I'll assume that you are right in the first case and that is likely the reason for the second, BUT is that the BEST standard of care for mother and child? There are a lot of differing statistics on breach birth and what is best for mother and child. I think it comes down to the fact that I don't trust that the "prevailing standard of (medical) care" is always best for *me* and sometimes question whether it is best for the general population. I can totally understand why another mother might feel this way.

I find it hard to believe that you blame the mother in this case. Do you also blame mothers who have a "desperate" desire for a pain free birth or scheduled labor, and their child dies? It happens and more often than a child dying under a midwife's care if only because it is SO much more common. All of those things lead to a greater chance of maternal and infant mortality. That is not saying that those things CAUSED the death of a child, but neither has it been proven that a homebirth CAUSED the death of this child. As I stated previously, the midwife could NOT be licensed in VA and provide the quality of care she needed to provide to the patient.

In my experience, if you want an intervention free birth at a hospital you have to choose your OB and your hospital VERY carefully and then pray you get a LD nurse who is ok with intervention free births. Once you are actually at the hospital laboring there are few choices left to you. The Dr or nurse says "I am going to do X", "We are going to do Y" and unless you fight back and are willing to argue, it happens and happens fast, within seconds of the statment. Statisticly, interventions of almost all types lead to increases in risk for the mother and the child. The USA is NOT a leader in preventing maternal deaths or infant deaths. I used to have statistics on both, but can currently only find WHOs statistics for maternal deaths http://www.who.int/making_pregnancy_safer/topics/maternal_mortality/en/index.html I'd like to point out the blue listed countries all use midwives at a significantly higher level (about 50% vs 8%) than the US. There are obviously MANY factors involved in the US's lower statistics, but I think the type of care is extremely significant. I'm sure that this is at least part of the reason this "high risk" mother chose to labor at home. It is heartbreaking that a women's child died under the care of a midwife. It is also sad that the midwife had to be illegal to give quality care to her patient. I hope for healing for all involved.

I find I'm planning all the time. It is always in the back of my mind, "That might be a good program for next year.", or "I want to make sure to teach that next year or the year after.". I'm constantly making a list of programs, books and links that I want to remember in the future. I'm working on scheduling for next year (starting in August) right now and hope to be done by May.

Well, we still have about two months since I changed programs in November. I have learned TONS this year and I've been able to see dd grow and learn a lot too. I've worked in ps classrooms and several preschool classrooms in my past and so I *thought* I know how I wanted to teach and how dd would want to learn. I learned that I didn't know myself or my child and well as I though. Teaching one child is SO different than teaching in a classroom. I can't say I've loved every minute, but I have loved teaching my daughter and being part of her joy and wonder and seeing the light of understanding in her eyes. I'm so happy that we've started this journey and am excited to continue.

Thank you so much for your replies. I'm thinking I will get the Write Source Student book and use it for occasional lessons. I want her to be at least familliar with the more mainstream method of writing.

I have read, own and plan on using Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons. I 100% agree with SWB, that the ability to organized your thoughts and form complete sentences is essential to good writing. I love teaching the ability to summarize at such an early age. I understand that some children might have trouble creating things to write about on their own, but my children love to tell stories and I sometimes have them tell me a story as I write it down and then they illustrate it. I have looked at the Write Source curriculum and really like the explicit teaching of the writing process. I like the inclusion of creative writing even at a young age. Is there any reason, beyond not wanting to overwhelm my child, to not use both approaches to writing? I understand that the WTM method is trying to build basic skills BEFORE asking them to be used in the writing process while Write Source is teaching the writing process and hoping the kids build basic skills as they write. I'd prefer explicit instruction in both parts of writing at the same time. What do you think? Am I missing something in the WTM method that makes teaching the writing process in elementary school a bad thing? Has anyone done this?

Well, my dd turned 5 last september so we are almost a year ahead of you. I've been doing a slow K program for dd and we have both been enjoying it. She asks to do school when we miss a day so I feel I'm doing something right. I started AAS a month ago, AFTER she could read cvc words AND was interested in writing things on her own. That said, since it doesn't have to include writing (you can use letter tiles instead of writing) it could be great for your ds, but I, personally, would still wait till your ds knows the basics of reading cvc words. As for reading programs, I have tried A LOT. We started out with Phonics Pathways. I credit it with teaching dd how to blend and REALLY learning those short vowel sounds, but it was a bit on the boring side. We switched to starfall.com (I had the readers and the workbook to supplement the website), dd loved it and it helped with fluency since she read the same book the whole week, but after about 3 months it started getting too advanced. Now we are using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading and Explode the Code. I have liked all of the programs we've used, but none has lead dd to "take off" in reading. Sometimes reading is about pracitce, practice, practice. I think for ds (when he is ready, probably 1-2 years), I will use OPGTR and starfall.com, then add ETC. As you can see, I have changed and added programs over time and there has been no problem with that. It is one of the things I like best about home schooling, it can be totally tailored to your child, start programs whenever you think they are ready. Oh, another thing that dd has really enjoyed this year is that we've been part of a homeschooing co-op and playgroup, it's been really fun for both of us. You might look into what is available in your area.

