Ours was $350 for the basic 2 hour exam. And now we are in for therapy sessions at $135 per visit, and we go twice a week for 6-9 months. None is covered by insurance. Plus special glasses for another $350 (insurance paid like 1/2). Did I mention we have THREE kids in the midst of this??? We can't afford it (who could?), but are doing it anyway and just depleting our savings and using credit cards. My mom has what we thought was a learning disability that really impacted her life significantly, and it is the exact things that my kids are struggling with. I can't let my kids' lives be limited in the same ways, given that it is fixable. No matter what the cost.

If the therapist is willing to go to the school and observe, just be casual about it! "J's therapist wants to observe him in class so she can tailor her sessions to focus on his greatest needs". Don't make it seem like you are expecting the teacher or school to change anything - present it as SOLELY for the therapist, so she can work around the school. It seems very reasonable to ask for a LOT more communication from the school. I got a LOT more feedback than that both when my kids were in regular preschool, as well as when we were in a program for delayed kids that had 20 kids in the classroom and only 2 adults! Does he have a folder that goes back and forth daily? I would just ask for a brief note every day. "J had a great day today - he participated in circle time for x minutes before needing redirection!" or "J seemed tired today beginning after art at 10" would be sufficient to give you insight as to where he is making progress and where he still has room for improvement, as well as provide you with a chance to respond. "J has had plenty of sleep lately. I wonder if perhaps he was having some sensory overload issues? His therapist has us trying a weighted vest at home - I will send it to school. If you could have it wear it for 15 minutes prior to circle time, that would be great!"

We LOVED The Learning Box. It's a whole preschool in a box, though, ready-to-go. It may be more than you want, but you could just do the crafts.

I had triplets, so a little different situation, but I ended up with both a vaginal & C-section at the same delivery. I would not wish that recovery on my worst enemy. I was in the hospital for 8 days after the babies were born, and was seriously freaking when they sent me home b/c I was not yet walking more than a few steps. If there is any question of needing both, just do the section!

I had premature labor with both pregnancies. The ONLY difference between BH & real contractions is that real ones change your cervix. The only way to know if your cervix is changing is to have it checked. If you have more than 6 an hour, lay down on your left side and drink a LOT of water. If you have more than 6 the next hour, you need to go in immediately.

We are using Beautiful Feet's Early American. I do edit a little bit - it's "providential". That was explained to me before I bought it, but I didn't really understand what it meant. It's easy to fix though if that isn't you, viewpoint. Many days we do more than one lesson as I eliminate some things. My kids really like it! It's a slow, easy pace and a great intro. The notebooking part is a little beyond by kids' skills (developmentally, they are like average young 5 year olds), so we just skip a lot of that.

The wooden letters & magnetic board are worth getting. And playdoh. We haven't gotten as much use out of the slate.

I have 6 year old kindergarteners. One finds it easy, one it is perfect - doable, but not too easy, and one is totally lost. Due to minor developmental delays, they fit in perfectly with kids a year younger. I would think the average 6+ year old would find it too easy.

I made the big mistake of refusing to teach my young 4 year old handwriting. I thought she was too young, and it wouldn't hurt to let her just "play". Now, she has figured out her own approximations of every letter. Her capital R is a circle with legs, and so on and so on. And since she already knows how to do it her way, she isn't interested in learning my way. It has become a huge nightmare. I SOOO wish I had bought the Handwriting Without Tears preschool program and implemented it with her from the start when I knew that she was going to write one way or the other.

The music is vaguely annoying in a trying-to-be-too-classical kind of way, but it is the primary means through which my kids learn the material. We listen to it in the car a few times (I just put it on "repeat"), then I really teach it at home (what words mean and so on), then they listen in the car to review/really learn it.

You have to be very careful comparing to others, especially when you don't know their whole story. We are doing a ton of things this year, but my kids have some developmental challenges. It seems to take them a LOT more repetitions than most kids to learn things. If I expose them to something, then come back to it a few months later, they seem to learn it normally. So this year for us is all about exposing them to as much as possible, in hopes that some of it will stick and make future years easier. And I know that I will probably be teaching the basics more/longer than most people, and won't have as much time later for other things. And plus, my kids LIKE to "do school". They would do it all day every day if I could keep that much planned. And they fight a lot less when I am leading constructive activities. :) I'm sure other kindergarten moms have reasons for adding more than necessary!

My kids are taking a "Public Speaking" class every other week at a co-op, and I tried to sort of merge the steps from that class into CC's script, and stick pictures in as my kids aren't reading yet. It's not perfect by any stretch, but helps the kids from getting confused between the two classes. I couldn't get the file attached, so all my cute clipart & formatting got lost, but here's the jist: Presentations Hands in pockets or behind your back Wait until stop giggling Eye contact Voice inflection – how use your voice up and down to send message (happy, mad, sad) Listening (point to ears) 3 second rule – count in head to 3 before start talking Practice, practice, practice Body language Speak loud so everyone can hear o “Hello, my name is ____.” o “Today I would like to tell you about _____." or "Today I will share _____.” o “_____” o “Thank you for listening to my presentation about _____. Are there any questions?” Audience – listen, eye contact, ask questions

We just finished going over ours - everybody was ready for "recess" after that! We do CC - we are reviewing weeks 1 & 2. We have the Week 3 class tomorrow, so we will probably listen to that in car today. (Not enough to memorize, but just enough so they have heard the words before. They pay a lot more attention in class if they are somewhat familiar.) - Bible - John 1:1-3 - Timeline - first 16 events from Veritas Press cards - History - Columbus & Pilgrims (one sentence about each) - Geography - New England & Middle Atlantic states - locations on map & capitals - Math - skip counting 2s, 3s, & 4s - Science - tissue types & bones of the axial skeleton - Grammar - I am kind of skimming over it quickly b/c they so don't get it! - Latin - I don't know the first thing about Latin, so I'll worry about it when we get back to Cycle 3 their 2nd grade year We are also working on learning our full location - planet, continent, country, state, city, neighborhood, address & telephone number - this is a review. They can easily find us on any map or globe, but keeping straight which is the state and which is the continent and so on to answer verbally is proving to be a challenge! :) We have been reviewing books of the Bible for ages but still have some challenges there. They can name them all in order, but can't start at one random place and move forward. They have to start at the very beginning every time. And what's the point of knowing them if you can't actually use the info to find what you are looking for?? Any helpful hints on that would be much appreciated! I found an idea for a trifold "Memory Board" that I have copied, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! Everything easily organized for the kids and I to see, and yet easy to put away. I put the CC stuff on the front, and other stuff to review on the back (our full global address, steps of scientific method & presentation steps). http://halfahundredacrewood.blogspot.com/2011/03/classical-conversations-at-home.html

How about "tools in his toolbox"? I feel like I hear that one ALL THE TIME here when people are talking about why use 14 math programs - so their child will have more "tools in his toolbox". :)

With us, it's not so much mind-changing, as overestimating the amount of time I have. I could stock a small homeschool store with products that we have never / will never have time to use. "There are so many amazing things out there, and I'd hate for my kids to miss out! We should be able to fit in all the basics plus drawing, piano, Spanish, logic, history, 3 read-aloud programs (all carefully coordinated with fun and enriching geography, crafts, moral lessons, etc.), music appreciation, art appreciation, 2 "supplemental" math programs, and a poetry study, right? Filling in extra lessons to be sure we didn't miss a single thing in the Core Knowledge sequence, of course." :001_huh: I am learning the hard way that we can either do it all at a breakneck speed, being totally stressed out about it, or we can do a lot less and actually enjoy it and learn something. And yet I still find myself fantasizing about how I can fit in the ones we are "missing" in "wasted time".

We have only been twice, but I have had the same experience. The stuff that my kids have never heard before, they are uninterested. If they have at least heard the words before, they are all about the tutor's related games & songs! I am very careful that my son has very limited exposure, as he would be that know-it-all kid that irritates everyone if he knew it cold! :) I have been trying to do things like read a book about the topic (Columbus, skeletal system, etc.) on Monday. Then I re-read with the girls while my son is in PT. :)

I just had to laugh, because that makes me insane too! I truly thought I was the only weirdo in the world who hated that noise!!!

Hee hee, that's totally me! I have my kids in some activity every single day. Church choir, fine arts co-op, soccer, Classical Conversations, dance, gymnastics, and swimming. Hopefully I'll be confident enough in another year to let some things go, because I am going crazy keeping all this up! :)

I do it to cover the things that I want my kids to do, but that either I don't like to / feel unable to teach, or that I know would get put on the backburner. Memory work (Classical Conversations) Public Speaking Drawing Puppet Theater (make puppets, write play, make theater, etc.) Chorus Homeschool PE I probably wouldn't do it if I had to teach, as I fear that I would end up putting all my time & effort into preparing for the class, at the expense of my own kids' education in the non-co-op subjects.

We plan to do WWE & FLL for 1st through 4th, then Essentials after that. I think you *can* do Essentials never having had any grammar or writing, but it won't hurt to have a strong foundation before that. I hear people talking about Essentials being so challenging. I don't want my kids overwhelmed.

We've only had our first week, but I have quickly discovered that if my kids have at least heard of the material before, they are much more interested in class. We read a book on Columbus a while back, so singing the song about Columbus while waving little boat signs was fun. The science song about tissue types - they could have cared less. My plan going forward is to try where possible to make sure they have had at least minimal exposure to each topic before going to the related class.

I bought something called "Ballads of American History". Haven't used it yet, as it starts with Roanoke and Jamestown. http://www.singnlearn.org/khxc/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=115 Another idea might be the Classical Conversations Cycle 3 audio CD.

OK, now I am worrying. The school my kids would be attending has 94 & 90% pass rates for english & math. Soc studies 89 and science 78. My thought all along is "it shouldn't be THAT hard to give them a better education than they would get in public"...

The worst for me so far has been my mother's assumption that ANYTHING at all that isn't perfect about my kids is because we are homeschooling. Keep in mind that my kids have been at church preschool for the past few years. They finished that in May, and we started homeschooling in June. So they really haven't been "deprived" of "normal school" any more than any other kid yet. Bad behavior at the park? It's because they are DESPERATE for the company of other kids. 6 year olds who are oblivious to their developmental delays? (Supposedly this is a problem.) If they went to school, the other kids would laugh at them and that would really motivate them to work hard to catch up. My child who has some borderline serious anxiety issues? It's because we homeschool. Pushing her out into public school would supposedly build her confidence! (And of course they want me to put her in a separate classroom from her identical twin sister even though they aren't dependent on each other at all other than wanting the other to be in the same room all the time.) We haven't been to church since June because they don't have children's worship in the summer, and I just can't keep 4 little kids calm & quietly sitting for 1 1/2 hours. If I was sending them to public kindergarten in the fall, they would learn to sit for hours. etc. etc. I can't say ANYTHING to my mom about my kids that isn't 100% sunshine & roses without it somehow coming back to a problem with homeschooling.

I have really struggled to figure out the file sharing part of their website. Not very user-friendly!