My advice is always to teach them at the level they're at in each subject. The only way to go is forward, and the only way to go forward is from where they are. The standardized testing may give you a good guideline on where to start from in each area for next year, and, who knows, you may even be relieved when the results arrive. You could always call next year 4/5 or 5/6 if you're between grade levels and really feel the need to declare a grade.

The very reason that that film was made is that it's the exception, not the rule. I've been involved with many, many VBS/Bible Day Camp programs and have never seen anything like that in real life. Most have been very low key and certainly none have ever tried to frighten children. However, if you don't to risk that your children will learn about Jesus and have a relationship with God through Him, then you probably don't want to send them to a VBS program. Just common sense.

I know what you mean. I'm only safe discussing my dc's achievements with childless friends or one friend who has older, even more gifted dc. Even the frustrations that can come with gt children are seen as bragging by most. For social things, I just refer to my children by their chronological ages and have taught them to do the same. Since they don't brag, when something comes out about what they've been doing (such as when another boy in hs group asked ds what math he was using), the other kids seem to just accept it and go on. Much nicer than other moms!

We bought a used hammered dulcimer off of Ebay and have been very happy with it. Of course, it's a good brand and the seller was a reputable music store.

We tried Videotext Algebra and hated it. I had been a math teacher, yet the first module was confusing and frustrating to me, as well as to the children! We opted to switch to a traditional textbook (McKeague's Elementary Algebra -- actually designed for college students who are behind) and were much happier.

I've developed a lot of allergies as an adult, similar to many here. One suggestion -- avoid exposure to diesel exhaust. There are studies that show that exposure to diesel exhaust can cause the development of new allergies.

Thanks for the link. I've been wanting a pan, but all that I could find were either non-stick or preseasoned. It's nice to see that they have some "season it yourself" cast iron!

I suppose it depends who's doing the saying. We all know now that Bill Clinton has a much different idea of what constitutes adultery than most of us do. I'm guessing that most people would mean that they'd never had any kind of sexual involvement with another person other than their spouse during the time that they've been married. I think, to be truthful, it should also include never contemplating doing anything of the sort -- not "mentally" cheating, either.

I'd hold off on the writing, too. If she wants to write, she'll do it for fun! When my dc were young, they had handwriting books, but I didn't require any composition, and even through early elementary years, only asked for an occasional letter or paragraph. On their own, however, they started writing letters, articles, making their own newspapers and magazines, etc., because they'd decided that writing was for fun, not drudgery. By 5th/6th grade, they enjoyed watching the high school level Student Writing Intensive from IEW, and when I asked them to write their first research papers, they did them independently and blew me away with their skill. (I've taught junior high English in public schools, and these papers were better than anything I'd had a student turn in!) If your dd reads a lot and is read to, I don't think there's any point in pushing the writing, and that it's far better to let her learn to love it and do it on her own.

Lodge preseasons with soy oil, so watch out if anyone has soy allergies.

I've done both (separate years) and found SOTW1 a far superior experience. With SOTW1 and the Activity Guide, I could choose which resources to use, so that I could fit my children's needs and interests. Also, SOTW1 gave a much more thorough overview of history so that my children had firm knowledge to build upon. The year we did SOTW1 was probably our best year of homeschooling ever (out of ten, so far), because the children enjoyed the book, the mapping and activity sheets, and the projects so much! :)

Or an online or IRL encyclopedia. You could also have your dc outline Bible stories -- all you need is a Bible, IRL or online.

Anything by Lori Wick, Janette Oke, or Grace Livingston Hill. The Grace Chapel Inn series. If she likes things a little more tense and thriller style, Karen Kingsbury has some good ones. Some of the Melody Carlson things written for teens are good, but I'd recommend prescreening them, depending on how impressionable your daughter is. (Melody Carlson deals with a lot of real-life teen issues with a Christian twist, so sex, drugs, abortion, suicide, wicca, etc. are involved in her books.)

Role playing may help, but so may relaxing and not worrying about it. One of my children is naturally outgoing, but my other one tended toward extreme shyness. I was worried (and grateful that my other one was very social so that people wouldn't claim "it's because you homeschool"). As it turned out, at about the age of eight, the shyness began to disappear and now, at ten, you'd never guess it had ever been a problem. My mother was the wise person who told me not to worry. She, too, had been a shy child who developed into a normally social adult.

