At 16, you wouldn't have found me anywhere near home on spring break. I can't say I have ever known any 16 year olds who go outside and play. Maybe go outside to lay out and get a tan, but that's about it. For a 16 year old, if I wanted her to get more exercise, I would get her a gym membership. I agree it is not a good thing for a 16 year old to be at home inside all day. A 16 year old girl needs to be out with her friends having fun. Life is too short.

This is not true for all kids. When my dd was not memorizing her multiplication tables, I had a consult with someone familiar with gifted children. I was told to let her move ahead. She would be forced to know her math facts or it would take forever to do the problems. That is exactly what we did and it worked.

As far as their activities go, have they ever asked one of their Brownie or karate friends over or to go hang out like at a movie, etc? Have they asked kids they like in the homeschool classes if they want to hang out? When you are the new kid in town (which I have been many times) it is usually up to you to make that first move. But that is a hard thing for many kids to do. You might want to have them practice with each other or with you so they will be more confident approaching other kids. I would try to figure out what it is the kids do in your town. Where do they hang out? Summer is coming, where is the popular pool? What about summer day camps? A good way to draw kids to your house is to invest in a fun sprinkler or what we call a "wet banana" (a long piece of plastic you get wet and slide on). Whenever we put our sprinkler out, at least 10 kids end up in the yard. I know how hard it can be moving to a new place. Hang in there.

Oooooo....Kolbe looks very interesting indeed! Hmmm.... I spent 3 years in Catholic school and a year in a protestant Christian school. Thinking back now I don't think I ever saw a religious reference outside of religion class in Catholic school, where the Christian school had Bible verses on every page of every subject. I had never thought about that before.

Oh yeah, we are definitely rabbit trails people. That's why I need some sort of loosely constructed plan- enough room to go exploring, but a gentle reminder of where we need to go next. Otherwise, we will be chasing those rabbits for a looooooong time.

Crosses the line of WHAT!?!?!?! The girls were 3-5 years old! I think that anyone can find any excuse to prevent their children from enjoying something that is fun an innocent if they try hard enough to pervert it with their own adult agendas.

My dd wants an anatomy course. She is not "in" high school so this isn't for credit or anything. I am not a science person. My dh has a bit of background in medical science and has agreed to help her in the evenings. The best looking thing I have found so far is called Applied Anatomy and Physiology: A Case Study Approach from EMC/Paradigm Publishing. There is an interactive CD and workbook that goes along with the text. We will also be getting her the Grey's Anatomy coloring book to go with whatever we pick. Has anyone used this book, or have another suggestion to share? TIA! :001_smile:

Ours is the Cantina Song. :001_smile:

Well, the ladies dancing are wearing costumes. Costumes are a part of entertainment. You don't see people wearing costumes to go grocery shopping, to the library, or to church. The kind of girls/women who would wear shorts like that in public are not the kind of girls/women who generally end up with happy, full lives. The dancers have square things stuffed in the back of their shorts and are actually making fun of the highly sexualized music video that goes with the original song. Also, the commercial is not for kids. It does not run during children's programming- only at night during programs intended for adults. I think we also saw it during a sporting event.

That is exactly what my dd said when she saw that commercial!

My dd has unlimited access to TV, computer, video games when school is not in session. Still, you will often find her in her room reading. I wouldn't call her an avid reader, but she likes to read and does so more than some of her friends. I let her read what she wants on her time. School time is different - there is required reading. But, there have been many times she has taken one of her literature selections to her room and disappeared (especially this year with LL7). The key is finding something they like to read and can't wait to pick up again IMO. The kid's idea of what they like and the parent's idea of what the kid should like are often very different and I think that often gets in the way of kids enjoying reading.

I would add spelling. Here are a few words from dd's 4th grade level spelling book. You might want to see if your dc can spell them to see if you need to asses further for a higher/lower placement. Receive Trickiest Business Caught Strength Survival Skimming Government 4th grade grammar covered all parts of speech, clauses, prepositional phrases, direct and indirect objects, capitalization and punctuation (dd just had a section on this on her standardized test- knowing where to place commas and such). Your dc should be able to write a friendly letter and a business letter by the end of 4th grade using correct grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. The 4th grade standardized test dd took covered decimals, fractions (with same denominators), simple geometry (id shapes and find perimeter, etc), addition, subtraction, estimating, multiplication, and division (but only with 2 digit divisors) for math. As far as copywork goes, I would say it depends on how neatly your child can write. We actually do dictation instead of copywork now to help dd with her note taking skills. I would also make sure to throw in some geography with SOTW. Your dc should know about the regions of the US and their features and how to read a map and map key at the very least. I totally agree with the poster who said the expectations and workload for 5th grade is a BIG jump. The best thing I can advise is to hook up with a teacher in one of your local schools. They can tell you the "inside scoop" about what they cover and what they want kids to be able to do when they enter the classroom. You can also arrange to observe a class or visit and see samples of some of the 4th graders' work.

