Wow, that sounds like an ideal homeschool day. I'm still planning for this coming school year. You've inspired me.

I did FIAR with my son. the books are great but, for us, the extra information in the manual made it into the fun program that it was. I learned a lot from it.

I cannot speak to the BBC courses but I would encourage you to look into the Michel Thomas method. Most libraries have them. His system was unlike anything else I'd ever tried. He really knows how to break a language down for English speakers both in terms of vocabulary but also for the structure of the language. You will come away with great general skills. That may sound weird but by that I mean, not trying to memorize a lot of specific vocabulary, but rather important useful vocabulary and structures that will allow you to speak about most everything. I have a degree in French so I started in on his advanced course for French and I couldn't believe how much I learned and how much he simplified things that I did know. I also used his beginning system for German for a trip and was very surprised at how much I was able to speak and understand. It is all verbal so it wouldn't be useful if you're working on your writing skills. I hope this helps or at least bumps your thread.

Just to clarify, once you submit the assignments they will go into the Assignment grid (under the Student tab), not immediately into a report. You can sort the assignments there any way you would like, e.g. topic, date due, etc. That can remain as your only checklist or you can then make/print reports from those assignments. (There are quite a few choices of reports and options.) If you haven't already, you might want to check out the HST forums. The people there answer questions very quickly and are eager to help. You've done the hard part. Good job!

:lol: I can't stop laughing.

:party::party::party: I thought you needed a bigger party. So happy to read your news.

Wow, I thought I had a lot of books! :ohmy:

My son liked it and did pick up French but that was because I reinforced it by speaking French with him. So, without parental reinforcement/repetition of the actual phrases and vocabulary presented, this wouldn't help with language is my guess. I personally didn't think the storyline was creepy. To me, the older guy was meant to be the bad guy, plain and simple. There is a princess in the storyline who is in love with the gardner. It is all just a vehicle to be able to introduce vocabulary and phrases/constructions in a progressive way while still having it be engaging, e.g. the bad guy uses his computer to reproduce the princess and lots of good vocabulary and comparison language is presented as a result. Younger kids wouldn't pick up on too much of the actual storyline in my opinion. One note though, my ds never really watched much kids TV so his tastes might be far different. If you haven't already, you might want to have your child see a clip to see if they would like this sort of animation.

I know very little about music and I only played piano briefly as a child so I researched all of the programs listed in WTM but none of them were, in my opinion, for non-music people. I found Alfred's Premier Piano Course. I purchased all the pieces (they have sort of a kit) and I couldn't be more happy with it. At first I was a bit overwhelmed because there are quite a few separate booklets included, but then, after looking more closely, I noticed that they are all nicely organized and linked so it's quite easy. The lesson and performance books, which are a part of the kit, both include a CD of all the pieces in their respective books, played at both a practice and performance tempo. This was great for us because I can't play along to accompany my ds but the CD provides that and it sounds great when he plays with it. We both really like the music that they've composed and chosen. That was one of the best curriculum choices I've made.

My mom gave me her old 6 Qt. Nesco roaster oven. I thought she was offering me a slow-cooker and I was going to decline because I already had one. My husband interjected that he wanted it. (Which was weird because it was totally out of character for him.) Once we got it, we found that it did all kinds of cool things and he uses it quite often. I can't speak to the large size one but I am impressed by the versatility of the one we have and I can see that a large one would be nice especially if you wanted to make use of its baking capabilities. I love cooking in large batches though. I think you might enjoy it at least for days like Thanksgiving. Hope this helps and have a great graduation party.

Although I've never read it, I've only heard great things about the book, Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish It has great reviews, including some who write that it was cathartic to read. That's very kind of you. It's amazing how those little creatures just burrow their way into our hearts.

OK, that's just bizarre... same for both for me!!! I homeschool because I was bored out of my goard in school and whenever they would put me ahead in one subject, I'd get all excited and then the next year they would just place me back again. (Not just me either, there was a whole lot of us who never had homework because we could finish assigned work long before the teacher finished explaining everything... at... laborious... length...) I knew my ds would be just like me and I hated the idea of him hating school too.

HARDLY!!! I am so sorry you are going through this just to raise and love a needy child. That's terrible. I have no experience with anything like this but the only suggestion I can think of is this, have you perhaps talked to a member of congress from your home state to see if they will help you? Both sides of my family have done this in completely different scenarios and it worked both times. Praying for you and for other families enduring like yours.

I was only able to read the first few pages of comments so sorry if this kind of thing has been written before. I personally wouldn't like the word weird being used here mainly because, while you can encourage them to think of it in a different way, words have power and these people could be ruining a very cool thing about your family. Whenever it happens I would encourage you to, in front of the kids, elaborate and clarify what your kids are. They are "foodies" and I would try to replace into your friends vocabulary something like that word rather than weird. To my mind your kids eat great and are perhaps adventurous eaters. Our son loves all manner of good-for-you vegetables and early on we praised him for being a "foodie." (We knew that he would soon enough learn that most kids his age don't eat brussels sprouts with enthusiasm.) We told him that that was the reason we could take him to all the cool places we go. If we had a kid who balked at trying new foods or proper food then he wouldn't be the awesome traveler he is. I wouldn't like other people to taint such a great thing as your kids eating just plain good, proper food.

Perhaps we could encourage people all over the country to bury their mummies too... what fun!!

My DH just called from work to tell me that he had officially interred our Pharoah TutHen that my DS and I mummified as part of SOTW 1. DS had made all sorts of paper cothes, food, dishes etc. for the Pharoah to use in her afterlife. DH wanted to make sure he was doing it correctly so he had to ask if he was supposed to include those or not. She is now resting about a foot underground and will, within a few hours, have her tomb completed with a cement slab over her. What a crack-up to think about someone someday finding her!! :D

I am a very sarcastic person but I read once about a character who would tease people but only about other people's strengths, never their weaknesses. I adopted this rule and, as long as you know the other person is fairly confident in their abilities, you can rib someone without hurting their feelings or making them feel stupid. It can be actually used as a sneaky alternative way of complimenting someone.

These are great ideas. I think they would really work for him plus remind me that he doesn't have adult logical thinking yet. Thank you for being so specific. That's very helpful.

Thank you all such much. I don't feel half so bad about the situation now. I just don't know any kids his age and I often wonder what's typical. I'm glad to know that when I say my usual "Fix it!" (which is my version of "zip it") that I'm not being so uncompromising as I'd feared. You are all making me feel downright normal!!! Thanks

I said much of what you wrote (and he lost lots of privileges while he couldn't button it) but I think I definitely need to add the Listen sentence. I can be somewhat dictatorial because I am also stubborn so I was trying to give him some say. I'm anything but a namby-pamby mom. It seems like whenever I try to compromise with him it backfires. I didn't say "enough" because I honestly couldn't believe that he couldn't get the logic and fairness of what I was saying. I think I'll just print out your comment and repeat it verbatim in the future. My way obviously didn't work.

Thanks for your words, even just reading that other people's kids "get like that" is a comfort. (When he gets really obstinate and acts contrary to all reason, I can't help but wonder to myself if he has a screw loose.) I should remember also that he is not very adaptable to change so perhaps he got in the groove of traveling and maybe being at home is the new "change." As a complete aside, your avatar has always made me laugh.

My ds 7 is headstrong and argumentative. Lately though he has added an a new feature which I need advice in handling. When we are discussing something, he keeps repeating himself and won't let go of whatever it is he is repeating. I have tried saying back to him what I think he is saying, (I think I am also asking if that is correct) and then I tell him ways that we can include how he wants to do something. (Often his desire can only be a part of the whole situation because his "opinion" doesn't answer the whole issue.) He will then continue repeating the same thing and then he gets angrier and angrier and continually says I'm not listening. Example from today: I am trying to formulate a way for us to use some German materials. To help me to figure out how I was going to approach it, I had him read a part of our workbook and then I corrected something he had misread. He got upset and then mad and told me he didn't want me to correct him. OK, fine. After he calmed down, I tried to formulate a plan with him. He kept insisting that he wanted NO help. I repeated back to him, "OK, you want to work through it yourself with no help." (I tried to demonstrate with English examples that he will have difficulties reading and he won't even always know when to ask for help.) I then presented a two-step plan; he works through the reading by himself then afterwards I will correct. He blew a gasket and kept saying he wanted to do it all by himself and that I wasn't listening to him. I don't know if he is just overemotional and tired, (We just got back from a month-long vacation.) if he is just shutting his ears to me, or if I'm not conveying to him at all that I am trying to listen to him, but this has happened several times lately and I'm at a complete loss as to how to approach this. Any help will be greatly appreciated. (I'm hopping into the shower but will be back quickly if I need to clarify anything.)

Thanks for posting this. I've only tried to teach ds 7 to tie his own shoes once. I was recently wondering what's wrong with me that I'd never gotten around to it/forgotten to teach that. :tongue_smilie: Although, he does mainly wear velcro shoes. (Whenever he wants extra attention he asks me to put those one for him.) His only lace-on shoes are Air Jordans and they are difficult even for adults to lace.... seriously. very. difficult. I feel much better.

Thanks for posting this. You helped me to "discover" the daily prayers that are published by my church. I've been really wanting to improve my prayer life.

Wow, thanks for sharing this. It looks great. I might be getting one for myself soon.