Regentrude, Thank you. I should know how to do this but was having a brain fog. Your answer makes sense.

I am trying to make sure I am on right track to helping my daughter with this problem. Two runners are on a track running in opposite directions at constant speeds. Runner A takes 40 seconds to run a lap. Runner B is going in the opposite direction. They meet every 15 seconds. How long does it take Runner B to run a lap. I calculated the rate at 40 sec/15 sec = 2 2/3 times so I multiplied that by Runner A's 40 sec. Is this on the right track?

We are doing okay. School ended 5/24 and we went on vacation through 6/5. She attended a camp through the end of the week. Summer plans were to cover any pre-algebra gaps and start on Alg 1 so that she is familiar with the various topics when she encounters them in school. She has started Foerster Alg I supplemented with problems from Dolciani Alg 1. Our main focus for math was to improve her ability to do word problems. 1st goal - Math pre-Algebra review/Algebra 1 - daily and reading daily 2nd goal - Spelling improvement - She still struggles with this - so she is doing Phonetic Zoo Level C - mostly independent which she likes better. 3rd goal - Improve typing - She does this on her own pace. 4th goal - Writing Skills/Deductive Reasoning/Analogies - We use Kilgallon, Mind Benders B1 and Analogies, respectively. We do this 1 or 2 times a week depending on my schedule. She really hates this part but needs it the most. So far we have done well with the math and reading but not as much writing as I would like. She is going to overnight camp all next week.

Hartstrings - Hartstrings brand. They have another brand for 7s but I think it's inappropriate.

Easy Grammar Plus by Wanda Phillips - see Christianbook.com - reviews punctuation, capitalization, grammar, sentence combining, etc. It has daily lessons that take about 10 - 20 minutes/day. My daughter used it the summer between 7th & 8th grade. She will continue with it the summer of 8th grade.

No offense taken. I share with those who are interested but do not push when I see that they are not or uncomfortable. Dobela did a good job summing up our beliefs but again all congregations are autonomous and have no governing body except the New Testament.

My daughter's private school is switching to problem-solving centered math away from skill-based centered math. They are using the Phillips Exeter math department program. I am concerned that this is going to cause a lot of frustration for my daughter as well as other students. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how I can help her or prepare her for this change. It will start in the fall of her freshmen year when she takes Algebra I. Mostly they are going to give them math problems of various types for homework with minimal guidance on how to do them. The next day they will discuss them and the student is supposed to glean understanding by asking questions. The teacher will serve as a guide but will no longer provide direct instruction on how to solve the problem. Each student is responsible for explaining how they came up with their solutions. I understand why they are doing this but this approach/method is not successful with all students. Currently, the school is not offering an alternative track. They also said in the announcement that they knew this would be difficult for most students but it will be worth it in the long run. I am concerned my daughter will have gaps in Algebra. Sorry this is so long. Thanks for looking.

No change in any Sunday service - worship as usual. We never have a Christmas Eve service. But then again it's not a religious observation for church.

I just want to tell I am so sorry. I have prayed for you and your family.

Beansmom, My daughter is 13 and we found out she was dyslexic at 10, 5th grade. She did not perform poorly in the classroom until 4th grade. However, I would say she performed inconsistently in 4th. Sometimes exceptional, other times poorly - it depended on the topic, her interester, her mood. Either way because of her test scores she will never get an IEP but I don't feel she needs one. When we found out she was dyslexic we took her out of her private school & sent her to one that specialized in working with students with learning disabilities. Onlike your daughter she has never performed well on any standardized test where she had to do the bubbling - but she does fine just answering. Multiple choice tests are very difficult for her. My husband and I questioned the cost of the school, its necessity since she was not doing horribly. But she struggled with multisyllable words and other skills. She received the O-G training on a daily basis and had 3 separate language classes (reading/spelling, writing, O-G tutoring). However, we sent her for 3 years (5th - 7th). It was the best decision we ever made. Yes, it was difficult financially but worth it. Her first year was tough - she didn't want to leave her friends but she met new friends and formed wonderful friendships with children who had similar quirks. You might want to weigh the pros and cons of sending her, what do you hope to accomplish while she is there. At first I didn't think she needed to be there but once she was there I realized that this was what she needed for the time being even though her dyslexia is mild. She left her 8th grade year and is attending a private Christian school. She has been doing well with minimal accommodations however we are doing a formal 504 plan for the 2nd semester. If your daughter is doing well with the tutor she may be fine. Dyslexia is not the same for every child. A tutor would not have worked for her because the school she was attending in 4th gave a lot of homework that my daughter worked on for hours each night. It took her longer to do her 4th grade work than her current 8th grade work. I wish you the best in your decision. I will say that she had several classmates at the specialty private school that only went for one year and are doing really well. Her schools motto, 'Go as fast as we can and as slow as we must'. My daughter was behind grade level in reading, writing, spelling, reading comprehension and reading nonsense words when she started. When she left she was either above or on grade level in all these areas. If you wait another year or 2 it may allow you to see how she is progressing. I do understand your concerns about space availability. The 3 years my daughter was there - there was a wait list for 6 & 7th grades (The didn't really do grades - skill levels). Good luck to you. We made our decision based on the fact that you only get one shot at education and our daughter really hated going to school at the time and had very low self confidence which does not seem to be a problem with your daughter. My daughter loves learning now and her self confidence is so much better.

Actually if you have the phone number all you have to do is go to the store and request to make a payment on that account. You don't need much else. We have done that with my stepdaughter's phone. She does not live with us and is not on our plan. You don't have to discuss the account or ask for account information. Just say you want to pay x amount of dollars. You can do this for the next 3 - 6 months.

