[An Invitation to All]

Unfortunately both recordings are "Out of Stock."  :(   Any idea if they will be "in stock" again?

 

Thanks,

Babette

[Feeling very sad]

Coming to terms with another diagnosis has been especially hard for me, too.  Just another thing to have to research and deal with.  Hugs to you.  Looks like you've got lots of support here!   Hang in there!

[Beginning of year benchmarks?]

:iagree:Yes, this is exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for. I really like that it gives Lexile scores. It's hard to find a "private" assessment that gives this info. Thanks so much for sharing!!!

 

 

 

I have been thinking about doing this. I found this assessment from Homeschool Buyer's co-op. I think it looks good, but I don't know of anyone who has actually used the test.

 

Janet

[Beginning of year benchmarks?]

Thanks for sharing! I really appreciate it.

[Beginning of year benchmarks?]

Do any of you measure beginning of the year "benchmarks" for comparison at the end of the year to document progress? If so, what "tests" do you use and for which subjects?

 

Thanks for your input!

[Science Topics Listed By Days of Creation?]

I found this at our library, and we are enjoying these quick experiments! Genesis For Kids: Science Experiments that show God's power in Creation! by Doug Lambier and Robert Stevenson

[Reconciling MOH 1 and SOTW 1 for timeline purposes]

I'm trying to figure out how to meld the two and not have a totally wonky timeline.

 

I LOVE that word "wonky!" I've had lot's of "wonky" things in our homeschool! :seeya:

[Is this possible??? I hope so. :)]

We will NEVER move before the house is sold again! Banking on renting your house is not a sure thing. We thought the house would sell quickly, but it did not. We had two lease purchase agreements fall through even though they had paid several thousand dollars non-refundable deposit. We had renters about half the time the house was on the market (5 years!). We ended up having to put in roughly $15k in repairs over that time. Paying for two places to live nearly wiped us out. If we hadn't had significant savings and my husband still working, we would have had to file for bankruptcy. For us - NEVER, NEVER AGAIN. FYI - our current house is on the market, and we will not sign a contract on another house until this one is closed and we the money in hand. Good luck with your situation.

[What will your age be when your youngest is 20?]

I will be 61 when my oldest is 20. Hope I make it that long! LOL (I'm 53 this Thursday.)

[How on earth?]

Well, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it probably is a duck. We're not supposed to have "dealers" on here, but either these posters have 1) never sold anything for several years, 2) are posting for many friends, or 3) are buying and reselling (sounds like a dealer, doesn't it). Do I buy? I check out the feedback. If it's O.K. and they have something I want at a price I'm O.K. with, I buy.

[Should I call her?]

I'd call. Since she mentioned it just the last time you called and it sounds like she's also been wanting to keep up the relationship, I think there's a good chance she had a brain slip and totally forgot it was today. That would explain no call - if she still doesn't realize she missed it, there'd be no reason to call you.

 

I had a friend miss my wedding because she thought it was the next day. I think she may even have shown up at an empty church the next morning. It happens - and it happens more to scatterbrained people.

 

Anyway, I'm the type that tries to think the best of someone until proven otherwise. It sounds like she's been a good friend, and the kind that reciprocates and doesn't need to be run after and hasn't ever pulled something like this before - I'd give her the benefit of the doubt.

 

:iagree: If the friendships are worth it, just forgive and move on.

[A "Dear Tibbie" post, on behalf of a WTM boardie. All advice welcome!]

Yep, this is a mess. It's hard to just walk away from family, and having to work with a problem family member is even tougher. I agree about getting the Boundaries book. Know what is acceptable to you and not acceptable to you. Deal with others based on that. If you are a Christian, pray, pray, pray. As for medical issues, once you've voiced your observations to that person, leave it be. Blessings, Babette

[Proclick - great price at my local Office Depot!]

I just got my ProClick a few weeks ago. I found it on Shoplet.com for $66.53 and the .5" ProClick spines for $12.68. I also ordered the opaque covers for $22.24. I Googled for coupon codes and got a 10% off code. I also got free shipping because my order was over $45.00 (that is standard with them). However, the deal at Office Depot is definitely better!

 

The ProClick is better than the others because, as said above, you can easily add pages. It comes with a "zipper" tool to open the spine. For all the legal copying of curriculum I do, these are great to make workbooks. Unlike 3-ring notebooks, the holes don't rip as easily, the spine is much less intrusive than the rings in a 3-ring binder, and you can actually fold it all the way back to keep the other pages out of the way. I also anticipate using these to pull together papers from unit studies and presentations.

 

Maybe you and a friend or two could go in together to purchase for limited use. It's such a great tool.

 

You can find the binders online everywhere. I would imagine that if Office Depot sells the ProClick, then they would have the supplies for it.

 

 

 

 

 

Why is the ProClick better? And, what do you use the binding machines for? I can only think that I might use one to let my kids make books. In that case, would the ProClick be overkill?

 

Also, are the binders hard to find? I have a GBC laminator that I love, and I don't have trouble finding laminating sheets for it--I can get them at Walmart.

[times tables struggles]

Great ideas, everyone! Just remember, the "want to" has to be there for ANYTHING to work. ;) Sometimes with my ds, I've found that he needs .....how can I say this without sounding like a behaviorist.... a good reason to apply himself. Small "rewards" for small goals is the way to go. Also, he is one that gets easily overwhelmed. We are also working on the times tables, so I've had to severely limit the number of "facts" that we include in any game, drill, etc. Sometimes it's just 2 or 3 facts from which to choose. HTH

[s/o of getting to the Ivy League--How do you produce a kid with that kind of drive?]

