Gamers here. We have a PS3 and a Wii in the family room as well as 2 PS2's, an XBox 360, a GameCube, a DS, and 3 PSP's in this house. We also own an IT business and there are 3 laptops and 3 desk tops available as well. I'm more of a Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Wii Fit/Monkey Ball/Just Dance kind of gamer. My husband loves games like Resistance Fall of Man and Sabatour. The boys like first person shooters, the Lego games (Batman, Indiana Jones, Star Wars...). And DD will play some games on the Wii. Of course we also play Dungeons and Dragons (all the way down to the 8yo) and tabletop/board games on a regular basis.

:bigear:

I pulled DS out of PS at Christmas... 2nd grade. Even though the PS was ready to push him into 3rd grade, he tested into CLE LA's 100-level because he hadn't learned much phonics, grammar or the rules of spelling... He had simply memorized spelling lists and plodded through.

I haven't figured out how to do the mullti-quote thing so I just want to say thanks to all who replied. I try to get done by 2 p.m. before his older brother gets home from school because the distraction is just too much. However, maybe I can try doing the errands and such first and school after lunch. It can't hurt to try I guess, especially if I can get him to do some things independently in his room. He's one of those kids who would like to be independent but can't seem to stay focused without constant redirection. Maybe since tomorrow is Friday (and we usually do 'easy' days on Fridays) I will hit the library and errands in the a.m. and give him his work after lunch and let him have at it. It's not just school where he dawdles.. Like someone else mentioned, he dawdles leaving the house, taking a shower, eating a meal.... He just never seems to get out of 1st gear. As for the materials, he is good at math but doesn't enjoy it. He is awful and LA's and doesn't enjoy it. But it's not like I can cut those two subjects out of his education. So we suffer through them to get to the 'good stuff' (science, social studies, history, art, music...).

My son can stretch 30 minutes of work into 90 mins. He knows he has XYZ to complete and once that's done we can go have fun or he gets free time, but he just doesn't seem to care. I've tried timers. That doesn't get him moving. I've tried frequent breaks. That just makes things last even longer. I've tried making what he doesn't get done "homework" but then he just drags that out until it's bedtime and he gets out of doing it that way. I've tried offering rewards (i.e. x amount of time playing video games, going to the park, having a friend over). Nothing seems to get him moving. I run a business out of our house. I work outside of the house. I have all of the family errands to run. I have 2 other children, a husband, and a dog to tend to. I have other things I have to do. And I'd love to be able to take the kids to the library or the zoo or a park or wherever once we are done with school.... And instead I am a prisoner to the dawdler. HELP SET ME FREE!!!!!!

My son should be able to finish a Math lesson in 30 minutes. He should be able to work independently one we go over the new topic. I say should because he can stretch 30 minutes of work into 90 minutes if not constantly monitored and redirected. He's very good at Math but it doesn't hold his focus. We also use CLE LA (1-2 lessons/day) along with their penmanship (1-2 lessons) which, again, he should be able to do independently once we go over the new info and in about 30 mins but..... this is not my lot in life. CLE Science and Social Studies (when we use them) DS has been able to do independently because those topics interest him. HTH

I always feel like capris are an indecisive piece of clothing. They aren't shorts and they aren't pants... What are they??? And they make most people look shorter and wider than they really are... But that's just my opinion and I have no fashion sense.

DS was a really easy unmedicated childbirth. I had a few stitches. I was home in less than 24 hrs, no meds, felt great. DD was a scheduled CS due to complete placenta previa. Born Monday, home by lunch on Wednesday. Only meds were tylenol and ibuprofen. Was on my own with both kids from Weds afternoon on. Felt like crud for about 2 wks. Wasn't allowed to workout for 6 wks. My CS was much more painful and more difficult than my NCB recovery but I know that isn't always the case.

On the same lines, what if this child started to hemorrhage, develop an infection, or some other complication as a result of the procedure and the parent had no idea a procedure had even been performed? How could the parent respond appropriately if they weren't apprised of the situation? And how long would the teen wait before disclosing the information to the parent? Scary.

