I agree with both of these. My children might be working 3 grades ahead in math, two in science, one in LA, and especially in the early years, before they've made First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion, I try to keep them more or less on age level with Religious Education. CHC assumes one grade level, and so really didn't fit my dc any better than a brick and mortar school, though I have picked and chosen individual resources. Their Language of God series only worked for my one 'pencil allergic' ds -- the others got bored with it.

We went to the RMTS ceremony. My son made some great friends just sitting there before/during (the children were seated roughly according to award, so he was with other top 10% fourth graders).

One is doing Latin. Another is doing American Sign Language for now (for credit), but I'm suggesting that an additional language with a written/spoken component might make for a stronger transcript. She may transfer to the ps IB program, and I'll let her counselor handle that argument from there.

My older ds was 9-10, older dd was 6-7, I need to get younger ds (9) to start doing his own -- he has some birth defects that make a few of the fingernails and a couple of toes difficult to keep trimmed, but the rest, he should be able to handle.

My dad's eyes are blue, my mom's are green. One brother and I have brown eyes, the other has hazel. None of us have any reason to doubt our paternity, and have a good number of familial features from our father's side (though two of us favor our mother's side more). My dh has green eyes. For a while, we had 1 with gray eyes and 3 with blue eyes... two of the blue eyed children changed to green when they were about 8 years old. One is still blue, but she's still young yet (5). I've never been able to use those predictor programs because eye color is a lot more complex than they are or what we learned in high school biology.

My oldest used it with Latina Christiana I ... it was neither a complete hit nor a complete miss. He read it, didn't hate it, but didn't love it either.

Our rules are that YOU have to be taking care of them with no help or reminders and there is a 6 month waiting period. We went to a cosmetology store. I would only do it at a place like that or a tattoo parlor or a doctor's office. I had friends who worked the mall places and saw the hygeine (or lack thereof). Dd1 first asked when she was 7.75, got them done at 8.25, and did great keeping them clean, etc. (This is also the child who got contacts on her 10th birthday and has done great with them.) I'm not sure that dd2 would be ready so young, she is definitely a lot more flighty than her sister was at this age. Thankfully, that means that she probably won't remember to ask again at the 6 mo mark after she has asked the first time. I had mine done without my input at 4.5. It was pretty traumatic for me. They eventually closed up, and I had them done again with friends for my friend's 8th birthday (she's 2-3 weeks younger than me). It was fun to be included, but I really didn't care that much. They've closed up again (in college), and I haven't bothered to get them redone yet. After almost 20 years, I'm not sure that I will.

I've been doing Bravewriter, and she advocates an actual tea time -- tea and scones -- with poetry reading with the dc. So that's where my mind went. :lol: I figured it out quickly enough, but I did have that 'what?' moment. :blushing:

We've usually done something small. Oldest ds made his first communion with the rest of the children in our small parish. Dh's parents came, and a few friends did as well (they were LDS and UU, so it was kind of a culture sharing for us). Older dd had hers by herself (the new DRE caved to the second grade teacher's power move -- she didn't like me homeschooling them for RE, the pastor disagreed). We went out to eat with my parents and dh's parents before (it was also my birthday and Father's Day). We bought a cake from Costco and had that and punch after mass. We moved during younger ds's second grade year, throwing everything for him kind of up in the air. What we ended up doing was going back to my parents' parish (my dad's one of the deacons and the pastor was assigned to the university parish for the college I went to when I graduated). He did First Reconciliation and First Communion there (on his own). His godsister (his godparents' daughter, who is also dh's and my goddaughter) is medically fragile, but they were able to make the shorter trip to my parents', and one of my grandmothers were able to be there, and we were able to visit the other in the nursing home next door right after. My brother from FL came up, and my other brother is relatively local, so he had a big family gathering for his First Communion -- cake and punch and brunch in the parish center. Youngest dd still has a few more years, but it's likely that she'll be with the regular RE class. We go to a huge parish, and there are 3-4 special First Communion masses. Her godparents (dh's sister and b-i-l) will probably come with their children, so dh's parents will probably come too.

