Thanks for your thoughts, everyone! OhE, I wish I could just leave it somewhere with her name, but the next time I will see this particular person will be at a fairly small gathering that I can't skip, so little chance of avoiding actual conversation (as in, even if I leave it somewhere or conveniently "forget" to bring it, she would just walk up to me and ask about it, most likely). I'll have to decide which response will deflect her in the best way!

Our primary reasons are to able to spend more time with our kids developing deeper relationships with them, and to continue to be their primary influence (especially in terms of character and faith) in their younger years. Secondarily -- siblings bonding together, ability to provide individualized education to each child, more time for kids to pursue interests, more flexibility to our schedule.

We've chosen to share with people who are working with DS7 (teachers, parent helpers in his co-op and Sunday school classes, etc) about his ADHD diagnosis, if nothing else so they can have a little compassion for his struggles. Of course, lots of people have given their unsolicited advice and I've felt pretty confident doing the "that's interesting" or "thanks for sharing your thoughts" sort of reply when necessary. So, as I was heading out the door, trying to keep up with DS4 at the end of an event, a parent helper from a class of DS7's literally shoved a DVD into my hand and said "You really need to watch this. Watch it before we have our next meeting, and bring it back and tell me what you think. It was life changing for us." I couldn't do anything but take it as I ran out the door after DS4, and didn't even look at it until I got home. It turns out that the DVD is about a particular diet change that we're not really interested in pursuing right now. I have a "never say never" attitude about diet changes, but it is just not where we are going first. I certainly don't want to spend an hour of my time just to humor this acquaintance. Would you tell a little white lie and say you watched it just to get her off your back? Or just give it back and honestly say "hey, I'm glad it worked for your family but we're trying other approaches right now." This lady is really a bit the pushy type about a lot of things, and I am a bit nervous she will argue with me about it since she was so pushy about giving it to me in the first place. I can't really avoid her completely, as we will see each other at classes and group events. Uggg...Is there a better "pass the bean dip" sort of response I can give her now that I have to give the DVD back?

I've been disappointed to not use the instructor guide more often. DD just "gets" WWS and rarely seems to need help. But the times she was stuck, she was really stuck and I needed the instructor guide to figure it out -- In reading her text, even I wasn't 100% sure what the assignment was really asking for, so I needed the clarification the instructor guide provided. So, I can't imagine doing without it even though we haven't used it very often. I was able to get a copy used, so I didn't feel like I wasn't "getting my money's worth" or anything like that.

Thanks for the ideas. I have a long list of topical books (a large number of which we own) I used with my DD at that age, so I feel like I have plenty of resources if I want to go that route. My DD will probably use the condensed Hakim texts next year for 7th grade (unless she talks me into letting her do MOH 4 instead...or maybe we'll do that next year and save Hakim for 8th grade). I feel like if I go the lots of topics/individual books route with the boys, that will be our primary focus, and it wouldn't leave time for government/civics/geography as well (at least not the way I would like to cover those topics). I was just thinking of doing things differently -- multitasking the history as an audiobook in the car while making our focus during the regular school time those other topics. It might be there isn't a good audio US History resource that really works for that purpose. It might be we need to pick one or the other for next year and save the other one for a future year.

Are there any good American History audio options that would give a nice overview of American history (similar to listening to SOTW audio)? I am considering options for next year for my rising 4th/2nd graders. I originally thought we would do a full on year of American history, but I am mulling over the idea of making history a lesser focus for them next year and taking more time for civics/government and maybe geography. I thought maybe having something to pop in for car rides to cover a bit of American history on the side might be a good option if we go that route. Any ideas?

LOL...it never occurred to me that going out with wet hair was a problem to anyone. My curly/wavy hair generally looks horrible when blow dried (from my salon experiences), so I always let it it air dry. If I run late in showering, it means I go wherever with wet hair. The only time I avoid it is when it is super frigid...like below zero...outside. Then my hair freezes which is no fun...so those days I do try to shower early enough for it to at least mostly dry before I have to leave the house. We do own a blow dryer...that my husband keeps with his tools because he uses it once a year when putting plastic up to cover our ancient windows in the winter.

