younger dd is so excited to be going back to school and I'm happy for her that she is. I'm sort of looking forward to being able to do some serious hsing with older dd as the season changes and my work schedule falls into a steadier routine. But I'll miss younger dd while she is at school and I hate having to rush through our evenings so we can fit homework in around the activites the children want to do.

According to NYS regulations, school superintendents may grant hsers a high school diploma at their (the superintendent's) discretion. I've heard that there are some that will but most don't seem to be so accomodating. I doubt that the superintendent of my district will since dd won't be taking any state tests, but I should ask anyway just to see what hoops we'd have to jump through. But that's also why we are not seriously considering any NYS colleges for hsed older dd. I plan to have her take some college courses at the local community college when she is 16 but when she goes to college as a freshman we plan to send her out of state or (less likely) to a private college in state.Hsers in NY have to have a diploma, 24 college credits (I think), or a GED to be accepted as a freshman in a NYS college. None of that seems worth it just so dd can go to a state college.Not when there are so many other colleges in other states that are willing to look at other things like SAT and ACT results, course content and such.

Both were/are very calm dogs. Our first was a rescue dog that had been fought and had the scars to prove it. He was fine with our 2 female dogs and our cats and horse but would go after other strange dogs. We had heard he had bitten a child but he never tried to bite our children (we had two babies while we had him) ever. We have had our current pit since she was 7 weeks old. The parents were on premises and were both beautifully behaved dogs. She is very nonaggressive and it was obvious even when we first saw her that she was that way. That being said, if our Jack Russell starts to play rough with her she can reciprocate. But if he yipps she lets go and backs off (he won't and will keep going back after her). We got the JR first and he's a good boy most of the time but we wouldn't have gotten him if we'd had her first. She is the perfect dog for us. Having dogs is like having small children as long as they live. You have to pay attention to where they are, what they are doing, who they are doing it with, and give them lots of time to play and work off their energy.

As long as I have enough notice (at least 8 weeks) to plan the logistics of work/travel/dh's plans. And it's not in the first 2 weeks of May.

Last year NY state tried to force healthcare workers to get flu shots and several unions were willing to take the issue to court and the state backed down. Hopefully this year they won't try it again. I think it is much more important (and effective) that low cost or even free flu shots be offered to those who want them rather than mandating people do things to their bodies that they don't want to do. We did have younger dd get seasonal flu shot when she went to ps last winter but we won't do it this year.

Neither is a competitive dance studio. Studio #1 only has a yearly recital. Many of the students skipped multiple classes throughout the year so they could participate in other after-school activities. Dd didn't miss a class for 7 or 8 years despite how ill she felt. The person who ran the studio never noticed or cared how much work dd was putting into it. Honestly, now it's so much nicer to see at least some of the kids take dance seriously at dd's current dance studio. I also see some parents who take it more seriously than their children do but I'm trying not to be one of them.

If we didn't crate them the Jack Russell would be chewing on things and chasing the cats all night. During the day the little dog sleeps in one of the chairs and the bigger dog sleeps on the couch or dh's recliner chair with the little dog. We decided the crates would allow the cats some time when they could have free run of the house without dealing with dogs. We never used crates until we got the JR but it's made life alot simpler.

They also answer to variations of their names when they feel like it. Cats do what they want to do when they want to do it. Like 2cents said, they know when it's dinner time and otherwise they only interact with us when they want to. If they don't want to be disturbed they won't come.

I can justify buying books if they are educational. Older dd prefers the "living book" type curriculums. So I bought years of SL books and other books and textbooks thinking I could reuse them with younger dd. Younger dd is now in ps. But dh says to keep the books in case younger dd is hsed again. The sad thing is, someone could run a small school with all the materials I have. I really need to donate some of the stuff the children have outgrown or that I know we won't use again. Art supplies are just fun to buy. I always have good intentions to use them myself but younger dd is the only one who uses them.

they feel that a child would be more disadvantaged by missing school due to lice than that the spread of it could be a potential problem. Remember how the rules on the flu changed when it looked like so many students would miss many days of school and parents complained about missing work to stay home with their children? I don't care what their recommendations are; if my child comes home from school with lice she won't be going back to that school ever if the school follows those recommendations. The school my dh's niece went to as a child had a chronic problem with lice because of 2 particular families who would not treat it properly. It sounds like the family in the OPs post did do the right thing in responding to an unfortunate situation but I worry that other people won't take it seriously if they follow the American Academy of Pediatric's recomendation.

I don't mind sending extras in for the children who don't bring enough or who'se parents can't afford what is on the list. I have a half a zip-lock bag of erasers at home left over from hsing last year. It seems like every day a child at my house needs a new pencil because she can't find the one she used the day before (and the dog eats a few). I love to buy pens (my secret weakness). I'd love to donate some of my books to the school library because the books dd brings home are so old and worn out. I was appalled at the condition of the art supplies in the art room when we went for open house. I give the teachers credit for making do with the small budgets they have. I agree, as a parent with a child in ps, I'd much rather pay fees than expect other taxpayers to.

I'll budget for admission to the park(s) just in case. New York charges admission to the state parks but Pennsylvania doesn't. It was a very nice surprise (and the park in Penn. was as well maintained as any I've seen in NY). Even the sites under the individual parks didn't mention fees for admission. NY strictly enforces swimming rules but other state and national parks allow you to be in the water or on a mountainside at your own risk.

I can't find any information on the state park official website. What about swimming-is it swim at your own risk, or do they strictly enforce no swimming rules? Some park websites (of parks near water) mention swimming and some don't.

One of the books she will be using is written by a dr. and covers birth control methods. (I wanted a resource that covered all methods rather that just abstinence and one that dd could keep for future reference.) I plan to discuss it in more detail with her then but right now we just discuss it as it comes up in everyday conversation-if we are watching tv and see a commercial, or read an article, or whatever. Because I have daughters, the main discussions fall to me but if I had sons, it would be dh's responsibility to discuss the details.

