Introduce lesson on Monday - 15-30 min? 5-10 min targeted practice T-Th, test F

Most nights, I go to sleep by 10. The baby hangs out with DH and the boys and DS1 or DH puts him in bed when he gets sleepy. He's a pretty easy baby. If I'm super tired I can catch a nap with him in the afternoon.

I've found this site helpful: http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/

Isn't it general practice to assign credits either the year started or the year completed? Or am I missing something? It sounds like he mostly completed it this year, so I would think you could give him credit this year. Or leave it as an Incomplete until he finishes. When he does, plug in the grade earned. If he didn't finish due laziness/behavior issues, that's a different story. But health issues? I would cut him some slack.

That's fantastic!

What are your favorite environmental science resources? Texts but also videos or something interactive too. Thanks!

And those are the 2 points of my internal debate! I've never allowed this kind of schedule before and it's only been in the last few months that it has slid this far. Until this week, I would get home from work around 11:30 am and the rest of the day had pretty good structure. The 2 school aged kids got their work done and plenty of chores happened, etc, etc. sometimes DS1 had more schoolwork after dinner, sometimes not. Really what it seems to comes down to is when do I get peace and quiet? Before the boys get up or after they go to bed? On this schedule, it's blissfully quiet from 7-10 am. And I can leave the house if I want to because DH is here. DH and I have talked about this at length and neither of us like it, but he's stuck for now with this crappy work schedule. When that changes, this problem will go away. He's working on it, it just won't happen right away. He got promoted about 6 months ago and with it came this sucky schedule. ETA: boys are 13, 6, 4 and 1.5

I've posted about this before...warning, rant ahead: We have incomparable schedules at my house and it's making me crazy. Really, really crazy. Things I can't change: - DD gets picked up for school at 7 am. I have to get up by 6 am to get her on the bus. - DH works M, T 12-8, F 12-late, Sa 1-late and Sun 1-late (late varies anywhere from 9-midnight) Wed/Thurs he has classes at the university and studies. - Until last week, I worked mornings. School year is over and now I'm home. Not going back in the fall. I will be looking for something else, not sure on the schedule yet. Soooo... DH and the boys have gotten on the stay up until 11 pm, sleep past 10 am schedule. Uggggggggggggggggg.............................. I don't want to get up at 6am and still have kids awake at 11 pm. The past couple mornings I've made them get up by 9. It's been terrible. I think I give up. I thought about joining the gym down the street. I could put DD on the bus and then swim every morning all.by.myself and just let those boys sleep in. I said this to my oldest boy to which he replied "who are you and what have you done with my mother?" While I was working, they got used to doing whatever in the morning and starting school after lunch.

First, rule out any medical reason for being picky. When I was in grad school one class I took had a section on selective feeding disorders. We watched videos of swallow studies and GI studies (I forget the technical term). You could see liquid going into the airway (swallow) and the reflux coming back up into the esophagus (GI). This is stuff that needs medical attention. If there is no medical reason, then I like "1 big boy/girl bite" for every year old they are. If they balk at that I don't push. I just say "ok, but no food until the next meal time." That's worked pretty well for me. You just have to be consistent for awhile. Along with "if you insult the food someone cooked for you, they may not want to cook for you anymore. Then what will you do? You will be pretty hungry!"

I made a meal plan for 1 week. 3 meals a day x 7 days = 21 meals. Some specific like eggs, bacon, toast and some looser like Italian. We eat the same thing every week. It's made my life easier because I know that Tues dinner is always pot roast, Saturday breakfast is always eggs and pancakes, etc. I don't really have to think about it. The kids get used to it too; they know what the meal will be way in advance so that helps with the picky ones. I had to get really strict with meals for my sanity. "We eat at meal time." "Eat or don't, but no other food until (next meal)." After they realized I was serious, the picky ones got over it...mostly. I also found that by not having free access to food, the kids started eating more at meals. When I'm really organized, I shop monthly. I made a list of everything I need for the week and multiply by 4. It's not that much more work to get 4 whatever off the shelf at the store than 1 and it saves me 3 shopping trips. Usually only one trip mid month for fresh produce is necessary. This has helped tremendously. I sound like such a hard a$$! I promise there are no starving kids at my house!