Great suggestion! I have just bought it. Both my kids are intense questioners (for different reasons, but still). I know quite a bit about the roots of English but her examples had even me stumped, so I had to buy it. :)

Did you read the articles? The story by NPR is about how far you can get with only a GED, having not finished high school coursework beyond the requirements. Yes, employers look at having only taken a test and not having finished coursework, as inferior to having finished coursework and gotten a college degree, particularly if you took some advanced classes in high school. But they are not mutually exclusive. The military story is about people who dropped out: "Each of the services strictly limit the number of high school dropouts (which includes GED holders) who can enlist each year." If you didn't drop out, then this article doesn't apply to you. If you dropped out of high school but went on to finish an associate's or bachelor's, then this article doesn't apply to you. Again, it is people who have the entire extent of the GED as their proof of education, no homeschool coursework, no college degree, who face a difficulty getting a job. But we know that nothing<GED<diploma<AA<BA<BS<MA<MS<PhD. The more work you do, the more you get paid. They took other tests, yes. Look, I can appreciate that many of our public schools are in deep doggie doo. But those schools' students take standardized tests every few years showing their progress. The colleges know how well a school's children perform in college. They have absolutely no way of evaluating every homeschooling family without using the GED or a similar test. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that if you went to the school with your child's results from state achievement/content tests (CTBS, WASL, whatever you have), you are much, MUCH more likely to get the GED waived. My daughter will have her first standardized test this year. She's in first grade. Step daughter and son are tested annually by the state. So in a word... yes. Yes they do have to take standardized tests to show that (a) the school is performing and ( b ) the child is performing. TIL that b ) is b). No, it does not claim that. It claims that they have no way to verify the education that the homeschooler claims to have received, from a third party. The school is monitored by a third party (district, state, and national exams which do not benefit from the school's success relative to other schools, since national performance is monitored by international testing agencies). Homeschooling families who do not participate in the exams all the way through are not verified by a third party. That doesn't mean they aren't doing good work. It means the university doesn't know. The SAT is essentially an IQ/logic test. It doesn't test for content knowledge. The GED is the test we have to do that. I'm truly shocked to see so many people objecting to an exam. It is precisely these exams, and Americans' performance on them internationally, which I would have thought drove many to homeschool in the first place. If you want them to be applied to the public schools, why should you be exempt when it comes to university? I would suggest that if you don't want your child to take the GED, because it's a test taken by many poor people and people from dysfunctional families who have no other option and you don't want to be associated with that level of performance, then you should have your child verified by a third party in some other way. The most reliable way to avoid the GED would be to have the child apply for the International Baccalaureate or to test through the school annually on the state tests. I have no problem with homeschooling. I do take issue with the idea that the GED is some recipe for failure, or that content tests are not appropriate for homeschoolers. You could lobby for an alternative test to the GED for homeschoolers, but you'd effectively be lobbying for a White Middle Class High School Knowledge Test to be given alongside the GED, aka the Ghetto / Redneck Dropout High School Knowledge Test. The content would still be the same.

I guess I don't consider taking a standardized test to show that you've met the minimum requirements for graduation, to be a slap in the face. I worked hard at school and the PSAT and SAT were easy for me--but it wasn't a "slap in the face" to be asked to take them. What was I supposed to do, go to the university and say, "Look, I'm getting all As here-do you really need a test to prove that I can do it?" When my ex-husband went into the military, he had almost finished two post-graduate degrees, but he didn't tell them that their aptitude test was a "slap in the face". My partner takes drug tests at his high-paid, professional job. His saying, "Obviously I'm performing so I shouldn't have to take a drug test" is not going to cut it. Many hard-working foreign students, even those who completed their coursework in English, have to take the TEFL before attending university here. This even applies to post-graduate students who in some cases wrote a thesis in English! The reason is that universities are in no way able to make a judgment based on a huge volume of personal history documents. Standardized testing is a fact of life in a world of 7 billion people and an international education system. A GED is the only test we have to substitute for the myriad of standardized tests that children in the public and private school systems go through repeatedly. It's the best objective, detached, quantitative way we have to say, "You have these very basic skills." To repeat myself, I don't think anyone should take a test they don't want to. But I do not think it's insulting to say, "Getting a diploma or a GED from an accredited institution is a requirement" is an insult. After all, they require the SAT or ACT, and nobody here is complaining abot that. The only difference is that the GED is skill and curriculum specific and the SAT judges college readiness and more abstract reasoning.

