Chris, Have you thought about stopping CD for just a few weeks and doing review materials with something like the "Key to" series? I haven't personally used the books, but know many that have. They are inexpensive and you could target exactly the areas that you want her to practice. Sometimes my kids simply need a breather from the same-old-same-old. Doing something different for a short time allows their brains to process what they have been learning w/o focusing on it. They come back to the ideas, a light bulb clicks, and it is like "no big deal." http://www.keypress.com/x692.xml#Key%20to...%20Series

Elizabeth, I'm sorry for the painful diagnosis. But, the reality is that with or without a name, it doesn't change your dd.....she is still your sweet, compliant princess. :) I am so incredibly thankful for dh's response. With him there to support you, you can be the best teacher you can possibly be for your dd. Definitely seek the wisdom of the Special Needs Board.....they are amazing women.

I highly recommend the Stock Market Game. It only costs $10 to play. They are given $100,000 of virtual money to invest and it gives up-to-date realistic gains and losses every 24 hours. http://www.smg2000.org/

We break the virtues down into cardinal and theological virtues. The four cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The three theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. You can see the definitions of each that I use to teach my children at this link: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s1c1a7.htm

but if you are concerned that he'll need to be able to do it for school in 3rd, I would practice it as a game for a while (so he doesn't even know that you are doing school!) Have you ever played the game where you tell a story "round robin" style? One person starts the story and then the next person adds a sentence and then the other person tells the next, etc until you finish the story. Perhaps you could spend a few days doing that orally.....just playing around and making up very silly stories. Then after a week or 2, do the same thing, but you write down the stories as you both create your sentences (maybe you could have him illustrate the stories) Then VERY gradually transition to your giving the first sentence and letting him write down the second, etc, etc I wouldn't worry about the spelling or how great the sentences are.....all the other 2nd graders work will have mistakes, too. :)

I may be mistaken, but I thought Ria posted a few months ago that she was re-writing/updating them?? Surely someone on the board knows. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. :)

LOL.....my dh is the same way. I think he has read 4 or 5 in 22 yrs of marriage. Our oldest doesn't like to read. Never has. He has no disabilities or reading problems....he simply doesn't like it. He would much rather be outside hiking, rock climbing, biking, anything other than being cooped up in a house reading! My 15 yos used to devour books (literally read all day). He has gotten away from that, but my 14 yod loves nothing more than to curl up with a good book and stay lost in it for hours. 12 yos is like oldest except he HATES reading. He is ok with it more this yr b/c we are doing LL from LOTR and he loves LOTR. But, nope, he would never consider picking up a book without being told he needed to read it. ;) 9 yod likes reading, but doesn't go off and read for pleasure very often. (definitely no connection here b/t ability and pleasure. She was reading on a 3rd+ grade level near the beginning of 1st grade.) I don't worry about it. To each their own. :)

The new house we are buying has tons of hardwoods. I am so glad the question was asked, b/c I was wondering myself how to clean them!:)

We actually had 2 different sets of movers here this week and each came with its own driver/packers. The first crew were amazing. I didn't feel like I needed to supervise them at all. They were thorough (more so than me when we have moved have moved ourselves.) The second crew had me cringing and feeling sick to my stomach. :eek: They were just plain awful. They were both from the same company, but totally different locations. The first crew were from their corporate location, the second crew was from somewhere in NC.

I have never used SWR, so I am not sure what the differences are between it and Writing Road to Reading (the title of the Spalding book.)

all depends on when all of the phone calls I have out are finally returned. :)

http://www.greatbooksacademy.org or Angelicum Academy (a Catholic parallel of GBA) http://www.angelicum.net/

How much assistance are you giving him during the process? Are you breaking the writing assignments down into manageable steps? A pretty bad analogy.....think about math. Would you give your child word problems to solve w/o them having any understanding of first numbers, then simple addition/subtraction, etc? No, you would start with simple concepts and gradually increase the diffuculty of concepts so that when they needed to solve the word problems, they have the necessary skills. I teach writing with the same approach. We use samples (copywork) to learn about topic sentences and supporting details. As they master those concepts and progress on to independent writing, I might give them the topic sentence and sit with them while they brainstorm supporting details or vice versa. I help them revise their rough draft with the grammar concepts they know (action verbs, adjectives, pronouns, etc) I do not worry about child x compared to child y. I simply help them progress step by step. :)

I probably have my kids writing less than many people on the board. I am definitely in the quality over quantity category. They write on assignments across curriculum (in younger yrs, usually history/science and then from lit as well as they get older.) My kids write one assignment per week. We break the writing process down into days. For younger kids, it looks something like this: Mon-brainstorm, organize, write topic sentence, Tuesday--rough draft, Wed--revise and improve, Thurs-final copy. I teach directly from writing. Each step is reviewed by me and we discuss/plan the writing process for each step. On average, they spend about 30-45 mins on writing per day in elementary school. They have varied greatly in ability. So on average, they write 1-3 paragraphs in third/fourth and 3-5 paragraphs in fourth/fifth. (BTW, I don't have them doing any independent writing for school work until 3rd grade. K-2 is strictly copywork with instruction.) This approached has worked well in preparing my kids for college level writing. :)

Abeka had 2 little booklets on personal finance that are part of a larger consumer math program. I used them with my ds when he was about your dd's age.

