Dd's high school does this. They assume that all of the kids will go on to college (and more than 95% of graduates do) - and there's a 98% graduation rate. They have a main track (kids get a Regents diploma), an Honors track, and AP classes aren't taken until Junior year (the school offers 14 different AP classes). My daughter is starting high school in September after 5 years of homeschooling. She has no interest in starting out with the Honors track and checked off the box for her not to be considered for it this year. She's nervous enough about going into the unknown - no sense it being an accelerated unknown, lol. She might consider it for subsequent years, though.

The reason worldbook works, is because it's a general outline of what you are sure to cover - so it doesn't matter what books and resources you're going to use. You have no idea if the book you had your heart set on is a terrible fit for your child's learning style. This gives you the freedom to change it, yet still cover what's outlined for his grade. I copy and paste right from worldbook, but make it more paragraph-y looking instead of keeping it as a long, bulleted list. I'm all about it being no more than one page. And no, they couldn't care less what tools we use. Listing books is just one of the options for the IHIP, but imo, it takes up a lot of time, and leaves no room for change. I do keep my own learning log as we go along that lists all the books and resources we use and the classes and trips we take. This is just for my own sanity, though, since I'm pretty type-A. :tongue_smilie:

I post photos, but ones that don't show what my kids really look like. I'll do my dd with her stage makeup on, or ds with his head turned - things like that. My pics are more about things we do and places we go. Some pics of the kids show faces, but I take out the html code that allows you to click to make it bigger. Sometimes I'll just put a real small picture. I tend to get creative with that, lol.

They are going to feel weird for a day or 2, but then you shouldn't really feel them at all - only when you move your eyes complete to one side should you feel anything weird. I had the dailies, and they were fine but expensive. I switched to the ones you wear every 2 weeks. Those were so much more reasonable and you just put then in some saline every night and wear them again. I was told that you can actually stretch those out to almost a month. I know one box (3 pairs) is about $20. I get the Acuvue Oasys and have had no problems. See if you can get a trial pair of those.

:001_smile: Thanks Michele.

Oh. :blink::sad: Yeah, now that I read the OP again...I think that's what she meant, too.

The best thing to do to save them is leave them in the grass around where they were. Mom will come back for them. I went through that a few years ago and put all the babies (like 12 of them!) in a shredded newspaper-filled glass fish tank I kept outside. Within the hour, the mom found them, jumped in and grabbed one by the neck and jumped back out and went somewhere. A minute later she came and got another one. I watched her take all 12 away with her. It was so cool.

baseball cupcakes

Ok, my recommendations: American Museum of Natural History (The 1st floor Hall of Biodiversity & Hall of Ocean Life and the 4th floor Dinosaurs) The Met Museum's Egyptian and Medieval areas on the first floor. You can do both museums in one day - go early and after a couple of hours at one, walk directly across Central Park to the other. Don't try and see all that's in the museum. Print out a map of both to choose what you'd like to see or you could just use our recommendations! The Lion King was probably my favorite Broadway show - perfect for a 10y/o boy. If you're going to a show, that's the day you can walk over to the NY Public Library to see Patience and Fortitude (the lions :) - see and you'll even be keeping with the Lion King theme, lol). You'll find them on 42nd St and 5th Avenue. Thankfully Manhattan is set up like a grid - it's easy to find streets! If you're in the mood for some walking around and experiencing some great NYC, then Chinatown and Little Italy are awesome. Then wander down to the South Street Seaport to explore around and then have dinner there. You can do the walking stuff in half a day (early afternoon to mid-evening - maybe like 1pm to 7pm). Then you can do a nice boat ride (at 9pm-ish) around NY Harbor during the evening that leaves right out of the Seaport. The city and the Statue of Liberty are so beautiful at night from the water. The Zephyr harbor cruise (Circle Line) is only $20 for adults and $12 for kids for 1 hour.

I just wanted to say I'm so excited for you! I've lived in NYC my whole life and I love to hear about people coming to visit for the first time. Please don't forget to tell us everything you did! I think the suggestions everyone gave are fantastic and are perfect. But as a true native, I want to mention a few other things: Don't be afraid to take the subway. It's safe, cheap, and quick. The food sold in the street carts is really good. Again, safe, cheap, and quick, lol. People walk really fast here. Wear your pocketbook across your shoulder and always keep one hand on it. Don't forget to visit Times Square. There's a wonderful Toys R Us there that you don't want to miss (it's unlike any other). Boat rides around NY Harbor are the best. Any Broadway show you choose will be an amazing experience. See if you can make it to the Sony Wonder Lab. It's free and so incredible. You're not planning on driving in Manhattan, are you?

We always do September as well. I prefer to follow the school schedule for the most part since having 2 kids in public high school makes it more convenient.

Prayers, and prayers, and more prayers out to your husband, you, and your whole family. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

I hate summer and I'm counting down the days til fall.

Our curriculum involves lots of reading aloud for the main subjects. We get everything in in about 2 - 2.5 hours as well. We prefer sitting on the couch but will use the table sometimes. 1. Math for about 20 minutes. 2. I read aloud some history and ds narrates - and we put something on the timeline. 3. Ds does a page or 2 in his spelling workbook. 4. I read aloud some geography or science & ds narrates 5. Ds and I read a poem together and he uses it for copywork 6. Ds reads aloud to me - usually 1 page. 7. I read aloud some literature or a "free reading" 8. We do one of the extra subjects (artist, composer, or nature study)

For my rising 4th grader: Language Arts Spelling Vocabulary Reading (narrations, dictation) Shakespeare Poetry Copywork Grammar Writing (Composition) Typing Math Basic Arithmetic at the 5th & 6th grade level Science Physical Science Nature Study Social Studies Geography World History American History State History Foreign language Greek Alphabet American Sign Language Art & Music Art projects Crafts Artist Study Composer Study Theater class Health & Safety Physical Education Basketball

Thank you all so much for the advice. You guys really get it. Jean: That makes sense. I guess he knows she won't change. kwickimom: LOL, we'll both be part of the "grr...MIL" club. It's so hard to ignore it, though. Snickerdoodle: It would be great if she lived a thousand miles away. lol chubbyhugs: Yes, she's very stuck in the tradition of school. And yes I just have to keep doing what I know is best. JVA: I love that your dh said that. I'd love a hug right now, lol Miss Sherry: Thanks. You're right, I should just stop talking about homeschooling altogether. Or at least avoid it when she brings it up. I haven't said anything about it to her actually in years. She talks only to dh about it. I will say, aside from this issue, she's a great person. I just hate having anything that causes a rift. I love the support from this forum. Remudamom: I know, but she's RIGHTTHERE. I ignore it most of the time, and pretend not to care, lol. dottieanna: LOL, I can only wish Danestress: I wouldn't put it past her to convince the kids to rebel, lol. I just can't believe some people are that close-minded. I hate that she doesn't trust my decisions. May: I agree with that. When I do come across opposition, I tend to ready myself for a LOOOONG discussion with the sole intention of proving I'm right. I should probably keep it brief, huh, lol. DianeW88: Yep. It's hard, but ignoring her seems to be the consensus. Rivka: OMG, that's hysterical. It sounds like she doesn't get it, either. kalanamak: "Living well is the best revenge". I love that. Thanks. Cadam: What a nice idea. My MIL would just think it was a contrived display and that I was trying too hard to prove a point. I would love for her to have some talking points, but she's such a hard nut to crack.

Ok, i just snarfed coffee out my nose. :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Ok, so my MIL has never warmed up to the idea of homeschooling. Even after 5 years and with dd getting into one of the best high schools in the country, she has issues with it. Ds is 9 and she swears he's "bored" and needs to be in a structured environment. Um...what? She never asks how we're doing or what we do. She doesn't have a computer so she doesn't see my blog or does any research on what homeschooling really is. We do academics for 2 hours almost every morning and spend the rest of the day OUT. We do homeschool group classes and activities, field trips, we visit friends, or hit the playground for hours. She knows no one else who homeschools. She has preconceived ideas that she gripes to her old biddy friends to and they just shake their heads and agree with her. Sigh. It doesn't matter that my kids are above grade level and have many friends. It doesn't matter that my kids have always been well behaved (compared to her other 7 grandchildren) and respectful. She is always comparing them and seems to need to brag to her friends about her grandkids' academic achievements. Maybe I should print out the facebook picture of her oldest granddaughter on her knees chugging out of a beer funnel :sneaky2: . I know I should just show her how great everything is by example - since my explanations go in one ear and out the other - but she doesn't see. She has closed up to it. Dh is no help. Even though he is fully on board with homeschooling, he never even tries to talk to her about it. He ignores her comments and changes the subject. :glare: and she lives right across the street. :glare::glare: Help.

We're doing Ambleside Online Year 3 for 4th grade. This will cover world and American history, science, literature, geography, poetry, biographies, artist study, nature study, and composer study. We're also using: Spelling Skills 4th, 5th, & 6th Grade (Harcourt Publishing). Simply Grammar (Andreola) Teaching Textbooks 5 (2nd half) then LoF Fractions Writing Strands 2 (we're just starting with writing) Drawing with Children by Mona Brooks We will also do: Tons of field trips and classes all over NYC Typing (online tutorial) Greek alphabet American Sign Language Science experiments Copywork Dictation Narrations (oral and written) Book of Centuries And a few extra-curriculars, like: Cub Scouts Basketball Chess club Theater class

You just described how my son was last year. Words look like other words and he won't even sound them out, he just says what it looks like. Small words don't exist (a, the, of) and when he reads them, "of" is "for" and "for" is "from". It's very sad and frustrating for him. It was hard to understand this, as his 2 sisters were fluent readers at 4 and 3 years old. Everything I've read about whole-language or whole-word readers fits him. He also has 25 out of the 26 dyslexia symptoms I've researched. I have gone through a couple of phonics programs with him, but the only thing that seems to help is constant repetition and lots of reading aloud. We've done flash cards of sight words, writing out sentences with the words, alphabetical order, 3x each, and a word wall. Everything was kept fun. Books he read aloud were purposefully below his grade level in order to build confidence. We used the Hooked on Phonics Master Reader program, which was ok, but I'm not sure how effective it was. For a whole year, he read aloud to me every day. We started with just 2 sentences and built up to a paragraph. I couldn't overwhelm him with more than a paragraph at a time or he'd shut down. Then we'd do the rest of our lessons - I read aloud to him and he'd follow along. Sometimes we'd take turns reading sentences. A year later, he still reads aloud to me every day. He does a whole page now. He's reading Abraham Lincoln by D'Aulaire to me. Ideally we should be doing a page (or at least a paragraph) 3 or 4 times a day spread out. He dislikes it, but I've been trying to get to that point. I've noticed that he slides backwards if we skip reading days. He is also getting really good at proofreading - finding spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, and missing words. He never would have been able to do this last year. This is such a great exercise. We're also going to start written narrations and dictation this year. He'll be in 4th grade and I think he's ready. I'm planning on taking it very slowly. So even though I haven't had him formally evaluated, I have an idea as to what the problem is and have been diligently working with him to overcome it. He's come so far in a year. So, maybe you can try some of these things. Good luck.

We did that for a while. I remember thinking that the measly $$ savings isn't worth the yucky taste. It was ok on cereal or in recipes, and if you mixed it with regular milk it wasn't so bad (as someone mentioned before). I wouldn't do it again. I get gallons of milk in NYC for $2.99. Although, I had great success making my own laundry detergent, using cloth diapers, and utilizing all the free resources in my town that I could find. That was incredible savings for us - and I'd recommend those over powdered milk. :D

Hugs and prayers out to you. I'm nervous about dd starting high school, too. :grouphug:

The Queens Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Bronx Zoo, & Prospect Park Zoo in NYC close at 5 weekdays and 5:30 weekends in Summer. In winter they close at 4:30 every day. Staten Island Zoo closes at 4:45 every day all year. I didn't realize they all closed so early, either.

We live a typical city life. Dh works 9-5 in the advertising field. I work 5:30pm-9:30pm for the cable company (- after being a SAHM for 12 years. I wanted to work to help pay off our debt faster and pay for trips and extra-curriculars). Dd(16) will be a senior at a college preparatory school for journalism, dd(13) will be a freshman at a performing arts high school, and ds(9) is happily homeschooling. We spend lots of time all over NYC visiting museums, zoos, gardens, shops, and restaurants. We are part of several very active homeschool groups and do field trips, tours, and classes with them. Dd (13) is a competitive dancer and keeps busy with rehearsals throughout the week. She does about 5 or 6 competitions a year and we do a week-long Nationals almost every year. Ds does different activities every year and this fall he's thinking about football, basketball, theater, & chess. We take him to the playground as often as we can, where he meets up with a bunch of friends for a game of manhunt, basketball, soccer, or a water gun fight. Dd (16) is looking to get her drivers permit soon. She is a typical teen, going to the beach, the mall, the movies, and has lots of good friends. As a family, we love going to restaurants, theme parks, and the theater. We live in a cozy 2-bedroom apartment in NYC (that I strategically modified into 4 bedrooms :tongue_smilie: ). We're lucky, as we have a front patio, a backyard, a garage, a basement, and a washer & dryer. Our block is tree-lined and nice and quiet. The subway is a 20-minute walk away or we can take the bus to the subway. Within 1 mile we have 2 libraries, 5 playgrounds, and tons of stores. We can walk everywhere - but I still enjoy driving. Manhattan is a 15-minute subway ride away and we have awesome beaches within an hour away. We have a black-capped conure parrot, a red-eared slider turtle, and 3 goldfish. Over the years our menagerie included green anole lizards, snails, frogs, hamsters, a rat, parakeets, & oscars. In the fall, our schedule will be a little different than usual. I will drive dh and dd(13) to the subway at 6:30am and dd(16) to school by 8am. Ds and I will start on academics around 9:30am and be finished by noon. Afternoons will be spend either at a homeschool group activity, a field trip, at the playground, visiting friends, or running errands. We love having the world at our doorstep. Life is so fun and exciting here.

Boy is this me. :iagree: