I have had two horrendous hair cuts in my life. The first one when I was 14 and the girl cut my bangs to shorter than one inch on one side. My hair was straight at the time and it stuck strait up. It was horrid and my mother cried when we got to the car (after she chewed the girl and the manager out). The second one was right before a friends wedding. My regular hairstylist gave me a mullet. It was horrible and the poor girl fixing our hair for the wedding had a time getting mine to look like anything. So if it is any consolation, while you may not love your hair, it is still long enough to be worked with. I think it is cute but I can understand you not liking it also. I hate it when they cut my hair shorter than I want. It is actually a phobia of mine. ;-)

Ds has a dx of dysgraphia. During OT yesterday he told his therapist that he didn't think the letters t and h were similar when working on the lower case cursive letters. I think she was trying to get him to see that both letters started the same way. She told dh that this concerned her. I am trying to figure out if it is something we need to be concerned with or not. Ideas why this would be an issue?

What curriculum or how do you teach spelling to a dysgraphic child. Everything I am looking at is heavy in handwriting and that is something that I am trying to reduce unless we are actually practicing handwriting. Ideas or suggestions?

What did you use when you finished the sample?

Looking for programs for next year using SOTW4 for a 4th and 1st and then Kingfisher for a 6th and 8th grader. So what programs use SOTW4 as a spine? Robin

MUS does this also because he is teaching to a class.

I love Plan S, but if you love plan R then I feel strongly that you should get what you love.

Last year on the standardized test I realized that my middle schooler needs something to teach/review the mechanics of grammar. Any suggestions? Thanks, Robin

Like level 2 but that isn't tied to a time period. I really need to work on teaching outlining and note taking but we are on year 3 in the history cycle. I don't want to back track to Ancients in HO and am not sure if it is a good fit or not. So is there some other program that teaches this?

If you are planning to use TWTM, I would consider getting the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and Science Encyclopedia. My boys love them. Also you might consider some fun series books like Brian P. Cleary's Words are Categorical series. If you know that you want to use Explode the Code (or any workbooks), I would go ahead and buy them. Buy your handwriting workbooks and consider buying StartWrite CD to use to make copywork and handwriting sheets. I would definitely invest in some fun preschool manipulatives (check out Timberdoodle or Rainbow Resource).

There is a really good article on SWB site about dysgraphia and how to help a child. Let me find the link. I agree that we practice handwriting separately from other subjects. I scribe for many things. For math, we work problems together. I write the answers but he has to show me where to write the numbers and tell me what numbers to write. So that i know he understands the concepts. I may be the lone dissenter but I don't like HWT with tears at all for a child with dysgraphia. I have no clinical "proof" but what I have seen (I have used HWT with all four of my boys) is that my one who has dysgraphia struggles more and I think the problem is that by emphasizing all the uppercase letters first it imprints those in their mind and they are easier to write but with a child with dysgraphia this is hard to overcome and I find that his default in writing (automatic writing without thinking) will be a lot more capital letters with easy lower case letters thrown in. I wish that we had started with Getty Dubay (which I have switched all my boys too). The writing is easier to move to cursive (which helps with reversals) and I just like the way that they introduce the letters better. All of that is just my opinion. We are currently in OT which we just started. We are also working on typing and we practice using the Diane Craft's Writing 8 exercises. I actually think the fluidity of the Writing 8 helps with the automatic flow of writing. Adding links... Here is my pinterest board with handwriting and dysgraphia links. http://pinterest.com/timbosbeautiful/language-arts-penmanship/ Article by Karen Hollis on WTM site. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/guest-post-karen-hollis-on-working-with-the-dysgraphic-child/

We have moved and my dh is a church planter/pastor so we have moved and basically "started" a new job from home and while it can be done it is hard and take a while to find your footing with just the move much less with everything else on your plate. We were already homeschooling but it was still hard to find a new normal with school. I agree that you might want to find something either just the basics or computer based.

There are a lot of coloring pages but there are also suggestions for activities. I think it is worth it for the discussion guide and if you add the activities that is a bonus. This week my boys are going to play a game related to what they study and do the maps. Also I find it helpful because I have an older child and he reads the passages from Kingfisher that are recommended in the AG.

I talked with them about the possibility of enrolling our ds who has a dysgraphia dx and a dx from the local ISD of a LD in written expression in Verticy as a charter which is available in our state but was told he wasn't eligible for "free" charter enrollment because we homeschool and he wasn't coming from a public school but that we could purchase the curriculum. Really infuriated me because they would receive money from the school district if he enrolled in the charter but they were more concerned with their profit margin. I could probably push the issue if I wanted to but it isn't worth it to me. I told them to discontinue calling me about their programs.

I have this one and have been very happy with it. http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Thermal-Laminator-Roller-TL901/dp/B0010JEJPC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358124014&sr=8-1&keywords=scotch+laminator I buy the pouches for it at Sam's Club for about $21 for 200.

Julie, thank you for that list! You know I didn't think about the books being in order. My oldest son read most of them but my younger ones haven't taken the same interest in them. I kind of thought if I used them for reading when we were doing SOTW that might help, but I might just want them to start reading them on their own. hmmm

I am looking for a vocabulary workbook for my 7th grader. This was one of the skills we wanted to work on this year. So far I have the following on my wishlist at Rainbow Resource...Jensen, Word Roots (from The Critical Thinking Co.) and Red Hot Root words. Any experience with these and is there one in particular that you like. Thanks, Robin

Thank you for that link. I do have the Activity Guides so I will the book lists.

Has anyone lined up Magic Treehouse books with SOTW? I want to incorporate these into my younger boys reading schedule and thought I would ask here before I make a list. Thanks, Robin

Thank you for the laughs. This is my first day visiting the new forums and this was the perfect thread! On a side breakfast note for momtoone...have you tried refrigerator oatmeal? Super easy for early mornings.

My oldest son got his first playmobil set when he was 4. He is now 13 and we have 3 more boys. They play with either LEGOs and/or Playmobil every day. They make elaborate sets and battles with them. I will agree that many of the larger pieces (castle and ships) are harder to keep together but I find that the boys just make adjustments and new sets this way. If we had a daughter I would totally invest in a castle or playmobil doll house. For the younger boys (about 2-3) we even had some playmobil 123 that they loved.

If you can find a health food store that has turmeric (the spice) in capsules, I would give her those. Also you can take turmeric and mix it either antibiotic ointment or cocoanut oil and put that topically on the spots. We have effectively treated staph/impetigo with turmeric. The only warning is that used topically it will stain things yellow so be aware if she is sleeping on something you don't want stained.

I have one and I love it but it is crazy big. Can you talk to the local manager and see if he would be willing to place a special order for you?

We have lived in Nashville and Orlando. We loved Orlando and would move back in a heartbeat. Nashville we enjoyed but it is gray during the winter months and that was hard for me. We have looked at Charlotte and I think I would like that area also. Hands down though Orlando or other place in Florida.

We made the decision for one of our boys this year that he wouldn't play soccer. He was upset with us at the time but we decided that we didn't want to put him in a sport that he couldn't be successful at (even if he wasn't great). Instead we are doing horseback riding lessons and he is loving it. I am glad we made the choice that we did.