We have been using the ITBS for a few years and Im getting really tired of it. The kids don't enjoy it, they are rarely able to finish each section, so I dont know how accurate their scores are, and a lot of the questions dont really match what we've been studying or what i want them to know, Also, a lot of people here say the ITBS is too easy and the grade equivalents aren't terribly meaningful. I have heard of the Woodcock Johnson, and it sounds good, but I called a couple places in town who quoted it at something like $400 per child, With three kids, there's mo way I could afford that. I don't even think I could afford it for one kid! My oldest child is in sixth grade and I guess needs whatever test is required by the state this year. The other kids are just testing for our own purposes (mostly my husband's request) so we could give any test, assuming we could afford it. Any suggestions? Also, is possible to get the WJ done for less than $150, and how can I find someone in the Atlanta area to administer it? Google searches are not very helpful. Would the local public school be able to help? Thanks

My mother, who lives in town, is about to die any day now (And quite possibly any hour) from ovarian cancer. I don't know if I will feel differently (either better or worse) when she does pass, but right now I just can't imagine dealing with anything. The idea of doing anything mundane or routine, like cooking or dishes or cleaning, just seems too overwhelming to bear. I don't feel like taking care of anything. Or anybody. the idea of everybody popping out of bed first thing in the morning and hip, hip, getting right to work with chores and schoolwork, etc, sounds almost impossible. whenever I imagine what I feel like doing, or what I feel like I can cope with or what wukd sort of "feel good," I keep thinking of things that are ... Well, self-indulgent. For example, Today it occurred to me that I would enjoy an afternoon of just laying on the couch watching some silly/funny movies. The ideas of playing the piano, doing a crafts, or writing a novel I started months ago and told my mother I would dedicate to her when i finished it also sound somewhat appealing. Nothing else sounds appealing. Anyway, I guess what I was wondering is ... First of all, is that normal or common? And second, whether it is not, do I give in to that? And if so, how? I've even toyed with the idea of sending the kids to school for a couple months just because I'm not sure i can deal with everybody. Or would that just make things worse? I should add that at least two of my kids have no desire to attend school. should I just force myself to push through and do everything I'm supposed to be doing? Should I take a few weeks "off," or would that just make it harder to get back into later? My kids are 11, 9, and 6.

I desperately need to sell a few items (which I have done here many many times), but when I went to the For Sale board, it said, "You cannot start a new topic." I then tried to contact an administrator to ask why, and it said, "YOu cannot use this option." Does anyone know why?? I'm going to cry if I can't use the sale boards anymore!!

What in the world is funny phonics? I'd love to hear more about all this stuff, if you or someone else can stand sharing it. I'm always curious what goes on in public schools.

Thanks. Just FYI for anyone else, PCIP is only for people who have not had any health insurance for six months. In other words, Id have to completely drop my coverage, then wait half a year before I could enroll, and thats not really a viable option for me.

I hope you're right. Does anyone know of an official link or something that describes this for sure? I have spoken to independent brokers several times. I was told I was "uninsurable" and "no insurance company will touch you."

As I've mentioned here before, health care costs are just killing our family (see recent "nothing for Christmas" thread). Between insurance premiums and routine costs for doctor visits and meds, we are paying about $1700/month, and I don't know how much longer we can continue to live like this. I've been told to "hang in there" til 2014 when "ObamaCare" means my family can shop for health insurance despite my pre-existing condition. Does anyone has any information how that will work, exactly? Specifically ... does that mean health insurance companies will say to me, "Yes, we can sell you a policy now, and it will cost your family $1500/month for it"??? Because that certainly won't do us any good. So, what does that mean exactly, to say they can no longer deny people like me? That people like me will be insured, but get horrendously crappy coverage? Or outrageous premiums? Or will we be treated like everybody else? And does that mean everybody will have outrageous premiums and crappy coverage?

Hi, it's the OP checking back in. WOW, this has turned out to be an amazing thread! Thanks for everything that was said. I especially like all the ideas of activities. We already have a tradition of baking cookies and then driving through the neighborhoods looking at lights on Christmas Eve while eating some of them. I think we will just beef up things like that this year. I have really great kids; they find a lot of pleasure in simple things like that. I received a lot of personal replies and will be replying to them shortly; thanks for being patient. It makes me feel good to think this thread might have helped several other families. Thanks again, OP

dp, whoops, I guess I'm adjusting to the new forum!

Sorry I didn't mention that. They are 11, 9, and 6.

I can't be the only one with this problem ... Without boring you with the details, we have recently assessed our money situation, done a careful budget, and realized we can -- maybe -- squeeze out $25 to spend on Christmas, for everything. And that's actually being somewhat optimistic. I already work on evenings and weekends, so taking on an extra job isn't something I can do. I mean, I'm already doing it. And this is with old cars that are paid for, kids wearing nothing but hand-me-downs, shopping at Aldi's, kids in NO extra-curricular classes or activities, etc. In other words, it's not like we could come up with the money if we cut back extras. There are no extras. There is no money left over after things like food, gas, insurance, utilities, etc. Anyway, if you've ever been in that situation ... what do you do for Christmas? Do you tell the kids, "Sorry, Santa's not coming for anyone this year?" Do you toss a candy cane in each kids' stocking and tell them Merry Christmas? There's gotta be something better than telling the kids we have nothing and Christmas is canceled for the whole family. Any ideas? Thanks!

How has this worked, though?? You mean just one day out of the blue he got an e-mail from a total stranger who said he got his name from LinkedIn and they'd like to hire him? I guess I'd like to know how/what the people who've found useful connections are doing.

I have a small business and have been using LinkedIn for over a couple years, and I'm still wondering exactly how it's supposed to be helpful or what the point is. I have almost 300 connections, a nice photo, and a pretty complete profile. Whenever I connect with someone, I send them an e-mail thanking them for the connection, introducing myself briefly, and pointing them to my business website. Three years and 300 connections later, nothing has ever come of this. I've never gotten to know any of these people better, certainly never been contacted for work or any other reason ... it's like it's just been collecting names to click on, and nothing more. I'm not complaining -- just feeling like I'm missing something. So ... how do others use LinkedIn?? How is one "supposed" to use it? What, if anything, has LinkedIn "done for you"? Thanks!

Anyone? Any thoughts about Rosetta Stone??

My in-laws just offered to buy Rosetta Stone Spanish for our kids for Christmas this year. The kids are 11, 9, and 6, and all have some basic knowledge of Spanish, ie colors and numbers, how to say hello, how are you, that kind of thing. I have Getting Started with Spanish and was going to begin it with the older two in a couple months. I wanted to find get some information about Rosetta Stone to share with my husband and decide it, in fact, it would be a good fit for us and something we want. What can anything share, good or bad? How does it compare to other Spanish programs? Thanks!

I never understood that. I thought 50th percentile meant [roughly] "average compared to everybody else." But if a considerable percentage of "everybody else" is performing poorly, I'm not sure if 50th percentile is on grade level ...?

I always find posts like this incredibly interesting, especially because in almost all homeschool communities other than this board, all I ever hear is to "not worry at all about how much you do" or "you could do nothing but read aloud to them all year, and they would be fine" or "if all you did today for school was Bible and devotion, it's been a good school day." Also, generally speaking, I never hear about homeschool grads struggling or having minimum wage jobs as adults. The assumption is that if you're caring parent, homeschooling will be a fabulous success, end of story. People will probably get mad at me for saying this, but I believe Todd Wilson is a big proponent of the "Don't worry about it; whatever you're doing is fine; just the fact that God gave you children means you're a perfect homeschooling parent," etc mindset. If there are, in fact, "homeschool failures," it almost feels a dirty little well-kept secret. Or maybe many people don't realize it's possible? Anyway, I'd be curious if you could elaborate a little on what you've seen. At what point does it become "educational neglect"? Where do you draw the line between having a relaxed style and being lazy and neglectful? Could you give more details on these things you've "seen happen more than once"? Why did it happen? Did the family not know they were behind, or did they know, but dismiss it? And when it did, was the family surprised? {I have, for example, known unschooling families who kids ended up with minimum wage jobs, but everybody in the family said that was perfectly fine, because the grown kids were happy.} What would you consider a specific "Mom lazy habit"? Uh ... so I can see whether or not I'm doing them. Or maybe this needs to move to start a new thread ...?

Quick question because I often worry about this: What would "behind" look like on a standardized test? The reason I ask is because I often worry about my child being behind. For the last two years she has scored in the 60th percentile on the ITBS. (Many of the questions she misses because of the time limit.) I've heard from a couple people that one "should" score in the 90th percentile, or that anything below the 90th percentile means they aren't on grade level. Thoughts?