Maybe I'm missing something here. What is the end goal in getting a degree from an Ivy versus a highly-rated school in one's field of study?

[Favorite US History Resources/Activities]

Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful resources! My dh just decided to teach American History to our 4th graders this year....with no resources. Needless to say, I'm scrambling!

[CLE math and supplementing?]

DS has just come from MUS (changing curriculum had to do with competition with DD) to CLE. I've had to pull out MUS to teach some of the concepts to him. He has a tough time with Math no matter how it is served. He really likes CLE, I think, for the very short segments on each topic and the daily reviews. He loves the speed drills and dislikes the flashcards.

[not a thread about homeschooling SN child-guess goes with discapline]

So dad doesn't go to church? Is he involved in other ways with your ds? The reason I'm asking is that it took BOTH of us to get our ds (ADHD, bipolar, ODD, etc.) to be able to function at church. I can't imagine having to deal with that alone. He was a handful. He is now on a good mix of meds, which allows him to control himself. I tell folks that meds don't change behaviors, they only make it possible for a person to change his own behaviors.

 

I just said a prayer for you. It will get better.

[Math U See or Semple Math?]

I have heard a lot about Math U See and it's use with special needs children. Through this site, I have now heard about Semple Math, but I can't find a lot of reviews on it. My 7-year-old son has mild CP with, as yet, undiagnosed behavioral/attention issues. I started him out with Rod and Staff math as it seemed heavy on review and slow on adding new content with the thought that he would memorize math facts and have plenty of practice, but he is unable to "connect the dots" as to why he's doing what he's doing, and so we have made no progress. He is great at reading, but Math is a huge stress for him. I would value your input as to what you like/don't like about the programs mentioned. I am also open to other suggestions if you have found something that really worked for your "math-challenged" little one! Thanks!

 

Well, in the last month or so I switched my ds10 out of MUS because he and his sister were in too much competition with each other and he was losing. So we went back to 2nd grade in CLE. Very easy level for him...mainly needed to get his "facts" memorized instead of counting. This has been going well until recently. Yesterday he hit a brick wall, and I ended up bringing out the MUS blocks and reviewing their strategy for doing what he was working on. Light bulb went off and he was fine again. If I hadn't been through MUS and learned how to teach it, he'd probably still be stuck.

 

I don't know anything about Semple Math. Sorry. I just know that MUS has been great for my "math-challenged" kids. HTH :001_smile:

[What kind of testing ....]

I am trying to figure out what kind of testing my DD 11 should go through in order to look for LDs, dyslexia etc. Is this neuropsych testing? or psycho educational testing?

 

What is the difference?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Thanks for asking this question. I'm wondering the same thing about my DD 10 and DS 10. It is all rather confusing.:confused:

[Do you look forward to your day?]

Most mornings I wake up and groan that I don't want to do today! I can't face the whining, the mess, the tidying, the mess again, the frustrations etc. Once I'm up and going the day passes quite happily usually, but I'll still groan the next morning!

Am I alone in this??

 

You are NOT alone! I am not a morning person anyway, and the idea of breaking up fights, the extreme behaviors of my kids, and my general tiredness all contribute to my bad attitude. Don't know about you, but I need a vacation....from school, the kids and my other obligations. Our family refuses to take our ds over night due to his wildness...even at 10. :sad:

 

I feel trapped....and not just in the morning. Sorry to take this topic to the extreme. Just needed to vent.

[I am new TEACHING TEXTBOOKS]

TT5 takes us 25-30 minutes per lesson. We do lessons 4 times a week, except when there's a quiz- then we'll do that on the 5th day of the week.

 

I was wondering this, too. DD to start TT4 this coming year. Just finishing up MUS Delta.

[Can anyone give me examples of whole to part learning (or curriculum suggestions?)?]

WOW!! Thank you so much for all the information. Better than reading a book!! If you haven't already, you should do presentations at conferences.

[Paper]

What kind of lined paper does your 3rd grader write on? My first & second graders still write on that kind with the dots down the middle of it, but I'm thinking next year for DS1, he should probably just use the regular paper. When do you transition?

 

We've been using HWT 3rd grade cursive. By mid year the lines had become too wide for comfort. They get along fine either filling out blanks or using wide ruled paper. Once the kids can form their letters, it is tedious to write on the wide lines. I tried it a couple of times. Boy was that painful! LOL

[Trail Guide To Learning, my love/hate relationship]

:iagree:

I love the idea and the layout of TGTL but I am having a terrible time implementing it. There is so much to cover and with 2 little one we seem to never get anything done. My dc have learned so much but hate that we are spending some much time on one topic. They keep asking 'when are we going to be done learning about Christopher Columbus?' I've tried to speed it up but it's just impossible, it really doesn't seem to be as flexible as I'd hoped.

 

I really just got it for history and geography but I hate skipping over all the other subjects as they are all so interconnected. I'm really on the fence about staying with it or trying something else.

 

Hey, I'm with you on this. We get really bogged down for some reason. The kids see it as all one big "subject" that just takes "forever" (in their words). While we've all enjoyed the copywork, reading, and read alouds, the topic applied to everything else for six weeks (or more in our case) gets really old. We are going with separate subjects next year so that the kids have a sense of "closure" with a lesson after only a short amout of time. I do intend to carry over the idea of basing our reading/lit. studies around topics from other subjects (history/geography, science, and Bible). However, it will be a breath of fresh air to learn about a few other topics through our language arts studies as well as getting more structure in spelling and grammar.

 

I had great hopes that Paths of Exploration would be our yearly curriculum, but it just doesn't "work" for us. We'll see how my plans for next year work out. I just want to get settled in a curriculum for each skill subject (math, spelling, grammar, etc) that we can use "all the way up."