So, you have been the primary care giver to your daughter for the last 10 years and her dad moves closer a week ago and you are second guessing your decisions? This is not to be harsh at all, but I would not allow a 12-year-old to make a decision about her education. Especially when it is so clearly based on "grass is greener" syndrome. You need to remember that you are the final authority on these decisions. Not your ex and certainly not your child. Encourage the relationship between dad and daughter as much as possible after school hours, but full time and against what you know to be best for her? Not a chance!

We are about every 4 days. A week is too long to wait. Twice a day is too often (for us). This is assuming everyone is healthy. Since my youngest is over 2 years old, I've completely recovered from childbirth & my hormones have settled down. It makes it much easier to be more frequent with the alone time.

Personally, I would suck it up & finish the plan. Since your kids are enjoying it and it's only 6 more weeks, finish it up and then go lighter on the projects next year.

My husband cooks 6 nights a week (so I chose other) and we go out to dinner just the two of us once a week..so while I cook 0 times, we still have healthy food on a nightly basis.

It's good to be nervous. It means you care. That said, I've had similar anxiety when starting "officially", when starting back up after my 3rd child was born and even am currently nervous about the coming year when I have a K, 3rd grader & a toddler. Then, we do it a few days and I find my rhythm. For all my anxiety, we were back to full days of school within the week my daughter was born. Homeschooling is hard...but I've found it's never as hard as I imagine it to be.

My husband & I will be able to make it!

I don't think you need to drop everything so he can do Algebra next year. Maybe do some extra lessons on the weekend and start Algebra a few months into next year instead? Dropping everything but math seems really drastic (IMO) just to start a particular book on a particular day. Since he's doing fine in all his subjects, just keep doing what you are doing and start Algebra as soon as it makes sense.

The lesson plans are very involved. However, they aren't all scripted. They are only $99 if you buy them alongside the books. I have found them to be very useful. Since VP is literature based, it helps to have someone else put in all the books at the appropriate places & include additional activities for the subjects. I tried to copy & paste one of them as an example, but couldn't since it is in Adobe reader. One con is that the lesson plans come on a CD. I was kind of ticked the first year that I paid $99 for the lesson plans and then had to print them all out. The amount of time it saved me though, was worth it!

When I was in school (12 years ago now!) we were taught that you only had to cite a source if it wasn't common knowledge. At that time, common knowledge was defined as "something that appears in 3 separate sources". With the internet, and the ease of self-publishing books with no credentials or editing needed, has this rule changed? Or do most of you just require sources that you can find at any public library and nothing else? FYI: I am not making any of my kids write research papers yet...just something I was wondering about.

I think it's worth paying for...just not $10/month. If it was $20/year like EnchantedLearning.com or other sites, I would certainly sign up! $120/year?? Not so much :(

Thank you everyone for the replies! I will be checking out the books recommended. We have quite a while to wait for the pediatrician appointment and then I imagine a longer wait for a specialist. It's just so frustrating!

They are fairly easy to do. I'm not crafty at all & I have 2 boys & we all like them. This week we made flamingo headdresses out of posterboard & aluminum foil for the Early New Kingdom. I have to say, making tin foil hats in the middle of the day for our home school struck me as outstandingly hilarious :)

The TM have 1 or 2 crafts for each history event.

I haven't heard of a social skills class or play group. Where would you find something like that? I am trying to get an appt with his pediatrician, but don't want to be re-hashing the problems I already know we have. It just seems that at some point it should get easier...you know?

:grouphug: I'm so sorry!

My gifted son is ADHD and is taking Adderall to help him with his impulse control & lack of focus. However, he is still having major social issues. He is 8 years old and we signed him up for an art class at the local museum. At the beginning of the class, they take a tour. My child got separated from the rest of the group 3 (!) times due to not being aware of where everyone else was. This is just one example. If we have friends over (which we do frequently) he will go into another room, even if he was enjoying the planned activity before anyone else arrived. I'm having a hard time figuring out a) what should my expectations be (is he just not a social kid) b) how much of his social issues are related to his known diagnosis (ADHD/Giftedness) c) Could he have Aspergers and d) what can I do to help him feel more comfortable in participating in social settings. Anyone been down this road before and can help?

The Dinosaur Place did look really cool. A lot of these places look really cool! Thanks to everyone for your suggestions! Now it's getting to the point that we won't be there long enough to do everything. A good problem to have in my book :)

Thanks for all the blog posts Dorothy! Your post should be on the Mystic website...they don't really make it look all that fun!

Thanks for the site. My kids aren't really museum-type kids yet. They want to have lots of room to play & explore...2 things most museums frown on. :001_huh: I'm just so surprised how little there is to do in this particular part of the world. Where I live we have 5 children's museums within a 30 minute drive. Even the zoo here has 2 huge play areas for kids. The art museum also has an incredible indoor play area for children with molding clay, mobile parts to create their own and materials to make a fort. I guess I'm just spoiled at having so many options to entertain the kids, I'm starting to get nervous with the very few options available in CT. Everything I've found so far is a 60-90 minute drive away. But I'll keep looking!

I am travelling with my 3 kids (8,4&2) to Norwich CT to visit my brother. Mystic Aquarium is near, but it's $30 for an adult and $21 per kid for admission. Does anyone know of anything else to do near this location? I looked online and it seems that the town itself is pretty devoid of anything interesting at all. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance for the help!

Nope. They have their own mini-convention at their warehouse once a year (I'm not sure when as I've never been able to make it). However, they are very helpful on the phone and would be happy to answer your questions.

I always thought I should have been born a redhead. So, I've actually been dying my hair red since I was a teenager. Now I'm 30 & still do it :)

We have a similar law in our state except we also have to cover State History, American History and Fire Safety. Since there are no hour requirements next to each subject, going to the park & playing, taking your kids bowling or roller skating or swimming, those all count as Phys Ed and meet the state's subject requirement. We make sure to talk about fire safety once a year, the pilgrims at Thanksgiving & take a yearly trip to Plymouth MA to talk about American History (my uncle lives there, you can do something less intensive :)) The point is, that as long as you touch on each subject, you are good to go. You do not have to make a full year course out of each subject required. Does that make sense?

Try not to worry about the financial part of it. We also have an outrageously high deductible for our medical insurance. We submitted to insurance, and then worked with the hospital to get our costs lower. My husband makes pretty good money, but we still qualified for 50% off our total bill. And we got to pay for it in monthly installments interest-free. However, the insurance company never knew about the discounted cost, so the whole amount still gets credited toward our deductible.

They usually offer free shipping in the month of April..but only if you subscribe to their e-newsletter. Otherwise, they do price match to Amazon. Just call them & let them know the prices listed.