"Rarely" implies (to me) that you had at least one or two, of some sort. I disagree that cell phone and internet are not necessities. I need the internet for my job, and I would not feel safe driving alone without a cell phone. (Even if I didn't have a cell phone, that would free up about $8/month, hardly enough to make saving for retirement possible!) But now re-reading your post ... are you basically saying that deciding to follow Dave Ramsey means never taking a vacation of any kind, never eating anything for dinner other than rice and beans, never going to the movies or eating out or buying furniture, etc, etc, for 20+ years? Because if that's what the program is all about, that's fine. But then we have to re-think if this is something we want to commit to doing. It seems like a lot to ask of people. To say, "Well, immigrants lived like that generations ago!" doesn't make it more of an acceptable lifestyle to me.

But how? That is my point. We don't have the money to do Step 4 alone; how could we possibly do Step 4 and Step 5 and Step 6???

That isn't useful or helpful to me. I don't need a book or a financial expert to tell me that we could have more money if we somehow made more money. Well, gee, no kidding. (No offense to you, it just irks me that that's all he has to offer.)

I have read Total Money Makeover cover to cover, and we have been working the "Baby Steps" for a few months now. I like the concept, but a few things confuse me and/or mildly irk me. The beginning steps make sense. Pay off debt. Eat rice and beans, forego buying new furniture, etc to do it. Then once that's done, use that money toward funding your emergency fund. Then when that's finished, use that money for the next step. Here's where I get stuck. The next step is to put 15% of your income in a retirement. There is no mention of what to do if you can't spare that amount of money (I can't imagine how we could, even without debt.) But my main question is ... how and when does that Step Four ever end?? :confused: With the other steps, there was a clear end, where you "finished" and could move on to the next step. But how do you move on to Step Five, saving for college? Where is that extra money for Step Five supposed to come from, and when are you supposed to get it? Then same thing with Step Five. When are you "done"? I guess you're not supposed to move to the next Baby Step and pay off the house until all your kids have finished college?? :confused: That seems like an awfully long time to move through this financial plan. And along the same lines ... how long, exactly, are you supposed to eat beans and rice, forego anything "extra" or nice, like family vacations, decent furniture, etc? I can understand doing that for a year or two while you're frantically paying off debt. But if I have to wait til we have no debt and a huge emergency fund and be saving 15% and be saving regularly for college and have our house paid off ... well, in the first place, I don't know how it's possible to ever even do that; I don't even know where that money would come from, and unless I missed something, he doesn't seem to tell you. It's just, "Put 15% away for retirement, then also find some more money to put away more for your kids' college, and then also find some more moeny to pay off your house early." Hello, of course I would like to do those things, and know I should do them, without you having to tell me. But your book doesn't tell me how it's possible! But in the second place, if we waited to get through all the Baby Steps before we could take family vacations, it would literally be too late. My kids would be grown by then. Anyway, maybe I am missing something. Please help me out! Again, my biggest concern is how/when you can move from Step Four to Step Five, and then to Step Six. If you're lucky enough to be able to do Step Four, there is no money left to ever do Step Five or Step Six.

Yup, us too. We don't qualify for anything because we "make too much," but a third of our income goes to routine health care and health insurance.

I don't think it's a good thing that people with insurance are re-thinking seeing a specialist they ought to be seeing, or getting a mammogram or pap, etc, because they can't afford it. I have a serious chronic illness and have three specialists I see regularly, and four when things are going more poorly. Add this to things like getting pap smears and mammograms, and I'm easily going to the doctor twenty times a year. That doesn't even count the rest of my family. And it doesn't count things that are a "problem" that come up, like getting strep throat. At $75 per doctor visit (not to mention our huge premiums), it is a ridiculous chunk of our budget.

Exactly. With a $75 co-pay, we now have to evaluate whether something is "worth" going to the doctor or not. It is really sad that people with health insurance are actually canceling doctor appointments (which we recently did) because it costs so much just to visit a doctor. I don't even know if this plan is allowing people to get coverage. I still cannot get coverage, and I was told that even when it goes into effect, yes, I can buy coverage, IF I can afford to pay through the nose. Just because they can't deny me anymore doesn't mean they can't charge me whatever they want.