Thanks!

We are getting ready to do foster care and will be taking 1-2 child aged 0-4. I have an 8 year old son who we homeschool and we have no other children, so this is going to mean lots of adjustments for us. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping little ones busy while homeschooling, managing homeschooling with little ones around, or doing foster care while homeschooling?

We spend a fortune on medical insurance every year. Last year I unexpectedly ended up in the hospital for 1 week with pneumonia. We have a $2000 deductible but a $3000 max out of pocket. Our bill would have been $21000 without insurance, we paid $3000. Let me just say that at that point $3000 did not seem like much, and the insurance payments sure seemed worth it. Plus the peace of mind in the hospital was worth it too. We're still paying the $3000 off, can't imagine how long it would have taken to pay the whole amount off!! When deciding on coverage, make sure you look at your max out of pocket as well as the deductible. We used to have insurance with a $1000 deductible but a $7000 out of pocket max, our newer insurance is much more affordable in the case of an emergency (one visit to the emergency room can run thousands), and costs about the same because of the higher deductible. Yes, it means most years we do not benefit from it at all, but at least if there's an emergency we won't go bankrupt.

We used Click 'n' Kids for a while in preK and K, but found that after the early levels it started to move way to quickly and left him frustrated in the dust. It's bright, colorful and fun, but jumps and jumps.

We did homeschool for an hour in 1st grade, but we just did math, reading, grammar, spelling, and handwriting during that time, and we didn't do grammar and spelling on the same day, we alternated those. For us it worked out great, we started doign the other subjects but it was just too much, so we just worked in history and science throughout the day as we could. You asked how much time PS spend learning, the general rule is that less than half of the time a child is in school is actually spent on learning, so 3 hrs or less in most areas. Also remember though, that when you work one on one with them they learn much faster and the learning time is much more productive. For us it was a matter of looking at what was going on with our son, who is very curious and learns very quickly but also tires very quickly, and we decided to focus on the things I felt were the most important for him at this stage of the game. We homeschool year round, and have added science and history back in and he is loving that, and soaking it up, now that he is ready to have that much structure, but even then we spend only about 2 hrs a day, and I don't do them all at once, we do one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon. To me, play is more important for my 6 year old than structured time, I think it all comes down to deciding on priorities for your family.

We did not get the CD-rom, we did get the student cards which come with th student pack. I didn't feel like I needed the CD to know the phonograms, but I have also had a linguistics class and some teacher training, which covered those. I would say the student cards while not 100% necessary, are helpful in keeping track of what needs to be reviewed and what not.

I know you didn't ask, but I'd really recommend starting with Level 1, you could probably move through a lot of it very quickly, but there are parts of it that are quite helpful for kids, like learning when to use c or k and the beginning of a word (we just did that one recently so it's in my mind, but there are lots of others too). We got the magnets, but my son almost never uses them but he is also not a kinesthetic learner at all, they just distract him. Charlene

I used to teach in California (although I've been fortunate not to have to homeschool there). The expectations for history tend to be rather overboard in the way they are worded, but when you look at the texts that they have approved, they are often much, much simpler than they sound. For instance I taught 6th grade and one of the standards was about Queen Hatshepsut, the approved texts that we used at our school (2 over the time I was teacher), each had a total of one paragraph on her, and that was considered meeting the standard. Often the technical wording of the standards makes it sound like there is much more needed than there really is. I think you'll find the vast majority of curriculums will cover almost all if not all of the standards. The easiest way to keep track of it all is to write or print out each of the standards, and then write the dates that you cover those topics next to them. If you come near the end of the year and have missed something, go check out a library book on it or take a field trip if it's something that can be seen locally. Try not to be too hard about what covers a standard (quite frankly, most public schoolers don't even do history in 5th grade, despite what the state says)for instance: 1.0 Students describe the major pre-Columbian settlements, including the cliff dwellers and pueblo people of the desert Southwest, the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples of the Mississippi River. They basically want your child to understand that there were people here before Columbus arrived, and that the people living here had a variety of cultures and ways of life. This is probably one that you are most likely to run into trouble finding info on I would guess, but you could so easily check out a library book on each of those groups and complete this in less than a week. In California you could even take a field trip to learn about the pueblo people, as there are numerous resources around the state. The Key is to remember that you can always supplement with library books too, just keep record of what you use and how you cover the standard. I hope this helps, I'm afraid I may be saying this about as clear as mud. If you can get your hands on one of the state approved text books, just to look at for a day or two, I would recommend it, I think you'll see that it isn't as hard to cover as you might think.

I have a wonderful MIL, and both my sister-in-law and I enjoy her. Here's what she did: 1. She always made me feel welcome and part of the family, even before I was, I saw her do the same with my SIL when BIL brought her around. 2. Treated us as equals (of course I was in my late 20's when I met her, which probably didn't hurt there). 3. She has always been herself with me, she is never fake. 4. Remembers important things about me and my family. She sends birthday cards / gifts, inquires about my family, especially if she has heard that there is something important happening (how are your sister's wedding plans going, is your mom feeling better, etc). Basically, she has always gone out of the way to make me feel like I am an important part of the family, and because of that, I consider them a very important part of my family. She shows appreciation when I go out of my way to give her a heartfelt gift, to help my son make a gift for her, etc. I think the key is just being a gracious loving human being.

I agree with those above, it'd totally appropriate. In fact I think an 11 year old would LOVE a lot of the projects in it.

:iagree: This is what I was told to do by a pediatrician and it works so well, when babies get like this it is nearly impossible to stop the crying it hurts sooo bad! We only do it to stop the immediate pain, and for 1 or 2 times to let it start healing and then go to just a really good diaper cream or butt paste. Wash with water and pat dry before applying.

I'm glad you said something. There is also a very real possibility that the boy who said it doesn't even know what it means, he may have just heard it somewhere also. I'm sure in the process of all of this his parents will end up being alerted so they can make sure he understands the absolute seriousness of such a threat, whether made knowingly or not.

I think you should mention it to your friend... once you feel calmer about it. I wouldn't bring it to her as you having an issue, so much as I just want you to know this happened. Otherwise she might continue to allow the person to do the same again next year, and that is very unfair to everyone else.

I'm still interested. Charlene Hertzberg

It is possible that she understands the math intuitively and just hasn't come to the place where she has the words to explain it. If she can accurately repeat what she is doing, I'd not worry too much about it. It might help if sometimes you model the thought process for her so she can start figuring out how to explain what you do.

Funny.... I distinctly remember teachers telling us we weren't at school to socialize.

You'd be able to get a huge, gorgeous house here for that. A nice 4 bedroom, 3000 sq. ft house on 1/3 to 1/2 acre here would cost you less than $200,000, so for $450k you'd get all the bells and whistles plus property too. I just looked it up... you can get a 6 bedroom 5 bath home with a gym, indoor spa and sauna, 3 acre horse property, wood floors, upgraded appliances, outbuilding, 4 car drive-through garage, view, etc for that price :)

I think your son is much more likely to learn positive methods for dealing with his anxiety by being exposed in small doses with a loving safe adult nearby who can help him muster his courage up and teach him coping skills for dealing with the anxiety. Our son is pretty shy and he (now 6) is better able to deal with people every year, we just make sure he has plenty of opportunities to be around others in a setting where he feels safe and secure.

I agree with the last couple of posts. First politely decline, letting them know that the dresses are ones the girls will be able to wear again. If they insist, then graciously accept their generosity. This was if they are offering to pay just to be polite they can let you go ahead and pay, but if they really have their heart set on paying then you won't offend.

I actually asked on Peace Hill Press on their facebook page when they announced the new book. They said if you have the old book you really don't need the new one, it was just re-written to be easier to use with the Writing With Ease curriculum. It sounds like they took out a lot of the overlapping stuff.

It sounds like 8th or 9th to me. For testing purposes, if he is working ahead of his age grade level, I'd put his grade as the one he'd be in if he were in public school, that way you're less likely to run into any legal issues. If he's 11 than he'd be 6th grade... or maybe 7th if he has a late birthday.

This is such a reassuring post :) I've often wondered what to expect in this area and when, it's nice to hear that even the kids who don't seem like they'll get independent often do.

At least she didn't come out really negatively towards it. It seems like a lot of grandparents that feel uneasy about it at first end up gungho for it once they realize their grandchildren aren't going to be social outcasts.

I've been trying to come up with a name forever and have been totally stuck! I love the idea of using the last name translation. Our last name translates to Heart Hill. Anyone have any ideas? We also live at the corner of Deer Valley and Deer Meadow :) I'd be most appreciative of ideas. Charlene

Thanks, we were able to get on the list to be notified when they restart :)