Sorry to intrude, but I know a number of people who worked very hard throughout school but had to take the GED due to problems at the end (moving, illness, etc.). While I appreciate that it may be intended as a slight by the university, I'm really disappointed to see so many people here treating it like something that doesn't require work. It's merely an alternative to a diploma for people who couldn't attend classes before leaving high school, so that they don't have to go back to school a year later, or to allow people to finish high school without commuting too far, or giving up medical care, or whatever. One does have to study for it. The lack of respect towards general educational development certificate is depressing. Of all people, homeschoolers should realize how many different paths there are towards getting an education. "Getting the GED would cause life long disadvantages for the student." Getting a GED doesn't go on your "permanent record". If you take it, you never have to write it down again. It's like the ASVAB (military test). You don't want to write down that you took it? Don't. They don't tattoo the results on your forehead. Award your own diploma, take whatever tests you please, and move on. If you don't want to take it, don't. But please, do not insult the many hard working, intelligent individuals who have taken that route. It's really unnecessary.

Around here, apparently it is the norm to keep your child out of kindergarten unless they will be six by at least April. There are no late birthdays in my daughter's class, primarily for the following reasons: There is just something that clicks at the age of 6.5 - 7.5 and it can't click earlier. You can familiarize a child with rules and school but symbolic and abstract reasoning will just not be there. The school curriculum has been "advanced" so tasks that require the "click" are being foisted upon children who are just not there yet, cognitively, not because they are stupid but because their brains are still growing (like asking a small child to play soccer with a regulation-size ball, it's not that the child doesn't have talent, it's just not the right task to practice). Everybody else redshirts (6y10mo being the average age at the start of first grade in my child's class), so what happens is that the curriculum moves foward with only one or two "little" kids behind. Those kids, rather than being recognized as a full year and a half younger than the oldest children, just feel "behind". (The school board won't complain as redshirting means higher test scores at every level.) Nobody wants this for their own child, so redshirting just gets exacerbated. The oldest child in my daughter's class will be eight in February, in the first grade. He's very "advanced". (By "no late birthdays", I mean every single child in the class will be seven by April--and the youngest one is struggling to keep up.) In theory, I believe school districts should be extremely strict about this and demand that children go into school at grade level, and if they cannot, that they be put in special remedial education. Redshirting is ridiculous. In reality, for an individual parent whose job it is to support a child, I am not opposed to keeping a child in a grade where they are the average age. It's insane, but in our school district, putting a June birthday child in kindergarten requires a ton of moral courage and strong principles, because you're effectively ensuring your child will be in the bottom half of the class, performance wise, unless your child is in the 99.99th percentile for development. That is not a made-up statistic: that is the actual percentile you need to be in to work a solid two grade levels ahead, and since a lot of kids are a solid one-grade level ahead, if they're 18 months older than your child... you get the picture. Gifted education testing begins at the end of first grade, too, so they "age-out" late birthday kids who were not redshirted. I could go on and on about this issue, which I view as a pressing social concern, but my point is: You have a lot of good advice here, but if redshirting and advanced curriculum have made kindergarten the new first grade in your area, there is nothing wrong with keeping your child in pre-k for another year.

Awww. So happy to hear you have that option. I had initially wanted to homeschool, and then I met my extremely social daughter. This was a kid that would sob if she had to leave the park because she'd met a new "friend". It wasn't transitions--it was that she just loves, loves, loves being around lots of people. I had wanted to give her the education I wanted but didn't get (accelerated, challenging, none of that distracting social "junk"). Alas, it was not to be. Good luck with school!

Your qualified reply is definitely harder to argue with. :) I agree that homework qua homework, or homework without support, or homework when you already know the subject material, does not seem like a good candidate for improving outcomes. But I also think that in this thread, most of the parents are quite involved and are talking about homework to clarify, supplement and go more in-depth in school skills. For example in my home, we do drills of math facts, which are not required, but which have really placed my daughter to excel in math. And I think that the homework she's been assigned--projects using skills, reading age-appropriate books, sight-word and spelling word practice with "challenge" words that are chosen at the third-grade level (i.e. for children who would theoretically be in a gifted program, which is not an option in the first grade)--is also very helpful, to be honest. The school puts a lot of work into homework. Of course, we're in a great school district so a lot of my 'after-schooling' involved getting her to do the homework challenges assigned by the school. I'm aware that most people do not have this luxury. However, I am a big proponent of hard work and I think taking studies that say that busywork assigned does not improve outcomes, and saying, "I guess it doesn't pay to work hard", can come off as disingenous. Obviously with your qualified remark there is a lot more overlap in our perspectives. :)

