I read an interesting article about this today. It was not a happy article, but worth reading beforehand; I think it will help you to come up with some questions and to motivate you to be sure you get answers before making a commitment. http://www.brainchildmag.com/essays/summer2010_friedman.asp

This comes up every year, and I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble about it. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. *We* know the deadline by heart, but for them, it's a fairly minor once-a-year thing in their daily jobs. And from what I understand, it's not terribly uncommon for folks to be late. (Of course, we should try to hold up our end of the law by being on time, but moms are busy and things happen...) One day late is not a huge deal. Just remember to get a receipt so you have proof they got it. Most of the time you won't end up needing it, but every now and again a district misplaces a portfolio. Every year I vow to turn it in early, but every year, this one included, I'm there on June 30!

GBC. Love it. I re-use the bindings all the time. Make my own planners, workbooks, etc. Especially useful for the early grades, when I mixed and matched all kinds of worksheets on different subjects, plus coloring pages and dot-to-dots, to make workbooks for the littles. So, so worth the money.

You've said she didn't care what you did with it. I've been on both sides of this. When I give something away freely to a friend, I don't want it back, and I don't want any of the money if they sell it (unless it's more than $100 or so, in which case I wouldn't mind a cut!) It takes effort to sell something, so that's part of the issue too. If we're talking a significant amount of money, with a fairly small amount of effort in the selling, then I think you should sell it and in some way give her something back - either a part of the money, or a nice lunch, or an outing for both of your families, or a donation to her favorite charity. Or you could keep it as a "slush fund" until you see the right way to bless her or someone else with it. If we're talking $30 or $40 or $50, then I wouldn't sweat it. (Unless, of course, your friend is in need, in which case selling it for her and giving her the profit would be a nice thing to do - but it sounds like she doesn't need the money.) Don't forget that when you sell used stuff, you're blessing the buyer, too, who otherwise would have had to pay full price. You're blessing your family by de-cluttering your house. You're blessing your friend by helping her de-clutter. It's NOT ok, IMHO, to take something you don't intend to use in order to profit from it, under the pretense that you'll use it. That's deceitful, of course. But this is a different situation.

Editor in Chief is a 30-ish page book of editing problems. They are an excellent supplement to any grammar curriculum that does not include editing. I have used, for example, Easy Grammar + EIC for several kids and been very pleased. We did one page a week for a year. However, if your grammar curriculum already includes editing, you can skip this one. What you have listed is a LOT of stuff. I cannot imagine that they were suggesting you use all of it. You'd never get through it all. They are all designed to do different things - reading comprehension, editing for grammar and spelling, logic-type puzzles, etc. You need to decide which skills you want to focus on to narrow down your list.

I would suggest trying to find things that come from her, as much as possible, and are within her ability. Things like making a birthday card for a freind or relative, baking a snack to bring to church or a community event she's looking forward to, helping to clean something that's important to her, etc. When/if she notices situations where help is needed (in her eyes anyway), try to build on those as much as possible, instead of just focusing on things that *you* see as needing to be done. She might feel it's more important to give chocolate chip cookies to a sick grandma than have clean windows, or to "clean" the dog's bed than to clean her room. The important part is to get her thinking about how she, specifically, can use her talents to benefit others. Use her fledgling helpful-ness instincts, even if they're somewhat misdirected, and over time help her see other things that need to be done and other ways she can be helpful. Also - talk about feelings - yours, hers, her siblings', and those of others. What is she feeling when she is being bossy? Talk about it with her. Ask her what she thinks the sibling is feeling. Etc. By understanding how she is feeling, you can open up dialog about the choices she is making and the effects of her actions on others, and teach her better ways to deal with those feelings that don't involve being bossy. At her age, communication skills are key - help her learn that often she can solve her problem with better communication/negotiation skills.

We have Cities and Knights. Sometimes we play with, sometimes without. It's a slightly more complicated game with.

