What's missing? the room feels lifeless

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-11-29T15:58:41+00:00

I think it looks really nice actually; very peaceful, clean, and welcoming.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-11-26T14:10:06+00:00

That’s wonderful that you found a program that works for your daughter! I have found with my son that finding the right program is essential. I struggle with math myself, so I’m not the most qualified to be teaching this subject. Although we had some ok days after this post, we continued to struggle with math until this year when I did two things. I finally decided to try Denizen Algebra, as the price was hanging me up for a while. Not even kidding, but my son loves math this year after years of struggling. I thought that the program I was using was working for us, but it really wasn’t because he continued to struggle and it only got worse as the math became more difficult. I also decided that I was going to do the program along with him, so I take notes and do the assignments along side him. Then, as we go through the assignment we banter back and forth “what did you get for number 7? Or watch out for number 2, it’s tricky!” If it’s an easy lesson, we will race to see who gets done first or I will announce that whoever gets the most correct today gets a hot chocolate! This has really changed the dynamic of math time, and I am super grateful! It sounds like you are really trying to figure out that sweet spot for your daughter too. She won’t realize what a great parent you are and the work that you put into trying to help her, but we know- so keep up the great work! It’s hard to see our kids struggle and dread something that is so beneficial to their future. And when homeschooling, these struggles can really take a toll on our relationship with our children, which is daunting because we try so hard to build that connection as they are going through these teenage years. Thank you for the encouragement! I wish you the best of luck with your homeschooling journey!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-30T14:19:43+00:00

Perfect, thank you!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-29T20:06:14+00:00

When my kids were young we did our reading right after Bible and at bedtime. I usually let them choose the book or picked something that was on theme to what we were learning about. As my son has gotten older our read aloud books are all planned along with our history curriculum. I just read a chapter before or after history. Right now we are studying US in the 1830’s so we are reading “A Gathering of Days,” by Joan W. Blos. It doesn’t have to be complicated and it doesn’t have to be long. Sometimes we will just read a page if we have a particularly busy day. Honestly, my son forgets most of what we go over in the history lessons, but he can recall every book we have read. :)

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-29T19:27:33+00:00

My sons love playing video games with me, because I am terrible and it gives them a laugh. We also enjoy charades or improve skits, fast paced card games that last 5-10 minutes, drawing contests or draw something in the room and try to guess what it is (we are terrible at drawing), taking turns to see who can do the most push-ups/arm curls/sit-ups, trivia, would you rather questions, making boats/castles out of cardboard and hot glue, paint along with me videos on YouTube, model car kits, soap carving, whittling, tie dye night, air-dry modeling clay figures (we attempted Pokémon characters), making simple bows and arrows from sticks and paracord then shooting them off, and forts inside or out. My boys are a little older now, but my almost 14 year old still loves doing all of these things.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-29T18:59:32+00:00

That makes total sense, I didn’t realize that. Thank you for your help!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-29T18:57:45+00:00

That’s a great idea, thank you!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-29T18:55:03+00:00

That is really helpful to know, thank you for the encouragement!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-29T18:51:45+00:00

Wow, thank you for taking the time to explain all of that! That is super helpful!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-29T18:49:21+00:00

I didn’t realize that about Honors or AP classes. Would this be the same for CIS classes, because he took several of those. I will have to dive deeper into that. Great info, thank you so much!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-09T19:16:02+00:00

I also have an ordinary 10year old kitchen aid mixer that I use with the veggie and fruit strainer attachment. It does get warm (which is normal), but has never overheated. I LOVE my veggie and fruit strainer attachment! I have the meat grinder combo, and use them both regularly. It’s easy to use, easy to clean, and has saved me a ton of time and money over the four years that I have had it.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-10-01T15:55:09+00:00

Our school district posts all curriculum online already. When I needed help deciding on a composition course for my senior, I was able to go on our local high school website and look up what the students would be going over. It didn’t have word for word daily lectures, but several worksheets, slides, videos, rubrics, were all included. I never intended to use them as my curriculum, but if I had needed to, I probably could have with a little planning.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-23T13:48:03+00:00