I had a very similar experience. My mom didn't have the skills to help me with math after the sixth grade (I was accelerated, and she was average, plus they moved the math curriculum ahead in the two decades between our education, so basically I was in Algebra in the sixth grade before she got it in college). I failed. I also have "forgets homework" or "doesn't do work" on every report card from first grade on. My mom thought she was teaching me independence but all I learned was that I don't have to work hard to get a passing grade. :)

I'm aware of the studies that suggest that at the national or state level, that hours of homework assigned do not have a significant correlation with outcomes. However, I am not at all convinced that this implies that "homework does not improve outcomes". Rather, it could just as easily suggest the following: Hours of instruction assigned is not as actual instruction conducted (usually studies track homework estimates from assignments, not the amount of homework actually done by students); Hierarchical variables, such as national and state administrative systems, school systems, and curricula "drown out" the signals from homework, which vary very little between individuals, given that the number of hours in the day are limited; Socio-economic variables, which affect implementation of homework schemes (such as poverty keeping kids in daycare until evening, or inability of parents to help kids with homework because of language/illiteracy, quality of teachers) also "drown out" the signals from homework; Homework is much less significant than hours spent on quality instruction of academic material in the classroom (e.g. why some homeschooling families need to "only" spend three hours on focused academic instruction in primary grades--well, that's all they're doing in schools as well, if you only count focused time for each child); Outcomes measured are not related to homework outcomes, which might be different. Time spent on homework might inversely correlate with outcomes only because the harder it is for you, the longer you take to complete it, indicating that children who lack natural talent at the subject matter will work more for fewer results. But that doesn't mean homework doesn't improve outcomes: it just means that it won't make up for less gray matter, though it will help you avoid failing. Who knows? But I do know that I've never seen a randomized trial done with homework, that suggested that hours studied was not at all correlated with outcomes. All I know is that at the national and state levels, assigned homework amounts are not nearly as important as, for example, food, having a parent around to help, and having a qualified teacher. But that's kind of obvious. What I want to know is whether for my child, practicing a skill is going to improve her outcome, all else being equal. And given what I've seen, not to mention common sense, I'd say that practice and one-on-one tutoring from mom has been enormously helpful for her. Here are some randomized controlled trials suggesting that homework can help in a controlled environment (e.g. when you compare two similar populations and homework is controlled / checked, not just assigned, then yes, it makes a difference): For APD kids, homework and another intervention: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22512470 The "flipped classroom" approach (tangentally relevant): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24044386 The IES has some randomized controlled trials up, or rather, had, before the government shut down. :~( Perhaps you're thinking of an Alfie Kohn piece or 5,000 of them (all on the same thing: do/say nothing for/to your kids, you'll quelch their will to live): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alfie-kohn/homework-research_b_2184918.html "When kids in these two similar datasets were asked how much time they spent on math homework each day, those in the NELS study said 37 minutes, whereas those in the ELS study said 60 minutes. There's no good reason for such a striking discrepancy" They were conducted a decade apart. That's just one single issue with Kohn's cherry-picking. I could take every piece of that article and point out the flaws in his reasoning but there's no need. Many others have. It's too easy. In the article I've posted above, he (comically) goes through study after study suggesting that yes, homework does indeed improve outcomes, and then complains about them. I've no doubt Kohn himself is a bright man but even bright people, when they have an agenda, can be blinded. No study, especially in the social sciences, is perfect, and indeed all studies have problems, including those ones. But the majority of them suggest that when you control for other factors, if you have enough variation within the group after socioeconomic factors are controlled for, that you are going to get results from practicing at home.

The idea of headphones on my four-year-old for sleeping was so adorable and unrealistic I had to chuckle. To clarify, it's the 10-year-old boy who occasionally lags for the bus. I'm here to see them off to the bus so it's really the only time I am responsible for the nagging. He's improved massively over the past year. It was just an example. I am positive about it (in order to achieve x you need to do y, is there anything I can help you with?) but they've had that their whole lives and they know full well it means the exact same thing as any other kind of reminder. :) There's no fooling kids these days. ;) You start them out with attachment parenting and sensitive talk and by the time they're 18 they know EXACTLY what you mean by, "That's a very interesting picture! Why don't you tell me about it?"

