Why does this person's input matter? There is NO SENSE in wasting your time on this. He has his opinion, and you have yours. You have researched and made the decision about what is right for you. You don't need to defend yourself! In fact, by discussing it with him, you give him the impression that his opinion matters and that he has a voice in the decision. After you have made the decision, you can state it if you want, but don't discuss it further! Make your statement, thank him for caring, and firmly change the subject. Refuse to go back. "Thanks for your opinion. So, how's your kitchen remodel coming?" "Yes, I did receive your letter and your comments. Thanks. So, I heard your sweet daughter scored a goal at her last game - you must have been so proud!" "Yes, I do understand your point of view, and have taken it into consideration. We have decided how we will be educating our child. Thanks for caring, though! So, y'all doing anything exciting this weekend?"

Math? Science? It seems like a lot of people are NOT fans of Spelling Workout. All About Spelling has much better reviews here.

I think after OPGTR Lesson 124 is the earliest that they recommend starting spelling.

I ended up typing all the words & sentences into a word doc, and printing at a much much bigger size (48 font). It was much easier for me to retype it all than to continue using magnetic letters on the whiteboard, or writing on the whiteboard. It also made review happen a lot more often. I don't think I have any copyright issues as I am not using the words/sentences I copied for anyone outside my family. I'm fairly sure you can copy/retype as long as you don't share.

I've been very pleased with Handle on the Arts' supplements. http://www.handleonthearts.com/cart/handson-activities-prek-4-and-5-c-24_28.html

That is true wisdom, right there! I am printing this out!!!!!

Did you see my post yesterday about vision therapy? http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=349557 I have THREE kids who were able to focus for very short periods of time - enough to pass a well-respected opthamologist's exam, but all 3 have vision problems. I kept taking them back to the opthamologist b/c I knew something was wrong, and she kept saying they were fine. The OT kept telling me they had problems - she saw it too. It was EXTREMELY frustrating! I finally went to a developmental optometrist, and I could see as I watched him test them that he was looking for and picking out exactly what I was seeing. The testing is just totally different than a regular eye exam. I have one child who I am fairly sure is dyslexic. However, we have to get the vision fixed BEFORE we have her tested, as I don't want her mislabeled. The vision can be fixed. The dyslexia can't. So it is VERY important to me to figure out exactly what is going on. That being said, I am using materials at home that are supposed to be good for dyslexic kids (OPGTR, HWOT, etc.), so that whether or not we eventually get that diagnosis, we haven't delayed dealing with it.

There are a lot of quacks out there claiming VT is the cureall for a lot of things, but it has only been medically proven for a handful. It just so happens that my kids' issues happen to be the issues that it is known to work for. What issues has your child been diagnosed with? I can probably tell you if those things are on the short list. We were hesitant as well, especially as we have THREE with this problem. I will tell you that I would rank this right up there with housing and food. If we had to move to a smaller house or take other drastic measures to pay for it, it would have been worth it, given the results we have seen. DH & I are both CPAs, so very anti-debt. We both think it would have been worth it to have taken out a loan to pay for VT, if that tells you anything about how highly I think of it!

It's just DETAILED. It's "homeschooling classically for dummies". As a first-time homeschooler, I needed every one of those details to truly believe I could do this, and could do it well. I wanted to see exactly what the ideal goals were before 1st grade, exactly what order to introduce new subjects, what subjects to introduce when, which curricula, and for how many minutes. It does that. I'm one who needs scripted programs too. :) SWB & JW put the details in at the insistence of the publisher, but didn't really want them in there, so once they had established themselves, they were able to remove them. They know nobody follows the schedules to the tee, but those schedules are still extremely useful. I can say to myself "SWB, whose favorite subject is history, puts x minutes on history in 1st grade. To me, music is more important, so I will put a few less minutes in history, and a few more in music." The schedules really probably aren't needed. *I* just needed them for confidence.

We had to give up on Land's End last summer, which really stinks b/c they were the only ones I had found previously that fit my skinny kiddos without gapping in the girl parts. They were my go-to until last summer. I ended up last summer with 1 set from LLBean, and 2 from Chez Ami. I swore it was absurd and I'd never pay the Chez Ami prices, but I had to eat my words when I couldn't find anything else that fit. Hanna Andersson had some cute ones as well, but the tops were shorter in real life than in the picture, and DH thought they were too skimpy. I will probably try them again this year, but buy the longer top rather than the bikini top. For skinny kids, we have had better luck with swim miniskirts than regular bottoms, as you don't have to worry about bagging in the hiney. Also, slight looseness in the crotch is covered!

Just to encourage you, I have one who just finished VT, one who is halfway through, and one who is just starting. They had told me to avoid much reading & handwriting during VT, as any habits developed with "bad eyes" would have to be unlearned, and it was better just to wait. I'm so glad I did!! Tasks that were impossible are now easy! I had one kid who, at age 6, was not consistently able to even hit the paper with her crayon, and she now writes, well, beautifully would be an exaggeration, but she gets all the letters on the line and the sizing is somewhat similar!! :) It is worth waiting until they are done. Focus all the effort you would have put into reading & writing on your VT homework for now.

