I wonder what actual, religious Satanists think of the name? I agree that it seems immature and divisive, which is totes helpful for school kids.

We read swallows and Amazons at around the same time as 21 balloons, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Can you do a group buy from rainbow resources and split shipping? We do that every now and then with our homeschool group.

I have seen the occasional book on better world books (free shipping). But alas, never the one I'm looking for!

We take Fridays off for music lessons, art/poetry tea with friends and excursions. We take a short day on Wednesdays for homeschool group every other week, and just a quieter mid week day to catch up on things the other week. Dh is on a rotating schedule so we are very flexible with actual start/finish times in our day.

We do 3 full days - M/T/Th We do one short day - W. Because sometimes we have homeschool group. Fridays we have music lessons and catch up with a friend, together we either do an excursion or Bible, art and poetry tea.

Haha! I actually did read it aloud a few years ago! Much fun was had but it certainly wasn't an easy one to read!

Oh, year 7, not 7! Probably a bit young for Tim Winton yet. We read 'Looking for alibrandi' about that age. I like Andrew Lansdown's poetry...

Definitely playing beatie bow. Blinky bill? Magic pudding?

I think it's ok, but I would feel a bit wary too. I don't like it when people show up to my house, I would have preferred a quick call first. If they just dropped it off with niceties as opposed to expecting to be invited in, then that makes me more comfortable. When my daughter was a newborn I had the new minister of our old church just show up at my house. We had moved only a couple of weeks before hand too. I didn't know him from Adam, was tired and in my PJs as a first time mum of a tiny baby. He showed up, without calling first, mid morning when dh was at work. There was no way he knew none of this, my in-laws were deacons and DD was the first baby born in about 5 years... I was thoroughly unimpressed and sent him packing. I found it really inappropriate.

Thank you everyone! I appreciate your responses! You made me smile. Really, I'm not particularly worried. I know my kid and what he can do. I know his personality and why he didn't do well. It was a good experience for all of us. I won't be changing our approach, except to continue doing tests of some kind occasionally, so he can get used to them (low pressure, we are not legally required). And so that I don't slip into slacking off too much...

Similar experience here Rosyl. I remember our pastor saying to us, during pre-marital counseling, that we are vowing to love the other even when we feel like we hate them. That has rung in my ears a few times! ;)

Thank you! His sister, 5/6th ish, did better, about as I expected- it was her first test too. Maturity does definitely help.

Help me feel better! Actually, I'm not too bad. It wasn't an accurate reflection of his math ability, but it was an accurate reflection of his work ethic and test taking skills! It was his first ever testing experience and I half expected it. I joked to dh last night that he'll either ace it or bomb it. That's my boy lol! He got 23%. He is nearly 9, a bright kid, but tends to over think things, gets flustered, and gives up. I'm pretty sure that at least half of the test was guessing. He's the kid who struggles with the easy problems and flies through the beast academy starred problems. It doesn't count towards anything so it's not a big deal. But I don't want to be naive about where my kids are, I want to make sure I do a good job. We will do some more low pressure tests in the coming months, just for my own information. Any tips, commiserations, funny anecdotes?! :)

My kids loved the word spy, which touches on some similar topics - https://www.amazon.com/Word-Spy-Dubosarsky-Ursula/dp/935009813X

We got together when I was 15 and he was 17. We married at 18 & 21. That was a little over 13 years ago. It's common to marry young in Dh's family, his mother married at 16 (getting close to 40 years together!). My mother was not happy about the idea at all (has married and split 4X) Our daughter was born just before my 21st. We always wanted lots of kids. It hasn't been too difficult, no more or less than any standard marriage from my observations, it is getting easier as we both mature. We definitely grew up together and I think that has been helpful in solidifying us as a couple. We are still madly in love and very happy together, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but happy.

Fairly close. We keep in touch every few weeks and see each other every couple of months and both feel bad if it goes longer than that. However we've both built our own very different lives and aren't each other's first contact when in need. She is still close with our mother which forces me to a level of wariness/distance. Dh is fairly close with his siblings, especially his brother. Im quite close with his sister. We see them every few weeks. We are all different and independent types but family is important to them. They all live near each other, we're the furthest away at 90mins.

Um, my son turns 6 in a week and a half and I'm sure he can't write all the numbers to 100. He could possibly verbally count them but you'd probably get a couple of extra runs through the 60s and 70s lol. He is not behind, in fact he's quite bright. But in a situation like that - stranger taking them to a different room and testing them - he'd probably just flip out and forget his own name. I agree with pp that it sounds like you dodged a bullet. You don't need to beg these people to condescend to teach your precious children, eff that. Those aren't people to trust. I know you're really struggling at the moment and I can't imagine what a kick in the teeth this must have felt like. Can you give your kids a little test at home, NOT to prove anything to the school, but to reassure yourself and boost your confidence? I'm really sorry. It totally sucks when the hits just keep coming.

I have a similar daughter also in 6th and almost this same struggle. I can't seem to fit everything in and she's straddling the younger kid /short day/lots of play and wanting to do big, important subjects (everything!), but not quite mature enough to do it all herself... I keep morning time short, 10-15 minutes each for Bible, read aloud (with handicrafts), loop subject (geography/music/math or science game or reading). Done in an hour and stuff she enjoys. A couple of things have helped. She has her own desk. Makes her feel independent. I give her a weekly list and let her organise her week herself. Stuff that is non negotiable on certain days I mark. So our school time is 'meeting' time where she brings me what she's working on. She really likes this and does well with organising her days. I'll come back and read through the whole thread properly because I could really use some advice too...

I found that planning the one big day is easier than multiple days out of the house. I burned out badly doing it 3 days a week only 20 minutes away, and our family time suffered. We get a lot of audio books done too ;)

90 minutes one way. We are rural but with a big city only 30mins away. There are teachers closer, we were with one 20 minutes away last year but that studio required 3X a week participation. 3X20 is worse than 1X90 to me. I did make sure that the 90minutes away was only 2 minutes from my best friend's house! We do a little school together (art, poetry etc) and do most of our excursions/visiting that day.

I have a two year old as well. I also have a mountain of dishes that I've been avoiding for over an hour now. I've been eating Mars bars instead and I don't care. I'm a total fail at homemaker, it's a deal dh puts up with because his European mother is neurotically* clean and he values a peaceful home more than a clean one - most of the time! ;) *Said tongue in cheek, I love my mil very much - even though she tried to tell me that I was washing the dishes wrong a couple of weeks ago. Dishes are my nemesis at the moment!

Sounds great to me, some of the same titles were on my dds 5th/6th list this year. She did fine with bridge to terabithia fyi.

Ruth Heller does some beautiful grammar books, here's a previous thread about them: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/32375-could-you-use-ruth-heller-books-as-a-stand-alone-grammar-program-for-a-2nd-grader/ There's heaps for science, especially early elementary. And there's quark chronicles.

I'm thinking, for the two minute tasks, to just have a running list on the weekly page... So, I have a monthly page, with a place to list projects. Then a current week page with a schedule and a place to list quick tasks so I don't forget them. Although I do use the whiteboard for them if they are cleaning related. Of course gtd says that if it takes longer to write it down then just do it.