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Teri's 30 days of "First Day of School"


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The fact that Teri, who was struggling with crippling depression, was so overwhelmed by even the simplest tasks that she had to come up with overly complicated, often illogical and Rube Goldberg-esque methods of coping is actually quite sad. What's even more sad though, is that people who AREN'T plagued by the same demons look to her as a role model.

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How are US school holidays spread over the year? I'm in the UK and we only have six weeks off in summer, I always assumed it would be similar in the states.

It varies from state to state, county to county, school district to school district. Most get out in early to mid June and get back in late August to early September. Generally it ends up 2 to 2 1/2 months off.

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Does anybody know what Teri means about setting up school notebooks? Apparently it's very time consuming, but I can't think of what this would be, past writing subjects/headers on them or something. I tried to search their website, but searches for "notebook" only yielded results about prayer notebooks.

It could be her lesson planner/record keeping notebook. It takes me awhile to set mine up, and I've only got one kid to work with. However, I do it way before school starts, and it's ready to go by the time we get going.

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It varies from state to state, county to county, school district to school district. Most get out in early to mid June and get back in late August to early September. Generally it ends up 2 to 2 1/2 months off.

This is how it was when I was in school. I lived in one state out west where the schools generally went back the last week of July. I live in a different state in the south now, where the schools are already back in session (went back this week/last week). I'm not totally sure when they get out, but I think it's the end of May/very beginning of June.

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How are US school holidays spread over the year? I'm in the UK and we only have six weeks off in summer, I always assumed it would be similar in the states.

Generally the school year begins at the end of August or early September and ends in early to mid-June. Depending on when your school starts/finishes, you have about 10 weeks off for Summer.

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It's amazing that the very rigid and avoiding of excess or pleasure Maxwells* look downright generous and indulgent with the first day of school 'surprises' when compared to someone like Erika Shupe! :lol:

Two candy bars for Mary? New pencils and tabs for the notebooks that stressed Teri out?

The Shupe kids would get half a jelly bean and have to work many hours to be able to earn a pencil or a tab - and it'd probably only be a golf size pencil with how stingy that Erika's system is! :roll:

*again, with the things like the weighing out how much spinach is allowed per smoothie or the ounce of dough permitted for a tortilla

Disagree. I would take the Hamster Cage of Horrors over Stevehovah's Mind Control Compound. Erika gives her kids doughnuts, but also jelly beans (a whole quarter of a cup! In a flavor they like! It's hedonism at its finest). They also get fun, pretty notebooks that they pick themselves and get to decorate with scrapbook paper.

largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/06/large-family-homeschooling-how-we-do-it_21.html

Both families suck, but I think Erika does a better job with homeschooling than Teri. They both do/did the workbook thing, but Erika does field trips and allows some fun things to happen. She also seems more hands on than Teri.

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This is how it was when I was in school. I lived in one state out west where the schools generally went back the last week of July. I live in a different state in the south now, where the schools are already back in session (went back this week/last week). I'm not totally sure when they get out, but I think it's the end of May/very beginning of June.

The rest of school year varies a lot, too, but generally this kids get major holidays off, and a day or two off here and there throughout the year (so the teachers can wrap up their grading for the semester, etc). Generally the biggest non-summer break is at christmas, although most schools now call it Winter Break. In my school district, the kids usually have off christmas eve through new years day. That varies from year to year depending on what day of the week the holidays fall on.

Our schools also have off 3 days for Thanksgiving (late November), plus the following Monday for the first day of deer hunting season (seriously).

And they get up to a week off in March for Spring Break, but generally a few days of that are used as make-up days for earlier snow cancellations.

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Wow. I mean, wow. Apparently they have the organizing and 15 minute scheduling because she is not functional when it comes to organizing. Frankly, why she had to do this on class day is beyond me. Have the special breakfast on the saturday before you start classes, hand out the notebooks with a sheet of paper on how you want the tabs set up (alphabetized, anyone?) and have the kids do that.

And practically every home in the country (and likely other countries) take picture on the first day of school, and still get to the bus or school on time. What extra grooming did this entail? did she not have the kids brush their hair and get dressed on other days?

Can you see her managing to survive in any of the jobs you've ever had?

This made me laugh. I'm fairly certain even a good day on my job would kill Teri. Although as the head of IT I'd desperately love to see one of the 1Ton guys give it a shot. :lol:

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I'm not sure why Teri would make such a big deal over these "first day of school" pics anyway. They didn't look like anything special. The kids were wearing normal kid clothes, and were just standing in normal places around the house.

I know it's the Maxwells, so varying from the schedule might as well be starring in a gay porno. But isn't one of the supposed benefits of homeschooling that you can flex your tasks as needed? They can literally do anything on any day that they need to. Why is this so complicated?

Ack! Now, I've got cheesy 70s porn music playing in my head with scenes of Steve Maxwell attempting to pick up men by offering them animal crackers. :shock: :hand:

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Ack! Now, I've got cheesy 70s porn music playing in my head with scenes of Steve Maxwell attempting to pick up men by offering them animal crackers. :shock: :hand:

Least arousing image ever! :)

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A mystery has just been solved.

For 3,4 years I've wondered about a comment a Maxwell Dan made while we chatted at the sales table. The customer's eyes filled with tears as she told me, "These people are The Best. They don't talk down to you!" Behind her, her friend nodded vigorously , also emotional.

Teri complaining about how fouled up

Everything is/was us a huge selling point for their fans! They don't feel intimidated by Teri & Cimpany because she presents herself as being as hapless as they feel!

What the what?! When I'm seeking guidance, I look for someone who's succeeded or at least succeeding.

Maybe half-assed home education is what the Maxwells and their fans are satisfied with. Maybe in later chapters Teri describes how she made things better, and *that's* what keeps people enthralled.

Weird!

I am completely hapless in many ways, I just never knew it was possible to get someone to pay you for it. I need to stop mocking and learn from her so I can blog and become the next Teri Maxwell to pay off my house.

Well, the anti-Teri Maxwell as my blog followers would visit to see me in a variety of sweatpants (in various stages of rattiness), marvel at how long one woman can look at various screens without moving from the couch, judge me for my love of pop-tarts and deeply held aversion to anyone putting milk on cereal in my presence. I could write a book on performing puppet shows to cats while pairing socks, my bizarre cleaning regimen, my endless list of food rules including my grass roots campaign to make it a felony to put a knife which had been used for peanut butter in the sink without wiping it clean (with a paper towel and disposing of the paper towel in the outside trash so I can't smell it.)

With no sense of direction I can teach people how to survive when they keep getting lost in their own subdivision. Like Bear Grilles.

Seriously though - I don't know if I'm more pissed that they are financially successful with this crap or a little in awe that they managed to pull it off. Like some weird grifty magic trick.

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What gets me is why they were having a"first day of school" anyway. All the homeschoolers I know do education all year round - and quite possibly more of the bookwork in the holidays when everyone else is at the museums and parks (should note that our summer weather here is frequently worse than that in May).

Weird American Christians seem to have this thing about homeschooling being EXACTLY like normal schooling except for the friends and the lies.

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It sounds like the first day "surprises" were just school supplies. They were probably pencils, highlighters. erasers. rulers and pencil cases with perhaps some colored pencils and gold stars thrown in. I still don't get why they took so long to put away that Teri had to cry about it. Maybe she was just incapable of getting the kids to mind her. I have a really bad feeling that when mommy cried because the first day of school didn't go smoothly, daddy came home and whipped everyone.

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I have a really bad feeling that when mommy cried because the first day of school didn't go smoothly, daddy came home and whipped everyone.

Agree!!

