I tried to keep the lessons short, so maybe 20 minutes. We slowly worked over a longer period of time during high school. I also tried not to introduce stressors. When DS answered incorrectly, which was often, I just reviewed with him. Eventually he would solve the problems, but it took awhile. By the time DS was in 6th grade, I handed him a laminated multiplication chart. He knew his times tables; however, he has a compromised processing speed and is dysgraphic so he would start making careless errors. I found the back half of RB’s Overcoming Difficulties book to be the most helpful. By then DS knew his math facts to 20 backwards and forwards. The front of the RB book addresses all of the pre-skills necessary to learn multiplication tables. RB teaches mental bridging, which we did on paper, lattice math, partial quotients, area model, and partial products but no fractions. I’ve had moms on the general boards call lattice multiplication a party trick. Don’t listen to that. At the end of the day, the question should be, “Did my student get the correct answer?” Once the answer is yes and the method is reliable, move on. Through a np evaluation, I knew that my DS tests gifted with perceptual reasoning and verb comprehension. I used that knowledge to choose modalities that suited him. Understanding how the compromised working memory and processing speed affected him, enabled me to better teach. RB hit all those points for us. I’m fortunate that we were able to push forward with math. If we had come to a perfect standstill by 8th grade, the focus would have shifted to Touch Math and being functional. By wearing an analog/digital watch combo, he learned to tell time. By about 8th grade, he began understanding money. As a man-child attending uni, we picked a degree and college with minimal math requirements. Son tested high enough on the ACT to bypass algebra and tested into Finite Math, which is set theory, logic, Venn diagrams, matrices, and statistics. He earned an A and selected college level Biology w/lab and Earth Science w/lab.

Yes...skip the early lessons in the epsilon aka fractions. My MUS materials are boxed up in storage so I can’t be more specific. I own fractions through Alg 2 MUS. DS completed the fractions, geometry, and Alg 2. I used the MUS worksheets as practice math problems. I’m a BSEE, and I love math. I read Sousa’s How the Brain Learns Mathematics, Ronit Bird, some Cuisenaire materials, and James Tanton to help me understand DS and apply the methodology across math lessons. Using manipulatives, math mnemonics, Khan Academy, pictures, and standard classroom textbooks for scope and sequence, I sat by my son’s side and taught him everyday until he graduated high school. I never found anything that worked so I improvised. We problem solved together using two white boards. One was for him and the other was for me. We compared answers and I corrected as we went along. I rewrote many problems for DS on clean sheets of paper to reduce clutter and create white space. We set a timer and worked until it went off. I made every attempt to only review one concept at time.

My son is diagnosed with dyscalculia and used the MUS fractions (Gamma?). Skip the first couple of units in MUS. Demme starts off by teaching shortcuts which are confusing and unnecessary. BTW, my son mastered fractions while taking chemistry in 10th grade. Consider purchasing a TI-15 calculator.

I think you are right. We tried not to get upset yesterday because it was an accident and no one was physically injured. This morning, I'm irritated that someone would just drive off. It takes 48 hours for the police to file the report. My rear bumper and all the body panels up to and including the rear passenger door where my DD sits, will need to be replaced and/or repainted.

I'm sorry..

It seems like since we started homeschooling, something highly distracting always happens that must be dealt with. Usually the distraction is end of summer sickness or house repair. Yesterday afternoon, the family and I were sitting still at a red light when the driver of a huge Lincoln town car drifted into our lane while taking a left turn. The driver swiped the left side of our car and never stopped. We were on the receiving end of a hit and run. We called the police, filed the report, and now have to get the left side of my SUV repainted. Ordinarily, it’s green but now it’s green with scratches and a nice dob of white paint running down the side. We start school tomorrow. We were stunned and relieved. The crunchy noises were interesting. I’m just glad my family wasn’t injured. My DD was able to open her door to get out and her side curtain air bag didn’t deploy. The police officer who took the report reckons an elderly woman struck us.

My eldest is diagnosed 2e with maths/reading/writing SLDs. We used Ronit Bird materials. She sells ebooks that work with the iPad; however, I used Overcoming Difficulty with Number prior to the ebooks becoming available. http://www.ronitbird.com/

When I was mindful breathing with DS, my younger child and chiweenie were fighting over my lap.

I spoke with my son and asked him what type of planner he’d like to use entering his 2nd year at uni. I'm sick of wasting money on planners that don't meet his needs. We sat down and DS told me what looked good and what he'd be willing to try. I spent some time scouring the Internet and came up with free links. I printed that bad boy and here are the links I used. Daily To-Do List 2-page monthly calendar template 1-page monthly calendar template - I didn't actually use this template Weekly Student Planner Basic - This planner is editable using excel....I love it  Basic year at a glance calendar I created a title page, used a 3-hole punch, and printed combinations of these calendars to personalize son's organizer the way he liked it. I included 3-hole punched and pocketed binder dividers to store incoming and outgoing work, 3-holed page protectors to store class syllabi, and printed up the uni's Fall 2019 Academic Session Dates. Everything is stored in a plastic, 2 pocket folder with prongs from Walmart.  I've never been satisfied with planners. For some reason, finding the free links took awhile, and so I wanted to share. 

