Go for it. We loved Colorado... you won't want to miss a moment of it.

Hugs! That is so scary. I cannot believe how frustrating it is when docs are just not familiar with pediatrics!

Hi! Delaware is a great state for homeschooling! We are a very low regulation state. You can register with the department of education online. After that, you re-register once per year to kep our school open (kids' names, grades or 'ungraded', graduating this year or not, some basic demographics) in September/October, and report days attended to the DoE at the end of July. That's it. Resources-- besides Tri-State, you will find Delaware Classical, Unschoolers and Others, and a few others. Some folks join more than one. You will figure out what suits you best. Local to Northern DE you will find a wealth of resources (many of which would also be reachable from southern NJ). Longwood Gardens is an amazing place, and they offer very affordable homeschool classes. The Delaware Museum of Natural History is neat, and also offers classes. You are not far from Chadds Ford, PA, where you can find the John Chad house, Brandywine River Museum (come see the original N.C. Wyeth paintings from Treaure Island, and an otherwise impressive collection, plus the trains at Christmas) and the Art Show in spring. There is a Homeschool Phys Ed class at the Hockessin Athletic Club for kids ages 5-15. There are folks offering everything from acting to art to guitar and French in the area. We have homeschoolers who run the gamut of faiths, from strictly secular to any of several faiths, and Unschoolers to classical, school-at-home types, and some local umbrellas and part-time enrichment classes. Whether you want a local fied trip to Iron Hill to do some rock collecting and learning about Native American Cultures, head down to the archery range own the road, go kayaking down the Brandywine or on Lum's Pond, spend a day at the beach or interviewing the recreationists at Fort Delaware, or if you want to hop onto I-95 or a train for a quick trip to Philly, Baltimore, NYC, or Washington, D.C., there is plenty to do when homeschooling in northern DE. (And there is no sales tax).

We'll get one. If she can't find one that I can "have" (they may use the one she posted for their farm publicity later) then she'll snap a new one of him for me to post. Just gotta wait for the weather and his schedule to cooperate.

She's going to get a better shot of him and send it to me when she can, when all the stars align :). We may get the Aussie hat. I had to politely decline the shot of him sledding in the kilt, as that particular shot, unPhotoshopped, would definitely get me banned from the boards for life. It would, however, serve its purpose as a terrific thread derailer. (photographers should position themselves with great care when photographing men in kilts, if said kilts are worn in the traditional manner and being worn during speedy downhill activities).

My sister just posted a fantastic shot (I wish I could share it, sorry!!! :D) of her amazing husband doing his farm chores . . . wearing his utili-kilt and wielding a chainsaw. Honestly, Looking at this 6'8" former Aussie, former military, kilt-wearing, chainsaw wielding brother-in-law of mine standing out in a cow pasture grinning madly at the camera made me think, "Now THAT would be a thread-derailer for sure if it were only my photo to repost!!!" :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: I would simply OWN these boards! :D

Don't overthink it. Chuck in the nuts and press go. My kids came home with a recipe that involved adding oil and I thought, "Poor parents who follow this recipe!" We just throw in the nuts. Yum! If you want to get wild with it, toss in some chocolate chips with it and make your own version of nutella.

