When my DS9 gets phonograms turned around like that, I first ask him to see if he can spot his mistake, and if he can't, I might ask him something like, "Is ao a spelling choice for the sound /long o/?" Nine times out of ten he'll catch the mistake at that point and be able to fix it. I will also plan reviews on any phonograms that he makes a mistake like that on. (For us, this would be a multisensory review of the mistaken phonogram, plus reading/spelling several words with that phonogram). We also drill all the phonograms he knows visually 2-3x per week (plus there is an another drill that involves writing all the spelling choices for each sound, which at this point we only get to any one particular sound maybe once every 2-3 weeks since we rotate through them). I think practices like that really encourage getting/keeping the phonograms cemented in his brain in the correct order, because he can run through the options and realize ao, uo, etc aren't actual phonograms in our deck, so we wouldn't be writing those to represent those sounds. It's not that he never turns things around, but I feel like when we slack on the review or drills, the mistakes happen more often.

I just got CVS appointments for DS12 and DS14! Other pharmacies were saying to check back tomorrow for appointments, but CVS was on top of it right away.

Reporting back on DD16's second shot. Unfortunately she had kind of a scary side effect. She went to work at Dairy Queen about 3 hrs after her shot since she was feeling fine. Then after having been on her feet at work for a couple hours, she got very dizzy and "blacked out" (though didn't lose consciousness). She sat down and said everything was black for a couple minutes, then vision came back and she still felt dizzy. Her manager was great about it and had her call us for a ride home since it didn't seem safe at all to have her drive home. She felt ok all night taking it easy at home, and went into school late this morning since she was a bit dizzy and had a headache. She was feeling well enough by mid morning to go to school. On the plus side, she said her arm wasn't sore this time! We are super grateful she didn't black out while driving. While we can't know for sure it was a vaccine side effect, it does seem likely since she was trying to stay hydrated before and after the shot to (hopefully) reduce side effects and she had a snack before work so wasn't hungry. She's never experienced anything like that before.

I agree with this. Oldest DD started public school in 8th grade and while she experienced absolutely no "middle school horrors", it was a real challenge to make any friends, despite the fact she is super outgoing and friendly. It didn't help she was small for her age so everyone assumed she was either a 6th grader or 7th grader (and she was in a couple mixed classes with both 7th and 8th graders). But other 8th graders pretty much ignored any attempts she made at trying to be friends with them, and she never met any other "new" 8th graders. She found some acquaintances among the 6th graders, but it was hard to be motivated to make new friends among kids she wouldn't be in school with the next year. As it turned out we moved in between her 8th and 9th year so it didn't really matter anyway. But I think even for an outgoing kid it can be hard to break into established social circles in the last year in a school.

When I've had two kids who needed me to be side by side with them for math (too young to read the book, or just needed my encouragement), I scheduled it for totally different times. None of my kids have ever been very proficient at working with another kid in the room, and running back and forth between two rooms sounds stressful to me. My kids all started clamoring for independent work by around 3rd grade or so (about age 9 or 10). For all except my youngest, they started asking for some subjects to be done on their own around that time. By 4th grade, they all wanted math on their own especially. Maybe I'm bad at talking about math with them? I was doing Right Start with my oldest in 4th grade, and she was in tears every day asking me why I had to be telling her the lesson out loud. We switched to CLE/Christian Light (written to the student in a worktext), and everything was so much better. She hated listening to an oral math lesson. With my boys we were doing BA as early on as possible, so there was a natural transition to them reading the comic and the text at the top of the workbook as soon as they were ready comprehension wise. I can see this is going to be a stretch for my youngest since he is dyslexic/dysgraphic and not a strong reader. He doesn't really want any help, but if he tries to read it on his own he easily gets confused or gets really exhausted of the writing if he has to do all the writing himself. It's hard for me just to be an impartial reader/scribe. 😉 If he starts getting frustrated on a beast academy puzzle, what would build his stamina is to work through the frustration, but yet it is hard for me to just sit by while he exclaims he just can't figure it out. (Usually he CAN get it eventually, but sometimes he gets mad if I give hints too soon).

DH and I were just talking about this. After knowing no one in our local circle that had a baby in 2020, we now know a half dozen people who had or will have babies in 2021. We are really interested to see if this is part of any larger trend, or just some very localized coincidence of people we know (some new, young couples starting to attend our church, etc).

My 16 year old had #1 - she had a sore arm and was very, very tired for a day or two. She has #2 this week.

