My DD was like that for a couple of years. I did as much as possible orally, and that really helped. Over the past few years, she's naturally transitioned to writing more, but we still do things orally when possible. She writes for math and writing but often types for history, and we do Latin orally.

My son is still on WWE3, but he's not so much of an auditory learner; he seems to be much more visual. So I have him study the sentence first (helping to cement the correct spelling in his head), and then when he can repeat it to me, I have him write it without looking. So he's still holding it in his head, but he needs a different method of input (I am exactly the same way).

I view PDFs on my regular iPad via Notability. It's the most wonderful app ever. ;). I would assume it works on the iPad mini as well. I use Notability for reading PDFs, writing on them, making grocery lists, doing math problems like on a whiteboard, you name it.

We use the online CAT, available from Christian Liberty Press. It is timed, but the time is generous, and it's nice for kids with focus issues because it only shows one question at a time, and the student just clicks a bubble for the answer, no finding the right bubble on a separate sheet needed. In my state, I am not allowed to administer the test myself, and the online test means that I am not doing so. And we get the scores immediately (like, seriously, two minutes after my daughter finished, the results were in my inbox, and I just printed them out and turned them in with my portfolio).

My girl (my first baby) was my second smallest baby, but my next to latest. My boys were all right in line with each other for gestational age -- the 38w3d one was only 8 pounds, but if he'd waited the couple of weeks we expected him to, he'd likely have been right about the same size as his brothers. DD -- 40w6d, 8 lbs. 11 oz. DS1 -- 41w1d, 9 lbs. 10 oz. DS2 -- 40w5d, 9 lbs. 5 oz. DS3 -- 38w3d, 8 lbs. DS4 -- 40w4d, 9 lbs. 3 oz. See, all the boys are right in line with each other for dates.

My older two children, who have Feb. and March birthdays, will start ninth grade at 14 and a few months, same as DH and I did; they will graduate shortly after they turn 18. My third child has an October birthday; if I were sending him to school, I'd have sent him this year, at not quite 5, although he technically would have missed the cut-off, since he is academically and emotionally ready and would have done fine in a classroom. However, when asked, he said he wanted to be called a preschooler this year, so he will officially be a Kindergartener next year at 5, almost 6. When I am officially required to register him (8 in our state), he will be 8, almost 9, and he will be in third grade that year. Going by that, he will start ninth grade at 14, very close to 15, and will graduate at 18, a few months before turning 19. My fourth and fifth children are summer birthdays. The July one will start ninth grade at 14 and will graduate right before his 18th birthday. The August one will probably be a Kindergartener at just barely 5, and I will probably have to register him the year he is just barely 8, so he'll be a young third grader, and if necessary, I will call him a second grader that year so that we don't have to worry about standardized testing that year.

Sure, we welcome preschoolers without older siblings. Many of our activities are open to anyone, although sometimes there will be a special teen activity. Park day, bowling, parties, etc. are open to anyone in the group, and if you're considering homeschooling as your child gets older, you're welcome to join. I think the only exception would be the co-op aspect of our group -- if the preschool classes were tight, we would give priority to those children who had older siblings in the upper classes, but that hasn't been an issue. We haven't had a problem fitting in any child whose parent is willing to pitch in and help or teach. And we definitely don't limit our enrollment to those of compulsory age -- here, that is age eight. We joined when my oldest was seven, and we were glad for the friendship and support we found. Half of our co-op enrolled, I think, are under eight.

Amazon. LLBean.

Yay! :)

Neither PA Homeschoolers nor askpauline have anything about changes. CC shouldn't change the homeschooling guidelines in any way, but I wondered if we would need to use a test that is normed to the CC guidelines, which I am not sure the 1970 CAT is. Until and unless someone tells me definitively differently, I am going to assume the 1970 CAT is fine and stick with it. If my SD gives me grief (unlikely), I will deal with it then.

Does anyone know if the Common Core has affected our choices of standardized testing yet? I have a third grader who needs a test this spring, and our preferred choice is the online 1970 CAT. If that's not going to be allowed any longer, I need to find a new one, plus someone to administer it.