Funny you asked. We just went to her 6 month follow-up this afternoon. He ended up changing her prescription for her glasses. Her astigmatism is not as bad. However, she has improved which I already knew. Either way she did not need to continue her therapy. Fortunately for us our insurance paid for all her vision therapy except for about $100 or so. I don't really remember. I just know we paid less than 10% out of pocket for the whole thing. Her condition was not severe and we did 4 sessions/week to get it done in 4 months instead of the 6 - 9 months.

Dyslexia affects executive functioning. At my daughter's previous school, private school for students with learning disabilities, they worked on executive functioning skills. My daughter is 13 and still unable to 'clean' her room. She hoards items. I generally do not tell her she has to clean her room but I inform her she cannot have guests over or visit someone else unless her room is clean. By clean I mean: I can walk in without tripping over items on the floor, I can see the top of her desk, and there are no items stuffed underneath her bed. When the room gets unbearable I go in and purge without her help. Usually she stands there whining and fussing saying she needs whatever it is I am trashing; however, I ignore her and continue with my process. She does not like this but it starts to smell which is unacceptable. She is all the time losing items (books, clothes, shoes, socks, etc) in that room. I am the one who has to find it when she can't locate it herself which brings her to tears. So I try to insist that she put all items back in the designated place - this is a daily reminder. I read the book, Smart but Scattered which was rather helpful.

We have a Christmas savings account that we use every year. We buy for my daughter and step-daugther (in college so she usually gets money). I generally spend less for my daughter because she gets gifts from aunts, uncles and grandparents. Every year we say we are going to spend less on her but it rarely changes. We may buy less stufff but the big gift usually costs more or equal to all the little stuff. We buy for 2 nieces & 1 nephew sometimes - not always consistent. We also exchange gifts. Either way we generally spend up to about $700 - $750.

You have segway (which is a self-propelled scooter of some sort). Do you mean segue?

Well, I do understand that it is Congress who declares war. My point is I don't think during war we have time to put enemies on trial.

Not only did George W. Bush declare war on terrorism after 9/11 he specifically declared war on Al Qaeda and that American terrorist, Anwar al-Awlaki, was a lead operative in Al Qaeda. Unfortunately, our country is at war and war is not pretty. So as a terrorist I guess he should be treated differently from Osama Bin-Laden because he's an American terrorist although both want to destroy Americans.

Itsasmallworld - Thank you so much for your post. I just attended a training class for Barton Level I this past weekend. It was very helpful. They are offering Level II in October. The training class and materials are being offered at a good price. So I going so that I can help tutor others. The information you gave will help me as I work with my students.

I just want to offer you support to say I have been in your shoes. My daughter has 'mild' dyslexia but it's still dyslexia nonetheless. It is very difficult for me to empathize with her but I try. I have rarely if ever had to struggle with anything academically to the point where I just could not do it so it's hard for me to relate to her. Like your daughter she is emotional and sensitive and gets rather frustrated with herself. She 13 and has known she was dyslexic since she was 10. She spends a lot of time wishing she wasn't and not using the tools that she has to help her with frustrates me. She thinks completely different from the way that I do so sometimes it's difficult for me to help her grasp a concept because I am thinking how I would learn it and do it. This is despite all the books and research I have done on dyslexia. The one thing I do know is that it is different for each person and does not manifest itself the same. My daughter's memory is exceptional such that she is almost able to retain/remember most of what she hears audibly. I simply cannot resonate with some of her struggles but I am working really hard to do that but it's not easy. I am saying all this just to say that it's a daily battle that you have to work at because no one is perfect - parents or children. There is always another day. Apologize to your daughter and move on. ETA: I have high expectations for my daughter and am pretty sure I know what she is capable of. Most of the time we butt heads because I don't want her using dyslexia as an excuse to not try harder which I think is where you are coming from as well.

I know you asked about Megawords. I did the assessment on my two nephews who are entering 6th grade in the fall. They don't spell well at all. I had them for the summer. Either way they did so poorly on the assessment I decided to skip Megawords altogether. I used How To Spell Level 3 for them and How to Spell Level 4 for my 13 year old. I bought the teacher's manual as well. It gives words, phrases and sentences to dictate. It is not very complicated. It also covers syllable types and various spelling rules. That worked very well with my nephews as their biggest issue was they did not know phonics very well and had no strategy for spelling multisyllable words. I felt Megawords was more of a program for improving the pronunciation of multisyllable words. I also felt that there was no way we were would be able to finish 8 levels over the summer but we got pretty far using How to Spell.

We aren't either. As a matter of fact my two nephews who I have for the summer and my daughter are all reading. Once they finish that they have some other work to do as well. We are going to have some brats on the grill but that's about it. My husband had to go into work.

How To Spell covers phonics and spelling. The teacher's manual is How to teach spelling. I am using it with my 11 year old nephews (Book 3) and my 8th grade daughter (Book 4). Book 3 is 4 - 6 grade and book 4 is 7 -12 grade.

Ok, Breann. You're funny. It was her daughter taking the grammar not mom. It doesn't count with moms.

I am using two different programs but they both serve a purpose. She needs to learn to construct good sentences so we use Killgallon's Sentence Composing for Middle School. We also use Writing Strands - we do this heavily over the summer. I am trying to get her through all the levels or close to it by the time she graduates from high school. We do not follow the recommended schedule because we are not doing it over a years time. Meaning - if it says take 3 -4 days to do an assignment she is capable of doing it in 1 day because she's older than the recommended age. During the school year we do Killgallon on the weekends and 1 day during the week when homework is light. Killgallon is modeling good sentences.

I read The Well-trained Mind years ago when my 13 year old was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Sadly, I shipped it to a friend in Hawaii who wanted to homeschool her son. I should have just bought it for her.