When I was ten or eleven, I was a chatterbox and I remember my mom saying to me multiple times, "You don't have to say everything out loud. Think to yourself inside your head.". I remember being mad at her but it was really a good skill to learn to be able to have internal dialogs with myself. I like the idea above of signing her up for some cheap classes online that have a discussion component. If you have any pets, maybe encourage her to talk to them? Another thing I did as a kid was record myself talking into a tape recorder and pretend I was making radio shows. The modern equivalent might be talking into a voice recorder app on a device. Do you have any older relatives she could talk to on the phone? An older relative might love to pass the time listening to stories if they are lonely.

One other thought -- OG inspired programs vary in how many "rule breaking" words students are expected to memorize. Logic of English has their rules and phonograms modified in such a way as to minimize rule breaking words that must be memorized to as few as possible. Some programs have more, from what I understand. The training program I went through had a long list of "red words" that we were told to have students memorize (some of them actually ARE phonetic, but use advanced concepts a student might not learn until much later in their tutoring sessions). From what I hear in the OG communities I'm a part of on facebook, the "Heart Words" approach is now being taught by some OG training programs, which focuses on having students find the part of a rule-breaking word that must be memorized "by heart" but also making sure to help students see that other letters of a rule-breaking word actually do follow typical sounds/patterns.

#1 - Yes, all OG inspired curricula I've seen use spelling rules and generalizations as one of the primary teaching tools. Learning all the phonograms and their sounds would be another thing that all OG inspired curricula use, as far as I know. #2 - Logic of English is a OG-inspired curricula that I've used with my kids. Writing Road to Reading and Spell to Write and Read are two that pre-date AAS and LOE. Barton is one that is suggested for dyslexic and kids and others who struggle with the pace of the typical OG inspired curricula. Wilson and S.P.I.R.E are OG inspired curricula that are more aimed at the public school market and less at homeschoolers. I'm sure there are others as well. O-G at its roots is an approach rather than a specific method or curriculum, so what a trained OG tutor does will look somewhat different than what these curricula do. A trained tutor (some more than others) will look at the students' needs and use a diagnostic/prescriptive approach to deciding what to cover next, how to teach it, and how long to spend before moving on to the next topic. Neurotypical or mildly dyslexic kids may not need that, but a kid who is really struggling can benefit from something more than just following the next step in a curriculum progression. (I took an in-depth OG training, though I am not certified - these are the general principles we were taught that explain the approach: https://www.ortonacademy.org/resources/og-approach-principles/).

I did it a couple times years ago with Groupon. As far as the rate, I'm guessing it really varies a lot depending on area, so you might have to research what "full price" looks like for you. Also, be very specific (potentially even in writing) about what you want done. I once hired a special one-time cleaning service to prepare for hosting a family celebration, and I communicated verbally that I only wanted kitchen, living room, and bathroom cleaned. I came home after the designated number of hours to find them tidying a bedroom and kitchen only half clean. 🙄 It was very frustrating.

This was back in late October: DS-then-8 (turned 9 during our quarantine): On a Tuesday morning had a fever of 100 or so, and felt tired/listless all day. No other symptoms. Felt totally normal by Wednesday AM. Really did not think it would be COVID as it was way milder than many normal "bugs" that go around. DS-then-11, DS-then-13 and I woke up feeling sick on Friday (3 days later). Fever in the 100-101ish range, feeling tired, somewhat of a headache. (For all three of us). DS11 was mildly coughing. Took the 4 people who had symptoms anytime that week to test, we were all 4 positive. Two older boys were feeling better by end of the day Saturday, except DS11's cough lingered longer. DH and DD16 went for a test on Saturday, no symptoms at that time and they were negative. Late on Sunday, DH started feeling chills, fever, mild difficulty breathing. Meanwhile I lost my sense of smell and had very mild cough/breathing difficulties that day. Fever/headache was mostly gone now for me (this was 48 hrs after symptoms started). Mild difficulty breathing/cough and loss of smell lasted about a week. DH tested again the next day and took DD with again too even though she didn't have symptoms. DH was positive now and DD was not. DH's symptoms again lasted about 48 hrs, with some minor tiredness after that. Finally on Wednesday DD started feeling a mild cough/difficulty breathing/tired/chills (but never registered an actual fever). Slight reduction in taste/smell for her. We didn't make her get a third test since it was really obvious that we just tested her too soon the second time. We were just trying to condense trips to the testing site. So it took 8 days from first person to last person! (We gave DD the option to isolate in her room after the first negative test, and she declined. She didn't want to have to hide by herself for 2 weeks if she didn't absolutely have to.) DD's main symptoms also lasted about 48 hrs, with reduction of taste/smell for about a week. Only longer term symptom was a very mild lingering cough for DS-then-11 that actually went on for a couple months. But we're talking like coughing a couple times a day - nothing too severe. Vaccine effects - I got Moderna #1 and only had a sore arm for 48 hrs, maybe a bit of extra tiredness (hard to tell, because I had a kid interrupting my sleep a bunch the same nights), Dose #2 is still a bit over a week away for me. DH had both Moderna shots, and both times had serious chills/fever symptoms for 24 hours + 1-2 days of tiredness. DD16 had Pfizer #1 (#2 is next week), and had sore arm/tiredness for 24 hrs.

