Yeah - exactly. I might not even know about it, but the possibility of that is what makes me feel I should tell the landlord now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spryte - that probably shouldn't be funny, but I just laughed out loud at the thought of some fine lady crashing through the floorboards in her bathtub! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Two years ago, we moved into a rented house down the road from where we'd been before. We knew the area was nice, neighbours are ok (in the end), we're on a bus route, the garden is big and wild and the kids love it, and the landlord has allowed us to have a dog. We have seven people living here, so having one usable bathroom is manageable but not the easiest. However, when you rent a property on the understanding that it has two bathrooms, ie a main bathroom and an en-suite, you expect both to be working, and if they don't you expect the landlord to fix the problem in reasonable time, kwim? I'm not expecting miracles, just common sense repairs as needed. We have had endless problems with the en-suite shower, to say nothing of the leak from the main bathroom into the kitchen diner which ruined a large number of our schoolbooks. :mad: Anyway... first off we suspected something wasn't quite right because there was an odd smell in the en-suite - a damp, mouldy smell that never went away no matter what we did. Six months into renting the house, we suddenly had a leak from the en-suite down into the garage, and a huge black mould/water stain mark on the garage ceiling. Fortunately there wasn't anything underneath that mattered. We contacted the landlord and asked them to send someone to fix it. It wasn't obvious to us what was wrong from just looking. After two or three months, the landlord finally arranged to come around and he replaced some of the silicone around the shower, and some of the floor grout just next to it. All was well for another six months. Then in June 2016 we had another leak into the garage, and the stain on the ceiling (which had never been replaced, because it was in the garage and technically wasn't hurting anything) got a lot bigger. We contacted the landlord again and asked for him to check it out and fix the problem. He send not one, but three plumbers one after the other, all of whom said that with the problems we'd already had and the look of the garage ceiling, they would not rest their professional reputation on a patch-up job, but if they were to do it, they would be ripping the shower tray and tiles out, to investigate what was happening underneath (to this day, we don't know what the state of the floorboards/joists are under that shower) - so that if necessary, the structure of the floor could be repaired or replaced. No said the the landlord, we don't want that expense. We will fix this ourselves. We had to wait until November, when they came back from their extended trip abroad, for them to come around and do whatever fixing they deemed necessary - which was basically to replace a few tiles with non-matching tiles and stuff a load of silicone into some cracks they found. It'll be fine, they said. Fast-forward to a couple days ago, when DH stepped into the shower. Just after turning the water on, he moved his foot a little and there was an almighty crack underneath him. We froze like rabbits caught in the headlights, and then he turned the water off and gingerly stepped out of the shower. We just looked at each like, wth was that? We will not be using that shower any time soon. We are in the process of buying a house in the next village, a fixer-upper, and we weren't intending to move in right away. We're hoping for around six months, definitely to be there by Christmas this year. I can wait for that long. So here's my dilemma. My tired, sick body will not cope well with the stress of having yet further people around to investigate and fix whatever caused the problems in the past which has clearly not gone away, and that part of me would just as soon leave it and not worry about what happens after we move out. The other side of me, which is anxious and wants to be open and honest, is inclined to tell the landlord and let them do whatever they feel necessary to sort it out (which may not be enough to reassure me to use it again, however). Any thoughts?

:grouphug: How is it that family courts are so corrupt?? I don't understand.

What worked - Anything that didn't require a great deal of input from me. I was sick for most of last year and early part of this. So R&S English, Saxon Math with DIVE, R&S Spelling, CLP Handwriting, languages using Duolingo... my 17yo and 15yo are pretty much independent anyway. What definitely didn't work - Apologia Science (I need a simpler science curriculum), any Latin, WWE. I'm sure there are others but I can't think of them off the top of my head. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think it depends on the instrument. Playing a big instrument like the clarinet, bassoon, trombone etc is best left until 10/11yrs old IMO, but most percussion, piano, violin, piccolo etc can be started much earlier. I don't actually remember learning the piano - I played as a tot on my mum's lap and it went from there. My nephew started violin at 5yrs old. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Praying right now, Anne. xx Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Been there. I get it. Hugs xxx Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I can't get Badge Magic here in the UK *weep* Would generic fabric glue work as well? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup, sewing. For DD9. I do get them to do their own as a general rule, but she has dyspraxia so finds it hard. I need those thimblepads.. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Scout badges. That is all. 😖

I download a planner from diyfish on Etsy. The printing/cutting/hole-punching is a bit of a pain but I love the planner when it's done :) My teens have A4 diaries (8x11, I think you'd have in NAmerica), one page per day.

I've had sarcoidosis for nearly 10years. Right now I'm in remission which is fantastic â¤ï¸ No steroids!! I also have patches of severe sciatic pain, in fact I'm coming to the end of a two month bout of that now. I can feel my body healing oh so slowly every day and find it hard to be patient. When I'm sick we reduce the amount of schoolwork that gets done and the kids take over most of my chores. They are fantastic and I'm super proud of how they manage. Dh has a demanding job and a long commute but he's emotionally supportive, if not practically so. One thing I do find is that it's hard to talk to most people about the realities of family life when a parent has a chronic illness. You can see them struggling to comprehend what it means for you on a daily basis, and how stressful and tiring it can be. It's truly wonderful when you find someone who understands and doesn't judge.

