A very good friend had an RAD child she adopted from another country. She disrupted the adoption. :( It was a very sad situation. I saw what she went through so I have an idea of what you're going through. I think Cheryl in NM has a good idea. I think that you should find a way to keep her away from the coop entirely. Part of what makes a RAD tick is the availability of people to manipulate. No matter what you say or how you say it, there will be people at the coop who thrive on 'drama' and you will be the bad, mean mommy who is being unfair. The fact that your daughter knows to act angelic at the coop is going to be a problem. Unless people know RAD, they just cannot wrap their heads around the manipulative skills of these children. My advise...same as Cheryl...find a way to keep her isolated (at home and not at the coop) and as kwg suggested, make her do her homework. Not being allowed to go to coop doesn't mean she gets a free day. By keeping her away from coop you don't give her the opportunity to see you having to explain things to anyone. When she sees you explaining your parenting decisions to others it only reinforces to her that she has the power to make you uncomfortable. :grouphug:

I'd just make up a report card. We don't do grades either but the way I interpret that is we work until the children have full mastery of a subject for their grade level...translation....its an 'A'. We work hard in our school and if a business offers an incentive for good grades then it should include homeschoolers as well. :)

Jack Russell/Chihuahua X maybe? :confused: He looks like a Jack Russell we once had and has the head of a chihuahua.

My son started college early and he had no problems going into the college environment. He did so as a duel enrolled student. As homeschoolers in FL we are able to have the children enroll in college and take as many classes as they want to with free tuition. My son started out with two classes the first semester since he was still in 10th grade. Then he added more as he became comfortable. He stayed 'homeschooled' until I graduated him after his 12th year. The transition from dual enrolled to regular student was a seamless transition. He took the ACT in his 12th year and qualified for a full scholarship. I did have to construct a transcript but since I keep good records that was no problem. Don't let the high school and college thing scare you. It is not that hard to navigate. :001_smile:

We used to do a lot of lapbooks but the best one we did was a Colonial History Unit Study from Homeschool In The Woods. It was awesome! It is a lot so if you are looking for something smaller, we also did folder lapbooks on things like bats, Cinco de Mayo, books we read, astronomy, elections....etc. You can do them on anything that interests the children. :)

I think I might have to do this post homeschooling. I LOVE scheduling and plotting out lessons. :lol:

I completely understand where you're coming from. If there comes a time when you need to choose between your children & dh or overextending yourself to care for your mother then you need to know it is ok to get help for her. There are services available that she can apply for that may help take the pressure off of you. :grouphug:

I never feel intimidated. The few times I've been somewhat challenged by a teacher, they ended up being blown away that I knew more than they did regarding curriculum etc. and they leave me alone. I don't set out to make them uncomfortable and really go out of my way to respect them (which I honestly do) but if they get all 'attitude' on me, I'm not above dishing it back. I've been doing this for over 10 years and all grades (one in college now) so I feel totally confident. I can honestly say though that most of my experience has been supportive and a couple of my good friends are teachers. ;)

I understand your frustration. However, having been down this road before I know that there can be a thin line between fostering a love of reading and making it a frustrating event. It sounds like you've had to do a significant amount of vetoing. I wonder if maybe it might be time to let a few of the less than stellar choices go through for the purpose of getting you all back to finding the library a fun experience. You might also do some co-reading of the classics like Treasure Island or Black Beauty etc. I used to do that a lot. I would read a page and the child reads a page. That way they aren't getting tired and you keep the interest level up. Good luck and I hope this helps!

It looks like something I would come up with. I like to use multiple maths each year too. LOF is light so I think it looks doable.

We keep going with math. For Spanish we're going to do the Unitedstreaming Middle School videos and reinforcement lessons in prep for Spanish II in the fall. We also do a Hogwarts Summer Correspondence School. This summer we're also doing IEW. We do a more relaxed school.

That portrayal of homeschoolers makes us look like wasteoids with no idea on how to parent and set limits. Now people will think that is what homeschooling is about. The parents and the children came off doltish IMO. UGH!