If you are ok with vintage books that may use some dated terminology, the Landmarks of American History and World Landmarks series are really engaging. They were originally published in the 50s-60s and some have been reprinted, but a fair number of the vintage ones are reasonably priced used. Here's an article that tells a little more about the series: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2016/generation-past-the-story-of-the-landmark-books

I think it depends on the student. A bit of the discovery method is maybe lost I think if you watch the video first, but if your student doesn't really want to discover the principles via the example problems and just wanted it taught in a more straight forward method, I think watching the video first could make sense. We didn't use them very extensively though, so maybe others who have will chime in with how they used the videos.

One thing I'll mention, in case you didn't know about it, is that for the Pre-Algebra book there are videos to go along with every lesson: https://artofproblemsolving.com/videos DS14 started the Pre-Alg book part way through 5th grade, and it took him about a calendar year to go through it, partly because we had a major move in there that meant we ended up taking almost 4 months off of school, and partly because I made him work every "example" problem in his notebook. He used the above linked videos occasionally. DS12 went through Pre-A much faster. He started in the fall of this past year (6th grade), and was done at the end of February of this year. I didn't make him work in his notebook the example problems (he just read them, thought through it), and at least for him this strategy seemed to work pretty well. We got into a really good habit of me correcting his work every day, then he would correct the errors before continuing on. He never used the videos - just reading the text was a great explanation. He "gave up" on maybe a handful of the hardest problems in the book, and I let him read the answer key on those. He probably has a bit lower frustration tolerance than his older brother and I didn't want to force him to work longer than he was comfortable with on really hard problems if he at least gave them a fair try first. All that being said, even if you aren't "mathy" the AoPs book is written to stand alone and teach the material, so you may be rarely required to give explanations? I found myself giving explanations a lot more often in Beast Academy with my kids, actually. I guess my kids could be unusual in their ability to learn math from reading a textbook, but I think the style is well done and more suitable for this purpose than say, a public school textbook.

I think especially lately it's really hard to know who is interested in attending and who is not. Our church did not offer any childcare the first few months we were back meeting in person after the state required shutdown, then after that only very limited childcare that was more appropriate for older preschool and up. Now, as vaccination percent is getting fairly high in our community and schools are back in person, we thought the time is right to resume a full offering of nursery and Sunday school. We have had a few families return who said they stayed away because we weren't offering full children's classes until now. We've had people return because they are now vaccinated. Some people visited multiple churches pre-pandemic, stopped attending, and told us they are just now resuming their church search. I do some volunteer admin tasks for our small church and I'm still often surprised by how often people tell me they never read the email newsletter or check they website and then they seem mystified why they didn't know about an event or a schedule change. I'm not necessarily endorsing phone calls because that seems like a means of communication most people find annoying these days, but postcards or a personal (non-bulk) email seems like a low intrusion way of reminding people you are offering something they might like to return to, and they can always ask be removed from the list for future communication if they've decided to attend elsewhere, no longer attend church, aren't in the area, etc.

How does the 14 year old feel about it? If she is game to try it, as others said, you could help her prepare. There's a good chance the people she's calling won't answer the phone anyway. If she is uncomfortable, then I think it's perfectly reasonable to decline and have her step down from the volunteer position. You definitely shouldn't be forced to do something you don't feel comfortable doing just because she has a volunteer position that didn't involve this originally.

