I love it too. I use it as a place to bookmark things for school or gifts for people, and to dream, a little. I am super practical in real life so it's nice to have a little place for creativity,dreams, and quotes that make me laugh. Being very visual, a list of text bookmarks (like my browser's) seems much more "out of sight, out of mind" to me...I have trouble manipulating them in my mind and utilizing them, or even remembering what is there! With Pinterest, I can take it all in at once, think about and manipulate the information quickly (e.g. what craft should we do today? or what video would go best with next weeks lesson?) and get on with my life. Just a day or so ago I found a Chrome extension that lets you pin screenshots - perfect for all those websites without graphics. It's called "screen2pin" and I found it here. It doesn't always work either -- sometimes it goes back to a parent site instead of the exact webpage you are on. There are other plug-ins on that page I linked that might be better. Here are my boards. ETA: I can go days and days without visiting - on a typical day that I'm there I spend probably 20 minutes, tops. Sometimes I binge...especially when I'm tired and sitting around more. It's fun to look at other people's homeschooling links. :)

Not the OP, but I want to thank you Lori for sharing all you did and especially the above! It gives me hope that brain maturity will help. :) To the OP, your son sounds just like my DD (who is now 14 and diagnosed with dyslexia, somewhat remediated visual issues and working memory deficits...oh, and ADD). She is also in Apples and Pears after trying program after program, including All About Spelling, which did very little for her. So yes, she's been taught phonics, for years, explicitly, over and over. If it doesn't *stick*, it doesn't stick and can't be applied and she still can't spell! As a former speech-language pathologist I can see that the difficulty ups tremendously from spelling something on a test to "spelling on the fly" like when the child is doing a writing assignment of any sort or just trying to write a letter to Grandma. In speech, it was very common to be able to say a sound in a word, or even a sentence, but then when the child was "in conversation" it all flew out the window.:tongue_smilie: I think of my daughter's spelling like that. There is so much more going on when answering a history question in writing than when she is filling in the blanks of her A & P spelling, that even when she CAN spell it in the workbook consistently, it's lost later...sometimes, and sometimes not. Sometimes right in one line and wrong in the next. :001_huh: Like a PP said, of particular difficulty are words where even if you know the itty bitty rules, you don't know which vowel combo to use, or if this is one of the three common words in the english language that breaks this rule, etc.j I know I'm no real help, just wanted to let the OP know she's not alone! :grouphug:

:party: great news!

We've hopped around a lot, particularly when trying to find what works for my dyslexic oldest dd. I don't know if we've used anything 3 years in a row, but there are several things we have used for more than three years total -- Sonlight history and read alouds SOTW audiobooks (over and over!) Teaching Textbooks for various children at various levels Seton English and Religion We've only used Math Mammoth for 1 year now but I see us sticking with that through the years it covers - love it. Same with Apples and Pears spelling for my oldest. Switching to TOG for history and HOPING I can come back in 3 years able to answer this question with a yes on TOG. :)

My answers are more complicated than the poll responses I actually checked (that all but one set of grandparents lived on one income) - I believe my parents *could* have lived on one income if my dad wasn't an unstable job hopper (he's still at it...70 years old and he just quit a job they really need - sorry, vent over). They also bought lots of wants when they should have been saving for needs. Anyway...my mom was able to stay home until I was about 13. My maternal grandmother left her husband when he refused to work after "recovering" from TB. She was able to raise my mom and uncle on one income I believe - she managed a bowling alley and even won a few of those Saturday afternoon bowling tournaments you'd see on TV in the 70's. :D My paternal grandparents lived on one income but I know for a time they lived with my great grandparents...not sure how many years that was. Great grandparents owned an ice skating rink and other things such as Italian Ice stands, etc. Family business, but I mostly heard of the men working at it and the women working at home (all the stories are of my Italian great grandmother cooking her wonderful homemade ravioli, etc :D) I'm not sure what the other set of great grandparents did but I know they were immigrants from Germany and didn't speak much English. I don't remember hearing of the mother working ... and knowing how my mom felt about it all I think I would have.

Me too - my 4yo is hyped up on high doses of prednisone day and night. I can't wait for this two month trial to be over (unless the side effects of the next drug are worse :tongue_smilie:) Plus there have been 18 break-ins in the last week in a half in our town and the next town over - many of those have been at night with the people home. I sleep on the couch mostly (dh snores) so if they break in, it's me and them, baby. :svengo: So I sit up at night, worrying. I've declared a long spring break, at least.

B.A. in psychobiology (they now, happily, have changed the name of the major to "neuroscience") Hard won (married and moved in the middle of it and basically had to start over so took classes full time for 4 years!) M.A. in speech-language pathology. Worked as a nanny going through grad school. Worked for a year at a residential facility for profoundly mentally handicapped adults. Worked for 1.5 years at a school (residential/day) for severely emotionally disturbed children 0-13yo. Got pregnant and stopped to raise kids/homeschool.

Senior manager of an IT division for a tool company, but was a mechanical/CAD engineer first. Masters in mechanical engineering, then went to school to get his MBA while working full time.

