I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[mamathompson]

@Haley R You have lots of time to make a decision One thing I would encourage new parents who are curious about homeschool to do is to find some families who already do. Talk to them, talk to their kids, find out what they use and how their days go (this will be different for every family). Doing this will help you to see if this is the right choice for your family or not. It also provides insight into just what homeschool can be. It's hard to break free of the mindset of what "school" is supposed to be like. Watching how some others are doing things and how their kids are can be very helpful. The homeschoolers I know all teach differently.
Honestly I do spend a ton on homeschool. Not on purpose we do reuse what we can. The reality is that some materials can't be reused for other kids. Or something that looks great just isn't in practice. Starting in middle school we pay for some online classes and those are pricey. I know lots and lots of parents who homeschool for much less than I spend and their kids are not suffering for it at all. It's just my teaching style, family size, and reality that make it more expensive for us.

 

[Haley R]

@Haley R You have lots of time to make a decision One thing I would encourage new parents who are curious about homeschool to do is to find some families who already do. Talk to them, talk to their kids, find out what they use and how their days go (this will be different for every family). Doing this will help you to see if this is the right choice for your family or not. It also provided insight into just what homeschool can be. It's hard to break free of the mindset of what "school" is supposed to be like. Watching how some others are doing things and how their kids are can be very helpful. The homeschoolers I know all teach differently.
Honestly I do spend a ton on homeschool. Not on purpose we do reuse what we can. The reality is that some materials can't be reused for other kids. Or something that looks great just isn't in practice. Starting in middle school we pay for some online classes and those are pricey. I know lots and lots of parents who homeschool for much less than I spend and their kids are not suffering for it at all. It's just my teaching style, family size, and reality that make it more expensive for us.

I don’t currently know anyone in my area that homeschools (but I also don’t know many people in my area lol). I’m sure there are some online groups or something I can look at

 

[wendow]

I found a website that is online curriculum for kids in Florida. I’m not 100% sure if it’s free or not. I need to read more about it, but I could use that and my own stuff to supplement it

Agree with @mamathompson! You have lots of time to make decisions. Meeting other homeschoolers is key for so many reasons.

Most states do offer the online version of public school but there is little flexibility. It may be something you land on eventually but explore everything because there really are a plethora of options.

I’ve had friends like @mamathompson who spent a lot on their curriculum and friends who homeschooled for free using online resources and the library. I’m somewhere in the middle

 

[wendow]

I don’t currently know anyone in my area that homeschools (but I also don’t know many people in my area lol). I’m sure there are some online groups or something I can look at

Once you begin having children, you will naturally do more kid activities and find yourself in the orbit of other parents. I bet you’ll meet some then!

 

[happ]

Is there an overarching website that covers what each state offers or requires? We have a charter school near us but it’s a public charter school. It’s pretty confusing. I guess I’m most confused about how they check you’re teaching what needs to be taught.

I'm in MA and no one is really "checking" us. I report to our town by sending in a yearly progress report. We are not required to do testing. It can seem strange that there is little oversight, but it has been my experience that most parents homeschool because they want what they feel is best for their kids. Because of that, they are vigilant about providing a good educational experience. If my kids don't learn, it's all on me. I can't blame the schools. It's a lot of responsibility, but I wouldn't change it.

 

[striker1064]

Zero regrets about going cold turkey on FB during the 2016 elections and not looking back! I go on like once every 6 months (because I want to read something linked to FB from another place on the web) so I didn’t go 100% off- but darn close and have been SO much happier for it. That said I don’t have kids or grandkids I’m trying to keep up with (aren’t they on Instagram yet instead? Kids these days need to get with it!).

Yeah, this is when I SHOULD have quit Facebook for good, but I didn't because we moved across the country shortly thereafter. It was my New Year's resolution this year though. I quit it cold turkey, deactivated the account and everything on January 1. I don't even think about it anymore.

I really don't use social media at all, except for Twitter - but I've curated that specifically to be only the news and events I want to see. It's great for that.

 

[Judique]

Chase Freedom just sent me an email about discounted Happy gift cards that you can buy with your UR's. I might have considered it slightly if they had the one for Home Depot on sale but it's Happy Bride, Happy Dining, Happy Bites and Happy Teen. $20 gift card for 1800 points.

 

[1st*toright]

I have a weirdly specific question. I was looking at the Shake Shack Amex gold credit, and it said that it was inapplicable for Shake Shack locations in airports. Does anyone know if locations in tran stations count? Apparently there is a Shake Shack in Union Station in DC. @striker1064 - am I remembering you correctly as a DC guy who uses Amtrak? Any experience with this. I've got $10 potentially at stake, so clearly its an important question .