I’m totally with you. Thank-you...

Well, I emailed two people that I trust today with your questions about satan and the creation of evil, and they both told me that the answer to your questions required a sit down talk. I’ll be scheduling that talk this weekend. BTW, your questions are excellent..

I’m sorry Faith. I typed my response while not reading other messages as they flew across. I quoted the person that I was responding too. We clearly do not share the same world view but there is absolutely no reason to be offended. I referred back to Gen 15 because I didn’t feel like quoting the entire chapter. Jesus hung from the cross and for 3 hours a darkness fell. The NT teaches that Jesus bore the punishments for all the sins of humanity. eta: He bore the cup of wrath. He is omniscience and good; therefore, he knows the hearts of men. You don’t share that view, so we are going to have to respectfully disagree. People asked specific questions about basic Christian beliefs, and I sincerely answered based upon my background. ETA: I certainly was not intending to minimize the suffering of others. Please, if I have done that and I offended, please accept my sincere apologies because that was absolutely not my intention.

My understanding of God rests on several legs of equal importance. I'm working off the top of my head here so bear with me. I'm sorry if this seems like an oversimplification. 1. God's Attributes - He is 100% of the the following attributes: immutability, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy, judgement, goodness, holiness, sovereignty, and likely more. You are going to have to look this up. 2. Definition of sin- any word or deed done in opposition to God 3. Sovereignty - He is absolutely in control of His creation. He does not create sin and cannot because of his holiness; however, He wills it otherwise He would not be sovereign. 4. Why is there sin in the world? Because Adam and Eve violated the covenant of works and disobeyed God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:15-17). Prior to the Fall, there was no death or dying. Adam and Eve stained all of humanity by their disobedience. After the Fall and in His mercy, God spoke to the serpent and promised a savior, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[e] and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:15) 5. Wages of sin - Death and dying are the wages of sin. Creation fell with Adam. As a result, a) Creation is a corrupted and dangerous place thanks to lightning, earth quakes, disease, shark bite, childbirth... (insert something horrible here). b) Man is conceived into sin because we are descendants of Adam. That doesn't mean that man acts as badly as he is able, but we shouldn't be surprised when man does horrible things. The restraining hand of the LORD prevents us from absolute chaos. c) Satan and elemental forces are always at work. 6. Why did Christ die on the cross? Christ's death on the cross fulfils the Suzerain Covenant that God made with Abraham back in Gen 15. Read the chapter in its entirety. God initiated the covenant with Abraham, placed Abraham into a deep sleep, and passed through the cut animals. By doing so, God ensured that when Abraham's offspring violated the covenant, which they did plenty and often, that God himself would pay the penalty which was Christ's death on the cross (see Gen 3:15). The OT is the story of Abraham's descendants repeatedly violating the covenant that God initiated and traces Christ's earthly bloodline (see Matt 1:1-17) while the NT testifies to the covenants fulfilment. The Temple curtain is torn, and now humanity can deal directly with God through Christ and the New Covenant. God's attributes of judgement and immutability make the crucifixion an absolute certainty. As Adam represented all of mankind in the Fall, so Jesus represented mankind in its restoration. 7. Why is there suffering? God uses suffering to magnify His name. Suffering is for His glory and our good might seem awful were it not for the fact that Jesus felt all of the miseries that humanity feels such as hunger, abuse, loneliness, the sudden death of loved ones...(insert something horrible here) without sinning himself. If you believe in heaven and hell, you can be assured that God's goodness and judgement will ultimately punish the wicked and glorify the rest.

Of course many denominations have followers that believe in assurance. I made the statement because of the Christ plus works and legalism crowd that are more than happy to tell other professing believers that they are condemned to hell or bind their conscience with rules written nowhere in scripture. We are going to have to respectfully disagree about free will. I meant what I stated above about using the Apostles’ Creed as my baseline. BTW, reformed Christians study multiple theologians including Luther, Sproul, Packer, Bridges, Lewis, Carson, Augustine, Ligon, Wright, Guinness, to name a few off the top of my head. Being reduced to studying one thinker such as Calvin feels overly simplified to me. Who asked about the 5 solas? Sproul explains the Dutch Controversy and the 5 solas well. Wiki looks good too.

