Hey Jessica, I'm sorry to hear about your mother's diagnosis. I know how scary it is to hear that. Yes, it's incurable; but yes, people can live for years with it. My father has had it for at least thirteen years, if not longer. I suspect he had it even before his lung cancer diagnosis thirteen years ago (which is around when he found out about the emphysema, too). Anyway, he beat the lung cancer, and has lived with puffers and medications for emphysema ever since. He has had bouts of pneumonia and collapsed lung over the years. He lives in a second floor walkup apartment, and he just takes his time going up stairs. He has slowed down, but I think he has continued to find enjoyment in everyday life. He, too, had smoked since he was a teen, and finally quit for good when he got lung cancer. He's 76. So, the damage was already done by the time he quit. But, he seems to have learned to live with it and enjoy each day. It certainly will be better for your mother if she continues her current streak of having quit smoking, so hopefully she will do well with that! All you can do is keep supporting her in that, and in getting as healthy as possible from her last bout of pneumonia. And in staying as healthy as possible with medications. And staying away from sick people so she doesn't catch every cold. :D She may have to learn some slower rhythms of life as time goes on, but that could be a nice thing! :D Many hugs to you! Have your freak-out, have some good cries, and then carry on. You really don't know what the future holds, but you can enjoy the here and now with her.

Thanks, Lori! I just wanted to be sure my posts were coming across as I intended. :) Yup. :D

I don't think it's the magic bullet for all, either; and I hope my posts aren't coming across as if I do. I only wanted to demonstrate a bit of how it works, since it's the base I happen to use (and I know there are other great bases out there). When I am teaching spelling and reading via WRTR to students, I also incorporate whatever other teaching tricks I can think of for each individual student at any given time for any given individual snag.

And the funny thing is it's just not all that important in everyday life or academic life to memorize how to spell "Deere," as in someone's proper name, is it. (I just used Erin's example to demonstrate teaching) :D

Oh, I wouldn't send kids to the dictionary if they had no clue how to spell a word! What I meant is that we would look up the word (either I look it up or the kid looks it up going by the correct spelling written out on a piece of paper or something) and then read about the origin of it. Then we'd talk about the origin and how that might have influenced how we spell the word we are working on. Another thought I have is that spelling can be very difficult to master in isolation (and therefore pointless) for some kids. It needs to be surrounded with lots of good reading, and later some type of word study such as what's found in Vocabulary From Classical Roots, and maybe a Latin or Greek study. Otherwise, the words really do not make sense, as you say. :D

Yes, this is why the teaching process of WRTR can be helpful. You actually teach each word on the list (of 2,000 or so of the most common English words) via that process. You also can go off on tangents of word origin (having studied Latin? keep a dictionary on the table?) to help cement the answers to questions of "why this e sound and not that one??" etc. Yes, it's true that you have to memorize which phonograms go in which words and that sometimes there is a variety of options to choose from. But the thought is that explicitly teaching/analyzing each of those most common words will help in that memorization process, as well as make the student more familiar with the sounds and rules. I suspect the rhyme and reason comes from word origin. If one of my kids is questioning "why this phonogram for the sound instead of that one?", we would look up the word in a dictionary and find out why. It's actually fun! :D "double e" isn't a rule, so you would just directly tell him to write the "double e" phonogram if he didn't know what was making that long-e sound - the hope being that the next time he didn't know how to spell "Deere," (or whatever word) you would take him through that process again and he might remember that it was the "double e" that made that long e sound he is dictating to you.

Thank you!!! My son is registered for the physics SAT for June, but I could NOT figure out what to do about photo ID. I hadn't seen this part of the website before!

Erin, I know you're now looking at Megawords (which I know nothing about), but I just want to "second" Writing Road to Reading. The basic gist of it is that students memorize 70 phonograms (letters and letter blends) that make 45 basic sounds of English. They then use this knowledge to analyze words for their particular phonogram sounds and spelling rules. They use a simple marking system to do the analyzing, and it requires you to teach the words to them and teach them how to analyze. So, they end up memorizing sounds and rules in context, as they analyze. And the word list isn't divided into word families; words are listed in order of how common they are in English. (phonograms are also memorized in order of commonality, which helps the student, too) I was a natural speller - I could see a word once and remember how to spell it. But when I started using WRTR with my kids (and other kids I've tutored over the years), even I learned new things and became brave enough to tackle reading and spelling words I'd never seen before. :D My daughter had spelling troubles for a long time; but we persisted with WRTR, and she has greatly improved over the past couple of years. She has gotten to the point where I agreed to drop WRTR for awhile and see how she does in her written work. She agreed that she would write any misspelled words ten times correctly, and she has usually been able to figure out now where she went wrong in any misspelled word. WRTR teaches you how to think your way through a word, both for spelling and for reading. So using this as an example, I would have had the following conversation with my daughter: "What is the first sound in 'Deere?'" "d" "What is the next sound?" "e" (picture it like a long-e sound dictionary marking) "'e' from which phonogram?" "'e' from 'double e'" (which is the phonogram that looks like this: ee) (but if she didn't know which phonogram that sounds came from, I would tell her and let her try to remember what "double e" looks like so she could write it down. If she didn't remember what it looks like, THEN I would show her.) "next sound?" "r" "yes. Anything else after that sound?" If she said "no," I'd tell her, "There is a 'no-job "e"" after the "r." (she would have previously learned that silent "e" can do four different jobs in words, and that rarely there is a silent "e" that doesn't have a job in a word. daughter writes that down. Of course, in reality, my daughter now gets impatient with me if I go through this process with her now, lol, because she is so used to it - so she rapidly tries to take herself through it now (which is the whole point - she is thinking through, using her WRTR tools, how to spell out a word). But I wrote this all down so you could see the thought and direct teaching process. hth

Thanks! And what is the REA book?

