Our homeschool is molding into something like mentioned in this post. It's so freeing! I was so out of place at homeschool convention....went to my first one a few months ago, and just didn't get it, lol.

What Cat said! Please don't let your mom be the one to advise you on whether or not you should go. And please know your 1st obligation is to your children. Let the invitation be an opening to open up healthy communication with your extended family though.

Have you considered the delayed invite without the save the date and without inviting your entire family is a hint that they really don't expect you there, they are just sending the invite so you can't later say you weren't invited? Before I would plan to go, I would CALL AND TALK TO THE PERSON AND SEE ON THE PHONE IF THERE IS SINCERE RECONCILATION that the person intended by inviting you. The person may be shocked you showed being invited from far away on such short notice, the person probably waited to invite you because they knew the ticket would be too expensive and it would be too short notice for you to come. I would try to reconcile another time when you know the focus can be on making amends and you KNOW the other person wants to reconcile. I would send a very nice card with a sweet note, and maybe a separate letter or phone call later on stating you really want to mend the relationship....then see how that goes.

I freeze guacamole, either the premade kind from Costco or homemade, all the time. Does fine. Haven't tried whole avocadoes frozen and defrosted.

Chicken haystacks.....in a crockpot warm shredded or cut up up cooked chicken pieces with a can of chicken mushroom soup and 2-3x as much chicken broth, season. Put chicken broth mixture over cooked rice. Have a "bar" type set up with whatever toppings people like. Suggestions are chow mein noodles, pineapple tidbits, shredded cheese, shredded coconut, chopped bell peppers, chopped celery, slivered almonds, soy sauce, Siracha sauce, etc... Breakfast burritos.....scramble the eggs with onion and bell peppers or mix salsa in with the eggs. Berries or other fruit go well as sides. Baked Potato bars, maybe use leftover chili as a topping suggestion. Egg casserole (you can use crescent roll dough on the bottom and bake egg mixture on top. Cook Pork Shoulder in a crockpot, shred, and use for wraps, BBQ sandwiches, casserole, tacos, or baked potato topping. Huge pot of soup of choice with cornbread or biscuits. Jambalaya....I do an easy cheat version. Sauté onions, garlic, frozen mixed veggies (like corn, peas, small diced carrots). After cooked, simmer with chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes, and jambalaya seasoning (easy to find recipe online). Add mixture to huge pot of cooked rice and stir. Tastes good leftover and can make in large quantities. Bake or roast a turkey, then make something like Turkey tetrazzini and cut slices for hearty sandwiches.

I used the Reading made Easy with Blend Phonics program suggested on donpotter.net . The website has a link to the free download of the book by Hazel Loring, and a link to practice sentences and paragraphs to go along with each unit. Don potter also has a video on his website on the how and why of teaching the child to read from left to right and no guessing.

I buy the large bag of Basmati rice, slivered almonds, walnuts, raisins, organic spinach and lettuce, Udi's bread, agave nectar, big tub of coconut oil, Don Pablo coffee, carrot juice, organic eggs (2 dozen), frozen berries, organic ground beef, pre made guacamole (packs of 4, they freeze and defrost well), goat cheese, fresh pineapple, bananas, and much more.

Just finished K and 2nd. Combined them for all arts/crafts, read alouds (for lit, history, and science), poetry, music study, and light science. We loosely did MFW K, combining for Bible and Science, and my Ker liked the worksheets. My youngest just soaked some from our family read alouds, while my oldest was asked to narrate the history and science read clouds. We read lots of fun children books from FIAR type reading lists and MFW K booklist. Each day, they each did separate LA and math. I worked with one individually while the other was occupied with a worksheet or handwriting page. My Ker did much less than my 2nd grader.

Oh Shannon, I didn't mean to make it out like you were in the dark ages ( think Tandy computers I worked on for 5 minutes in Jr. high where I had to type an elaborate amount of instruction to produce a block heart image on an outdated screen). I just meant if the person who invited you knew you didn't use social media or email for frequent communication, an evite may have not been the best choice to invite you. They may not have known. I completely didn't mean you were not up to date with internet communication, sorry for the confusion or if I came across the wrong way.

