That one looks pretty cool too. I am just worried about what I would have to get to feed a frog.....

:lol::lol: Audrey, I think it is beautiful that you asked for prayers for your friend, and I will pray for her. I will also pray for some of the people on that horrible thread who maybe need to deal with the splinter in their eye before looking to other people. There is a saying that a thief is the first person who will accuse another of stealing. I think their attitudes and judgements have more to do with their own lives than with the life you are leading.

I would go with separate habitats. I have had problems before with 4 in ones. This looks cool http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Science-Naboo-Creatures/product-reviews/B001U9O90C/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_4?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFourStar&showViewpoints=0

We are using Galore Park So you Really want to Learn Science as our Spine. We are doing a British approach to Science starting this year (as my husband is a Scientist and grew up there) We are doing Biology, Chemistry, and Physics all together. The easy intro stuff this year(5th grade) , then more in depth next etc... We are mixing experiments, dissections, and DVDs in with the text as well as geography (the science side rather than location, and culture side) Seems to be going well, but dh is in charge of this side.

Thank you for that link. I was going to look into that. My ds was part of the control group for Calvert's study last year. He took the test 3 times, (beginning, middle, and end of the year) It tests Word recognition Oral vocabulary Reading comprehension Spelling and a few other things. I also got a summary of what everything meant. I found it to be pretty accurate with what my son is doing.

So far, best year yet! Phonetic Zoo Linguistic development through Poetry memorization Writing with Skill Miquon Beast Academy R&S English My student logbook These are our new adds, and I am really happy with all of them. Oh, and tap dancing:lol::lol: No misses yet.

:iagree:

:iagree: If you can, find Andrew Pudewa's Spelling and the brain. We keep spelling totally separate now, and ds is finally improving with spelling. They are different. He is a 5th grader. Last spring (before we started PZ) we had him tested. His spelling was high 2nd grade and his reading comprehension was mid 9th grade.

We were struggling with Latin (Latina Christiana) and I was getting close to dumping it. Then I discovered Latin Prep. My son is older (5th grade), but he is now loving Latin. I am lucky though as my Dad has some basic Latin from his Catholic upbringing and helps a lot.

:grouphug::grouphug:I am sorry for all of you. I will pray for your sister and all of your family.

This is why I would recommend a counselor if you can find one. It's the feelings. Things are not sliding off my back anymore. My new emotion is anger. I have gotten mad, and that is new for me. My husband says that each time I get mad, say "no, that is not okay." set a new boundary, and THEN forgive, even if no forgiveness is asked for, that a few days later, he notices I am happier. I look at this year and say, wow! I have been mad a lot. My dh agrees, but says I have also been happier than I ever have been before. I have a close family member who is one of my toxic people. I can not walk away from them, but once I put one boundary up, the next was easier, and so on. Best of luck.:grouphug:

YES! I am in lots of counseling about this right now. Have realized 2 long time "friends" were not friends after all, and a family member who was really using me as her punching bag. It was hard, but I got rid of the "friends" one at a time. It was so worth it. My life is more peaceful now. I have more time for the friends that I enjoy and don't just suck up all of my time and energy. Ask yourself, are you being a forgiving person, or a people pleaser? When you are trying to make everyone else happy, do you change what you and your family (spouse and kids) would be most happy doing? If so, then it is a problem. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:Hard work, but well worth it. We are all so much happier now that mom is growing a backbone

:iagree: :iagree:, just try to get math in a few times a week and maybe now would be a good time for Liberty Kids? Good. You can do it, remember, just keep swimming:001_smile:

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I don't know if this will help, but try to re-frame the situation, especially with the personal care stuff. Be matter of fact, and try to get yourself less embarrassed. The more ok you are with things, the less it will bother him. Find the positives, try to turn the care fun. Silly things like flying airplane with a few of his spoonfuls. Talk to him about his history, what he was like as a baby, what he liked etc.... Make a joke about you guess he is too old for a raspberry blown on his tummy like you used to do when you changed his diapers. Just light hearted and fun. Also, go for potty humor, 12 year old boys LOVE that. You can also make comments on some things, like "one day you are going to have to do this for me." when feeding. Watch movies, audio books and discussions. I had to step into a different role with my mom for awhile. It was embarrassing at first, and she really hated it, but now years later she says how it is nice to know she can count on me like that, and that she feels closer to me because of it. I found that faking being okay with it all made her more relaxed, and then I wasn't faking anymore. Everytime she got embarrassed or annoyed I just stated that there was no need. We all need help sometimes.