The information for the summaries in History Odyssey comes from the information the student read in the assignment, or if not that day, than in the prior day's assignment. One should note that the writing in History Odyssey is designed to build as it goes; it starts with shorter, easier assignments, and builds sequentially throughout the program. By the end of Ancients 2, the assignments are longer and more thorough ( and the student will have written 4 more thoroughly researched papers). It slowly teaches outlining skills, and how to track information on a timeline, then how to use the timeline to go back and review and compare information from that resource. In Level 2 Medieval, the writing and assignments step up a notch-- in each part of the sequence, and within each section of the level 2 sequence, we are seeing that the level of the work increases appropriately as the student is taught how to build up to and use the skills that he is then asked to use in the assignments. It makes a lot of sense-- the student is not told to just go and do; he is taught to do first. I notice that in Medieval Level 2, as the student reads, he is given more questions to consider and respond to about the books he is assigned to read and how they relate to the history lesson. We do supplement the reading with the K12 Human Odyssey book as well, because I feel it is a very well-written book, and we use it because my son's reading ability is up to the task of doing additional reading (we also add in extra resources, because we do history every other week in a history/language focus week, so he is given time to dive into a topic). But I have to dissent with some of the other posters in this thread; I think that when History Odyssey is taken as a sequential curriculum that builds skills as well as knowledge, it does a really nice job and augments our writing program. Particularly with the K12 book added in and giving the student ample time to explore topics of interest on his own, it can be as deep as you like. For those who are die-hard SOTW fans who want to use SOTW again at level two-- I have to dissent here too that it would be hard to do. (I don't fall into this category; I really feel it is an elementary program, but to each their own). The chapters in SOTW are clearly labeled by topic, as are the assignments in History Odyssey. It is a pretty simple matter to just look at the topic you are covering in HO, and look up the appropriate chapter in SOTW's table of contents to see what to read to match it up with that lesson on a particular day-- absent learning disabilities, you could even just ask your middle school aged student to do that much. If you have a student who requires more guidance, then you can easily do this. Both authors did the courtesy of using very easy to interpret titles. Life doesn't get much easier than that :).

Our family favorite is potato sausage soup. It's pretty easy, and the best part is that the sausage continues to flavor it, so it actually tastes better as leftovers. Brown some spicy italian sausage. spice is best for this, because it flavors the soup; the potatoes will absorb a lot of the "punch." You can use sweet Italian if you really don't want the spicy, but I don't recommend the Andouille; it makes the soup a really funny color and has some flavors that just don't go. Let the sausage cool, then slice into rounds. Fill soup or stock pot with water, chop potatoes into bite-sized bits to help them cook better, add salt to taste. Add white pepper to taste, and sage. Add cooled, sliced, drained sausage to pot. Cover with lid, set to very slow boil, cook all day. Watch for liquid level-- if water boils off entirely, add more as needed. This is a vegetable stock; no need for chicken broth. If it is too thin, you may thicken at the end with instant potatoes, but this won't be necessary if you take the lid off and boil off some water at the end. Serve when hungry. It's pretty much impossible to mess this up, other than watching the liquid level in the pot.

Just one experience-- We are NOT required to test in our state; I just did so for my own information. We chose only curricula that I felt matched our own personal educational goals and did absolutely zero test prep and worried not one bit over whether what we taught would match what was in the test (in fact, I was quite certain there would be areas covered we had not yet touched such as modern history and American history, and life sciences). My kids scored off the charts in nearly every area, and at very worst, slightly above average in their "worst" areas-- including my special needs son, just from their general reading outside of "school." A strong, well-planned, long-term curriculum and a habit of reading should take care of any testing. Improving test scores from year to year is more important than the test scores in any given year. I'd let that be your guide and not fall into the trap of worrying over the upcoming content of a given test. Over time, we will cover areas they had not seen yet when we wish to schedule them. I expect they will continue to test very well without us needing to worry about what the test wishes to cover. FYI we used the Stanford 10.

If I was doing formal writing every week, I would be alternating IEW and WWE on alternate weeks; I have no problem doing WWE "double speed" -- do a dictation/narration in one day instead of over two days. I personally set aside WWE formally for now in favor of IEW, because we are rolling with our alternating science math focus week/history language focus week schedule. However, I see nothing wrong, in a more traditional schedule, of alternating the two programs, as they each have different strengths and address different needs. Besides, the WWE lessons give great reading ideas :). Back to your original question . . . I think your approach is great. I'd run with it.

Reason for Homeschooling # 579: My husband's spring break at the university NEVER coincided with the school district's spring break. Ever. They seemed to purposely mess with the town/gown relations by making sure families could never take actual vacations by scheduling them on different weeks every year. Now we don't have to worry about that any more :) Of course, now he's graduate director, so we can't take vacations so much anyway, because grad students are always around . . . but it's a moral victory.

