Our oldest supposedly refused braces when he was younger and his mother let him choose not to get them. He needs them badly. Some of his teeth are rotated 45 degrees. We had his wisdom teeth extracted (which should have also been done earlier so they wouldn't have had a chance to push his other teeth around) and had the initial visits done for his braces but now he is an adult and we cannot force him to get them. Grrrrr.... Bygones. The dentist initially thought DS would need them but based on his jaw growth and shifting of his teeth as his adult teeth come in we may escape. Then there's DD... The dentist talked about her needing them or needing to have teeth pulled because her jaw is small. Time will tell.

I pulled DS from PS midway through his 2nd grade year. By October of that year the school wanted to push him into 3rd grade in spite of the fact that he (IMO) is emotionally immature and had struggles within LA's that they weren't addressing. I would consider putting him back in PS but it would really depend on the teacher as well as whether he was placed in the enrichment program (which is based on test scores AND recommendation).

A few recipes the kids can do individually: Take oranges and cake mix (either white or chocolate). Hollow out the oranges (and eat them, of course). Mix up the batter and put it in the oranges. Wrap the oranges in foil and put in the coals. When the cake is baked it takes on the essence of the orange. Yum! Take a banana. Slit through the skin lengthwise and into the 'flesh' of the banana. Put chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows in the banana and close it up. Wrap it in tinfoil. Put on the coals until the chips and mallows are melted. Hobo dinners as mentioned above. You can put the mixed eggs/milk for scrambled eggs in a ziploc bag and boil them vs. frying and eat them out of the bag. Kinda fun. On a similar note you can buy those individual pudding mixes and mix the pudding with milk in a baggie, squish around, and then snip a corner off to suck it out. Don't forget the s'mores! Activities: Frisbee, bochee ball, card/dice games, a CD player with fun music, bird/plant books... You could plan a scavenger hunt or geocache near the area.

Obviously it depends on the friends, but DSS has a couple of friends that will come on a Friday and stay until Saturday afternoon. He/they ask first and obviously we feed them, lol. We are friends with their parents so what comes around goes around. Daytime: We let them hang out in 3-4 hr increments and then there needs to be contact with the parents to either a visit. Evenings: If DSS is going to play D&D or to a LAN party we expect him home by midnight. He is 18 though. When he were 14-15 he needed to be home by 7:30 p.m.

In addition to homeschooling, we run a business out of the house and we also have scouting people stopping by constantly so we try to keep the house tidy albeit lived-in. We tend to tidy up as we go (i.e. fold clothes and put away immediately, put away toys when you are done playing with them, clean up immediately after meals, wipe down kitchen counters after meals). We tend to take about 1 hour in the afternoon to do the "deeper" cleaning and when you divide it 5 ways many hands make for light work. On a larger scale, certain areas/items are priorities and others can slide for a few days without my head exploding. For instance, I insist that the kitchen and bathrooms be cleaned daily. It's a health/hygeine thing as far as I'm concerned. DH is responsible for the master bathroom, DSS is responsible for the shared bathroom, and I clean the kitchen. Another priority for me is daily vacuuming because I am allergic to the dog and if this doesn't happen I feel terrible. DSS vaccums the shared areas and his room, DS vacuums his room, and I do our bedroom as well as DD's. The kids are responsible for keeping their rooms clean/tidy (obviously I help, especially the 4 yo) and they cannot have friends over or go play with friends unless their rooms (and toys from the shared areas) are clean. That is an effective motivator, even for the 18yo.

by Randy Newman. How about... "Thank you for being a friend...."

Blind date. His best friend was engaged to my coworker/friend.

Thank you! At least I'll get some use out of them then (DS despises AAS).

I checked our library holdings and put a hold request for OPGTR and the audio for lessons 1-26. At least that way I don't have to buy it if we don't like it. I am also checking out 100EL to look at them side by side. It sounds like I could potentially use our AAS tiles vs. the flashcards. Is that true?

This is what I do. I try to have a handful of educational videos from the library in addition to our own Schoolhouse Rocks. I pop it in when I start making lunch (because the smell of food is too distracting for my children). When the video is done, we are usually done eating, clean up, and go back to work. I *need* to be done with school before their older brother gets home from PS because his mere presence makes DS8 want to act out (act like he doesn't know stuff or worse yet be a mouthy little know-it-all) to look "cool" to his older brother. If this weren't the case, I might allow a longer break/play time at lunch and finish school later in the afternoon.

