Similar situation here. My kids did very little writing or composition in the early grades. We did a lot of work orally. Both my kids are dxd dyslexic and so many seemingly easy school tasks were just not within their ability. We hs grades 1-8 and they both tried public high school in grade 9. They adjusted very well and are able to write long papers and receive great grades. Their teachers always appreciate the kids' creative approaches and inquisitiveness. Building strong critical thinking skills orally can go a long way in helping them develop the ability to construct well written essays. A lot of their assignments have to be turned in electronically also.

My son resisted learning any kind of algorithm for solving lower lvl math problems. It was actually quite worrisome because he has some LDs and lower lvl math was all around a huge struggle. He had strong conceptual understanding but horrible execution at lower levels. I also worried that he would never learn how to "do math right". But, he went on to excel in upper level math. So just chiming in that kids can do all kinds of seemingly wonky things with elementary math but still be successful in upper math. I am about to take this same son to his calculus 3 and linear alg class at the university (has solid As in both classes) so it has definitely worked out ok for him. Good luck and enjoy your time. :)

I would assume he was picking up something for everyone so I would go on to tell him what to get for everyone. I would find it odd for DH to eat something he purchased while the rest of us were eating what I had cooked. Now if he was coming home late and we had already had dinner, that would be different. We are pretty casual about dinner, although we usually do sit down and eat as a family (exceptions do occur especially during busy garden times!). But still, i think this would irk me. BUT, my DH does some things that other people would probably find irksome! I think there are some issues that cannot be resolved to both people's satisfaction. If I really thought this was one of those situations, I would try to accept and make the best out of it.

The LDS church stresses this quite strongly.

I think you have received great advice already. Just wanted to say they sound adorable!

Will she wear shoes on the wrong feet?

If the cabinets are off white, I'd go with the gold flecked countertop mostly because in the photo with the whiter countertop, the white cabinets coordinate so nicely. I think white counter with off white cabinets might not blend as well. Good luck with the whole process!

I have been considering a pixie for this very reason! But then you have to keep up on haircuts and I definitely fail at that.

That is how my mom thawed meat. She always wanted to cook meat at room temperature--especially port and beef. I think this is a Julia Child thing, no?

Thank you so much Kareni. I just spent some time on the common app. I see room for only one counselor email to be added--we added me and that grants me access to all the school info and uploads. As far as I can tell, they want info on the current school the child is attending. There are sections to add additional transcripts though. But...if the 9th grade hs classes are already listed on the public school transcript, then it would be a duplicate. I would ask the school counselor to be sure to include info about her outside classes.

My FIL passed away last year and DH is dealing with the estate. It has turned into a horrible mess, unfortunately. The will does have the clause stating that anyone who contests the will is automatically excluded from inheriting. I saw the previous post mentioning that this kind of clause may serve limited practical purpose, but in DH's case, it has helped to calm down family members. Can the will state that some portion is left to the BIL's offspring, left in a trust until a certain age? BTW, I now no longer think these kinds of discussions are morbid! Going through it now, there is so much I wish DH had discussed with his dad.

Do you have any feelings of pressure around your sinuses or even your teeth? Does it hurt if you press on your face below your eyes, at the top of your cheekbones? Those are usually the symptoms I get that signal a sinus infection for me. Also,, do you have post nasal drip? I think it could still be allergy or allergy with another component making it harder to get rid of. Sometime when i have bad allergies, no medication works. :grouphug: I hope you feel better soon!

Younger son relied heavily on Khan for Alg 1. It started as a supplement but became more and more central to his math learning as the year progressed, He used it quite independently. He does get math concepts quickly but struggles some with computation. It was really a good fit for him though. He went on to take honors math (geometry-alg 2 and now precalc) at the public school and is doing well. His teachers always comment on his strong problem solving skills and unique approach to problems. This was 3 years ago though, so perhaps right before some major changes took place. Last time I took a peek at KA it seemed dramatically changed and more complicated.

I'd love to see examples of what you all have done, Kareni and LanaTron. I will send pms with me email if you are still willing to share, Timbers6--My son has completed high school with some public school and some home school. His senior year he is homeschooling so I am filling out all of the common application counselor sections. If he ended up graduating through the high school, I would expect the high school counselor to complete all the common app sections. The students enter one counselor email on the common app for completing those sections. We are going through the common app now and I don't see a way for parents to add in additional info. If son had stayed at the ps, I would write up some info about our homeschooling portion and give that to the counselor and hope s/he included some info in their section. Alternatively, the student could address some of the homeschooling issues in their own submissions possibly. GL!