I have a couple of knitted dishcloths and a knitted towel that a friend made me a few years ago, and I really like them a lot. The cloths are a smaller size than the cheap washcloths I use otherwise, and they do fit my hands well. The towel holds up nicely to drying hands on it, meaning it doesn't get soggy too quickly, and it has a button to hold it onto a towel bar, so it doesn't slip off. It's my favorite kitchen hand towel.

Do Primal Kids and Primal Teens have worksheets or the like, or are they just books to read?

My core beliefs and personality are still pretty much the same, although I am generally more organized and more patient than I used to be, because I really need to be. The biggest thing that happened to me in the last decade (other than learning to knit and to drive a stick shift) is that I went from being a mom of one darling toddler girl to being a boy mom. I always hoped to have at least one boy and one girl, but I had no idea how much I'd adore these four little boys and their collective dirt and sound effects.

Yikes, I am sorry to hear that, but thank you for this heads-up, that we should be really careful about dual enrollment options. I took twelve courses from the University of DE back when I was in high school -- math, English, history, and political science for my junior and senior years -- and every single one transferred easily when I went to Penn State. Some transferred as equivalent courses (ie PSU gave me direct credit for their US history and calculus courses), and others transferred as general elective credits, so I assumed it would be the same now, but I am glad to know we will need to be careful.

I agree with y'all, and we do all of that too, but for the portfolio requirements, something that generates paperwork is helpful. Sometimes my kids just don't feel like writing a creative paragraph.

Oh, yes, baby carriers. I could not manage without mine. My morning routine looks like this: nurse baby while eating/reviewing Bible verses and science vocab/reading aloud, wrap baby in carrier, baby goes to sleep, I dress toddler, do dishes, switch laundry, vacuum floor, sit down with three big kids (one at a time).

We eat a lot of eggs at breakfast, about five dozen a week already, so we don't usually eat them for lunch or dinner.

Advantage is what we use on our cats, but when we had an infestation a couple summers ago, we vacuumed like mad and resorted to the nasty sprays (not the bombs). I would get the kids ready to go, send them outside on the porch, spray, and then leave with the kids for a couple of hours. It was a pain for a few weeks, but it worked.

Also, I have mentioned this before, but if e-books (and sometimes audio books) are an option for you, you can look into a membership to the Free Library of Philadelphia, which might save you some money. You might also check to see if a Kindle plus amazon prime membership with the free book to borrow each month might be a good option for you. And of course, Gutenberg and free Kindle classics.

Subbing -- thank you for this thread! Both of those above mentions look interesting.

Thank you, both of you -- I am short on time right now, but I will check out all of those ideas!

Awesome -- thanks EL! I saw that someone else did just buy the TE; I am thinking about doing that. It's just a small supplement, so I don't really want to spend $40 on it y'know? And I'm less interested in a challenge than I am in a supplemental exposure to appreciation and a bit of analysis, so the TE sounds like it'll work fine.

Tell me about it. Once a week, daily, what? Together, or with the student working independently? I am thinking once a week or twice a month, DD and me reading together and doing it orally, taking a couple of years if need be, maybe 20-30 minutes at a session. Little written output, just a few things to throw in the portfolio. Poetry isn't her favorite; I would like to cover the material without it being burdensome or too tedious. I would love to know what it actually looked like in your house.

This thread is frightening me! We already eat mostly paleoish, meaning DH eats very low-grain, and the rest of us don't eat tons of grains but do eat some for breakfast, lunch, and snacks, mainly for budget reasons. DH will eat dishes with non-meat forms of protein, but it's hard for him to feel full without meat, and he feels best and healthiest when he eats very low grain and carb. My oldest boy is not quite nine, and already, we need a good two pounds of meat for dinner, even with several pounds of veggies too. I'm thankful that I will only have three teenage boys at once, but I will have three teenage boys for a long time. I do supplement with beans and while grains, and a lot of good fats. And as the kids get bigger, I expect that they will help us with growing whatever we can, maybe raising chickens too, so as to conserve cash for things we can't raise or grow. But I also think that in about fright years, my grocery bill is going to be astronomical.