I like to think of the writing focus over the years to be cumulative... something like this... Kindergarten and up: Letters (aka handwriting, cursive or typing) First and up: Words (aka Spelling) Second and up: Sentences (i.e. mechanics -- capitalizing/punctuation) Older elementary and up: Paragraphs (particularly organization) Middle school and up: Essays (particularly rhetoric -- argumentation) So right now, my younger daughter (starting third) is really working on creating sentences with good punctuation, but she's also working on spelling and handwriting. My older daughter has mastered spelling and handwriting, so we don't work on those any more much. Right now she is focusing on paragraphs, but she's also still working on creating strong, complex sentence with good punctuation. She's not yet started a focus on essays, but we might start later on in the year.

In our county in Oregon, kin (and kith) placements are really common. I think the birth parents and social workers sit down and construct a family tree and list of family friends and start calling. It's considered ideal to keep the child in a situation that allows them to be around family or family friends. The relative foster care providers get a temporary foster care license following a quick background check. Later, they have to go through the training. They are held to a "minimal standard" of safety, unlike community foster care providers who have more stringent requirements. For instance, I believe they can actually have been convicted of crimes (some certain crimes, obviously not all crimes) and be smokers or not meet income levels or have a medical marijuana card.

Oh! I'm doing that too! It's actually mandated and he'll get special ed services... so it's technically nothing I could feel guilty about and I think it'll be great for him. That said... I'd totally enroll him in a preschool or daycare program regardless as there is zero chance of getting anything productive done with him on the loose.

I would make a template page on MS Word with text boxes. Perhaps one to draw a picture of the electron shells of the element or a picture of the discoverer. One box could have the info from the periodic table. Perhaps one box could list things that are made of the element or a paragraph about how it was discovered. Your child can fill in the info for each element, one per page. I'd print the template pages on card stock and encourage your child to use lots of color and make it something special.

We have a "homeschool support" alternative PS that we belong to. DD8 will take most of her day there next fall and I will be basically be afterschooling her. DD10 will have a fashion design and sewing class there (meets 2x per week).

:iagree: Liping Ma's book is a great place to start thinking about how we teach math. If you want to read criticisms of a constructivist approach to math education, there are plenty of websites or videos that talk about programs like TERC Investigations and why those programs are problematic. http://www.nychold.com/terc.html. I personally think that these "math wars" in educational circles are really just a repeat of the "phonics vs whole language" battles from the 80's and 90's. Investigations and similar textbook series have (in my mind) thrown the baby out with the bathwater in not teaching algorithms. I could go on, but will hold off on ranting since I'm mostly preaching to the choir here.

It sounds like two foster kids is too much. It would be for us too! We have enough parent visitations, therapy, casa worker visits, etc... I cant imagine twice what I have. Don't hesitate to say no... You signed up to take one placement. You don't need to feel guilty at all (easy to say... Hard to do).

I don't know if 1972 is considered vintage in this context... but "Free to Be You and Me" was our childhood favorite. My kids like it still.

We did one semester for each book, plus the worksheets and extra stuff online that I found.

How about the new Life of Fred Physics? You could be the first to try it and report back!

My older is starting 5th grade next year. We're going to finish SM 6b in the fall, then a combo of pre-algebra type books - LOF PA, Zaccaro, CWP, Galore Park. I figure I'll pick and choose what she needs. So far, she seems to have no trouble with the easy algebra type problems she's seen in SM5b and 6a, but she's not so good with word problems... she frustrates easily and sometimes doesn't pay attention to whether her answer makes any sense. So I want her to work on this in particular next year. In 6th - 8th - I anticipate using Jacob's Algebra and Geometry.

I would call that a constructivist approach to math teaching. The curricula that follow that approach are generally disliked on these boards and tend to be very classroom/group oriented. Still, you could definitely incorporate some of the ideas without giving up on teaching some procedure too... Look into Mathland (popular in the 90's, no longer used) or TERC Investigations in Number and Data. Also Everyday Math has some constructivist elements too.

What age? Gender? My 10 yr old started with the Wee Free Men and then into the other books with Tiffany Aching, then Granny Weatherwax, then all of them featuring Death and then Sam Vimes. I think she's read them all. Her favorite is The Wee Free Men and second is Monstrous Regiment. My favorite is Going Postal. She also loves the Hogsfather.

