Pretty much everyone I've run across who DOES consider themselves poor (and does food stamps / free healthcare / welfare / the whole thing) is NOT what I would consider poor. I actually listened to a conversation among a group of homeschoolers once that went something like this: "I am having trouble with my food stamps" "Oh?" "Yeah, it just doesn't adequately cover the food that my family needs" "really?" "Yeah, I buy at this organic store out of town and the food stamps just don't go far enough" "oh, I know! Isn't that terrible? We have that problem, too!" Hmmm... even more frustrating, both of the people drove to the park day from their houses with multiple bedrooms, in their vans big enough for all their kids, after setting up the park day from their computers with internet access, and pulled out their cell phones to get calls..... My family is fairly well off, mainly through hard work and good planning / saving strategies (and some "make your own luck"!). I find it extremely frustrating that a large group of people are forced to pour money into a government system that allows so many people to buy more expensive sneakers / phones / cars / etc than I have. Welfare should be done on a local basis.

I loved RS A and am using it for my 5yo now (already used it for the 7yo - he is 3/4 through B). I like B as well, but it is definitely more difficult - the 7yo does well and is learning a lot but he actually has to work for it now (not a bad thing for him - he's too used to blowing through things easily!). I did eventually add Math Mammoth 1a/b and, as soon as the 7yo finishes catching up on 1b, 2a/b. The biggest thing lacking with the RS, I found, was the practice my son needed to consistently retain the information. He would get it very well during the lesson and during the "quickie reviews" in the following lessons, but eventually he will forget (when it hasn't been touched on for awhile). Then they suddenly jump back to it and expect him to remember, but I would have to flip back to the original teaching and go over it again. I found that doing the Math Mammoth worksheets allowed a more constant, flowing reminder - RS to teach the math, MM to review it.

Sad, but true - I use "What your XX Grader Should Know" :) Not as a curricula, of course, just as a guide to knowing about what a reasonable group of people believes a First Grader (or 2nd!) should know... at least it gets me to ask "oh, did I cover that?".

Just wanted to point out that on the SSA website regarding disability qualifications they state http://www.ssa.gov/dibplan/dqualify6.htm Specifically, the most important words are "individual is following prescribed antiepileptic treatment". Yes, it does talk about the drug aspect of that - but allows for physician to make as statement stating why drug levels are low and providing more information. If you are seeing a legitimate physician and following the prescribed treatment, you should be able to apply for benefits. Since this is a life-long problem and a true medical ailment, you are likely to eventually get some benefits (although it certainly could take years - but later is better than never!).

I'd reschedule if I didn't know the Dr pretty well. We moved to this area 3 years ago and changed Drs after the 1st year visit, so this one has only seen them 2X for well visits - I'd likely reschedule and just comment (after healed) about it, if the question came up. Where we used to live I had the same Dr for 5+ years and multiple visits a year, so it wouldn't have bothered me to go in and ask. One of my biggest "new parent" regrets is that when my oldest was a toddler I ended up taking him to the Urgent Care for a tiny cut on his finger and they forced me to list my beloved dog as a "strike one" for dog bites. My dog is an ANGEL with the kids, no matter what (11yo now and has never even growled at them, even if they are rough) - but my son had gone up to him while he was chewing on a bone one day and literally stuck his finger in the dogs mouth as it chewed down. Completely NOT the dogs fault and in NO WAY an aggressive act, but because a dog was involved and I knew the dog they insisted I list him. It was a ridiculously tiny cut on his pinky, too, but because I was a new parent I freaked out when I couldn't get it to stop right away and he kept crying & puking (he was a stress-puker!). Nowadays, I wouldn't bat an eye - just put more pressure on until bleeding stopped, drop on a bandage, and go about our day. The problem with forced reporting requirements is that they don't allow any common sense to be used!

