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Hello All! I just spent the last hour or so reading all the post from the
last 12 hours! EGADS! Lot's to reply to!

First of all, thank you Lois and others who are having a tremendous impact on
helping me relax and get my head together. YES, you are helping, things are
already smoothing out a great deal here! THANK YOU THANK YOU!
On to the replies about the boys and their time usage. There is no
problem seeing the learing going on incessantly with the 11 year old. he is
always busy doing something very creative and of interest to himself. His
aspirations are to be an astronaut! And is content to follow whatever course
needed to get him there. he is an entrepenuer of sorts, makes beady things
and sells them. Big StarWars nut he is, spends a good amount of time
creating new characters (drawing them) and developing new story lines.
Builds all kinds of space stuff out of household junk. He has designed a
couple of spacecrafts for a mission to Mars. here is where I would love to
find him a mentor, because he is way past me with the space stuff already!
My 9 year old is a different story... he loves to play baseball and other
games with another person or in a group. Yes, he is my social one! He loves
Nintendo, though he understands that there a limit to that. he loves to play
chess. he is picking up art projects more and more. he is just a tough one
to figure out sometimes. he has always been led by others, now he has to
determine his own direction and sometimes struggles with it. he would be
content to do whatever I tell him....sheeesh.
Yes, my freind, I chose the books on the shelf (most of them). And I
seem to remember them asking me why I was buying them when we were at the
store. DUH!!!! Did I not get it. They are all the modern and traditional
classics in literature. And I do beleive they will someday have an interest.
My 9 yo ds is reading Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher right now.
About video games... unless the boys make a move to do some expansion
activities, I end the Nintendo fest. For me, there is a lot of other
creative things they can be doing. I did let them go for over a month with
playing Zelda everday, and I will tell you why. They learned to sew by
sewing Link costumes, they learned to use power tools by building swords and
shields out of wood. They used there imaginations to find things around the
house and in thrift stores that would serve as the pieces parts in the games
(rupies, coins, fairies, etc.). They developed a monetary system from things
found in nature (gravel, ash, buckeyes, etc.). They drew a map of the
kingdoms and them went outside to set up the kingdoms in the yard and the
woods. 11 yr o Ds picked up the recorder (flutaphone) and translated all the
music in the game for the recorder in written notes. And of course they role
played until they were exhausted! this my idea of a good video game. If
they don't expand on it, we move on. It is amazing how it did turn all of
there attention away fom playing the game and onto living!
Now to the families putting in their views and quizzes. My family would
never do that because they know they would catch all kinds of crap from me,
possibly in the form of not seeing thier dear grandchildren again. I am just
too unpredicatble to mess with. MIL does not quiz, she just asks how school
is going, and the kids say fine. She butts out of our business, always has.
My mom, bless her heart, just said OK, if that is what you want to do... she
does support it now becuase of how well the boys act towards her now and
because she and I have had the opportunity to become a lot closer because of
homeschooling. She even helps me when I get tripped up with math concepts
and how to teach them. This is the most interest I have ever seen her take
in something I am doing. She and I will sit there and and work on the latest
math manipulative, math problems, chess game or whatever. When I get
something new, I go straight to my mom's and we try it out! its either that
or she will never see us. We have made a strong effort to include her in on
our stuff and I think she is really enjoying all this. we never used to have
such interesting conversations before. Bottom line, i think she sees how
this has changed me and made me a better person, how could she not support
that?
DH told me last night that his brothers had a few things to say about
what we are doing when he visited them the night before. they don't support
what we are doing and worry about socialization. Dh and I both bursted out
laughing when he told me this. We have kids over every weekend, all weekend,
and get together with other hs'ers often. How silly. I was kind of miffed
that they said this to my husband, but Dh reassured me by saying that he
considered the source, both bil's still live at home with mommy (both in the
30's range), neither has ever been able to have a succesful fullfilling
relationship (women are meat to be taken advantage of) nor do they appear to
know what that is. Both put their own value on how much money they can make.
Both have been heavy partyers for long past the typical juvenile period of
silliness. Neither one had done well in school. there appears to be no real
substance to them. But they know better than to ever say anything to me
about what we are doing, again, I am too unpredictable. I have a wonderful
example of this, please bear with me...
One Thanksgiving we were all sitting at the dinner table and bil #2
starts talking about a "fat chick" at bar that was hitting on bil #1 and they
begin to laugh and carry on. some background here, i am overweight by about
60 pounds... I just lost 23 pounds this year. Anyway, I put down my utensils
and begin to giggle. And they all looked at me in that "uh, oh, she going to
do something way". And I turned to bil #2 and say, " I don't think that just
because someone is overweight they have no value and intelligence and should
be considered less than human and not worthy of being socialized with." (all
the while both bil's are sitting there with their Barbie look alike
girlfriends who shouldn't be at holiday gathering unless they are engaged and
committed, just my opinion) He began to stutter and sputter, then I chimed in
again " Boy, you must think I am a fat pig!!!" And I picked up my fork and
began to eat again, you know, as fat people should not be doing. They all
hung their heads and that was about it for the conversation that
Thanksgiving. Hahahahahaha, you just never know what I will do, it is best
to watch what you say and keep your mouth shut if you are in my family, lol.
I love it! You know, they used to talk to me more when I was thin, egads!
Hey we are coming through Pittsburg on July 2 and again on the 5th.
we could stop in too!!!!!!!! We are going to Gettysburg for the Civil War
re-enactments over the July 4th holiday! we will be camping with another HS
family from Cleveland.

Ok, that is enough for now,hahahaha. Sorry for the long post! But it is
small if you consider I am replying to 75 e-mails, lol. So great ot hear
from all of you and your experiences. this is truly a God send, this little
community. When you need, he provides.

Kim from Ohio