You mentioned how much you love the relative and I believe you and dc really do. But love shouldn't override a confrontation in saying the things others mentioned above. I love my sister, but had to ask her to leave the church on my wedding day because she was being rude. She ended up staying, but it hurt that I had to confront someone I love and risk never having relationship with her again. It will be difficult to be blunt with this relative I am sure, and disappointing on all sides because I can imagine your children are fond of her. I am sure there will be hurt feelings on every side. But you can't teach your children you have to walk on tip toes around those you love just to not hurt that person's feelings. The relationship you have with this loved one is an unhealthy one, and the children will encounter all sorts of unhealthy family dynamics through life. Confronting the issue respectfully even at the risk of hurting feelings will teach your children better how to deal with issues like that, in the future in a healthy, non passive way. If the relationship is severed after a respectful confrontation with set rules for future behavior around your children, I am sorry, but in the long run it would be her loss and you will be glad your children learned how to stand up for their own family convictions when they face hard confrontations with loved ones when they have their own children. P.S. sending her multiple articles on school shootings, metal detectors in school, bomb and shooter drills in school, Oprah videos on high school hazing events leading to serious injuries or death, STD statistics, homework workload, teen pregnancy, teacher/student love flings, bullying, etc....wouldn't hurt either

Just to put more weight on the constipation issue, my dd was negative for a UTI after having accidents right before making it to the bathroom several times at age 5. The MD thought she was absorbed in play is why she wasn't making it on time, but my dd really had good bladder control IMO and I didn't buy it. Someone on a homeschool forum said their 11yo did the same thing as my then 5 yo dd and unknowingly to them she was severely constipated. Turns out my dd tends to get constipated if not eating well, and after I got her back on a high fluid high fiber diet, she pooped more than I thought she had room for and her accidents went away. If your dd only has a BM every other day, she MIGHT stay backed up. I would try the chiro, increased water, decreased dairy, high fiber foods (fruit smoothies and dates work for my dd) and such first before doing so much Miralax if you are hesitant about the meds.

Initially I would say no to an internet evite for a wedding (unless the wedding was very casual), but thought about it and changed my view. Just wanted to add, as much as I would prefer a snail mail invitation, the US snail mail system isn't as reliable as it used to be, and I would hate if I didn't get the mailed invitation. Speaking from someone who gets the wrong mail in the mailbox to a different house number, name, and street every few months..someone who never received a car title from the motor vehicle dept that was supposed to have been mailed, and someone whose internet almost got disconnected recently because my mailed bill never reached AT&T. A month later, still the check is lost in the US mail system somewhere or in someone else's mail pile. After giving this more thought, I would be okay sending or receiving an evite or email wedding invitation to or from people I know are on their emails, Facebook pages, or other social media regularly. I would risk the current generation of US postal service mistakes and send a mailed invitation to great aunt Agnus or anyone else not on board with social media. If it was a wedding, I wouldn't feel obligated to do a professional traditional fancy paper invitation for just the few not on board with the new internet/email/text wave. I would just send a pretty note card in neat handwriting with details of the event and a short and sweet personal note. If I were the person inviting OP and knew she wasn't computer savvy, I would have sent a card with wedding details instead. I did a simple wedding invitation with single envelopes. On pretty card stock and saved a little typing it out in a nice font myself and having a local printing company copy it onto the card stock. Then I poked my own holes in the top and tied pretty bows through the top. Saved some money, but it was still expensive. Got some flack from a few that thought I was cheap. Funny, I'm not still in relationship with those few that didn't think it was a proper invitation.

No, it is conservative Protestant based, but not specific to denomination such as a Baptist, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, etc.... Our church is Protestant, but a very small specific denomination with minor doctrinal differences to some of the larger Protestant denominations. Our church has offered the program, so have Baptist and Church of Christ in our city. I understand that the staff who go through the AWANA training are instructed to stick closely to the instruction in the books and not teach specific doctrinal practices that differ among different Protestant denominations. My kids love AWANA, but I like to have a nightly routine at home and I don't like be out later in the week nights. We did Awana this year, because my kids love it so much. Mainly for the group aspect of the program since they don't have much to do with large groups of children on a regular basis. About people not wanting to go to weeknight church activities, it's a decision only each family has to make for themselves. I totally understand about not being out at church or other activities much during the week. That's just our pace of life though. Those that do go to weeknight activities don't quite understand us, but that's okay. Some people judge us because they figure we are missing opportunities to give our children and ourselves instruction in the Word and Christian fellowship. We do attend Sunday services almost every Sunday, and a midweek Home Bible study most weeks. We only occasionally do other church activities, just not all of them all the time, enough to be very involved and yet not enough to have people not understand why we would miss out on things. Keeping our family time during the week allows my husband and I to be the main ones disciple our children in God's instruction (church does a fine job with that but we want to be the main spiritual teachers to them). It also allows us time to get to interact with our neighbors more outside on nice evenings.

