I"m building these to go around my bedroom!!! I built a corner without power tools.... obviously, I haven't built the rest yet! I actually was thinking about them for my gallery wall in my hall - but I truly don't think I have the space. *I* will be the one to whack my leg into them :p

Our peerler beads have stayed organized/separate. I'm pondering the legos!!! I haven't taken this project on yet like I'd planned.... My oldest loves to volunteer to shelve at the library - so I know she would be capable of doing it here! :p

Oh and Lakeshore Learning has some - http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?productItemID=1%2C689%2C949%2C371%2C893%2C678&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=1375451846001 I'm still searching for the other thing I bought there once.... These "Draw and Write Journals": http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?productItemID=1%2C689%2C949%2C371%2C895%2C338&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=1375451956294

I'm the same way - except I love to read to me, and have no issues. BUT, once I start reading aloud my eyes water and i'm going to fall asleep. I know I have double vision and had simple exercises to do as a child - but i'm certain there was more to it that the doc would find today. I need new glasses and I want him to do the exam! :D Audiobooks are my friends for the kids - and they love them! I can handle short books aloud these days, but the thought of reading something long to them makes me cringe. I can't do it. With the amount I can get thru each time it would take us like a year to read, say, Harry Potter! HOpefully you find your personal reading niche though!!

Like these? http://www.quill.com/mead-primary-composition-book/cbs/132160.html?cm_mmc=SEM_PLA_OS_132160 You are going to have to decorate the cover - might be a fun for her project though! I've seen them at Walmart occasionally, and I think Staples. Oh and one year I found them at Target in the after school started clearance... but hadn't seen them before! They aren't "cheap" though. The ones I posted in the other thread draw there cuteness because they are smaller than normal size. You could take a PDF of the paper you want, "build" a document and send it to be printed/Spiral bound at Staples/Office ____/FedEx. Then you have the size you want, the paper you want, the covers you want, and only have to go pick it up!

CAP is great, but can be not so cheap! In fact, my oldest's membership expired last night and I can't renew it. But it is great, and there are a ton of opportunities in it for teens and adults!

Our local library offers free classes to homeschoolers. It varies given the ages of who is around - but there has always been at least one art class. The kids are looking forward to it starting up again at the end of the month! They also have computer classes and such - but geared told the "retired" community so I have no idea how those are for kids!

Awwwww, that is awesome!! My contribution today is that I completed DDs final enrollment in Connections and did the learning coach orientation.... like an hour and a half I won't get back today! Oh, and I thought I was out of crayons in my stash - only to discover I had 5 boxes!! :D

I'm actually encouraged by your experience with reading PDFs on the Mini Hunter - thanks for sharing them. I keep thinking my kids need big iPads, but maybe the Minis will work out best for them!

I'm getting ready to try Photon on my iPad. I forgot about it - and it might solve a whole big problem for me!!!

Have you looked at Barry Stebbing's stuff? He uses simple materials, and in fact they don't paint original paintings - they use cards, AND, there are DVD lessons.... Or you could look at DeepSpaceSparkle and pick 1-2 projects a month to do. Which sums up what art will look like here next year!! :lol: But, it sounds like I Can Do All Things might be a better fit. He doesn't suggest that you start at the front and work your way thru the book in order, he recommends a couple of topics - say, drawing and painting, and do them at the same time. The kids could bounce around depending on what they were interested in that week! Hmm, I was going to cut/paste the list of topics but I didn't export that from my iPad yet.

I bought a Eureka at Sam's Club for $99 last year under duress (company arriving the next day!). Their promo in the store claimed they "sucked" better than the leading one for 4 times the price. I've always had "good" vacuums buying based on the Consumer Reports testing, but this one is the best I have EVER used. I had spilled some red embossing powder on my tan carpet years ago.... at least 5? I've vacuumed it over and over and it just was always a red stain remaining. ONE PASS with this thing, and it is GONE. GONE i tell you!!! On my HS group recently someone was needing to replace a dyson that broke and 3 others piped up about the Eureka's. Target had a similar model and some of them had that variant. I would whole heartedly recommend and buy it again. SOmeone else I know has it as their upstairs vacuum and a dyson downstairs and likes it just as well, This is what Sam's sells now: http://www.samsclub.com/sams/airspeed-pet-vac-bagless-upright/prod8910112.ip?navAction= ANd this is the version I have: http://www.eureka.com/en-US/Vacuums/Uprights/AirSpeed/Uprights-AirSpeedGold-AS1001A.aspx ETA: I do not have a pet - but the others piping up in the loop did. I just have no landscaping/grass and 1.25 acres and we wear shoes in the house! :p

Huh. When we renew the new period starts that day (unless it has recently changed), so there is no chance to extend it until the end, and then you won't know until you try if someone is waiting.... yay us!