:grouphug: So sorry you had to go through all of that.

I was ignoring that! LOL!! Too close to my graduation date! A friend of mine was in physical therapy, when she and her physical therapist realized they had graduated from the same high school. The chirpy therapist asked, "So when did you graduate?" My friend responded, and the therapist squealed, "OOOOOhhhhhhhhh so cool! I was three that year!" My friend wanted to know if she could have some Geritol with her stim & ice . . .

And I was not trying to shut you up :D I just didn't want the conversation to take a bad turn. We have some ah, very conservative people on this board :). Wonderful, lovely, people, to be sure, but sometimes folks forget that their way of viewing the world isn't the only way of seeing things. Except of course when I am right, and people really should let ME set them straight on how things ought to be, naturally :D Yes, really, an institutionally sanctioned smoke break at school. Complete with indoor senior smoking lounge, and outdoor everyone smoking lounge (interior courtyard). Those of us who didn't smoke hung out in the band room. I don't know where the kids who didn't smoke or play an instrument went, really-- there were a few in the art department, and some who worked on the newspaper . . . I guess everyone found a niche somewhere. However the overwhelming majority headed downstairs or outdoors to either smoke or hang out with the smokers so as to look cool :tongue_smilie: The really mind-blowing thing was that in that state at that time, it was illegal for minors to purchase tobacco products (there was technical loophole; it was not, I believe, illegal for minors to POSSESS tobacco products, just to buy them). But the school was absolutely defying the spirit of the law on that one, not to mention good common sense and health.

By writing a lot of it, do you mean filling in words for her, or physically doing the writing (many of us call this "scribing") to write down her words? If you're filling in the writing for her, I'd back off a bit; if you're just scribing for her, I would think that is fine; that is a normal accommodation for a dysgraphic child. I would write down what she says, and then prompt/discuss with her changes and additions that you need to guide her toward (while still leaving it as "her" paper and not your paper! That part can be hard sometimes!) Be sure to let her come up with the ideas, even if you have to help nudge her towards them. ("Here you said 'the oysters' and later you said 'it,' . . . how many do you mean? Many or just one? So should you say 'the oyster' or something other than 'it'?" Those things need to match.") As long as the writing is essentially HER words, you doing the physical writing of the draft and then her copying it for the final edition after the edits is just fine. I would tend to finish early enough so that she is only copying a few sentences per day.

Just to clarify . . . I do mean to have your daughter involved in thinking up questions, and finding answers to the questions in the books and things. But as a parent of a 9YO, i would be heavily involved in guiding to make sure the questions were realistic, helping her set up her notebook pages, helping her find the sources, and get the notes down on the paper as she reads, etc, particularly with a dysgraphic child. I did not mean to sound as if you should do all of the research FOR her :D