Washed and ready to eat spinach or lettuce mix, nuts, cheese, peanut butter, honey, bananas, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, EVOO, oats, raisins, Cheerios, frozen berries, canned and dry beans, broth, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, eggs, some type of beef or chicken, fish, tortillas......

I think the work covered by warranty would have to be done at any honda dealership. I think the warranty goes with the car but only to Honda dealerships (so you wouldn't be limited to the dealership in the town you purchased the car from, but you couldn't take it to any mechanic for repairs or maintenence either). Would you travel to a city that has a Honda dealership for other shopping and business occasionally so you could plan your trips around when routine service is due? Would it be cheaper in the long run to go back and forth to a dealership for routine maintenence or problems covered by warranty or would it be cheaper to buy a car not under warranty (that was checked out for major mechanical problems) and pay your local mechanic to do the routine maintenence? Even if you get the Honda from further away with the warranty, it may be cheaper to pay for the small routine stuff like oil changes and tire rotation out of pocket locally vs. spending gas and time to take the car to a dealership unless you are going to the dealership town for other purposes. I don't have a Honda, nor was my used car purchase under warranty, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong about how the warranty works.

Training in having a heart of service toward others, read alouds from poetry and literature, public speech when they are older, exercise, outdoor time, life skills/chores participation in running the household, economics/balancing a budget when they are older, computer skills, health, safety, and nutrition. Like to add these, but not sure if we will get to them all in the next 10 years: Foreign language, Latin roots, music theory, basics of car mechanics, basic plumbing, basic home construction, literary composition, gardening, primitive food and shelter survival skills, learning one fine art/one sport/one trade very well. Refinement working towards mastery of a couple of these areas before graduation.

Our 3 r's took about 60-75 uninterrupted minutes in 1st grade, planning on the same thing for dd next year. 1. We started with the calendar, having him mark the day of school on the calendar pointing out the correct day of the week, etc.... (less than 5 min) 2. I read a short book or we learned a hymn or folksongs (thanks YouTube for help there cuz I can't carry a tune-5 minutes) 3. Copywork 1-2 neat sentences after I was sure he had good pencil grasp and formed letters correctly with proper spacing (10 minutes) 4. Math interactive hands on lesson followed by short math worksheet from MEP lessons (20-35 minutes depending on the day) 5. Presented a short phonics lesson from a no frills phonics program with him applying the rule to word lists and sentences (10 minutes) 6. He read to me on his level from a reader with help as needed (5-10 minutes) Extras made up for the other hours needed to constitute a legal 4 hour school day....reading poetry or classic read alouds around lunchtime, beginning narration with a Bible storybook and brief history stories about famous people, rotational once/week extras (PE, art, nature study, composer study, piano lessons weekly with daily practice, outside the house community programs, library trips), field trips, cooking lessons, educational videos like Magic Schoolbus or Liberty Kids, educational games, Salsa Spanish lessons, service projects, audiobooks, etc...... This year for 2nd it is taking 1 1/2 hours seat work, but after that we doing more in the way of read alouds, more narration on our history and science readers, spelling with sentence dictation instead of phonics and copywork, and he does independent reading and handicrafts in addition to what he did last year.

3words: I SEE SAM. My dd started at 4 very slowwwwwwlllllyyyyyy, but didn't start something more formal till she was 5 1/2.

On the milestones books website that lists Rod and Staff curriculum by grade, they have the book 4 grammar set in with the 4th grader complete set you can buy.

Siri.......lol Also, as someone said earlier, YouTube videos for any song, history biography, or science lesson enhancement.

Since you react this way to oats, I would think it was less likely that the fish needed to be thrown out, but rather you reacting it vs. poisoning. If you didn't have a gluten intolerance and hadn't had the same reaction to oats before and if someone else was sick, I would be more cautious that the food might have bacteria. Of course, it's totally your judgement call as whether to throw it out, but Mahi is expensive and fish tacos are delicious. I'd hate for no one to get to eat it if the more likely cause is an allergy for you.

