Now that's interesting to me because the whole reason I was using the ITBS is because I thought that was the most common, most official, "big-Daddy" standardized test. My husband really wanted me to test them with what the public schools use to test, to see if they're keeping up, and I thought that was the best choice for that purpose. If no one uses the ITBS anymore, what do they use?? Thanks the link. My only concern with something that I score myself is that I wouldn't know what a "good" score was, or what was considered "on grade level" (because, really, that's what we're trying to find out -- if they're on, below, or above grade level, and if so, how much)

Hmmm ... that's not good. The reason we test is for our purposes, mostly because we both (but especially my husband) want to see if we're "keeping up" and the kids are working hard, staying on or above grade level, etc. If the ITBS is too easy and gives a false sense of achievement, then I'm not sure it's meeting our whole purpose in giving it. Any other suggestions? I have heard of the Woodcock Johnson, but I've heard it's hundreds of dollars per kid ... also, how would I find a place that would give it?

Also, I was surprised (not disappointed, just surprised) at how much easier the test appeared compared to test prep books and practice/classroom sites I had looked up, especially in the area of math.

Our ITBS test arrived this weekend, and my kids started taking them yesterday. My oldest is finishing fifth grade, and my younger is finishing third grade, but I'm "testing her up" and giving her a fourth grade test. Anyway, when the tests first arrived in the mail, I honestly thought there was a mistake, or that I placed the order wrong or something. The fifth grade test not only had some of the exact questions I remembered from last year's fourth grade test -- but it many of the exact questions and reading selections that are on her younger sister's fourth grade test! I couldn't believe how much of the two tests were exactly the same. In math computation, the only real difference was that the fifth grade test had a few questions about adding fractions and decimals, while the fourth grade test did not. What strikes me as curious about this is: It kinda gives the impression that ... well, almost nothing happens in fifth grade! Like it's expected to be review, and then maybe spend a month learning how to add fractions and decimals, throw in a few harder vocab and spelling words, and that's it! The other thing (that kinda bugs me) is that so little of the test seems to have anything to to do with what we covered this year. My girls spent the year learning about Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth, Martin Luther, and the invention of the printing, etc. Of course nothing like that was on the tests. However, there were questions about Kwanzaa, goods and services, a couple "banks are closed" holidays and what tax money goes to. Really? What is the point of those questions, anyway? And how is a Social Studies score from those types of questions even helpful to us? Along the same lines, the kids have worked so hard on grammar -- doing the MCT 4-level analysis every day, one of them even learning about gerunds and infinitive phrases. There is nothing on the entire test that even asks about basic parts of speech -- like what a noun is! First of all, it's annoying, because we're spending time and money testing for our own purposes, to see where everybody stands and if our homeschool is doing well. I'm not not sure what use these scores will be for us. Second, I'm curious what this says, if anything, about US public education and the expectations and objectives. Are fifth graders not expected that know parts of speech? Are fifth grade expectations barely a hair more than fourth grade expectations? Is understanding Kwanzaa (which was on both girls' tests, plus I remember it from last year!) a major objective in elementary school? For that matter, who makes up these tests, and how is it decided what's on them? I'm really asking. And how can I best use these scores so that they really are helpful to us? Just see if they improved their scores from last year, that kind of thing?

Anyone?? Surely there has to be someone else out there who has a writing project going?

I decided this weekend that I'm going to write a book this summer. I would love to have a virtual "writing buddy" -- someone who can keep me accountable, where we could bounce ideas off other, critique excerpts of our work, share any tips about the writing process or good books that encourage/inspire good writing, etc. If you're interested, please PM me! :001_smile:

After literally decades of wanting to write a book (and publishing about ten articles), I'm planning to buckle down and really write something this summer. I wanted to get some feedback for the idea I have in my head, and maybe any extra thoughts, if anyone has them. You won't hurt my feelings if you think the ideas sound stupid. Background: in real life, I have been working for about 3-4 years to have a "side career" as a solo pianist. I've played at weddings in fancy places, Christmas parties in people's homes, an office lobby at Christmas time, and at a local mall department store (which, BTW, barely pays minimim wage). I played at some fundraisers for free trying to get my name out there. (It didn't work.) I was thinking of writing about the whole journey ... not only the places I've played, but the struggles: for example, once I was fired from a restaurant job and sent home in the middle of my shift. Once I was stranded at an event with my VERY heavy keyboard and had to beg the wait staff to help me load my car. My problem is: 1) Would anyone really care? 2) Is three years of doing this not enough to make a particularly interesting story about it? (I don't want to have to wait 5 more years to write the book just so that more stuff happens to write about) 3) Would it sound too much like, "Me me me me!"? Too self-absorbed and egotistical, kind of like being at a party with someone who talks about their job and their vacation for an hour? Second idea ... most of my writing in the past has been fiction short stories (aimed for tweens/teens, in fact). SO .... I'm wondering if I should put a fictional spin on it. That way, I could embellish things to make them a little funnier of more interesting, I would have more freedom -- wouldn't be locked into just the actual facts, could throw in some extra characters, different motivations and reactions, etc. The only problem with a fiction version is that I feel like I need a more interesting plot/conflict than just, "Stay-at-home mom embarks on side career as cocktail pianist. Sometimes it's awesome, sometimes it's a disaster, but she keeps plugging away, and eventually ends up in a good place." So ... if you're still reading :lol: my questions are basically: 1) Does either sound like a good idea, and why or why not? 2) Does one sound like a better approach than the other, and why? 3) Care to throw in any suggestions, nuances, or a particular angle to focus on? And then to throw a whole wrench into all *THAT*, I don't know if I should try to somehow make it be a YA book. (Making the character much younger.) Is the YA market much harder to break into/harder to write for than adults, because somehow I have it in my head that it is. Thanks SO much for any comments!! In return, I will officially give you a free, autographed copy when it is published.:) Jenny

I have been a Christian ever since I was a child, but over the last few years I have had increasing doubt in the fact that the Bible is really the Word of God. I want to believe that it is, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking, "What makes this different from any other religion? Who decided that these letters and stories were The Word of God, and other things aren't? What makes the any different from the Koran, or the Book of Morman, or even myths and tales from other ancient religions? Why are Paul's letters any more significant than any other letter that people wrote within the last two thousand years?" The usual answers I get to this are not helpful. Quoting scripture that say, "All scripture is God-breathed" is not useful to me, for multiple reasons. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had either a) Thoughts; or b) Book suggestions that you think might be helpful or inspiring to me. I'm not sure I'm looking for a typical "apologetics" book (although I would be open to it). I don't know if someone saying, "Well, the Bible must be true, because archaeologist have found ..." is going to quite convince me. I don't think I'm looking for the "historical" truth of the Bible, but more reason to believe that it is inspired by God. And anything YEC is definitely not going to help me personally. It might help if it was something particularly ... intellectual ... like of a CS Lewis caliber. A very intelligent author, but not too terribly hard to read. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Since this happened to us a couple days ago, I am frantically trying to find health insurance. I spoke with a broker yesterday for almost two hours (yes, that was fun) and he suggested putting me on a special plan for my pre-existing condition and the rest of the family with Assurant Health Access. Well I googled this and found this! :eek: Anyone have any real experience or knowledge of them, good or bad??

Some of you read my other thread about how my husband's company is not paying for our health insurance anymore, and it was be $1400/month for us now. Anway, someone suggested Kaiser to me. Are they an HMO? Has anyone dealt with them? Are they more likely than other companies to accept a pre-existing condition? Thanks for any info or experience.

Boy, you guys have really piqued my curiosity! I'd never thought of or noticed such things!

I actually just looked into this a few weeks ago and was told by a broker that the law had recently changed that you could not put the children on a plan without the parent. I forget the exact wording or explanation, but the bottom line was that we could NOT do that because of a recent change in the law.

Thanks. This is the core of the problem, though -- NONE of those options are available to ME. I have spoken with multiple brokers who were highly recommended, and they said, "There is nothing I can do for you. No one will touch you." I think that's what pisses me off so much. It feels like going to the store and buying groceries -- which isn't an optional expense -- and being told that I have to pay four times what every other customer is being charged. Or worse, that I'm not allowed to shop there at all.