I used WWE 1--3 for my dysgraphic son (along with Handwriting Without Tears) who was born in mid-'03, and then switched to IEW just about two months ago. I think WWE was fantastic for developing writing skills. I think a two-page essay is a ridiculous assignment for that age. Maybe if your triple-space it and use a 20-point font??? LOL IEW SWI-A would start out for that age by having kids do a keyword outline and then rewrite a single 8 or 9 sentence paragraph using their keyword outline; not by having them write a 2-page essay of their own original research. (I do believe IEW SWI-A is a natural extension of WWE if you and your daughter ever do wish to make a switch. I have my son type his final drafts for part of his typing practice, too, which relieves the pressure from his dysgraphia). So . . . *No, you have not messed up your daughter by using WWE. It is a perfect program for early writing, particularly for kiddo with dysgraphia, and it is not age-inappropriate, assuming your signature is correct. *WWE progressively help a child learn to organize her thoughts in her head and keep them there while carrying out the physical task of writing. Those of us with dysgraphic kids know that that is a particularly useful skill. *WWE helps kids identify the central ideas in the writing of others, and put them into words. Doing this again and again helps them to practice the art of writing itself, which is that of organizing some type of narrative of ideas (of any type-- informative, fictional, instructive, etc) into a cohesive, intentional pattern, and conveying them to others. The narrations help a child to practice this skill. Using writing excerpts from professional authors takes the burden of thinking up something original to write so that the child can focus on organizing the thoughts and choosing words properly, important writing skills. *WWE exposes kids, through dictation, copywork, reading, and narration, to high quality writing examples. These examples will seep into the child's consciousness, because they are not simply skimmed over, but actively copied and studied intentionally. *What are the expectations for this assignment? Does she need to use multiple sources? Make an outline? At nine years old, for a 2-page paper, I would tend to help her quite a bit. I would come up with a list of questions to answer, and list each question on one page of notebook paper, then try to find two or three books (one can be an encyclopedia or something, or a book and a couple of websites) and use them to answer the questions you thought up-- ie, what do they eat, what are their houses like, what do they wear, etc. Fill in answers to the questions from the different sources on the pages as you find them. Then she can tackle each paragraph one notebook page at a time as a topic. Hopefully that won't be too overwhelming? I am trying to think what my 9YO could handle. Hope that helps.

I used History Odyssey for both my younger/grammar stage son-- this uses SOTW as one book among many, plus guidelines for how to get the most out of it, including mapping, summaries, additional reading, in a way that was more appealing to me than the activities in the Activity Guide, and the level II program for my logic stage guy, which uses different reading spines (and I added in the K12 Human Odyssey, a great history text) to that as well. My logic stage guy would not hang in there with me if I made him use SOTW for middle school history.

If you have an ipod or ipad, you can try the very simple, but deceptively flexible "Paperless" app. It is basically a nice checklist app. You can create a checklist for your daily schedule so you know what you want to do (or a checklist for a typical Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc, if you wish). Then create one for each subject-- ie, History Odyssey, Singapore 4A, IEW, etc. It becomes the ultimate "Do the next thing" planner. When you want to know what to do next in history, just look at your history checklist and see which lesson is next. It can be as basic or as detailed as you want-- there is a notes section that you can use to either input the entire lesson, for on the road access, or input grades or notes to yourself about what books and supplies you might need to gather up, or leave it blank and not use that feature. You can select certain items and email those items to yourself as a separate checklist by email (or to other people), and it comes through formatted nicely. If you have multiple kids, checklists can be recycled and used again in the future. I ultimately decided to go with Olly (Mac based planner) even though most of our things are really "do the next thing" including subjects where I make up the plan as we go, because I want the option of tracking books we have used and printing up a transcript and easily tracking attendance, but I really did like the Paperless system for its simplicity and ease of use! I actually still use it from time to time, just to keep track of our alternating schedule, so I know what we are supposed to do on our alternating weeks, in terms of subjects ("Gee, was computer programming supposed to be a math/science logic subject, or a history/language logic subject??") It has all my "like" hallmarks-- cheap, easy to use, dead easy to maintain, reusable for multiple kids, portable, automatic backups, easy to send lists to the kids by email.

