I have this for sale if anyone is interested. My children (boys) apparently rebel against anything that smacks of drawing. Beth

Anyone deal with this? Ever since my daughter's ear surgery a year ago, she has had some sort of vocal outburst. Last month, it was a whistle when she got stressed or excited, this week, it's a pretty loud WOO! WOO! Any help for this? Beth

We made it through FF Latin 1 and halfway through Second Form and then quit. I couldn't help ds and couldn't keep up myself. It was adding too much stress to an already stressed life and I just knew I couldn't continue. I did make up games here: http://www.purposegames.com/search?q=first+form+latin the games did help ds learn the vocabulary, but it's another one of those classes I just need to outsource eventually. Beth

Yes most likely next year, but I don't even know where to look. He does potters school right now for English, but they use Apologia for science. I don't really know what else is good out there. Beth

I have no idea what open courseware is. Beth

As ds is getting older, I am starting to see the flaws in homeschooling. One in particular is science. I just don't have time to teach it and ds doesn't have the motivation to learn from the textbook. He's been very willing to just read it, take notes like I showed him how to do and he's done. He's not understanding what he reads and just doesn't care. It's not an attitude thing, it's just lack of motivation. Yes, if he was my only homeschooler, I could easily teach him all the science he would need. My problem is that I have two other students (I'm sure many of you have more), one of whom very much leans toward ADD/ADHD. My day pretty much ends at 3 pm when my oldest special needs son comes home. Basically, there are just some subjects that need to be taught. I feel like science is one of those subjects (math is also one of those subjects, but I majored in that in college so no problem). I don't have the time to learn this subject on my own first and then teach it. I feel like he needs a teacher. I live in a small town currently so outside classes are out. The public school doesn't let homeschoolers sign up for science classes and there are few teens his age that we could partner with. I like Apologia in that it is easier to understand and speaks to the student but he HATES Apologia with a violent hatred. He's never had such a reaction to anything we've tried like he has with Apologia. I'm switching his Physical Science to the John Tiner books with Memoria Press additions because he's not understanding his science anyway and I'm hoping for him to learn something and just get interested. He's only in 7th grade, so he doesn't need the labs yet and he finds labs to be an annoyance anyway. He's always been a "tell me what to do and I'll do it, but don't add on fun crafts and/or experiments to make it harder to just get done" kind of kid. A few years ago I got him the Horrible science books and he devoured them so the Tiner books may be better. So, what do you do for science when you don't teach it and the child isn't motivated to learn it on his own? I think he could be really good at science but I just have to find something that sparks his interest. Beth

I got up, ignored my desire to be a bum, and took care of my family, much like most of you today also. Beth

I love my Bosch. I've had it for over 10 years and the blender attachment is the only thing that broke. I make 5 loaves of wheat bread at least every week and a half. It doesn't work as well for smaller batches of baked goods though. Beth

My son has gotten all of his supplies from Amazon.

Last week I offered my friend my hyper 6 year old dd for her 14 year old ds. I thought it was an even swap. She decided to keep the 14 year old. Sigh.... Beth

I changed to Saxon for ds #3 from Singapore math this year. Because of the mastery approach in Singapore, ds was forgetting what he had learned previously. The Saxon approach works for him because the constant spiral gives him the time he needs to master the problems. He really needs the constant review that we couldn't get with Singapore (I was never good trying to build in review with all those books). Beth

I've been off on events by at least 2 years. Sometimes I get shocked by how many years have elapsed since my last appointment or some such thing. I had a roommate in college who was awesome at remembering dates in particular. Our final month of school, she said we should contact each other some date in the summer 2012 which was 20 years into the future. At that time it seemed like forever. She called me up and said, "Do you know what today is?" I had no idea. She remembered the exact date and I'm pretty sure she didn't write it down. It's a gift. Beth

Wisconsin is easier than Minnesota for homeschooling laws. There is no help for our disabled son in Illinois. Wisconsin is like night and day compared to Illinois when you have a child with severe disabilities. Beth

Dh doesn't actually have a job, so we're trying to figure out where to move and where to look. We have family in northwest suburbs of Illinois, but due to a lot of factors, WI is a much better choice. Beth

Anyone live in southeaster Wisconsin? We are looking into Kenosha area or Racine area. Something south of Milwaukee. Beth

I've been thinking of you today. I felt like sharing about my mom. She had six children in 10 years and felt like she should be in service to God and the church her whole life. What that meant for her was playing organ, teaching choirs, and teaching 7th and 8th grade at the Lutheran school to help them in a tough situation. Now she didn't do all of these at once, but she felt that since God had gifted her, she should use her gifts and not just "be a mom". As a result of all her service, she got gifts of high blood pressure, heart disease, and had a couple of anxiety attacks that mimicked heart attacks (which happened when she was teaching school, running choirs, and playing organ while taking care of my dad who was going through chemo). Her body was telling her to stop. She didn't. She slowed down, but didn't really stop because the church really needed her and she got complimented for what she did. My siblings and I resented her great service. All we saw was that when we needed her, she was giving her best to the church. At her retirement party, she realized the sacrifices she made took a toll on her family that didn't need to be there. We all grew up to be healthy adults, but not one of us will ever give our best outside of our family. I have found in the church as well as the world that being "just a mom" is never seen as enough. You will never get applauded for staying home with your children and doing just that. In the world and the church, we are only as good as what we do outwardly. I have struggled with this greatly because every time I try to do something beyond just my family, I suffer and my family suffers because I'm stressed. I always think I should be able to do more than I can, but I just can't. And that is good enough. God cares about who we are not what we do. You are His child. That is "good enough". It sounds like your body, like my mom's is telling you to pull back a bit. Feel free to pull back. Do not feel guilty that you are not using your gifts or providing service to the church. God will not think of you any differently. He loves you completely and wholly as you are no matter what you do or don't do. Beth