Hugs and prayers xx

I'm so sorry that you're going through this right now. It sucks and must be very stressful. My dh has a tendency to be this way also, but not as extreme I don't think. So I know that it isn't about you or the kids or your situation - it's in his mind only. Can I offer a piece of advice that I counsel for myself in difficult times - and try to maintain every day, in fact. Do something you enjoy, that makes you happy, EVERY DAY, even if it's only for a short time. It might feel selfish to start with, but you need to love yourself in order to show love to others; you can't give out what you don't have inside, iykwim? "Love your neighbour AS yourself." Not more than, or before, but AS. Equally. Hugs and prayers xx

My response.. "smile and wave, boys, smile and wave" !(Penguins movie) Some folk just don't get it, do they! I have two girls with different forms of dyslexia, and my son has ADD. If I had some kids in school and some at home, it wouldn't be those three in school for sure.

Definitely. 😢

Seconding the suggestions for a chapter focussing on SEN issues, perhaps forms of dyslexia in particular, and how you can teach programmes like WWE and WWS to dyslexic students without causing hair pulling and tears; and a request for a greater depth of explanation for the more diffuse subjects in the Rhetoric stage such as English and History - how to teach, what to discuss, how to mark papers, etc. A shout-out for British programmes - MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Programme), "Apples and Pears" from The Promethean Trust, Galore Park for languages (Latin, French and Spanish) and History, Cambridge Latin, and Jolly Phonics. MEP is a hit for my dyslexic kid, where the others are thriving on Saxon. Galore Park provides an excellent start to languages, especially Latin, which Cambridge can then take to GCSE level. Can I also suggest the possibility of a list of memorisations, perhaps tied to English, History, or both? I can't find that you have lists which would cover a whole year. When I started out, I found it very difficult to think of what my kids could memorise and I spent a long time researching to find good ones. Memorisation wasn't part of my education. Finally, thanks so much for writing it and revising it - TWTM was the first book about homeschooling that really spoke to me in those early days when I just wondered what the heck I had taken on, trying to teach my kids myself. Nowadays I'm just wondering how the heck I can legitimately escape for 5 minutes of peace, since at any one time I am being asked to soothe the wounded breast of an offended 7 year old, spell 'acknowledge' for my dyslexic 13 year old, explain the complexities of DNA to a 15 year old, and discuss the possibilities of dissertation subjects with my nearly 21 year old. I comfort myself that I'm not alone in this, however! :)

We didn't buy the Teacher's Book for SSL1 (although I may do when we get SSL2). It seems to have worked fine without.

Le Petit Nicolas series are fabulous, I'm reading it myself. We've also got Little House on the Prairie translated into both French and Spanish, and some of the Beatrix Potter books in French, amongst others. Perhaps it is because we are in the UK, but it's not difficult to get hold of French story books (sold) online.

Our eldest, who is 20, has been diagnosed with the above recently. (If it doesn't have the same name in the US, I'm sorry.. that's what it's called over here in the UK.) She is adopted, and we weren't part of her life during her school years. It staggers me that no-one picked up that she had a processing problem before. Is there anyone here with a child who has Meares-Irlen? I'd like to see what there is that we can do to help.. if anything.. she is at university currently, and they have promised colour filters, coloured paper and software for her laptop, although obviously it all takes time.

Yup. That is how my 13yo describes spelling more difficult words. She has improved massively over the last 6 months though - I read somewhere that dyslexics often have a learning spurt around this age and it's sure true for L.

A and L do Fallacy Detective one lesson per week. They write their answers in notebooks (their preference).

Yup. We use it alongside other resources.. another perspective on the same story. :001_smile: My kids generally like reading.

I've been struggling with a lot of health issues lately... sometimes worse than other times... mainly immune issues that flare unpredictably. I need a math program for N and H which is semi-independent, ie. well explained in the text. They are good readers both. I've got Saxon up to 7/6... buried somewhere.. and we could try that, but it's been quite a while since I used it and I'm struggling to remember how teacher intensive it is at the different levels. I have vague memories of A and L cracking on with their math, timing themselves for their fact tests and later, using the DIVE CDs to help understand the middle school levels. They both switched onto MEP a couple years back in order to get ready for taking the British GCSE exams and have been able to do that relatively independently, only coming to me when they are genuinely stuck. But MEP is just not happening for N and H, and I know that the best curriculum is the one that gets done. MEP is very teacher intensive, so whenever I am unable to full-on teach, it doesn't get done at all. Not saying MEP is bad because of that, in fact in an ideal world I'd be using it, no question. Any ideas? I'm thinking maybe going with Saxon makes most sense?