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Mary Maxwell graduates (aka 30 years of homeschooling)


HoneyBunny

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I'm surprised they were able to sell scheduling in the first place . How hard is it? Once you have the idea you just...make the schedule. I don't think I need a book to do it.

I actually briefly knew a man who scheduled his day into 15 minute periods exactly like the Maxwells. Except he did it because he had a pretty bad case of ADD and perhaps something else so he was making himself stay on track. But he didn't need a book to do it.

I also suspect the marker is shrinking. Erika Shupe is offering the same sort of scheduling advice for free and her home looks marginally less depressing.

When they started, most homes didn't have a PC. So their schedule crap was probably helpful. Now, anybody with basic Excel knowledge can make schedules. I do think their "market" is drying up, hence the new books and products. 'Course is Steve was actually nice to his flock who leave comments, they might actually sell more....

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I'm surprised they were able to sell scheduling in the first place . How hard is it? Once you have the idea you just...make the schedule. I don't think I need a book to do it.

I actually briefly knew a man who scheduled his day into 15 minute periods exactly like the Maxwells. Except he did it because he had a pretty bad case of ADD and perhaps something else so he was making himself stay on track. But he didn't need a book to do it.

I also suspect the marker is shrinking. Erika Shupe is offering the same sort of scheduling advice for free and her home looks marginally less depressing.

I am now curious about the Maxwell house, never noticed what it looks like before, but surely nothing could be worse than the cold sterile child prisons that Erika's kids sleep in.

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I would suspect that most of the type of products the Maxwells sell could be found for free on the Internet. I think the fundy lifestyle in general is going to die out for most involved. It just isn't economically sustainable. It's hard enough for the educated with good credit to buy a house, but trying to sell a book claiming that it is easy to buy a house outright without an education or working for others is ridiculous. The Maxwells are really out of marketable ideas to sell to those those that still believe in the lifestyle. I think it's going to become harder to get new recruits (i.e. Younger people) to this lifestyle, so it becomes harder for people like the Maxwells to make money off of them. The Maxwells didn't decide to retire, the fundy market decided for them.

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I am now curious about the Maxwell house, never noticed what it looks like before, but surely nothing could be worse than the cold sterile child prisons that Erika's kids sleep in.

I meant her home both physically and in overall attitude. The bedrooms are awful but they seem to have more overall color and craft time than the Maxwells. And they get Christian fantasy audiobooks and an Easter basket which the Maxwells would never have.

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I was actually 11/12 at the time and my parents just let me watch :nanner-sex: . Does that make them bad parents? Or actually make me well adjusted?

When I meant younger kids, I was referring to someone like Abby and Bethany's age.

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I meant her home both physically and in overall attitude. The bedrooms are awful but they seem to have more overall color and craft time than the Maxwells. And they get Christian fantasy audiobooks and an Easter basket which the Maxwells would never have.

Really? The Maxwell home is much larger and much warmer than Shupie's Hamster Cage of Horror. She has like 763 people crammed into 1300 sqft or so. The girls are basically sleeping on Costco shelves on top of each other. I don't think I could breathe in that thing.

.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/04/large-families-on-purpose-our-home.html?m=0

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Really? The Maxwell home is much larger and much warmer than Shupie's Hamster Cage of Horror. She has like 763 people crammed into 1300 sqft or so. The girls are basically sleeping on Costco shelves on top of each other. I don't think I could breathe in that thing.

.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/04/large-families-on-purpose-our-home.html?m=0

I've seen it. I mean her home, not her house. Her home and the amount of comparatively diverse activities Shupe kids have compared to Maxwells, not the structure of it.

I don't know how to clarify this anymore.

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Ok, so there's been quite a lot of clothing snark going on here and I get what y'all are saying, but I wanted to chime in to say that -despite them looking really dorky at times- I admire the Maxwells for choosing appropriate attire on outings.

You'll never see a Maxwell going on a hike in ballet flats or walking round the zoo in flip flops. The kids may wear dorky hats but they are protected from the sun and the adults wear clothes that are sturdy enough to last through the day. It's not fashionable, but it's functional and in my experience, on an outing with that many kids, functional wins. In my experience, zoos can be quite dirty and rural so I would opt for denim and hiking boots as well.

If there's one thing a normal, mainstream person can learn from the Maxwells, it's to be frugal but choosing quality at the same time. I doubt their hiking shoes were cheap, but they're worth their money if it means the Maxwellians don't have to buy new ones every year.

When it comes to proper attire and the right equipment, the Maxwells are -for once- functional.

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I have no problem with the shoes or the hat, or even the jacket. I don't even care that much about clothing or what other people wear or what they look like. But that denim skirt looks so ill fitting and uncomfortable. Especially with those shoes. And to walk around a zoo in denim just seems terribly uncomfortable to me.

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My theory on why Terified looks so haggard and tired:

I don't believe she ever recovered from her severe depression; I think she just learned how to live with it, using severe scheduling and regimentation instead of medication and therapy (oh, and her progesterone cream, which she claims cured the depression. :roll: Not saying it couldn't help, but eradicate? no). If you plan out every second of your life so that you would always know what was coming next, yeah, depression can be lived with (BTDT, in fact, I was drinking the Maxwell/VF Koolaid at the time I had 4 wee ones and in hindsight, was most certainly depressed!).

So - living with 30+ years of untreated clinical depression plus chronic back pain, and all that time, having no outlet other than Bible Time with the same damn group of people you have to live with 24/7...no close girlfriends, no weekends away or vacations, no treating yourself, no intellectual stimulation, no relief in sight for all eternity? Yeah, I'd be looking pretty damn haggard.