Open to LAN should still work with 1.9 - we've done it here successfully - as long as you have a different account on each computer and each computer is running the same version. That being said, we have one of three computers that often has trouble connecting to other Computers' hosted worlds (this was both in 1.9 and earlier)...so I suspect that internal settings on the computer can mess with it too, though I haven't been able to figure out which specific settings. The computer that has trouble connecting to other worlds can more often be the "host" of the world with fewer problems. So if you've always been trying one computer as the host, maybe try the other?

I checked this out hoping it would be good for my seven year old DS, and it seemed too "old" for him, so maybe it would be okay for a 13 year old? Not sure, but I found it at the library so you might be able to find a copy to check out: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Feel-Good-Stay-Cool/dp/1433813432/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458413953&sr=1-1&keywords=learning+to+stay+cool

We're looking at possibly preparing DD for a brick and mortar school starting in 9th that has AP human geography as a standard 9th grade class. To be honest, geography of any kind has been a weakness for us (she knows US states and capitals, and she is very knowledgable about history, but we've done very little other geography or map study). What should we be doing in 7th and/or 8th grade to be prepared for AP human Geogrpahy? Should students be able to find most countries on a map before starting this class? I never had geography in high school - for us geography was a middle school subject, and a lot of what we spent the year doing was memorizing the countries, capitals and major landforms in order to label blank maps. It doesn't seem like Human Geo is about this at all, but I can't tell if this type of "map knowledge" is a prerequisite. .

The Logic of English rules are similar to AAS: https://www.logicofenglish.com/resources/spelling-rules

I got the pressure toward STEM fields as well and I did listen, and it was a horrible fit in college. After year in engineering with many gifted classmates who found the work easy, (I had worked super hard for the A's I got in high school math/science), I switched my major to English with a technical communication emphasis. I went to a pretty average small city high school. I took math through calculus in high school, and took the AP for calc even though it wasn't officially an AP calc class. We had no actual AP classes at my school. Biology and Chemistry were taught by pretty decent teachers but physics was a huge joke. The teacher wanted his class to be known as an "easy A", so he would seriously give out answers while students were taking tests! I don't know that any of the teachers were really going "beyond the curriculum" - I think it was all pretty standard fare. We had a math team that competed in regional competitions (I was on it, but I was a pretty weak team member), but no science extra curriculars.

I have lightly curly/wavy hair and all the stylists I've had over the years always give me a choice of air dry (what I normally do at home) or dry with a diffuser. None have ever insisted on blowing it out straight (I would have said "heck no" -- I hate how my hair looks straight or brushed out). I would be more firm about saying "no" or try a different stylist. You are paying for a service, and you shouldn't be pressured into a look you don't want.

They used to come to my door when we lived in another state - I thought it was just s "thing" in that area ... No idea that they do this all around. The ones I hate are the magazine sales kids. They can be pretty aggressive, and harder to get rid of with a simple "no thanks." Though ever since our city enacted stricter door to door sales laws, I feel like we've seen them less. My guess is they either aren't trying it in my specific city as much any more or they just get run out of town much faster as people call to report unliscensed door to door sellers.

We have a friend with a child who has a life-altering genetic condition. They told us that this condition is nearly 100% diagnosed in girls, because if boys are conceived with the same condition, the rate of miscarriage or stillbirth is nearly 100%. The condition their daughter has is quite rare, but I wonder if there are other similar genetic conditions with the same issue that one gender or the other is always miscarried if the child inherited those genes.

Three out of four are basically the same color and texture of brown, and one has slightly lighter brown hair but similar texture to the others. We have a bit more variety in eye color -- 2 brown, 1 blue, 1 hazel! :-)