I would DEFINITELY go hardcover on something like that. You want to read it through once a year or so, but I so often think "I know I read something about..." and I go flipping. It's one of those references that I don't think would be nearly as useful digital. But I must admit, I'm old! I prefer most reference materials in hardcopy, and only buy digital for things like fiction that I probably won't do much flipping or going back to.

There are 3 editions. I had the 1st out from the library while waiting on the 3rd. I ended up buying the 1st as well. They are just different enough that it is worth having both. I checked the 2nd edition out from the library, but if you have both 1st & 3rd, you have everything from the 2nd. The 3rd edition really helps understand the big picture. It's much more overview-focused. It also has updated curriculum recommendations. The 1st edition included schedules that the publisher insisted be included. I LOVE those schedules! I don't adhere to them by any means, but they give such a clear nuts & bolts picture that they are a great starting point. I'm not sure I would have been confident enough to pull together various things without those schedules - I think I would have felt like I had to go with a box program to be sure I had all my bases covered. The 1st edition also gave great notebooking suggestions, which are perfect for covering your bases if you are required to keep a portfolio for legal purposes.

Just wanted to copy a note I sent to family in case this could be helpful to someone else. Vision therapy update: as you may remember, out of desperation we decided last spring to take an expensive gamble and enroll the big kids in vision therapy. It's not exactly accepted by the medical community, but we couldn't just accept that our kids were as close to typical as they could get, and honestly, it was the only thing we hadn't tried yet. I knew visually everything wasn't right, and kept taking them back to the ophthalmologist, who, after patching, kept telling me they were fine. Turns out they could hold their eyes focused for long enough to get through an eye exam, but couldn't do it for much longer than that. We took them to a developmental optometrist. Of the 5 conditions VT has actually been scientifically proven for, C had deficits in all 5, and J & M had 4. No wonder they couldn't read - I couldn't read either if I saw everything double, couldn't track across a page, and things kept coming out of focus! (We had Elise tested as well, and she did not have deficits in ANY of these areas - she is developmentally right on track.) Eight months ago, Meredith was far and away the most developmentally advanced, so we started with James & Camille as they seemed to need it the most. The progress the two of them have made has been nothing short of astounding! Camille doesn't turn her head so that one eye is looking at the paper, and her face is blocking the other eye anymore. They almost never walk into doorways, trip over curbs, etc. anymore. They can actually throw & catch! Both have really taken off with the reading. The improvement in self-confidence has been amazing. Camille is probably 2/3 of the way through therapy. Her problems were more significant than J's to start with (you may remember that she was patched for quite a while, then wore glasses for a while). She had one eye that was lazy when she... was tired - I haven't seen that in months. She struggles mightily with body awareness & bilateral integration, but it is definitely better. James graduated from VT last week - he was so proud! And sad - he loves going! We took Meredith for a pre-therapy-start checkup to see if anything had changed in the past 8 months. She told the doctor when we walked in that her goal for the day was for him to recommend vision therapy. He asked why she wanted it so m...uch, and her comment was so that she could get smart like VT had made J & C. I didn't realize it was so obvious to her, but the other two have completely bypassed her in every area. Coordination, academically, etc. It's like she just hit her ceiling - she has been stagnant for months despite Herculean efforts on my part to move her forward. She was so relieved when the doctor's tests came out pretty much exactly where they had 8 months ago - knowing that she has an eye problem that is causing her struggles was quite a relief to her. She is so excited to be in therapy that she carries her homework binder with her everywhere we go, and is constantly after me to do her homework with her! It is interesting to me that the issues that these kids have are actually hereditary, and not necessarily due to prematurity. Thankfully, Elise seems to have perfect vision at this point! Anyway, just thought I'd post in case anyone else was having these kinds of struggles. We do still plan to have the kids thoroughly tested for learning disabilities by a neuropsych after we are done with VT, as I think the results will be more accurate later. But honestly, I don't think I have concerns about James anymore. Camille is hard to predict - she is either on fire or her brain is out to lunch! Right now I am very worried about Meredith, but if she makes the kind of improvements the others did, she'll be off my list too!!

Here, in public school, kids go to 1st grade if they are 6 years old by Sept 1st. So you have everything from 6 to almost 7 year olds. That being said, my kids will be considered 1st graders when they are all reading fluently, easily, and quickly. I *hope* they will be there by this fall - age 7 1/2.

To be honest, I am not sure. I know that kids with allergies have bright orange stickers added to their nametags, so it would be obvious to emergency personnel what the issue was. I have seen several kids with bags (sort of like mini lunch bags) that have their name & allergy, and I assume the bags contain Epipens.