Different situation,but I have a good friend with completely opposite political and religious views as me. We have a lot in common outside of those areas. For those reasons we have remained friends for several years. She never belittles my views in person, but Facebook is her outlet to post the most hurtful and sarcastic things about people of my faith. Some posts have been so hurtful, in one she said those that teach children from the scientific viewpoint I happen to teach to my children were child abusers! I considered ending the entire friendship over that one post, even though she didn't direct it towards me personally. Since then, I have hidden her posts from my feed, and once every couple of weeks I'll skim her Facebook page to see if she posted anything of interest, like pictures of her garden, funny quotes from her child, etc.....it's so much easier this way.

Yes, correct about PLL.

I am only doing spelling because my son is a strong reader and he was ready to begin dictation this year. Otherwise, I would have waited another year and continued on with just copywork. His spelling program is a vintage one I heard about on this forum. It is called Modern Speller and I downloaded it free from google books. I didn't plan to start it this year, but he was ready for it, and it seems like a gentle start. The Modern Speller seems like it would transition well into SCM's Spelling Wisdom books if I choose to use those later on. Definitely don't feel any pressure to start spelling formally, just addressing it as it comes up in copywork and reading should be fine until reading skills are stronger. For PLL, I am only doing that orally, and only going over the light grammar lessons like the difference b/n to, too, and two. If I didn't have something separate for picture study, poetry, memory work, copywork, and I wasn't doing oral narrations with our read alouds I would be more likely to use all of PLL. I hear good things about Outdoor Secrets and 106 Days of Creation at SCM, just haven't used them personally. Your 5 year old would likely enjoy tagging along for those studies. I have done science "as it comes up", through having my son read the Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers books 1&2 with me, going to local nature classes, watching Magic Schoolbus, and expanding on our gentle Kindergarten program's topics.

We start our day with a hymn on non-busy weeks (play a YouTube video that has the lyrics to read). Then I do some sort of fun lit read aloud on my Kindergarten dd's level that the 2nd grader likes as well. I have my son either do copywork or study a lesson out of Modern Speller (later I have him dictate part of the lesson for writing that day instead of copywork) while I work with my Ker on reading. Then my Ker does a simple worksheet while my 2nd grader reads to me out of whichever reader is assigned (currently McGuffey). He reads 1-2 lessons, takes less than 10 minutes. I go over any difficult words or new vocab. Then we do the hands on and teacher presentation part of his MEP math lesson. I go over his worksheet problems to make sure he understands the instructions and do teamwork on any difficult problems. While he's working on his math worksheet independently, I do a simple math lesson with my Ker. Then, I check his answers and go over any mistakes. If all that goes smoothly, I'll do an oral grammar lesson from PLL for ds, have us all watch a YouTube science video relating to dd's kindergarten program topic of the week, or more rarely we do a simple craft together. We did Salsa Spanish lesson plans and videos together the 1st semester, but I dropped it after Christmas. They loved Salsa Spanish, I just was running out of energy to teach it. Usually ds then practices his piano while I make lunch. I help him for about 5-10 minutes and he practices by himself about 10-15 minutes. For the "extras", we were doing a picture study weekly, but I haven't been consistent lately. We listen to classical music some afternoons, occasionally we'll watch a YouTube video performance on a particular composer's piece. We also have some music CDs that tell the composer's stories. Some days, I'll read a couple of poems at lunchtime or when they are between activities playing in the backyard. I casually do literature, biography, or history read alouds either in the morning after breakfast before our seat work starts or in the afternoon. Those are on days we don't go anywhere or we don't have a lot of cleaning or chores to do. My husband reads to ds at bedtime either a missionary story, a Bible story, or about a historical figure. My son does oral narration to many of the read alouds (especially history, Bible, and biographies). He goes to classes at a local nature center 1-2 x/month, a monthly history club at a local historical place, takes swimming lessons, and goes to a monthly hand sewing class at the library. I wish we worked on our hand sewing b/n the classes like we are supposed to do, but we don't that much (plan to start being more diligent about that). He has down time in his room every afternoon, usually playing Legos or building structures with Keva planks. He also reads on his own some afternoons. We go on field trips to the zoo, a local science center, a local botanical garden, a children's symphony concert, and some type of educational activity on our vacation annually. I would like to add much more to our day, but I like to rest in the afternoons we aren't out and about. Also, I like for him to have outdoor time and free time when possible. On another post, I posted that I am very simple, just keeping to the 3 r's. Writing all this out on this post, I feel like a hypocrit because it looks like more than the 3 r's.