I'm 43 and 1 year into my second set of braces. I got ceramic on the top and traditional silver colored on the bottom. Maybe I'm an anomaly, but they hurt LESS than I remember my teeth hurting as a young teen... and my teeth were pretty crooked this time around too. I remember being in a lot of pain after each adjustment back then, and now, while I'm in pain after each one, it doesn't slow me down. My dh does joke that it's because I have five kids so a little time in braces is nothing compared to that :lol: but I'm sure that isn't really why. ;) It's been mildly annoying, but I'm SO glad I did it. I can actually smile now and think it's almost pleasant looking, whereas before I was painfully aware of just what a mess they looked like...and didn't smile as much as a result.

#1 - 7 days early, 2.5 hour labor #2 - 11 days early, 7 hour labor #3 - 14 days early, 8 hour labor #4 - 16 days early, 7 hour labor #5 - 3 days early, very mild cntx for 2+ hours (like if I hadn't already been IN the hospital, I probably wouldn't have gone in), then dr broke my water and he was born 40-45 minutes later.

:grouphug::grouphug: praying!

My dd hit these curriculum in a different order - she did LOF, then Key to..., still didn't understand all she needed to know about fractions so we did a summer of MUS videos and practice problems, then finally Math Mammoth. She now at 14yo seems to understand and remember (for the most part - she's dyslexic and does have memory issues). I don't know whether it was maturity or Math Mammoth that did it. ;)

:iagree: I love it too, but I lose something (a lot of something) between the reading of doing it and the actual doing of it! :tongue_smilie:

I voted less than once a month, but it's more complicated than that. *Maybe* twice a year dh and I go out and eat a meal out together, as a date. We almost never take the family with us due to multiple kids with multiple anaphylactic food allergies. :glare: Maybe once every three weeks or so we bring in food from Subway or a pizza (where I still have to cook because of a dd with dairy allergy). Maybe once or twice a month we'll feed the kids dinner and go on a "home date" where dh will bring in food from a slightly-better-than-fast-food place like Chilis. :) Occasionally I'll be in a bad mood on the same day that I accidentally don't make enough food for all of us, and I'll skip dinner to get my secret vice: a big mac and fries. :lol: So like other PP said, it depends on what you mean by eat out. :) I guess it evens out to once every two weeks or a little less often we are eating food I didn't cook.

He does his most of the time - I put it together when I can (read: when I feel like it :tongue_smilie: ). Typically he takes leftovers that have already been packed in tupperware the night before (by me) and a yogurt and/or piece of fruit, so it's not hard. He also, up until very recently, did VERY little else while at home due to a pinched nerve in his back which has/had been bothering him for years. So I guess in my mind if he was willing to put a piece of tupperware in a lunch bag and throw an apple in there with it, I was going to let him! :D

:bigear: I'm all ears! I could have written the OPs post (with the exception of my dd doing well in math.) High school starts next year for us and I'm working up a plan. TOG, TT Algebra...and I don't know what else. :)

I know if you buy the digital version you get free updates (although you can't re-sell the DE, a drawback). We are new to TOG so I don't know about any other way to get updates. To answer the OP, we are going with TOG as well. I just bought year 1 and am reading through the introductory material.

Wonderful! :party:

:iagree: I really hope so. I *do* enjoy schooling on some days, but I no longer feel fulfilled by it in any way. I think I'm disillusioned - I had no idea how hard parenting and homeschooling a bunch of kids with "issues" would be...especially when I have very little support and/or help in any way. :nopity: I can't believe I have 13 years left of this. :svengo:

We know several families whose two boys are Matthew and Andrew. Although it always confuses me because sometimes the older one is Andrew and sometimes the younger one. For families I don't see often it always makes me second guess who is who. :tongue_smilie:

:lol::lol: :iagree: Or disappear to play when I think it's doing school. :glare:

Ack, I'm falling behind! :chillpill: I just finished Dracula by Bram Stoker. Loved it! Not sure what I'm doing next. I just got Bonhoeffer for my kindle, but I have a few library books waiting to be read too... Here's my list: 8. Dracula by Bram Stoker 7. The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister 6. Organized Simplicity: The Clutter Free Approach to Intentional Living by Tsh Oxenreider 5. Extreme Makeover by Teresa Tomeo 4. Living Gluten Free for Dummies by Danna Korn 3. Made To Crave by Lysa TerKeurst 2. Gluten Free, Hassle Free by Marlisa Brown 1. The Everything Guide to Cooking for Children with Autism by Megan Hart

I'm about to push the button and order TOG for next year. It will be our first year, and we're starting with Year 1. I'll have one in each level, although my oldest (9th grade next year) has LDs but is bright and straddles the R/D line depending on what I'm asking of her. I think my 9yo may be a UG/LG mix also. It will be an interesting year! Hope I survive. :tongue_smilie: I have a blog (in my sig) but haven't discussed TOG at all yet.

:grouphug::grouphug: praying!

My 4yo does.. He's so young he's not schooling though. He's only on naprosyn too - it's controlling, but not eliminating, his pain and inflammation. :grouphug::grouphug: to you too! Happy to answer any questions you have, but we've only been dealing with this since last July so I don't know much.