One of mine went through this, being belligerent. Once I figured out he was purposely being ignorant I created punishments to fit the act. An example for you would be with the Latin vocabulary word, I would have made him write out the all the forms of the word several times plus English equivalent and then use each in a sentence. Every time he dragged his feet, whined, did work messy or purposely wrong it was lots of extra work for him. No personal time till it was all done correctly and neatly. After a few days of this he figured it out and his attitude improved as well as his work.

:grouphug: my deepest sympathy

This. My dd is the social butterfly. I found being in the same room while she works helps. She chats away while working, usually it is just carrying on a one sided conversation but I am there is she wants interaction. For social outlets we visit the playground often where she can always get a group together to play, homeschool activities, girl scouts, and a weekly nature hike with a friend. There are kids in the neighborhood too she sometimes plays with. But it is the availability to interact with the family that is the biggest thing. It was hard at first for me because I like to work silently. Now I will knit or cook while listening and chatting with dd. It is amazing how these social creatures can talk and talk, from waking up to bedtime. Sometimes after she goes to sleep my ears actually feel numb from all the chatter.

:grouphug: As others said relax. I think we all go through this at some point. First it is still fall and pumpkins and apples can still be covered if you want to keep them in season. As well as harvest, scarecrows, the first Thanksgiving and anything else fall related you want to do. You can still keep going with your plan for animal study (spiders and bats are animals you can still study) but either incorporate seasonal studies with it (reindeer for a winter animal) or add a separate study. This is what I am doing with my dd. We have her regular science (Astronomy) and a theme for the week which is usually something associated with the month or season but occasionally dd asks to study something. I also make the theme cross curricular : word problems contain bats for math, write a poem about bats for English, make bat crafts or a bat house for art, and our book basket is filled with bat books both nonfiction and fiction. This way the extra study does not put pressure on one subject. Good news is these seasonal things will be there for next year, miss it this year do it next.

I think they could handle that, as long as the actual study and questions are for a general population. Thanks.

Still trying to find a great Bible study for Hubby, son, and me. I came across Beth Moore's Bible Study on Daniel and it looks great. however I would hate to be doing this with the men and have it geared for women. Has anyone done it? Is it presented with out a gender specified lesson plan?

Don't forget the education, if they don't grasp a concept in the time given they begin to fall behind. What about all those great homeschool experiences? To me these are more special then any I experienced in an actual school.

I am using the 2nd grade one this year and there isn't a teacher's manual that I am aware of. Same with the ones for older grades.

:iagree: with the posters who would allow it.

:iagree: When we used it it only took 10-20mins on the average day.

We went with a PlayStation because it is a blue ray player also and you can go online and play with others for free, down load games and netflix. Most of the 'wanted' games are available for it and the trade in value (at game stop)even if broken is amazing. great graphics. My son bought a used xbox and hated it. It always over heated. Could not go online (unless he subscribed $$$) and the special for xbox only games were not as wonderful as he expected. It dies very shortly after purchase. We have a Wii and play it but only for Mario games and Zelda. The big gamers in the family don't use it much but the non gamers who went to play find it easier to use. They play things like Wii sports or party type games. Graphics are not as good.

Thanks.

The only info I got from them for this was they were trying out new questions and wanted students in 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th to participate. Not sure if this is the new way they are heading or not.

My ds took this yesterday and said the whole thing was written, even the math portion. He said the math was hard because it was either to verbally explain how to solve a problem or it was geometry (we opted to do Algebra 2 before Geometry so he hasn't done it yet). The science was mostly Chemistry (he is doing Biology this year). He did feel good about the essay portion and the reading portion. He said that was a very frustrating $25 (gift card) to earn.

For my Granny's 99th b-day I made her some pillow cases from pretty fabric. A cotton blend one for summer/spring and a flannel one for fall/winter. The main body of the case was a floral print and the edging was a coordinating print. They were very easy and cheap.

This statement bothers me. She is not a product you can disregard if she does not fit. I am sure your family will be a a trial for her also, she will need to adjust to your personalities and such just like you to her. To 'try her out to see if she fits'...bleh...maybe she will think your family is not one she would want to live with. She is family and you take care of family no questions. You all need to work together to make a new family.

I am one that is in the try it again category. Over these last 20 yrs I have tried many curriculum that I hated and swore never to return to only to try it again and have a child love it. I am going to be doing this again next year with a curriculum I have bashed over the years. Different ages, different kids, different time in your life will add to or detract from a curriculum. If you have looked at it and like what you saw then I would try it. Maybe order the guide first to look over completely before getting the rest.

All my kids breast fed their baby dolls, even my boys. Not sure where the controversy is coming from. Personally I don't like the sucking sound thing though but then I don't like baby dolls that cry or make cooing noises.

Once out of workbooks we use the graph paper notebooks (spiral bound). I am even using this , working through AOPS for fun, and it makes a world of difference keeping things organized.

Love it. We still use it for read aloud time with dd. Smell does not bother me and we use the store bought kind, never tried the homemade ones. But play dough needs to be fresh so it is a good thing it is cheap because throw it out after a few uses.

We are using BJU Math 3 and Beast Academy. I schedule one before lunch and one after lunch.

He is not good at test taking and gets frustrated with room noise, this is one of the reasons I want him to go so he can get use to it all without him having to worry about the test actually counting towards anything. Just a try it to see what it will be like. His main concern right now is he won't be able to bring his white board to work on math.

Same in this house, they wake up and read. I usually let them get to the chapter ending before I make them put the book down (there are times I let them read through a scene if). My kids have gotten smart in regards to reading books and have been known to use it against me. I in return have used not allowing them to read as a punishment, well just the threat of it because realistically I would never do it, but just the idea makes then toe the line. It is a hard thing though, seeing the kids peacefully quiet, reading, all curled up or in one of their reading nooks. You just don't want to mess with the bliss.

We just tried this one last week and loved it. I cooked it in the crock pot: Hearty Italian Sausage Soup 1 lb Italian Sausage (I used the ground kind and browned it, but the link kind works too) 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves of garlic 1tsp Olive oil 2 cans Chicken broth 1 soup can water 1 can stewed tomatoes (I used a can of tomato sauce) 1 cup rotini pasta uncooked(we found these to be too big, I would add star pasta or potatoes instead) 1 1/2 cups spinach leaves add it all together in the crock pot. I cooked mine till the noodles were tender and the spinach was limp. Add some mozzarella on top when serving.

Ds is going to participate in one tomorrow. The ACT study is working on new/different test questions for all subjects and were looking for 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th graders to try them out. I figured it would give him practice taking this test, give me an idea of his score and his weak areas, and he gets a $25 gift card...they are also feeding him (pizza). Has anyone participated in this type of thing? Pros? Cons?