There is usually quite a bit of reading. 10 chapters isn't as bad as it sounds, though. The chapters are quite short (3-5 pgs), and from what I hear yr. 2 is the most "difficult" of the years because of all the events that are jammed into this time period of history. It's our first year with TOG (we're finishing up yr 2), and I've loved it, but am curious as to whether next year will be lighter on the reading. It hasn't been too much, but I'm lazy:tongue_smilie: and wouldn't mind a little less.;)

My kids love standardized testing week too. They get off from "regular" school, get to see friends (they go to a private school to take the test), and best of all - say it's EASY! Of course, I'll wait for the results before I decide just how "easy" it was:tongue_smilie:

Are you sure you aren't talking about my dd13? She is a terrible speller - i think she doesn't pay attention to the sounds in the words. We started AVKO Sequential Spelling this year, and it seems to have helped. She still doesn't spell very well, but is much better than she was. One other program that i'm looking into, and may buy, is All About Spelling. It takes a phonetic approach.

I agree. You stated what I was thinking much more clearly that I was able to.:D Thanks.

I haven't sent an email/letter yet, mainly because I'm too dumbfounded to express myself clearly. Like I told my dh...they may as well have said no minorities, or no women, or no men....or no public schoolers. It's about as valid. Did they not see the potential for harm? I don't insist that I be able to take part in everything. Some things are obviously for certain groups. For example, I'm not a plumber. I have no problem with being excluded from a contest on pipe fitting, or a special interest club about p-traps.:D However, any school child...whatever the schooling situation, is taught to write. Therefore, any school child should be allowed to participate in a public writing contest geared to their age. I would feel differently if it was a 4h contest, for 4h members, or something similar. That is a contest within a specific club, not an open to the general public (oops, except for you) venue.

I certainly agree kids need to be outside more, and have the freedom to explore. That said, my kids get limited time outside, and none of it is unsupervised, even for my 13 yo. It's not because I'm some stifling, over scheduling mom....but we get AT LEAST 4 notices home during the school year that there are trucks driving around trying to pick up kids - last year they finally arrested one guy who was driving around...shall we say exposed?...and stopping kids to talk to them. On top of that, a bear followed my neighbor into her house yesterday. And we live in a good neighborhood, in an older, small development on a cul-de-sac. So, while I desperately want my kids to have more time outside, just to be kids and explore, it's got to wait until we can get the heck out of dodge and find someplace a little more sane to live in.

I had a long hair who was constantly getting her fur all matted up. I even brushed her daily! I found that if I just cut the mats with scissors (not too close to the skin, don't want to knick them) that I could either brush out what was left, or it would grow out. Depending on how many places need to be trimmed, your kitty might look a little "patchy" for a while, but it worked for me. $300 - wow!

I switched a lot the first couple years. I'd find something that looked great, buy it....and it wouldn't work. Not because it wasn't a good curriculum, but because it either didn't fit my teaching style, the kids hated it (and weren't learning, I've kept some that they hate because they learn from it anyway:D), so on and so forth. Now that I'm finishing my third year, I have found what works for us in most subjects. You know what your family needs, so don't hesitate to drop something if it really isn't working. I usually gave it a fair trial of 6-8 weeks, just to see if it was a transition period thing. If it wasn't getting any better, out it went! My problem is overscheduling! I wind up dropping 2 or 3 subjects every year because I've just planned too much. :tongue_smilie:Luckily, I don't think their academic careers will be ruined because we didn't do two foreign languages, health every year, and 4 critical thinking books every day.;)

It is an excellent grammar and writing program. You do need to add spelling and vocabulary. I think they have R&S spelling and vocab books as well, but I use something different.

:lol:I know, my dh is the same way. Tell him I said "Please, Please, Please!"

I use this program too. Not ideal, I'd like something on my computer, not the net, but the only other program I found seems to have become defunct before I could start using it - probably the one the OP refers to. I think there is a way you can just bump the assignments forward. I've done it - can't remember how, but I think you just hit a button that says move day.....or something. Been awhile since I needed to do that this year. I also wish that it would automatically calculate term grades from what you enter in as test grades, but again....this is all that I've been able to find available.

very interesting, and commendable, but I think a large reason he was able to do this is because of where he lives. We don't use the ac much (too expensive!), and try to conserve our other resources as much as possible, recycle, etc. , but to get rid of our fridge and freezer would wind up hurting the environment more than helping. We've only got 5 in our family, but with the distance to the grocery (15 m) we'd pollute more by having to go get food because we couldn't store it! For those of us that live in the "between" areas - not city, not farm - some of these ideas just don't work. Although I would love to have a clothesline so that I could hang my clothes again:).

:smilielol5: I was just thinking the exact same thing! Poor firsts - always the experimental model. Hopefully v. 2.1 will be "new and improved"!

I agree. We are very fortunate that we aren't really being affected - and we have lots of room to cut back if we need to:001_rolleyes: - but I am concerned about my grandparents and parents, who have fixed incomes.

My pediatrician always says they can go back to all their activities the next day. i.e. - I notice it in the morning, take them in to doc in afternoon, give them dose in afternoon/evening, they can go back next morning. In 13 yrs of kids, not one of them has spread it, so...I figure he's gotta know what he's talking about, right? Plus, with this time of year the pinkeye could be allergy related and not germ related. Happens to my dh every year.

