I am a gym mom--and I think I'd go forward with the cruise. I know those competition schedules aren't really set until a couple of weeks (if that) before the actual event and your daughter may compete on a Sunday morning. Plus, I'm not sure when your state meet is, but ours isn't until mid-late March so that's still a lot of time before state.

I am beginning to struggle with this in some ways. My oldest daughter is in gymnastics and is pretty serious about it. She practices 25 hours a week. She's at a level where she's learning some pretty scary skills and it's a super expensive sport. She's been scared to even try learning her new skills and while I rarely get to watch her at practice, I've caught her a few times playing the "smoke and mirrors" game to get out of taking her turn completely, especially on beam. This sport is too expensive for her to be doing that! We keep telling her, if she doesn't want to do it that's okay, but she wasn't going to waste time and money. I really hate throwing the money thing at her, but did I mention that it's very expensive? We totally don't mind paying it IF she does her part...she's just not been doing her part. At this point, both my husband and I would love it if she walked away from the sport, but every time we discuss this (usually after catching her not practicing at practice), she is completely devastated and acts like she is going to die if she quits. So now we're left playing the "did you do your giants/flicks/layout dismount/etc at practice" game every day. I hate harping on her like this and at the same time, I can't back off because on top of the tuition and regular traveling fees we already pay, this year she's an optional so her leotard is twice the cost of the regular one, we have to pay a $500 music and choreography fee, and there is a meet we have to fly to this year. I am not going to do all this just to have her scratch events. I would like to add that I have other children that are in dance and play soccer, and while I yell and cheer for my kids and their team the loudest, I do not think I'm a crazy sports mom when it comes to that. :D

My daughter was 11 or 12. 6th grade-ish. I asked her in 5th grade if she would like to start (I remember wanting to shave my legs SO badly in 5th grade and my parents wouldn't let me) and she said no. She asked a year later.

Biggest difference I notice is that multiple students can use the same computer. I have the new version of TT3 for my rising 3rd and 1st graders and they both can use it by clicking on their own name and entering their own password (that I've set up for them.)

Hmmm...The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch???

:iagree: I'm going through it right now as well. :grouphug:

I'm on week 6 of c25k. :)

I saw it over the weekend and I laughed so freaking hard. I loved it. When I got home, I told my teenager that she wasn't allowed to see it until she was 25. :lol: She hadn't expressed any interest but my friend's teenagers wanted to see it--she had considered it but after seeing it said no way.

ITBS in Arkansas. Taken by K-9th grade (I believe) every spring. 3rd-9th grade homeschooled students in Arkansas have to take the math and reading portions of the ITBS every spring.

Necessity for my oldest daughter due to her gymnastics schedule, but the more I'm learning about it the more I lean towards homeschooling ALL my kids out of principle. For the 2011-2012 school year I'm going to stick to my original plan (homeschool oldest, keep two middle kids in public school, send 4 year old to preschool twice a week) but I could see that changing in the future.

Monday & Friday 7:30-11:30 Gymnastics 11:30-12:30 Lunch/Break 12:30-??? English (OM), Math (TT), and Science (SYRWTLS2) **I hope she is done with her work by 4:30, but she has the rest of the day to get it done if needed Wednesday (similar to Monday & Friday, but her gym practice runs a little longer) 7:30-12:00 Gymnastics 12:00-1:00 Lunch/Break 1:00-??? English (OM), Math (TT), and Science (SYRWTLS2) Tuesday & Thursday 7:30-11:00 Gymnastics 11:00-11:30 Lunch 11:30-1:30 Vocabulary (Dynamic Literacy), Logic (Critical Thinking Book 1), Grammar (Winston), Geography (World Geography and You) 1:45-2:00 Break/back to gym 2:00-4:30 Gymnastics 4:30-???? Finish up school work, but I don't think she'll need to do this. I expect her Tues/Thur subjects to only take 15-20 minutes each, with the exception of geography, probably. I also purchased IEW TWISS/SWI-B, but I'm not sure we'll use it just yet. Might do it as a summer program, or if we find her school work is not taking as much time as we though (yeah, right!), we'll add it in.

I was going to point this out as well. In my husband's culture, they don't begin formal education until around age 7. They spend a year prior to starting school learning religious studies.

LOL. I'm going to answer what I think you meant to ask. :) Monday & Friday: 7:30-11:30 gymnastics 12:30-until she's done Math, English, Science Tuesday & Thursday: 7:30-11 gymnastics 12:00-1:30 Logic, vocab builders, grammar (these should take 15-20 min each), writing--this is in addition to her full English program 2-4:30 gymnastics again Wednesday 7:30-12:00 gymnastics 1:00-until she's done Math, English, Science

Glad to hear this. It's what I am planning.

My two middle kids go to a year round public elementary school and I will pretty much follow that schedule with my homeschooler. It goes: Start the 1st Monday in August 2 week break in October 1 week break (Thanksgiving) in November 2 week break in (Winter break) December/January 1 week break in February 1 week break (Spring break) in March Then there is a 2 week break allotted in May, but the public school's snow days are taken from this break. End the 3rd week of June, giving them a 5 week break for summer.

Of course! Because I just bought next year's English package. Ugh.

Thanks for that! Just placed an order. :)

Thanks, all! Yeah, if I really took the time to actually think about it, I wouldn't have written them all separate and awarded 1/4 credit each...but I was considering doing a full English curriculum and adding an additional writing course, and calling that writing course 1/2 credit (or 1/4, if that's all it was) an academic extracurricular.

So awesome--thank you!

Okay, I see what you are saying. And it would make sense, really, to count it as 1/4 credit because it is a 1/4 of a subject. Specifically, I'm talking about vocabulary...we are also doing grammar, writing, and literature and counting it all as "English." I'm just not sure yet if I want to list the individual curricula and count them for 1/4 each or just lump them all together and call it English for 1 credit. Thanks for your input.

Thanks--that sounds like a good, basic formula to start with!

My daughter will be homeschooling in 8th grade in the fall, and while I don't need a transcript yet, I am practicing for high school. I ordered curriculum for a certain subject...the company suggests spending 15 minutes a day on it, 4-5 days a week over a school year. Before getting it, I decided that my daughter would spend 30 minutes on it, I would count it as 1/2 credit, and we would cover it in one semester. I received it today and after looking through it, I think that it would be better to do it in 15 minutes (or whatever) over a year, but I still don't think--based on the amount of work--that it's worth a full credit just because it takes a whole school year. So do you base the amount of credit given on the content, amount of work involved, the number of hours it takes to complete...a combination or something else?

Wow, what a story! So glad you were able to help her!

Ordered Dynamic Literacy last week. I emailed them first to ask if they had a valid coupon code and within minutes I received a reply with a 25% off coupon, saving me $20. I hope we like it.

Did you use the TWSS as well, or just the SWI?