I have a very mature 7yo who is very sciency, loves Wii Lego Star Wars (and desperately wants Wii Indiana Jones!) and has a warm space in his heart for animals (comes from me - just rescued a little kitty off the road yesterday!). He also LOVES getting mail! :) He's very athletic, but doesn't like sports (go figure) - just enjoys riding his bike, digging big holes, and pretending to be Indy.

I lost 28 pounds last year with the old Atkins & it was GREAT!! Unfortunately, I've gained back about 15 pounds or so from not being careful enough & getting lazy :( I had no hanging skin & I felt great - I just hated the strict diet change, especially since I really don't particularly care for any meat except Chicken and Salmon...! We learned to cook with Stevia (no chemicals like Splenda, although that I still use for cooking because it is cheaper!). If I were still cooking at all, I would be more careful - I find it hard to get around to with my hubby out of town these days, though. We have the new Atkins book, but I haven't read it yet ... hmmm... I sense a new (old) project that needs to come on!

I really think highly of the Right Start Math - I've used A and B. One of the things I think would be particularly good about it in your case is that it offers multiple different approaches in an attempt to find the way that connects with each individual child. My kids have done GREAT with RS - the original kit is pretty expensive, as it comes with all the manipulatives, but I consider it well worth it!

I don't know any good independent ones for that age, but I totally encourage you to take advantage of it!! I keep trying to push my 7yo to be more independent on the math & phonics he can do alone, and it is very exhausting. Might as well start early & teach them to teach themselves as much as you can!! :)

I have a 7yo who LOVES science, so I have spent a lot of time trying to find something to foster that (since I am really not a science person!). We went with Elemental Science (Biology) last year and ended up bailing after just a few months. Honestly, it was just not what I expected in terms of learning & not interesting enough to keep the attention of the 7yo (much less his 5yo bro). Example: We basically only got to the Mammal section. We had a few short sentences describing what a mammal was (not even in a book, just on the workpages) and read gobs of passages about specific mammals. For each animal you write a sentence, color & paste a picture (to my hands-on boys, this is considered boring busy-work after the first few), and a few other odds & ends of tasks. I really thought we'd actually learn about MAMMALS - what they are and why, etc. We only did a few of the projects, and I considered them barely adequate - we made a habitat diorama, but you were supposed to put animals in it as they came up and NONE EVER CAME that lived in the habitats my kids had chosen! So that was a bomb. We did some oil and pepper in water experiment, which was fun but totally unrelated. The only relevant & neat thing was pretending to be camel feet to stay on top of dirt - they both enjoyed & learned from that one. I hated printing & cutting & pasting & flipping multiple books open... We went with Young Scientist Club kits and related detailed living books, which has been pretty good so far (it took me many months to pick anything, so we just started!).

I always just figured they did it that way since the i says <short, long, other> and the y says exactly the same but with the yuh first - easier to remember, I would think! All the regular vowels are taught <short, long, other>...

We also don't have an exact time-line for a given day - too many variables around here, and I can't stand being so "formal"! Up until recently, we just slogged through each day doing basically the same thing (3Rs!) with no real end goal and it was very difficult to get up the oomph to work with my K'er when most of my time was really focused on my 2nd grader. Recently, though, we got organized - and I am LOVING it! I laid out a schedule of what needed to be done each week in order to accomplish our schooling goals in our given school year. After I did that, I realized that I had all sorts of extra time for new stuff, so I added a bunch of subjects and re-did my spreadsheet :) Once I knew what I needed to get done each week, I took that week's items and spread it out over our school week (generally 4 days). I tried to get each day about even, but some days I knew we had extra-curricular commitments so I'd schedule them fairly lightly. Anyhow, after doing that - I've found that I can now manage the schooling for both kids with significantly less stress than I was barely managing for 1 kid a few months ago. We have an end-goal, a specific number of days off (although they are flexible), and a solid curricula with tons of "extra" subjects! -I don't stress out over when exactly things get done - just that they get done. That way, when Grandpa accidentally mows over the faucet and we have to shut the water off all morning I can take a deep breath, go get supplies & fix the issue, and then step right back into hs time. :) -I try to have my 2nd grader doing what independent work he does (math worksheets, phonics workbook, journal writing, art projects, typing program, kodu computer programming) while I do the main hands-on subjects with the younger. -I do several of my "extra" subjects with both the boys together (history readings, Rosetta Spanish - taking turns!, health, science experiments - mainly for older).