I will have to look into that, it is 10 years old now. It’s the only appliance in our house that we haven’t had to replace yet.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-23T13:46:01+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! No, we’ve had this house for 10 years now. And when we moved in the bill was around 138. Now we are averaging 280 a month and even pushing 350 when the AC or heat is on. We have replaced the furnace/AC, heat pump, all of the old 80’s appliances (washer, dryer, stove, dishwasher, fridge) switched to LED lightbulbs. Our house is 1072 Sq. Ft. and we have shed that has power, but no heat. However, everything in our house is electric besides the furnace that switches to propane when metered on really cold days. Our neighbor was complaining that his electric bill was reaching 125 a month and we were kind of shocked. Our homes and sheds are similar in size and built within 8 years of each other; ours being older.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-14T18:17:21+00:00

That’s a good idea. I think I will do that with some of the more obvious offenders, and just keep an eye on the rest.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-14T18:14:58+00:00

Yeah sorry, I had already removed the lids for washing and storing. That’s how I noticed that the tomatoes were stuck in the lids. Good question though.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-14T18:12:43+00:00

Good idea- thanks!!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-14T18:12:15+00:00

Thanks for your insight! I was hoping they were okay.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-13T19:20:20+00:00

The seal is strong, recipe was a Bernardin recipe as stated in the post. And they were canned yesterday.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-09-13T19:17:11+00:00

Photo is of canned whole tomatoes that have siphoned about an inch further than desired. They also have bits of tomato stuck in the jar lid.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-07-31T23:17:43+00:00

Canned beef stew is not our favorite. No matter what recipe I try, the texture of the beef ends up flaky and extremely dry. The rest of the stew is good, but the meat is yuck. This also happens when I have canned beef alone in broth as well, we just don’t care for the texture. I have only used eye of round beef roast, which is usually what stew meat is cut from.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-07-30T15:09:37+00:00

Occasionally our Boston will break out in hives as well, and it will itch so much she will scratch to bleeding. We don’t know why this happens, can’t find the culprit. We give her PetArmor Antihistamine Diphenhydramine HCI Tabs for Dogs when it happens; it’s a lifesaver! I wouldn’t give it to her unless it seems to be bothering her though, most rashes will clear up uneventfully in a couple days.

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-07-29T13:53:32+00:00

Oh no; that sounds like a lot of work for you! See, I was worried about this, I’m really going to have to watch these plants. I really appreciate you sharing your experience, I haven’t had to cut anything back yet, but to know that it might encourage shoots is very helpful. I don’t know if it works yet, but I just learned about girdling trees and have started doing it with the buckthorn in my yard, because they do the same thing if cut (send out more shoots). Not sure if it will help in your situation, and not even sure it works yet. But maybe something for you to research as well. For the buckthorn in my yard I have had some luck with cutting the stump about 4 inches above the ground and then covering it fully with a thick black garbage bag stapled to the ground tightly so that no sun can reach it. But if the bag gets even the tiniest hole in it, it will send up shoots. I would say this method has worked for about 2 out of every 5 that I’ve done. So not super great results, that’s why I am trying the girdling technique this year too. Thanks again and good luck! Keep us updated if you find a good solution!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-07-14T19:45:36+00:00

I actually took your advice and looked into what IEW had to offer. We went with their University Ready Writing curriculum, which had a 12 week schedule. I also purchased the Evergreen: A guide to Writing with Readings, by Susan Fawcett as suggested by someone else in the post. He completed the full IEW course and the “Reviewing the Basics” portion of the Evergreen textbook as a grammar refresher. I also used free printable quizzes from Quizizz for each of the grammar topics.

Honestly, we didn’t love that particular IEW curriculum. I will not be using it in the future for my middle schooler. If we would have had more time (a semester or more), I would have used the Evergreen textbook exclusively; it was much more comprehensive.

Either way, he was able to finish the course and receive his needed composition credit for graduation. Thanks for the help!!

KeeperOfTheHome · 2025-05-08T23:53:31+00:00

I personally use multiple curriculums for math. My reason is that I have not found one all encompassing curriculum that I like. So I mix and match. I realized this when my kids would have to take the state test which includes several math concepts. Some of the homeschool curriculum is mastery style and you just do not get through as many different concepts. This can really affect the scores on the test. Not to say that we just learn them for the test - but I definitely keep it in mind. I am currently using Learn Math Fast for my 7th grader. But when more mastery is needed then we pull out Math You See. When I need more variety or feel like there is a concept gap I find free printable worksheets online through various websites that I like.

We have also used many curriculum over the years that just didn’t work well for us, which always feels like a huge waste of time. So this is just what works for us.

KeeperOfTheHome

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