She gets a lot of exercise. She is my most athletic inclined kid. SHe does diving every day, WII almost every day, and jogging on the treadmill about every other day. Until this week, she was playing two hours of soccer games a week too. IF anything, she has to exercise less in this period because of her severe cramps and also her anxiety is tied to her tachycardia in some instances. That is, she will exercise, get tachycardia, and then develop anxiety. It isn't the other way around. She has been evaluated by two different pediatric cardiologists about her heart issues and neither thinks they are significant but just that she needs to be evaluated on a yearly basis.

My dd has been doing BJU Chemistry but things fell apart when she got to a certain section. I found a Wiley Self Teaching Guide for chemistry called CHemistry Concepts and Problems which is working very well for her. The deal with that book is that it has short bits of information followed by a question. There may be 85 or so concepts per chapter with questions following each. Then there is a chapter test at the end. I saw on Amazon that Wiley also publishes a biology eslf teaching guide but the smaple did not seem to be set up that way. I don't know if that is because it was just the beginning or whether the whole book is in a different format. This short segment and immediate question seems to help my dd not get lost and I would like to continue it in biology.

I think that PA is probably the second or third worst state to be homeschooling. It is so bad that I told dh that we can't live there or I won;t live there. NY is worse and MA is closely tied to PA or maybe a little worse. I admire all of you who can put up with such oppressive regulations. I don't even like VA's garbage but at least I don't have to compile portfolios or write more than once a year. I am really hoping that with almost all the states' having budget crises, that some may go the way of NM and lessen regulation to save money. By the way, I am not a better homeschooler in a more regulated state. I don't really change what I do- I change what I report. My two older have gotten into colleges _ younger one into an honors program at a cc while dual enrolled, and I don't think any regulation is necessary.

We won't sacrifice much at all. WE do more than some since we do put children in sports and choirs and music, etc. but for the specific questions-no. WE would not move- could not move- since dh is in the military. WE would not separate the family except for medical necessity. We expect our children to leave for college and summer programs but not for us to go with them. The one about the siblings is the one that I have most trouble with- so far we are paying for one to go to college. With our last twowe have to weigh how much to give up for which college. WHat we have actually done and continue to do- spend lots of money on camps and instructors for the children. We also reorder our normal lives for music lessons and groups. However, our travels are generally local. THe siblings have had to give up some time and freedom for each other's activities be they artisitic, sports, or medical issues. None have had to give up all their activities for any others.

I agree with the poster that the teacher is simply mean. I don't think you need to know anything about special ed to not be mean to 5 yo children. I also agree with the posters that most likely this teacher did a lot of things wrong but this incident got all the attention. I have had older disruptive children in my classes (Sunday School) and I have never voted anyone off the island. I have told the kids my expectations, I have had the sit apart for away, I have asked them if they would be happier sitting with their parents. I would never think to ostracize the child and in fact, always made sure that these kids, who usually were ostracvized by other kids) could be complimented on something they did do well. On such child turned out to have ADHD and after medication, was a lot calmer. I did notice that another Sunday School helper who worked in the Public School, was not as gentle with him as I was. I don't tolerate misbehavior at all. She tended to tolerate it more but then make snide comments. I am sure she gets frustrated with misbehaving children at school but the answer is not snide comments.

My 15 yo dd has horrible pre-menstrual and beginning of period problems. She is always adhd and has some anxiety issues but nothing becomes severe unless she is either about a week or a little more before her start or the first two days of it, It drives me batty at times but I think my older age now is a help since I have mellowed a bit. Anyway, since so many of you have children with similar original problems, I was wondering if anyone else has great escalations of problems due to the cycle. IF so, what, if anything, has been done for the girl in question? I am starting with a ob/gyn who assured me that she would not do an exam on the first visit and would just talk to her about her problems. (One of her anxieties relates to modesty, even in medical settings). ANy other ideas?

I don't give my daughter assignments in most classes. Why? Well in Lightning Lit she gets the assignments as well as in ALEKS math, Life of Fred, and BJU SPanish. SHe got hung up with chemistry and we are using a new text for a while and I do give her assignments for that but I have gone back to teaching her this. Her other subjects are again self- taught. She reads her American History, studies for the test, and then does both a multiple choice and essay test. Her intro to music involves her listening to lectures. Her geography which she is finishing up involves watching videos and finishing her mapwork. SHe does most subjects every day and is very self motivated so I don't need to interfere. She is the one who is most worried about not doing enough. Now my almost seventh grade is different. She thrives on written assignments. I will still write hers out both weekly and daily next year.

My daughter did a movies and literature in her 9th grade at a homeschool academy. They used both the Stout course and another course. It was very rigorous and really helped her learn a lot about both literary and filmmaking techniques. She enjoyed it and learned a lot. I gave the class as an honors class since she did so much work for it with a abundance of writing assignments and she was by far the youngest in the class.

As I see it, most of us are willing to help our compliant parents and parent-in-laws. What people draw the line at more than having a very ill parent is having a disruptive or even abusive parent. I am a Christian and therefore my phrase is You shall reap what you sow. For non-Christians, I guess it is karma. As I said, I only have one parent left (FIL) and he refuses our offers of our type of assistance. We will never offer financial assistance to him without our control since he would waste it on my drug abusing BILs. However, we would lovingly take care of him here or at an assisted living facility by visiting, etc. Its his choice and I see that with others too. Many of us have parents who refuse our help and others have had parents who are verbally abusive or even violent. WE can all only do so much. It doesn't seem that anyone here or in fact. most people want to dump their parents or parent in laws. Is there a subset that does- sure just like there is a subset of the population that is criminal, alcoholic or drug abusing. But the majority are trying to cope with aging parents in the best way they can. Not all can take them in. What about single people who were single children and are of working age= they have to go to work and sometimes they can't afford the hoime health care. Unfortunately, health insurance doesn't pay for regular care and no one else picks up that slack if the person didn't have disability insurance.

I am praying here, not only for answers which there may not be, but also for healing. My dd15 had a non-stop 7 month headache. If this continues, PM me for how we finally got in under control. It was heartbreaking for me.

DO you mean an old analog tv like just became obsolete last Friday? YOu just want to use it for videos and/ or dvds? I bet you can get one for free from Craig's list and if not, go to goodwill or salvation army thriftstore or someplace like that. We bought one last year for our daughter's dvd lessons for about 20 dollars. IF you call within the next few weeks, you can even get a coupon for 40 dollars towards a converter box. WE haven't done that yet but may so that we can get tv if something happens to our cable.

We don't have a schedule. We do schoolwork most days although tomorrow, for example, my youngest has to go to another city for a lengthy doctor's appointment and so she will not do much work that day. We also take vacations when we can. Neither girl is finished with her work but we hope to be done by our mid August vacation.

He buys most of his clothes but asks me for my opinions on things like shirt colors. Yesterday he was packing for a tip and needed me to help match tie, shirt, and jacket. That is because he has slight blue-green color blindness. I don't really want to buy him much because I have a horrible memory for sizes and end up buying the wrong size. If I write it down in a calendar, I normally don't buy anything until I get a new one and forget to transfer the info. His work clothes are uniforms for the most part and I have nothing to do with those normally.

My FIL is 89. He has had prostate cancer and now colon cancer. Even before that, we suggested that he sell his house and come move near us or with us. As it is, he is 89, frail and still working because my 2 bils who are both older than my 45yo dh completely dependent on him. All he has is SS and his pay from his work with those other bums depending on him. His house is in a congested area of NJ and the lot is a double lot and could fetch good money. Our suggestion has always been for him to sell the house, go live in an assisted living facility or with us, and stop working. He is very tired but he is of sound mind and wants to let his children sponge off of him. To make the situation less bitter when he dies, my dh requested that he not be made a beneficiary of the will at least in regards to the property. My dh has no intention to waste his vacation time attending to the eviction of his brothers and various hangers on. Unfortunately, because my FIL decided that he still has a responsibilty to support 50 yo children, his grandchildren and I haven't seen him in over 3 years. His house is a danger zone due to his sons (my bils') behhavior and addictions and dh refuses to let us visit. When the FIL almost lost the house a few years ago because of the extreme negligence of his other sons, we again pleaded with him to come live with us. He just doesn't want to and we can't do anything. My father died when I was 13 and my mom died when I was 23. I did care for my mom in her final month by coming back home to help her. She died from ALS.

When I lived in Florida (up to this December) I had two ladies come out and spend 1 1/2 hours on my house. They did two bathrooms, the kitchen, the dining room, the living room and the master bedroom. The children's rooms were their own duties but I had them clean the children's bathroom because it was also the guest bathroom. They charged $60 a visit. I am going to start looking for help here and know it will cost more since I have more bathrooms and more area to clean plus a much more expensive area.

Wow- that is so young. We don't do the whole courtship thing for many reasons but we are Christians and think that is too young. The earliest I would allow any couple dating would be 16, I think. Yes, I do have a 20 year old so we have sort of gone through this once but he wasn't interested until 17, almost 18 and he was away at college at that time. My middle is almost 16 and not interested in dating. My youngest is a very extroverted girl of 12 and also not interested yet. Even if she was, no dating until 16. We do allow boy girl interactions like progressive dinners and chaperoned homeschool dances earlier but those are group activities. The whole sneaking around thing is troubling. At one church we were members a long time ago, my then 7 or 8 year old son pointed out that the youth group there was out of control. He saw it because he would be going through the halls during Sunday School coming back from church pageant rehearsal or something like that. Anyway, the program was not well supervised and the mid highers and older were kissing in secxluded corners and such like. I have seen in other churches dating behavior that I thought was questionable too- high schooler with older by at least 6 years adult, etc.

Prayer for your family and lots of sympathy for you. I am sorry.:grouphug:

I attended two large events this week with lots of kids. The first was homeschool soccer and the second was a swim meet. The first had exclusively homeschooled kids and the second had mostly schooled kids with a few homeschooled. Neither group was rambunctious or disorderly. But I take care to try and move into areas where I can expect good behavior from kids. Not a certainly but a higher probablity. I love to research things and that is what I do before we move. This neighborhood , for example, has a very high proportion of well educated parents who expect good grades and good behavior from their children. It also is a more traditional neighborhood without a HOA but with a very strong neighborhood group. None of the kids are zombies or whatever and they are not even the same races or religions. It basically comes from the expectation parents have that their children will strive for success (in whatever form that takes, not necessarily a high income).

In many places I lived, we have visited nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Normally the groups I was in (homeschoolers, church groups, choirs, Scouts, etc) visited the ones where the people were pay patients. How do I know- because my bil has spent the last 27 years in a medicaid facility. There simply is no comparison. It has spurned me on to make sure we have enough money to put me in a assisted living facility when I will need one. (I am arthritic and asthmatic and many of those in those places have similar type problems). Many of the pay assisted living facilities have nursing homes attached to them. The few medicaid facilities I visited are not anywhere I would like to end up. I wouldn't think you would want anyone there either. Now my son was hospitalized for major depression last year and I ws very surprised to find a lot of elderly people there. THey are kicked out of nursing homes and will never return. If you turn violent or otherwise problematic at a nursing home, off you go to a mental helath facility for the end of your days. The depressives would end up leaving after their medications got stable, the schizophrenics ended up transferred to long term facilities if they didn't get stable, the elderly dementia patients can't be transferred since they are not mentally ill but they are neurologically diminished. They were their longterm unless a family member rescued them. One nice but confused lady was in the facility due to predatory behavior by her kids. They were trying to find a facility that would take her but keep her away from her abusive children. It was very sad.

Yes, we rented one in Bretagne, France overlooking the bay with Mt. St. Michel. It was wonderful. My youngest learned to ride a bike since it was on a flat cul-de-sac. We have also rented houses in Tuscany, southern Germany, and in Maine. We rented condos in Alabama, Mammoth CA, and Utah. Get the actual address and use something like google maps or via michelin and find out exactly where you are. Since I am always very thorough with our planning, we have always gotten great places. I haven't been disappointed once. Also note that some state parks have cabins for rent that are at the beach- I know both Florida and South Carolina have some but most likely others do too. We have loved our state park vacations in FL, GA, AL, TX, CA, and VA.

I am not sure whether I clicked on profile. I know I have clicked on avatars to try to see them better. I might have since I am trying to keep people stright in my confused head. I am not spying on anyone and I have no idea if I did actually click on the profile since I never saw anyone's threads or what they were reading. I am just looking for the same info others gave like ages of kids or location so I can better keep people straight. I don't even know about the friends option- don't know how to do it nor what it means. Inquiring minds want to know!

I have to say after 15 years of homeschooling that children who are behind in math by about 6th grade have a very hard time catching up. The same is not true with children who did minimal writing by that age. If they have done minimal writing but read a lot and have heard a lot of read-alouds, they can catch up with the writing. But none of the children who weren't at least comfortable in most elementary math by the end of 6th grade have gone on to not have continuing problems. Why does this matter? Because if your child is going to college they need certain SAT or ACt scores to get in. I have known a few math struggling children who were otherwise very intelligent who missed out on better college opportunities because of their math skills. Yes, those kids aren't going to be engineers or scientists. But my older two won't be that either. Their overall familiarity with math has helped one pass out of math class requirements and will probably help the next one do the same too.

In Belgium, all of us had cleaning ladies except one homeschool mom who liked to clean and she hired a babysitter to watch her kids while she cleaned in peace. Dh loves it when we have a cleaning person or service. I had one in Florida and NM. I need to get one here since this is the largest house yet and I have asthma and arthritis- not good diseases to mix with heavy cleaning. I am bound and determined to find one this week since I called two so far and they haven'[t returned calls. Pleas don't don't feel badly. I remember that when I was little (in the 60 and early 70's), it was completely the norm to have cleaning help and that wasn't simply for the rich. My parents were definitely not wealthy but my mom had a lady some in and help with heavy duty linoleum floor cleaning, the blinds, and the general bathroom scrubbing. SHe cleaned all the time in between but even without homeschooling, she felt there were some jobs that she didn't want to do. IF you can afford it, you are helping someone else have a living. What is wrong with that?

I have found that people return things to me too. I had my cellphone fall out in the National Arboretem and a man visiting from PA returned the phone to me. I, in turn, always go back if too much change was given or I wasn't charged for something. However, there was an auto parts store in Albuquerque where I never did anything like argue with the clerks. That store never had the right prices on the shelf. THey would forget to put their sale prices up. They would have special promotions from a distributor. I would simply watch that everything was rung up but not about the price. Inevitably, one or more of the prices didn't match the shelf but nothing in that store was organized and I gave up arguing after a time or two.

I just changed my screen name. I was Christina in Space Coast which was where I lived for two and a half years. (Space Coast is Brevard County, FL, home of Cape Canaveral and the Space Shuttle). I just changed it to transientChris since I actually am a transient. We move every few years since my husband is an Active duty AF officer and we have at least 2 1/2 more years if he wants to get full Col. retirement but it may be as long as 8.