:lurk5:

I went to Texas ps from K-12 and even though it's been a few years, this is exactly what I remember. As a kid I knew Texas history great, American history ok and only the barest minimum about world history. I didn't graduate from a state college, but the history requirements for an undergrad degree don't get much better. You are required to have 6 hours of American and Texas Government and 6 hours of American history. No world history is required at all. At the college I went to I took 6 hours of world history and learned tons of stuff I never knew I never knew. I'm still learning things as I teach my dd history. I'm starting to read history books just because I'm learning how terrible my history knowledge really is and I don't want to pass that along to my children. I also don't want her to think that Texas is THE most important place in the world. It has an interesting history, but Texas pride is taken to extremes around here and you can see why with the history that is taught here.

Sounds fun, congratulations!

I don't have advice, but wanted to offer :grouphug: and let you know, when kids are motivated (like wanting to study biology) they can work through stuff amazingly quickly.

Do you have a link to the yahoo group? I can't find it. Thank you.

:iagree:This place is just awsome, I've gotten such great advice here.

This looks like it would be really good for my ds in the fall. He would be 3.5 then and is very interested in letters and "doing school" like his older sister. It looks like it could be a really fun and relaxed intro to reading. Do you think there would be any reason NOT to start him on the program that early?

This is one of the reasons I'm choosing to homeschool. Dd is a September birthday with a September 1st cut off, she wouldn't have been allowed to go to PS this year and should be starting K next year. I have been teaching her K this year. My MIL is a K teacher and comparing the two, dd is a bit behind in reading and handwriting, but not much, she is at grade level for math. Next year she will be ahead of her PS peers academically, but not socially. It is scary to think of sending my very sensitive dd to a 1st grade class where everyone will know the social rules of the classroom and she wouldn't. Hopefully it won't be an issue.

:grouphug: I'm sorry, I don't have any curriculum suggestions, but I can imagine how angry and frustrated you must be. I would ask the teacher to give you the specific work that earned ds the D, that way you have the source material and can maybe see where she is comming from. If she doesn't have the papers, maybe she has a grading rubric and can find a specific area ds needs to work on? If she doesn't have either of these, I would really question where she is getting this grade.

If it helps, you can tell yourself that you can finish it later. Once you get some perspective and are enjoying your new program you probably won't feel the need to come back to it, or maybe you will, but will be excited about it when you do. If you aren't enjoying something then it probably won't get done. At least that is what I've found to be true at my house.

Thank you everyone for your posts. I think I will keep any eye on it for the next year or two and if it continues I will get her tested. It is good to know that this is fairly normal developmentally.

When it is a word she can read it does help, but she is a beginning reader and can't read many of the words she mispronounces. It is good to hear that this may be something she will grow out of.

Just tonight she was using the word "apropriate", but she kept saying "aprofriate". Even when I tried to correct her orally and then by telling her "you are saying it with an F and you should say it with a P" she couldn't say it correctly. I am trying to remember some of the spanish mispronounciations, they are the worst. "Nia" for nina, her numbers are awful, but I can remember the exact mispronounciations. I will write them down next time I have her count.

My dd is 5, she has perfect hearing based on the basic tonal hearing tests dr. offices give children, but she is always misponouncing words. She usually doesn't mispronounce common words, but words she hears occasionally. So I would figure, it's no big deal, she just isn't familliar with that word. BUT when I try to correct her she cannot seem to hear the difference between what I am saying and what she is saying (and she really is trying). Telling her the letters she is misponouncing and what the correct ones should be helps more that saying the actual word, even when I ponounce it slowly. She also has a lot of trouble with new words that have been introduced orally. I've been trying to teach her some basic Spanish vocab and her ponounciation is often totally off even after a lot of practicing. It seriously feels like she can't tell the difference in what she is saying and what she is hearing. Now that she is sounding out words herself and writing them I am noticing this even more. Things I thought she was saying correctly are actually being ponounced wrong based on her spelling choices. Her speech seems fairly normal but obviously I am missing something if I can't always tell if she is mispronouncing a word or not. Should I look into getting her evaluated? If so, by what kind of expert? Is this a hearing problem or a processing problem or is this just something that a young child might grow out of? I'm so new to all of this any advice would be apreciated.

Here is a link to what I used for my highschool and college art classes, http://www.amazon.com/Sanford-Prismacolor-Premier-Colored-Artstix/dp/B00006IEEU/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1298603293&sr=8-6 the verithin that the pp linked to is their brand for fine line work. The lead, while the same color, is much harder than the premium brand.

We are doing SOTW 1 this year, in one year. No, I don't think she is getting everything out of it that she would have if we had waited a year, BUT she does like history. She enjoys the stories and does retain some of it. She dressed up as an Egyptian for Halloween this year and still loves all things Egypt. I don't regret the choice, we've had a lot of fun.

I feel reading usually is learning. Novels teach about places, people and interactions. Nonfiction is obvious. If you love to read you probably love to learn, maybe just not the way you are thinking about learning. Do you have any hobbies? If so, then you probably like to learn about them too. You are probably self learned in them. You probably thought they were fun as you learned them. Maybe you don't like schooling? You don't like learning and practicing seemingly unrelated subjects through worksheets, lectures and memorization? Maybe you don't like the specific subjects of school? Maybe your children are the same? I don't think there is anything wrong with schooling. I also don't think you have to enjoy every subject and think it is fun. I don't enjoy math, but I know how useful it is. I use it every day. I just wanted to get it over with when I was in school too, but I appreciate that I learned it. I think that even if you or your children don't enjoy a subject, even if they just want to "get the lesson over with", as long as you can appreciate the subject's usefulness, worthwhile learning has taken place. Do your children have jobs they want persue? Sometimes, working towards a goal will lead to a level of enjoyment even if the specific subject isn't exciting.