1. Kids who come home from college for the weekend and are rude to those around them, then ask you to explain in under 7 minutes how to research info for a 5 paragraph essay. Yeah, good luck with that you poor public schooled child. Your elementary aged sister knows more than you do right now on how to write a research paper because she was homeschooled and you were not. 2. Children who bring extended family over to your house without notifying you and you haven't swept in a week. 3. Husband's who..... I can't even go there right now. 4. My family side who just doesn't get after 20+ years that we milk cows for living and thus must be at home to milk the damn cows!!! Don't plan birthday parties for a great-grandmother knowing we can't come and then getting your noses out of joint because we can't come!!!! 5. His family side who keep treating me like I'm 12. 6. I'm thinking about writing down each time a child rubs my back or my feet and leaving everything in my will to that child who did it the most. This sounds fair to me.

Will I be inadvertently defeating the purpose of the program? NO. Do I need to find another workaround? Follow your mother's instinct with that. My son has a fine motor delay which makes using a pencil actually painful. We also use IEW. To lighten up on the written portions a bit, we have created some work around options. 1. For finding the Key Words for the outline, I've chosen to not make him write out the KWO. Using the "scan to text" option in my printer software I scan in the paragraph/story he is using. 2. My son uses the yellow highlighter option in Word to highlight the KW's he wants to use. 3. Then he then deletes any word that is not highlighted on his page. So, he ends up with something that looks like this: Roman Roads a. Romans, famous, roads b. trading, easier, town. c. ditch, gravel, drainage. d. concrete, lime, pozzolanic ash, small rocks. 4. Next my son rewrites the KWO into his own sentences using a keyboard. Since, this is not spelling class he is allowed to use the spelling function in Word as he types, he will also use the thesaurus in the software to find better words. Some days he'll come and ask me to type for him. I do it without complaining. He talks and I type in word for word, although sometimes I'll deliberately switch out words like (two, to, too) or bored and board. He watches as I type and is starting to catch me now and tells me to change it. I've also learned how to type without using punctuation. So, if he wants any put in, he has to say comma or period. 5. As he gets older, if his ability to type doesn't speed up we will swing over to some sort of software like Dragon Speak. So, I guess my advice to you is don't worry about being a scribe for your daughter. Make it fun, keep the focus on what is important and learn the lessons.

I think you are right, you are not not seeing the big picture. You wrote about how you felt about the program. What does your child think? Are they enjoying the classes? Has any stress associated with writing lessened? Do they understand the assignments? You said writing wasn't your strong suit perhaps sit along side your child and do the lessons with them. I think you'll discover over time that you will become more comfortable with writing in the long term yourself. Just take it one unit at a time. People have said the IEW program does seem sort of cookie cutter approached at first, for some families. However, for some kids they need to see the basics spelt out for them repeatedly. Then over time as they develop mastery, the base skills are deeply ingrained into them. That's when you can start to see how the program really shines. My son and I loved how the checklists free up both of us. Writing class is no longer stressful, both my children enjoy it.

Ouch, sorry my Canadian pride is pinching my big girl panties. Imagine if someone said to you. "We need books that have more of a broad sweep of culture, history, etc. We will only be studying United States of America for 2-3 weeks." That being said, I'm so glad you are actually spending any time on the history of Canada. Ok, my son has these as part of his Grade 9 Geography course this year. David Thompson by Elle Andra-Warner ISBN-13: 978-1926613321 The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr ISBN-13: 978-1489567086 Canada: A Portrait in Letters, 1800-2000 by Charlotte Gray ISBN-13: 978-0385658744 Also, I hope these links will inspire you and help you out: Canadian Parliament lesson plans: http://thecanadianhomeschooler.com/canadian-parliament/ This product was recommended: http://www.currclick.com/product/21166/Canada-Unit-Study?affiliate_id=42072 This youtube playlist looks interesting: I frequently use this website: http://www.canadahistory.com/ Canada: A People's History - This video series is wonderful! I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn about North America History you can find teacher resources here: http://www.cbc.ca/history/GENCONTSE4EP99CH8PA1LE.html and the videos are available on youtube. Here is the first episode. This is probably more geography than you want but here's the link and it's a digital download so you could start on it quickly. http://www.christianbook.com/digital-critical-thinking-geography-canada-greenland/9780825168635/pd/3455DF?event=EBRN Here's a free Kindle book (well it's free as of right now): http://www.amazon.com/History-Canadian-Settlement-Present-Dummies-ebook/dp/B014WIJYOI/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1443120989&sr=8-14&keywords=Canadian+History I hope this helps, eh because I think most people believe the history of Canada and the United States are two separate things when really without one you wouldn't have the other.

