Here in NYC we have a homeschool guidance counselor that was invaluable to me when going through the high school process with dd. She mailed me all the audition tickets, the application, completed all the paperwork for me, tons of advice, and was so sweet and encouraging. Of course she probably just did whatever it took to get us back into the school system, lol, but still. Also, our homeschool director (not a superintendent, but the director of the Central Office of Homeschooling) has been pretty good. We get free metrocards (bus and train passes for the kids), lists of active homeschool groups in the area, and documentation of paperwork received (useful for store discounts & school applications). And he leaves us alone - which is the best part.

As a dance mom myself, I'll say that really is exciting. It's great to see kids do well at what they love.

I'm sorry for your loss. And yes, I do believe you will see her again. :grouphug:

We get a lot of stuff from the dancewear solutions catalogue (they have a dot com address too). Dd is starting at a performing arts high school where she has 5 periods of dance every day. We haven't gotten the leotard requirement yet, but hopefully I'll be able to stock up on the $12 black leos. What kind of leotard does your dd need?

Fenni, I could have written your post. My 9y/o ds sounds exactly like yours. After getting frustrated and wondering why he kept hitting the same stumbling blocks, I've come to the conclusion he is mildly dyslexic as well. This was about a year ago. We've been doing LOTS of reading and writing all year (spelling words on a dry-erase board, word wall, reading aloud, etc) and he has made tremendous improvements. He still leaves out or misreads the small words, doesn't always see the punctuation, will sometimes just say a word that starts with the same letter as the one on the page, or will just put his own words in, but these are not as often as they were last year. Thank you for this thread. I haven't tried the nonsense word thing yet and I read about using a colored plastic filter over the pages (it's still a lot of effort for ds to read and after about 10 minutes, his eyes get tired - I heard the colored filter reduces eye strain). Ds get the + and x symbols mixed up, too. b and d are still backwards (and 9 and p and q and sometimes 3 and j). Was is saw, wild is wide. He can read the word yesterday, shouldn't and tarantula but gets stuck on is and what. What, went, & want all look the same. But he's a whiz at math, telling time, and has been tying his shoes correctly and with double-knots since he was 3 1/2. The Gift of Dyslexia is the book resonating with me now (as far as describing the symptoms). I found the Sally Shaywitz book good, but not great. Creating my own program for him using various methods seems to be working well. The frequency of reading mistakes are more than 50% less in only a year. I worry about him hitting another plateau. Please keep us updated on what works for you and ds. And I'd love to hear more input from those who have BTDT.

No schoolroom here, either. We use the dining room table and store everything in the china cabinet. Top shelf is for the pretty knick knacks and lower 3 shelves hold all the books and supplies. We got rid of all the "good dishes" long ago. Here's a pic I recently had on my blog (sorry it's so big):

........2nd......5th Dd1 .6y10m...9y10m Dd2 .7y1m .. 10y1m Ds .. 7y6m ...10y6m

No to all of these. I would take a cab from the history museum to Times Square. From Times Square you can walk to the Empire State Bldg and Rockefeller Center. Ground Zero is way downtown. Times Square is lots of fun, though (just hold their hands tightly so they don't get lost). As mentioned before the Hershey, Pop Tart, and M&M stores are there. Check out the really cool Toys R Us, too. There's so much to see and do there that you won't even feel the need to buy anything. (they can go into Barbie's Dream House, they'll love the animatronic T-rex and the lego sculptures, and there's lots of live toy demos and a big ferris wheel inside).

Yes. Sun conures are loud. They're in the aratinga conure category (genus) that are larger and louder. The parrot in the movie "Paulie" is a blue crown conure, also in the aratinga family. Black-caps (and green cheeks, duskies, etc) are pyrrhuras. Pyrrhura A family of Green-cheeked Conures Pyrrhura is the other large genus of conures. These generally greenish conures include the very common Green-cheeked Conure, as well as the maroon-bellied conure, pearly conure, black-capped conure, painted conure, crimson-bellied conure, and a number of other species. They are usually smaller, duller-colored, and much quieter than the Aratinga conures. Pyrrhura species are growing in popularity as pet birds, primarily due to their quiet nature, their friendly, affectionate, and intelligent personalities, and the increasing number of color mutations being developed in several of these species. Lifespan is 20–25 years.

We have a black-capped conure parrot. Conures have such great personalities and love to cuddle. Her name is Lucy and she's so fun. Here's what she looks like. It's not Lucy, but all black-caps look the same, lol. Certain conures can be loud but these smaller breeds are pretty quiet.

If we're talking just books (novels, workbooks, reference books) and supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks, art stuff) I spend no more than about $200 per kid. Of course when I homeschool, everything counts, so you can add a few thousand to that with field trips, homeschool group classes, sports, and clubs. :tongue_smilie: Oh, except for the $120 math program that grandma bought...

:iagree:

I think he should. Cheap rubber flip-flops should be fine.

This is the correct way. As far as answering the door, I always say "It's me". Although grammatically it is correct to say "It is I".