I’m a Christian, and I don’t understand why other believers are so quick to take my assurance away from me. Because I deal with so many members of works based denominations through homeschooling, I mentally break the matter down to the Apostle’s Creed. If we can agree to the Apostle’s Creed, I’m not going to deliberately argue over matters such a sprinkling over dunking, infant baptism, LORD’s Supper, dancing, age of Earth, and/or drinking alcohol. I do find the outreach practices of certain churches highly offensive. So someone asked whether believers recognize their legalism...Yes and no. My pastor is teaching through Colossians right now. It’s the responsibility of every believer to mind their hearts because legalism is a very easy sin to fall into. Jerry Bridges wrote a book titled Respectable Sins that is worth a read. I think any Christian that is serious about outreach should be examining legalism and be sensitive to people who have been injured by the church. A mature pastor should be able to field any difficult question. As to Harris, I hate that some people will think that a majority of Christians share his views. DH and I absolutely don’t. He didn’t attend seminary until 4ish years ago following the sex scandal at his church. I’m also bothered that one more prominent Christian homeschool advocate has been added to the sex scandal pile for his role in his church’s sex abuse cover-up. Like how many more yahoos can the Christian homeschool movement muster? I’m sorry that so many people have been injured by the church. I was injured too and walked away completely for about 16 years. Once DS was born, DH and I started asking hard questions and seeking. We were led to our church 16 years ago. I would love to say that my church is perfect and problem free; however, that would be a lie. DH and I have both served on committees and dealt with a lot of people. On occasion I’ve had to seriously step back and examine my motives and heart. Learning to deal with different people has been difficult and rewarding, and I’m a work in progress. I’ve been very upset with elders and struggled through a couple of pastors. The best resource that I have found for dealing with conflict is the book The Peacemaker by Ken Sande.

For the writing, maybe get an OT evaluation to examine handedness, vestibular, motor planning, visual perception, pincer/core strength, and developmental motor. My son’s dysgraphia is rooted in language and motor issues. He learned to type and use a spell checker the 2nd half of 5th grade. Maybe consider teaching your DD mind mapping. We love the Inspiration app on the iPad. Hidden behind the Dyslexic Advantage blog’s paywall is an excellent seminar by Dr. Charles Haynes that addresses dysgraphia. I encourage you to watch that seminar. Your daughter’s numbers look really good. I have one question? Have you ever administered the Barton pre-test?

☝️ example of legalism would be clothing. Some churches have an atmosphere that promotes a really strict dress code. Maybe the men wear suits and all the women wear skirts as a sign of female submission/modesty or seriousness. DH and I were traveling and randomly visited such a church. I was dressed very well and wore pants. I was the only woman wearing pants in a sea of plain long skirts. We recieved a lot of curious looks including some from a teenaged girl rocking a miniskirt with a pair of gorgeous stiletto heels. Mind you, the skirt and heels were awesome; however, it was curious that I was dressed modestly in dress pants and that seemed to be a problem. I believe a family on travel seeking to fellowship and worship with fellow believers trumps dress code, but whatever. BTW, the wearing of a skirt is in no way indicative of a broken and contrite spirit.

I’ve emailed questions to James Tanton and Ronit Bird. Both were gracious by answering my questions, and sending me materials that I did not ask for or expect.

You could buy some HTTYD art from ETSY. Target sells cool picture frames. Maybe purchase a nice curtain rod and hang a crinkly white sheer. Maybe purchase a pretty lamp and shade and focus on a duvet, dust ruffle, and soft lap blanket w/foldable fluffy saucer chair.

An essential element of mindfulness breathing is self-compassion. For example, while practicing mindfulness breathing, it can be difficult and one can lose focus and shift attention to the weather or whatever. While breathing, it’s important to not internally self-deprecate but rather acknowledge the mental shift occurred with neutral judgement and then return to focusing on the mindfulness breathing. The article did not mention mindfulness breathing; however, the mindfulness breathing can absolutely help with self-compassion over time. https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/

Is your DH willing to pay private school tuition? If so, private OG tutoring was cheaper that private school tuition for my DS. If you are willing to pay for multiple children to attend private school, why not hire tutors, save some money, and lessen your teaching load?

2001....

Cal Newport is the bomb. I have a major mom crush on him. As a maker, I don’t like the school day being interrupted. As the manager, I restrict appointments and events to particular days of the week and times, prioritize what subjects must be covered, and write the schedule . My manager self uses the summers to establish goals while my maker self selects the curriculum to meet those goals. Over the years, my family has experienced death of significant relatives, illness, tons of therapies, unexpected home repair, car repair, and financial issues (thank-you, 6 months of sequestration). My maker self has had to assist my manager self get work done in unusual ways while keeping the house clean and its occupants fed. Back to the original point, no I don’t like our day interrupted so I block schedule appointments and plan around them. I try tell to the kids early so that there are no unpleasant surprises and we get on with. Getting stuff done is just hard sometimes.

DD completed Apples and Pear level C last year, and there was a ton of crazy British sentence dictation. We loved it. The sentences were warped in a comedic way. Half the time daughter read the sentences herself to believe I wasn’t making them up. We enjoyed spelling last year, and DD’s spelling improved.

If money is an issue, save and get the full and appropriate testing in January. BTW, the worst NP we ever used was paid for by insurance. I would describe that experience as fast food drive up service. Insurance does not fully pay them like a private psych so they are compelled to see multiple patients.