I think many people misunderstand what classical education is completely. In our family, it gives us such joy! We love learning. (It's not always fun.) Personally, I am always shocked to hear that people hate it or their kids can't do it. I honestly have never met anyone who can't do it. I truly believe it's an approach anyone can use. (I have met people who don't want to. Which is fine. But the basic method can be modified and adapted to anyone.) I think if more people understood it they wouldn't hate it. It's incredible and lots of fun! Sometimes people say "classical" when they mean rigorous. They aren't the same thing. They often go hand in hand. But you can have either alone. Or when they mean chronological history which again isn't the definition of a classical education. Only my oldest gets it start to finish - rest well they just jump in where they are. These often go hand in hand but classical education is more than chronological history, and it doesn't require chronological history. Classical education is so much more....

I imagine cleaning up the boards - removing old posts and such would help.

Oh yes I was totally against it.

I hate the smell of vinegar, but I can't go down the detergent isle either. Well that's not exactly true - borax isn't as safe as vinegar. It can't be consumed by animals or children. Same here - I just got used to it and it doesn't make me gag anymore. I always cut it with water. LOL! I know - tea tree oil is great stuff though This really helps!

It's only a few cards moved. Originally, CC had it done the VP way. But when doing the chronology - it was glaringly obvious it's not chronological. VP is chronological and geographical. We do VP - classes and all, but we do the chronology the CC way. It is actually very easy to mesh the 2 because the timeline moves so fast in CC that it really doesn't matter what order you study it in. Leigh has a great article about that you can read. (We are in year 5 of doing it this way! We love both resources and companies!) Honestly, the VP songs aren't that good of a memory tool - they are too wordy. I like the pure chronology myself. I prefer not having a song with it - chanting is a better memory technique. It wouldn't surprise me to see CC replace the VP cards in the future with a different one. But I can't image it would be soon. And VP wasn't a school until very recently. They were and are a curriculum company. Their school began very recently. Their materials have been used by schools - by schools the owners began even. But they weren't a school. They now have their wonderful online classes that use their curriculum. On the subject of the online self paced class, is it worth the $$. I have seen it. I am intrigued by it but I have some concerns. We take the live class and the discussion is such a huge part of it. I wonder if the self paced is as good as the live. And I wonder if it's worth the $$. I would love to get your feedback - we are trying to decide what to do next year. The first concern I have is I have a child who would see it as a game and just keep clicking the screen without learning anything. That's what she does with all our online things like that. Is it more than fill in the blanks and mult choice that I saw? I worry she will just figure out how to work around the compute without learning it - she has succeed in doing this already with other things even me! My second one is - is there any discussion/questions/accountability on the books? Or is it just reading suggestions. I see it said optional - so I assume not. And I worry that it's too entertaining. It seems to me more like a game than a class. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. And finally is it really a classical approach? (Okay I know things don't have to be classical to work or be good, but I really want to stick with a classical approach. And I can't help but wonder.) I just am not sure if it's worth the money for what they will see as just a game. Any more insight you can give would be very helpful. I am hesitant to spend $ on it and then not like it. Although the parts we did do were fun, I am not sure it's what I want for a class. KWIM? Maybe it's better for younger kids? Or maybe for older kids? I should call and find out about the levels.

You should read the Bluedorn's book Teaching the Trivium. They support delaying formal education. I haven't read it in ages, but they talk about delaying until they student is older. That may be the approach your child needs.

What would you do if they were behaving this way with a friend instead of a sibling? We don't allow it at all. Period. The consequences vary, but there is always one. We are teaching our children that they have to get along. Period. It does pop up from time to time, but we don't allow it. It was allowed when I was a child, and I hated it. I hated the constant fighting among us kids. There are consequences on both sides - the instigator and victim.

At our CC we have childcare, and as a tutor, it would pay for tuition, child care, books and then some. But sure you can do it at home.

Yep

They go on sale from time to time! I paid $19 for mine on sale! I love it!!

Looks like a prep to me. "for him" - his is the Obj of the prep and for is the prep. Dd thinks it's a prep too in that sentence.