It could definitely be dyslexia. See the "what are the signs of dyslexia" in the middle of this page: https://dyslexiaida.org/dyslexia-basics-2/ There could also be other factors going on related to dysgraphia, working memory, etc. There could be developmental vision things going on. I think to really know what is going on, you'll need to get evaluations done. Even hiring a tutor could be an expensive waste of time if you aren't getting to the bottom of the root causes. This page has a location based list of providers, which can be a good place to start looking. It might also be possible to get a fully online evaluation in these pandemic times! Assuming you are in the USA, you can get an evaluation done through your school district (I'm sure others can chime in about that -- I haven't gone that route), though sometimes people find that to be a mixed bag when it comes to dyslexia. As far as what to do right now? I personally wouldn't worry right now about the alphabet song, sequencing the alphabet, etc. A kid can learn to read and not be able to sing the song or put the alphabet in order (I think my dyslexic kid still can't despite making tons of reading progress, because we've never specifically worked on either -- just not a priority right now). I think whatever you do for letter recognition, making sure you make it as multi-sensory as possible. So, you aren't just having him look at the letter, you are having him trace a flash card, trace the shape of the letter in the air, a tactile surface, all while saying the name and sound. I'm sure others will have some other good ideas more specifically of things to try/work on. The very early letter recognition when starting from almost ground zero is not as much my strength - My dyslexic child did pretty well with most of the first sounds of single letter phonograms (basic alphabet), and it all fell apart when adding in multi letter phonograms.

The one I linked to is in stock near me, but YMMV of course. It's my understanding at least for that test, that positive results are encouraged to be self-reported, so no need to report if you choose not to.

There are over the counter Covid tests available now. Not as accurate as pcr of course, but an easy first step with no reporting to anyone: https://news.walgreens.com/press-releases/walgreens-makes-abbotts-binaxnow-covid-19-self-test-available-over-counter-at-stores-nationwide.htm

I have such a long sob story about mice in a rental house we formerly lived in that I could write a novel. 😁 It was a multi-year saga with a slightly eccentric landlord. Ultimately, nothing done IN the house will help if major holes in the foundation are not taken care of. We looked and looked, and it wasn't until sidewalk repair meant a back deck had an underside panel removed for the first time, and lo and behold there were major holes in the foundation under that deck that even pest control professionals hadn't found before because it was difficult to access under the deck. In our experience any kind of trap, even the electric zapping ones, couldn't completely take care of the problem even after the holes were patched because so many were already inside. The thing that really helped was poison that a pest control professional put in strategic places. I don't know what exactly he used as it was a "don't ask/don't tell situation." The landlord had made him promise not to use poison and asked us not to use poison, but the pest control guy got so tired of the situation that eventually he did a wink-wink-nudge-nudge and used it anyway. I know people have some strong feelings about not using poison due to harm to other wild animals, but this had gotten really bad in the house and it was truly a case of potential human harm needing to be put ahead of other concerns.

If the standardized test results have serious consequences in your state, you could probably devote a week or so to test prep or have your child do something like Prodigy Math "for fun" on the computer for exposure to the types of problems they will see. But if the testing is required but there are no consequences to the results in terms of your future ability to homeschool, then I don't think you need to sweat it. You'll get those topics in the future (some, like calendar or money are just as easily done in "real life" as in a math book).

When my DS12 got his ADHD diagnosis, they suggested the next eval be after puberty hits, especially if we were still seeing social concerns. With him having a neuropsych eval as a brand new 7 year old, they were confident in giving the ADHD diagnosis, and suspicious about him being on the spectrum but not confident enough to diagnose. I'm pretty sure based on what I still see that he would be much more likely to get an additional diagnosis now. I'm aiming for early 8th grade for another eval for him (he's finishing 6th now) because he will probably want to do what older sibs are doing and try public school for high school, and I want fresh evals going into that to have the best possible info to know if he needs any accomodations. He has no learning issues per se but going from doing school work alone and completely undistracted will be much different than doing it in a classroom with other kids.

Just another word of advice that it will be fine. In between 8th and 9th grade my family moved to a new school district, and I literally had the same "half" of American History twice due to totally different history sequences. I could have had no history in 8th and it would have made zero difference because I got the same thing again two years later. I never had the first "half" of American History (because weirdly the first district taught the second half in 8th grade and the first half in 9th grade).

I took a couple CLEP exams while already a college Junior. I was working on an English degree after having switched majors, and due to the many, many elective credits the English major allowed for, I figured out that if I could get 8 CLEP credits (plus I had 8 credits coming in as a freshman), I would be able to graduate an entire semester early and save a lot of money. I had a career path decided upon that just required a degree, so I wasn't at that point trying to fit in a minor or anything that would improve the look of my English degree. My public university would take any clep credits as to fill open electives in the Liberal Arts college, so I decided to try the General Humanities and General Social Science/History tests without studying at all first. I decided it was a $100 gamble (at the time for two tests) that I was willing to take. I passed both just based on general knowledge and the other college classes I had already taken. So, it's something that students can do later on as well, potentially if they realize it would be helpful. At the time I honestly thought the exams were a piece of cake, but maybe I am unusual in the amount of general knowledge I had accumulated.