When I read, DD does this thing where she repeats what I say about 0.5 behind me so it sounds like I'm on stage and am catching the feedback from the speakers! AAAAAHHHHH!

We are finishing up with the CLE200 books now. A few things I've noticed in comparison to Singapore... CLE doesn't tell you to use manipulatives but we certainly have, for everything from addition/subtraction/multiplication to fractions to geometry to money and clocks. It's a matter of instructor choice vs. a matter of specified instruction with CLE. CLE does offer a variety of ways to solve a problem (i.e. just add vs. grouping into ones/tens/hundreds vs. "we know 1+5=6 so 21+5=26" type thought processes). CLE gives visual representation of problems (i.e. "Circle the pairs of birds. Then answer problems 21-25.") I like the spiral approach. My son needs that continuous practice. He needs the drills, the flash cards, and the 'we remember' sections.

If you don't have one already I would buy a good telescope or pair of binoculars, depending on your preference, and this book. We love to go outside and stare at the night sky.

I think it would drive DH crazy though. He gets annoyed with all of the 'art projects' that hang everywhere... and I mean everywhere... in the house.

We are finishing Math, LA's et. al., and SOTW. I hope to be done with those by his State-required testing on June 4th. If not, I will continue with lessons until they are done. I pray they are done. I need a break. DS has 4 Homeschool Science Workshops in June and a week long Science camp in July which will 'finish' his science for the year.

LOL, I pulled out the Bob books today too!

I think the food probably has some to do with it but also consider the weather we've had here this week... My kids were in heaven last week when it was nice and warm and sunny.... This week it has rained, hailed, thunderstormed, and been overcasted and generally yucky. I know I'm in more of a funk than usual this week, and our diet hasn't changed.

I don't have the thyroid issue but I run DH's business and up until a few months ago I was also working part-time as a physical therapist. I decided to HS DS and pull DD out of daycare in January and a few weeks later my DSS's mom committed suicide. Between the stress of the business and the stress caused by by the 3 of us (DS, DD and myself) beng home every day and trying to get into the swing of HS'ing and DSS's psychological issues (both pre-existing and as a result of his mom's death) and all of the stress setting DH down a bad road with his PTSD.... And then me being cut off from most of my 'outside' adult contact because I no longer work out of the home (our business runs out of our house too)... I am so sick of where I am in life. I'm sick of holding everyone and everthing together, usually at the expense of my own happiness. I'm tired of being everything for everyone and not having any sense of self-worth or personal satisfaction derived from my daily activities. So :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: to you because I think I know how you are feeling. It sucks.

...absolutely every word in the English language???? DD4 is driving me absolutely crazy with this for the last few weeks. I just spent the last hour spelling out every object in the house. AAAAAHHHHH!

FIL is big into his yard/garden/cooking so we have done pavers with handprints, bird houses, bird feeders, herb gardens, subscription to Food Network magazine (which is AWESOME), handprint apron and dish towels... One year I bought DH and his dad golf gift certificates to a number of different golf courses and driving ranges around town. Not only was it a gift for them individually, but it was a way for them to spend time together. My husband is big into photography. Gifts have included a digital camera, a nice tripod, subscriptions to Popular Photography, Outdoor Photography, and Photography, and tuition to a photography seminar.

My DSS attends a public high school and is allowed to use Wiki as his end-all-beat-all resource for papers. It drives me absolutely crazy. It's just another reason that the younger two won't be attending that school.

:)

Is it easy to implement? Do I need extras (i.e. props, manipulatives, etc.)? How does it compare to 100EZ lessons, Hooked on Phonics, and the other LTR programs out there (BJU, CLE, R&S)? Thanks.

We don't belong to a HS group and the only time DS is around other HS'ing kids (that I am aware of) is for weekly science workshop at the local children's museum. Quite frankly he is just happy to be doing 'cool' experiments with other kids. Most of his friends are from the neighborhood or Cub Scouts and go to PS. A few of his friends (or moreover their parents) have commented on his reading ability but otherwise they are just happy to play and hang out. He is probably the 'oddball' who dresses funny (his personal tastes in clothes are a bit eccentric) that the other kids make fun of.

Lady Di-- Accident Moon Landing-- Real Oswald-- conspiracy Earhardt-- accident UFO-- Real So I'm thinking I need to go buy some more tinfoil... Perhaps I'll invest in the heavy duty variety.