Well first off she's "grammar" stage. And in the grammar stage of classical education she should be memorizing these things. She really isn't ready to remember how to apply it (some kids get it early) because that is a dialectic and in some cases a rhetorical skill. She hasn't mastered the grammar of it - she doesn't have it memorized. Of course, she doesn't understand it and can't apply it because she hasn't completed the first step of memorizing it. The grammar of English grammar must come first then the dialectic and rhetoric of the English language. I second the Shurley recommendation - I love Growing with Grammar! But they need to memorize! And those questions and answers help a lot. We do Essentials in Classical Conversations and it is similar to Shurley. We do Shurley before we do Essentials. And we supplement with Gw/G. First you memorize things then you use Questions and Answers to parse a sentence. So with this: Mandy's horse neighs. (I agree this is a confusing sentence - because Mandy "feels" like the subject.) With our program (Essentials) the Q&A would go like this: What is being said about Mandy's horse? "neighs" (verb) What neighs? Horse (subject noun) Whose horse neighs? Mandy's (adjective) Shurley's is a just a hair different but very similar. We do this over and over and over and over. The don't just get it in the grammar stage unless they are really gifted with language. I have a daughter who is also 11. She loves English and Latin grammar and some days she still confuses things because she isn't dialectic. It will come! Being able to understand is dialectic and applying well that's rhetorical. So cut her some slack and just keep doing it over and over and over. And she will get it. Okay in rereading this - yikes the mistakes abound - I can't type! Nothing like typos and grammar mistakes in a grammar post.... Working on the mistakes as I have time. And I wasn't classically educated - obviously. ;)

My oldest was an early walker and talker. My second was late on both. My third was totally average/normal. My fourth was an early walker and slow talker.

Yep that's what I would have done.

My daughter is taking Henle I with Latin and Classics - http://www.latinandclassics.com She is just getting ready to put our her next year schedule. My daughter will take Henle II next year. I agree you don't have to finish it.

Her tail isn't docked. Interesting. We are very curious as to where she is from. She has a weird head - it really really looks like a goat's head. She looks a lot like a goat. It could be because she is so emaciated. It's bad - the photos don't do it justice. I have never seen such a thin dog. (It really makes our other dog look fat!) It will be interesting to what her head looks like with some meat on her. She is quite relaxed. She was very very nervous yesterday. And that is all gone today. She loves the kids. And doing really well - she stole my lunch today. sigh. She like tuna. (So do I!) :tongue_smilie: She is sleeping 90% of the time - she sleeps with her eyes open. It's creepy. She only gets up to every few hours to eat, drink, potty and get a belly rub. Then it's back to bed. She woke us up whining this morning to go out - still no barking. We have some concerns - I will post about those later though.

I added some photos to the original post. The kids have named her..sigh...they are calling her Pepper. Dh says she's not staying long term - she's staying until she's strong and healthy. Dh says we can't keep her and not to get attached... :tongue_smilie: Silly man - our kids and a puppy - yeah don't get attached. But it will be good for dd (12) who wants to be vet. So if you know anyone who is looking for an adorable sweet female dog...

No, she hasn't barked. She has only sighed contentedly quite a few times. No whines, no whimpers, no howling. She is very gentle, very sweet and very submissive. She is terrified. Poor thing. I took her outside to potty and ran and hid under a bush. I practically had to drag her out - she was on a lead. She goes upstairs but she's afraid to come down. She still has puppy teeth, and she has pretty big paws which makes me nervous. She is very small.

Oh and we are feeding her carefully - that's why I put her in the crate in the first place. I couldn't keep her from trying to eat everything she could find. And now she's loving being in there - her own little save haven among the kids and animals who already live here.

I found a dalmatian pointer mix that looks a lot like her.

Whatever she is she's not purebred anything. She does resemble a pointer. We will take her to the vet - dh says just wait the vet will tell us. But I am wondering - trying not to get attached if she's a breed we can't keep.

Updated with more photos..... Today, we took in a very malnourished stray dog. I am very curious to know what kind of dog it is - this will effect whether or not she stays long term too. For now, we are helping her just become healthy. I can't get a photo of her standing - she just wants to lay down and rest. She won't come out of the crate at all right now. So this is as good as it gets. She looks like a goat. She's all skin and bones. Her bones are showing completely. So it's hard to tell if it's just because she's thin that she looks like a lean breed. She has very long legs compared to her body. Her neck is long and narrow. Her tail is long and thin but has clearly sustained some past injury. She favors the dead cockroach position - laying on her back with legs sticking up. Although, right now she's staying tightly curled up to stay warm. But whenever she's out of the crate she's rolling over on her back. Any ideas... We went out and I got a few shots of her standing up - here's one getting a head scratch And this one shows how thin she is although it makes her look bigger than she is.

I have to agree that autism is different. My sister is special needs (CP and host of other things), and I have 2 special needs kids. I used to work with autistic kids. My niece is autistic and my nephew ODD, ADHD and others. And autism is unique despite the attention and support out there. It's a hard hard thing for moms. HUGS to all the moms of autistic blessings! You don't have an easy road!!

Exactly my thoughts, I would imagine it's a sort of hopeful wishful asking where the milk is so they dont' have to drink the 15 year old milk.

I would say they are very similar. They offer different things, but a lot of it is the same sort of things - same vendors other than the local ones to each. Different speakers each year so look at who is at each one. If you really want to hear SM Davis and the Boyers that would be worth coming for. It's a good convention.