Meds are definitely on the table. We have an appointment with a ped who is knowledgeable about medication soon. (Our kids usually see a family practice doc, but she doesn't do ADHD meds). The psych who primarily did the testing is the one who suggested doing both some kind of therapy and a social skills group. She is specialized in testing, so we see someone else for the therapy (at a different clinic actually...there was a waiting list for therapists at the place we got the testing, so they suggested if we didn't want to wait to go ahead and seek therapy somewhere else.) I haven't asked the psych who is doing the CBT what she thinks about social skills groups. That might be a good question. I was just going off of the testing psych's suggestion. If we did want to try the BCBA route, any tips on finding a BCBA who can be independently hired? In my google searches so far, all the BCBA listings seem to be schools or specialized full-on ASD day treatment programs. I don't have a GAI yet, but maybe we will still get one when we get the full report? We have just a "brief report" so far with the subtest scores and the fact that the full scale IQ is 121. The brief report mostly gave a summary of her impressions and the diagnosis. What other language testing were you thinking of? I guess we don't really see any language issues (great in conversation, reading well for a 7 year old etc.). When I use the word frustration, I guess I mean what amounts to "simmering below the surface" types of anger that hasn't exploded. Like, when the teacher in children's church asks questions to the group of kids, and calls on various kids who raise their hand for the answers, and I can see his frustration rising and rising if he doesn't get called on until he finally just blurts out the answer (once even yelled "don't you know that I know this!!"). Or as he plays with his older brother as his brother shoots down his ideas because it makes DS7 "too overpowered" in their pretend play, he is obviously simmering with frustration before he finally acts out in anger. Or he has almost zero tolerance for something not going his way in Sunday school, when he got the blue craft kit instead of the red one and some pieces were pre-cut to save time and he starts complaining like, "why does everyone always give me the ugly colors? why do they give me the pre cut pieces when I know how to cut. I'm so frustrated. This is such a dumb craft." Then maybe he tosses the craft across the room because of it, and that is what I was thinking of as an explosion of anger. It's mostly frustration that something doesn't go the way he imagines it should, and rarely because he can't accomplish something. I've tried to look a little at the ABC thing so far, and some of them are like I mentioned before where there is something simmering as he isn't called on in church/class or can't agree on how to play a pretend game with his brother. But other times it seems like the antecedent is super straight forward -- some other kid sat next to his friend or got the first "spot" in line behind the teacher, and he reaches out and smacks that kid because he says " I NEED to be first" or "I need to sit next to _____". He used to just simmer a bit and maybe seem annoyed in those circumstances, but lately it seems like the impulsiveness if way higher and it almost immediately translates into an unwanted behavior.

First, a quick (long) update -- DS7 finished his neuropsych eval last month, and got a diagnosis of ADHD, primarily hyperactive/impulsive type. He has an IQ brushing up on gifted range (low average on working memory/processing speed on WISC V, but 128-130 on the other subtests), and that makes some of his frustrations make a lot of sense (he gets really upset when people do things for him "that he knows how to do" or when adults try to tell him things he "already knows" -- which seems to happen often in classes appropriate for his age. Sigh.) His behavior in the last two months has been pretty bad (so, we're talking the month before and the month since our testing). Lots of anger/impulse control/easily frustrated issues. The place we got the eval done is a relatively "full service" sort of place with a multidisciplinary team, so there was a brief sensory eval, and they really didn't flag anything strongly sensory-wise and that's not something I'm really seeing. The psych rec'd we pursue therapy and a social skills group. We are trying 8 weeks with a CBT therapist to work on the anger issues specifically, since that is what is causing the most problems for us right now. I'm hopeful after 2 meetings that this might give him some better tools to manage what he is feeling. I know a lot of you rave about OT for some of these social issues, but at least from viewing the websites of OT places near by, they don't look like they are really dealing much in those sorts of issues. I found a couple places that DID mention things like social thinking, zones, etc but they are further away. I guess we're going to see where the CBT leads us first. Despite being a "full service" sort of place, the place where we got our eval done doesn't have social skills groups for ADHD kids or that would be appropriate for 2E. Their groups focus on ASD and ID needs. The psych knew of one group elsewhere, which turned out to have no openings. I've googled a few more and for whatever reason they are located mostly located in outer ring suburbs, while we live in the center city. So, maybe 45-60 minutes each way for us once traffic is included (wouldn't you know it, they meet after school/early evening when we would fight rush hour traffic to get there!). Between distance and the fact that we would pay out of pocket (they don't take insurance for these groups, it seems...not sure if insurance would cover it anyway), I'm trying to weigh the value of it. I'm not sure if any of them will be a good fit for a 2E kid anyway??? (I guess I won't know until I call). For those of you that have tried social skills groups, how helpful did you find them? A lot of DS7's angry outbursts, (hitting, throwing things, screaming, and so on) have had to do with things not going "his way" -- like not getting to sit next to the boy he wanted to sit with, his team losing a game (not just physical games -- even things like a "quiz" competition in Sunday school class), not being called on first or at all, not being allowed to go first in an activity, not getting the color of paper he wanted in art class, not being first in line, etc. A lot of these things have always bothered him but not caused significant outburts before (other than the "losing games" issue). Would a social skills group help with these issues? The CBT therapist is going to work with him on this general behavior, but if a social skills group would be SUPER helpful too, maybe it would be worth the sacrifice to make it happen? ETA: He has had anger problems at home getting along with siblings and playing with neighbors too...so not just problems at outside activities. This has maybe been an issue for longer than even his problems in outside activities, but it tends not to stand out as much to me since it just seems like a slightly elevated version of "normal" brother issues. Also, almost all of the neighbor kids are older (DS9’s friends), so of course it doesn't go well when DS7 tries to play their games. Who wants to play with the younger brother saying that he "is only going to play if he can be the most powerful wizard ever" or something like that? ;-). Unfortunately none of the boys in the neighborhood DS7's age are around very often, so if he wants to run with the neighborhood crowd playing in everyone's yards, it is a bunch of 9-11 year olds. Not awesome even for a typical seven year old, much less one with issues.

