Our pediatrician and occupational therapist recommended one for my daughter with motor skills issues so I bought one last winter. She didn't like, didn't use it, and I donated to the thrift store since my younger kids had no interest and we don't have a lot of room. I wish it had worked because her team felt it was really important to her skill building :-(

I boy K-er isn't great with seatwork so we keep it to short lessons. 10-15 minutes per subject 4 days a week and no more than 1 hour and 15 minutes per day - and usually it's closer to 45 minutes. For those formal lessons, we do reading/phonics, math, handwriting, and memory work. We will add social studies and logic to that in January. For geography, have you looked the Expedition Earth (from Confessions of a Homeschooler)? I downloaded it last week to start in January and it seems to be SO much fun! I think my 3 will love it (young Pre-K, K, and 1st). We keep science super fun with nature study and literature is just a read when we can type of thing. Chapter Books are before bed and everything else falls into place - like reading to one in the bathtub, or just snuggling on the couch with a book, or using audio books in the car.

I love the books laid out in Simply Charlotte Mason. I also know she is writing guides, but I am not sure how many years she has accomplished yet. The books are challenging and interesting and even when my older girls did them without a guide, it was not hard to put together at all. My youngers will be using SCM starting in 1st/2nd grade.

I have had good luck with Meade's... I have an older ETX right now that has lasted and lasted... and with the auto alignment and all that it is a breeze to use.

If it is between those two, I would say CLE. My olders had great success with it and upon entering public school in middle school, one was a year ahead ahead and the other had to take math classes at the high school. That said, if you were willing to look at something besides those two, I would say MEP. Not because it is free but because it is darned good.

Older DD has some delays, the biggest of which is fine motor skills. We will be dong ETC 1 come January. Her writing is poor at best. I bought a rubber stamp set of lowercase and uppercase. I am thinking I will get her stamp whatever words/letters need that are supposed to be hand written. What do you think?

I have a pre-k this coming January and we are finishing up MEP Reception (free) and moving into MCP K for drilling the facts in. He is supersmart the type of kid who needs mastery and needs to NOT feel overhwhelmed or pushed. WHen he feels he doesn't "get" something, he gets mad at himself. I think MCP will accomplish that for him. If it doesn't work for him for some reason, we will do MEP 1. Or perhaps even a combo of both. You can see samples of it here: http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=260543&item_code=WW&netp_id=838231&event=ESRCN&view=details

Just general growth issues. Or lack of growth. He is a small kid for his age and he also prety much hates all food. Getting him to eat anything is like pulling teeth from a tiger. There wasn't any other reason.

The Doctor was specific that it would only show foods he had eaten recently and when we got the results from the lab they also said if he had NOT had a food with in the past couple of months, it would show negative whether he was intolerance or not. This wasn't like a skin prick or vial of blood. It was 5 smears of blood on carstock (for lack of a better term) from a finger prick. His previous blood allergy testing was all negative.

My son had an IgG food intolerance test. It came back with several intolerances, including wheat, rye, wheat gliadin, all dairy, chicken eggs, duck eggs, peas, and hazlenuts. I am concerned about the accuracy of these tests. I have done a bit of research and there doesn't seem to be a lot of scientific findings behind them. My main reason for questioning the test is that in order to test positive for an intolerance the food has to have been consumed within a few weeks prior to the test. Never has my son had ducks eggs. Ever. I even contacted the few restaurants we had been to with in the past 3 months (we don't eat out a lot) and none use ducks eggs. I went through the labels of all the foods he eats.We rarely eat prepackaged foods and no duck eggs. Also hazlenuts. My daughter has a severe hazelnut allergy and not only was my son tested for all nut allergies via blood work at an allergist and was negative, we absolutely without question have nothing in the house with hazlenuts. My son does not eat at other peoples houses and again, when it comes to restaurants I am very cafeful. So I am wondering what you all think? It was a new doctor that had this test done. At great expense I might add since our insurance did not cover it because it was not FDA approved.Do you think intolerances are a fad among doctors these days? Or are they totally real? I know a lot of people in my family, including my husband, think this is all "bunk", lol. As a note, I have had him off all of the things he is not supposed to have and he has lost two pounds and had diarreah for 3 straight weeks and the doctor has not returned THREE phone calls I have placed to him. The nurse did say diarreah would be common for a bit but three weeks? ETA: he has been cranky, nasty, and easily tired since starting this new diet.

My 3 year old has had great success with talking word factor and letter factory. they taught her all her letters and sounds by age 3. They did not work for my k-er, however. He needs more hands once and he soared quickly with hooked on phonics around 3 1/2. It was the one with the letter bingo, blue, red, and yellow workbooks, the foam letter cubes and letter dictionary. There was also a CD with it, but since I bought it used i made do without it.

I would love to use HOD as is but I would have to tweak it so much it wouldn't be worth the money. I have a pre-k is far beyond LHTH and well above the LA in LHFHG. I have a young K who is well above the LA and the Math of LHFHG and I have a 1st is is right on for the LA and Math of LHFHG but is emotionally ready for BLHFHG. I just can't see ANY way to combine them in one core and not have it completely ALL over the place.

I own a 4 bedroom + loft with a 3.5 bath that I rent for $2200 even. My parents old house, which is a 3 bed 1 3/4 bath in Anaheim Hills, albeit the flat portion near the freeway, get $1425 and that was a struggle. And it is totally remodeled. My brothers rents a 2 bedroom 2 bath in HB 3 blocks for ocean for $1100.

I spent 28 years in Anaheim. I was intimately involved with the City of Anaheim itself, and in fact, my family was one of the first families in Anaheim when it became that City by the River. As I type, on the wall above me is a 70 year old picture of an Anaheim Ranch blown up and framed. The matchng photos adorn other walls. Anaheim itself IS diverse.There are a couple of cute older neighborhoods near City Hall (called the Colony) that are nice and have a good police presense. It is well maintained because of the historic nature of the Colony. I could get you the name of a realtor who specialzes in the colony in a PM if you like. Or perhaps look at Anaheim Hills. It IS much nicer than you could rent a nice 3 bedroom house there for around $1500 and everything is close, especially in East Hills... I also know a few realtors there. I personally left because I couldn't handle the city life any longer. But it isn't a bad place to live and there is always a ton to do. Don't let the naysayers get to you. Is it my first choice? No. But I love Anaheim will all my heart and soul and she has a lot to offer.

I am one of the few non HOD fans here. It is too light. My young Pre-K could EASILY fly through LHFHG. All of the kids would always have to be 1-3 levels up to make HOD work for us. I would re-think the HOD before anything else.