Too bad I didn't know about your van needs last month. We had a low mileage ramp van with some rust that we sold for what it was actually worth rather than a jacked up price. Those vans are ridiculously over priced. Yes! I'll take a used mini rampvan with over 100k miles on it for $30k! That's a steal! Insane. Everything in this industry is grossly overpriced. I just priced out a chair lift on a non-straight stairway. Since it's "custom", they'll charge us minimum $20k. For a cheapy seat on a rail. And now let's extensively tax overpriced medical equipment! That should really help disabled people get around and take care of basic needs even easier. Makes sense...yes, I'm getting a little bitter.

My husband's company felt like he and some others in his company were making too much for their positions, so a bunch got pay cuts or had their salaries capped. So, even when my husband gets excellent reviews for his job, he doesnt get a cost of living increase either because his salary has also been capped. The company is doing financially very well.

Post made dh nervous so it's been deleted. Beth

My ds is on his second Dialectic class. There is a difference in teacher's and what they expect. For example, his teacher last year (Skidmore) had them do projects such as power point reports. She also gave a bit more feedback about how they were doing. This year, not as much but there is a lot of class interaction overall and ds has accountability with someone else. They don't use all the questions from the dialectic activity pages, but pick and choose. Overall I've been pleased with the class. It gives ds outside accountability and discussion. Ds says he enjoys the class better than his potter's school class because it's different each week what they discuss. I'll most likely keep doing them. I only wish they would combine the writing component with either history or literature. Beth

What are social services like in your state for help in taking care of your special needs child? We are/were considering a move to Illinois until we discovered there is really no social services financial support. I was just looking for basics like incontinence supplies and support staff for when he gets older since dh's and my back have seen much better days. Also, some services my son gets at school are paid for by his social services plan. Technically there are social services supports in Illinois, but the waiting list is 22,000 people long and no one has been added to the list in three years. I was basically asked why we would ever think of moving to Illinois from Minnesota when there is a migration of families with special needs kids moving here. I've been living in this delusional world that every state had some sort of support set up for these kids. Am I living in the golden state? We wanted to move to live closer to my large extended family, but we are looking at a miracle to have that happen (which is possible because we know the main guy who's in the miracle business). Beth

Somehow the word barn and a fairly large metro area tells me you are probably not close to where we are thinking of moving. Doors at this point are the least of our concern. It's all about the bathrooms. It's even gotten to a point were we are unable to stay with any family members because of the bathroom situation. Beth

Has anyone moved with a physically handicapped older child? We are considering a move to be closer to family and to give Dh more opportunities for work. He's been underemployed for a year now and there's been one serious interview that did not result in a job. The logistics of moving are making us wonder if we even can. We built an accessible home specifically for ds's needs. It's a ranch style home with no stairs to get into the house, 3 ft doorways, and a large roll in shower. I know houses can be ramped to get into the doors, but the whole bathroom/room situation really is distressing us. We would be moving to a location were there are no lots for sale. Dh doesn't want to leave me here trying to sell a home while he is working in the new location. He is also very concerned about the shower/bathroom/room on the ground floor situation. We really really need a roll in shower and a good sized bathroom on the ground floor. A bedroom on the ground floor would also be a must otherwise we're having to install a chair lift. What if our house sells right away and we need to rent for a while? How can we possible rent anything? We have 3 other children beside our child with handicaps so a simple apartment is out. So, has anyone done this successfully? How? Beth

Has anyone moved with a physically handicapped older child? We are considering a move to be closer to family and to give Dh more opportunities for work. He's been underemployed for a year now and there's been one serious interview. The logistics of moving are making us wonder if we even can. We built an accessible home specifically for ds's needs. It's a ranch style home with no stairs to get into the house, 3 ft doorways, and a large roll in shower. I know houses can be ramped to get into the doors, but the whole bathroom/room situation really is distressing us. We would be moving to a location were there are no lots for sale. Dh doesn't want to leave me here trying to sell a home while he is working in the new location. He is also very concerned about the shower/bathroom/room on the ground floor situation. We really really need a roll in shower and a good sized bathroom on the ground floor. A bedroom on the ground floor would also be a must otherwise we're having to install a chair lift. What if our house sells right away and we need to rent for a while? How can we possible rent anything? We have 3 other children beside our child with handicaps so a simple apartment is out. So, has anyone done this successfully? How? Beth

Yes, Dive would be the DVD teacher that he would zone out on...but I'm trying to think of solutions. If he wasn't so incredibly opposed to Apologia, I would probably go with that because it's a little more clear cut. But, he claims to like what he's doing. I think he just wants to do the minimum and I really don't know how to motivate him. He wanted to start trying to take college level classes next year so he could avoid having to go to school longer (his only reason to try for clep testing is to avoid a longer time in college) but after this, I'm not sure that will work. Maybe I need to raise this issue with him again. Lori D, you are right, I am and have felt overwhelmed quite a bit lately. I've gotten our lives here to the bare minimum and even that seems too much at times. Beth