Ugh, I KNOW!!! I just figured that out a few weeks ago. Oh well, lol!!

Thanks, Kathy! Good idea about the extra problems in Dolciani - I hadn't thought about that. Your enthusiasm means so much to me. :)

posting to subscribe Congrats, Angela! Again, I am loving reading your recent posts.

Thank you!

Anyone remember my thread from a few months ago? http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/505103-small-brag/ Well, we were informed by one of the organizers of a Grade 10/11 math camp to be held this summer at a local university that applications are available now. They choose twenty students from all over the province. It's free, it's week long, and it looks to be really fun and challenging for students who love math. Anyway, I am sending in an application for ds. I've managed to find two mathy-people-who-matter-who-know-my-son who are willing to write letters of recommendation for him, and a possible third. I know there'll be hundreds of students nominated from all the high schools; but if he gets a spot, we'll be very excited! Maybe you could wish us luck. I'll let you know in June if he gets in! (I still find it so strange that I am posting about high schooly stuff after all these years of reading the boards!!!!) (Jane in NC and Kathy in Richmond - as usual, special thanks to you two for being YOU and being inspirational and helpful to me over the years) p.s. Any suggestions as to which math samples we might send in as evidence of his abilities? He's working on 1960's Dolciani Algebra II right now. Since I don't have a "grade" to send in, they want samples.

Yep.....I don't know if I should admit this here, but this will be ds's first test-taking experience...but he doesn't seem worried about all that, so he might be relaxed when he goes in. I hope. We can only try, right?

Ah, good point about finding a book that works well for him. I think I will have a look at both Barron's and the blue book. I briefly skimmed the physics blue book yesterday - there was mention in there of examining the results - it's a good point you make, that I might not have picked up on. Thank you. That does look like a fun read! I reserved it from my library. Yes, thank you! And I'll see if the McGraw-Hill book is in the library so I can have a look at it. Thanks for all the tips, too. I am starting to see a pattern - use the real tests for practice, and analyze everything afterwards.

Thank you - I will look for the Barron's for physics, as I didn't know it existed. Hmmm....this is something I didn't even think about. Of course I hope ds does well on the test, but a high score is not my ultimate goal - I was just looking for validation of knowledge he is acquiring during high school. So, what does the score range represent? What is high? average? low? We just registered for the June 7 test. Wow, I can see why people here talk so much about all the ins and outs of all these tests, applications, scholarships - what a LOT of administrative work this is going to be!!! The other day I sat down and mapped out a plan for various tests/test dates/deadlines for registrations/uni. app. dates/deadlines/scholarship apps/etc. And I think we in Canada don't have nearly as much to do as you all in the States - yikes!!

Congratulations!! I love seeing your posts here again!

Congratulations!!

I guess I wasn't really sure what I was asking either, lol. I guess I just want to hear stories (positive and negative) about kids who have taken this test. Also, has anyone else used these subject tests to back up "mommy grades?" A local uni. science professor/homeschooling father advised me to do this. He is doing it for his teens, too. Yes, he will be taking it at the end of this school year in which he has been studying physics. I saw this advice on the College Board website, and it makes sense. I'm planning to have him take the chemistry one and the biology one, too, when he completes those courses. Thanks for letting me know, too, about the free online sources. I'm always skeptical about free online sources anyway - I'd rather use books. :D I checked the blue subject SAT book out of the library today, so we'll have a look. Thanks for letting me know it only has one practice test (strange!). Can I please hear from some more people? Thank you, all!

Thank you, Regentrude. I'll have a look at that one. Can anyone else help me with my OP? I did do board searches, I promise! I couldn't find the info. I was looking for.

Hi all, What can anyone tell me about your kids' experiences with taking the SAT physics subject test? We are looking at registering for the one in June. Ds tried some of the practice tests at the College Board website, and we are getting a subject test study guide from the library. But I'd love to hear about real experiences. Thanks!

Hi all, I can't even believe I am here to ask this question - I remember reading the high school boards when my oldest was about 7!! Anyway, can you all tell me your best recommendations for SAT study guides? And tell me WHY about your rec? I've seen Barron's at the library. When I look on Amazon, I see several different SAT study guides - how do I know which one is best to use? We are looking at using one over the next year, so that ds can take the SAT maybe in May 2015. Thanks!

I am so excited for you!!!!!

Thank you, ladies! I did have a good day, full of chocolate and flowers. (and reading and crafting and NO WORK DUTIES!!)