Do her feet pronate (turn in)? This is what ds2's feet do (so says the pediatrician), and he recommended high-top sneakers (like Converse) for added support.

What she said. :) Mine arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to use some simple experiment books with them. Looking forward to science this year.

The author recommends 4-5 days of work a week, with short lessons (if I recall correctly). We do this, and it takes roughly a week to get through a step -- sometimes less.

Biblioplan Ancient History uses SOTW 1 as one of the spines. We used this a few years ago, and it was one of our best history years ever. :) You get all the Biblical and other ancient history, with the strength of SOTW and other spines.

Cowards. :D I confess to loving instant mashed potatoes (although I never fix them -- dh would disown me). They are one of the ultimate comfort foods. C'mon, you fellow heck-yes-instant-potato lovers -- stand tall. Be proud. Take your lumps. Oh, wait -- there are none! :lol:

I do not miss having the school trying to run our lives during the times (i.e., summer) when school is not even in session. Mandatory summer reading was bad enough, but math packets and writing assignments, due on the first day of school, were too much. The irony is that now, as a homeschooling mother, I do require some work of my dc over the summer. But I see it as different. It offsets, rather than adding to, the work we do during the school year. I also don't miss the stupid, unreasonable last-minute requests from the school for supplies -- "Oh, Mom, I know we went out and got all the supplies on the list, but the teacher gave us a new list of more things that we need to have." And some of those things never got used.

Don't do it! Oprah says this never works out well! ;)

His wardrobe wouldn't bother me. His inability to properly supervise and discipline his Primate Pet-Child would. ;) That little bratty monkey gets away with murder -- well, almost: "The Man with the Yellow Hat showed George that his friend was not moving. George was very sad and promised never to play with controlled substances again. Then he and the Man with the Yellow Hat went out for ice cream. The End." Okay, I guess that would be involuntary manslaughter, but still.

No. No. No. It's like people (read: my in-laws) who wanted to come to my house right after I'd had a baby and stay with us and be fed and entertained. No.

This. :)

To quote Victoria Secunda, the author of When You and Your Mother Can't Be Friends, I am a defector -- or an outcast, depending upon how you look at it. My mother could not co-exist with my husband (or anyone who threatened her sphere of authority) and refused to work with me to improve our relationship, so I chose my husband and I have no regrets whatsoever. The rest of my extended family sided with my mother because they felt sorry for her and didn't want to be outcasts, either. So maybe it's more accurate to say that my role in my extended family is that of persona non grata. ;)

I have enough to worry about without agonizing over bath vs. kitchen towels. ;) If there's been some sort of gastrointestinal accident, I'll wash the items in question separately, on the "sanitize" setting on my washer. But in general, I throw everything in together. We're a healthy family, so I plan to continue. :)

Read-aloud time is great family time for us. Yes, my older kids could read the books for themselves -- but for us, that's not the point -- the point is to gather together and enjoy experiencing a book. It's not *necessary,* but it sure is fun. :)

Ds2 started with TT 3 or 4 (can't remember which) and is now in 7 -- he has used only the workbooks all along. Back when we used MUS, I learned that the videos just frustrated him -- he understood the concepts from the book alone (and my teaching him), and watching the lectures just prolonged the lessons. The lessons as laid out in TT are perfect for him -- plenty of review, gradual exposure to new concepts, predictable layout so he knows exactly what to expect (he has ADHD and Asperger's), and a reasonable length (anything more and he's overloaded). So long as I can teach him the concepts, we're good without the lectures. I expect that when we get to Algebra, however, we may have to add in the DVDs. But for now I just use the text and the workbook, and it's working very well.

Feel free. Happy to share. :D

Silly, silly me. I just want to educate my children in the way(s) that fit them, and me, and our family best -- whatever that looks like. I didn't get into this because I wanted to join a movement with a label. I sort of thought that homeschooling was part of the bigger picture of having choice in education. My bad.

Our local hs group just re-evaluated their policy on whether to admit charter school students or students enrolled in virtual academies. After considering the matter, the board announced that they had thought about it and decided to keep things the way they are. Why? Because the group's definition of homeschooling does not include charter school or virtual academy students. Never mind that the board *wrote* that definition and could change it if it wanted to. There was no reconsideration of the definition -- it was just used to "explain" why things had to stay the same. I saw that as a way to avoid making a decision and as a total non-answer.

Along the same lines, don't ever, EVER use the word "unschooling" around militant unschoolers if you are not legit (and *they* get to decide what's legit). They will beat you to a pulp and leave you by the side of the road as an example to the rest of the world of what will happen to anyone who co-opts their label.

I've never felt like I fit in. Part of it comes from moving around a lot growing up and always being the new kid; part of it comes from being an introvert. And now, as an adult, I homeschool, and I don't even do that in a way that makes me "fit" neatly into a group of people. Hence, the "Maverick." The "Mom" part is self-explanatory. ;) I'm actually okay with all of it. :)

So tired of moms who feel that they have the right to tell you who you must invite to *your* event. Yes, it hurts to be left out. Sometimes being left out is intentional, sometimes it's inadvertent. But personally, I cannot imagine calling another mother on such a thing -- taking it upon myself to decide that surely my child *deserves* to be at an event and then calling the other mother to make sure it happens. In polite society this is called chutzpah. In not-so-polite society ... ;) When dd1 was in the third grade, we had a birthday party for her. She was close to several of the girls in her class, but not all. We sent the invitations via mail since not everyone was invited. Girls talk, however -- that's unavoidable. I got a call from the mother of one of the uninvited girls -- asking me why her daughter had not been invited, and didn't I understand how hurtful it was to leave someone out? I didn't feel guilty -- dd wasn't close to her daughter, and it wasn't like the other girl had no friends and never got invited to parties -- but I was really taken aback by what I saw as the other mother's nerve. A few years later, we had a party for ds. Every year we give the kids the choice of a party or a family outing. That year, it was a party. The next year, we were having a family outing. The morning of ds' birthday, the mother of a child who had been at ds' party the year before called me to say, "Just wanted to let you know that we know it's [my son's] birthday -- if you guys are planning on doing anything special, we'll be in town!" :rolleyes:

Oh, it wasn't our family -- it was just dd. She had an on-campus job that began prior to the start of school, and the cafeteria, et al wasn't open yet, even though the dorms were open. So we set up a Peapod account and she was able to shop online and have the groceries delivered and eat fairly well without having to bum rides to the grocery store or eat fast food all the time.

Our engagement was four months. If I had known how difficult my mother was going to be during that time (for the record, dh and I were paying for the entire wedding), we would have eloped immediately. Oh, and we got the "It'll never last ... you haven't had time to get to know one another well enough" speech, too. This year marks our 27th wedding anniversary. When it's right, it's right. :)

We did this when dd1 was on campus for a week before the food service places were up and running. She didn't have a car, so it was hard for her to get to the store. But with Peapod, the store came to her -- it worked out very well. :)

I spent many happy hours as a child curled up on the floor next to the bookcase reading Childcraft. That alone is an awesome find! Note to self: plan a trip to Goodwill. Soon.

Maybe someone can explain this to me (not what you said, but what I'm about to say ;)). I grew up in Alabama. Lived there for 11+ years. Was old enough to hear and understand what was said by others around me and to drink plenty of iced tea both at home, in restaurants, and at countless church dinners and family reunions. In all that time and in all those venues, I never ONCE heard the term "sweet tea" used. Never. Iced tea was "iced tea," and if you didn't want any sugar in it for some reason, it was "unsweetened tea." After I left Alabama in the late 70s I lived in various places up and down the East Coast, including suburban DC (NOT the South, IMHO) and central Florida (most definitely the South, IMHO ;)). Never heard of "sweet tea" during those years, either. It's only been in the past five years or so that I have become familiar with the term, from people using it online and from seeing it in restaurants (it seems to be a nationwide term now). I hear all these Southerners talking about "sweet tea" as if it's a Southern institution -- like honey 'n' butter on your biscuits ;) -- that's been around since the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter. How is it that in all my time in the South I never heard of it? :confused: This is really bugging me, in case you can't tell. ;) Makes me wonder if the South I grew up in was some kind of alternate-universe South.