I'm just starting again. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical. I'll run a 5k in January.

As a 10 year veteran of public school teaching, I 100% agree:001_smile:

I'm with you!! I don't have the nerve to tell DH. I think he'll freak out!

My cousin is doing a destintion wedding. I would love to go but it during a time when we have all three kids. We were planning a big trip to Boston. It's sad my uncle died a few years ago and my dad was very close to him. I'm not sure he can go. We had a destination wedding but it was somewhere between my family and his. We paid for hotel rooms more most of our family. It was an awesome wedding. We just wanted family.

DH was sweet and set up a huge cabinet in the laundry room. It's tall and thin. We put all extra material and science stuff there. I keep the most of the curriculum in the bottom of small china cabinet. Ds and I work mostly in the formal living room on the couch.

We're doing charm bracelets for our girls ages 15 and 11. I also got stuff from bath and body works. My oldest is into cake decorating so we're getting her a kit. I'm taking them to do a little spa day too over Christmas.

I do give grades and so does Calvert. I use homeschool tracker and Calvert's teacher service. We keep grades and attendance. I grade on how he does alone then we correct and master the material. I have an ex-husband and ex-in-laws that I always want to keep very good records for them. If anything was ever said about his education or home life I have it all on file and film. Ds is very motivated to get A’s.

We use it for my 3rd grader. He likes it so far. When do you move them up a grade level?

:grouphug: So sorry mental health can be very tough!

My ds is in 3rd grade too. We looked at K12 and I thought it might work okay. Dh was not so sure about it. So we ended up going with Calvert with Advisory Teacher Service. I love it!! It very easy to deal and is rigorous program. We test every 20 lessons and get teacher feedback. They have a special program going on now with 50% off the program. They also have many states with virtual schools and free curriculum. Jenn

Thanks everyone for the replies. We're been reading out of our Calvert reading book. I worry about his fluency with living books. We went back to Wild, Wild Wolves with is a 3 and 3 month leveled book and he was very fluent. I need to find some 4th grade books that he would enjoy. We'll keep working on Farmer Boy as a challenge. I looked it up as an accelerated reading book it came out fifth grade two month book. Jenn

I started Farmer Boy today with DS. He’s missing some words but not a lot. At what point do kids move from still decoding words to reading fluent? Jenn

wrong board

Calvert is ahead. Our 3rd grader has to make a big jump in all subjects. I pulled him out of ps this fall. From what I can see in math it's working up to a year ahead of texas standards. There is a lot of writing. Science is 5th grade science in Texas. I know because I taught 5th grade inTexas. We made the jump but has be tough. Jenn

Ds's handwriting has been a huge deal to DH. He's very successful and says people have been laughed at office for terrible handwriting. He says it a mark of neatness to have good handwriting. Ds has terrible print. That was taught in ps but his cursive is better. Yes, it was taught at home. Our aim is to make DH happy with it. When we get there and clear up the speech issues will have climbed so big mountains. Jenn

DS is 8. He will turn 9 in Dec. :001_smile: Jenn

I'm planning ahead. We had planned to let ds have the full week off at Thanksgiving because his step sister does and we have her during the holiday. She'll actually spend it at her grandmothers not us, so ds will see little of her. Is there a benefit to have all week instead of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday? Jenn

Hi, We're planning on give our 3rd grade ds the Stanford achievement test in the spring. Are the good study materials out there for this test? He has never taken one and I've not seen one in about 10 years. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Jenn

I had this issue too today. We had science and history classes at the museum today. Ds was not into it which was strange. We got back to our subdivision and he was coughing. I started math but he looked pale so I sent him to bed. He's asleep now. 8 year old boys hate naps so I know he's sick. Jenn

We're fighting this battle too. My ds's print is not neat so we're working on cursive. When we write essays he's writing it in print, proof reading and then I'm typing the essay into amazing handwriting worksheet creator in cursive and he's copying it. He's to the point where he's taking his spelling test in cursive and writing simple sentences without copying.

Congratulations on bring him home! Just wanted to say my ds is in private speech therapy and is making great progress. He was bored too and not being challenged. Homeschooling is the best decision I made for him. Jenn

First off :grouphug:. I know tough this can be. Second as a teacher in Texas before homeschooling you can get the system moving by writing your request out. My other advice is my little boy was there last year at least in RTI. He climbed mountains by doing to things at home. 1. Learning sight words (Sight words are like 75% of what we read.) We spent 3 hours a night at least working on sight words. It was really tough but in about two months we had the dolch list mastered. 2. We read aloud the books that we're on his level until he was fluent in them. 3. I pushed him a head of what he could read. He read most of the Magic Tree House books. Jenn

I love that my child is working on material that challanges him. I love he's beside me and wants to snuggle. I love that we're a family all the time. We're the biggest influence in his life not his peers. Jenn

I think it depends on the child. My sophomore step daughter is clueless to what she wants to do. For me personally I knew when I was a junior in high school. I spent a semester helping my aunt in her kindergarten class. One the other hand, I'm looking at doing 4th grade math with my 3rd grade ds this summer and currently doing 5th grade science with him because all the careers he talks about have to do with science and math. He’s into Lego robotics class. It’s an intro to programming and engineering .My goal is to set up DS to do Algebra 1 in the 8th grade so whatever we choose to in high school he’ll be ready. Jenn

Should my 3rd grader be correcting his own spelling on his essays? He is writing well but is misspelling words like torture and apple. Should he be using the dictionary to correct his spelling for essays? Is this something I should correct it and give back to him to put in the final copy? Jenn