That is awesome! I'm going to say that next time.

Is it necessary to teach your children to diagram sentences? I never understood it as a child.

Can you possibly buy them books on the subject instead of a curriculum? Or look at your local library.

I've gotten this too and it just makes me so sad! Lately I've had people say they should look into homeschooling whenever they find out we do it. I'm usually very enthusiastic about encouraging them, but to be honest some of them really shouldn't. I'm referring to my sister that can't even get her 3 yr old to mind.

We live in the country so we don't have that problem. When we lived in the city we hung out at my inlaw's house. They would hand out candy and our kids would pick out what they like.

Perhaps I'm not understanding you, but how do you figure large families "get more negative socialization"?

I like to buy some of my children's clothes off of eBay. So many people have sent the items with a fresh dryer sheet. It really assaults the senses. I've taken to giving them a bad review for it.

I think any homeschooler does their child(ren) a disservice if they adhere to any one philosophy stringently. The whole point of homeschooling is for your child(ren) to be educated in a way that works for them. For some that's unschooling while for others it's more of a strict schedule. When my firstborn was ready to start learning on a more official level I was really disappointed that worksheets and a schedule worked better for him than learning by playing. I didn't know anything about unschooling, so I don't believe that was my goal. But, I though homeschooling was supposed to be... well, not worksheets and a schedule like a brick and mortar school.

If they live in a state where they have to keep track of their hours/work and maybe test... How do they do that?

So, I have sort of a reverse funny. When we moved from CA to MO we found a small church in our little bitty town. We decided to go check it out for a weeknight service. After service was over the ladies of the church (lol all five of them) swarmed me. They were really nice, but when they came to the question, "So, have you enrolled your kids in school yet?" I got a little nervous. This was the moment of either welcoming or possible shunning. It really could go either way. Tentatively, I told them we homeschool. Lol You should've heard them! They were so happy, because all of them homeschool, too!

Sigh! I miss homeschooling in CA. It was so simple. We moved to MO where we have to keep so many records of things. I miss the simplicity.

Can I have another vent, please? I did all this research to find the perfect books to go with Ancient Greece and Rome only for my husband to say, "Can't you find all that on Wikipedia?" Yeah, he's in the dog house.

My vent is that I have an enlarged thyroid. I've been to the doctor, had it scanned, fluid taken out, fluid taken out with the help of an ultrasound... only to be told they don't know what's going on except that it's not cancer. So, that's a lot of money and time wasted. I feel like the doctor kinda blew me off. She wouldn't listen to my other symptoms, which get worse when I'm stressed or haven't gotten enough sleep. And, now I find out that I'm pregnant. I love my children, but I really really don't enjoy being pregnant. This thyroid problem just adds to the stress.

Yes! For some reason our public library system doesn't carry a lot of the classics that I've been looking for. I finally gave up and just buy all the books we need. We have five children so they'll be used for many years to come. But, our house looks like we own a book store! I'm running out of walls to put book cases!

I was a socially awkward child. I'm shy, we were very poor... If my home life had been better than I would've thrived (self-esteem wise) if I were homeschooled. I see myself in some of my children and I know they are doing better than if we put them in public school. My girls have this confidence that I never had, because they aren't surrounded by people that try to make them conform. Anywhere we go they pick up friends like they are magnets. As someone who still has trouble making friends it always amazes me to see that.

lol No, I didn't mean it like that. But, I think we handled it better than his friends who just shunned him until he stopped doing it.

One of the most common reasons I've been told to not homeschool is socialization. It used to really bug me. But, if I'm going to take an honest look at my children I have to agree. It's not about manners, but knowing what's socially acceptable. For example: When my son started learning multiplication he would ask his friends math questions with a very know it all attitude. Well, that's just not ok and my husband and I had to explain that to him. The poor kid comes by his awkwardness naturally.

Texas patriotism... I didn't fully realize how bad it was until I moved to another state. It's sad really. The silliest thing I have ever been told was by my SIL. This was before my firstborn was even 3. She insisted we should send our children to public school so they could witness and be an example to the other children. I couldn't understand her logic. So, I throw my children to the wolves, so to speak, so that they can be a light to them? No thank you.

How would she go about issuing the diploma?

My nephew was unable to finish high school due to health problems. He has six credits left. I suggested to his mother that he homeschool those last few credits. Can anyone give me any info on homeschooling high school in Texas? If he decided to go this route how would he go about getting his diploma?

People that lie to me in one sentence and say they miss my friendship in the next. Sigh! I'm not foolish enough to go down that road again.

Number 5 is almost 4 weeks old. I'm neck deep in spit up, poop, pee, and my breasts are leaking. I'm so tired of body fluids.

Yes, I know we were in the wrong to not have our ducks properly fenced in. We are in the country. She isn't exactly a "next door" neighbor. There's about 3-5 acres of fields and 3 fences between us. Plus, she's on the other side of the street from us. The only area that we didn't have a fence was the very front of our yard. The ducks would walk down the driveway and down the street to get to her place. The issue about the ducks going down there is moot, because it's been taken care of, though. I simply added it to the story, because that's where all of this began. They are not what I need advice about. Yes, I apologized every time they would go down there. It only happened maybe 10 times over a month's time. It didn't happen every single day for a month. We don't use credit cards and won't be starting any time soon. Yes, we save up for big expenditures like extra fencing that we didn't realize we would need so quickly. Our goats and other animals are fenced in and haven't been an issue. I never claimed she was a problem neighbor. I said I'm having neighbor problems. I never said this was all her fault. I don't believe it is. I know it's my fault all of this even started. Thank you to those that have given me advice on how to proceed. My gut reaction is to completely cut her out. But, you are probably right that I'm being too rash. I don't like that my husband continues to answer her "How are things going" questions. It's my desire that he cut her out, too. He's simply being polite, but I'm still uncomfortable with her only contacting him. I don't know what her goal is in doing that. I have apologized to her for getting offended. I didn't really discuss my feelings about it all with her, though. I didn't feel the need to. Perhaps I was wrong in that regard.

Thanks, guys. This has all happened while I was pregnant, and now with the baby here, so hormones are flowing. I wasn't sure if I'm being unreasonable or what. I probably should've handled the whole thing differently. I have a tendency to be an all or nothing kind of person. It's come back to bite me more than once. The ducks are fenced in and have been for quite a while. At the the time of this all starting we were saving up for a fence. It never crossed our minds that they would go on a walk about to the neighbors or we would've taken precautions beforehand.

I didn't mean it like "how things are going down", but "how things are going down here". We live at the bottom of a small hill, compared to them. We have various farm animals and she'll ask how they are doing. This irks me, because we lost some lambs and a kid goat transitioning them from milk to grass/hay. She, obviously, told her friend that our animals keep dying and this was the little bit of truth in that lie. She'll, also, ask how our new baby is doing. I don't know why my husband can't just be short, sweet, and to the point with her. He doesn't give a lot of details when he answers her, but he gives more than I like. He's afraid of offending her. He wants to be friendly in case we ever need their help. I'm not worried about my husband running off with her. I don't know what her goal is in only talking to my husband, though. She's, I assume, happily married. She's married, anyway.