I pulled out my son after 3rd grade (so, in 4th grade he was homeschooled). Not because he had a terrible experience in school, but for a combination of factors: he had slight ADD issues and a teacher had been unwilling to work with him at public school in 3rd grade. (He was also gifted, and he had been compensating for his slight ADD by using his intelligence to keep up - but his coping mechanisms were beginning to fail him. I didn't want him to start feeling badly about himself because he was getting negative feedback from a particular teacher, or more than one teacher). We actually had a pretty good public school experience. After I started investigating homeschooling in earnest, I realized many of the other benefits it could have, and felt convinced in my heart that it was what God wanted us to do for our family. Later I fell in love with the classical model, too, so I also have ideological differences with the public school curriculum in that way. Anyway, I ended up putting our son back in school half way through the 4th grade year because of feeling lonely - not really for any other good reason. Except that I also think I lost confidence in myself part way through the year. During the 5th grade year, we tried again. According to Ohio homeschooling laws, parents are permitted to teach any subject they wish at home - the only constraint is that you have to be able to organize it with the school, and provide transportation for your child if he/she needs to be picked up during the day, or brought to school at a certain time, etc. So I arranged to have our son take math and science at school, and language arts/social studies at home with me. This arrangement has been great for us, and it's been able to continue now for the last four years - all the way through middle school. Next year, he will be taking 2-3 classes at the high school and doing the rest at home. It has been a perfect balance for me, allowing him to continue to see his friends while providing the balance of a strong home life and plenty of time to work with me on important subjects that he would not have received at public school. It also alleviated me from having to teach upper-level math and science at home. I don't know if something like this would be possible in your area, but you might want to check in with your school district's homeschool liaison or do some homework on your own about your state's requirements. If it's possible, it just might be the solution for you.

That is really funny! I have enjoyed the Kratt brothers for that exact reason (their energy, enthusiasm, and the way they relate so well to kids) since back in the Zooboomafoo days. You know they don't have quite as much energy now as they once did - they are getting older! Both are married with families now. :001_smile: Hence, the animation of very energetic versions of themselves doing all kinds of crazy things!! My boys LOVE that show.

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Thanks for clarifying.

Dear Karie, I am sorry your son betrayed your trust like this. I have a 14-year-old and an 11-year-old (both boys), and they received iPod Touches for Christmas, so they are having their first opportunity to text, etc. So I can sympathize with wanting to allow them freedom, build trust, etc. But I don't trust 14- and 11- year old boys to have good judgement yet. If you do not have screening software installed on your son's phone, you need to get some on there IMMEDIATELY, in case there is any viewing of sexually explicit material going on. I agree with the previous poster that your son probably didn't come clean with you, because he was motivated by something other than "friendship" when he wanted to go and visit this girl. (I'm not sure if screening software will screen text messages... maybe another reader will know the answer to that... I should probably find out!) If you have not been monitoring his text messages, you need to start doing it NOW. Your son has given you the perfect excuse to monitor him VERY closely. This was an extremely serious violation of trust between you, as his parents, and him. He has no right to use a phone in ways that are not within your guidelines - he is 13. He is fully under your authority and although you had some level of trust with him, he has now forfeited that. Not to be mean, unfriendly, or condescending about it with him - I believe in treating sons as young men. However, he needs accountability in his contact with others, now and for quite a while to come. He has to earn back your trust (which in our family would probably take a year or two, after an action like what he did). I don't think finding him more male friends is going to solve your problem. He is curious about the opposite sex and he was going to get some answers to his curiosity by visiting this girl. If you don't want to allow him the opportunity to make contact with her (or someone else) again to get his curiosity satisfied, take action... I am on your side and I hope you feel the helpful intent of this post, and don't feel scolded.... I would just be so alarmed if my sons did something like this, and I'm trying to put myself in your shoes.

I was 10 days overdue with our fourth son. I didn't have a big objection to being induced, and it was a huge relief to just go in to the hospital and know I was going to be done being pregnant that day. The induction was not any more painful than natural labor and it was short - only 3 hours of labor. (At that point, your body is so ready to cooperate that it just takes the induction and runs with it.) I loved it and wondered why people object to it so much, especially when they are already overdue. Don't want to scare you, but I just heard a story about a family who were overdue and lost the baby - it was fine one night and the next day when the mom was checked, there was just no heartbeat. I would get that baby out ASAP if I were you. Don't take a chance.

I fully agree with this advice. Though you may not be able to request a specific teacher, making the principal aware of the tensions would help, at least for your peace of mind... and hopefully it will have some bearing on her class assignment next year. Also, are you able to request testing for entry into a "gifted" program for your daughter? Our first two sons were tested in 2nd/3rd grade to determine whether they met the school district's criteria for "cognitive giftedness." I took my third son out of school after 1st grade, partly because his 1st grade teacher (whom I loved & respected very much, and she did a great job mostly) would not give him work that was above grade level in math. This year the same son, who is now finishing 3rd grade at home, was tested for the "gifted" designation and he received it. However, the sad thing is that our district now has no funds for gifted education, so as far as the school is concerned, they will not do anything with this information. This is one reason why it was great for me to be able to homeschool. My son is not causing any extra drain on teachers' time or effort, and he is getting what he needs at home. If you do not plan to homeschool your daughter, you are going to have to realize that she will likely not find a positive or helpful response from some teachers who can't be bothered to encourage a gifted student. Try to minimize her exposure to these teachers when you discover them. As a parent, try to build personal connections with your daughter's teachers - that sometimes helps. (As often as possible, attend school functions, meet them in person, have conferences, email them with questions.) Also, help your daughter learn to let it roll off her back. She needs to be proud of what she can do (humbly, that is - without showing off), despite the lack of praise/affirmation from them.