I'm from South Louisiana, and I remember making this piewith my grandmother.

If they introduce themselves as Mr. or Mrs. LastName, then we go with that. Otherwise, we're in the South and it's Mr. or Ms. FirstName ... if the adult introduces themselves with just FirstName, they go to Mr. or Ms. FirstName unless the adult corrects them and asks for FirstName again.

It's around ... in a box... somewhere ... I'm pretty sure. When I applied to be a BJU tester, it was easier to go online and get a copy of my transcript than to find my degree.

Agreed with trying another troop. My brothers sometimes had to try several troops to find one that fit -- we were Navy and moved a lot, which didn't help. As far as the swimming, there are clauses in the Scoutmaster manual about handling children who can't complete some of the physical requirements -- I believe it's up to the scoutmaster's discretion to declare a marked improvement -- even if it falls short -- good enough. For whatever reason, hiking is much more popular than swimming in ds's troop as the Eagle-required option. Ds went from a non-swimmer last Memorial day to getting the Swimming merit badge at summer camp at the end of June. I've found that summer camp is a huge help with some of these things. When looking for a new troop, ask about scholarships/payment plans for summer camp, as many troops have arrangements or connections to council programs that are designed to aid boys in tight financial circumstances.

Overall, mine liked school, but they had difficulty with the wasted time. After two years, each of them made the decision to come back home again. The oldest has no desire to go back out to school until university. Dd is thinking that she'll go back for high school.We've discussed the possibility of sending them to a small public charter school -- a science academy - if circumstances were to change. There's a campus down near where dh works that has K-12 all in one spot. If we needed it, I think it would be a good option for all of them, but for now, it's easier to have them home.

Sunday: youngest dd has Sunday school from 9-10:15; I have to be at the church for setup for high school youth group at 3:30 or 4, then we go as a family to the 5:00 service; ds11 has middle school youth group from 6:45-8; I'm usually done with the wrap-up meeting for high school by 8:30. Monday: school in the morning; homeschool playgroup at 3:00; taekwondo for the kids from 4:30-5:30;dd10 has guitar from 7-7:30 at the church -- elsewhere on campus, the rest of us are at Boy Scouts from 7-9 (including dh's wrap-up with the boys in leadership, other scoutmasters, etc.) Tuesday: school in the morning -- this also seems to be a popular day for doctor, dentist appointments; math team practice downtown for ds11 (next year dd10 will be on the team, too); religious education for the middles at 4:00, followed by choir practice at 5:30 (thankfully, it's in the same building, so no parent transfer involved), pick up at 6:30; when we're working with an engaged couple for marriage preparation, we usually meet with them from 7-10 on Tuesdays for 6-8 weeks. Wednesday: school in the morning; art class for dd10, bagpipe for ds11, and TKD for the little ones at 1:00 -- these are all in the same strip mall, at different ends; Girl Scouts for dd from 3:00-4:30; church at 6:30 -- usually have to be there by 6:15 for dd10 to help Thursday: school; TKD for everyone from 3:45-5:15 Friday: intentionally left blank. Sometimes field trips, usually school, sometimes nothing. Saturday: TKD for me from 7-9 am -- sometimes a middle child or two will come with me. The rest of the day is usually filled with Scout and church obligations.

My ds 11 has been in Scouts for a little less than a year, and will have his Scoutmaster Conference for First Class at the end of the month. He's den chief for one of the Webelos dens. He's already earned over half of his merit badges for Eagle, and seems to be headed that way. Dh is an Eagle, so he's very conscious about not putting any pressure on him. Dh is an ASM, and I share Advancement Chair responsibilities with a couple of other people. My little guy is a Bear, moving up to Webelos soon.

My children did RMTS a couple of years ago, this year, the did TIP ... up until now, they have both taken the EXPLORE (pre ACT). Ds maxed out on some of it this year, he'll be doing SAT and/or ACT next year when he's 7th grade age. So far, none of the day programs have worked out for my dc -- there weren't many to choose from in Salt Lake. If we were still covered by RMTS, we'd consider the DU residential programs this summer, as the children have an aunt and uncle near the campus. I haven't seen what's available for the kids going through Duke yet, but NC is quite a hike from TX. My own experience with talent search summer camps as a teen was excellent. It was SO nice to be around other kids that I could truly relate to, and there were lasting friendships formed there. (I went to UVA's program.) Another advantage I found to the talent search testing was that taking the SAT in eighth grade made me much more confident going into it in 10th or 11th or whenever I took it again. It wasn't so much of an unknown, and knowing that I'd already scored a 'good enough' score for many colleges let me relax and just compete with myself to get a higher score than I did last time, but knowing that it didn't matter THAT much.

My older two children went out to school for third and fourth grades after being home before. For third grade, they both went to a public school magnet program. The teacher was prepared for adjustment issues with each of them (there were no services for my children below the third grade, so she knew why I'd kept them home), but with each of them, she commented that they did very well in the classroom environment, and if she hadn't known their background, she would not have guessed that they hadn't been in the classroom before. The biggest adjustment for my oldest was the whole lunchroom routine -- they had numbers that they had to remember to punch in if they had hot lunch accounts, balancing everything on the tray (he has gross motor delays). Other than that, he mostly missed being with our co-op and his homeschooled friends. My dd's transition was pretty seamless, though she quickly learned that she didn't have to work as hard because with 28 children to keep track of, it was difficult for the teacher to know when to nudge her. She could also get away with not answering in class because the same teacher had had her brother and knew of his social anxiety, and though the teacher was generally good about it, impressions of siblings DO carry over. In 4th grade, she went to a Catholic school that her brother hadn't gone to (he came home that year after 2 years at the magnet school), and she learned all about cliques and girl games, and continued to perfect the art of putting out the least amount of effort to get straight As, though it was tempting to get some Bs, just so she wouldn't have to deal with the label of being one of the smart kids. The other big thing for them that got tedious after a while was the fact that the class usually moved at the pace of the slowest student. They were both with their academic peers, but there was still a LOT of waiting around, which is what both of them cite in their enthusiasm for being back home for now.

I've got three children who from an early age would do math things for fun -- pull out the manipulatives and work with them for free play, seek out math puzzles, etc. Their favorite games on the computer would be the Singapore practice CDs. They're who I'd call my mathy children. They find joy in doing math. All four of my children are very good at math, they all pick up on even complex math ideas pretty intuitively. Even my child who doesn't enjoy math picked up the concept of long division in one, 10 minute lesson. But I wouldn't call her math-y, because math just doesn't give her the joy that it gives my other children. Then again, I am having her join the middle school math team next year, because she seems to have a lot of common interests (board games, science), with the girls on the team (who are mostly math-y).

Mostly Singapore Primary Maths with my youngers, because like others have said, mine don't need as much repetition as some children. My youngest also uses Miquon, as did my others, though only my third did the whole series. Right now, my oldest is using MEP, because it can also be adjusted to move pretty quickly, and he likes the in-depth coverage combined with the relatively quickly changing topics. My second is using Life of Fred. It's a very entertaining approach to middle and high school math, but she's beginning to need more repetition, so I'm thinking of switching to Dolciani for Algebra 1. (It worked fine for me when I was in school.)

Mine are all accelerated. #1 talked at 9 mo; #2 at 8 mo; #3 at 6 mo, but then stopped at 10 mo and started again at 23 mo -- no idea why, if we didn't have the videos, we would have believed that we were making up the 6-10 mo thing; #4 didn't start until 2 yrs 3 mo. The pediatrician was about to refer her, but I knew that her receptive language was excellent, so I held off following through. She was one of those kids who went from zero to paragraphs.

We're likely relocating soon to Burtonsville or Columbia. Dh works for a large corporation, and they keep going back and forth. But it's time to move on from here and his specialty is government business, so it's looking like the Burtonsville office is likely where they're putting us.