Jane, Your post is one of the reasons that I feel completely overwhelmed by the thought that we are moving from our little "homeschool school." The teachers there supplement textbooks so incredibly much that I know I can not possibly duplicate the instruction at home. The biology course has a 3 week stint on chemistry.....indepth, difficult 3 weeks of involved chemistry studies. They do that well before they start studying the kreb's cycle and other cellular processes. The chemistry teacher sends home weekly lists of independent work outside of the textbook. I think the chemistry class is probably close to 30-40% supplemental material. I have written several times on the K-8 board that I am becoming convinced that teacher knowledge outweighs materials in the vast majority of situations. When I know the material, I can teach it to my kids 1000x better than when I am trying to learn it alongside them. Since I am not a biologist or chemist, how do I know what supplemental materials I should include?? I know that A and N had a far better science education than I could provide them if I was their sole teacher. Isn't that what they deserve? Should they be limited by my lack of knowledge? Ok.....can you tell I am really stressing out over this entire issue? I'm ok the rest of this yr since I have enrolled N is high school. L is only in 8th. Next year when she starts biology......that is where I am not sure what I am going to do. BTW.....our house is empty (except for us and our sleeping bags, and disposable cups and plates! And my internet modem. ;) I have to turn it in tomorrow. :( We move in our new house on the 6th.)

Ditto!! If it was complicated before, this is definitely worse. I have tried scrolling, but my laptop is too sensitive and it ends up scrolling the page 1/2 the time vs the replies. Ironically, I am reading the title above this reply box..."just for hanging out and chatting"...........this is just getting too difficult for me. I am incredibly disappointed b/c I have loved hanging out here. This is more like a resource now then a place to hang out, visit, and chat.:( On the bright side, I should become much more productive. ;)

Hi Michele, First, my kids use Horizons exclusively through the k-6 books. (other than games, cards, etc that we play simply as part of our family life) My kids are all very grounded in math. My oldest is currently taking his 3rd semester of college calculus as an 18 yr and has made a very high A in every college math class he has taken (pre-cal up) I have no qualms saying that they will be fine on Horizons alone. :) As far as writing, I personally think you are expecting too much for a 7 1/2 yr old. My kids are still strictly doing copywork at that point. Short selections. IEW is really intended for 9+ (unless I am remembering incorrectly). 7 yr olds are still learning how to process what they are reading, learning basic mechanics/spelling/developing handwriting skills. Expecting no errors in an independent writing assignment is expecting a lot of skills to be mastered w/o having to focus on content. I expect them to focus on either one or the other at that age.....very doubtful they will master them all. Your kids are all so close together in age that I would do science and history as a family until the oldest hits about 6ht or 7th grade. HTH

What is right for one family, may not be right for another. :) How about replying, "I am so glad for the children and the family. It must be the educational approach that works well for their family."

I totally agree with this statement Pam. I have been homeschooling for 14 1/2 yrs and have graduated one from our homeschool. I AM COMMITTED to homeschooling. HOWEVER, it became very obvious that our 15 yos was not thriving in our homeschool. He was becoming more and more depressed. He was withdrawing from all relationships and locking himself in his room for hours on end. Our ds is extremely intelligent. No matter what outsourced classes I tried to enroll him in, he was never challenged. I am convinced that is what lead to his boredom and MANY subsequent behavioral issues. My point is simple......NEVER SAY NEVER. ;) Homeschooling is a wonderful option. One I love and plan on doing for about another 17 yrs or so! But.....if and when the negative aspects of homeschooling outweigh the positives (and there are homes/children/educational standards/moms where this is definitely true), then it is in the best interest of the child to re-evaluate the situation and decide if other educational options might serve the child better. And in comparison to the breastfeeding analogy.....if the mother's milk supply was low and no matter what was done to boost the supply and the baby was still not receiving enough nutrition.......would you encourage the mother to continue breastfeeding while the baby starved and didn't thrive? Or would you encourage the mother to try various methods to supplement/boost the baby's nutritional needs? Breastfeeding is a wonderful option (hey, I breastfed all 7 of mine until they were almost 2!!) Yet, I have a friend who with her #10 could not boost her milk supply enough to nourish her baby. Sometimes, what we don't think is the best, actually is.

Everyone I know has continued through high school graduation. As a matter of fact when we made the decision to put child #2 in this semester, several were horrified that I would send him to school. I managed to graduate one very successfully. I don't have any plans on sending any of the others to school. But, and this is a huge **but**, if I ever feel that homeschooling is more detrimental than beneficial to any of my subsequent children, then I will send them as well. All children are different and have different needs. There is no perfect single answer to the question. I know a couple of children that I think have been done a serious injustice b/c they are still homeschooling. Their mother doesn't make them do any work and they don't. Neither one has any aspirations for their future. I personally think it is sad. These young men have huge potential and someone out there might have sparked their interest in a future instead of her saying she is just going to let them finish 1/2 of their math books and let them graduate.

Ultimately, this format will drastically reduce my time on the boards b/c I don't normally have time to sit and open threads and then see where they have headed and with the "more replies" vs actual list in hybrid mode, it takes too long read everything. Reality is that I have spent way more than 10x my normal amount b/c I have very little to do this week. 3 weeks from now I'll hardly have any time and won't be able to pop in and out the way I used to between kids while I waited for them to get books etc b/c it takes too long to unravel the board.

If you look in the workbook, you will see that the exercises actually correspond to lessons in the textbook. (mine are all packed or I would go look and tell you exactly how to tell). It seems to me that even though it is grammar only (w/0 the writing), they only cover portions of the grammar. The textbooks are cheap (I own the 95 ed and you can buy the textbook and the TMs for about $25 for both together. I just checked and Follett has both 3rd grade books in.....student text for 10 and TM for 15.) The textbooks also contain all the teaching materials. The exercises are simply that.....workbook exercises.

You are inspiring me. :) Our house is being packed up as we speak. I can't wait to unload all of the boxes in our new house and be settled. I am hoping to do it in under 2 weeks, but part of me was wondering if I was being unrealistic. You have given me hope. :) Where did you end up in SC? My oldest was born when we lived in Camden.