I feel very sad for Teri sometimes because I know what it feels like to live in the fog of untreated mental illness, and I think with the right medication and therapist, she could have been a completely different, much more energetic and even dynamic person. She's smart and I think she's very capable, it's just been wasted under the grip of Stevehovah and her depression.

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We go to that zoo at least once a year. In spite of it having a lot of science and references to the earth's actual age and evolution throughout the displays, it seems to attract a lot of fundies. I cannot recall being there without seeing at least one flock of people with women in awkward skirts and men in polo shirts and khaki pants. And last October, we saw a group trying to pass out tracts getting told to cut it out by an employee.

As for why they would make the trip to Omaha instead of going to the Kansas City Zoo--Omaha, believe it or not, has a world class zoo that frequently makes the list among the best in the world. If you haven't been to our area, the zoo alone is worth the trip. We could not tell you what our favorite area is because they are all awesome. But if you were on a tight schedule, we would probably tell you to make the Rain Forest, Desert Dome and the aquarium. But then you'd miss the gorillas. And you should definitely wear good walking shoes, so I would not criticize anyone for that. It is huge and has some steep hills. Next summer, the African Safari project will be done and there will be even more walking.

Our pictures from every trip, though, feature the exhibits, not ourselves. The exhibits are much cooler to document.

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I also think their market for fundie lit is dying out. Not that I think there are fewer fundies but because the Maxwells are so sterile, so devoid of intellectual curiosity that their books became less and less relevant. The last few have been stinkers and I doubt they have sold enough to cover printing costs: Make your kids great conversationalists? If by "great conversationalists" Steve means being able to chat politely with Senior citizens then perhaps his kidults do OK but I don't know what on earth they can converse about when they don't follow the news, they don't follow any mainstream culture, and none of them have any hobbies or outside interests. A few minutes of talking with any of them would be boring as hell-- you can tell by Sarah's blogging and her Moody books.

Then there was the book about getting young men on the track to buying their own house. But as was reported here on FJ there wasn't any useful advice, nothing about loans or investments or house-flipping, instead it was a lot of clap-trap about starting with a few chickens and turning them into a cow and buying magic beans...or something. Anecdotal hogwash.

And I was never very clear on the whole "Energize!" thing. Was that an actual exercise book or just the name of their latest book tour?

I hope that the family has good solid investments and a sound retirement package that can accommodate the lifetime support of three unmarried daughters. They live frugally but they do live a solidly middle-class lifestyle with well made equipment and clothing. Not to mention nice middle class home with all the utilities and taxes that implies. What happens when their income from their books and CDs dries up to a trickle? Well I'm sure God has a plan for them. :roll:

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I've seen it. I mean her home, not her house. Her home and the amount of comparatively diverse activities Shupe kids have compared to Maxwells, not the structure of it.

I don't know how to clarify this anymore.

Yes but if I had initially caught that then I would not have had an opening for Shupe's Hamster Cage of Horror. And you have to admit that is good.

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Poor Ruthanne is always wearing white tights. And it appears that she isn't wearing shoes in one of the photos. At least Joshua isn't wearing overalls. But it appears that he is dressed to match his father. I understand wearing a hat for sun protection, but that hat looks terrible on poor Joshua. Why is Steve wearing a sports coat to a zoo? I have never seen anyone wearing a sports coat at a zoo. One should not wear business causal to a zoo period. Am I the only one who thinks that Melanie looks like she is expecting? Look at the photo with her and Jesse. Why are most of the girls wearing denim skirts? Maxi skirts are in-style.

I noticed that, too, but I think it's just the way her shirt falls when she's standing like that, or perhaps a little leftover roundness from her last pregnancy. Or so I hope, anyway. Poor woman has rough pregnancies.

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I also think their market for fundie lit is dying out. Not that I think there are fewer fundies but because the Maxwells are so sterile, so devoid of intellectual curiosity that their books became less and less relevant. The last few have been stinkers and I doubt they have sold enough to cover printing costs: Make your kids great conversationalists? If by "great conversationalists" Steve means being able to chat politely with Senior citizens then perhaps his kidults do OK but I don't know what on earth they can converse about when they don't follow the news, they don't follow any mainstream culture, and none of them have any hobbies or outside interests. A few minutes of talking with any of them would be boring as hell-- you can tell by Sarah's blogging and her Moody books.

Then there was the book about getting young men on the track to buying their own house. But as was reported here on FJ there wasn't any useful advice, nothing about loans or investments or house-flipping, instead it was a lot of clap-trap about starting with a few chickens and turning them into a cow and buying magic beans...or something. Anecdotal hogwash.

And I was never very clear on the whole "Energize!" thing. Was that an actual exercise book or just the name of their latest book tour?

I hope that the family has good solid investments and a sound retirement package that can accommodate the lifetime support of three unmarried daughters. They live frugally but they do live a solidly middle-class lifestyle with well made equipment and clothing. Not to mention nice middle class home with all the utilities and taxes that implies. What happens when their income from their books and CDs dries up to a trickle? Well I'm sure God has a plan for them. :roll:

I saw the previews of that "conversationalists" book. They think the idea of a five-year-old acting shy in front of a stranger is wrong. Err, excuse me?? It seems to fly in the face of their way of life. Being shy would fit the fundie lifestyle down to the ground. It gives off the impression that you'll take all the BS lying down and won't argue back. Is the parent not allowed to say "Oh, sorry, she's just a little shy"? I'm sure the old lady would've been totally OK with that. And surely any guy calling a girl's father to ask her to court him would be nervous.

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