All the pay options above are out of the question right now with dh being 20% underemployed. Also, just the time involved for ds would be a little much since he is having time management issues with the new workload. We live in a small town and know two other families doing physical science right now. One of them commutes 45 minutes to join a co-op and the other uses Dive (ie mom is not teaching it). DH is looking for a job at nights, so he can't be punted anything. Ds also did Rainbow science two years ago successfully. He doesn't despise Physical Science right now. I just don't think he understands what he's reading and he doesn't have the drive to go over his textbook in order to understand. In his mind, I have a feeling that he thinks, "I don't understand what they're talking about. Oh well..." I'm thinking about just getting DIVE since it does co-ordinate with the book I already have. I'm not worried about labs right now since he's not in high school right now. I do have him do labs every once in a while so he can learn to write a decent lab report. Beth

I have my 8th grader doing Concepts in Action physical science. I got it for him because he really despised Apologia and wanted something more colorful. What I am finding is that he is not really understanding the material. Yes, I have just given him the textbook, taught him how to take good notes, and have required extra chapter review comprehension question worksheets that come with the curriculum. I am finding he is just not getting it. He understands bits and pieces (mostly anything that is math related), but big concepts, he just doesn't understand. Once again, I am finding that teaching him the subject would be really helpful. I. just.don't.have.time. I don't understand the concepts myself without studying them and just can't keep up. Right now is the first breather and sit down I've had all day and my special needs son is coming home soon requiring my time. This is on top of trying to get laundry done so my 6 year old has some clothes again and figuring out dinner. I suggested he start over with Apologia because even though he considered it boring, at least he understood it. A dvd teacher will not help since he already has quite the heavy coursework and sitting in front of a teacher is something he will zone out on. He's got the adolescent brain melt, so there are days when he is just "dull" and can't think through simple concepts. Any suggestions? Should I just call it quits and do Apologia? I really need something that assumes a teacher is not present. Beth

Around $325K or less. Beth

He's looking for work right now. We're thinking of moving there to be closer to family who live in Mt. Prospect. We need a location with newer (late 80s to present) housing because we have a child in a wheelchair and older houses are harder to adapt due to little closed off rooms, narrow hallways, and narrow bathrooms. Beth

Any particular location in the metro Chicago area that's a nice place to live? Reasonable cost of living please (ie, don't suggest Lake Forest because it's so beautiful there, and the houses aren't as expensive as Beverly Hills mansions :glare: so it's reasonable). Beth

Can you tell me what hoops you have to jump through? Also, in MN you can go to community college for free (paid for by the state once you're a junior in high school). Can you do that in Illinois? Beth

We are considering moving due to lack of job opportunities for dh. Where is a Midwestern location that has low cost housing with a good situation for severe special needs children? More moderate temperatures than MN where we live currently would be a big plus. Beth

Just for the snarky reply...You take your regular upright vacuum cleaner and use the hose attachment to vacuum the stairs. You become unaware that you ran out of hose length about 3/4 the way down the stairs. You then unwillingly allow the upright vacuum to fall down the stairs resulting in a large hole in your drywall. After that, you fix the hole with drywall tape and plaster (which you know how to do because your dad taught you after you backed the car through the back of the garage when you were 16) and drive down to the paint store to successfully (yay!) match the paint covering your very large patch job. Vacuuming the stairs only has to take you about a week. Easy Peasy. Beth

I would do SOTW. I am doing it with my two youngest right now in addition to having my 3rd grader just read the TOG books himself. I wish I would have started it with my 13 year old when he was younger. The activities are there if you want them, the stories are interesting, and they have a ton of suggested books for each section to flesh it out a bit. My youngers really enjoy it. Beth

YES! I may look calm on the outside, but my blood often boils on the inside. I just have to keep telling myself - "their brain is remodeling..their brain is remodeling..." Beth

I am using this: http://www.amazon.com/Addition-Fun-Way-Book-Kids/dp/1883841348/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381409170&sr=8-1&keywords=addition+the+fun+way Dd has a very good visual memory. I read her the story once, she looks at the picture, and she had the addition fact memorized. Part of math is knowing what addition means, the other part is just memorizing the facts. It's not "fun", but for a very visual kid, it's very effective. The book above has some samples. Try them out and see if your son picks them up faster. Beth

I had a child do that and #2 also. We sprayed so much disinfectant down the vent and got as far as we could with sponges and sponges attached to handles. Then we got the vents cleaned which was needed because of dh's allergies, but was secondary in our minds. Beth

Just do what you're familiar with. I had the same feelings with child #3 - I just didn't want to do the same thing again. She also loves to sing and loves math more than reading. What happened was that I bought AAR #1 and sold it before finishing because I still felt like what I did before worked well enough and I knew how to do it. I knew AAR was going to get expensive to use because what my one book (Alpha Phonics) did in one book that I already owned, AAR needed 3 (?) levels. So, my daughter is almost finished with Alpha Phonics and it wasn't too bad considering that I really didn't want to do it all over again. Teaching phonics is just like potty training. Sometimes, you just have to grit your teeth and do it. The grass isn't greener, the landscaping is just different. :closedeyes: Beth

You want to talk about people abusing the system? What about people abusing Social Security Disability? As it is right now, the forecast is that the whole system will run out of money by the time my son is 18 (in 4 years) when he could really need some extra help for his care. All because people abused the system. Grrr.... Beth

We also went to Disney with my son who is physically and mentally disabled. It was sooo nice to be able to go to the front of the line. I too felt guilty the first day and then it hit me that it was literally taking us twice as long to get through the park because he eats much slower, bathroom breaks took much longer, and there's just a variety of other things we need to do to take care of him that other families didn't even have to think about - not to mention trying to navigate a crowd of people with a large wheelchair and a child who likes to grab people to get their attention. There would have been no way to even go though a lot of the lines because of how narrow they are and switchback turns, etc. We've always wanted to go back because for once, we were all able to do something together as a family - that doesn't happen a lot. Disney was so great in making a lot of rides accessible. It's a shame people abused the system and spoiled it for the people who really needed it. Beth

For Christians who tithe, that's another 10% or more...I guess it made me realize the income my dh is trying to obtain really is well within our needs and not at all extravagant. Beth

Look here for what they consider to be history: http://www.classicalconversations.com/images/stories/FAQs/ChallengeFAQs.pdf Then look here for books they read in Challege A: http://www.classicalconversationsbooks.com/chli.html and Challenge 1: http://www.classicalconversationsbooks.com/chili.html Now, these are historical novels and yes, you can talk about them and the history surrounding it. That is where they are claiming their history is. Here is a quote from the facts page: "So, if you are looking for a chronological history course in our Challenge program, you will not find it. If you are looking for a focus on the practice of writing and discussing and presenting historical information and history’s effect on the rest of the subjects God created, our program is perfect for you. We know you need to have a good history sequence in your head in order to think logically and present information effectively at the dialectic and rhetorical levels. That is why it is so important to teach your young students to memorize maps and a timeline." Basically, in their minds, history is reading quality historical literature and then placing it on a timeline they have memorized at an earlier date. Now, there's nothing that says you have to do history to have a quality classical education, but if you do want sequential history, you won't necessarily find it with classical conversations in the same way as TWTM. Bet

Yup! I was given more than I can handle 14 years ago. It's made me very dependent upon God for every. little. thing including what kind of car we drive, what we do as a family, where we live. Not much around here is done without prayer and a lot of other people support. I get irritated when someone says that "God will not give you more than you can handle". I feel like I give a mini-sermon about that verse. Beth

It's not printed in bold so I guess I'll skip it. He obviously knows how to find the answer so he does know the "why", but just doesn't write it down. Maybe I'll preview geometry proofs and see how they teach that. Beth

I am finding in the solutions manual that along with an answer, it will have something along the lines of , "because triangle abc is an equilateral triangle, all angles are the same size". Should I have my ds also explain why he gets the answer he does in the geometry problems? I can only see it helping his geometry proofs, but if that is going to be explained in depth later, I'm sure he would rather skip the extra work. Beth

This...I've put her on the Diane Craft diet for adhd kids and it has improved who she can be tremendously. I sometimes sooo want to help her because I can tell she wants to be good, but her body just prevents her from it sometimes. Sure, there are times that she is defiant and it's a big difference. For example, she'll be concentrating on something hard for her and she is almost violently moving just to think. Just putting her in my lap helps to calm all that down. She is immature for her age and just when I think she can handle a little more responsibility, she shows she just can't. She's the age for 1st grade, but I'm calling it kindergarten for her just because of the immaturity. On the other hand, her love for Jesus and her worship of Him is tremendous. Her ability to understand deep things of God is way beyond her years. I guess the whole package she is balances itself out. Beth

She's totally adhd as far as I can tell. I'm having trouble adjusting to that reality because it's looking so different than my other two typical kids. I keep thinking she should be able to play like the others did in our backyard where I can keep an eye on her. I just keep smacking into the reality that she just can't. I've been trying to teach her this for over a year. Just when I think she's getting it, moments like today make me realize she really hasn't. She's a ton better than she used to be and it fools me into thinking she can handle a simple command. I guess we're back to full time supervision.Big sigh. Beth

Part of the problem is that I have quite a bit of inside work to do with her oldest special needs brother. He'll be going back to school, but I'm still busy schooling two other children during the day. No fence - no hope of a fence...She's just a different child than her two older/able brothers. They have had a lot of freedom comparably because they stuck to the rules. Her only requirement for increased freedom is to stay in the backyard when I tell her to. My option right now is that she will have to be inside quite a bit more until I can directly supervise her outside. I don't even think she sees that as an issue that her mom has to watch her like a toddler. She's just impulsive. beth

Nope - she forgets to stay in the back. I can at least watch her out there if she would stay out there. I've got a good view of the whole backyard. She's always having to come in because she wanders to the front. Beth

My six year old does not have much safety sense about her. Our neighbor has just mentioned to us how often she has been seen playing on the corner of the sidewalk (or even in the street) on a residential street corner that has traffic zipping around it quickly. These times are usually times I thought she was riding her bike on said sidewalk. So, here's a for instance...she asks to play with the next door neighbor. I tell her she is welcome to invite him to play in the backyard. I go over with her a few times where she is allowed to play--the backyard. I give her scenarios of what happens if her friend wants to ride bikes? "I'll say no!" What if he wants to play in the garage? "I'll say no!" Where are you going to play? "The backyard!" So she goes to invite him to play. Five minutes later, I don't see her in the backyard. She is playing with him in his minivan in their garage!!! She "forgot". I spent five minutes explaining to her where she should play, how she should respond and the consequence (having to stay inside). She forgot in less than 5 minutes everything! I would like to give her more freedom to play outside by herself. I just can't watch her constantly. I can't. It really requires me being outside watching her like a hawk. What can I do? She loves being outside and has a much better attitude being outside, but she can't keep herself safe. HELP! Beth