No, we do not follow the schedule. They had to put a schedule in as the publishers wanted it. Do what works for your family and build up to it slowly. We are not morning people either. Our "quiet time" is often in the morning after breakfast and morning prayer. DS, takes his independent work into his room and works on that and dd plays in her room, while I wake up and have my computer time. We then school however it works that day based on activities. Days where we are at home we finish between 1 and 2 usually, if we have activities, we can be finishing after supper. Just depends. We also do a four day week (except Math which is 5 days). It gives us a catch up day or a field trip day. That might help with your work schedule. Best of luck.

:iagree::iagree: I like living in my Pollyanna sunshine world, political talk just ruins that. I think the political discussion ban is one of the best things about this board.

I voted other. My daughter is a lefty, and so far she is doing great with righty scissors. She loves cutting and it is a joyful time for her. If she struggled, or ever does I will get her lefty ones. I guess I am doing that with most things. I am teaching her handwriting left handed and I am using HWT as that teaches me how to teach her, but as she is in a right handed world I am only planning on getting special things for her being left handed when a problem arises.

I would second reading the well trained mind. It is a good place to start. History and Science, honestly they can go to the back burner while you get going. Maybe get a fun science kit to do together as you get started. This is a good one, it has a lot of different hands on activities, making snow, etc... Don't worry about teaching it, just have fun. I would not jump into a heavy science curriculum even if he loves science. Experiments, Magic school bus, popular mechanics for kids, a science museum or such the rest of this year. I pulled my son after 2nd grade. Just focus on Math and filling in the holes you will find. There is plenty of time for everything else. I jumped in with the academics, and then burnt out, so I had to stop and deschool. I wish I had done that first. We did educational things (like the big bag of science) but it got us out of the B&M school mentality. This is my 3rd year and I finally feel like I have found my homeschool groove.

:iagree: Plus, it sounds like there might be further charges/cases to come against him. He also is now a registered sex offender and even if he does get out of jail at 98 will have to follow all those rules. I think it also comes down to hard and fast proof. There are lots of things that all add up to the fact that Sandusky is a sexual predator. No doubt in my mind, or the juries, or judges. However, nothing hard and fast. No DNA, no smoking gun so to say. The mom however, there are doctor reports, and an admission of guilt. I saw she might have been abused, but I didn't see where they said her mother was the abuser. I did read that the mother is the one who found the two year old and got her help. The mom also testified.

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Great news, you are in my prayers. PM me with any questions you have once you have the chemo talk.

Have her try the TT sample online. My son loved it and asked me to get it for him, we have had smooth math time since. When did you start with her? Was it 3rd grade? I am asking as I started homeschooling my son in 3rd grade. We did SM to start, and we found so many holes in ds's math education. So we tried MM, and a few other things. I finally read this blog post http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/124221.html I had ds try the online sample, ordered it, installed it on the computer and other than scrolling through the scores once a week to make sure he was doing the work, I took a 3 month break from teaching him math and let the computer do it. We were both happier. That break then led both of us to not dread math. We then discovered LOF and BA which we do as supplements to TT as spine. I don't think we could be doing "fun" math without TT doing the spine. With dd I am doing Miquon and eventually will do SM with her as I think it is more rigorous (I am NOT saying TT is behind, I think it is right on level, it is just not ahead) and as I am homeschooling her from the start that should work. I would have loved for ds to not have had all the problems, but, I really hated him hating Math. Best of luck.

My guess was Bayfire? Rumpel's son.

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what about mixing some stinging nettle in there? You wear gardening gloves don't you? (I am not being serious, just teasing:lol:)