Boys are in college and still share a room, they are roommates in their college apt 😊 When they are home, they share a room here too, as do the girls in varying configurations based on who needs more practice to learn to get along with who at any given moment.

Whether that's the actual scientific reality or not, the vast majority of people, most of them not complete idiots and not evil people, believe that traditional vaccines are designed to keep people from ever getting the disease. That was my only point.

It could be because in laymen's terms and in most of the general population's minds a traditional vaccine is designed to keep you from getting a certain disease. We get polio shots so we don't get polio, we get measles shots so we don't get measles, etc. Eta: sorry wasn't done and pressed post I've heard this before about flu shots too, that they might or might not keep you from getting the flu so they're not a "true" vaccine. I don't think it's a particularly anti vax sentiment. It just expresses the fact that the covid vax mitigates symptoms and spread, but doesn't actually keep you from getting a disease the way a polio or a measles shot does.

Childcare is hard to find because it pays crap. And it pays crap because we as a society don't value it. Society has deemed that the caring and nurturing of children is insignificant and unworthy of women's time.

I boil the brine mixture and then the recipe says to add ice so I do that and it cools it down enough to add the chicken right away. I leave it in the brine 24 hours.

Our first three are each 23 months apart, more or less planned that way. The baby/toddler years were hard. Early puberty was difficult too since the oldest was late and the middle was on time and the youngest was early so they all hit it at the same time 😳 But now that they are older teens/young adults, they are extremely close even though 2 are boys and 1 is a girl. Homeschooling them was not hard once I got the hang of it and there were some subjects they could do together. The gap between 3 and 4 and between 4 and 5 is 4 years each, then a 7 year gap between 5 and 6, all more or less unplanned 😉 They are all girls and they all get along and play with each other well. The oldest girl (#3 from the first set) really did well at setting the tone and the example that older kids play with and include younger ones and that being the "fun big kid" is something to strive for. For that I will be eternally grateful to her ❤️ I homeschool them all completely separately since they are too far apart in abilities and skills. Homeschooling a college bound senior all the way down to a kindergarten with everything in between was busy and chaotic, sure. But I wouldn't trade it for the world! We were in ps for many years before beginning hs'ing and I can guarantee it would have been even more chaotic and stressful if all our family time was squeezed into the hours between 4 and bedtime and also included homework and - you know, parenting *shudder* Now that I only have 3 I am currently schooling it is sometimes hard to switch hats between elementary and middle school and high school, but I have loads more time and margin throughout the day so I can read to the toddler and help her learn to use the potty, etc. As others have said, spacing doesn't always work out like you want and your definition of "ideal" is going to change too. I would never have chosen to have a baby at age 45 after a 7 year break. But I sure am glad that God chose her for me ❤️ I don't know if I'll hs her or not. I'd like to. But I simply don't know what the future will hold for her (and me!) at that point. Sometimes I worry that she'll be lonely at home, but I also recognize that there will very likely be grandkids around by that time too. So 🤷‍♀️ One thing I've learned is to plan all I want, but remember to hold those plans loosely 😊

No advice, just commiseration. DD2.5 is currently toying with the idea of learning to use the potty, but after 2 straight days of being clean and dry apparently has decided that taking time to use the potty is not living her best life 😕 You'd think by kid#6 I'd have figured this out by now, but the magic formula been different for every kid so far!

We used Great Courses with Tim Taylor too and it was our best course by far! Lots of opportunities for discussion. We watched together while they took notes, then they answered the questions in the guide book for output.

I never did it every night unless they were babies. After they weren't nursing anymore I did it often, but not every night. I don't remember what age I stopped doing it regularly, but probably before age 5. Every once in a blue moon when I wake up from a random bad dream I will make the rounds, but that's the exception, not the rule.

I have 2. They both read a lot and did a little test prep, but honestly I think their scores had more to do with innate ability than anything they (or definitely I) did. No Latin. 3 years of foreign language, but nothing special or in depth. I know that the tests aren't the be all end all when it comes to measuring school success, and there are ways to game the system and increase your score, but the tests are legitimately measuring something. And IMO scores that high usually reflect a natural strength rather than something external.

@footballmom I didn't mean to discount your feelings ... I'm sorry if it came across that way! I just think a lot of people feel like they're the only ones who feel this way, when in reality, all of us feel this way.

Nobody fits in completely with any group. It's a lie Satan tells us to make us feel alone and ostracized. Even the most popular put together person you could ever imagine feels like she doesn't belong sometimes.