We are doing CC this year - my kids are kindergartners. The tutor introduces the memory work. She does not give ANY background info. In the beginning, I found that my kids were bored and annoyed b/c to them it was just gobbeldy-gook they were memorizing. Eventually, I figured out that to get something out of it, I needed to do a readaloud on each topic BEFORE the class. After that, my kids took off! The words meant something, and thus were fun to learn. It's the same with the science experiment & the art project. They are all listed in the guide, and my kids enjoy it a lot more with some background. It really is NOT hard at all - I'm adding one short readaloud per topic each week. I will say that having been through a year, I probably wouldn't do it for academic reasons before your oldest is maybe 1st grade-ish.

But it really isn't "making" the entire church do it - it's something we are HAPPY to do to make the church a safe, welcoming place to worship! It's not just for the allergic kids - we have a lot of older people in the midst of radiation & so on whose immune systems are low. It makes church safer for them as well.

There are several people who always duck in the bathroom and wash their hands rather than sanitizing. That's church-worthy! :)

Hmmm. I wonder why the parents of these kids would have pushed for this, if it isn't effective?

There are bathrooms right beside both of the main entrances, and I have seen people go in there and wash. They usually make a point of saying loudly to no one in particular that they are going to wash, so nobody gives them the stink eye from not sanitizing. I have NEVER seen anyone have a fit about it. Even visitors are told "there are several people in our congregation who have some serious health challenges - to make this a safe place for them to worship, everyone who comes in has to sanitize their hands". Everyone is (at least outwardly) happy to comply.

It wasn't happening here either. I really hated science in high school, and I think that's a lot of why I was avoiding doing it. DH & I had a "progress meeting", and that's one thing that I brought up as an area that needs improvement. He took it on! It happens now every Sunday afternoon, without me! :) He loves feeling a part of the whole school thing, and I love for him to get a taste of it. The kids are LOOOOVE doing it with Daddy! Would it be possible to pass that over to him?

As one who had preemies, I'll tell you what we did. Upon discharge from the NICU at 4, 6, & 6 1/2 weeks old, we were told NO VISITORS AT ALL as even a minor cold would likely kill our babies or cause lifetime respiratory issues. I was at home with the babies 100% of the time. I didn't go to the grocery store or anywhere else. DH went to work, but as soon as he got home, he stripped in the laundry room and went straight to the shower to scrub down with antibacterial soap. He got a cold once, and went to live in a hotel for a week. If you had asked me before we had kids if I thought any of that was reasonable, I'd have laughed in your face. That was before we were read the riot act by the NICU, and before I read on my triplet moms' forums about cyber-friends' babies being hospitalized and dying. Mine were 31 weekers, so a month earlier than you are talking about - I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make, though I'm sure there is some.

They can actually! Our church is peanut-free. There are huge signs on every door, and hand sanitizer pumps beside every door. When they first did this, they made a big point of explaining in detail in the service several weeks in a row. Now, in the rare instance that someone walks in without sanitizing, they will inevitably be prompted by someone else to do so. It is considered really unloving / uncaring of others to skip it. We walk in the church and sanitize, and then when the kids are dropped off in their sunday school rooms, they "foam in", which is more hand sanitizer.

I have run into the opposite. There was one child at my children's preschool with severe allergies. For my kids' bday party, the place that we wanted to have it was booked at all the non-meal times, so we had to do it and serve dinner. Rather than just ordering food, I made everything myself, even the cake, to be sure everything was safe. I bent over backward checking labels, then sent her the list for approval. I scrubbed down my kitchen about 1000 times before making any of the food. I was SO afraid that something would happen and it would be my fault! So after knowing how much trouble I had been to so that her child could attend, and eat the exact same things everyone else could, what do you think happened? She didn't show! No call or anything. I ran into the mom the next week, and gently asked. "Oh, her cousin (who lives next door) wanted to play, and asked DC if she wanted to go to the party or stay home and play with her cousin, and she decided to stay home". No apology, nothing. Someone else who overheard the conversation and knew how much trouble I had been to said something to her, and her reply was "well, welcome to my life - now you know what I go through every day!". I can't even tell you how livid I was! I ran into a similar thing at gymnastics once. They were putting hand sanitizer on each kid, and I asked about it, and the instructor responded that there was a child with peanut allergies. Knowing that my kids had had peanut butter for lunch, and possibly may not have washed their faces/hands well, I pulled them out of line and took them to the bathroom and washed them well. The mom commented to me in sort of a pushy way when I got back "I hope you used soap b/c just water isn't enough". It was like she was mad that I had fed my kids peanut butter. To be honest, that is sort of the attitude I have run into several times from parents of kids with allergies. I think you may be experiencing some backlash from some other parents who aren't kind enough to do things like provide all the snacks like you did, and instead just expect everyone else to bend. It's not right, and it's not fair - I'm sorry you are going through this. And to be honest, it's ABSURD that kids can't go 2 hours without a snack!!!! I can't believe you needed to bring a snack - they should have just skipped it altogether.