Hi! I've been going to the convention in Cincinnati for the last seven years. I've gotten a family registration for the last two years & this year. It covers all the members of your immediate family for all days of the convention, as far as I know. Enjoy it... it's so huge it can be overwhelming, but exciting & fun too.

I think these are all excellent tips. They can help to manage feelings on a daily basis. Still, if she were to be evaluated & try an antidepressant, it could raise the baseline quite a bit (lows not as low). You don't become someone else on antidepressants, so you still need to have good thought habits to manage your emotions & feelings about yourself.

:iagree: A child is not going to come to you and say, "I'm depressed." But they might say something like, "I don't feel like life is worth living." It is a cry for help; she is telling you that she needs your help to manage how discouraged she feels. She has let you in on her inmost feelings by saying this. Tread lightly; by all means, don't imply that she should just "pull herself up by her own bootstraps." This could shut her down and cause her not to share with you the next time she feels discouraged, because she would feel that you don't understand her. You should probably get her evaluated by a doctor. My family has tendencies to depression (two members have committed suicide over the years). As a teen I used to feel overwhelmed, but felt like I couldn't stop doing anything because I wanted to be good at everything (and externally, it looked like I was excelling in every area). I struggled deeply with depression during my college years & succumbed to an eating disorder. If my mother had recognized the symptoms and I'd been taken in to be evaluated, many of these struggles might have been avoided - of course, anti-depressants were not prescribed as much back then, so maybe I would not have gotten what I needed anyway. I now take a low-dose of generic Zoloft daily, and it has helped tremendously with all kinds of things. I hope my comments help; with your husband's background, it is possible your daughter will need some assistance with overcoming her hopeless feelings. Being low on certain body chemicals is not a sin or fault. Thank God that there is medicine now to help with continual feelings of deep discouragement.

We did TOG Year 2 this year. I felt that the scope of history covered in Year 2 Unit 1 (the first nine weeks of Year 2) was a huge span of time to cover. I think it went from the 400's AD to the 1400's! I felt like we were just skimming over the surface of this time period. (Of course, there is not as much historical source material for most of this time than for more recent times.) In Unit 2, we covered the Renaissance and Reformation (approx. 1400-1600 AD). Again, I felt we were skimming...we could have gone so much deeper but just didn't have the time. Then in Unit 3, we covered the years 1600-1750, focusing mainly on the settlement of the New World, especially the 13 British colonies. We are now entering Unit 4, which covers the years 1750-1800 (the French & Indian War, Revolutionary War, French Revolution, Constitution and early American government, Presidents Washington and Adams). The pace has not decreased. I've also done Year 1, which seemed equally crazy. I think that you have to view TOG as a survey course - it is the only way that you can get through all of history in four years. You are not going to be able to go completely in depth with most time periods or subjects. But TOG does a great job of providing depth for when you want it - at least as much information as I would possibly have time to teach. If you have the flexibility, you can always slow down on a particular week if you want to. I personally am tied to the 36-week school year and to keeping pace with a student who will be going into high school next year. So I really do try to keep on schedule, and we don't cover every particle of information most weeks. That has to be okay in order for us to complete the rotation through history once every four years. Sharon

Hi, I wanted to say that I hope my other post didn't sound pointed. It wasn't meant to reprove you (in particular) for not feeling that it was the right fit for your family. ;) I used "you" alot - but it was meant to be the general "you," that is, anyone who might be thinking about Tapestry. Back to the original question of this thread - that it doesn't exactly hold your hand, even in lower grades. The parent has to be interested in learning history... so it isn't the right fit for everyone.

I started using TOG with a dialectic student. I guess I never expected it to be easy - so I wasn't surprised when it wasn't. I had to read a tremendous amount myself in order to prepare my own mind for discussions with my son. I would not recommend TOG for a family where the parent does not have time to read quite a bit... I know that may sound harsh, but I think it is just honest to recognize that when you choose a curriculum that uses the Socratic method of discussion, you are going to have to put in quite a bit of time yourself so you can discuss things. Now, if you had a wonderful history education yourself and you already feel comfortable with many facts about the different time periods studied, this would be less the case for you. However, I found that my own education in ancient and medieval history was almost entirely absent. I have studied and studied over the last two years since we've been using TOG. I have read the teacher's notes fairly thoroughly most weeks. I have read the spine texts and many of the supplementary texts. I consider myself to be getting my own education, enriching myself, and preparing my own mind for teaching all four of my boys. I wish that I had found TOG earlier so I could have studied when my kids were in the LG and UG age groups. I think it would have been less of a shock to me that way. Jumping in at the Dialectic level has been challenging. My kids are ages 14, 11, 9, and 6, so I've had to teach the younger two while also getting my head around the information for the older two. I am just glad I didn't wait until my oldest son was in Rhetoric before picking up the curriculum. I think it depends on what you want out of it, and what you are willing to put into it. No curriculum can be expected to do all the intellectual work for you. If you are in a co-op and don't have to lead the discussions, it would be different. But if you are doing TOG independently, understand that it does require a lot of the parent. I'm afraid you will just have to do the hard work associated with learning.

That is how we have used Rod & Staff. I go back and forth to FLL 3 & 4 because they are so simply structured (the workbook, that is) and don't require as much writing. I wish FLL went up to higher levels, too; then I might use it exclusively.