I'm an obsessive door locker too. And I am really obsessive about the window blinds. When it is daylight all blinds and curtains must be open, and as soon as it is dark, they all have to be closed. I want every last bit of daylight we can possibly get - so much so that I have a hard time restraining myself from opening all the blinds as soon as I wake up, even if other people are still sleeping. I wish I were compulsive about clutter on my kitchen and bathroom counters.

I'm in the same situation with my ds11. I decided we are dropping cursive this year and going back to working on legible printing. All I need him to be able to do is read cursive and sign his name, and he can do that. I don't see a need for it beyond that.

Brazil or Spain.

You mean you're not playing Risk and eating popcorn? Can you loudly announce that one of the children just threw up?

Sorry, I had that wrong. Go to "Quick Links" and choose "my profile" and then look under "forum info" and you will find all your own posts and threads. I just looked at "Who's online" for the first time and you're right, that is creepy!

:iagree:

Click on "User control panel" in the blue bar.

With all the work we are doing for 4-H right now, it feels like the school year hasn't even ended yet. I am so not ready to think about starting back up again this fall.

We used: IEW Ancient History Based Writing Lessons Growing With Grammar Spelling Workout Zaner Bloser handwriting

Maybe you should try IEW's history based writing lessons. It is much cheaper, and you can use it to try out their method on your kids. If it works well for your family, then you have justification for spending the money to buy TWSS. HTH,

I would purchase your spelling, the library skills book your state requires, Story of the World 4 from Amazon (to get the free shipping), and use something like Writing Trails in American History for writing. Writing Trails also teaches vocabulary and dictionary skills. http://www.logosschool.com/materials/shop/item.asp?itemid=35&catid= I think this would get you off to a good start.

We do our full load for 36 weeks, but spend 4-6 weeks in the summer doing light school.

We've used SOTW for 5 years. Thanks SWB! :D

I know where I am headed tomorrow after swim lessons. Thanks for the tip!

You inspired me to work on my own messy desk tonight, and it is looking much better. Thanks! :001_smile:

I did the same thing once with my older son when he hurt his finger. I was not at all sympathetic until his entire finger turned purple. Another time I waited four days to take him to the doctor and it turned out he had scarlet fever. It's just so hard to know sometimes how sick or injured they really are. I think we've all been there. Don't be too hard on yourself. :grouphug:

The Board was down? Really? We were at a cook-out. Didn't even know. No tea or ice cream, but I did have a yummy piece of homemade apple pie.

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to reply. I appreciate all the great advice. I'll be checking out all the resources you recommended. :thumbup:

Thank you for the encouragement, and the suggestions. :)

His main struggle is mechanics. We have done very little dictation because he also struggles with handwriting. And spelling. Dictation was just a source of endless frustration for him. Thanks very much for the suggestion though. I appreciate your reply. :)

I second the recommendation for Growing With Grammar. www.growingwithgrammar.com The third grade book teaches diagramming, and you could start that mid-way through second. The first and second grade levels are all combined into one book, and it doesn't seem to contain any diagramming (someone correct me if I am wrong).

For what it is worth, several of the downtown hotels are connected to the convention center via a skywalk. If memory serves, they are the Westin, Hyatt, Hilton Netherland Plaza, and the Millennium. So, there are several convenient choices, but none are going to be as cheap as our options last year.

Yeah, our neighbors are setting off fireworks for the third night in a row. The noise is keeping my kids up and my ds6 gets super cranky when he doesn't get his sleep. I'm all for celebrating the 4th, but three nights in a row is a little much.

Well, I was the test administrator, so I was allowed to look at the actual test, and I didn't think the questions were tricky. I thought they were pretty straight forward.

When we started homeschooling, both of my sons had life-threatening food allergies, and my younger son had just been diagnosed with neurofibromatosis 1, which made him more prone to learning disabilities. These weren't our first or only reasons to homeschool either, but I also felt it would me much less stressful to homeschool. Six years later, ds11 has outgrown his food allergies, ds6 has no learning disabilities, but we still happily choose to homeschool for many reasons. :)