We lived in Carrboro (shares school district with CH) NC for a few years. It is a lovely friendly and walkable community. I knew several people who worked in Reseach Triangle Park, including a programmer at Cisco, who all had an easy commute. Not much in the way of mass transit though as a I recall. Carborro and CH have more expensive housing than Raleigh area. I agree that it is a liberal area. They also tout strong public schools and that might influence the number of homeschoolers in that area (our kids were babies when we lived there). I did find the weather not terribly to my liking though. Winters were mild, but cold enough to limit outside park time, but not cold enough to have winter sports. Summer was hot, humid and mosquito infested. Spring and fall were the best times but seemed too short. I guess that may seem like a minor consideration, but it was surprising to me how often the weather limited our outside options.

I tend to also think your DH needs to sort through this issue and consider the message he is sending the youth about this activity. If you would like to go along could you find a responsible 'tween' to come with you and watch the littles while you dance? Or is there an adult church member who would be willing to help out at the dance? I think you could ask another church member for help without even mentioning anything about your husband feeling awkward about he dancing.

Son is a senior this year. He is currently working on Lightening Lit American Lit (he took Brit Lit last year at the public school), participating in an online lit discussion group and working on college application essays. We have been looking into other resources for next semester. He most likely will take an online class through coursera or edX. Here are a few we are looking into: https://www.edx.org/course/tennessee-board-regents-high-school/tennessee-board-regents-high-school-3456#.VC1bFUupqxw https://www.coursera.org/course/sciwrite https://www.coursera.org/course/writing2 https://www.coursera.org/course/modernpostmodern (no courses available at the moment though) Standard Deviants (offered the free 6 month trial) has an online composition course, but we haven't looked into it yet.

I tried a few programs for oldest son and all caused a lot of frustration. He ended up teaching himself to read around age 9, mostly from listening to audio books and then re-reading the books. He was dxed dyslexic but is now a strong and avid reader. Younger son was an early reader and learned to read well before his older brother. He actually is also dyslexic but it presents itself a bit differently. He pretty much only likes to read non-fiction. So, basically they learned to read from books, not any particular program.

I do think there are certain social boundary lines that we should teach our children not to cross. But, if we drill into our kids the need to always be socially acceptable (and here I am talking about mildly quirky behaviors such as dress preference in a non-formal setting) then won't these be the same kids who grow into adults who are less likely to be accepting of other people's quirky behaviors? What about other people's limitations or cultural differences? Sure, they sometimes get a pass because they fit into some other well defined social structure, but not always. My kids are aspies and we often discuss social norms. We discuss the reasons behind them and the kind of group continuity they can create. But we also discuss the dangers of adhering to them so strongly that anyone outside of our small societal sphere ends up being discriminated against, ostracized or bullied.

My kids had gaps prior to starting algebra (mostly in the area of fraction manipulation) and Khan Academy helped greatly. One son started from the very beginning with the practice problems. He progressed through them very quickly. When he came to problems he could not solve, he used the videos to clarify. This was efficient and effective. The student you mention has more basic gaps than my kids did, but I still wholly recommend Khan Academy. Another possible resource for identifying gaps is ALEKS>

It may be a trick somehow.....luring you into a false sense of security?

How do you switch? Do you purchase their sim card?

I don't punish for accidents. I don't impose punishments at all. My kids are older teens now and they are responsible and careful young adults. I have zero regrets about not punishing them.

We were talking about household demands and responsibilities and my niece said that I (as the mom) was responsible for worrying about the kids not ending up in jail. She said this in a light hearted joking manner, but it did spur many thoughts in me! I actually do exert a lot of thought energy on, maybe not exactly worrying, but on keeping everyone's schedules and needs sorted out in my mind. This can get quite complex as the kids start applying to colleges and branching out into all kinds of activities. My kids are great at keeping up with their own schedules but I still am the **supreme overlord** of it all! I feel tired almost all the time and never wake up feeling rested. I don't think this is normal but no doctor has any help to offer.

I also couldn't get into *teaching* my kids. I never taught them to teach themselves either really though. What we ended up with was learning to learn. :) I found it much easier to do this without curriculum. That was tough transition for me because I thought curriculum was the answer to most of our hs problems. It was actually the root cause of many of our problems when they were young. When they were older (early high school age) they grew more capable of teaching themselves with a textbook (older son loved Art of Problem Solving math for this btw).