Thank you everyone for the thoughtful and encouraging replies. I just got back from a lovely 3-day vacation with dh (the first ever without kids!). I've read and pondered everything you all have written. I have talked with dh about my discouragement. I have made lists of all the individual components that add up to the trapped feeling. I've read the monster thread about organizing life. I think I'm ready to tackle next semester at least. School breaks don't really help me, by the way. It's not the teaching part that gets to me, it's the kids-constantly-with-me thing.

For my dd5 who will be almost 6 when we officially start K next year (Dec. birthday): Singapore math, HWT, whatever reading comes after The Reading Lesson, BFSU with big sister, piano, and Song School Spanish. Her once-a-week tutorial will cover SOTW and some other fun subjects.

Cathy, I started out the school year this way, so not just Christmas burnout. UmMusa, you're right. I never really know what's ahead. Thinking about the next 15 years isn't really productive.

I am having a mid-life crisis or something, but I'm tired of homeschooling! Public school is not an option. I have no job qualifications that would allow me to get a job to make enough for private school tuition. I really thought homeschooling was my calling in life, but now I dread the thought of doing this for 15 more years. :(

Wow, a bunch of replies got lost while the board was on vacation! After looking at the sample of WWE3, I decided not to try to accelerate. Dd is very easily frustrated, and I think she will do well to have plenty of practice at the WWE2 level to gain confidence. We may work on it over the summer, but I'm not going to skip.

I absolutely love Watership Down. I read it for the first time a few years ago. It is utterly fascinating.

Dd7 has recently started Writing with Ease level 2. We've finished week 4 and she has picked up the idea of summarizing and is doing very well. The program seems to progress very slowly, though, and the exercises are the same every week. Would there be any problem with just skipping every other week so we can finish by the end of the school year?

My daughter's OT told me to let dd make the decision about coat, socks, etc., and let her go without said items and suffer natural consequences. This was in response to the issue of dd refusing to focus on getting ready in the mornings. So there's a professional opinion for you! At dance they make the kids put on a sweater before leaving class because they say it's not healthy for the kids to go directly into the cold after getting heated up in class.

back in my 20s I had sort of a Gillian Anderson look. Then I gained weight, my front teeth grew apart, and the baby hormones made my hair nearly impossible to style.

Burn Notice, Leverage, Scandal, Person of Interest (not on Netflix unfortunately), Revenge.

What she doesn't realize is that I probably push her harder than an outside teacher would. But we get to have snuggle breaks when frustrations run high. :)

I would love to have my daughter with a different teacher, but she won't hear of it. So I use that as a threat - cooperate with me or off to another teacher you go!

Everything changed for me when Aleve came along. Two Aleve, taken the instant I realized I started, would head off the pain.

I have bad hair. Very thick, just enough natural curl to make it fuzzy and frizzy. I know this kind of hair takes more work, but there's not much I can do when the styling products all have smells that bother me. Does anyone know of some unscented gel or something that really works? I could also use some unscented shampoo and conditioner.

Saint Nicholas: the real story of the Christmas legend, by Julie Stiegemeyer. Love this book. We introduced it when dd was little, and she literally memorized it because she wanted me to read it all the time. (We skipped straight to this because we didn't do Santa.)

From my own educational experience, I don't think I had an assignment like that till my junior year of college.

Dd7 was a mouse and an angel this year for her first Nutcracker. She got very tired of all the rehearsal, but loved performing.

This is my dd as well. Interestingly, she's also 7 and working in Beast Academy. With her, the issue is simpler. She doesn't want to spend time figuring something out. For her, school is something to be endured and gotten over with as quickly as possible so that she can have free time. If the answer doesn't come to her immediately, she gives up, not because she is easily frustrated, but because she simply doesn't care. I don't know the answer. :(

After months of weekly visits to the waiting room of a pediatric therapy clinic, my own neurotypical child throws a worse tantrum than any child with special needs I've ever seen there for treatment. I'm so proud.:glare:

I have a place to go for politics already. I like the haven here. I would, however, be okay with the poll question of "Which candidate would you rather see in a kilt?"

Occupatioal therapy has helped my dd greatly.

Any chance your ds was "playing" MIL? You know, as in he didn't really want to spend his fun time with grandma doing school, and so he whined and fussed and complained that everything was too hard and he started acting like he didn't even know 2+2? Oh, wait, we weren't talking about my dd here....

We're visiting family this weekend, and dh's grandma was interrogating me about our school plans for next year when my second dd starts K. She wasn't pleased that we're continuing hs, and started talking about how important she thinks ps is for kids. I just smiled and shrugged and told her that dh is adamant that we hs. I told her she'd have to talk to him, "and you know how he is. He's immovable." It shut her up! Yippee! Everyone in dh's family knows he is the stubbornest man alive, lol. Occasionally it works in my favor. :)

Dd insists she's going to homeschool college. Her latest career goal is occupational therapist.

The Count of Monte Cristo The Hobbit The Importance of Being Earnest Hamlet Macbeth The Phantom of the Opera at least 2 Canterbury Tales