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Disagree. I would take the Hamster Cage of Horrors over Stevehovah's Mind Control Compound. Erika gives her kids doughnuts, but also jelly beans (a whole quarter of a cup! In a flavor they like! It's hedonism at its finest). They also get fun, pretty notebooks that they pick themselves and get to decorate with scrapbook paper.

largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/06/large-family-homeschooling-how-we-do-it_21.html

Both families suck, but I think Erika does a better job with homeschooling than Teri. They both do/did the workbook thing, but Erika does field trips and allows some fun things to happen. She also seems more hands on than Teri.

I know it sounds odd coming from me, but I think Erika does it better. She does buy new coloured pencils and HB pencils every year, usually because the old ones are getting stubby. She says in the below post I'm gonna link that it's inexpensive and it makes her kids happy. (OMG! She cares about making them happy??? :shock: Only in this instance, though...)

In addition to the post you linked to, princessmahina, there's also this one about prepping for the year.

Also, I think you mean Erika does a better job at organising the first day of school. As we've noted in the LFoP thread, Erika is proud of her bad spelling. Someone said she should really work on her English before even thinking of adding any kind of language to her SOTDRT.

largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/08/homeschooling-preparing-for-school-year.html

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How are US school holidays spread over the year? I'm in the UK and we only have six weeks off in summer, I always assumed it would be similar in the states.

The kidlet is in a private (non-religious) school right now. I've just downloaded the calendar for the upcoming year - 12 full weeks off in summer (mid-May to mid-August, he's got 1.5 weeks of fun left), one full week each at Thanksgiving and in the spring, 2-ish weeks off for Christmas/New Years. A couple of full days off for parent/teacher conferences and teacher work days and that kind of thing, throughout the year. Two full days off at President's Day, which still surprises me every year. :) And this year, the JK and Kindergarten kids get released at 11 a.m. on the first day, which would blow the Maxwells' minds - they're basically coming in for Morning Meeting and the big assembly and balloon launch. Gives them a little extra time to get used to the idea.

Our state requires 179 days of school per year for public schools (last I checked) - It comes out to about 10-12 weeks of summer, 2 weeks for Christmas/New Years, 3 days at Thanksgiving and Spring Break, plus assorted half-days and full days off during the year, depending on the district. And, if school was called off for weather, those days got made up at the end of the year, or other designated make-up days (we almost never got two days off at Easter, because one of those was usually a make-up for snow). Used to be that schools started after, or the week before, Labor Day in the fall, both for farming reasons and (I suspect) because a major source of teenager employment was the local tourist mecca that didn't slow down until after Labor Day, but that's changed over the years.

I don't know if we ever had an official vacation day for deer or turkey season, but there was probably a noticeable dip in attendance and/or increase in tardies that day. We did have someone spill some deer scent in the heating system once, though.

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I don't know if we ever had an official vacation day for deer or turkey season, but there was probably a noticeable dip in attendance and/or increase in tardies that day. We did have someone spill some deer scent in the heating system once, though.

It's absolutely due to low attendance.

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Wow, that's a long summer break. The UK state schools typically have six weeks for summer, two for Christmas, and two for Easter. So the school year is split into three terms, and there's a week off in the middle of each one. Private schools tend to have longer holidays. Sounds like ours would be a more manageable system for Teri since we have such regular breaks.

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Do not even get me started on how stupidly long the summer break here is. Twelve fucking weeks. TWELVE! Six would be perfectly long enough to laze around, fully recharge and still leave six weeks to be redistributed along the year when you really need it.

The boys look like they are in a hostage situation in the first pic :?

Also, I hope Steve realizes that the verse Teri quoted, DOES NOT apply to human beings *his daughters*

It is very sad to look at those pictures and realize that those 3 girls would never mature past childhood, but would instead go on to live as children in adult bodies. Very sad.

Finally, I don't know why, but I find these lines very concerning:

Terri? You had those ideas. The Lord doesn't care. If he can't be bothered to save starving and or abused children, I seriously doubt he can be bothered to make sure your first day of school goes as smoothly as you'd hoped. :evil-eye:

We all know the omnipotent opthamologist is largely undiverted by the starving masses.