I'm OK with the TV, especially if it's only Spongebob - could be a lot worse! I'm OK with the junk food, short of making her sick. I'm totally fine with the irritating electronic toys - my kids have a favorite uncle who can always be counted on for that. I'm OK with staying up late, because grandma's house is fun. I'm even OK with giving them one more chance when they didn't use the car seat. BUT - like every single other poster, I believe they have now crossed the line. It is a safety issue. In my family, when mom or dad says "it is a safety issue", the kids know that it is NOT negotiable. Not using the car seat, when you've discussed it with them, and more importantly LYING about it, is unacceptable. Sometimes grandparents tell stories of the wildly unsafe things that you, their kids, lived through. Sometimes they make fun of us safety-obsessed moms. Making fun and telling stories is a more-or-less acceptable way of expressing their feelings. Going against the parent's wishes, and LYING about it, is not. As the other posters have said, there is no need to make an issue of it. Simply do not put them in a position of responsibility over your children. Hopefully, your dh will be on board with this. The grandparents are most likely good people, and they mean well, but they are perhaps getting on in years and not understanding the gravity of the situation. You are NOT judging them as people, or cutting them off from seeing the kids, or anything like that. You're just making sure all visits are supervised, and no driving is done.

Start by imagining her all grown up and in a leadership position - managing a large family, or a corporation, or a missionary organization, or whatever you feel would be most appropriate. She has the basic personality for it, right? Having a somewhat forceful personality can be helpful if she is working for social or political change, etc. Now think about what things she will need to learn in order to do that well. She's going to need to learn to tone down the demands, be polite and socially appropriate, see things from others' point of view, acknowledge and work with others' feelings, and so on and so on. The idea is to recognize her strengths and support them, instead of trying to change her into someone else. I'm not sure if I'm making sense; the idea is to see the up side of her personality and respect it but to make it clear that she needs to improve in certain areas. Also - use humor! "Yes, it is your birthday, and we always try to make someone's birthday special, but people don't get to do *everything* they want to do on their birthdays! Why, what if it was your daddy's birthday and he wanted us to dye our hair blue! And then eat nothing but brussell sprouts all day, even for breakfast! That would be silly!"

The simple answer is to check with the doc again, and see if they feel the situation has changed. I've had to watch while a dehydrated child got an IV. They stuck her for 30 minutes before they found a good vein. It was horrible. In the mean time, 1 tsp oral rehydration fluid (Gatorade, Pedialyte, or a homemade alternative) every five minutes would be wise. Set a timer.

From what I understand from your update, CPS feels their hands are tied on the potential abuse issue. Nonetheless, there is also a crime here. The police are your next step. You must take this step, and push a little if you have to. An intervention is tempting, but I'm not sure it's wise, in terms of your own safety. I'd ask for police advice. If losing custody, even temporarily, is in the cards due to the investigation, you can step in then and offer to take the child, without anyone knowing you're the source of the complaint.

McDougal Littell Prealgebra here. Love it. Inexpensive if you buy the next-to-last edition. I teach a co-op class, and this is what we'll be using. This is the second child/class I'll be using it with. Lots of flexibility - you can't do everything - there's a good twice as much as you need, so you can tailor the program to the child - do the easier problems, the harder problems, use the extra topics or don't, use the hands-on chapter intro stuff or don't, etc. Love the software that you can get for it - all kinds of worksheets and extra problems, so you can change it up a bit as you go along. A very good intro to algebra program, too. Provides an excellent foundation so the student is prepared for a challenging Algebra class. Very nice teacher's materials - lets me teach the way I want to without having to put it together myself.

CBC has one called c'est la vie word of the week. They take a word and interview Francophone Canadians on how they use the word. The host is very pleasant and it's quite interesting, even if you don't know much French. This is not a huge vocabulary builder as it's only one word a week, but they cover that word's usage very well. So this word would be a "fun" interlude for someone who is studying French, but also interesting for someone who is not actively studying French but wants a taste of it. I also listen now and again to one that is designed for learners of French, called "Learn French with Daily Podcasts". They pick a topic, typically from the news. (A recent one was about those annoying horns they use at the World Cup matches.) There is a brief paragraph about it, with the words said slowly, and a lot of repetition, and sometimes an explanation (in French or sometimes in English) of a particular word or phrase. I think there are .pdf files you can get to go with it, for a fee, as well as other learning tools - I haven't done this but if you were using it for serious study they'd be very useful. This is intended for adults, and the topics are taken from the news, so it may be unsuitable for kids - I haven't listened enough to judge this (plus I only understand some of what they say!) My hubby likes "Coffee Break French" - I haven't tried that one. There are also the French in Action videos from PBS (which go with the FIA curriculum) - you can view the videos free; I don't know if they podcast them.