We use Skedtrack. I love it, the kids are able to use it easily and it has helped to keep me up to date with the marking. It will also be very useful for me since I have to track class time for my son in high school. I'll be able to print the report and toss it into his portfolio - easy peasy!

I've been using Quizlet.com for a few years. We love how my kids can use the program different ways to study. I can test them on the material they learned via a computer, which is very important for my son who has fine motor delays and requires a computer to test properly. Today I took the plunge and bought the teacher's level. If you use Quizlet frequently and are thinking about buying the teacher's level then you can save some money by using this link. https://quizlet.com/upgrade?referrer=HOPE_Academy

Only once has my husband's side of the family asked to meet together. They were recreating a family photo taken decades ago. A photographer was arranged to take that photo. Half of the kids had flown in for a funeral leaving their spouses at home, so they didn't want a huge family photo with a bunch of in-laws missing. I was ok with that. What you are describing. No. I'd be showing up. Did you say someone was divorced? Are they doing this to prevent the latest "girlfriend/boyfriend" from crashing the party?

A blacksmith in his kilt. Because we are all about the kilts. ' , ' ' :=<] ' *__ / ( (___/ e ' ) ('L') / ')(' \=/____/ ( ) )') | | ( /(( ) \____m=====\ )')(( ) ) +()+ (")|| -_-_-_-_-|| ++vv++ ======||-_-_-_-_-_|| +++++++ \/||-_-_-_---_|| ++++++++ /\||-_-_-_-_-_|| // || / \||-_-_-_---_|| (__D(__D / \==============

Here's a cup cake to go with the tea. My real cupcakes looks weird also. .-"`"`"`"-. /.'''`.'`.'`\ /`.'`.`'.`'`.'\ (`'.`'.'`.'`.`'.) ~|||||||||||||~ ||||||||||||| `"""""""""""`

And yes, I googled how to do it. :)

( ) ( ___...(-------)-....___ .-"" ) ( ""-. .-'``'|-._ ) _.-| / .--.| `""---...........---""` | / / | | | | | | \ \ | | `\ `\ | | `\ `| | _/ /\ / (__/ \ / _..---""` \ /`""---.._ .-' \ / '-. : `-.__ __.-' : : ) ""---...---"" ( : '._ `"--...___...--"` _.' \""--..__ __..--""/ '._ """----.....______.....----""" _.' `""--..,,_____ _____,,..--""` `"""----"""`

My son thought they had to draw/paint the nude bodies before they painted clothes over top. He wondered why the museum had all these paintings that weren't finished yet. He wanted to see the art that was finished.

A flock of them landed in my cattle pasture last night. They left this morning heading for the states. I'm in Canada about 30 minutes from Detroit. So, I think they might be on their way.

Congratulations! We are so happy for you!!! Hopefully, your morning sickness is over quick! Now, here's the big question. Do you have a name picked out yet??? I hear "Amy Elizabeth" is a nice name... ...just saying. :)

Bwhahahahahaha! That was great!

I googled HomeworkSimplified by MindSpark and my top 3 google links were for sites on how to remove this from your computer. I'm going to give it a pass and avoid it.

I get to drop my dd#2 off on Sept 7th. I'm going to cry all the way home.

Hugs. I'm 12 days from dropping dd#2 off. I keep telling my husband I'm very anxious and he just doesn't get it.

Have you joined the IEW.com forum? They have a group there for co-op teachers and I think I've heard they share resources.

Don't forget to use their search area, I was able to find most of what I needed for my kids already entered by parents in previous years. When school starts here, I will be singing those parents praises for the whole school year!

The foster children that come to our co-op cant be photographed for our yearbook. So, when group shots are taken the foster parents arrange for the kids to be somewhere else in the building or room. It's usually toddler age and younger so it's easy to avoid them. When a craft called to take the child's picture, the foster mom volunteered to be our "Camera Guy" and bring in the photos for the craft the next week. That way she developed them. We had one issue with a foster family wanting to bring multiple children in and messing up our planned out Plan to protect teacher vs student ratio. You can't expect to bring in 5 kids under two into a nursery staffed for 3 kids with no extra adults available to pitch in. So, make sure you teacher/student ratio is safe. Otherwise, the more the merrier!

Congrats!

Never start your book with, "It was a dark and stormy night..." otherwise, just write from your heart. I would love to hear your stories about fostering and adoption.

To all the foster parents. Thank you for doing this. Some of us just aren't able. I applaud your strength and courage.

Welcome!