We've done various things. The best ones were Delta's Science in a Nutshell kits and NOEO Science. You might take a look at those. Now, for high school, we're going straight into college texts, as ones written for high school level tend to be written by educators rather than scientists and contain a lot of misconceptions.

I guess in some ways I'm blessed that in Wisconsin, we're supposed to keep a record of hours -- not that anyone ever asks to see it. I keep a plan book with what we've accomplished and the hours we spent "schooling" each day, and that helps to keep us motivated and on track.

Now, since they won't be testing, will they still be giving family members Tamiflu? Since most of these confirmed U.S. cases have been teens, and the family members have been given anti-virals, I don't think we've seen what's going to happen when it hits the 20-40 age group, which had the high death rate in Mexico. I hope we don't do a repeat of that here, now that the health care system is standing down on the swine flu.

The All-of-a-Kind family series is based on the author's pre-WWI childhood in an immigrant Jewish family in New New York City's Lower East Side. They are wonderful books with wise parents, bright daughters, and fun little things happening. I learned a lot about Jewish holidays, among other things, by reading these as a child. The titles are: * All-of-a-Kind Family. Illustrated by Helen John. Follett, 1951. * More All-of-a-Kind Family. Illustrated by Mary Stevens. Follet, 1954. * All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown. Illustrated by Mary Stevens. Follett, 1958. * All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown. Illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush. Follett, 1972. * Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family. Illustrated by Meryl Rosner. Dutton, 1978.

Their behavior isn't too cool -- but glaring at the starers and taking them to task isn't really, either. In my life, I've had two (rare) medical conditions that have caused me to be obviously disabled in public. I've decided it's much nicer to just smile politely at the starer and, if opportunity presents, educate as to the situation. I don't know what your son's condition is, but I'm guessing he'll react far better to the staring if you just brush it off and treat it politely than if you make a big deal out of it. I know that if my dh and dc were rude to people who look at me oddly, I'd feel much more awkward, and likely, mortified. One thing I really appreciated about dh back when we were dating is that he never seemed to pay any attention to the appliance I had to wear for my problem, and was non-chalant when others inquired. If he'd treated their inquiries, and, yes, stares, as a big deal, I suspect I would have felt unwilling to go out in public. As it was, we just didn't let it bother us.

"The box" never worked the best for my children. I'd suggest choosing things for each subject separately and making up your own plan. I'd also encourage letting your child work as far as she can in any subject she can, but especially emphasizing a broad range of reading and mastery of basic math. Spelling, grammar, science, social studies, etc. will all flow naturally from reading a wide variety of well-written books.

Unless you're very liberal, I'd suggest you beware of having a child take college writing early. The writing courses that I had in college encouraged writing about the seedy side of life, and penalized fiction written without a least a bit of explicit language, sex, and/or other "gritty" material. Even if your daughter wasn't writing things like that, she'd probably be having to read the work of other students, which would likely include such things.

I've been in similar situations twice. In both cases, I let the child continue and keep learning. My son eventually slowed himself down a bit, but is still a couple of years ahead of the average. My daughter, however, was conceptually ready for algebra at nine, etc. Let her keep moving along and take it year by year is my best advice.

That kind of behavior wouldn't have flown in any of the three (1 exclusively Christian, 2 majority Christian) homeschool groups we've been part of. The moms would have cracked down on that type of behavior fast. I'm sorry that your son is having to deal with such uncivilized, badly minded children.

You clearly don't understand. I loved teaching adolescents and I knew some great kids -- but I also understood a lot about how their minds worked. At school, they'd talk about their parents and how they could get whatever they wanted from them. Each kid had different techniques, because they knew what made their parents tick. I had one female student go so far as to say that if she didn't like the new step-dad she was about to get, she'd just call CPS and make a false claim he was molesting her so that she could get him arrested and out of her house. Interestingly, my best students, who've now grown up into responsible adults, were the ones who knew their parents couldn't be manipulated. I wasn't saying that sending the boy to school was necessarily a bad idea, but doing it as a result of the sulky, nasty behavior rather than as a result of reasoned discussion and thought would be foolish. And I wasn't comparing public school to a beer bash, I was just revealing the fallacy of your argument that threatening to run away over not going to public school was definitely a cry for help that should be given in to.

But watch out. I bought one of those modest skirted suits, but it was so heavy and had so much drag that it was pretty much impossible to swim in.