I used Edu-Track for a long time and put up with having to work around the glitches. When I got the upgrade the program did worse that before so I finally gave up on it. Now I have a spreadsheet I made myself and I really don't miss Edu-Track at all. I totally resent that their program didn't work better and I paid for it.

We're on the West coast of FL and it has been the case for several years. We never were able to take summer dual enrollment courses...unless we wanted to pay the full tuition that is. :(

I homeschool by myself. I have found the groups are too distracting and not particularly challenging and accountability is an issue. I've tried some but end up being disappointed and feeling it was a waste of time. If we do outside classes I prefer them to be ones by the local museum.

Getting a degree in significantly less than 4 years is VERY possible! I am one who has done it. I enrolled in the accelerated degree program for adult learners at Regis University. It was a grueling schedule and every class required a speech presentation and the majority of work was in the form of written papers. Most of the time we were required to turn in our first papers even before the first class met. There was no tolerance for missing a class. A missed class was an automatic grade decrease by a whole grade. It was serious business. I think the accelerated format was so much better than dragging the courses out over a semester. I relate much better to getting things done faster so this worked well for me. When I was at Regis University they accepted unlimited CLEP and DANTE exam credit. I CLEP, DANTE and Challenge Tested out of a total of 11 courses. Between the accelerated program and testing out of courses, I was able to do my degree in less than 2 years. My degree is from a very reputable university too. ;)

DH and I had ours framed and displayed for awhile but after our last move we just kept them in a box. I didn't really get why the guy in the previous link burned his since you can always get another diploma and a hard copy isn't really required much anyway. :confused:

:iagree: It is frustrating. I personally find it more annoying when always tardy folks seem to attribute their tardiness to something they cannot change. Like it is a permanent personality thing. They show up and even call attention to their lateness by explaining that they are always late. What is up with that?!

My 6th grader used Lightning Lit 7 with no problems at all.

Sad story. I have a friend who had to disrupt an adoption of a child from overseas. The agency lied to the adoptive family and eventually the child was diagnosed with severe psychological issues (RAD etc). He was dangerous and threatened his sister. I watched my friend go to countless doctors and try to work with the agency but nothing helped. The agency just wanted her gone and wasn't interested in helping her. Agencies in the US had very limited help to offer since it was an intl. adoption. She was stuck and it almost tore the family apart. She finally found a group that specialized in adoption disruptions and though that group was able to find other parents who had experience and knowledge of how to deal with his problems. Even though she did the best she could for that child, I know it bothers her that she couldn't get though to him. I think she is a hero for admitting her limitations and finding a better situation for him. I don't like how the woman in the news returned her son to Russia but after what I've seen, I can feel her frustration and anger. She must have been at the end of her rope and maybe putting him on a plane alone was better than what could have been a worse outcome had he remained in her home.

This is information on the web. http://www.manta.com/c/mmg5yx0/beginnings-pubg-house-inc Maybe it will help you contact him. His website expired 4/3 and appears to be pending renewal. DURELL C. DOBBINS Beginnings Pubg House Inc 328 Shady Ln Alvaton, KY 42122-9709 Phone: (270) 746-6651 dcdobbins@AOL.com Website:Beginningspublishing.com

He would not be allowed in my home or around my children. I would have a talk with the children about people like him and what they need to do if they are uncomfortable. Even if he doesn't stay the night, if he is treated like the average 'uncle' the children have established a higher degree of trust. It is this trust that pedophiles seek and then abuse. If dh has to meet with him, I'd have him do it on his own away from the house....far away. Trust your instinct on this.

Chi! Check on Ebay for a good deal. Her hair looks lovely!

I'd like to see the books too but the page doesn't appear. :(

For my 7th grader-so far: Math-Abeka 7 & LOF Pre-Algebra w/Biology Grammar-Hake Grammar & Wordly Wise vocab. Composition-IEW History-IEW Ancients w/History Odyssey & FLVS US History Science-Apologia Physical Science Foreign Language-FLVS Intermediate Spanish (MS) Electives-Speed Reading, Museum classes Literature-Beginning to work though the classics