 

[amcc]

I struggle with patience in this game sometimes. I have a Citi AA biz card that I'm looking to hit my MSR on through a Plastiq payment to my Home Equity Loan. My statement won't close until early October so there's no sense in doing the payment now. I know that Plastiq might come out with some 1% promo so by waiting I could possibly save 1.5% off the normal 2.5% fee yet part of me still wants to just pull the trigger on the payment NOW!! Haha! #ChurnerProblems, am I right?

I don’t have java on so I can’t multi-quote but my husband got a 1% offer till the end of Sept. yesterday and someone mentioned it in this thread as well. Are you hoping for one for Oct.? I’m trying to figure out how to make that offer work for us. He still has an open Citi Biz I should just close so I can try for another. At 1%, I’m willing to risk not getting the SUB. A CIP won’t help although I wish I could use it for tuition but their school charges through Smart Tuition only. Wish there were more Master Card options.

 

[mmmears]

I really wouldn’t worry about using the CIP for primarily dining – other than DD is earning only 1x UR on those purchases. If some of this concern was sparked by @iujen94's post yesterday relaying some horror stories from a Facebook group, I want to say that I really debated whether to include that discussion in the DISchurners news thread and I've added some additional thoughts in the reply.

Since DD is just starting out with credit cards, I probably wouldn't worry too much about 5/24 and would look into diversifying her wallet so she gets better category bonuses for the things she spends on. Since she's abroad for the next year (or two?), any new card now will have fallen off or will be falling off by the time she gets back to the US. You're right that the Gold is great for dining, especially now that it earns 4x MR at restaurants worldwide, but it's no good for groceries abroad. (But Amex could be tough if a lot of places don't accept it.) My other thought is the $250 AF. That's offset by a $100 airline fee credit, which DD could probably use when traveling; but the $120 dining credit would probably go to waste unless you set up DD's Gold card in your Apple Pay and redeem the $10 credit every month via Grubhub. You could add DD as an AU on your Gold for no extra fee, which could net you DD's points from dining (and the bill), and another 5k MR if you have an add an AU bonus offer. Or you could support DD to her own Gold from a Biz Plat while the support bonus is still 20k MR (until 9/25/19), and hopefully pull a 50k MR SUB offer and get her started earning her own MRs. Again, since she's abroad for the next year or two, she's probably not going to be opening too many credit cards, and those that she does open will be falling off by the the time she comes home, and she'll have some useful (hopefully, keeper) cards in her wallet.

Thank you for taking the time to write all of this out. I really appreciate it. It wasn't the post that started the discussion - DD brought it up while we were visiting with her, and coincidentally it was around the same time as the post. A Gold would be perfect except we couldn't find restaurants and more importantly grocery stores that accepted AMEX. She's worried because it's grocery store bills, constantly, for small amounts. We were going to send her a link for a gold card, and she was ok with the AF, but since nobody accepts it it won't do her much good. This grant is for about a year, so she has less than that before she can come home.

I'll message you the info

Can you please explain it to me, too?

I've had a lot of public school teachers shame me for homeschooling but I've had a greater number encourage me and tell me if they could only turn back the clock, they'd do the same. And like you, I know quite a few homechool moms who are former public school teachers.

I had plenty of snide comments from neighbors who said, "well WE support the public schools" (like I don't, with my tax money???) and public school teachers as well when we sent DD to private. I just ignored it, because I was her Mom and knew what was best for her. And perhaps I may have LOL'ed when, a few years later as so many of those kids hit middle school, there was a desperate scramble by said opinionated people to find a safe haven (ie. private school) for their kids. I have no regrets about sending her to private schools - people have to do what they feel is the best for their kids.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I don’t have java on so I can’t multi-quote but my husband got a 1% offer till the end of Sept. yesterday and someone mentioned it in this thread as well. Are you hoping for one for Oct.? I’m trying to figure out how to make that offer work for us...

When they roll these promos out sometimes people get targeted later on in the month. Last month some people got an e-mail the last week of the month with just a few days left. I guess it depends on how desperate Plastiq gets.

 

[mmmears]

I have a weirdly specific question. I was looking at the Shake Shack Amex gold credit, and it said that it was inapplicable for Shake Shack locations in airports. Does anyone know if locations in tran stations count? Apparently there is a Shake Shack in Union Station in DC. @striker1064 - am I remembering you correctly as a DC guy who uses Amtrak? Any experience with this. I've got $10 potentially at stake, so clearly its an important question .

