We just actually withdrew from our state K12 Virtual Academy but I do have to say, it was difficult for my grade 1 daughter to let go of the science and history. They are her favorite subjects and she really liked K12's handling of these things. If I could have kept just these two subjects, I likely would have. Keep in mind that science and history are her favorite subjects. The science I found a little overwhelming because it included A LOT of experiments and the history also had many hands on components but we just didn't do all of it. I did what I needed to do to make sure she understood the lesson and then we moved on. I have no experience with the classes beyond 1st grade.

I select unabridged for our read alouds. However, I will allow my daughters to read the abridged versions for themselves. The way I see it, it gives them a taste of classic literature now and hopefully that will lead to a transition to unabridged later in life. Plus, she is interested in Robin Hood and King Arthur now - she may not be when she is ready to read the unabridged books. I do not want her only exposure to those to be the Disney versions and there are only so many things we can read aloud. I think there are plenty of years in this schooling adventure and there is now way we will be able to read all of the quality literature in unabridged versions.

All i know is that over a period of 8 months, I had to have one ultrasound a month which were 100 % covered by my plan. I had them at the same hospital each time. I received a bill after every single ultrasound for the amount that they were supposed to write off. Once or twice is an oversight, 8 times is no longer an oversight. Good luck getting it all straightened out.

I cannot count the number of times hospitals have tried to do this to me. They are trying to bill you for the part of the bill that they are supposed to write off. I would call the insurance company and confirm what you should actually owe and then call the hospital. I think they hope people don't know what is what with insurance and will just pay it.

I have a father who has been pretty much absent most of my life and is now only on the periphery - all by his choice. I can tell you without a doubt that I will never allow him to hurt either of my children. The deserve my loyalty and all I have but to be honest, he does not. Do you keep cutting people out of your life? I would say if it is to protect you children, then you cut them out. My temper of course would probably lead me to tell Grandpa exactly what he could do with his money but that wouldn't help either. :lol:

Hormel has an uncured pepperoni that is very good. We just had it on homemade pizza the other evening and I could not tell any difference.

Chris, Go to http://www.realmilk.com which is a website about the benefits of raw milk. I can tell you that my normally lactose intolerant hubby can drink raw milk with no trouble at all. The enzymes that aid the digestion of the mild are killed by the pastuerization process. I like white milk but I have one child who prefers chocolate milk and one who perfers strawberry milk. I do like the occasional glass of chocolate milk as well.

You might want to contact your local Catholic church and find out if they have a chapter of St. Vincent DePaul. I am involved with this organization at our church and they can help with not only food but also can offer some help with utility bills etc to help free up some of the money you do have for food. This depends on the resources of your local parish but our parish helps a lot of people. You do not have to be Catholic or a member of the parish. Also, you can dial 211 to get to your local United Way helplink which can help put you in touch with all of the local services that can help your family.

I do as much as I can. I try to concentrate on the meat which I get from a local farmer along with chickens and eggs from my brother. My children also drink raw milk from the same local farmer although it is too expensive for me to drink as well. Soft bodied fruits as well are on the organic list but I will not purchase non-organic fruits/veggies from outside the US. I do have to say that I buy more organic foods for my children than I do for myself and that is how I manage to get it in the budget right now. As our financial situation improves over the next few years, I plan to increase the amount that I buy, specifically from the local organic farmers.

Boy! After reading your post, it felt like someone posted for me. I work nights, 28 hours per week, as a medical transcriptionist. Fortunately, I get to do this from home but working until 1 AM (and 8:30 pm to 7 AM on Saturdays), I am sleep deprived most of the time and I have had all of the same feelings that you have had. I still think my kids are better off at home even though I can't do all of the things that I would like to do with our homeschool. I am a perfectionist, control freak at heart and it has been a struggle for me to just let up on myself. Every time I sit down to research schools because I think I am failing my children, I am reminded very quickly of all of the reasons that they are homeschooled to begin with. I have chosen curriculum for our next school year though that is more open and go to help me even more. I also school year round, but only 4 days per week which enables us one day to do things outside the house together. I think you are going to be fine. Just let up on yourself a little.

I also do the 30 minute reading independently thing but I have a basket of books in the living room from the library, some of which they chose but most of which I chose covering a variety of topics. I tell them to pick something from the basket and then read. This usually works and they often choose the books I selected for their reading time. I also cover a variety of reading levels and sometimes they pick easy but others, they do pick the more challenging books.

Congratulations. I have never been able to drink diet soda because of the aspartame giving me migraines. I used to be a big drinker of regular coke though. I have found though that any carbonated beverages just make me feel sluggish and just blah!. When I was pregnant, I could not drink any carbonated beverages because they made my nausea worse (nausea for me was constant throughout the entire duration of both pregnancies). After I had been off of it for a while and then went back to drinking it, I could really see the effects. BTW - I did manage to quit smoking when I was really sick once. By the time I felt better, it had been 4 days since I had a cigarette and haven't had one since. That was 10.5 years ago.

At 3.5, my eldest daughter was begging me daily to teach her to read so I saw no reason not to start. We started Hooked on Phonics and rather than preschool materials, I bought K ones and just worked through them more slowly. However, we totally worked through everything at her pace. We sat in our "reading chair" and read stories and did HOP together. Some days she wanted to do a lot of phonics and other days none. There was no structure and no pressure to it for either of us.

I did the baby cereal for a while with my oldest because she had reflux and if I didn't thicken things, she was constantly throwing every thing back up. I moved her to cream of wheat and cream of rice cereal instead of the baby cereal and she really liked it. As far as jarred foods, I used the Earth's best organic baby food because it actually smelled and tasted like the real food. She really loved the peas which is mixed with brown rice. Both of my children had no teeth until they were 18 months old so I had to get creative but as soon as they were able they ate table food, teeth or not.

I actually had chicken pox when I was a kid and still got shingles when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. YIKES!!

I am about 90 % certain of what we are doing but this is the first year that we will have 2 official homeschoolers rather than just the one. I am almost ready to purchase though as we do year round school and we begin the new stuff each year usually in March after we get our tax money. So, I hope to be ready to buy as soon as Uncle Sam sends that money our way.

Not finishing textbooks does not surprise me at all. I was an honors student, graduated 9th in my class, received AP college credit for American History and can tell you next to nothing about American History after World War II. I never got to it in school. Overall, I feel that I got a fairly good education in the public schools but I think that had more to do with me and my desire to do well than with them with the exception of my 12th grade English teacher. He was without a doubt the best teacher I have ever encountered. He put all of my professors in college to shame and I will never forget all that I learned from him.

I personally think you made a good decision. If you did not go, it would tug at you, at least I know it would me. My FIL passed away from cancer 3 years ago. He slowly wasted away for a year between the chemo and other stuff. In the last few months of his life, he had only one friend who would visit him regularly and neighbors that sat with him. I know he was hurt by it all because he was bed ridden and was incredibly active before he got sick. My children were sick and we did not get to say goodbye to him and it haunts me. It will be hard to see her ill but you will be a big boost to her soul.

I have tried to pick and choose exactly what is perfect for each kid. I spend a lot of time in the choosing but then, not a lot of time in the doing because I get lost somewhere in the planning and what has happened in the past is that if I don't know what to do, then we do nothing. I am homeschooling 2 and I work nights (28 hours per week) until 1 AM so I am going with a more put together program, Winter Promise, for our next school year. Every aspect of it may not be perfect but I can have freedom to tweak as needed if I am not bogged down with planning the rest. I definitely feel they will still be getting a great education and we can all enjoy what we are doing more if I am less stressed out. I am doing REAL Earth and Space science though as it will be a better fit for my science-minded kid and I prefer a more secular approach in this subject. Then for Math, we will be continuing with Horizons this year until then moving to Teaching Textbooks next year.

Just added mine but it is an older picture of my family. I need another one. The girls are 2 and 4 in this picture but are now 5 and 7.

Our dining room has been taken over for school. I think it is more of a classroom where we eat.

Unfortunately, this does not surprise me in the least. I have been an actor, along with various other backstage positions, in both professional, college and community theatre for 20 years and things like this happen a lot and not only at dress rehearsals. People talk to each other, they talk on cell phones, they do all manner of rude things. The audiences at my daughter's dance recitals go so far past rude, you can't even see the line anymore. I find it interesting that opponents to homeschoolers say that our children will lack social skills when I think most of the time, it is the homeschooled children I know that are the only ones with well developed social skills.

I am planning on WP AS1 for my daughters for next year, ages 7 and 5 (They will actually be 8 and 6 for the majority of the work). Then, my plan is to do AS2 next year followed by CATW. For me looking at CATW, several of the books look like they might be too much for my very sensitive 7 year old to deal with at this point so maybe in a couple of years, she might be able to get more from it. They also have both asked for more American History.

We have always homeschooled but decided to try our state's free public K12 virtual academy this year. We withdrew January 5 and are back to homeschooling independently. I was totally drawn in by the free materials and mostly a feeling that my daughter might not be getting what she needs because I struggle sometimes putting it all together. The materials we received were fabulous but there were too many hoops breathing down my neck over the hours put in etc. It did help me find out some more about what my daughter does like and respond to well. I am very happy to be back on my own though and have plans to continue now. Unless something drastically changes in our lives, our girls will not go to B&M school, certainly not in our public district.

I will admit that I am an adult that was not taught the difference and as long as my children ask nicely, I am not concerned about the word usage. On that same note, I have a husband who I love dearly but he CONSTANTLY does the "I don't know can you? to me and nothing infuriates me more. I have endured it for 12 years now and it makes me want to scream. That would be my pet peeve. I read this thread and I certainly understand wanting to teach your children correctly but it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end to hear "I don't know, can you?". :001_smile: