On the Phonics road, would we just order the 3rd grade for next year? I'm also unfamiliar with AAS & ABeCeDarian. We've only homeschooled 1-1/2 yrs, and no convention in our area to look at materials.

My dd is mid-way through 2nd grade. Her spelling is terrible. Her sentence writing skills are terrible. We work on things over & over. She will misspell a word that was in the question that she just needed to copy. It gets so frustrating to have to re-do each sentence. Is it me? Is it her? Our first three children are very quick learners & our youngest does not pick up on things nearly as fast, I wonder about my expectations. She's doing R&S reading & reading workbook Abeka LA & spelling Help! Katrina

Such good advice, I really appreciate it! We got updated photos of our new ones today & it makes me so anxious to get them. We do have probably til May, if all goes well, to wait. Thank you!

That is a great idea. They happen to speak a dialect, only spoken by a small portion of the country. They've been in the care center since October & have probably picked up much of the language there. When they come home, they'll have the transition from Amarhic to English. The first books are great ideas. My youngest is nearly 9 & I think I've forgotten everything that went along with the younger years!

Thank you for this! We adopted our youngest at birth & I've been looking for a better way to teach her history.

We should be bringing ourn ew children home in the next 4 months or so...anyone have experience with 5/6 yr olds learning English? Way to transition to kindergarten?

We just were matched with our children. We are adopting from Ethiopia. We're only in our 2nd year of homeschooling, 2nd, 6th & 8th grader. I'm nervous about adding the new two that do not speak English & was looking for advice transitioning our new ones.

Rainbow Resouce has a Saxon sale once a year, seems like it was late spring?

Not yet. Time comes in little snippets. What German program are you using?

I would love to hear, Amy, what you ADD to Sonlight. That is my current struggle!

"Latin for the New Millennium" is interesting. Did you get all of the books listed on the page? We actually have all 4 years of high school. DD is not excited at all about Latin as her foreign language, would be nice if she could at least get interested.

Looking for solid grammar program. DD had Shurley in private school previously. Doing Grammar Ace this year, very basic, seems to be all review. Looked at Winston Grammar basic & that would be all review. DD's will be 7th grade & 9th grade next year. Are there any programs that include both grammar AND writing at this level?

We've not done any latin previously & are looking for at least 2 year program for foreign language. Any favorites / pros/cons?

I PM'd also. I'd be interested in possibilities of adoption if others here. When we began our adoption journey, Haiti only allowed if family had 2 or fewer children in the home.

My kids are 17, 14, 12 & 8. There seems to be favoritism on both sides, but my side of the family lives far away & my children are not bothered by what goes on there. It's the family here, that lives around the corner, with small children. And you know, maybe it is just that, they are 6, 4, 2 & 1, maybe gp think they 'need' more emotional support. Honestly, the ones being favored don't know it, I'm sure they think all are treated the same way. One can do no wrong & I have one daughter who feels she cannot do anything right in her gmother's eyes. This dd is trans-racially adopted, & I think it makes it more of a hot button for me. I don't think we could approach it. Family is in business together also, makes things tricky.

With grandparents to grandchildren...my kids are getting old enough now that they notice the differences.

Thank you for the updates!

My mother-in-law hires a Santa to come every Christmas Eve. We've always told our children Santa doesn't exist, doesn't really come down the chimney, he's a different man in every mall, etc, etc. But, our youngest (8), still isn't quite sure if she believes us. She'd way rather believe "Elf"! When our oldest was 3, he wanted to move to a house with a chimney, just in case we were wrong & Santa WAS real.

I'm with the Pampered Chef & it has worked well for the last 10 years. The recession has definately caused a down turn in business...so I try to only have shows for hosts I enjoy, so my evening out doubles as pleasure.

We had mold issues with our Duet (7 years old) & Whirlpool actually bought it back on a pro-rated basis. We bought a Whirlpool Cabrio, top loader with a different drain system...lambing season starts soon, so hopefully those towels will be as clean, love the Cabrio & it doesn't smell moldy.

Heather's school is Dalat School, I believe in Penang.

Good point. I love the 'pinch me, I'm real' comeback. I could care less about educating other people's children, but I certainly want to build up my dd's self-worth!

Our experience with the ps therapy was very positive. Even when dd went to private school for kindergarten, the therapist scheduled 2 follow ups to make certain everything was staying on track.

Being a fashion challenged person myself, a few of my strategies, are...looking on what the mannequin's are wearing in the stores & taking notes, photos in magazines, I'll watch a few daytime talk shows to see what they are wearing. If I'm still having trouble, I ask a girlfriend to go shopping with me & help me.

I'm so sorry. The first time I heard, 'THAT CAN'T BE YOUR MOM, SHE DOESN'T LOOK ANYTHING LIKE YOU!' I wanted to cry & beat up the kindergartner all at the same time. I could see the confusion in my dd's face. The younger the child asking that question, the briefer my answers are. I've tried, 'of course she's mine, not everyone look's like their parents.' 'God brings children into families in different ways,' etc. DD goes through stages of asking questions about her birthparents, insisting she's not like us because she came from somewhere different. It's a constant learning experience, isn't it? We've tried to seek out other families that have different race children for her to be around, but frankly, there are not a lot in our area. My dd is 8-1/2 & honestly, the other kids don't pay much attention anymore, kindergarten, for us was the big year for those questions. Well, we started hmschooling in 1st grade, maybe that's why!