Minimus and Minimus secondus is a favorite here. We also tried Learning Latin through mythology which my kids didn't like, but which is independent and has translations. I think Cambridge also had a lot of translations to do. We like Latin Prep too, but I'd save it for a later year. It goes fast!

We are Episcopalian also, and I wouldn't feel comfortable joining. I love the academic and community that it would provide, but the social / political conservatism is more than we (particularly as a same-sex couple) could handle. I went to fundamentalist Christian schools as a kid and my family's religious and political views made me feel out of place. I was sometimes scorned and sometimes taken as a project/potential source for conversion. I'm not willing to send my kids someplace where they would feel that their lives and opinions and beliefs were somehow wrong.

I am mid- potty training our 3yr old foster son. He's doing great. I sat for a miserable day on Saturday with him in a tshirt in his room with a potty. I cleaned up 4 puddles before he got the hang of it. Sunday was perfectly dry. Yesterday was good except for a refusal to poop on a potty. Today is preschool so hopefully he'll continue his trend. Anyway, no advice, but lots of comiseration.

Actually, Headstart can't turn away qualified children because they aren't potty trained. We're going through this right now.

There are different types of kayaks for different locations. Hard shell kayaks for whitewater are zippy and easy to flip (and roll). Sit on top, sea kayaks and inflatables aren't so easy to flip and are used on calmer water. We have good quality inflatables that we take on lakes and mild (class II-III) rivers. They do flip but only in rough water... Not on lakes.

Miele We used tO buy cheap vacs that were noisy and had to be replaced every few years. I prefer to get one quality machine that lasts a long time.

Chains Fever ...? Roman mysteries At the sign of the sugared plum (and sequel)

My girls aren't teens yet... but a friend of mine with teens shared this on facebook -- perhaps it'll inspire (or perhaps offend) your kids:

I've come to the conclusion that there's no need for me to give my kids 10 random words per week from a standard spelling book. These days, I'm just picking out 10 words that my younger daughter misspells and having her do spelling games and tests on spelling city with those words. So far, it's working fine. I'm not bothering with my older daughter who spells really well.

We live in a small town, so no pre-professional options... Still, we have a great studio about 15 miles from us. How much do you pay for your DC's ballet lessons? I believe the monthly amount is something around $140 for 3 ballet classes/week (around 4.5 hrs per week) How long are the lessons? How many lessons per week? Creative Movement and Pre-Ballet are around 45 min. 1x/week. The beginning levels (mostly the first three years of formal classes or so -- ages 7-9ish) are around an 1 hr. 1-2x/week. The intermediate type classes are an 1.5 hr and are 2-3x/week. (most kids are 10-12+) The oldest kids (girls pre-point or en pointe - mostly 11-18) have longer classes and I think are in the studio at least 4 or more times/week. I believe they have a flat fee per semester, so can take lots of classes. The boys class is a beginning class - 1hr 1x/week. Is there an annual registration fee or something similar? How much is it? I think it's $20. Who teaches the early levels (say about 10 yo and younger) - older students or a trained adult? Definitely a trained adult. Some of the creative movement classes 3-4 yr olds are taught by an adult dancer who was never a professional ballet dancer, but who's great with pre-schoolers. What do you pay for costumes (or costume fees)? Do you keep the costumes? No, costumes for nutcracker belong to the studio. Costumes for the spring performance are basic dance-dresses or unitards and belong to the studio. I think the pre-ballet/creative movement families do buy matching leotards and tutus and hair accessories just for fun, but I don't think they cost more than 20-30$ total. Nutcracker and the spring showcase have a performance fee around 75$ I think. I doubt the younger kids need to pay that, though. Also -- I take ballet class too. I pay $10/lesson (or 5 if I just take barre). Obviously no costumes/registration fees/etc...

I don't know for sure, as I have only the first book, but I suspect the second book is just a sequel to the first. I would get the first.

:iagree: You can take pieces that are appealing to you -- encouraging independence in everyday living activities (cooking, cleaning, budgeting, shopping, etc...), using manipulatives to teach concepts in math, grammar, geography, etc..., giving choice in which subjects to study and allowing longer times to focus on it, setting up your homeschool in a way that your kids could take care of everything themselves if you mysteriously disappeared... but really, it's a classroom model.