You must be a high school graduate to hs your children. You submit a yearly letter of intent. You submit a yearly individual home instruction plan, then 4 quarterly reports. Some people just put a grade for each subject in the quarterly report (sort of like a report card you'd get from the school) and some people list thinfgs that their child has done or studied. For grades k-4 you can submit a year end written assessment of the child's progress. For grades 5-8 you test the child every other year and the years in between you submit a written assessment. A very few districts want the assessment done by someone other than a parent but most are ok with a parent writing the assessment. For grades 9-12 year end testing is required or until the child turns 16 in NYS( or 17 if you are in NYC) when you no longer have to report anything. Some areas have lots of hsers, some don't. It seems like more people hs younger children and the children tend to go to school as they get older. But I imagine it's like that anywhere. Some areas get more snow than others. Oswego county,the Tug Hill plateau area,and areas to the east of Lake Ontario usually get lots of snow. But NY salts their roads (good driving conditions in the winter but bad for the cars) heavily. A 4 wheel drive vehicle with good tires can handle almost anything except ice storms. And we rarely get those. Driving at prudent speeds for the road conditions can prevent accidents. We don't get days of bad weather, it's usually just a matter of hours before the snowing and/or blowing stops, the sun comes out and the salt starts to melt any snow on the roads.

I hs one child and 1 attends public school. There is a big difference in how they and I think about their educations. Older hsed dd's life revolves around hsing and learning. Younger dd's life is focused on school, the subjects she studies at home enhance and build on what she learns at school. I do consider what she does at home over the summer to be hsing but it still doesn't really count. Now, older dd's work (all of it) does count because it is what I officially report. Someone once said that a kid that quit school to get his GED was hsing- sorry, no, to me it's not. Not everyone learning at home is homeschooling.

The children and I took an injured bird to the wildlife hospital this am but they don't know if it will survive. And while we were there someone was dropping off a fledgling too young to fly but she was afraid the neighborhood cats would get it. I have been reading a book by John Burroughs ("Signs and Seasons") and there are several chapters about birds. He was of the opinion that very few birds live long lives and die natural deaths in the wild.

on second thought I don't know as I'd want my local ps (which younger dd attends) to do this. I can see where children would be teased by their fellow classmates for being in a lower level class. And I already see far too much labeling of children as being "special needs" because the school gets more money for those children. Younger dd gets pulled out of regular class 1-2days/week to do math lab because the school uses Everyday Math and she wasn't familiar with how it works when she started school last year. But now we're looking at another year of her still going to math lab and her dad isn't happy; in his mind, math lab is the same as "the special class" and I'm sure he's not the only parent who thinks of it that way. And I'm wondering just who it is that will decide that dd doesn't need that service anymore. I'd think too, that telling a child that they need to be in, say, the remedial reading class might make them think that they just aren't capable of ever doing the same kind of work that other children are doing. It's an excuse to never push a child, to never let them find out what they really are capable of.

But I like the tv series and will watch it over and over. Older dd isn't into it but younger dd and I like it.

But it's 8 &1/2 to 12 &1/2 hours/day. 40 hour weeks and OT for anything over 80 hours. Because it's summer I am scheduled to work all sorts of odd days. 3-5 days in a row, 1 day off, another day on, 1 off, three on, two off. The schedule is made out only a few weeks in advance so it's hard to plan anything. Sometimes I think my supervisor is scheduling me this way so I will get sick of it and quit. Other people have.

so it isn't running the full homeschool program the way it should be done. But I tried the first lesson (and I don't even want to learn Spanish) and got through the lesson and actually learned from it. So I'm liking it better than the Spanish we tried to use last year and I'm sure she will too once she gets used to it. The problem is, that she wouldn't take my advice on how to use the program. We've tried Latin and French programs in the past before and she gave up those after a few lessons so I'm not going to let her quit this. College is mandatory so she must take a foreign language. I tried doing the subject/ scheduled time years ago and it didn't work. We'd have been finished with high school by the time she was in 6th grade. Since the elementary school years we've always had a certain amount of work assigned per day or week and when it was done, we were done. There's a different level of work that I expect from her this year. I've warned dd that we expect her to spend at least a couple of days each week doing 4-6 hours worth of schoolwork and I think she still thinks we are exagerating. If necessary, I will put her on a schedule of set times for certain subjects but that will mean I will have to stand over her to make sure she is doing the work at that time and I thought she'd have outgrown that by now.

in my quarterlies it was usually something about discussing and/or celebrating certain traditional holidays. Sometimes I mention field trips and sometimes I forget. I know that my district's superintendent has read my quarterlies because he has sent return paperwork remarking on something I mentioned a child participating in or something similar. (My paperwork has always been in compliance so his comments have always been kind.) I combine my last quarterly and the written year end assessment. At the end of my report I write that dd has completed her coursework satisfactorily for the year and is advancing to the next grade. My quarterlies generally run about one and a quarter to one and a half pages in length. Including spacing and sometimes a slightly bigger type,depending on my mood.

There were tears (from oldest dd) when she spent 30 minutes on her first Rosetta Stone lesson. I still think she doesn't believe her dad and I when we say any lesson should take at least 30 minutes at this point in her studies. She has become so accustomed to finishing her school work for the day in a few hours.

I've scheduled approx. 2 chapters/week but some weeks I scheduled only a certain number of pages instead of by chapters. I have a 36 week schedule but we hs year round so it will probably take dd 7 days to do 5 days worth of work. At least.

unofficially, next Monday. This past year we tried the traditional Sept-June and we don't like it so we are going back to a year round schedule.