I don't know how anyone can even help me, but I am so upset that I'm practically shaking My husband's company had a meeting this morning and suddenly announced that they will no longer be putting any money toward our health insurance. This means not only that we will suddenly have to come up with the extra $515/month that the company had been previously paying -- don't ask me how we will find that money -- but that our TOTAL bill for health insurance will now be $1450/month. Not only THAT, but since our medical bills (co-pays, etc) average about $200/monthly, that means an outrageous percentage of our take-home-pay (close to 40%) is going to health insurance and routine medical bills. Oh, and our policy renewal is this July, so there's a distinct possibility the rates will increase even upon that. What makes me feel so sick about this is: 1) It's ongoing. In a way, it's worse than having a huge hospital bill. (BTDT) At least that gets paid up eventually, and you move on. This is every month, forever, with no end in sight, and the amount due never decreases. 2) We are totally helpless. It's not like any other bill in life, that when the price goes up you can do without or at least shop around. We can't stop having health insurance, and we cannot shop around. We have tried multiple times, and there are literally NO options because I have a pre-existing condition. Nor can we even put the kids on a separate policy. Has anyone had to deal with this before???? Surely we can't be the only people that this crazy system is affecting. And I'm NOT trying to start political debate, but will Obama Care (which I don't even understand) help us in this situation??

I guess that's kind of the issue, isn't it? I went back and read it again because so many people said she writing tongue-in-cheek, and bringing humorous exaggeration to a few rare exceptions, or a particular "season" or two, or that she doesn't mean it literally. There's no way to know for sure, but even after another read or two, I don't see it that way. Especially when I look at how she ends the article. Regardless ... even if I was a new homeschooler who was panicking that I was getting "behind" with my kindergartener, I don't think that I, personally, would find it encouraging. At best, I would come away with a feeling of, "Well, that's the best anyone can do, so just accept it ... but none of it matters anyway." I would find it more encouraging and helpful to read about little things that make a big difference in overcoming a problem (for example, a humorous account about chaotic and stressful mornings were at her house, until she realized that sharpening several pencils the night before and putting them in a jar made it much better, etc) I think one of the reasons this struck me is because, when my kids were younger, I read a lot of stuff (NOT here) about you should relax; and even a day when the kids have free time is still learning and be considered a "school day"; and what can you expect when you have a toddler; public school barely spends any time learning anyway, etc. Looking back, I wish I had read more things that encouraged me to strive and improve (and given some details about how), instead of just saying, "Ha ha, we never get anything done either, and our house is a mess too! But who cares?"

People can and do have eight (or more kids) and be abusive and neglectful to all of them, but I tend to doubt this women is an example of that. I was trying my best not to insult this particular woman personally, but rather to point to a general mindset that seems common in the homeschool community. Just the fact that I saw the list because someone on a local homeschool list posted it as encouragement is something I find interesting. Like I said, I sometimes wonder if this [common] type of "encouragement" is UNhelpful. I've never had eight children, and frankly, I don't think I've ever met anyone who has eight children. To accuse someone of "doing it wrong" when I've never done anything remotely like it myself seems ridiculous, and that was the point I was trying to make. If I had eight children, I'm not sure we would ever get a math book open at all! :lol: And part of it was that I honestly wonder: If you're homeschooling eight children, maybe that IS the attitude and approach you have to take to pull it off at all?

Someone on another list posted this article. Let me first say that anyone with eight children is certainly a better person than me. However ... the thought I had when reading the article is, "Doesn't it seem like the homeschool community, too often, excuses and even encourages mediocrity and low standards?" The idea of a homeschooling parent not understanding their child's math lesson and literally shrugging it off, with, "Whatever, it hasn't hurt me that I never learned it!" kinda made me cringe. Please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying I'm perfect or that I've got everything all figured out. But it does seem like a semi-common thing for homeschooling parents to "encourage" each other by saying things like: 1) Lessons aren't really that important 2) Don't worry how far you get in the book 3) Well, I never learned American History/diagrammed a sentence/etc, and it hasn't hurt me any! And I wonder if that sometimes hurts people, rather than helps them. But maybe I'm completely wrong. And maybe when you have eight kids, that's the way it has to be. Any thoughts?

