Well you know you have it bad when you proofread road signs. Where's a photo of that school sign painted on the road.. only they put S H C O O L instead.. classic.

:lol: :iagree:

Don't know about normal.. but I'm not sure I'd care for it!

We have a cat who is most definitely an outdoors-at-night animal. It's the way she's always been right from day 1. She comes in the morning and eats a meal, and goes straight into her basket on the laundry room counter and sleeps all day; wakes up at around 5-6pm and eats another meal; sits near her basket waiting for some attention (which she usually gets) and then goes out again at around 9pm. She very rarely comes to us and loads of visitors have not even been aware that we have a cat as there's no cat hairs on the furniture. We have some friends who are allergic to pet hair and although it's better if we have a window open, they don't seem to be overly bothered if we don't.

It's partly an incentive-I-feel-grown-up thing for my dds - but I do think it helps with their handwriting. I am forever sharpening pencils here and it drives me nuts when they do their work with blunt pencils.. fountain pens do solve THAT problem!! I've always used Parker fountain pens. DD10 has a black Parker IM and I've just bought DD8 a silver one for her birthday next week.

I have a theory about socializing, which has taken shape in my head after meeting local PS'd kids, and going to many different homeschooling groups: Most kids are social. A few are very quiet and like time alone. This is a personality thing. However, when I have seen a child struggle with socializing, it is almost always a child who has had real problems in social situations before. The child who has not had problems socializing has simply not had it occur to them that social situations could be a problem. My line when confronted with the question, "how will they (my kids) learn how to socialize if they don't go to school?" is "well I'm not sure that socializing is learned by copying other youngsters who also don't know how to socialize. Surely the best examples are adults, and that's pretty limited in a school environment." It's my belief that, very often, groups of kids form a pecking order, and those who are weak tend to get picked on. If that's going to happen around my kids, I want to be available to talk with them about it!

We do Grammar 4x a week.. but then I am always concerned that we won't get through it so that's just me!

:D yep I think we all have our favorites too... this is mine: :gnorsi:

A vote for R&S here.. it's extremely thorough and (we find) easy to understand.

Fantastic news! :hurray:

I'm not sure that it'll make a big difference to what she can do with the shoes.. my dds tap shoes got pretty wrecked by the time we'd done a year's work in them anyway, and that was with her only wearing them in the studio! Quality might have been an issue there.. :001_huh:

I think I've finally come to the point where I am happy to teach my kids according to their ability/aptitude, rather than what grade they'd be in at school. After all, isn't this just another freedom we homeschoolers have?!

We use Saxon for our three oldest (youngest is only 2!) and it's been great for everyone. I have one who just isn't a math person and another who definitely is, and Saxon works for both of them. The facts practice and repetition make sure that the child knows their stuff. Both my dds are using Saxon 6/5 this year and it takes them around an hour to do their lesson, which is fine by me. Ds is just beginning Saxon 1 and there's usually a great deal of excitement when we get math out :w00t: long may it last!

Cannellini beans or something similar? I have some great bean curry recipes... including a kidney bean and cream curry :tongue_smilie:

No problem. We'll pray. We don't need names; God knows all things! :grouphug:

Welcome to the Hive :001_smile: There's always good advice here. I've been extremely grateful to so many people who have taken the time to help me. What you've put sounds really good.. I guess my thoughts are actually to use what you've got and see how you get on. 6.5yo is still young and you have lots of time to add things in as you feel you need to. English and Math are the core at this stage, the foundation upon which you'll build everything else. Have a great time!

I have some friends who visit Andra Pradesh regularly, and another friend who has gone to teach English in a school in Visakhapatnam. Might we be able to help you?

I think it's possible you have misunderstood what the OP was meaning. Again, perhaps you have misunderstood some of these? Me too. Some of my best friends are exactly in this situation. I'm not sure that the OP was making any comment on the kindness or otherwise of her new neighbors; rather, that a difficult situation had occurred where her property had been damaged and she was asking for some thoughts on how to proceed. I think we should believe the best of people, don't you?

My sister had a miscarriage before going on to have two beautiful little girls. But at the time, she was devastated. I'm so sorry to hear that you are going through this - and not for the first time either. :grouphug: Hope things get better soon x

This sounds really difficult for you and I can see you're trying to both do the right thing by your kids but also be as pleasant and helpful as you can to this young lad. I think boundaries are definitely the way to go and certainly around our neighborhood the kids respect and like you if you're firm but fair. At the end of the day it's your yard, your kids, and your stuff so you are completely entitled to make your own choices about what works there for you and your family. Having said that, if you are able, it would be great to reach out to this boy, there may be long term benefits to that? Anyway I wish you all the best. We've had to negotiate our way around some pretty sticky neighbor issues in the past and it can be very stressful.. but.. rewarding in the end when you've worked it out. Good luck!

I wish we could get hold of some raw milk here but there's no suppliers! Organic whole milk for us. We used to drink goat's milk when the littlies were intolerant to cow's milk.

Thanks.. I didn't realise that. Do you know whether Galore Park has what you call a transitional reader? (Sorry, I am very ignorant of how this all works, and the websites don't always make sense to me.) Can you do Henle without the CDs? What about Wheelock's? I know some people use it but I'm not at all clear about how it would fit in with any of the curricula I mentioned in the first post. - Reading Virgil etc. does sound good though and my dd is also keen.

We think our 8yo dd might have slight dyslexic tendencies. I say slight because they really are mild but they are noticeable enough to trip her up every now and again. However I am reluctant to check this out in a big way because I am afraid of making her feel stupid, or that she has a reason not to try hard. I know people who have felt both these things because of the learning difficulties they have had. There is no guarantee that her life will be made easier by anyone just because she might struggle a little with reading and writing, although I do wish to give her as much help as I can while she is at home with me.. kwim?? So to those who have experience with dyslexia and similar learning difficulties, how would you quietly assess your child without going through the rigmarole of official testing? What resources do you know about which you have found to help your child deal with the hiccups of dyslexia? (ETA: yes.. I know I am a worrier!)

That's really interesting. We think our 8yo dd is slightly dyslexic for various reasons, including this one. And I'd love to know how to help her, other than making her read slowly in order for every word to be accurate.

We use R&S. I bought FLL but dc struggled to understand it. They get on with the R&S explanations a lot better - no idea why - just a better fit I guess!