My son is of the itchy back or itchy head variety. It takes everything I have to stay calm when he does this. I am glad to not be alone.:001_smile:

A very good response overall, but I had particularly never thought about this argument. Thank you.

I will add that some are just allergic to them, but a lot of people still like them in spite of that. The whole Roman Catholic thing sounds pretty dumb to me. My hubby is Catholic and he loves our black cat. Though Chump does, in fact, have a white patch on his tummy. Life has actually gotten better since he joined our family.

2nd grade here: SOTW 2 and AG Earth Science and Astronomy ala WTM recommendations-still need to get off my butt and put this together:001_smile: WWE 1 FLL2 Saxon Math 2 SWO B moving to C Independent reading tied to history Free reading that I liked as a kid Nature study with Handbook of Nature Study and field guides Composer study ala AO Art Appreciation ala AO beginning piano Growing, Growing Strong for Health continue walking and doing calisthenics for PE Artistic Pursuits

I agree that a schedule must be given to homeschool children, and must be made more rigid as one approaches high school. Though, by being home, my son gets to see hubby trudge off to work every day. I think that the examples we set as parents, and how fully we explain some of the not so negotiable things in life, the better off our children will be when faced with the real world.

I have this. It has a dry erase board, chalkboard, and supply tray. It has survived a move in one piece and is child's height. It also has slits and a dowel rod for adding butcher's paper to do large art projects. I love it bunches :001_smile:, and so does my son. It can also fold up for storage, but does not take up much room fully set up-I lived in a small apartment previously, and now live in a townhouse. If my son didn't throw his toys EVERYWHERE within two seconds of cleaning his room, it wouldn't be in the way at all.

I think she's on the bullied list, anj, haven't seen her post since one of the more turbulent morality threads. I miss her too.

JMHO, but SOTW 1 has worked just fine in my largely secular home by teaching the bible stories as myths. SOTW is such a great resource that I would hate to see you not use it just on that basis. It would be a lot less work on your part to either cut the 2 or 3 chapters that present biblical stories and use the rest or just present them as fairy tales, or cultural tales, which is how I have gone about it. Of course, I also have been reading bible stories with my son along with history as myths, and plan to put The Blue Fairy Book in our "religion" spot when we are done the book of bible stories. Just my .02.

I have not personally used R&S, because I heard it is very dry and that would not be a good fit for my son. That being said, I have also read that their program is quite rigorous, so you would likely be fine using R&S 3 then moving into FLL 4. Maybe one of the many fine persons on this board who have used R&S could help you more, though...

Ya know, I thought this board was a bit too overly christian when I first started reading it, but now I find that I enjoy the perspectives from all fronts. I also agree that this would be a much less exciting place if it was segregated into all the different religions/subsets of homeschooling. Now, I may still stumble into a post or two sometimes that make me see red for various reasons, but everyone is pretty supportive here, and that is nice. Discussion is not discussion without dissenting and differing opinions, and I think the lack of compartmentalization on this board encourages that. If you don't want to hear or see things that are not specifically your style of teaching or of your faith, then what's the point of being on a forum anyway? You can just agree with yourself. You don't need us for that.:001_smile:

If you have not done grammar a lot previously, I would go for FLL3 personally. I have not used it, as my son is going into FLL 2 next year, but from the reviews on amazon.com it seems that 3 reviews the parts of speech and such from 1+2 before getting into anything else. HTH

Me and the hubby share a Creative Zen Vision M and it is great. I have no idea of the price because it was a Xmas gift. My buddy has a Sansa that she loves. The Sansa's are smaller but are on the cheaper end of the scale-I know her boyfriend did not have a lot of money to spend whenhe got it for her. The Creative has video capabilities and a microphone. The Sansa does not.

TWTM SOTW FLL Saxon Math SWO All these work well, and I feel they are a good fit for us. I am trying a few new things out next year, but these core things will stay the same. And I almost forgot OPGTTR....it really worked for my ds, and was easy to implement.