I agree with the previous posters. Use the beginning book, as it teaches you how to do EIC. Make a copy of the editing marks, and let your child refer to it as he works. Help him through the first few, until he gets the hang of it. Prompt him to think of different kinds of errors for each sentence - is the spelling right? Is the punctuation right? Is the capitalization right? Ask him to read the sentence aloud - does it sound right or do you want to change one of the words to make it read better? Editing comes extremely easily to some and is very difficult for others. Give help where needed, be encouraging, go through it together in an organized way, be supportive, eventually wean yourself gradually from the process.

I also make basil ice cubes, and pesto. LOVE them. But for the salmon, I put the basil leaves on top of the salmon, perhaps with some red onion slices and red pepper slices, and bake it. Comes out quite nicely. If I want veggies with it, I put some sliced zukes and perhaps sliced eggplant atop the salmon, spray with olive oil, and bake. Add rice for a complete meal. We like Vigo yellow rice. (No other yellow rice mix compares to Vigo!)

Haven't read the whole thread, but wanted to mention that in my son's Boy Scout troop, all of the dads are welcome at any trip, and unless they have volunteered to be responsible for others, they don't have to be in any particular place - they can be with their kiddo. Same is true for summer council-run camp. My ds is 17. I would keep asking other people until you get someone who says yes. Better yet, don't ask, but explain that your dh will be going with your ds, and not volunteering. Explain that they misunderstood - he is not going as a volunteer. If you feel comfortable doing it, mention that your son has "special needs" (he specially needs to be with his dad! :)), and that you feel it will be easier all around if his dad is there to help him out. And yes, shopping around for a troop is key. Another possibility would be to make sure your ds knows the dads who are in charge of where he will be, and that he is comfortable with them. Honestly, though, at 6 or 7, I'd make sure dad was with him, because there is no reason not to.

Scholastic has a Canadian version - a few years back I was part of a group that got the fliers and we'd put in a group order. Lots of good books in French, plus things like holiday-themed seek a word books and so on. Also, there are lot of French podcasts (free!), and we've been enjoying French music as well.

My first two dc's were more-or-less natural spellers, the third is not. For the first two, I liked MCP Spelling Workout. It gave them the basics, in a phonics-based program, and threw in a lot of other things (like alphabetization, prefixes & suffixes, synonyms and antonyms, small writing prompts, filling in the blank, reading the "words in context" several-paragraph piece aloud (and getting some non-fiction content from it), etc.) in one quick worksheet a day. For the early grades, it was all the "English" work we needed (aside from reading, of course). There's a lot more than just spelling going on, which was great for my kids (though perhaps not great for a kid who really needs to focus on spelling alone.) In third grade, the words are in cursive (though you can just quickly write them in manuscript if your child can't read cursive yet), so it even tied in with our handwriting lessons. I felt, for a kid who didn't need a huge amount of instruction/practice in spelling, it was excellent. For the third kid, I've stuck with MCP, but added a pre-test, to get a better sense of where the focus should be for each week-long lesson. I will also give her some focused work on homonyms this year (7th grade). If you wanted to, you could add things like writing a sentence with each word, or other typical spelling activities, so the program can be used in a minimal way (like I did with my first two kids), or more robustly if you prefer. I never bought the teacher books. I really like the way you put the words you miss on the test into your "word locker", to be revisited after a few lessons. I've never gotten any resistance from any of the three about doing a spelling page. It's always been a great way to ease into our schoolwork. One quick page, easily done, and we can check a subject off our list.

1. If he'd like you to go, or isn't firm that he doesn't want you, then you should go. 2. If he had a friend - another teen or 20-something who can also drive - then I'd consider having the friend go instead. 3. If there is a grandparent in the mix, who has some time, that's another option to consider.

Dad home - yes, no problem, assuming kid and dad know about the situation. Dad not home - no, not with you going that far.

Do make sure you've gone through all the ipod rescue steps on the apple web site. We've sent one in for service and been happy with the result. We've also bought refurbished ones and been very happy. As to the radio, I gotta say I am loving my NPR radio shows in podcast form - much more convenient. If you don't know abut podcasts and iTunes U, check them out, there is so much value there. We've also gotten audio books from Audible.com, so we can do car schooling. I love, love, love my ipod.

