We are finished early too! My kids only had scantron tests this week for the charter school but they were done last week. We still have to log school time. Fortunately, the oldest has algebra to finish because he doubled up his math this year and isn't quite done, but the younger one is reading a lot, writing some stories, and driving me up a tree by trying to work his way through an entire "assorted science experiments" book in a month. And EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM IS MESSY!!!! Those are the home school aspects I don't love...the messy experiments that almost always have food coloring involved! My magic eraser has been getting a good workout! What curriculum do you use? We are using K12 through a charter academy and it is a great program...we just push really hard in the fall so we have more flexibility in the spring.

I guess I don't understand these people that would post about a death in the family and make it up! On another board I am on there is was a woman who posted about her husband being dead. She even went so far as to have a fake obituary done up for him. Then tried to get people to donate money so she could have a memorial service for him. Unfortunately for her, the news did a story about a family that had something tragic happen to them and they interviewed her "dead" husband and someone from the board saw it....she was banned and that was that.... But seriously, isn't that like tempting fate or something? Taking a chance that it might come true. Maybe I am too superstitious, but that gives me the willies! I have kids with health problems and I don't even like to talk about that because it makes me self conscious when people offer all the support!

Faith: He has had a little over 2 solid years of prealgebra, A&B, plus starting prealgebra in 6th grade at the accelerated school he went to. So he has a good foundation, it is just motivation at this point! He wants me to make exceptions, only assign 5 problems instead of 20 etc. But I want the repetition in there to be sure he learns the concept so I won't allow him to do that. The online program we go through has 4 years of high school math, the senior year being a calculus class. It is a concurrent enrollment situation where at the end of 5 years they have an associate, so his last 2 years he will need to be doing calculus I&II.

Yeah! And the really annoying thing, I am convinced he knew how to do it all the time and was just yanking my chain! Twit!

LOL! I love kid stories!

Thanks. One of the things that I love about this board over others is if I come in here and read for long enough, I find another parent who is having a very similar struggle with their kid! Helps a LOT!

I have been suckered in a couple times, but now I am very careful and reserved. To the point of not even posting, just reading most of the time. I always feel like other people know more about things than I do so it is better to just stay quiet! But that article is very interesting.

Because training little monkeys to wear suits and ride bicycles has to be easier and more fun than teaching algebra to my 13 year old right now! At least I could use treats to motivate the monkeys! I really do believe in home schooling...but this one is driving me up a tree lately! We use a virtual academy and he started in 7th grade, so he doubled up his math so he could get through prealegbra 1 and 2 and then algebra 1. He tackled the algebra I class around February 15. He wants to be through Algebra I before starting high school because there are 4 years of high school math that he needs and he doesn't want to double up and take 2 math classes in one year. So...he has do 2-3 lessons a day to get through this. Well, he hasn't. At this point he is almost 40% through it and he has to finish it and take the placement exam by June 30. He is DONE with all of his other classes except for science, which dad is helping with and they have one more weekend of a few experiments for that. So he ONLY has math. He is very smart, totally GETS math...could be done with 3-4 lessons a day in a couple hours....but he is DRIVING ME CRAZY! Today, 3 lessons stretched out until 7:30 PM! The first lesson, he sat through the whole lecture with the teacher, listened to my explanation, worked 4 sample problems. Then I sent him to do the problems and it took him over an hour to work 15 problems (not hard or time consuming stuff, just slope intercept and point intercept!) and he came back to have them graded and had done it ALL wrong. Then he acts like he just doesn't get it. So after 2 more hours of working with him on it, all the sudden he starts working them right and then acts like I am the moron...he knew how to do this, I just "confused" him. Then the next 2 lessons went about the same. I finally told him I was done with forcing it on him. He had 2 choices, either change the attitude and decide to LEARN the math so he can be done with this class before he is a freshman...or he can have this "when will this be done" attitude and I stop teaching and he repeats it next year. After thinking about it he decided he wants to stick it out...but I am not arguing with him or fighting him to get this done! Anyway, just a vent! AGGHHHHHH....I know home schooling is the best thing for my kids, but it is the hardest, most exhausting thing I have ever done. I am never off duty! EVER. I am SOOOOO ready for summer break!

The Plunkett family is in the top 2 for the NASA song. They are the only entry where the kids actually did the singing and worked on the composition. The others are adults. Please, continue to vote for them. https://songcontest.nasa.gov/voteOrigResult.aspx Thanks so much!