I'm not blogging this one!! But I will be glad when this week is over. I have been sick as a dog all week with some kind of virus, and both boys have had a milder form of whatever I had, plus DS9 has had an allergy attack (thankfully, unlike me, he can at least tolerate Claritin). My boys don't do well being at complete loose ends, so I had to come up with some work for them to do, but I had to keep it really, really loose, too, because I was SOOOO far down and out that I just could NOT be there for them much at all, besides waking up periodically to make sure to feed them regular meals, see that they were safe, and give a little guidance on work, and tell them that some video and game time was okay this week if they did do their work. My husband joked that this week that since we don't do true unschooling, that this week we did "UGH"-schooling-- we did as much school as I could tolerate until I said, "UGH I can't do any more!" Then we stopped for the day and I went back to bed. (looking back, it's pretty remarkable-- we still got in pretty much a week's worth of history, Latin, writing, reading, grammar, poetics, and vocabulary, and math, at least, plus a sprinkling of other stuff, including logic and piano. It could have been worse-- science and math week would have been much harder to pull off! Propping myself up in a chair to do Caesar's English is one thing; setting up for a lab would have been another ball of wax altogether!) I have to really appreciate my very cooperative young men. The house is slightly messy, but not all that bad. They did vacuum, help with dishes, and work on some clutter, and with all the extra naps I took, they didn't get into any mischief whatsoever or cause me any worry, and I so very, very appreciate that. I never expect perfection from them, but I know a lot of families with 9 and 11YO brothers who would not have gotten this much cooperation. I may not have loved being sick, but I sure am grateful for what I have!

:iagree: We often don't bother to do all of the workbook pages, and sometimes, depending upon the topic, skip it in favor of the IP book. I have a 2E kid (gifted, but also special needs), so sometimes he just needs a little extra repetition, but even with those issues, he has never needed the extra practice books.

Yes, time matters. We not only had a smoking lounge, but a "10:10 smoking break." Yes, an official school break time for kids to go to the lounge specifically to get their nicotine fix in. You heard that right. Thank goodness, of my siblings and I, only one of us ever picked up the habit, and that sibling is still hooked to this day :(. One of us was more than enough-- my parents were pretty well connected in education, and as soon as practically possible, my Dad started getting his colleagues (from a neighboring district that did not have that kind of nonsense) appointed into superintendent, high school principal, and various teaching positions, and not long after I graduated, 10:10 break and other "traditions" similar to it were abolished. Back when I was in school, though, nobody had ever heard of a school being in "lockdown." To this day, the thought horrifies me. I was volunteering in a PS one day when the kids had to do the drill, and as I was crouched on the floor of a supply closet with the kids, the martial artist/self defense instructor in me kept thinking, "I want to be out there, taking down the gunman. In here, we're just fish in a barrel if he opens the door and starts shooting! Who thought up this protocol????" It was terrifying to me, and I was an adult! It is an age difference thing, I think. We were raised, think, to think more independently than our kids, to question things. If any of our teachers had ever told us to sit in a supply closet while a gunman roamed the hallways, I think half the school would have looked at them oddly, and headed for the parking lot and loaded up, or just left campus, or gone to tackle the guy. Just sitting around and hoping for good luck to take care of everything would have felt pretty weird. And in an area where pretty much every kid above age 10 owned a gun of some type, and almost every kid above age 12 owned a rifle for hunting, bringing a gun to school was not considered alarming absent unusual behavior (such as doing so outside of hunting season, or behaving oddly-- everyone knew who 'shouldn't have a gun' and it was just taken care of socially). I wasn't really trying to turn this into a "gun debate." The point was that different areas will have different days off from school for geographically appropriate reasons, the idea the OP was trying to get a handle on.

:iagree: This. My younger is going through . . . something. I give him a certain number of specific things to accomplish, and make sure he has what he needs to do it. Then he can play with the cat, go run laps, play with toys, roll around on the swiss ball, play tetherball, play catch on the rebounder, whatever it takes. Then we go again. If he is doodling around wasting time, however, he has to finish something concrete. If I can see he just cannot concentrate, I may give him a chore instead of schoolwork to do, then a snack, then we get back to work. There is little productivity to be had with him if he has too many pent-up wiggles. I expect more patience and self-restraint from his older brother, but he also gets plenty of physical activity and a few mental breaks through the day. Older brother would prefer to charge through the day and not even break for lunch until he is.just.done. I figure I am preparing them for college, and most college semesters are set up with long walks between classes and frequently breaks between classes as well, not typically a long haul all at once. Most adults can't even sustain concentration for too long without some type of break (reading WTM boards, for instance :lol:).

I think you just cost me money . . .