I have a pay pal account, only for purchasing (i don't accept payment) and I'm getting ready to close that. We had someone try to hack our pay pal account, and while the company caught it and put a restriction on our account, we were never notified. I found out because I was trying to register for a homeschool convention and pay pal wouldn't let me pay. So now we are dealing with credit bureaus, and have discovered that someone out there has a credit card with our name on it and is using it! If paypal had notified me when someone tried to access our account, we would have had a three month jump on this. As it is..... I'm not panning their measures to restrict our account. I'm grateful they caught the attempt and took measures. However, not notifying us was irresponsible, and I no longer feel comfortable having an account. So, I'm one of those who won't accept paypal and wants a check or money order. Just out of curiosity, why do you not want to pay by check? You have to give the seller your name and address anyway so they can ship the goods. No other info should be on your check.

I get that "not here" feeling around this time of year too....usually followed by too much computer time:D. Seriously, I think for me that it's just too much that I want to do with school wrapping up and the weather improving (projects, cleaning, planting and new curriculum, oh boy!), conflicting with too much that I have to do to maintain day to day and actually finish school. My brain tends to fog over - it's like I'm semi transparent. I don't have much in the way of help except for pushing through. As things wrap up and I'm able to get to stuff I want to do, the fog seems to go away. I'll be interested to see the other responses.

This would probably be my course of action too. His behavior does sound odd, and I'd be very concerned, but as long as he only has contact with your child during this class (there's no contact outside of class, right?) and you are able to watch at all times, I'd finish out and re-evaluate. I would have a word with the studio head now though, and not wait. They need to know so they can take any appropriate actions. I'd check into any national databases, too...just kind of plug his name in and see if anything popped up. Some people just genuinely love kids, and don't realize that they may be making others nervous by their actions....but it sounds like a bit more and I'd still check it out.

My oldest learned in ps (we didn't hs until she was in 5th), and I think she learned to really read around 7. My middle learned between 6 and 7, and rapidly progressed from beginning readers to Harry Potter. She's 8 now and has read the series twice! My youngest is 6 1/2, and I haven't done any real formal reading instruction with him yet due to his speech issues. It's just too frustrating for him to be trying to read the words aloud and not pronounce them right. He knows all his letters, sounds and can read simple words, so I'm confident that over the summer we'll bring him up to speed. Basically, all mine learned (or are learning) between the ages of 6-8. Once they learned, nothing held them back and they love to read. One of the most often heard phrases in this house is "Put that book down" followed by whatever they were *supposed* to be doing:tongue_smilie:

My son was diagnosed with speech delay, torticollis (sp?) and low muscle tone. He also had eye problems that required a couple surgeries. He had several other "worrisome behaviors" but was never diagnosed with anything else. He went to pt for about 18 m or so, and on the therapists recommendation we started gymnastics as well (mommy and me at first, now he's on his own). He'll probably drop gymnastics after this year because he's starting to lose interest in it, and he doesn't need it anymore for therapy. Low muscle tone sounds scary, but (at least in our case) seems to be relatively easy to address. Some kids do need to be on pt longer though. I think it depends on how "low" they are.

Can you do SOTW 3 for "real school" and then let DS listen to the ancients cd's in his leisure time? My kids love to listen to the cd's. They think of them as stories, not school, so are more than happy to listen to them in the car and during other non-school times. How old is DS? Could he do the projects on his own for fun on a weekend or evening? You know - get all the materials together as a kit, and he can either play legos or make a mummy:). If he's really interested, he'll find it fun to do as play. My dd is crazy about astronomy right now. She'll sit down with books about stars and planets in her spare time, and then go online and look up other info. hope this helps

I have to agree with the person who said coffee is good. However, it's not my friend:glare: My gastro guy told me to cut back to between 6-16 oz. of coffee (if I could, I should give it up), because it aggravates peoples stomachs. I guess they did a bunch of studies, and found that whether it is full test or decaf, there is some component of coffee that is really irritating. He did say Sanka seems to be safe.

I would also call those you haven't heard from a few days before the party. As someone who almost never remembers to RSVP:blushing:, I really appreciate it when someone calls. What happens here is we get the invite, it goes into my pile of "things to do that aren't urgent", and then I forget. My goal for this year is to actually RSVP! Wish me luck.

I just started taking Midol a few months ago, and it works great for me. No more sore breasts, bloating, etc. I wouldn't take it to close to bed though, because like someone else said, it's got a load of caffeine. I've got to cut back on the coffee when I take it. I haven't noticed it making me angry like it did some others. I think that might depend on how your body processes medications, so you won't know until you try it. Give it a shot. Can't hurt, might help.

It sounds like you have the same type of cough I had. I said something similar somewhere else on this board, but if you have no religious or moral objections to alcohol go for the hot toddy. I had a bad cold - couldn't get up off the couch, coughing anytime I moved or tried to speak - and nothing over the counter was working, including my old standby Nyquil. My dh fixed me some warmed whiskey mixed with lemon and honey. It really helped! I think he fixed about a shot of alcohol, and just squirted the lemon and honey in without measuring so that it would taste better. The first one helped a lot (still coughing, but much less and with less force), but I had another one about half an hour after because I wanted to get a good nights sleep and was hoping that the second one would last through the night. It actually did help. Didn't wake up coughing until 3 or 4. Just be sure not to overdose;)