So, if I understand both sides correctly (and although I've been reading it all I'm not sure I fully understand a lot of it, especially anything that goes back a while as I am new to the WTM boards), Bill & Co. are saying that no one has said that TCoO does not contain racist language. Which they are equating with everyone agrees that TCoO contains racist language. These statements are similar, but not quite the same thing. Because, of course, there could be (and quite possibly are) posters who disagreed, but did not state their disagreement in their posts, perhaps for fear of being thought of negatively in some way. Bill & Co.'s opponents are saying that, as I hear it, while they did not say that TCoO is not racist, that doesn't mean that they in fact agree that it is racist. That is, silence on the matter does not mean agreement with the statement. It also sounds like some folks are feeling uncomfortable with the idea that this book, which is part of a program they have positive feelings about, is being portrayed negatively, and they are feeling like that is a criticism of their choice to use it, or to use TOG, or to consider using it in the future, or perhaps a criticism of the writers of TOG. On the other hand, to my ears, Bill & Co seems to be very negative about the book itself, but not deliberately bashing anyone for using it. For them, saying things like "I don't understand why anyone would use this book as a spine" seems to be a literal statement - they are genuinely curious about people who have read the book and still see some merit in it, and they want to understand that. However, others seem to be hearing this kind of statement as a criticism of people who do use the book as a spine. That seems like one of those "it's hard to understand tone on the internet" things. There seems to be much more sensitivity about TCoO than about, say, Hakim, which has also been critiqued on the thread but without the ensuing hurt feelings and such. It seems like TCoO (maybe because of the association with TOG or CM or whatever) inspires a kind of personal loyalty that Hakim fans are lacking; it would be interesting to explore that. Me, I'm fascinated by the whole discussion, though baffled by the board politics part (and having no clue about everyone's religious background and how that plays out). For me, saying "this isn't a great book, can we find a better one" is a *good* question to be asking, and not a criticism of anyone who is using the book as 1) an example of a problematic book, or 2) something that they know is not ideal but fits their budget, or makes life easy because it comes in a "complete curriculum" program, so they are making it work as best they can. Oh - and my poll answer would have been "have read only parts of the online book, both the problem areas pointed out by others and a sampling of the rest so as to determine context, and found nothing to tempt me to use it with my dc, so am unlikely to read the rest, unless we find ourselves in a co-op class or other activity that uses it, in which case we will talk, talk, talk about the issues, but as of now I'm unlikely to buy it if I see it at the thrift shop." But that answer wasn't there! (BTW, Anything in quotes or italics are paraphrasing, not actual quotes. And no, I'm not going to re-read the threads to get actual quotes - it's been hard enough to follow the discussion the first time through!)

If you're moving, I would focus my efforts on finding like-minded hsing families with compatible kids. Having the right kids to play with in the afternoon makes all that morning book work worth it. Also look for co-ops in your new area; you may be able to build a hybrid of classes and work at home, which will lighten your load and give your ds some academic peers. At this age, my boys needed to branch out in this way, and it helped both academics and attitude. But do be aware you're on the brink of entering the tween zone, which isn't easy no matter where your kids spend their days!

Over the years: Tennis lessons, community soccer, dance lessons, swim team, mini-golf outings, hiking, park days, biking, scout activities, wii fit, roller skating, ice skating (with and without lessons), dance dance revolution, walking to the ice cream store with dad. :)

I would actually look at it from a different direction. If he is getting a GED, is he college-bound? If not, what is his and your plans/hopes for his future? What skills will he need to reach those goals? What skills does he have now? If he can write a fairly useful business letter, and gain information as needed through reading, does he really need to master the finer points of grammar? Does he need a spelling program, or does he need to learn how to work with spell check to make sure it doesn't miss certain words? Does he have the math skills to manage his personal finances and perhaps a small business? How much literature does a man need? If the interest is there, then reading the classics and identifying symbolism and foreshadowing and so on can be fascinating. But if it just flat-out isn't his thing, and yet he's interested in reading, then why not steer his reading to things he wants to read (however non-school-y they might seem)? You've said he loved reading and history. What if he took a significant amount of time to do just that - read history? Not just history textbooks, but all kinds of books about various time periods in history. I've seen kids who are really horrible in some aspects of school really thrive in their area of passion, and it's not always easy to see, while you're in the middle of it, how that all fits together. Sometimes, you've got to make a huge leap of faith. Homeschooling lets us have that freedom. Just trying to think outside the box. If you hate these ideas, then throw them out. But I do think it would help you to see a clearer path if you took stock of where you hoped to be in a few years, and chose your curriculum based on that.