I don't know about train stations, but I had to fight for my $10 when I went to a Shake Shack that was neither in an airport nor a train station.

 

[tink1970]

people have to do what they feel is the best for their kids.

I completely agree!

I truly believe every parent wants what is best for their child, and I would not have been able to provide the education she deserved in so many aspects if I had homeschooled my daughter. Every child is different and has different social, emotional and educational needs and I don't believe education, like many other things, is one size fits all.

 

[amcc]

I love the different views and experiences in here. We don’t homeschool because I work full time, I’m not cut out for it (major high fives to all the parents who can handle it) and we want our kids to have a religious-backed education. This year, I did switch my youngest to a school that uses the Reggio Emilia philosophy which focuses much more on free learning, projects, and Nature. He loves to play in the rain . Public school didn’t work for him although it was great for the others through elementary school. All that said, if I had discovered Social media 5 years earlier, I think i could have convinced my husband to take a couple of years when the kids were younger and do “road schooling” both in an RV at home and foreign.

 

[Judique]

I have a weirdly specific question. I was looking at the Shake Shack Amex gold credit, and it said that it was inapplicable for Shake Shack locations in airports. Does anyone know if locations in tran stations count? Apparently there is a Shake Shack in Union Station in DC. @striker1064 - am I remembering you correctly as a DC guy who uses Amtrak? Any experience with this. I've got $10 potentially at stake, so clearly its an important question .

The one at MGM National Harbor credits. It's not directly in the Casino, but in the restaurant hallway that sort of surrounds the outside of the complex. But, there are so many other good places to eat there that I kind of hated to spend my appetite on Shake Shack, even free.

 

[AmyAnne]

You sound like you have my hair! Mine is fine, thick and straight but tapered a bit, and I keep a picture on my phone to explain what I want. I can pull it into a very short ponytail to get it out of the way. It's wash and wear hair but grows very fast, so I will suddenly notice I need a trim and just bounce into whatever shop is convenient. I never worry about it as it grows so fast.

Yes, this is my hair exactly. When I was younger I knew people who complained that they were trying to grow their hair but it grew so slowly--I always said I would trade them mine, which grows annoyingly fast. My kids have inherited this trait--the boys have learned to do their own (although one goes to a barbershop every few weeks) because they wear it super short. My daughter has had more hairstyles in the past few years than I can keep track of--bangs, no bangs, layered, not layered. I like mine all the same length so I can mostly not worry about it.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I know a family that does rodeos and they homeschool for that same reason: so their boys can go to shows and not worry about missing school.

One big question I have about homeschooling is where do you get the curriculum? I wouldn’t want to spend a ton of money on anything like that and I’m sure there are resources out there.

There is a plethora of info out there. You can choose from online, offline, mix of both, religious, non religious, all-in-one curriculum, mix-and-match your own curriculum, expensive, free....It is really whatever you want it to be. I am a total newbie, but I read and researched for several years before I took the leap and I ended up tailoring a curriculum from many different sources that I though would be best for DS9. I am sure some of it might end up being a bad fit, and we can easily change it out if we need to do so. That is the beauty of it. I just kept a running sheet of resources over the years, and narrowed down from that. I still add to it, as I discover new resources.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

99% sure BIL and his partner are booking the Four Seasons by Disney with their MRs through the AMEX portal...


.6cpp

Do they have a plat? I'd imagine it is 1cpp with that assuming it is an amex FHR.

ETA: Just double checked and it is 1cpp with a plat.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I struggle with patience in this game sometimes. I have a Citi AA biz card that I'm looking to hit my MSR on through a Plastiq payment to my Home Equity Loan. My statement won't close until early October so there's no sense in doing the payment now. I know that Plastiq might come out with some 1% promo so by waiting I could possibly save 1.5% off the normal 2.5% fee yet part of me still wants to just pull the trigger on the payment NOW!! Haha! #ChurnerProblems, am I right?

I find that when I have an MSR I try to meet the spend as quickly as possible, even though it is not necessary, like you are saying. That is one reason I am often without an MSR. I realized that in order to not spend ahead so much, sometimes I need a MSR break and just focus on accruing with my current cards. I try to pace myself with new cards b/c a new cards automatically is a sprint to MSR in my world.

 

[GlamMistress]

99% sure BIL and his partner are booking the Four Seasons by Disney with their MRs through the AMEX portal...


.6cpp

I don't hate them, tho. Choosing the Four Seasons. Good for them. Sounds like Heaven.