I tried a different program than AAS in the upper levels - I also didn't use all the extras - mostly the book in the upper levels. Even after trying different programs, I went back to AAS. I just use it until level 5 and then I do straight dictation. Beth

You give each child a Saxon placement test and they do that level. Placing ahead or behind depends on the child. I have a child 2 grades ahead, a child 1 grade ahead, and a child on grade level (she did Saxon K in K etc). Don't try to guess. Just give the placement test. Beth

Can you skip the Dive lessons? Could you teach the lessons - that would probably go a lot faster. Do not skip problems - Saxon works the best ONLY when you do all the problems. Beth

I have a friend who says you can always graduate a child early, but it's really hard to hold them back if they "should" have graduated and are not ready. I have an 8th grader who has been doing half high school work for a year now. He will be doing easily all 9th grade work this year. He is still 8th grade. He knows it, but he likes to say 8th sorta 9th grade. It confuses people for sure, but I think it boosts his teen ego. Whatever... Beth

My oldest goes to the high school here and we have a $25 insurance fee for the iPad he gets. My 2nd child participates in public school soccer and I think it's $75 or so - comparable to what I would have to pay for a community education sport league but way less than the $350 fee for the traveling soccer team (traveling fees not included). I don't mind the fee and if you qualify, you can have it waived. Where the money goes---the special education director was in process of retiring and the paper posted his pay for 1/2 time. I think it was around $80-$90 K per year. This is in a small town school district. We have 15,000 people in our little mostly blue collar town where the median income is around $58,000. So, I figured he was making around $160K per year for a small school district only taking care of special education which is an even smaller niche. And every once in a while they have the need to raise taxes speech with the mantra of all that will be cut if they don't get the money. So, take a look at what the administrators make - you'll find out why it's so expensive per student.

A lot of people that have problems with CC is that they really can do better for a less amount of money. That is probably true for some of the people who frequent this board. That being said, I started a CC group a few years ago (and stopped attending CC for various reasons not related to the company, but only family issues). I started it to reach out to people who thought they couldn't homeschool and give them a way to help them homeschool. I had one particular person who took their 12 year old out of school and didn't feel confident enough to homeschool on her own or even pick out curriculum. CC was a really good fit for her. I think it would be for you also. If it really encourages you to feel like you can homeschool, GO FOR IT! Don't worry about memorizing out of context or anything in this thread. If you get a good running start and are successful, your confidence will grow and you can leave CC if you want or like some of my friends, stay with it for the long haul. Give yourself a year with CC with no guilt to get started on this path. You can always shift later if you want and a year will also give you time to see what you really want for your children.

I could have written this exact post! A kindred spirit. We are looking into moving to Colorado Springs, my dh has a job in a low demand field, and we live in MN which makes winter even more miserable. We also live in a small town but my dh commutes almost an hour each day. We also would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get out of here. Beth

I would stick to the shower stall. If you plan to stay in your home, you don't know if your child's muscles during growth spurts and/or puberty will get more rigid. My son has a chromosome disorder with cerebral palsy. As he's gotten into his teens, we've had to do a lot more to keep his muscles loose. If you get a tub and have trouble with transfers eventually, you will be putting in a shower stall again. Tubs and kids who have muscle issues are a hazard in my opinion. Beth

As I'm getting all my ducks in a row for next year, I realized that one of the goals I have for my 4th grader is to expose him to some nice literature and try to get him interested in reading books other than comic books. I have Tapestry of Grace literature sheets, but I'm not sure I want to have him complete them (or even have history related books for that matter) since my goal is to just get him reading good literature. Are there any good literature lists for boys for 4th/5th grade? Even books like "The Great Brain" would be acceptable. Beth

