Also check Craigslist. We've had very good luck in the past buying lightly used phones from people who are upgrading or didn't like the phone they purchased and want to try something new. It was much cheaper than buying new!

This. I've been in a couple situations where someone else selected a babysitter that was not previously known to me (once when a child was staying with my mom for several days and my mom had a friend watch watch this child while my mom had an appointment, and once when attending a very special "no kids invited" party out of state, and the hostess offered to find a sitter for our kids so that our kids could come on the trip but not attend the party). In both those situations we knew someone else would be finding a sitter. My kids each (individually) spend a few days to a week with grandma each summer, and I wouldn't bat an eye if my mom needed to find a sitter for a couple hours while they were there even if she forgot to check with me first. They wouldn't get to stay at Grandma's house if I didn't trust all aspects of her judgment. I didn't vote in the poll because I have no idea if I represent my "subculture" of Caucasian, middle-class Midwesterners...or if that just represents my relatively laid back personality.

Since my oldest is 6th grade my thoughts are more based on elementary/middle school. I'm sure high school might be different. I think over $75 for a single-subject resource/curriculum is my price point at which I start thinking "that's expensive", and I have to think very, very carefully before I purchase. Not to say I haven't spent that, but those are the purchases I have researched most and really thought long and hard about. We are currently spending a little over $100 for each full year of Beast Academy for DS8, but it is the perfect fit for him, and I am pretty sure younger brothers will use it to some extent (and/or it would be fairly easy to resell the comics). Most of our other resources are much less expensive!

You'll get more replies on this if you post it on the learning challenges forum. Even though all of what you are seeing isn't learning challenges per se, a lot of the people who frequent that part of the board have a lot of experience with all kinds of evals. What you probably want to check on first is what requirements and coverage your insurance has. I could have skipped talking to our primary care doc all together before scheduling an evaluation for all the insurance company cared. No referral required. I did talk to our doc to ask for suggestions on where to fo for an eval, but she turned out not to be very helpful in that regard (I found better testing options by googling than what she was aware of). A full neuropsych eval is what is going to give you the most complete information. But if your insurance won't cover it, it is a lot to pay out of pocket. If you post on the Learning Challenges board, I am sure the other people who post there can talk you through other options as well. You might have a long wait for a neuropsych eval - our wait time from when I made the appointment was six months (well, we still have about a month left to wait). If you do need a primary care doc referral for insurance or just want to talk with someone about what you are seeing, I wouldn't hesitate to try a new doc. But instead of saying, "I am worried he has ADHD", you could lead with "I have developmental and educational concerns". And after sharing your concerns if the doctor does not suggest ADHD, then ask if he/she thinks it is a possibility. Some primary care docs (I've heard) will give a prescription for meds just based on an office visit, but ours said she doesn't do that and definitely suggested we get testing for DS6 based on what we are seeing in him.

I can't wait...we are going at 1pm this afternoon!!!

At Target in the checkout line the other day I saw "Minecraft gift cards" you could purchase which would (I assume) contain a code for downloading the game after you purchase it from Target. The pocket edition has improved greatly over the past couple years. The game play is very similar now, but you still can't do mods on the P.E. And you can't connect to desktop version servers. They could all share one account if you only have one computer - if they are ok finding a user name they all agree upon. As of right now, you can't change the user name after you select it. The only benefit I can think of to a separate account for each player when you have only one computer is that they would each have a name they personally liked, and they could pick their "skin" (customizing what the player looks like), and not have to always change it after another kid changed the skin to their preferences. We have three PCs and three accounts, so that three people can play at once. When we only had two accounts and three computers, we could install Minecraft on all three but only two could play at once (unless we turned off the wifi on one computer so that someone could play a local world...but I think that was cheating the system, really, so we bought a third user name/account eventually).

My DD11 loves to do DIY.org and find projects to do and then upload. She has tried a lot of new things that she was inspired to do because of challenges/skills presented on that site. I also let her browse on my Pinterest account and she likes to spend time crafting and cooking based on ideas she finds there!

DD is in Writing with Skill 1. We're not using a program for literature this year - just reading books from a list I compiled from various sources. For Grammar, DD is focusing on learning diagramming this year. She is finishing up Big Bad Grammar Slammer and then will do a basic sentence diagramming workbook I picked up at Rainbow Resource after that.

Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide

My DH works pretty long days during the week, and then he makes his big household contribution by doing yard work, small home repairs, and most of our auto repair/maintenance. He puts away his laundry after I wash it, and often helps with any dishes left at bedtime. I do pretty much all the cooking, and most of the cleaning (not counting what the kids do). Though when I have felt overwhelmed at various times, I have called a "family cleaning day" on a weekend and we both spend hours cleaning. :-)

Plans have mostly held for DD except for math. We're about to bail on CLE having just finished 606. CLE was perfect for my DD for the last couple years...until suddenly the bite size pieces, the amount of time spent on topics my DD just "got" already and the lack of significant truly new topics is driving us both crazy. We're going to take a look at Dolciani pre-A this week but DD is nervous about the sudden transition to a textbook instead of a workbook/work text.

Burglar Bars That doesn't sound like the type of establishment I would recommend visiting. Next time, you might want to try a martini bar or even a karaoke bar instead!

Agree...Google for a local coffee shop that roasts or other local roaster. A local natural food store/co-op would probably also stock interesting locally roasted coffee. That's where I get my favorite local coffee. :-) I can't imagine anything on Amazon would be all that fresh.

Ok, this is a bit of a tangent, but I think another way to do spelling is typing-intensive. My DD does nearly all her spelling practice now in Spelling City...Partly because it is independent and partly because I think typing is what she will realistically do more of in the future so I don't mind her developing better finger memory for spelling than writing memory. Spelling has never been my strongest suit, and now after much practice with typing over the years, sometimes I can spell a word correctly if I type it out, but get stuck if I try to write it on paper.

We've never done Santa at our house, but the presents still "magically" appear under the tree on Christmas morning. Mostly because I don't want to deal with the drama of possible premature opening by little ones (My four year old would so still do that!) And I don't want to deal with premature guessing to ruin the surprises. Some things, like Lego sets, have such an obvious sound there is just about no way to hide it!

I would just go through it a bit slower and try and work up to more writing stamina. There are some times where the same word/sentence are repeated 2x or 3x or more in the same lesson, and I do (sometimes) let my DS skip a second or third repetition of the same word/sentence. There are also a few times where the student writes the morphemes both separately AND together as a whole word...i.e. writing work, ed, worked. I might let him write just the whole word instead of the separate parts as well as long as he says them out loud separately first. So far, so good...he has passed every "test" that occurs once every 10 levels.

Hand raised in confession...I read the forums and facebook while dictating A&P sentences to DS8. Sometimes I lose track of what I am doing though I DS is like, "Mom? Mom! Ready for the next sentence..." My DS8's progression went Foundations in K (when it was the Beta test...he was already beyond what became level A so we basically did what became B and C). D wasn't out yet at that point. Then we did about half of the original edition of Essentials in 1st grade (I already owned it from when I did it with DD). It was okay but he was kind of young for it. Then we did sentences and lists from Spelling Plus/Dictation Resource Book when he was in 2nd grade, but he wasn't really retaining. He actually asked for a workbook, so I decided to try A&P on a whim and he really likes it. I bring some of our knowledge of rules and phonograms into it, and point out the rules/phonograms we are practicing even if A&P isn't specifically pointing them out. I am liking this so much that I think I will start DS6 on A&P when he finishes foundations D (which I think will be in March or April). He is already beyond Foundations in terms of what he can read anyway, but he really likes it so we will finish out. Then I'll see where he places in A&P. You definitely can jump into A&P where ever your kid places on the placement test. Technically DS8 placed into the last 10 lessons of A (see, he really hadn't retained a lot from what we did in 1st and 2nd!), but he was close enough to B that I didn't want to get another workbook and teacher book just to do 10 lessons! I think that decision has worked out okay. There is so much review and practice that we haven't noticed any gap from not doing those ten lessons). We spend 15-20 minutes, 4x per week. That gets us through 2 lessons per week, generally speaking...that is more than enough to get through the whole book in a year since there are I think 59 lessons in B. He definitely doesn't use his best handwriting on those pages, but they get done and I do make him re-do if they aren't at least legible. ;-)

If you can keep your little guy away from the small cuisinaire rods, Miquon might be a good fit. It is very workbook based yet fun and "playful". You can also watch the free videos at Education Unboxed to get a good feel for the general methodology of using c-rods.

We never did WWE, but my 6th grader was able to tackle WWS this year with just "ok" paragraph writing skills. We did Treasured Conversations last year, which was a great preparation. It took my DD from really not being able to write a paragraph with a topic sentence at all, to having basic paragraph skills. She is getting a lot more practice with WWS this year. If you try WWS and it seems too hard, TC might be a good fit, and with a 6th grader you should be able to modify/accelerate it enough to get through it in well less than a year.

I guess this question mostly pertains to kids who take music lessons in a teacher's home, and who also have younger siblings. Can you tell me what your logistical arrangements are? For example, do you drop off older kid(s) taking lessons and go somewhere else with younger kids? Do you stay with the younger kids in the teacher's home while older sibling(s) have lessons? <snip to remove details> I know the teacher can set whatever guidelines she wants to, but I am kind of wondering how our experience compares to other in home lessons in case we wanted to "shop around" for a different teacher...

Amazon has another 25% off a book code today until (I think) 3am PST on Tuesday. BOOKDEAL25

That makes sense for a co-op...it makes a lot less sense to me for a paid class (unless yeah, maybe it is just an insurance issue). I guess the thing about a co-op is that something is usually offered for all ages. We do a clo-op and all parents stay on site because parents are expected to help out somewhere every time we meet. At a sewing class for 6th-8th graders where I am wanting to or someone to teach my DD how to sew, there is nothing for my three boys to do.

I really hope this changes as my DD gets older, but I have tried to sign up my DD for a few homeschooling activities targeted at her age group (she's 6th grade, so these were basically middle school activities), and they said a parent HAD to attend or stay on the premises. She would be more than happy to attend on her own, but I'm certainly not going to pay a sitter for her brothers so I can attend with her! (Maybe I could keep them entertained while they were waiting for her if we were just in another room at say, a library...but with one two hour class in particular I really wanted to use the time to run errands, not be forced to keep my typically loud boys quiet in a library for two whole hours!). Needless to say we passed on a few great classes because it just wasn't practical with her being the oldest of four. I do worry about my free spirited, creative, possibly ADHD six year old DS as being judged as "that weird homeschooled kid." He is the type of kid to wear really weird combinations of inside out and backwards clothing (because, "mom, I am being an orange fire ninja so I have to wear these pants inside out with a red shirt - only the inside of these pants are orange!"), and what I suspect to be ADHD causes him to do really impulsive things like jump up on a pallet of sugar packages at the store and start dancing. Hopefully people see my other kids are a bit more "typical" and don't judge homeschoolers by him. Because he would be quirky if we weren't homeschooling too, I think.

We really like cooperative games because then older players can "fairly" help younger players - Castle Panic and Forbidden Island are two of our favorites.

My very tiny 11.5 year old DD still uses a booster seat most of the time (backless). She weighs about 64lbs dripping wet! In our state it is not a legal issue (the law is written age OR weight), but the seatbelt in our van hits her much better with a booster. No big deal...she still just uses it! Since it is not a legal issue, if she needs to ride somewhere with a friend she just goes without, but she really prefers to have it. I would get a high back. DD only grudgingly gave up the high back when she was clearly too tall for it. She liked the comfortable-for-sleeping factor a lot.