When you say to study root words, is that what would normally be covered in a "vocabulary" curriculum (such as Wordly Wise) or are you speaking of something different and specific? Can you name a few curricula which would fit that definition? Thanks! Our family studies Greek and Latin roots - is that what you are meaning? I worry that his memory issues might prevent that from being of much help....

Maybe I should clarify a bit - I personally have been homeschooling for 7 years and can give her all the basic helps she needs, guiding family, deschooling, etc. What I'm looking for help with is curriculum choices to address some of the specific needs they have that my family hasn't dealt with. (Posted not because of answers I'm getting here necessarily, but from the general consensus of answers I'm getting from the dozen or so places I asked all over the web. LOL) Thanks! Ah... maybe I should add... yes, finances are an issue. She's a single mom with three other kids who was the only relative able to take the step-brother and prevent him from being placed into the system. Free would be great, cheap is needed, and I'll help her find things used in all cases. :)

I have a friend who is running out of options to help her step-brother (whom she is adopting) in school and will likely pull him out after the school year is complete (must wait on the adoption to finalize). He's an 8th grader now, high school age for the fall, but in most subjects is only performing on a 5th grade level; his reading comprehension isn't up to par for a 2nd grader. She is working on getting some better diagnoses for him, but in the meantime is ready to start looking at homeschooling options and is most concerned about Language Arts. Thinking his main problem revolves around comprehension and vocabulary. Suggestions? Re: My friend isn't super comfortable in thinking she can handle homeschooling. I assured her we could find something she'd be comfortable using. Re: Personally, after talking to her today, I'm thinking something with a lot of repetition is going to work best. He doesn't seem to have a very good working memory, and takes several days to think about things and then comes back to them to ask questions.

Haven't heard of crackle. Going to look! Thanks! YES! Wahoo! Someone here knows I'm not crazy! :lol: We do have this one, but I was hoping to find more like it. Will go see what amazon recommends though! Thanks!

:bigear:

Please tell me someone else knows what this is. LOL We recently purchased a dvd titled "The Lorax," though it is not the newer, major motion picture out recently. It's an older Dr. Seuss, looks like maybe produced for television, and has a couple of features on it that include "Pontoffel Pock and His Magic Piano" (which includes the character Neefa Feefa), and also "The Butter Battle Book." Does anyone know where or how I can find more of these? Best dvd money we've spent in years! Thanks!

Mine disappeared a while back and then reappeared a couple of days ago. No power outage here. Just weirdness. LOL Glad to see I'm not the only one though!

Yes, those are the types of things I've been thinking to include more of this year. Not really needing ideas, just wondering how often to think about working one in. 18 a year sound pretty reasonable. We school year-round, taking off about 6 weeks over the holiday season, so we're looking at 10 months or so, and 18 weeks would be almost one every other week, with a little bit of "give" built in. Thank you!

:iagree: Also, I saw your sleep combo, but... my 7yo takes 10mg of melatonin. He doesn't take any of the rest of it. He has dealt with major insomnia for what I assume is all of his life; we figured it out when he was 2 years old and finally realized that he was only sleeping 20 minutes at a time, twice a day, sometimes going 36 hours without sleep. We've played with and managed his melatonin ever since.

2010 was the year my mother turned 48 and went from having 4 grandchildren to having 7 grandchildren in a period of 3 months. ;) (My twins, and my niece is only 3 months older than they are.) This year my parents turn 50, and an 8th grandbaby (my other sister's first child) is due in November. :) We are blessed!

Believe it or not, I actually read every single response in this thread. :giggle: Love silly things like this, and they were short reads! I'll be 50. :) Good with that, there's plenty of life on the other side of 50! Hubby will be 55. So we'll go places and he'll get a senior discount, and I won't. I'll get to chide him about it often. :D Congratulations! :party: My mother was 37 when her oldest (that's me) was 20 also. My youngest brother is 15 and my parents both turned 50 this year, so she'll be 55 when her youngest is 20. I've felt like this all my parenting life also. ;) When my oldest turns 20, I'll be 39. :glare:

Opposite for us. Last year was crazy dry, worst drought in 10 years, ranchers selling off entire herds of cattle. This year... it's rained in July. Twice. (Not to mention that the month is only half over.) That never happens. Guess it depends where in the country you are. ;)

Nah. I actually have never mummified a chicken and have no earthly idea what goes into it. Just guessing there. ;) And since we've done maybe a half dozen projects in as many years of homeschooling, I'm not over crediting myself for sure!! But I might be over estimating what others do... So um, you do almost a project per subject every single week? No way I can manage that here. LOL No way, no how. I agree and it works best for especially my 9yo also, but I simply do not have the means (let alone the inclination, patience, time, or even opportunity) to do a project in every subject... even every month, let alone every week. Actually, a project every single week would likely be stretching it. I just feel it's what we're "supposed" to be doing.... So, does anyone have a happy medium between one a day and absolutely none?? :bigear:

I haven't been very good about including and implementing projects into our homeschooling, and I really do want to change that. Part of my issue in getting it done is the planning phase of it, when what works for me is more of a "to-do" list of daily tasks. We did a volcano this past week and next week are working on a lapbook insead. A project a week is going to be too much for Mom. ;) I might consider a lapbook a "minor" project, but if so only just. So, as a starting point: How many projects do you typically do in a year? A month? I'm talking medium-sized projects, what you might think of as "normal" stuff and not really over the top: volcanoes, solar system models, cardboard castles, chicken mummies. :tongue_smilie: History, science, art.... Things that I can prepare for this morning and do either this afternoon or tomorrow. What I think of as a "major" project would take more than day-before preparation. What I think of as a minor project would be things I would almost certainly have the required materials for on-hand and could be done spur-of-the-moment. So how many "normal" projects do you do in a year/month? How many major projects? How many minor projects? Which subject inspires most of your projects?

:bigear: I'm looking for the small ones, things I can read about this morning and implement this afternoon or tomorrow. :) Messy and arty are great! Outdoors is better. ;)