Could you tell me a little more about this one? I was looking into it ... I love the idea of using Spelling City, but I have tried it at least four times, and each time it just hangs indefinitely. Don't know if it's my computer, or what. Has anyone else had this problem??

My middle child is a girl, just turned nine, who is probably gifted, definitely "quirky," and won't stand for doing work that is boring, tedious, or overly repetitious. (ie, she hated FLL almost immediately) I had her try AAS last year. She really didn't like it, so I shelved it for about half a year and took it out again this fall. She was incredibly bored by it, and I finally realized that wouldn't change. I got Spelling Power for her. She liked it at first, probably just because it was different. But after four months of SP, she can't stand that either. She asked me if there any kind of spelling book that was like The Sentence Family, which was her all-time favorite curriculum. She also really likes MCT, SOTW, and Apologia. She usually likes WWE. So she does not hate everything. But when she dislikes a curriculum ... well, she lets you know it! Any suggestion for spelling for this kind of kid? If she were a naturally good speller, I would just skip it. Her spelling is not horrible, but it's not particularly great, either, so I do feel like I need to do something.

But see, that's what bugs me -- I DID read (and re-read) the entire e-mail. The e-mail itself said nothing about another shipping address, or needing to go read customer notes somewhere else. I mailed it to the shipping address the e-mail listed as the "shipping address." I guess it sounds like I just have to eat this ... but I still feel like it makes sense to do what I did, given the info I received.

Okay, I discovered what happened. I'm posting both because I wanted to enlighten others, and also to see if anyone has ideas how we ought to resolve this. In the e-mail I got from PayPal when the book was purchased, it said she had paid the money and listed "Shipping Address" as an international address. No other address was anywhere in that e-mail Today, I investigated further and logged into Paypal and went to "Transaction Details." At the top of the transaction, it again said, "Ship To Address" and listed the same international address. BUT ... if I scrolled all the way down to that page, I saw a personal note from her saying, "Please ship it to this address instead" with a US address. So ... she is claiming she asked me to send it to a US address. And it turns out she actually did ... but that was a note at the very bottom, and at the very TOP, in TWO separate places, it said clearly listed something else as the "Shipping Address." I didn't even see that note, until she told me about it today, and I actually went looking for it. So ... just be aware of that kind of thing, and I guess don't assume that "Shipping Address" really means the correct shipping address. And now ... any thoughts on how this should be handled now? Should I just eat the mistake, do you think??? Or was it reasonable for me to send it internationally? What would be the best way to resolve this??

This may be bad, but I am NOT science-y, and I think what I like about it is that I don't feel like I have to try to attempt to be a scientist to use it. I read it with the kids. We discuss it together. We enjoy and discuss the photos together. We narrate and write and maybe do the crossword puzzle or the lapbook component in the notebook. We read some of the other books together that the notebook recommends. Then we might do an experiment here and there, if it appeals to us and I don't have to make a shopping trip to do it.

I wasn't assuming anything; I was simply responding to the post that mentioned "cleaning up after everyone" and "bringing those meals" as being meaningful contributions the kids were seeing you do. I think I see now why people are disagreeing with me here. I think you guys have experienced, "Mother who doesn't work, but fills lots of her time with other things non-paid activities and challenges like volunteer work, classes, etc." What I experienced (and what I still strongly contend was not a good thing for anybody and had long-reaching negative effects) was, "Mother who doesn't work and therefore fills her time doing things that kids should be doing for themselves."

I would agree with you there. I was talking about something a little different: a situation where there is only one (or no) child still living at home, the child (if there is one) is 15 or 16 or 17, and the mother is not homeschooling said child, not working, not going to college, and not doing regular volunteer work. I think this is different than, say, a mother who decides to stay home while her kids are very young, or does not work because she is homeschooling multiple kids. I would agree that that situation is a good thing.