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PoisonHemlock

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Everything posted by PoisonHemlock

  1. I thought the Lawless series by Tarah Benner was pretty interesting. Part of my interest may have been that it was mostly set near where I live, but I did find it fairly thought provoking. For a YA dystopian series, anyway. Not a a YA series, but Hugh Howey's Wool series was excellent. I've recommended it to others that aren't even fond of the dystopian genre and they still enjoyed it. Both series should be available with Kindle Unlimited.
  2. I can't help you with a brush type, but regular cat litter seems to work fine for our long haired cat. Just don't use anything light-weight, as that sticks to everything. I've also noticed that our kitty has less foot hair, and just thinner hair in general now that's she's inside all the time. Yours might lose those little tufts once she gets acclimated. Congrats on your new friend!
  3. We loved Death In Paradise, on Netflix. It's a charming show, and we thought the mysteries were pretty good. I hope you all get to feeling better VERY soon!
  4. Rhythm of Writing by LOE introduces them based on strokes instead of alphabetically. I'm not sure of anything on Amazon though.
  5. What about books by E.B. White? Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web came to mind right away. Another I read at about that age was The Abandoned, by Paul Galico (not sure that's the right spelling). I can't think of any series that could replace Hank, but maybe those could help with the transition at least.
  6. Thank you all for your great, thoughtful responses! I had never considered other online schools like Oak Meadow or Calvert. That was a great idea, and I will look into those options more. I'm also happy to hear Connections suggested as a possibility since that is the online public option in our area. I hadn't realized it was a charter, so that gives me a bit more hope for it being a good fit for her. I should have also mentioned that she is not new to us. She has often spent weekends and summers with us in the past, so she has friends in the area from that. She was also part of a church group with one of those friends, so that could be an option for the social aspects if she is still interested in attending. She also has friends in the town an hour away, so we would try to let her visit with them too. I feel like 4-H could be good for her, so we may look into that at some point. I don't want to get her into it only to have her ripped away from it though, so we'll probably wait a bit on that one. As for where she is academically... I don't really know. I know she finished 8th with mostly Bs and Cs, but I have no idea how she is doing this year. She has not been allowed any contact with family or friends while she has been out of state, so we're really in the dark on that front. I do know that during the summer between 7th and 8th I tutored her a bit in English, and she went from nearly failing to an honors class. To me, that suggests she can get better with help. Hopefully that will hold true. Again, thank you all for the support. You have given me more to think about and research, and I really appreciate it. I'm sure things will be much more clear once she gets here, but until then I feel like I can start moving forward in getting a plan together. I'm one of those people that REALLY needs a plan, so that is a huge help. Thanks again!
  7. EKS and Garga, thank you both for sharing your thoughts so promptly. Yes, that was my fear with not sending her to school; that it wouldn't translate over if she has to go back. It seems that is a reasonable fear... darn. I do worry that she won't be able to keep up in a B&M or online school though, but I guess we would just have to cross that bridge if we come to it. As for the legality... As I understand it, a parent or guardian must do the instruction in our state. We would have to be given some kind of guardianship to even enroll her in school (or anything else for that matter) so as I understand it we would be able to homeschool with that as well. I would double check that with an attorney, but that's how it seems from what I can find myself. I guess with the information we currently have we should plan to enroll her somewhere and try to help her as much as we can. At least until we can find out if this will be a permanent situation or not. If anyone has other thoughts or advise I'm happy to hear it. Thanks again!
  8. Hello everyone. I don't usually post much, though I am an avid reader of posts. I'm potentially entering into a unique situation, and could use some advice though. I apologize for the length of this, but I want to give as much info as I can. My DS is 8, and we have been homeschooling since day one. We love it and plan to continue as long as it works for us (probably/hopefully through high school). No real problems there. However, I discovered on Saturday that we will most likely be getting our 15-year-old niece after Christmas. She has had a difficult and unstable childhood, and most recently she was dumped with extended family in another state for the start of Freshman year. Her mother has decided she is done being a mother at this point. She isn't done collecting child support and tax benefits, however. As I understand it, the extended family wanted to collect that money for keeping her, and that is why her mother is bringing her back. Now she is looking for someone else to take our niece, and I think it will be us this time. We are thrilled that we will be getting her, and have wanted her for a long time. We have the space and resources to take good care of her, and we just hope she can stay with us permanently. We don't know if a legal battle would be necessary to make that happen though, so right now we are just waiting to see what happens in that regard. She has struggled academically, and was held back in 2nd grade because of that. She has been close to failing a number of times since then as well. I think this is mainly due to circumstances in her life, not a lack of intelligence. I want to give her the best opportunity to succeed, but I'm not sure how to do so. The public schools are an hour away, and are not good schools. I don't think there are any private schools, and they most likely wouldn't be an option if they do exist. Online public school is an option, as is homeschool. I think she could really thrive with the individualized approach she would get with homeschool, and in a perfect world that would be my top choice. But there is some uncertainty regarding how long we will get to keep her. Hopefully it will be permanent, but there's no way of knowing that right now. I worry that even with an online school she will struggle, especially coming back from a different state, and I really don't want to set her up for failure in any way. I worry that homeschooling could be setting her up for failure too, though. If she doesn't stay with us permanently then she would be forced back into public school and I don't know if anything we did would count in that case. She is close to being old enough to just get her GED if that was the case though. Of course, I'm also completely unprepared to jump into teaching high school, but I will make myself prepared if that's what needs to be done. I'm already looking at graduation requirements, transcripts, etc, and I'm trying to come up with a basic plan for her. I guess I'm hoping to get some advice regarding what we should do for her. If she was younger I wouldn't be so worried, but I feel like high school is such an important step and I don't want to mess it up. What would you all do in this situation? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
  9. Gardenmom, both sets were all-season tires. They weren't specifically for rain, but the tread should have shed water fairly well. My husband has a big Ram 2500, with all-season truck tires, and the Forester felt similar on those wet roads. Just less frightening since you're not so far off the ground. On a plus side, I know the Forester is a safe vehicle. I have a friend that has been in three accidents in Foresters where they said she should have been killed and she walked away with minor injuries. All vehicles have their flaws, but a good safety record says a lot in my book.
  10. DS7 really wants a roll of Reflectex (the insulation that looks like silver bubble wrap). At first he was requesting toys for Christmas, but now he wants Reflectex and a model of the human body...
  11. I don't have any experience with Honda, but my mother has a 2015 Forester that I drive regularly. She isn't supposed to drive any more so when I take her shopping or to appointments we sometimes take her car. We get quite a bit of snow here and our road crews are not very good, but the car seems to do well in the snow. I was surprised to find that it does NOT handle well on wet roads though. On several occasions I have found it borderline frightening to drive after/during rain. It could be her tires, though she's had two sets with similar response in the rain. I just wanted to put that out there since rain is something to consider too. I hope you love whatever vehicle you choose!
  12. Hello everyone. I have been lurking for a couple of months and finally decided to say hello. I have a seven-year-old son that I have been homeschooling since day one. He is very bright and understands content that is way above his grade level, but due to vision issues that weren't diagnosed until about a year ago he is behind in reading and math. We are getting caught up, but it's been a slow process. In any case, I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello. I look forward to getting to know you all, and learning more. Thanks!
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