This is not at all what I said. I have no doubt that if I said, "This is important to the little ones' health", he would just tell her "stop doing this after 9 p.m." and she would. He would definitely "lay down the law", but my question is, is it an appropriate "law"? Is this fair to her, as someone who loves music and wants to learn piano? What are some alternatives for a family with older and younger children? How can it be presented to her in a way that respects the fact that she's a 12-year-old with a lot of changes going on in her life? I think that I will present the headphone option and come to a compromise time, and we'll present it at the same time as signing her up for piano lessons. Like, "We know you wanted to play piano, here's when you can have lessons and here's some quality headphones so you can practice on the keyboard at any time you like at any volume."

Edit: I was high on coffee and sounded aggressive. Edited for manners. I understand your point, Cat--to a point. Consider: If I were to have this entire thread about "my 12-year-old daughter", don't you think the advice would be massively different? Without the information about the parent she grew up with, the move-in date, the getting-used-to, the dealing-with-new-personalities, wouldn't the answer be simple? Wouldn't it just be, "She's 12. Tell her what you expect and let her deal. She's YOUR kid. YOU are the mom. Set the boundary, talk about it, and if necessary enforce it."? And yet, I believe that would be a terrible way to deal with a step-child that you moved in with four months ago. It would be very insensitive. The dynamic between a step-parent and a step-child is totally different. First of all, if she was my biological daughter, her biological mother wouldn't have signed her up for two church activities per week, limiting the chances of piano lessons, so there would be no question about that (NB she is the one who brought up this scheduling conflict, not me!). I wouldn't have to ask her dad about her schedule with her mom and I would have been able to help her sign up for the sport she wanted right away no questions asked. I'd know what type of granola bar she liked and wouldn't have bought the wrong kind because I misunderstood. I would know what her little sighs would lead to, at least to some extent. There would be no mortification asking her if she needed me to buy feminine sanitary products (her bio mom buys her tampons when she's at home and she brings them here because, and I can certainly understand this, she's shy to ask me or her dad). My being here, with a four-year-old, would not be a change in her life. It would be the status-quo. The fact is, I can care about her and love her like my own child, BUT my relationship with her is going to be very different for a few years. Not to point out the difference when asking for parenting advice is, I think, a bad idea. I don't think it's fair to assume that just because I am very specific about this dynamic in a question format, that we don't think of ourselves as one family. We do. But we are also realists and are not going to pretend that just because we moved in, POOF, magically we all know each other and feel totally comfortable with one another. There will be an adjustment time and pretending otherwise would not honor the kids or ourselves, because it's something real that we are going through.