I love my town, too. NYC is made up up 5 counties (or boroughs) Each borough is further divided into dozens of neighborhoods. My neighborhood is wonderful. I love it because: It's quiet with tree-lined streets You can walk to everything Many movies and TV shows are filmed here The public transportation system is really great There's so much diversity and culture There's so many free things to do I had no idea about There's tons of fantastic shops and restaurants Getting to Manhattan takes 12 minutes by subway There are plenty of homeschoolers here Within an hour's drive you can go skiing ...And to the beach We have all 4 seasons I don't have to travel anywhere for anything. It's all right here. I love being able to walk a few blocks for some really good bagels or pizza. The people are friendly and we actually know our neighbors Homeschoolers get free subway passes (metrocards) It's totally acceptable to veer from the beaten path. Everyone decorates for the holidays Even though it's part of NYC, it's a great residential area with lots of families There are lots and lots of parks and playgrounds

:iagree:

I'm with you! I cannot WAIT for September to get here. Ds 9 is in all-day (7:30am-6pm) camp now, which totally put a damper on finishing up last years curriculum before fall (MIL sprung for it and he loved it so much, I couldn't say no. sigh). I have everything ready to go for 4th grade, but I'm still going to try and finish up 3rd grade starting the Monday after camp is over (Aug 23). I want to involve ds in lots of homeschool group classes and field trips - 1 or 2 a week, hopefully. He gets so much out of those. I think upping our academic time from 2 hours/day to 3 is going to work better for us this year, too. He has mild dyslexia, so we need to focus a lot on reading and writing. I'm so excited. He's going to be my only one at home now.

Hi there. I have always found it easier to list topics and general subtopics on my IHIP because no matter what resources we used that year, we would most certainly cover most of that list. The detail in the IHIP allows for very brief quarterlies and assessment narrative - I don't have to reiterate what we've been doing. Listing books with this IHIP is completely unnecessary and makes more work for yourself. I usually never list foreign language - or I put it under the Language Arts category. When it came time for my dd to apply for public high school, I created a transcript that had nothing to do with my IHIP. Stating what you'll be using for year-end evaluation is not required on the IHIP. Some people put in on the third quarterly. I don't put it at all. I use the quarterly dates suggested by the district. I made up my own for a long time (figuring the exact dates that were 2 months and 1 week apart), but it was easier to follow theirs. Mine is just an easy example to follow. It's good for new homeschoolers who stress and good for old-timers who want to crank out something quickly. It's easily tweakable and always in compliance. My district (NYC) sends out our packets before we even send out the LOI. I got my packet (regs, forms, metrocard app) the first week of July. Then a week later I sent my 4th quarterly, annual assessment, and LOI. :tongue_smilie: It's true though. Don't sweat the paperwork. If they need something more, just send it. Just check the SED's Q&As to make sure the district is not overstepping their boundaries. My district changed directors so many times and each one asked for different things (like a copy of the standardized test results instead of just me stating that dd scored above the 33rd %ile). No biggie. Good luck and have a great homeschooling year!

We went last month. We loved it.

Here!

I'm still not sure what a "block schedule" is. I see 4 classes a day that change every term? A half term for all the major subjects? Are these 4 classes over an hour each? My dd is starting high school and has 10 periods a day. Apart from the performing arts part of it, it's very traditional. She has 4 periods of dance every morning, then lunch, then 5 periods of academics, which include: Algebra I, French, Living Environment, Global, & English. It stays that way all year. My oldest dd, who is about to be a senior, has a schedule that includes trigonometry, economics & government, astronomy & forensics, AP literature, Latin, PE, & yearbook.

You should join a yahoo group called AmbleRamble. It's all about using substitutions and full of other good ideas. The CM method does seem very different from a public school way of doing things, but it's so very effective. Most of us going into it for the first time (either as a parent or student) need to do some sort of adjusting - but the key is to have faith in the process. Here's a good site for beginners (there's more than just the one page): http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cheps/ao-start.html And of course there's so much reading to be done on the AO site itself. I would go to the site map page and just read as much as you can. I'm finishing up my second year using AO and can't wait to start up with a new year! My son loves it and he's gotten so much out of it. We use the whole method - not just the booklists, but the nature, poetry, composer, & artist schedules, and try to incorporate as much of the CM methodology as we can (short lessons, handicrafts, afternoons free, outdoors every day, etc) Good luck!.

Activities, clubs, and get-togethers held at library rooms - I wouldn't travel more than 15 minutes. Field trips and hands-on classes - up to 30 minutes. Something truly spectacular (rare, like once every couple of years) - up to an hour.

My kids knew they wanted to homeschool to at least to 8th grade. For high school, they would weigh the options and decide what they'd like to do. My oldest only homeschooled for 1 year (8th) with every intention of starting high school the following year. She loves writing and aspires to be a journalist, so she chose a journalism preparatory high school - she's going into senior year now and still loves it. Other dd (almost 14) has been homeschooling since 3rd grade. Her passion has always been dance and she chose to attend the Fame school in Manhattan (auditioned and was accepted!). She'll be starting there in September. Ds (9) is still happily homeschooling. He has several interests at the moment (art, drama, sports) and will probably choose to go to a high school that focuses on what he loves to do. I'll admit, we're very lucky in this city to have tons of high school choice. Out of about 400 high schools, there are about 30-50 that are excellent. Kids get to list their top 12 choices and get matched to one. They can also choose their top 3 (out of only 9) specialized gifted high schools they'd like to attend as well (10% get into these). It's crazy and stressful, but awesome if they get their first choice.

Yes, this is how it's done at dd's school. So I guess it's not really a "track", just available levels based on what you choose and get signed off for.