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I know it sounds odd coming from me, but I think Erika does it better. She does buy new coloured pencils and HB pencils every year, usually because the old ones are getting stubby. She says in the below post I'm gonna link that it's inexpensive and it makes her kids happy. (OMG! She cares about making them happy??? :shock: Only in this instance, though...)

In addition to the post you linked to, princessmahina, there's also this one about prepping for the year.

Also, I think you mean Erika does a better job at organising the first day of school. As we've noted in the LFoP thread, Erika is proud of her bad spelling. Someone said she should really work on her English before even thinking of adding any kind of language to her SOTDRT.

largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/08/homeschooling-preparing-for-school-year.html

No, I think that (aside from the spelling), Erika does a better job overall of homeschooling than Teri does. Erika does field trips and actually interacts with her children. She's definitely better at organizing than Teri, but I do think she does better in general. Personally, I would rather have poor spelling (and be able to fix that later if I so wished/had to) and an involved mother who puts some effort into my life than deal with Teri's mental breakdowns, silence, and guilt trips.

ETA: Better is subjective, but I stand by my remarks :)

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No, I think that (aside from the spelling), Erika does a better job overall of homeschooling than Teri does. Erika does field trips and actually interacts with her children. She's definitely better at organizing than Teri, but I do think she does better in general. Personally, I would rather have poor spelling (and be able to fix that later if I so wished/had to) and an involved mother who puts some effort into my life than deal with Teri's mental breakdowns, silence, and guilt trips.

ETA: Better is subjective, but I stand by my remarks :)

Haha, OK, I agree :lol: I also think Erika is 'better' in that she exposes her kids to modern culture a lot more. Sure, it's hugely filtered, but I don't see the Maxwell chidults going to see Inside Out, nor do I see the girls being allowed to watch "My Fair Lady" or "Hello, Dolly!" (both of which appeared in an Easter basket from 2013)... and Stevehovah would pitch a fit if any of his kids even got a whiff of Lord of the Rings. Plus their girls wear skirts above the ankle...

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It's absolutely due to low attendance.

My district gives the third week of February off (when I was a kid in a less affluent district, Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays were seperate holidays at this time, iirc, which gave us two days off in Feb) for "ski week," because so many families pulled their kids out to hit the slopes.

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My district gives the third week of February off (when I was a kid in a less affluent district, Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays were seperate holidays at this time, iirc, which gave us two days off in Feb) for "ski week," because so many families pulled their kids out to hit the slopes.

That is so weird :lol:

Summer is about 6 weeks in the UK for state schools (i.e. ones funded by the government). Private schools (i.e. ones parents pay for) usually have a bit longer, e.g. they break up at the start of July as opposed to towards the end like state schools.

Over here, we have three terms (autumn, spring and summer) with a weeks' break in each. Autumn term is Sep-Dec, Spring is Jan-Mar/Apr (dependent on when Easter is), and Summer is Apr-Jul. Exact dates differ depending on the council and sometimes even school.

The first day of school over in France is a huge event; they call it "La Rentrée". Apparently you get a list of supplies to buy and there are weeks of adverts concerning the 'must have' bags, equipment etc (they have to buy their own exercise books). Also, pretty much all French kids go back to school on the same day. They also have the different school week; school happens on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings (although apparently this is changing).

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The thing that struck me most about her post is how she says the kids "felt behind" after the first day due to the distractions or whatever.

They are kids. They aren't going to know if they are behind unless their teacher mom tells them they are. They aren't going to feel upset and stressed at being behind unless they are berated for it or modeled that stressed behavior. I can only imagine what neuroses those kids developed based on Teri's annual first day of school nervous breakdowns.

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Agree!!

The ramifications of this are so horrifying to consider. Teri was deeply depressed, completely overwhelmed, and likely experienced numerous mood swings on a daily basis. Even if those kids were born without the instinct to act like, you know, CHILDREN, Teri still probably had break-downs over every little thing that unsettled her, or even things that hadn't happened yet. If Steve beat the kids for "upsetting" Teri, then they got beat on a daily basis. For years.

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