Well, we just moved in together four months ago, so the relationship is still in it's beginning stages, and I used "step-kids" to refer to that difference in relationships. That was probably misleading. Sorry about that. I've been living with them for a few months so we have not yet developed a rapport to the degree that I can tell them what to do like I tell my own kids what to do. We're working up to that. My own children are very small (4 and 6) so it's much easier for him to tell my kids what for. I so much as make a comment like, "You need to leave in two minutes if you want to catch the bus," and his children's toes get all stepped on. I get it. I'm their step-mom, I'm new. So it's just a different dynamic. The boundaries she has are totally appropriate for a girl her age in a household without young children in it. The reason there are few is that she's a responsible person and there were fewer other people in the home before to create the need for boundaries like this. If bedtime is 10 for the whole household, practicing at 9 is not unreasonable. If you do your homework and get good grades, there's no need to insist on specific top-down schedules. Etc. I am sorry if I made it sound like there were not enough boundaries. There were but now the circumstances have changed and boundaries are changing. That's not easy to deal with at the age of 12 and I want to be sensitive. He won't blame anybody because he doesn't see it that way. He's very matter-of-fact. But I mean... she's twelve with a new step-family in her home, so she's going to perceive me as the cause, because I am the cause of the change. I completely agree. Too many chances for misunderstanding. The problem that I face is how to do this when it's hard to convince him that she is perceptive and realizes things about him that even he doesn't realize. For example, he doesn't have to prioritize me over his kids, in order for his priorities to shift. She complains about the shift and he replies that they (bio kids) are still number one. But that doesn't change the fact that when they are at home, they are no longer 100% of his attention. I had to basically draw him a time-map to make him realize that she had a point. He was born with a huge confidence buffer. Maybe because he's a man? Anyway, the idea that someone could continually agonize about their relationships to others, inherent value, and being loved is to him insane. He is great at making people feel loved and cared for when there's no issue to be resolved. When it comes to a disagreement or someone's insecurity, he's totally clueless. I'm pretty secure which is I guess why we're together. I tried to explain to him that the feelings he had during the worst moment of his life, during his divorce, the feelings of failure, not being good enough, nobody loving you, that teenage girls feel this several times every week (if not every day for the sensitive child) because they are programmed to find a mate during that time, and to set up their social circles for life so it's critical to their future survival, and he thought I was joking. I think he's still wrapping his head around it. "Why would you feel that insecure?" Gah. So I guess you and one other person are right... I need to talk with him about how to present stuff to the children. I don't trust him to be sensitive to his daughter's needs so I am making decisions about this myself, and that is a problem. I hear you and I think this is why I haven't discussed it with him. I don't want to even bring it up if it's not worth it. Oh yes believe me my own kids give me way more grief! But with them I have my "momfidence" and I just roll with it, or try to, anyway. Whereas my confidence as a step-parent is just being built up, and rightly so, I think. I think this solution is passive-aggressive. A grumpy 4-year-old is pure hell. A 12-year-old is not supposed to be responsible for a preschooler's bedtime routine nor should she have to take care of my kids, unless she's being paid to babysit them or it is her part in a family activity in which she also gets something out of it. If I would like her to change her behavior, I will tell her specifically what I'd like and what I can do in return, in a polite way, at least for the first four or five times. It's not as though she's had the chance to object to a request or something. She doesn't deserve to be "punished" before she's told what's expected of her.

Deleted due to multi-quote issues. Apologies.

Deleted due to multi-quote issues. Apologies.

Deleted due to multi-quote issues. Apologies.

That's about it. One takes lessons but his practice does not involve structure--he's very sensitive so his dad just lets him play around, which I think is probably a good strategy knowing this kid in particular. Otherwise it would just be a battle. With some people there's no reasoning. My step-daughter is very artistic and quit orchestra for reasons I don't fully get, but wants to play piano. She practices on her own via youtube videos. At 9:30 p.m. With the volume all the way up. I think her dad is planning on getting her lessons, which would be nice, but my question is... Would it be bad of me to ask him to ask them to practice earlier in the night? My children are four and six and exhausted. My partner simply doesn't hear noises, period. His kids were excellent sleepers. My children are hyper and totally different. I've asked them to turn down the TV and music, to extremely icy stares, but I feel I'm within my rights. I mean, it's 9 p.m. on a school night, I just don't think it's necessary to watch American Idol at full volume. You can watch it quietly. But music is different. I really value it and would like to encourage her to play. I feel that if I ask her not to play after 9 p.m. her 12-year-old mind will interpret that as, "step-mom is being mean to me about something I like AGAIN, she doesn't want to hear it". This used to be their "easy" house. Their dad is super easy going and though he has firm boundaries, they are pretty sparse. I have no desire to change that. I just want my kids to sleep. Tips?

She sends out a weekly newsletter and I will reply with specific questions to that if I have any. I think once a week is more than enough. We get assignments back weekly and it's first grade so I rarely have any comments.

I agree that it's important to speak to the specialist. For my own daughter, she was on track but I basically had to beg/bribe/"force" her to practice to get there. A lot of reading skill comes from familiarity, which means practice, practice, practice. After meeting with a specialist, if there appear to be no specific neurological, sight, or other problems, then I'd get some Bob books, Dick and Jane and just have him read them out loud to you while you make dinner, for 30 minutes per night. Read the same book again and again. Agonizing and painful to listen to. Then if he does the 30 minutes without complaining, give him a reward (points towards a Lego set or perhaps candy if he doesn't get it often or a treat in his lunch). Every week, up the level a tiny bit. I know how slow it goes but it's the only way. This is what we did all summer with my daughter who was just under grade level last year. She was in immersion school, so reading in another language a bit, but nowhere near where she needed to be in English. We just pushed through it. I kept repeating, "I know it's not fun, you fell a lot when you learned to walk, and this is another life skill, and I'm here with you. Keep going. Don't stop. I promise you someday it will be easy." And we just pressed on, sounding words out one by one, until finally we had a few sight words. Then she was recognizing patterns. Every night, 30 minutes. No matter what, no matter the tears. Now she's able to read books she actually enjoys like the first grade popular books from Scholastic and those are used as rewards. (Reading as a reward, who ever would have thought we'd get there?!? Not me a year ago. :) )

