How about focusing on one letter a month, or a fortnight, or whatever, but pretty spaced out. So, for September demonstrate proper "h" formation, then have her do a few every morning as warm-up. You could get really creative, or bare bones, or in between, whatever suits the both of you. I've been working that with my ds (what was I thinking teaching a hand with serifs??) Anyway, his "r"s bothered me the most, so we/I focused on them. Then I moved to "t"s. Especially if her handwriting is pretty good to startseems like not making it into a big then might be a nice way to go. I would preface it all up front that standard letter formation makes for smoother, faster, neater writing later in life.

I just can't bring myself to "like" this problem, but I'm paying attention as I somewhat expect one of my twins to have similar issues when we get there. At least your ds had a working method, no? You just want him to become fluent with the standard method? Does he do the "multiply to check" step?

I'll be humming about that Jenny through dinner, haha! Targeted advertising sounds good. Also have a plan in place for how to accommodate new families? The plan could just be "no", of course, but in a small town you don't want to burn any bridges, right? So maybe you are allowed to stop by and or stay, only 2 hours at a time to start, home by dark, etc. Something so that she has a ready response for families that haven't been cleared by you. What about offering sick-day or snow-day or after-school care as a foot in the door?

I really regretted training wheels with my twins, so with my youngest we bought a balance bike, like Stephanie mentioned above. It looks like a bike but no pedals. She transitioned from that to a regular 16" this summer, with some intensive how-to-use-brakes training. I expect to sell it for a good percentage of the original purchase price.

Farrar has some good ones, I might add Dodsworth, Ivy & Bean and the Underpants on my Head series (can't remember the author right now). You might also look at the Gooney Bird Greene series by Lois Lowry. Each book has a different subject, poetry, the human body, storytelling, etc. The reading level is a bit higher, though.

I have one. Gift from my mil. Sometimes I use it to chip a few servings of frozen vegetables off the block. Also, when the plastic opener ring for the vinegar pulls off in my hand (e-v-e-r-y time, stupid cheap vinegar bottles) I put it in awl mode to salvage the bottle.

Ooh, I wonder what they have up there for middle-school history...

That is hilarious! Are there actual titles on there? A sure homeschooled give-away is if you can find the same title more than once!

Gasp! Did you just suggest eating a grape without paying for it? Next you'll be restarting the big cart controversy and people will be studying over to the bakery for cupcakes. I'll look for them when I'm out this weekend, thigh. I love sponsoring variety in the grocery.

You didn't miss anything with walnuts, they're a pain to get out. Seriously difficult. At the end of the mowing season we pay a mower dealership place to come pick up our mower and do yearly maintenance. Sharpen blades, change oil and filter, light bulbs, check battery, fuel stabilizer for the winter, etc. It is not cheap and all stuff we could do ourselves, but I know it won't get done anyway, that's the easiest way to get the blades sharpened.

Why do we blame the paying passenger when that is one of the "features" of airplane seats? The manufacturers and the airlines know exactly what they are selling you. How convenient for them thatwe are blaming each other for using the commodity as they have designed it. That said, I can't afford to fly anything other than coach when we fly. I just expect a hot, crowded, stressful time and hope that it all goes as smoothly as possible. If the person in front off me wants to recline that is just pay of the experience.

Kyoto has a nice bus system we used for a week. I used the train around Osaka, but mostly between the job site and the hotel, but one weekend to Meiji Castle.

Kyoto has a nice bus system we used for a week. I used the train around Osaka, but mostly between the job site and the hotel, but one weekend to Meiji Castle.

Have a matter list somewhere but keep your to-do list limited to just 2 or 3 things. Be sure those are single-step items, too. No projects. If you have anything that needs more than one step to accomplish, list the steps separately!

I like Ripley's idea, quick schedule a mani-pedi at someplace someone had ever raved to you about. Our even just mentioned. Also, be sure to mention how great it is that she can take you ALL out for dinner at the new place.

You are right. I think the amount of resources is irrelevant if the subject is going okay for you (teacher/student)

This makes sense. I read these threads because I feel like I am taking tiny, baby steps to find this since it is my first time through the homeschool circuit (the woe of the oldest children). I think my situation is also common for people like myself who keep coming back to the idea of "which curriculum". Something I can see and read and question and tweak. I find myself much less tethered with my younger. It is helpful to hear from the people "ahead".

Okay, now we are at a break, I'm feeling calmer, and I'm thinking that my putting numbers on subjects is really just a way to measure their attention spans for different subjects. I also harbour guilt that if I could do a better job of Socratic questioning things would look different. Tracy - maybe there are too many variables for a list of curricula. So much depends on teacher presentation and student personality. But I will throw a few out any way! I think BFSU works that way, it includes a lot of prompts for letting students think about questions on their own and fixing them to answers. We have been using FLL for years, but that program is not keeping up with the maturity of my students, and some here have posited that grammar need not be taught at all in the early years, so I don't think it makes the cut. We are using GSWL and seem to be doing well with 15 minutes a day of either review or a new lesson.

I'm in the midst of a Monday, but today I think that often this "less is more" idea in practice means about 15 minutes of me conveying new or review information and then the flexibility to spend whatever time is needed to cement the topic. For foreign languages that time is about 30 minutes, for spelling and grammar it is about 15 (although I'm going to have to rethink grammar altogether. Math is longer, writing I haven't figured out. Obviously these are just rough figures that I've found for us, with what we have been using these last few weeks. Math and Latin are topics I can hold up as negative examples. When I push my dd to "just finish the page" even when her wires are blazing, over exceeded less and headed into more. Same with Latin and my ds.

I've been compressing MEP and alternating days with BA. My ds doesn't need all of the teacher-intensive discussion and introductions. I skim through, pencil a note about the bits I want to go over with him and then work this in during math time. The BA days he is pretty much on his own.

Birch bark is amazingly easy to cut off the tree, if you have a tree. It doesn't kill the tree, does it? They used birch bark so much, I assume it doesn't kill the tree? Not sure exactly what you are looking for but I found a few art projects at nativeamericanactivities.com One is a birch bark basket that I bet you could do with real birch bark OR you could modify it to make a canoe. I want sure how literally to interpret your request. :-)

Yikes. That would have been confusing and probably anger-making for me if I didn't know what was going on. Was it a surprise, or were you watching for it based on his mother's diagnosis? Does the disease progress steadily (as it has for my grandmother) or can it plateau, so no worsening in symptoms? I'm glad he has a large family near-by to help, and that you all get along!

I'm sorry. Is he still home with you? Do you have long-term plans for care? Was he able to participate in creating those plans? I feel so sure that I will develop Alzheimer's and that my dh will be left caring for me. Thank you for opening yourself for questions, and if you decide not to answer any that is cool too. How did you first become aware of the problem?

I have often wished there was a "less is more" option for FLL. I envision something like a pretest booklet for each lesson - if you can remember x and diagram y, lesson over., if you stumble here is a pleasant review. Also, I struggle with "lim" for math. I need more day-to-day direction than Kitchen Table Math provides, but MEP and MM (both of which I'm teaching this year) are difficult for me to pare down to that sweet spot. I think it can be tricky to find a "less" that still ensures retention.

The engineering companies I am familiar with often have a small list of schools they tend to look to first for hiring, but it is not a requirement that your degree be from one of those places. Not surprisingly, if your degree is from a respected institution in the field you should be in the running. Start with the major ranking lists for the degree you are interested in and go from there.