I actually just read on her IEP (for another reason), what they listed.... it didn't matter at the time, WE could not understand her and the ped would not refer us anywhere. The ENT told me to self-refer to the district because she turned 3!!! Anyway, hers was: liquid simplification, cluster reduction and errored productions of initial y, initial "sh", "ch" L, final "j", voiced and voiceless "th" and "r". :ohmy: There were different/others in the private eval. Which also found her lack of mandibular something - she could not move her jaw up and down AND move her tongue to make the sounds at the same time. It was nuts. I hope your day gave you some acceptable answers!!!

I think our library overrides for certain people. I remember a Dad complaining about the 10 item limit he encountered at another branch. They appear to be in there weekly checking out a huge bag. Because our limits are so low, it makes it hard to count on the library for curriculum. My kids use it for books for pleasure - and I am hit or miss (I have enough on my iPad with freebies and paid that I'm set.... for a LONGGGGG time!). eBooks I think we are limited to 3 at a time per card. I'll have to double check.

We only have 3 days to pick up holds (technically, they let us go an extra few days normally). I also live next to a retirement community - so my "kids" section isn't that great. I'm guessing there isn't 400 things I would WANT to check out at once. We have a lot of large print romance novels though!!! :p

And, I'm so going to have to stop at the Dollar Tree and buy two for the kids.... it WILL be a problem this year! Maybe I'll let them help me figure out what to put on it as a project! :D

I'd do the presentation board - cutting it in 1/2 if you need to! There are some great ideas floating around of "things" to put on them for the kids. Charts, maps and such. ANother option is they sell (or at least used to), ones that were white boards! here is one example: http://daybydayhsing.blogspot.sg/2011/06/easy-and-cheap-homeschool-organization.html

Ours I believe is 10 per card, for 3 weeks. No exceptions. We are in a small town, but while our library is funded by the town, they are part of the county system and there is no charge to request items from them. I can also return the books at any location.

The biggest problem I can see is if the umbrella school is not in the county you reside in. Mine isn't, and the hours drive would not have been worth it to a school in the correct district. I can see that as a reasonable requirement. And I have no issues with the SLP we had, she loved my kids and helped make it an easy transition when they entered the school from home mid year. I do question some of the aspects of the program - like when they are only going 2 times a week for about 30 minutes, losing a day to "computer fun day" doesn't seem efficient. Then another day at the end of the quarter for prize day. We also did not get homework. But overall, I recognize she was doing the best she could in the environment that is group therapy in our particular local school. When my daughter entered she didn't have just 1 or 2 things to work on, they couldn't limit it - rather they picked the easiest and worked towards the hardest. It wasn't until the private eval that we discovered the WHY of the major issue, and progress sped up when we addressed that and worked with it. If we hadn't had private - she'd still be getting it at the school.... lol, probably until high school!

I think the difference becomes what is required by law, and what is left to the district to decide. Money is TIGHT, they are not going to provide services to anyone extra if they do not have to at this point. And be sure to check beyond the Therapist and with the DISTRICT people. According to HSLDA http://www.hslda.org/strugglinglearner/sn_states.asp#FL

The place we go is $125/hour. They do an awesome job working with the kids, and would set you up with the stuff to work on at home. My only option for having my DD home is Connections with FLVS full time. I was talking to a PS teacher over the weekend that teaches 4th - she told me I was dead on in my assessment of my DDs impending 3rd grade year. The school just dropped from an A to a B school (but should have gone to a C), with first year there principal. The pressure on the 3rd graders for FCAT performance will be HUGE. Even with the hoops of Connections I can at least control it a bit more. I would have preferred K12 - but the county kicked them out because of test scores. Great! The quality of the speech therapy is just going to depend on so many variables at the school. DD loved her 5.5 years in the program.... but speech wise didn't get a lot out of it. She made more progress in 6 months of private than she had in almost 3 years in group. Some years were better than others - a lot of kids shared the same issues, other years, all 6-8 kids had different issues to work on each week. It was nuts!

I bought the Crayola stuff that was recommended on DeepSpaceSparkle.com She has a homeschool list of suggestions that I'm looking forward to digging into this coming year! I used her list as a starting point, and adjusted what I wanted from there. I found DickBlick.com a lot cheaper than amazon or RR - especially when I had free shipping and their additional coupons on their website. http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/category/art-supplies/

Upload them to photobucket? It is free! There are others, but that is what I use :D I know my DD would LOVE for me to do this - I'm just hitting a wall in providing the technology at the moment :(

Not that you need the validation - but those are very reasonable questions and concerns. I wonder why they can't do screen shots now - I'm pretty good at evaluating from them.....