Me, too! I have 5 ranging from 8yo to 24yo. 2 have heavy arthritis (1 from age, 1 worse from injury), 1 is mild arthritis (age, ArabX), and 2 just hand no-problems QH (mom & son!). The youngest is an 8yo QH, and he is very athletic - I am hoping to do SOMETHING with him, but for now I'm just teaching him to be a good all-around mellow riding horse (western at the moment). The rest of them I mainly just have kids & some adults doing lessons on a couple times a week. Isn't it funny how having horses at home can dictate how you do stuff? From where you live to when you can go on vacation!

My kids (5&7) were having a mini-lego war at the dining room table (where our solar system hangs): the 7yo says "now he goes to the planet that is the farthest away from the Sun" the 5yo responds "you mean Pluto?" 7yo "No, Pluto isn't a planet!" 5yo "it's a DWARF planet, and THEY COUNT!" 7yo "Dwarf planets don't count in this game!!" :)

Ours is a 2X3 also, I believe, and I screwed it to the wall right above the window by our HS table. Works great - a little difficult to write on (I have to stretch a bit or stand up to get to the middle), but I love that it is always RIGHT THERE and not walking around the house (as many of my "leave this here" things end up!).

My 7yo son is on WWE2, and I just got to the place that you have them give you the sentence to write down and then you dictate THAT sentence back to them. He generally does pretty decent on the dictation part anyhow, but he seems to do particularly well with THOSE sentences. I assume that the sentences he gives me are in a more "comfortable language" for him, therefore easier to remember (if that makes sense?) - as well as being something HE just told ME! :) Anyhow, for the dictation issues - maybe it would work better if you somehow got the sentences into his own words? I'm picturing, perhaps, a method where you read the sentence to him and ask him to repeat back to you NOT the sentence itself but the idea behind it in his own words. Then use that for the dictation, instead. This would still accomplish the goal of holding the sentence in his head, just an easier-to-hold one! I'm a strong believer in tweaking things as needed to make them work for you and for your kids - I tend to use very scripted curricula items (WWE, AAS, RS), but I end up using them as a guideline to know what to teach and to get tips on exactly how and then generally move away from the script itself...

We just got our "Usborne I-L Encyclopedia of World History" a week or so ago, and I (and the kids!!) LOVE IT!! I had decided to do only the first two sections (pre-historic & Ancient Times) this school year, which is about 4 pages a week. However, EVERY TIME we have opened the books my boys (in particular my 7yo, although my 5yo in some areas as well) have requested to read ahead - both in the section we are on and further into the book itself. We've flipped through the whole thing quickly together at least twice now. The pictures are fantastic and really draw you in! There is a lot of information, but it is done in short and succinct little bits that are easy and painless to read. We generally just sit on the couch together & I read the pages and then we spend way more time chit-chatting about it and looking at different pages. I spent awhile today seriously considering doing an additional section this school year, since we already finished most of next week's reading... My only caveat, here, is that the 1st of the 4 sections of the book is about the theory of evolution and the creation of the Earth from a scientific (non-religious) point of view. This worked out great for my family, since we lean that direction anyhow, but the number 1 complaint I read about the book was from people disagreeing with this section. Personally, I just make it clear that we really don't know one way or the other, and that the information provided is merely theory based on xyz and other people have other beliefs, and leave it at that. Honestly, it is one of only a small number (maybe 3!) of schooling-related books in our house that my kids seem to genuinely WANT to look at every time I pull it out - and the others are all books about inventions that my sciency 7yo is into!