Pocket edition (which is what you've got on iPads, phones, etc) is also not the same as the desktop version and they aren't compatible for playing together. You're not going to connect to public servers on pocket edition. Pocket edition has almost all of the same features now as desktop, but for a long time pocket edition was much simpler with fewer features. I totally agree that is is not all that "educational" without really going out of your way to make it that way. My kids get about 45-60 minutes of fun or free choice screen time most days, and they have to pick between Netflix, watching youtube shows, playing Minecraft, playing Wii games, iPad games, etc. I do like Minecraft better than a lot of other screen time options for my kids because it not passive and does require thought and creativity. Much more so than watching shows on Netflix or playing endless rounds of more "mindless" video games like Temple Run or Super Smash Brothers.

I play minecraft along with my kids, so I think I am in the know enough to answer your questions. I don't know of any specific guides, but I am guessing there are some out there since it is such a popular game!

If you have two computers on the same "local" network (aka they are both connected to the same wi fi in the house), you can open it up to just those two players playing together. That gives you some of the fun of playing with someone without connecting to a public server. We have friends who host a private server - yes, you have to be connected to the Internet to use it but it is invite-only so no worries about chatting with strangers. It is all friends this family we are friends with. If you only own one computer and will not have two people playing at the same time, you can buy one license only if the two players are willing to be nice about how their share their stuff in the game. This is how we started out (smaller investment before we were sure they loved to play). The kids just agreed to only play in their own worlds unless invited to by a sibling, and to not use siblings' stuff. But it was easier once we had multiple computers to install it on to just have multiple licenses instead.

I think it would be fair also to put the kits away and say if MIL asks, "my kids are just to young for these right now, we're going to wait until they are a bit older." Put them on the shelf and wait a couple years, and then they very well might be able to do it on their own. We've done that before...like when someone gave DD a Lego set for ages 9+ when she was 2 years old! (The gift giver had no kids of his own and thought our DD must be advanced for her age, I guess...lol).

At least in 1st edition, you don't need the drawing board, drawing tools and goinometer until Level C. But I know they moved some material around so it's possible some of those drawing lessons moved down from C into B? The board isn't an absolute requirement if you have a nice smooth table to work on, but T-square and triangles are necessary for the lessons when you get to them. You probably can find them locally as well (maybe an art supply store?).

Are you in 1st edition or 2nd edition?

For purchased card games, we like Zeus on the Loose and Alien Hotshots (looks like Alien Hotshots is out of print right now though...we snagged our copy at a thrift store!). If you buy or make a deck of cards numbered 1-10, it makes it really easy to play games like "Go to the Dump" (like go fish except instead of matching pairs, find pairs that equal a target number like 10 or 11) "Adding War" (each player flips two cards, and player with the greatest sum wins) "Sum memory" (Instead of matching pairs, find pairs that equal the target number) If you can find a used copy of Right Start Math's card games book, there are a ton of ideas there, and most of the games can be played with decks of 1-10 cards or with other cards you could make yourself.