My husband and I started a Venture Crew here (WA) last Fall. It's co-ed, ages 14-21. We are about 50-50 gender-wise. Initially we had some issues having enough female leaders for outings because several of the moms didn't want to go hiking, camping, rock climbing, shooting, kayaking, or what have you. If I went, DH was unable to go because someone had to be home with our younger two. That, in turn, created an issue for adult male supervision. We finally got some of the other parents to step up, become registered adults, and take their turns supervising outings.

I'm a physical therapist and I can tell you that iwhen Medicare makes changes to capped payments, cuts reimbursement, and limits treatment (either type of intervention or number or both), other insurances follow suit. When I graduated in the early 90s PT was a great field for an entrepeneur. It was a great career with excellent pay, great job choices, and so on. Around '97 Medicare made changes to their payments which ultimately led to PT's needing to see nearly twice the number of patients in the same amount of time to make overhead. In the late 90s, Medicare started cutting reimbursements (as someone above mentioned) and pay from Medicare was about 40% of what was billed. By 2000, treating a Medicare patient meant that you didn't make your overhead for the time they were there. That has been the case since then... We try to keep the number of Medicare, Medicaid, and DSHS patients at a minimum so that we can keep our doors open. Fifteen years ago I would have recommended PT as a career. Now I can't in good conscience tell anyone to go into the field given rising costs of tuition (masters or doctorate degree required) coupled with the relatively low glass ceiling on salary in the field.

It looks like I could just order the history books. That has promise. The books from Amazon (21 projects and the others) also look like they would be good for DS. Thank you!

We do the same with DS's CLE math lessons... We do a full lesson and then the next lesson but the new information and any problems he has shown he needs extra practice with. It works really well for us.

My 17yo DSS's mother committed suicide this January. I can only imagine what this entire assignment would have done to him. That teacher should be fired.

My son questioned the fact that we were using a 1st grade book for LA when he is clearly in the 2nd grade. I talked with him about his struggles, primarily with spelling, and told him I thought that reviewing some of the rules he should have learned in the 1st grade would make school easier and more enjoyable in the future. That made sense to him. He loves the fact that he can breeze through certain parts of the lessons. It actually makes him more confident since he is not struggling with every single aspect of language.

I get home from the gym shortly after DSS leaves for school and spend the next hour waking up the rest of the house (husband, son and daughter), getting them fed and showered, and so on. I've tried skipping the gym in the morning but quite frankly it makes eveyone's life miserable. I need that morning rush to mellow me out for the rest of the day. I do think I need to streamline what I do. I try to follow WTM's suggestions for a schedule and I find myself thinking it is just too much (30 mins for Math, 60m on language arts, 60m science or history, 30 mins reading and then more time reading independently, art, music, PE..... That's 4-5 hrs before you figure in breaks!).

You are full of good advice and I appreciate it! DS does have a little desk in his room. Now whether or not it is clean enough for him to even fit a book on... That's another story! But that is something that is his responsibility, not DSS's. I occasionally send DS to his room with work (for instance, CLE Science or Social Studies workbooks or a reading comprehension workbook---which are all more or less independent work for him) so I could reorganize the order of our studies to allow for those items to be left for the end of the day on the days we do them. I tend to let DS choose what subjects to do when but there can be some compromise on this. I don't want it to sound like we didn't try to let DSS come home for lunch. DS is not a morning person (like his dad) and it's really hard to get any focus out of him before 9:30 so that gives us 1-1/2 hrs to do school before DSS gets home for lunch. DSS came home for lunch for the 1st 2 months or so of HS. We tried doing lunch with him at 11:00 but then my husband would come home at noon and lunch would stretch into a 2 hr break (from 11-1) leaving us only an hour to finish up school in the p.m. before DSS came home. So then I tried letting DSS make his own lunch at 11:00 but he has this 'need' to make a gourmet meal every time he cooks which means a lot of noise as well as 2 little kids (DS8 and DD4) who immediately start wanting their lunch too since they smell his.... So then I asked that he just make a sandwich rather than cooking himself a full course meal... The idea was met with much resistance and ultimately resulted in DSS deciding he would not come home for lunch rather than have to eat a sandwich... My husband does meet DSS for lunch on occasion (probably once/month) as his schedule allows. I've tried to do they same but since I started homeschooling in January that has fallen to the wayside. I do need to reinstate DSS and my monthly ritual of dinner out. Thanks for reminding me of that!