I went to a small religious private school where the teachers were "called" which basically meant they could not be fired no matter how bad they were. I had HORRIBLE teachers for 5th-8th grade. The 5th-6th grade teacher did a lot of yelling and smacking hands on the desk - honestly, that's all I remember about school those years. He must have laughed or smiled at some point in his life, but it sure wasn't in the classroom. The 7th and 8th grade teacher (two classes were combined) was abusive to students (physically smacking them). I don't remember that because I was a good kid, but I didn't learn anything those years. By 8th grade, my friend and I, who were the only two left in the class due to this teacher, were given textbooks and basically told 'good luck". Not only were these teachers mean, they didn't know how to teach children. And BTW, during those years, I remember a lot of children in these classes not acting too nice. The atmosphere of the class really was run by these horrible horrible teachers. I would try to find another homeschooler who has older children and pay her the amount you will be spending for private school. There's got to be someone who would like to make money to do the very thing they've gotten good at. Beth

YES! I feel like we have just starting having summer like weather the past couple of weeks. Now that I've finally warmed up, I realize that cold weather will again be the bane of my existence. I myself bought an all in one program because I needed a break from planning. While I'm not excited to start it, at least I don't have to think about it. We start with 1-2 subjects the first week, add another subject the 2nd week, and then when school starts for everyone else, we start full speed ahead also. That means I have two weeks left of not teaching my children. WAHHHHH. I've been burnt out for a few years now. I realized it started when we adopted little miss. Yes, we looked at private schools (the only private school around here is Catholic and we're not at all Catholic but we can work with that), but the cost is too much for us and we make too much to qualify for much of a scholarship. We're in the middle- not rich enough to afford private schooling, but not poor enough to get help paying for it.

With ds #2, went from 6a to Saxon 1/2 only because ds really needed review of stuff he had forgotten in Singapore 5. With ds #3, we stopped at 2b (?) went straight to Saxon 5/4. I did this because ds was already forgetting previous "mastered" concepts and really needed a spiral review. I love Singapore but really wish it had a better review spiraled into the book. It caused me to not even consider it for my dd.

I have the executive membership and Costco American Express card which more than pays for the membership so by using the two plans, I get a free membership. I tend to drop around $400- $450 per trip once a month because it's around 35 minutes away. I have gotten really good at stacking a grocery cart well. It is FULL! That is the majority of my food budget. Then I only have to go to the overpriced small town grocery store twice a month for little incidentals like a bottle of mustard and I'm good. Depending upon what you get, you can save a ton of money.

I've experience "coincidental" and physical realities of Jesus in my life. These got me through a very rough patch in my life. I would have always believed in God as creator, but what kind of God is He? After two years of infetility and praying for a child, I gave birth to a child with severe disabilities. I had to come to a point of is this God I've been serving who He says He is in the Bible or is He bad? If He was bad, there's is no reason to spend my life on Him. I have chosen to believe He is who He says He is- a good God. We cannot see the whole picture and can really only see a small part of it here on earth. We truly see through a veil. I have had very good reasons to leave my faith besides a Christian acted hypocritical or the church stinks. I dont have answers to suffering- only that God doesn't give evil things. God is good. I am always willing to dialog about this stuff in a pm. I have no problems with questions or downright anger toward God. Been there done that, have reached the other side.

Winnie the Pooh --of all the books I have, I have made sure each of my children have at least heard this one.

1 - but if it were my pie, I would have to eat it in my closet with the door to my room locked. And even then, I would have some child in a crisis moment at that particular time of course not having any other crisis moments until that time. Then if I was really going to enjoy my pie, I would also watch a "mommy show" on netflix or hulu without some child asking me questions about said show. I would also have to evade questions of "who ate the last piece of pie"? "I have no idea". Then my dh would come home and give me a smile that says, "Good for you!" He's a good one for encouraging my rare selfish behavior. He thinks they are too far and few between. So, despite having to run though all sorts of obstacles, it would still be a "eat the pie woman! eat the pie!" Beth (who wants to have a personal mini-fridge in her room so that she actually gets to eat some "special" food without her children eating it - even when it says, "MOM"S FOOD" and child claims they didn't see the sign...we have teen boy issues around here)