Fortunately, in Level B most of the manipulative madness stops :) I recently started Level A again on my 2nd son, but most of the things I've already made & just kept stored in the box! Yay! I do no pre-planning, though - I just grab the book, pop it open and see what I need that day, grab those things from the cupboard & go...

My AAS 3 (recently opened) came with the regular tiles and then some of the perforated ones with a nice note talking about how delaminating tiles problems were reported and they were including the perforated ones to replace the others. Popped out easily, and they are nice and smooth! I just went and looked at them again, and I really can't hardly tell the difference between the ones I cut and the newer perforated ones.

That's pretty much exactly how I taught my now-5yo (he was reading by himself over a year ago, though, by sounding things out - he was just copying the lessons I gave his 7yo brother!). I used to tell him "I don't CARE what the name of the letter is, just tell me the SOUND!" :)

I just started my 7yo 2nd grader with WWE2 - he's very advanced, reading/writing at or above the 3rd grade level, but it is just right for him (especially with all the other writing we do). I think you should probably start with that one! :)

We're doing a lot of similar stuff, and I feel that we are doing plenty of writing (fortunately, my kids are both fairly good writers - so it is not an area I am particularly concerned about). For my 1st Grader & 2nd Grader I do WWE1&2 and AAS1&3. On top of that, my 2nd Grader is doing: Shurley English 1 (but we didn't get the workbook by Amazon error, so I am having him write some of the workbook sentences that would otherwise have been done for us). Journaling as part of Shurley English (I insist that he writes 2 sentences & then he can just draw) - my 1st Grader does journaling, too, but with only 1 sentence. Handwriting w/o Tears (cursive) and cursive worksheets. Scholastic Phonics readers (mainly for reading, but he does some writing in the workbooks). With all of the above, it actually seemed like we had SO MUCH writing that for History and Science I am not having them do any! :)

My 7yo is working on finishing Level B & I have Level C available for next year (although I hear the C & on is not as good as A & B). I just started my barely-5yo on Level A and he is progressing well. I don't think it'd be any problem for a bright 4yo - the only reason I didn't start my 2nd earlier is because I was too busy doing it faster with the 1st! When I very very first started my older son on Level A, I tried to do both the boys together so we could make a little joint progress - but it VERY QUICKLY didn't work out. The older was just too too ready to move fast and the younger really needed to slow down a bit. I ended up putting it off with the younger until just a month or so ago, but now he is READY and RUNNING! I really like Level B just as much as I liked Level A, so I'd recommend doing both :) You also don't really need any more manipulatives, just the book (we're on lesson 86 or so and have hardly used any manipulatives).

I lent my Level 1 book to a friend, since my son is now starting Level 3 (and doing GREAT!) - I love AAS! Anyhow, was it in a later level that they discussed "c" saying "s" before e,i & y? I can't quite remember when that came up, but until it does the "s" would be the natural way to spell "sent" in this word. It wouldn't be until you had already discussed the soft "c" that it would be a problem! When we go through, we basically do the new teachings and new words in 1 sitting (about 15 minutes) and the next sitting we do a double-check of the new teachings and move into the phrases (at least 3, and if he doesn't do a really nice job writing neatly we do more). My 7yo learns the rules quickly and doesn't require much repetition, so that is pretty much it before we move on. If he had problems, I would probably still only stay on one step for 2 weeks or so before just moving on and coming back to it (we get bored easily). I generally go over every card about once a month or so. The ones that he doesn't immediately get I go over more often, of course. So, sometimes I will go over none for a week or two and sometimes I have a stack of several to review (depending on how well he does). Another thing I did was go back over all previous lessons every once in awhile in a "quickie version" to see how we were doing on true recall (otherwise they can just memorize the cards!).

I'm hoping to try out the "Supercharged Science" at superchargedscience.com when my now-6yo gets to be around 8-9. It's definitely above his level right now, but it looks VERY nice for the older years!!