I think your name is the first one and starred just because it's you. It puts your logged on name first and with a star (apparently because the forum wants us to feel good about ourselves!). Of course, I always get to see my name first and with a star when I am logged on.....

I just got the beginning algebra set (book + homeschool). Scanning through the first few pages, I already found a definition that finally "stuck" for me after all these years -- whole numbers have a "hole" (0) in them. IMO, these books are *great* for review and/or supplementation, but don't provide enough for students who are just average in math. I would probably not use it as a standalone math, although it could provide a nice spine.

From previous posts on the High School Board, I gather that getting a GED is not just a matter of taking a test. Looks like at least some states require that you take classes first to make sure you are prepared for the testing. Some areas seem to be quite strict about this type of requirement. You might want to ask on the High School Board for particulars from parents who have been through the GED process.

The separate area for 15yo is great and it has enough space for all of you. I personally don't walk through wooded areas because of tics and lyme disease, and I would not intentionally have children playing in this type of area. I *love* walking through woods, but limit it pretty much to parks and areas with kept paths. Woods are pretty to look at (we have some in the back), but they wouldn't make up -- for me, anyway -- for all of the work the other house would need and its smaller size.

that don't provide services to homeschoolers. Maryland is one, but I don't remember the other. They passed a state law saying they don't have to provide services to private school students, and they define homeschoolers as private schools. This is probably contrary to federal law, but the law would have to be challenged in federal court to be overturned (I think. I'm no lawyer!). All of other states provide some form of services to homeschoolers. Almost all states provide speech services because it is so critical to child development. If you are worried about contacting your school district, first look up homeschooling organizations in your state. Just Google homeschooling your-state to find them. Most have a hot line you can call to leave a message, and someone knowledgeable will get back to you. Mention your specific school, if you can. In any case, it is likely that someone in the organization has had experience navigating speech services through the school system and can give you advice. My major concern is that, if your son has only this one problem with speech articulation, he may not qualify for services anyway. When my dd was tested by the school system, only children who scored in the 1st and 2nd percentiles were qualified for an IEP. My dd scored 1st percentile, so she qualified, but I did wonder about the many children who must have been slightly better than she was. Straight Talk is a home therapy I have heard good things about. You might want to check it out at http://www.nathhan.com/straight.htm . If you decide to go the home therapy route, I would still advise getting a professional evaluation to make sure you have correctly identified all the things he needs to work on. Many school speech therapists are happy to moonlight by working out of their home, so you may be able to get an evaluation and advice that way. It would likely be half the cost of getting an evaluation through a speech clinic.

is that they test acuity, but fail to evaluate convergence, accommodation, tracking and other visual efficiency skills. A child can have 20/20 vision and still have major visual efficiency deficits. Our opthalmologist told me my dd's vision with eyeglasses was more than adequate for reading (20/30) and that her difficulty learning to read had nothing to do with her eyes. He was wrong. When I took her to a developmental optometrist for evaluation, she was able to show me how my dd's eyes failed to function normally in a variety of ways. Vision wasn't the only problem my dd had with reading. She also had severe phonemic awareness delays and needed a structured, multi-sensory reading program. However, had we not addressed both of her areas of deficit -- phonemic awareness and vision -- she would not have been able to achieve fluent reading of text. Actually, even these two therapies were not enough. Because she had lived with severe visual efficiency deficits for so long, she also needed cognitive skills training to develop a variety of skills that lagged because of the continuous sensory deprivation she had experienced. Not all children with reading problems have a visual efficiency issue, but many do. At age 8, my dd was able to read individual words at a 2nd and 3rd grade level -- given unlimited time. She was extremely disfluent when reading text, however, even at a 2nd grade level. She skipped words, skipped entire lines without realizing it, ignored punctuation, substituted words, and would have to sound out the same word over and over again even in the same sentence (no short-term visual memory for the words). After vision therapy and cognitive skills training, with no additional reading instruction, she was able to read the first Harry Potter book out loud fluently. Her visual efficiency and visual processing deficits were interfering with her ability to apply what she knew about phonics.