I taught my kids using Rod and Staff English. I started out not even knowing what a verb was. I didn't try to learn ahead of them and just learned as they learned. I would tell people that I knew only up to 3rd grade grammar, 4th grade grammar, etc. So, I'm up to high school grammar now and well aware of what everything means to teach my current 4th grader. Beth

For similar programs (my son's special Ed class for instance), every 4 years he has to have a large team of professionals to evaluate if he still qualifies. I understand the need to make things the same across the board, but there should be the "look and see" kids. You just show up in a room with a group of professionals, they look at your kid for 5 minutes and say, "obviously they qualify". You could have a line of kids in wheelchair just plowing through the room all day. There is probably someone who would be offended. They can go through the paper trail. Some of these paper trails seem ridiculous to me. Beth

So, what kind of support can you get from SSI disability? I will have this path in 2 1/2 years (AAAAAAA!!!!) with my son who qualifies for everything and anything due to his multiple special needs. I'm asking because we are trying to move and not all states have the financial support we have received here. It would add another layer to where we can live. Beth

A 9 year old should be learning how to be an independent learner. You will have 9 months to help him be able to do more school work on his own. Go for it! Beth

My 13 year old will be doing advanced math this coming year, so I guess he's accelerated. I too have felt shamed into trying something else. It didn't work. All I got was confusion and forgetting previous concepts because it was a mastery program and not spiral. All my children are doing Saxon now and they know math very well. My 9 year old needs more than one introduction to a new concept before he really understands so I know that if he doesn't get something new right away, we will be reviewing it every day for a while until it's solid in his mind. I don't know about problem solving skills other than my 9 year old can figure out change for a $10 bill better than most teen store clerks who have to rely on a machine and my 13 year old can figure out all his physical science equations without any problem. Beth

I make yogurt and whole wheat bread to try to tame my budget. I buy organic whole milk and make a gallon of yogurt for $6. I make mine in the oven. My bread winds up being less than $1 a loaf. We also have 6 and my budget is a little less than yours without dietary restrictions and 2 teen boys. Beth

I go to Costco and find good savings. I'm not sure if Sam's club has this, but I have Costco's executive membership along with signing up for their American Express Credit card. Both give me cash back. By the end of the year, I've paid for my membership plus some so to me, the membership is free. We're pretty bare bones also and I have found the prices good at Costco on non-food items. Beth

DUH!!! I just realized that if my ds who will be 14 needs to do research, he can go to 1 of 2 colleges in town. <_< I just don't think he's going to need to do research on any of his upcoming classes. I bet I can get them to organize a library treasure hunt there though with the homeschool group... Beth

So, I live in a small town. The library is small and it never really bothered me because we have inter-library loan and can get most any book we need. I never minded waiting and just knew I would have to order books weeks ahead of time. I got used to it. We went to visit Grandma in a suburb of Chicago where the space for their extensive DVD collection of kids movies and educational DVDs is bigger than our entire teen and children's section both fiction and non-fiction. In fact, just the kids section of the library is twice as big as our WHOLE library. My kids wanted to check out some comic books because we're on vacation and I told them they probably had a much bigger selection. So, we look up the call numbers and go to find the comic books. They didn't know how to find the books. There were so many shelves and so many numbers on the sides of those shelves, they got confused. We're not talking small children, we're talking a 13 year old! In our library, if you need a book on Egypt, you know where it is on the bookshelf. If you need a comic book, you know where it is on the bookshelf. The non-fiction bookshelf is pretty much the back wall of the children's section - maybe 50 feet or less? It never occurred to me my children didn't know really how to learn how to use a large library. I just figure that in the future, if they go to college and need to figure out where a book is, they'll have enough reasoning skills to actually figure it out on their own. The nearest "bigger" library is 25 miles away and I get up there once a month. Things you learn. Beth