I didn't post much on the old forum because the format drove.me.nuts. However, I don't think this forum is particularly classically focused. And I must admit, I wish it was. I have found some good curriculum suggestions, but mot as much discussion on how to implement certain things. Of course, I am also bad about posting my questions, so, oh well. It is still a nice board for support.:001_smile:

I drew the picture that I am using as my avatar, and have seriously thought about getting it on my back. But I will definitely get something smaller first. It just hasn't been the right place or the right time for either yet.

I would also urge you to try Al-Anon. My son's father is/was an alcoholic, and attending meetings and working through my own mess helped me to properly deal with the situation with him. He is recovering now, going to multiple meetings a week and staying in a house with other recovering addicts and the change is so great, for my son especially, as he has a functioning father now. I at one point had to put my foot down with his father and grandmother and tell them no, he could not see his son till he was in recovery, because he was passing out drunk while watching our son and O. was getting picked up by the police and taken back to his grandma's house. It was awful. She eventually saw after TWO times of this happening that she couldn't let her son see O. anymore, so I let O. go back over her house. I was understandably angry about all of this, angry at her and angry at O.'s father, and it was eating me up. When it comes to boundaries, he should not be able to see/talk to any member of your family if he is intoxicated. That is a boundary that even an alcoholic can understand. No help with money, no help with a place to stay. People will not stop as long as they are being enabled, because as long as they're being enabled they don't have to. Living on the street destitute and jobless was what led my son's father to accept the treatment program his mother found for him. And I still had to cut them off from seeing my son for a few weeks in the aftermath, because I was supposed to just be alright with them not following the parenting rules I had set for my son and alright with his father not paying child support because he was just getting started. They are still some of the most selfish people I know-O.'s grandma more than his father now, though-but things are better, and I believe that is in part due to me being involved with Al-Anon and learning how to properly deal with my own anger, thus not attacking my son's father and giving him a "reason" to drink. Sorry for the long post and hope at least some of this is helpful to you. jen

Sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me.

One of my close friends got PUPPS. She had a lovely baby boy. Unfortunately, she has also had eczema ever since. Not fun. Don't want to worry you more, but it has been part of her experience. I have no idea what the percentages are on PUPPS leading to eczema, though, although if anyone does, I'm sure my friend would appreciate the information.

Thanks! That should be really helpful.

I use SWO and will continue to do so because I need at least one thing in my curriculum that I don't have to plan. I give him the workbook, we go over the lesson, he does the exercises, the end. It streamlines at least one part of my day. But he has grasped phonics very well through our use of OPG, so I guess I feel he is getting spelling rules in a couple places and doing fine, so I have no reason to switch. Other's mileage may vary.:001_smile:

My plan for next year-as we will finish OPG this summer-is lots of good books and a writing program. I also use Spelling Workout, which continues to go over the phonetic rules.

If you want to take a stand on what I also feel is a bad and rude policy, I would personally cancel the order. They want to be rude, they want to tell me how I can use things that I paid hard earned money for, they don't get my business. If they lose enough business, they'll hire more workers to deal with what happens when people resell. I would cancel over the phone and tell them that I find the no resell policy rude and unreasonable, and that it is the reason for my cancellation. Just my .02. Besides, they are not the only people with programs like that.

As to your mother, she paid to have her inlaw suite, and that's great, but that doesn't mean she paid for the rest of the house. If she is being a pain outside her area, tell her to go back to her area as nicely as you can. JMHO. As to kids and video game/tv usage, I have had a lot of success with no screen time till school work is done, no screen time if you are disrespectful about school time, etc. You do have to work to stick to it, but sending them away to their room is helpful. I have also found it helpful to have the hubby deal with any disrespectful behavior towards me. It seems to sink in better when I'm not the one pointing it out. I just tell him what it was, and he goes and has the discussion. My son is almost gentlemanly now. HTH

If it was directly related to lack of supervision on your part, I would see it as your responsibility. But boys will be boys, and accidents happen when they are, and that seems to be the case here. They have reserves, it is not your job to insure their principle stays high. The parents should pay.

:iagree: And also, very well put. I go off to give you rep now.:001_smile: