# oy vey! 2 years and counting!



## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Well, it's math competition season. In JH my kids are very involved with this. I had no idea when my eldest started doing this 8 years ago that we'd STILL be doing it. It starts with a little ad in your home school news letter. You think, hey my kid WANTS to do extra math. Sign me up! Then time passes. Other kids get interested. You know, once you start a thing, your family just thinks that's normal so they expect to get their turn. Child # 4 has just advanced to state level competition, and that will be in 11 days. Of course there was no team here, and he REALLY wanted to do it. So guess who was the coach this year? Yep. me! My final child has 2 more years of eligibility for this program, and then I am DONE! 10 years of math competitions all because we didn't ignore the ad in that paper!!! OK there have been really amazing rewards, like I have kids studying maths and sciences in college, and they do really well on standardized tests and get good scholarships... that sort of a thing. So it was a good investment of time. But to tell you the truth, I no longer subscribe to the homeschool newsletter! haha! 
So what activities did you get sucked into that you thought you were only going to do for a little while and it ended up being a very long term project? Or is that just me?


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I WISH we had something like math competitions (just too rural for that), but apparently I'm now the Leader for the 4H Dog project/club in our county. One of the high school kids called me last summer and said, "Erin? Yeah, so apparently you're in charge of Dog now... When are we going to have our first meeting?" 

I am?!? lol 
Uh...how's Tuesday, I guess? 

At least this year i know in advance


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## MCJam (Dec 27, 2012)

Well, I wouldn't call it being sucked in exactly. More like grown into and taken over!

For us it is cheese! My husband and I started with a couple dairy goats for milk for ourselves. Then we started having children and the goats just didn't produce enough and the cream was really hard to get, so then the cow came, and with it, butter, icecream, yogurt and milk of course. Then the children started to grow and pigs were needed to feed them and use up some extra milk. Milk from one cow was not enough to feed the pigs and chickens and us, and of course there is the dry time that was just unbearable, sooo, along comes another milch cow. Then the older girls, teens by now decide to try making cheese. 

To make a long story a little shorter, they now milk three cows by hand spring, summer and winter and then dry two off for winter. We are drinking all the fluid milk we can hold, eating all the yogurt and kefir we want, eating all the ice cream and butter we desire, plus making over 30 varieties of cheeses including mold ripened (like camembert), blue cheeses, grating cheeses (asiago, parmesean), cheddars, goudas, jacks, and a bunch of not so well known varieties and mistakes which are all wonderful! Every now and then one happens, which isn't so wonderful, and the chickens, pigs, dogs and cats get a nice treat.

And just because there isn't enough variety, daughter #2 just bought three nubian goats to experiment with goat cheeses.

We are a dairy family for shure, moooooo.


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