We used it for Spanish III for my 1st 3 kids. We used the videos and the textbook/CD and the workbooks (there are 2 of them and associated CDs for each). No further tests, I don't have any idea if any are available or not. The CDs were kind of hard to find on ebay as well as expensive, but there are workbook and textbook exercises that are impossible without them, although I guess you could skip those exercises. There are several editions of all these various components and it's all very confusing, but I finally found what I wanted for not a bazillion dollars. The CDs for the 2nd workbook were way too expensive, but someone on here I think gave me a link to the recordings for it for free. If you get to that point, let me know and I can share it. I bought it all back in 2015, so it's all kind of fuzzy now. I remember back in the early 90's when it was brand spanking new and I was in college at the same university that it was developed at and we used it for my 2nd and 3rd semester university Spanish courses 🙂

I've used Rosetta Stone to refresh my own Spanish skills, and while it's been helpful for me as someone who used to be somewhat fluent, I would never ever give it to a beginner and expect them to learn a language with it as their primary curriculum! As a supplement, it would be fine. I'm not familiar with Babble or duolingo, but my impressions of them are similar to Rosetta Stone. They might help you get by for a week in a foreign country as a tourist, but that's about it. FWIW, we used Visual Link levels 1, 2, and 3 followed by some of Destinos (textbook and videos) and my kids have all tested out of 2 semesters of college Spanish. One tested out of 3 semesters. So I feel like we did ok with foreign language, but definitely not anywhere near as well as others on this board have done. Level 1 of Visual Link was mostly easy phrases and basic verbs and vocabulary. Level 2 got into more verb conjugation and sentence structure, and Level 3 finished off the rest of the verb conjugation and tenses.

Cave of the Winds is a must-do in my opinion. The water is sooooo intense, and you're not even under the middle of it. Definitely unforgettable!

I was told that in a psychology course in college almost 25 years ago. I remember it because my aunt and uncle were going through a divorce at the time and my cousin had told me basically the same thing - that she would rather her parents stay together even if they were unhappy. But I don't remember the psychological study it came from, sorry. Just that the finding surprised the people doing the study. They expected to find that kids were better off in a home without the fighting and tension, and that's not what they found.

Except during a few weeks of spring and fall for planting and harvest when the farmers are going up and down the roads and are in the fields nearby, yes. But I'm not sure why I'd want to be ... All I could do is walk around the house because it would be weird and gross to sit on the furniture! (Or am I missing something wonderful about being naked by myself???)

Whether it was said by Mark Twain or not, it's still true! I remember commenting that it was amazing how much smarter my parents became when I went to college 😉 (sorry about the weird quote boxes, I'm not sure what's up with that)

Great I hope it works well for you! 😊 Just a heads up that sometimes the number of problems per lesson is overwhelming. I usually have them do half of each section/box, and if they can do those without a problem, we move on to the next section/box. If they can't do half well, we reteach and review and do the other half.

Video Text is visual. I don't know if it's visual enough for what you want, but it is visual. We love it! It's a highly conceptual program and teaches the why behind the math very, very well. But it's not cheap.

I had a coach from an extracurricular write a LOR as a 2nd "teacher" and it was fine.

We use Math Mammoth exclusively from 1st grade through the Pre-Algebra books and then switch to Video Text, which is a strong conceptual program, albeit not in the same league of rigor with AoPS. But it's built a firm foundation for my kids and they know and understand algebra because of it. Heck, I didn't really understand algebra myself til I'd been through that program 🙂

If I call right when they open, I can almost always see my regular NP the same day. Otherwise they usually have at least 1 Dr in the practice who can see me that day, unless I call very late in the day. The only time I've ever had to wait more than 24 hrs to see a Dr was in college at the "free" clinic. They routinely scheduled you for sick appts 3 weeks out, which was absurd. I actually ended up in the ER dangerously dehydrated and the docs told my dad I would have been dead the next day after being denied a timely sick appt in college. No way I'd continue with a doctor's office that treated patients like that.

Most kids IME who like math contest problems are good at math and love math LOL! So I guess I will amend my statement that it's the best curriculum for students who are good at math,love math, AND enjoy being tricked 😂

Just want to encourage you that AoPS isn't the be all end all of math curricula. It was awesome for my oldest, and I'm very thankful that it exists for students like him. However, it's often recommended as the "best" or "most challenging" curriculum when IMO it's actually only the best for a very small number of students who are both really really good at math and also who really really really love thinking about math concepts in a deep and theoretical way. All my kids are good at math to varying degrees, but only one of them was also the kind of person who really "got" AoPS and loved it. The rest of us shudder when we look at it! LOL Getting bad scores using AoPS is not the same as "failing math". Not even close.