We also really enjoyed it but I swear it's the last time I'll ever do another thing that says "science (or whatever subject area you want to put in there) with simple things"! It took me a YEAR to accumulate all the chackas and containers. Blessings, Chris

call your MIL and ask her for advice on how to get rid of them! I'm not crazy, do it. Here's why: (1) She'll love that you think enough of her to ask her for advice, (2) she'll be on the alert for them and not surprised if one scampers by, (3) she will become your ally and will likely arrive at your house armed with stuff to kill the buggers, and (4) it will give you two something to laugh over in years to come. ((((hugs)))) for courage, Chris

Not the same child obviously! DS 17 nursed until he was about 3, maybe 3.5 -- he weaned while I was pregnant with child #2 DS 13 nursed forever. I honestly can't remember if he was 5 or closer to 6 when he weaned. All I can say for sure is that he weaned before we moved into our current house, and he was almost 7 when we did that. DS4 is still nursing, still going strong too, with no thoughts of weaning. He ignores me when I tell him that soon he'll be a big boy and big boys don't nursey and they use the potty (he still hides in his closet when that time comes around). While I am eager to wear one piece dresses again, ones without nursing holes, I'm not uptight about the issue. I know he'll wean when he's ready and that's OK with me. (P.S. It's OK with DH too. He's my biggest fan with the whole natural parent thing.) C

I meant the WTM book, sorry I didn't specify. I have the original, still in good condition, still on my shelves, still referred to now and again, after all these years. I think I bought mine when it first came out and the WTM phenomena was sweeping the HS culture, back in 1999 or 2000 or so. (Too lazy to check the copyright date.) I 'googled' the WTM recently to find the recommendation for rhetoric level composition and discovered a different book than what we originally used. The Kane book is now supposed to be used after Weston's rather than going straight into Corbett's. That, coupled with the news that SWB has more wisdom for using WTM with LD kids in the new edition, got me thinking that maybe I should look into the new edition. So, is it worth it? Should I ask for it for Christmas, even at this late date? What kinds of changes can I expect to find? I now have a child starting college, an LD boy entering logic even though he's nearly 14 and WAY behind his peers, and a little guy too young to do real school yet. C

Oh, Peela, thanks so much for understanding what I'm talking about here and especially for letting me know that it's OK for him to get a solid Logic stage by the end of high school. That's essentially why we are having to sell away the lovely and wonderful ToG curriculum ... because he just can't do it, no way, no how, it's like forcing a square peg into a round hole and try as I might, even with reading aloud to him and having the audio versions, he just doesn't get it. We backed into UG then had to back up again into the LG too, and I just can't stand to see such a wonderfully written curriculum go to waste because it's just the wrong fit for us. EKS, thanks so much for the recommendation about trying Lial's Basic College math. That may very well work better than me trying to reinvent the wheel! I pulled out Jacob's Human Endeavor and Ray's Practical Arithmetic the other day and have been trying to work out a way to give him the arithmetic he still needs, at a pace he can handle, but in a more linear fashion than most texts take. This whole dyslexia issue is a true struggle, especially because he sees the world so differently than I do, and because of the beating his self-esteem has taken in going through all these struggles. He sees his older brother not struggle (that one's sort of stepford-student) and takes his own struggles as meaning that he's just not smart, when in reality, with just brain power, I think he's much smarter than the older one (not that I'd ever tell them that!). This boy, when he was between 7 and 10, was following along with the Apologia sciences when my oldest did them, not reading, not writing anything, but he got it! (And often, the older one didn't!) No matter how often I tell him that he is special and that he is a very intelligent young man, he doesn't believe me. I think part of that may be that he wants to embrace the 'goofy' pubescence of the moment, but I know some of it is real to him. When I reread my second posting about wanting a crash course, I saw that I really do have a crash course already in mind. It's good to know that I CAN focus on him and what he needs rather than worry over the laundry list of subjects that the state demands of its graduates. I'm so glad that you all have taken the time to remind me that it is me who decides WHAT the courses consist of and that it is the student who is the barometer of what he can handle. Thanks again. C

So, how much of a difference is there? Enough for me to buy a new one? C

Yes, I'm doing all that you both recommend, but ... here's the thing, what do I do about his abilities when they don't mesh with the laundry list? Say I decide he "needs" calculus to graduate and that means he needs to be in algebra now but he is still learning fractions and division. What then?? Also, we expended tons of effort in getting him to learn to read, many hours, multitudes of tears, much money, and major prayer, but in order to focus on that we had to let other things go. That means that he's WAY behind where he should be if I even try to follow the WTM progression. The way I look at it, he needs to learn the outlining skill, needs a broad sweep through history, must learn to identify fallacies when he meets them, and has to learn how to construct a valid coherent argument to defend his position on whatever subject. He should learn the basics of science, scientific method, how the world works, etc. He should also know how to type without doing any hunting or pecking (like I do). He needs to learn to discern the nuances of our worldview, more importantly, he needs to learn what his worldview is and what that means when the rubber meets the road. So, how do I do all of that, in the time we have before high school officially starts? I'm OK with and encouraged by the thought of having HS begin in 10th grade rather than 9th for him but I wonder if even 18 months is enough to do all that needs to be done to get him ready for the rigors of the rhetoric level. Just thinking about it all puts me in such a twist!!

Hi Folks, Our second son, 13, is a serious dyslexic and quite frankly, learning to read was far more important to me than anything else so we let a lot fall by the wayside. Well, now he's going on 14 (been reading for about two years and still working on overcoming other aspects of this LD) and technically in 8th grade and we want to help him get ready for high school. He's not ready for rhetoric level work, he's just getting into puberty and starting to be ready for logic level things, so we're way behind to say the least. I've reread my WTM and other things trying to figure out what we should do in this next semester to continue to help him. I doubt we'll call his next term, his 9th grade year, a high school year, but we really don't want to "leave him back" -- he does want to graduate with his peers. BTW, he doesn't believe he's smart either even though he's made remarkable progress, going from not being able to read more than three letter words at 12 to being able to read, really read, his Bible (NIV) on his own in under two years! We're also still working on the math issue; he's up to L16 of Intermediate MUS Classic, which is about the equivalent of Delta or Epsilon, fractions and division. There's no way he's ready for algebra yet. We tried ToG and it didn't really work out for him. He couldn't handle the questions in the Dialectic level at all, and some of the more subtle things in the literature totally went over his head. We're also still working on writing skills and the act of handwriting. We haven't done science in over a year either. I feel so overwhelmed right now, trying to figure out what to do, what skills to focus in on over the next few months, and what we can reasonably expect to be able to plan for his future school years. Is there a crash course we could do? Something that could help him get up to speed, or at least closer to where he should be, but something that won't kill him! Thanks for any advice and encouragement you may have.