Sending up prayers. If hospice is a possibility, I hope you're able to take advantage. Can make things a lot easier/peaceful.

Are you familiar with the Waldorf 9 year change theories? If so, sounds like OM might be a good fit. :)

In Waldorf (although OM is loosely Waldorf, it's moe about the age then the academic stories. 3rd grade stories are designed for the 9 year transition. What I'm doing is using A Little Garden FLower's Waldorf curriculum (good, yet heap....$30 download)....and then adding in my own mathw hich is more on level with my son. Science, reading, etc. can all be tailored to the child's level, but the stories should not be changed (at least that's what I Was told!) :)

What fun! Some things we've enjoyed are Reading Eggs, HWT, Right Start math, Saxon, and Miquon math, and bunches of art supplies ( if allowed). Might want to vheck out Timberdoodle too.

You can buy a rubber cement jar and fill it....or.....try Nori paste. http://www.dickblick.com/products/yasutomo-nori-paste/

You're assuming that's their motives which would be really surprising to me as somebody who has travelled to Egypt quite a few times. The far more likely reason for the attacks is to intimidate any future women protestors and their loved ones. It wouldn't have mattered why they were there...although I'm sure some loved the irony. :angry::mad: Army and gov't has used these tactics before...and worse. Women were a big part of the Jan 25 protests. :(

Sexual harrassment is very bad in Cairo... Although this surprised me. It's possible that Shafiq's supporters organized this as his platform is a return to the law and order of Mubarak's days (although there was rampant sexual harrassment then too). As horrific as this is, it pales to the murder of women and children going on in Syria right now.

Agree with a lot said, but also wanted to point out that being bi is very trendy right now, so I don't know how much I'd read into that. Experimenting is not that unusual too. She needs a good therapist, preferably secular if there may be secuality issues involved. I'd also agree that you have no idea how her family is behind closed doors. Might be great, might be a lot of family secrets.

As somebody who has worked with teen girls whose religion is very much opposed to premarital sex, one of my biggest concerns (after pregnancy) is that he will use that to pressure her to do things she wouldn't want to. She needs to know you have her back as an adult....somebody knows. She needs to know that she does not have to consent to swallowing or oral is she does not want to...and that condoms should be used because of STDs in the throat http://std.about.com/od/riskfactorsforstds/a/oralsexsafesex.htm Backdoor is very popular due to porno....she does not have to consent. Etc. These are not always easy to talk about, you can also make sure she has your email and that you will protect her confidentiality.

As somebody who lived in Orlando for years, yes, it will be very hot. There are misters set up. Bring rain ponchos for the 1 o'clock shower. Also, I often saw giant groups in matching t-shirts during the summer. Not abandoned, but not Christmas size crowds either.

If you tell the Mom, you lose all usefulness as a youth counselor. Nobody will ever trust you again. Make sure she is on birth control....offer to drive her to Planned Parenthood or whatever. Make sure she knows she can get pregnant even after one time of unprotected sex. Make sure she knows about STDs. Give her a safe code word she can use to call you if she's in trouble...like her BF is drunk. Talk to her about dating violence. Make sure she knows that saying yes once does not mean you always have to say yes. Bite yout tongue with the Mom but pray for the daughter/Mom relationship. Did you ask her if she enjoyed it? Often first sexual experiences like this are not enjoyable. Gives you an opportunity to talk about when the time is right...the person is right....etc. The fact that she trusted you with this is a big compliment. Honor that.

I did not find the Sonlight IG's that useful in the early ages. I did like Oak Meadow's kindy...as it has a weekly schedule. We added in RightStart A and HWOT.

My kids have loved BriteMusic's Standin' Tall character program. http://www.britemusic.com/standin-tall-set-downloadable You can buy just one if you like. My kids love the Land of Obey.

We used to do community table, but now it's too small for everybody to have their space. DS1 requested his own desk for next year.

Well put. On a side note, any idea why Donna's prices have gone up so much? Is she just bundling things differently or was there really a giant price increase?

:iagree: I thought that was a wonderful idea!

A few minutes ago, I just got an email from A Little Garden Flower about the course. Lots of good info, so I'm going to paste it here. It actually made me want to sign up. LOL

Thanks so much! I'll have DS2 doing Saxon 2 as well so the thought of doing two scripted lessons was enough to drive me bonkers. (Will probably stay with Saxon for him because he simply loved Saxon K and Saxon 1). I also found that Saxon has a Singapore curriculum called "Math in Focus" but when I saw that it was about $120 for only half a year...I forgot about it. LOL

A Little Garden Flower has an online form drawing seminar. I've really been happy with their stuff. It's been very complete and affordable. http://shop.beaconmama.com/Form-Drawing-Intensive-908.htm I had the Christopherus form drawing book a few years back, but it got packed away by mistake and put in storage when we moved. It was very well done, though. I'm not sure if Donna has any e-books, though. This guy is very well respected in the Waldorf community (as far as I can tell).

I didn't even know this existed up until a few minutes ago. :) Just wondering if anybody's used it. I think regular Saxon 3 would be boring beyond belief, but was wondering if this was any better. http://www.christianbook.com/saxon-math-intermediate-complete-homeschool-kit/stephen-hake/9780547625867/pd/625867?item_code=WW&netp_id=895854&event=EBRN&view=details

I've been eyeing these two books for DS1 for next year, and just saw that they're available for $1.00 each on the Scholastic TeacherExpress deals. I was able to purchase: Cursive Writing Practice Pages With a Twist! Cursive Writing Practice: Inspiring Quotes Cursive Writing Practice: Jokes & Riddles All for $1.00 each. You can download the .pdf up to three times, which is nice. As a bonus, I can easily reprint pages in the following years for my other kids. :) Go to: http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/ and click on dollar deals and then handwriting (I think that was the category on the left hand nav).

I love this! Great idea!

When my kids were younger (and closer together in age), we did Music Together and loved it. They still remember a lot of the songs. From what I remember, it was a 5 years old and younger course. We had a DVD of Mommy and Me songs that they loved. They all had movements that you could follow along with. DS3 is now enjoying it as well. My older kids have taken up recorder and love it. It's pretty easy and there are good, cheap recorders on Amazon as well as teach yourself books. Your 7 year old might also enjoy Suzuki violin or piano.

When we've done Pre-K and Kindy, we've always had daily and weekly rhythms (schedules). I always have a craft of the day and then a more academic area I want to work on. So for example: Mondays: Painting, Handwriting and Phonics Tuesday: Playdough, Math and Library story time/craft time Wednesday: Something with scissors, Handwriting and Phonics Thursday: Glue glorious glue, Math and Science (Nature Walk, Science Museum, etc.) Friday: More involved craft project of some sort (kit, something I found online, etc.), Handwriting and Phonics Daily rhythms might be: Wake up, brush teeth, wash face, fold PJs, make bed together Breakfast Walk around neighborhood or go to park if nice or weather expected to change Circle time or song (We really like the "Good Morning" song from "Singing in the Rain") Academic bit of the day Free play Lunch Post-lunch quiet time Craft/Artistic bit of the day Free time, run errands with Mom, etc. Pick-up toys, etc. before dinner Dinner Read stories, baths, PJs, brush teeth, bed It really depends on what works for your family. For me, we'd do math a lot for a month or two....or handwriting a lot for a month or two...and then put it aside and do something else. Total academics was usually around 20 minutes maximum per day, not counting reading.

Thanks so much for this. :)