I will never forget my daughter's first dance recital- she was 3. Her song was "Special Date with Daddy". It was all about the little girls getting primped for a special date. Then at the end, the dads all walked out on stage dressed in suits. It was the cutest thing. My dd has been to a father/daughter dance. The girls danced the first dance with their dads, then the girls danced together and the dads stood around and talked. Definitely not creepy.

I went thorough this last year, and it isn't easy. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Hang in there and work through it one day at a time.

We love that commercial and think it's hilarious. The song was actually really popular a few years ago. You couldn't escape it. I don't understand what is wrong with the word booty. That's what my daughter (7) and most of her friends (8-12) call it - either booty or biscuit- because they don't want to say "butt".

The DVR/TIVO was the best invention ever. I don't watch much TV live anymore. It's not because I think the ads are bad (I've been to Europe) but because it saves so much time. I would rather give 15 minutes to something *I* want/need to do than to corporations who are getting enough of my money regardless of if I watch the commercial or not. Oh- the Hardee's commercial is Padme (sp?) from Top Chef on Bravo. My dh loves her- heck, I even think she's hot.

Check this out: http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Good-Kids-Activities-Self-Awareness/dp/1575420090 Some of the activities are designed for groups, but you could easily adapt the concepts for one child.

Thanks! It was very helpful indeed! It sounds like this has a lot of room for individualization, which is a good thing for us.

I am having a hard time figuring out why someone who is a Christian would be following the activity of a secular group so closely. What do you care if they bash Jesus? Why not just talk about Christian things within a Christian group rather than worrying about what someone totally unconnected to your beliefs thinks about Jesus? I don't often wake up and decide, "I want to be offended today, so I'm going to find a fundamentalist Christian message board and read messages that personally offend me." Of course, to each their own. I'm just having a hard time trying to understand this kind of lifestyle.

We used this just for fun a couple years ago. Dd liked it for a few months. The activities are incredibly repetitive. Some of the lessons for each grade level are exactly the same in language arts. This was a big turn off to dd, as she wasn't able to go up a level for more challenge with a concept she was interested in. It's great for math practice, just don't expect any help from the program as far as the child understanding the concepts before practicing them. I know that some use it for a complete curriculum. For us, it wasn't anywhere near enough to call it a curriculum. It was fun, like I said, until dd finished all the activities. That took maybe 4 months for the upper school level.

That's what I don't want- just a fact finding mission. I want a fact finding mission with a purpose...to analyze the facts to draw conclusions instead of relying on the conclusions drawn by "insert name of textbook author here". I just peeked at the samples again, and the DAW sample assignment sheet includes a lot more sections, including one called comparisons. Dh is leaning toward HM right now and I am leaning towards DAW. So thanks for this input so we can consider it in our decision.

Funny you should mention it, but AG is one of the grammar programs I have been looking at. Thanks for the titles. That will be helpful since our library is often hit or miss when it comes to what we want for history. I prefer laying a foundation with books before going to the internet also.

What I've found is that it takes time to let go of the levels on the books. It's not so bad when you're still operating in a framework of elementary school or middle school, but when you leap entire school buildings in a single bound, it can be scary. I let dd have a lot of input into what materials she uses. I look at samples, then I have dh look at them. If dh likes what he sees, then I let dd look. She is the one who has to do the work and she knows what she can handle. My experience in doing middle school science with an elementary aged child was a positive one. I didn't use either of the programs you asked about, but I didn't have to make any adaptations at all. If you are considering a life science course at that level, you should be aware that there's a good chance reproduction might be discussed. Some people might want to omit that part. It was all review for our dd, so it was not an issue for us. My dd did chemistry 2 years ago and life science the past 2 years. This year she wants an anatomy course, so we will probably get that for her. I saw on Homeschool Buyer's Co-op that Plato science will be available again soon. We used that this year as a spine for life science. I plan to get her the physical science course to do "for fun" in addition to her regular studies because she has had very little formal physical science. The track you take is going to depend a lot on your individual student and his goals. I would make sure he understands what is needed for college, but outside of that, I think nurturing his interests at this age is important. He's never going to run out of science to learn, so I wouldn't worry about using even a college level text at this point if that's what he wants and needs.

If you want to feel really sick to your stomach, try this- ask people how race has impacted their life. Most white people will say it hasn't. It's no shock to me that a lot of people don't understand some of the reasons for using PC terminology.

WOW, WOW, and WOW!!!! :drool5: My DQ (drool quotient) just increased 50%. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide so much info! As far as the other resources available from TRISMS, like the writer's guide, etc...have you found any of these to be an absolute must have?