I'm new to HS'ing and am still considering putting DS back in PS but.... I chose to remediate DS in LA's because even though the PS said he was ready to push into 3rd grade by Oct of his 2nd grade year, the kid has no grasp of the rules of spelling, phonics, grammar, and so on. Even though the school system was ready to bump him a grade ahead, I find that he has many holes in his foundation that will make the rest of his academic life more difficult. Therefore he is doing "First Grade" LA.... but "3rd Grade" Math... And I still consider him a 2nd grader overall because that's where his age would land him in the PS. I think you have to look at where your child is subject by subject and choose your curriculum appropriately. I don't know that that ever changes. But as far as what "grade" he is in, that for me is tied to DS's age rather than what level he is studying. What grade would he be plopped into in a PS? Does that make sense?

Our house is built in such a way that there is only one large common area that serves as the kitchen/dining/living room area... It's one great big open area, and it's also the only place I have to do school. That said, I generally wait until noon to eat because my husband comes home for lunch at that time... So if we ate with DSS there would be the 11:00 lunch followed by the 12:00 interuption of DH making his lunch... Basically, school would stop from 11:00-1:00. I never thought about handling math as homework... I could totally do that for DS. We could save math for last, I could teach the new material, and then send him off to his room with the workbook for independent homework at the end of the day if need be. Thank you!!!! Why didn't I think of that???

Coco Reef brand available at Macy's and Bonton is sold as separates and available in bra sizes.

I find myself really struggling to try to get done with HS before DSS gets home from PS. He is a distraction to his younger siblings so once he walks in the door school has to be done. The kicker is he is only in school from 8-11 a.m. and then again from 12-2 p.m. I no longer allow him to come home at lunch because he inappropriately interjects himself into our lessons, but I know that we need to be done by 2 p.m. or DS's focus is lost. As I look forward to next school year (if I continue to HS DS), I need to figure out a way to stop feeling like I am racing against the clock where DSS is concerned (as I don't believe he is going to graduate from high school this year). Anyone BTDT with suggestions?

WA is somewhere in the middle of the road I would suspect. -File your annual LOI for children ages 8-18. -180 days or an annual average of 1000 hrs but the nature and quantity is liberall construed -Required subjects: occupational education, science, math, language, social studies, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, and the development of an appreciation of art and music -Instruction by a parent who is either supervised by a certified teacher, has 45+ college quarter credits, has taken a home-education course, or has been deemed capable of instructing the child by the superintendent of the school -Annual standardized testing or assessment but the results are for the parent's records only, not to be submitted to the state

My mom was 42 when she had me (and my oldest brother was 21 when I was born) so being a young mom has never been a priority. That said, I was 30 when I had my first and 34 (one month shy of 35) when my youngest was born... I've never been a "young mom."

My 2nd grade son could easily be done in 3 hrs but he dawdles and daydreams. Even though he knows that the more focused he stays the faster we are done, he just doesn't seem to care. His 4yo sister has started to pick up this concept and will remind him that "you are using up all the sun time" when he doesn't stay on track. Honestly, I don't think he cares as long as he is done by 4p.m. when his friends get home from PS. I try to start by 9a.m. so in theory we could be done by noon/lunch. We do Math and LA (inc. CLE LA, penmanship using copywork, reading comprehension, and independent reading) every day. We alternate Science and History as well as maps/geography and social studies. Other topics (art, music, etc) fit in with one of the above topics.

I am hoping to find an engaging US History program for a 2nd-3rd grade boy. He is not a big independent reader. He does seem to enjoy the SOTW approach (coloring page is OK by him, likes the map, tolerates the additional reading since he knows some hands on project will follow). I would like him to have at least a brief overview of the timeline and some of the events and personalities, especially if I send him back to PS in the Fall. I was wondering about History Pockets but also looked at Hakim's US History set. I had also thought about going through the US History as presented in the "What Your ___ Needs to Know" books (using 1st-3rd grade books) and supplementing with biographies and other library materials. Thoughts? Other suggestions? TIA.