She is an amazing girl. She is from my home town. Her dad is a doctor in Scottsbluff NE. NO ONE ever hears of Western NE so it is nice to get some notice! There is a western half of that state and there are lots of great things happening there!

I will work on that angle with him.

I have a very black/white thinker, and he refuses to see any value in writing a propaganda essay! We have read some and he just gets upset that they are dishonest (lying) and to his black/white aspie brain that is just not okay!!! So how do I help him see a value in writing this essay. When I have explained that he needs to be able to recognize it when he is reading information he insists that he can tell if it is a lie and he doesn't tell lies. To him, this is not a fictional story, which is okay, this is a lie and he doesn't tell lies. I am having a hard time refuting that logic! Help me here! Thanks

The staples thread got me thinking about this. When I listed my staples, I listed the things I always wear...and it isn't a very long list. Now I am wondering why my closet is packed to the gills! And it is mostly stuff I never wear. I think it is time to do some culling and streamlining! :tongue_smilie:

Cuddle duds! What I wear under my skirts all winter. They are silk long underwear and not bulky at all. I mostly wear: Skirts paired with hoodies, sweaters, nice stretchy tops or blouses depending on the circumstances and my gym clothes!

I was going to suggest this. I have a 13 y/o reluctant reader, only loves to read Calvin and Hobbs, but he does read Geronimo Stilton (enough like comic books to sneak in I guess) and for him the secret has been that even though he doesn't like fiction and especially not fantasy, he likes things that are realistic. He has read and enjoyed: Agatha Christie, especially "And then there were none" Sherlock Holmes And he loves nonfiction, so we just let him read it! We got him the DVD set of all of the National Geographic magazines from 1889 or something like that. He reads them avidly...as long as he is reading, I don't really care what genre it is, so if articles about the U-boat fascinate him, he will read that...oh, and airplanes, he knows more about airplanes than I even imagined it was possible to know (this is where the aspie part of his brain comes into play though!) My 11 year old loves the Gordon Korman books.

I really think that what people are now seeing is a schism that has been developing among "Christians" for quite some time now. This judgment being thrown around of certain groups of believers not being the right kind of Christians has been causing believers like me to pull away from fundamental Christians who use the bible as a club to beat people up. After all, my understanding of the bible says that people must come to a position of belief for themselves and that salvation is based on a personal relationship with God, not what denomination you consider yourself or whether you can have a scripture war and make the other person wet themselves or just let you think you have won so you will shut up! I live in a very religious town....there is an incredible amount of division among different groups of believers, with groups setting themselves above others. It is something that I certainly don't understand, but that I refuse to participate in, on any level. Somewhere in this town there is a woman whose head is still spinning because she accused me of not being "Christian enough." I wasn't attempting to shove my beliefs down anyone's throat or intimidate them with my knowledge of scripture you know...and I dared to laugh at her and tell her she was probably right. I actually had a moment of concern that her head was going to explode! Until those who are NOT of the "I am a better Christian than you are" group just refuse to participate or engage in this childish behavior (whether secular or just not "Christian enough"), this is going to continue. For me....it is not worth my time! I have SOOOO many other things that need doing, like teaching my kids that there are a lot of different belief systems out there and you cannot know WHAT you believe and WHY if you are ignorant to what other people believe! That is one of the main reasons we home school. I want my kids to make educated decisions, not protect them from a diverse world view! And I surely won't select a curriculum that intentionally keeps them blind to certain information just because I am afraid that if they see all the options they might, heaven forbid, pick the wrong choice!

Yes you an. I have my kids at home now for 6th and 8th grade, older one is in his 2nd year at home. They are attending a cyber school. Just close your eyes and jump in with both feet! Best thing I ever did for my Aspie was get him out of a regular classroom! He has shined at home. There will be days you are sure you did the worst possible thing in the world...but not every day! :grouphug:

I follow Christ in my life and beliefs and quite frankly this whole thing has me very confused! We have bible teaching time, and then we have education time...the two don't really mix. I would never buy a religious curriculum because that is not my style but why is all this fighting going on? I think I missed something big. I guess....maybe we were in the public school/private school world too long, so I don't really think of combining religion and education but I just don't know why supposed Christians are being mean...somehow that doesn't add up with what I know and believe!:confused:

The MAIN reason costs are going up at the doctor's office is that medicare/medicaid are driving them up and make it illegal for them to give cash pay patients a break. I work for doctors and will try to keep this explanation as brief as possible. Medicare/medicaid will only pay a percentage of what is billed to them, I believe that currently it is 32%. Typically medicare patients are more complex/difficult. So, say a doctor spends 30 minutes with a medicare patient and wants to get even 30 dollars out of that visit, they have to bill 100 dollars. The other insurance companies, if they want to audit can only pull their own patient's charts. Medicare/medicaid, if they want to do an audit they can pull all charts for different insurance companies AND cash pay. If there is ANY discrepancy in what they bill from one company/patient etc to medicaid patients then they are guilty of insurance fraud. So if they bill medicare 100 dollars, planning to receive 32 dollars for that visit, then they MUST bill the cash pay patient 100 dollars as well. They can have a POSTED discount for cash and that is acceptable, but it cannot be more than 20% last I knew...so they cannot say 70% discount for paying cash. Doctors don't like it, clinics don't like it, patients don't like it, but when these rules are in place, basically everyone' hands are tied. Your best bet, for better prices for cash pay, is find a clinic that doesn't accept medicare/medicaid (few and far between) and then they are not governed by those rules and will typically have a lower cash rate. I think this is a very confusing thing to understand and it doesn't seem fair at all, but I have had it explained to me many times and I finally have it clear in my mind. Hope this helps make sense.

Didn't see it and don't want to see it, but thought it was extremely INAPPROPRIATE that a guy sitting in front of us on the airplane was watching it on his computer, where my CHILDREN could see, even if they could not hear, the movie. I finally went up to him and requested that either he cover himself and his computer with a blanket to hide that content from my kids and other very young children on the plane that were sitting behind him. He did not comply and it became necessary to involve the flight attendant.

My kids, now 11 and 13, have sat in 2-3 services of an hour long every week since they were born, and never had too many problems with behavior. When they did we just quietly left the room for about 30 seconds and when they realized they were not getting down and were not going to play until the service was over they quit fighting, went back in and we sat back down. There was one particularly horrid experience with my oldest that went on for one entire service, in and out, in and out, but that was the only time ever that it was that bad...and one mother of 7 was about to burst out giggling watching me! Then afterwards she told me that all the moms there had been through it at least once! We did the whole taking lots of books thing and just kept handing them books. We also "practiced" at home with quiet time every day. My kids gave up naps pretty young, but we had quiet time anyway, they sat on the couch for increasing amounts of time, totally quiet, and looked at books. I really think that in the long run, throughout life, a kid who has learned to sit quietly will do better and be more successful, than one who cannot sit to save their life. I have been around kids who absolutely, at 10 and 12, could not sit still for an hour. I feel sorry for them. Their lives are going to be harder for not developing that skill. The trick is consistency and make it less fun to be out than it is to be in!

What if you have to step out to the restroom? What if there is something you don't see. a big risk for me....too big.

This is my opinion only, so take from it what you will... We did it last year and it was not a good fit for us. We use a really aggressive curriculum and are very busy with school, lessons, etc and FLL was a HUGE time commitment. Add to that the fact that we were no where near the site where we were meeting and had to drive 30 minutes to every practice. We ended up spending 4-5 hours a day, 4-5 days a week for weeks on end for FLL. It was exhausting and the team was all boys so the project and presentation was a complete joke and they didn't want to do it...It was terrible. I think in the right setting, with a coach who was not also working, coaching, teaching etc, it might be a good fit but for us it was not and we won't be doing it again. We actually just purchased the robot for our boys and they are doing it on their own just for the fun and learning. They are doing the challenges and we will buy the kit for competition but won't be entering in the contest.

So, after looking and looking for the link that my mom used, I called her and she told me she couldn't find what she wanted, so she ordered the metal plate that attaches to a wrist band, and then she sewed it onto the stretchy band...so I guess you cannot buy what we had! But it worked really well. It was just about a 1 1/2 inch wide stretchy band and then the metal med-alert deal was sewn onto it. the only hard thing was the metal but it was right against the band that didn't slide up and down his arm.

Just look up sports medic alert. I have never let my son take his off. It is a risk. We just used the stretchy bands, like a sweat band. It goes on their arm, isn't loose etc. The no jewelry rule cannot apply to a medic alert bracelet anyway, go with your American's with Disabilities paperwork if necessary. To require him to take it off, as long as it is something that cannot injure another participant, like the stretchy soft kind, would be a violation of federal law.