We always buy remanufactured inkjets. A high yield black costs about $20 and claims to yield 700 pages but we use fast print so we get more. That's about $0.03 a page at regular quality. I split a paper deal with a friend over 2 years ago for 2.5 cases of paper for aobut $25. I still have almost a full case left (but we haven't been homeschooling this entire time). I have printed at Staples. If you do that, get a teacher discount/reward card. It cost me $30 to do both A and B of Math Mammoth 3 including binding it. If I had waited for a coupon, it could have cost about $10 less. For me it was worth the extra money for the conveniece of having a bound book for him since I knew he would go through it all.

She's probably just testing her boundaries. Behavior rehearsal is a good technique. If she does something that you define as not acceptable, help her identify what she did wrong and give her a better solution. Then give her a chance to do a re-do. She may not have the skills to know when she's bragging...she might be just testing her self-esteem. When she brags, give her an alternative that helps her celebrate her success without being obnoxious. Same thing with mouthiness. The rule in our house is that you can say anything as long as it's with respect (tone, language, and body language). We often have to repeat it practicing having respectful everything. Hope that helps! P.S. You're definitely not alone.

I'm currently reviewing www.time4learning.com. It covers all the core subjects. You choose the level for each child and they can work through as many lessons as you assign or they want. There are games, assignments, quizzes etc. It does not fit our philosophy but it does seem easy. I think k12 is computer based as well (with a lot more interactive non computer activities) and alpha omega has a computer based curriculum.

We just finished up Prima Latina. I want to move to a curriculum with audio that uses classical pronounciation. I was intrigued by the Great Latin Adventure because of all the translation work but a little intimidated by all the teacher prep since we'll be bringing home 2 Ethiopian teens this fall and I don't anticipate having a ton of extra time to prep Latin. I recently stumbled across Lively Latin and am considering that because it's more student directed and because I'll eventually have 5 children moving through it so it seems more economical than buying workbooks every year. I read on another thread that with the history and geography, this is almost a stand alone liberal arts curriculum. We're a part of a Classical Conversations community and my son who will be doing Latin next year will also be doing Essentials. Any thoughts on whether the content in GLA or LL will be too redundant after PL or which one would complement CC better? Thanks!

Whichever curriculum you choose, I would recommend teaching the letters by stroke instead of in order. My kiddos only learn cursive until 3rd or 4th grade. There's a lot of research to support it so you're definitely not crazy!

Check out the Brain Integration Therapy Manual or Disconnected Kid or Smart Moves: Why all learning is not in your head. They all address balancing the right and left sides of the brain and how that affects learning and memory.

We listen to stories in the car. For some reason our always-loud, never can entertain himself child does much better with a story on. Stories have majorly cut down on the bickering and craziness in our car.

Other things to consider are extra-curriculars, essay writing ability, and interviewing ability. Highly selective colleges will take a lot more into consideration than course selection.

As long as you're sharing your reasons (whatever they are) in a respectful manner, how others take it is not on your shoulders. I frequently voice my reservations about PS. My hope is for families to think through why they do something and not just do it because that's what most everyone else is doing.

another vote for MM :)

You may be interested in researching attachment models and how they affect behavior. Attachment seems to always get bunched with adoption but every parent has an attachment style that effects the children they raise and their behavior. Early unhealthy attachment models and broken attachment can severely impair a child's behavior.

Just to set the record straight, the US has 130,000 waiting kids and the US adopts them out to intercountry adoptions. This is a worldwide social problem that includes our country.

Anatomy of the Soul is also a great resource.

As an adult adoptee an adoptive mom, the world needs people who are willing to adopt. However, you have to go in with your eyes wide open and having counted the potential costs. It's been hugely challenging for us but a huge blessing as well. We would never have experienced God's grace in our lives in the same way without adoption.

You can use anything as an anchor. Tables legs, heavy furniture, railings, trees are all options. If you have a partners, you can also use each other or another band held by that person.

We love ETC but it doesn't do encoding (spelling) very well. we use it with AAS/HTTS/SWR rule centered spelling.

www.candokids.com It's not pretty but it's functional.

I'm 5'1" on a good day and I teach with resistant bands a lot. The ones with the handles are fine. You adjust the tension by choking up or standing with your feet further apart (if you're doing bicep curls). Also a higher resistant band would make a difference too. Many of the exercises don't have anything to do with your height as relative to the length of the band.

I'm considering buying this DVD. http://funwithphonograms.com/sample You can google a list of rules. There are typically 27 to 30.

That's the way my, my DH, and DS's brain works. That's one way to manipulate numbers to get an answer. I would have done it a little differently and thought 9 is almost 10. So you basically "borrow" 1 from 4 to get an even ten. Then you have 10 and 3 instead of 9 and 4. 10+3=13. Singapore methods encourage this kind of number manipulation.

CC devotes an entire year to US history and geography.

At http://www.child.tcu.edu (corrected to add www) there is information about an intensive camp they run. They do amazing work even with kids as severely traumatized as your dd sounds. Because it's research, it may be free to participants.

My 3 rd grader is an intuitive reader too. He taught himself to read at 4 and reads at a high school level. However we're finding that although he remembers a ton of words from reading, he has no solid spelling foundation. I feel really strongly about remediating him on principle for the foundation, so he understands why he does what he does, and so he would be able to teach others at some point. If you're looking for more self directed, look at How to Spell.

Weighted vests and lap animals are your friends :) Teach your child to verbalize what he needs (i.e., to spin, to jump, to swaddle) and provide appropriate outlets so he's not jumping off of furniture when you don't want him to. Read Carol Kranowitz's books. Grease markers are better than dry erase for re-usable writing surfaces (because drag is indeed better).

AAS does use rules but it's material (tiles, cards, etc) heavy. For just supplementing, you may want How To Spell or SWR. HTS is definitely cheaper.