My dentist was able to take a mold of my teeth and order me a sturdy mouth guard for about $450. I was grinding through the ones from the grocery store.

We use K12 American Odyssey and supplement with Great Courses The History of the United States and some lessons from the old CTC Critical Thinking in US History pdf's. I don't know if those are still available or not.

I have a current 6th grader, but she's a girl, so YMMV. If she was doing all I asked her to do happily, I wouldn't necessarily add more just to be adding more. With me she does about 45 min of math each day, 15 min spelling, 20 min writing/discussing/outlining/playing with words, 20 min grammar, 20 min science lesson, some misc geography, Spanish, and analogies (combined 20 min). On her own she does 45 min of reading from a list, reads 5 or 6 pages from a history text and writes a few sentences about it and puts entries on a timeline, does an activity or two in a vocabulary workbook, a logic puzzle, and works on her spech and debate club homework. For a boy who does well with school, but doesn't love it, I'd be looking at how he spends his free time more than I'd look at his school work. For my DSs (both grown now) around middle school was when I expected them to be doing more than just playing/reading during their free time. Teaching themselves computer languages, making stop action LEGO movies, playing with music compositions, etc. Worthwhile free time independent learning about stuff that could turn into a marketable skill was just as important as the schoolwork I assigned and I wanted them to have time for it.

We need an ick button for that! 🤮

Not recently, but in the past: "Yes, the shape of your poop in the toilet does make an 'S'. Good job to notice that!" 😂

My now 11 year old natural writer is in the middle of book 4 and it's still easy for her. We do all the exercises orally except the actual amplifications, summaries, and outlines. We've only been using it for the past 2 years, but so far I really like it. There's a lot of review built in, so your 9 year old will get the main idea of Books 1 and 2 from going through Book 3. I would say that if your 7 year old wants to try it, go ahead and see what happens. If they get overwhelmed you can always stop and pick it up again when they're older.

I read a lot and take the plunge into discussing books with my kids whether I'm "qualified" or not. Throughout elementary school and middle school they read and once a month write a short two paragraph summary and evaluation of something they've read. We do use Figuratively Speaking like Lori D mentioned, usually in 8th grade. We do Windows to the World in high school at some point. And other than that we just read and discuss. Maybe by senior year if they've mastered other types of writing they might get some vague "read this and write something interesting about it" assignments. But we really only do a bit of "literary analysis". There's just so many things to learn that we don't want to focus on one thing and neglect all the other stuff!

I would say if your child is reading reasonably well other than the borrowed words, then you could definitely skip those last few lessons in level 4. Like you said, you'll hit them again from a different angle in AAS eventually.

Simply Charlotte Mason used to have a free book of centures pdf you could download, but maybe they don't offer that anymore.

Wordsmith is pretty short and to the point and it was easy for me to hand to them and have them read it and do the writing exercises on their own. They have a Wordsmith Apprentice that my DD did in 5th grade and the regular Wordsmith that my DS did in 6th/7th and the Wordsmith Craftsman that my other DS did in 8th. It might get him over the "hump" that he doesn't like writing.

This has been our experience too. It's soooo nerve wracking! Trust me that in the event I am ever asked to write a LoR, I will be prompt 🙂

At various times over the past 25 years, either DH or I has felt "done" but the other didn't so nothing permanent was done and we took our chances. I felt overwhelmed with 3 littles all in a row and wanted to be done at that point, but DH didn't. By the time a few years had passed and they all weren't little anymore, I felt differently and we had #4 intentionally. Neither one of us felt strongly that we were done, and so #5 happened as a surprise a few years later. At that point DH felt "done" but I really didn't. I got pregnant again but that ended in a miscarriage. I was 41 and didn't feel done, but also felt like I was getting too old. I had lots of complicated feelings to work through, and finally felt okay with the idea that there were not going to be any more babies in our future. I got rid of our baby stuff and started thinking about asking DH for a vasectomy. At that point I was 44.5 and somehow got pregnant with our #6 who was born shortly after my 45th birthday. It wasn't until after she was born that both DH and I were on the same page and a V was a no brainer that we barely had to even talk about. We both feel at peace with that decision, but it really did need to be both of us feeling the same way at the same time.