I learned the flute. It was never my passion but I mildly enjoyed music. I was encouraged to continue to develop my ear for music, develop an ability to read music fluently in case I ever wanted to learn another instrument (this turned out to be a great idea, as I'm now learning another instrument and helping three kids to learn instruments), develop fine motor skills, enjoy the musical community if I wished, and finally, just to expose me to many types of music that I would not be listening to on my own. I didn't go pro, didn't even play in college. I was first chair probably once in my life, if that. But I'm really, really glad I stuck with it. It is also a great way to "blow off steam" and it's wonderful to have that option. The most important thing to me is that none of these sports, instruments, games (be they Scrabble, chess, whatever) are totally non-transferable skills. They all open you up to a whole area of recreation that can bring you to a community and give you something to find solace in, even if you don't continue that particular instrument/game/sport for the rest of your life. That to me is what the classical education is all about: you learn complex things deeply, not everything, not because those things are so important in and of themselves (are the Mayans really less important than the Spartans?) but because you thereby learn how to learn and how to process a type of subject matter.

My daughter is in first grade but I'm subscribing because I believe these grades are similar, development-wise. My daughter's schedule is: Monday, academic afterschool at an immersion program, read school-assigned book at home and more reading. Before school we do a subtraction drill. Tuesday, stays with my mother in law. Before school subtraction drill. Wednesday, math drills with me after school, play at local park, then music at the immersion school. Thursday, play as I'm watching the neighbors' kids, math worksheet for concepts in German (language of immersion), read. Friday, she's with the neighbor so she plays. I'm thinking of sending her with a worksheet for math to do while the neighbor's child does her own homework. It's not as if she'd be alone. They could study together. Read when I get home. Weekend, we review what she's brought home from school, and work on the spelling errors. She also has soccer Saturday mornings. They have two recesses at school plus PE once per week. All in all, she does about 20 minutes of math including discussion of concepts in the car (because that's how we roll... literally... counting on fingers in the rearview mirror) followed by 10 minutes of practice of math facts. Our goal is multiplication and division partners to 5 by the end of the year and we are easily on track. Reading--she's not been into reading so I just want her to enjoy it. We use it for cuddle time. She's at grade level but her comprehension is higher and I'd like her to get to fluency so she can actually begin to *use* it as I know that she will read much more when it benefits her.

Hi everyone. I thought I'd introduce myself here. I bought the Well-Trained Mind when my first daughter was about 6 months old. At the time, my marriage was stable (or at least I thought so), and I planned to stay home and homeschool my kids. Fast-forward three years, I had two kids, am separated, and the older child is the most social person I have ever met in my life. I can't keep her out of school and I realize that my introverted self can't cope with her constant emotional needs. So, school it is. Put TWTM on the bookshelf with a wry smile. "The best laid plans of mice and moms oft go astray...", I thought, to paraphrase the old adage. Now my youngest is in pre-kindergarten (and loves it, just loves the other kids, the school, everything) and the oldest is in public school in the first grade. Though I'm happy with their schools in most respects, I feel that they don't get nearly the classical background or reinforcement or repetition they need. Well, the first grader, really. Obviously the kindergartener is still learning mostly through exploration. So it comes down to math facts. I found myself, surprise surprise, on a WTM forum looking for information on math facts. How fast should she know them? What can I do to inculcate that? Our schools are really pro experimentation but I have seen in life that there is no substitute for drills for the basic operations on the single-digit integers. You just can do so much more without using your fingers. That was when I saw the myriad of articles arguing against homework, against repetition, etc. I started to look for parents who did afterschool supplementation and came back here. I'm not a Christian and I think that is a major difference between me and many other parents on this forum. But I'm very open minded and I think I will really enjoy it here. We have very strict limits and boundaries in our home and it's hard to get support for those online, when Alfie Kohn is so revered (especially amongst my social circle). Anyway, I've had too much wine tonight, but I thank you all for carrying on this tradition. I really look forward to cracking that book open again and getting started and reaching out to the community here. Thanks.