No

I was 3 when Elvis died and I remember my mom crying in the bathroom. I was in 6th grade and we watched the Challenger explosion live on TV in science class. I was in high school when the Berlin wall fell and I remember thinking this was probably a big deal but I didn't really get why. I was a junior in high school when the first Iraq war started and I remember looking at my male friend and being frightened that he might get drafted because he was almost 18. I was working in a college child development lab when OJ got aquitted and we were all flabbergasted. I was pregnant with my oldest when Columbine happened. I remember watching footage of the parents waiting outside the school for news of their kids and I was horrified. I suddenly realized in a real and visceral way that the world my kids would inhabit would be a very different world than the one I grew up in and was used to. The evil they would confront in their lives was different than the evil I had had to confront. That realization helped clarify and make plain a decision DH and I had been wrestling with together about where we should attend church as a family. I was at home with DS and pregnant with 2nd DS on the morning of 9/11. The dad of the kid I babysat for dropped him off and said this crazy weird thing happened in NYC where a plane flew into a huge skyscraper even though it was a clear blue sky. The dad left for work and I turned on the news and then I think I didn't turn it off again for weeks (or so it felt). Lots of our friends from church didn't have TVs so several trickled in to our house that afternoon and watched with us. I'm embarrassed to say that with my inward-facing-pregnancy-brain it took a little while for me to grasp the immensity of what happened because I didn't immediately connect it with me and where I lived and I definitely didn't connect it to war right away. When we heard about the initial 2 week COVID lockdown I was at the eye dr with all my kids and the oldest 2 has driven separately so that they could go from the appt directly to their drama troupe tech set up for their play which was supposed to have its all day every day tech week rehearsals that week that they had been preparing for for months. Lots of tears and disappointment that day.

Double post

I may be a disgusting and dirty human being 😜 but it's always seemed to me that if every woman everywhere - all of us, as a block - decided to sit on the seat instead of squat over it, the disgusting bathroom seat would cease to exist. It's all the squatters who are causing the problem lol!

We used a friend who does pics as a side gig - so kind of a professional but no studio. We didn't do the "senior pics package" because around here that means several locations and several outfit changes and several hours. We just did a basic one hour session at one location outdoors and did one dress- up outfit and one casual outfit. It cost about $250 I think most side-gig photographers nowadays (at least around here) include digital rights to the photos and you print the ones you want yourself. We use mpix.com

Yes, I meant the series as a whole. The first one I agree is not porn. But the rest of the series most definitely is!

I didn't feel traumatized by Clan of the Cave Bear as a kid. Quite the opposite. I ate those porn scenes up as a curious pre-teen and re-read them over and over again. Even as a young adult I still re-read them and loved them as a "comfort read". But as an older adult who can understand that consuming porn creates a warped sexuality, I can also wish that I didn't have those scenes and words in my head and I can recognize that they probably weren't healthy for me. As for why I read those books in the first place: They were in the public library and I was drawn to fat books because they lasted longer and no one stopped me.

I have used this analogy with my kids a lot over the years in various situations (not connected to reading necessarily but things on the news or personal situations that they partly overhear, etc) and it's really been helpful. My oldest DD has thanked me for not burdening her with some knowledge before she's ready for it - specifically for not telling her what "rape" meant when she was a young child asking about a word she'd heard. When we discussed it as an older teen she was ready and prepared.

I teach my kids how to self-censor from a young age because there was simply no possible way for me to pre-read every book they ever wanted to read. If you're reading something and it sets off bells that maybe you shouldn't be reading this or there is something inappropriate or questionable in it, set the book aside and talk to Mom about it. I tell them that I have to do this too because as a Christian there's all kinds of books I can start to read but that make me feel icky or make unwanted thoughts arise in my head and there's nothing wrong with stopping reading and finding something else. It's an adult skill that needs to be practiced. I do think there is damage that can be done by reading some novels too early. I was not censored or taught discernment in my reading choices and my parents had no idea what all I read about as a pre-teen. Lots of true crime and biographies of mass murderers and caveman porn (looking at you, Clan of the Cave Bear series which I had read several times by age 12). There are defintely thought patterns and images and words in my adult mind that I wish weren't there and I wish I could get rid of.

We hike in state or national parks a lot. My teens love the variety and the physical challenge.

My DD has pepper spray. It attaches to her key chain/ID holder and isn't very bulky. She bought it at the campus book store. Our church denomination youth group on campus also has an informal but often used policy where the young men make themselves available to accompany young women who need to walk places after dark alone. They're all on a GroupMe and my DD has used them several times.

We averaged them and 2nd got a competitive scholarship, so I don't think it limits them in any real way.

Great Courses Foundations of Western Civilization is pretty good. I starts with ancients and goes up to the Renaissance and II picks up roughly where I drops off. They are 2 different instructors so it's not seamless but I really enjoy the GC lectures.