No special plans for the date, although I love your idea OP! We'll head to church like a regular Sunday, go to my son's soccer game, and then attend a benefit festival at our church late afternoon. It should be a good day!

I don't think you are over-reacting at all, and a discussion needs to occur with this woman regarding her paying cash or losing your daughter's services as others have mentioned. It is absolutely wrong to take advantage of people, especially children.

I feel like the homeschoolers I've met in my area are unschoolers, and that methodology does not resonate with me. I loved TWTM when I read it, and I knew that was how I wanted to educate my children. So when I stumbled upon this forum, I was ecstatic! It's a wealth of information and intellectually stimulating conversations - I look forward to logging in here daily.

Welcome! This board has been my saving grace! I'm sure you'll find it to be helpful, open, and most definitely honest! :D

She is absolutely adorable! I would end up hugging her all day long & nothing else would get done! :lol:

Start playing games together related to what you're studying. Get outside together and do science that way. Read fun stuff together vs. just curriculum. Listen to audio books. Instead of writing on paper, write in sand, shaving cream, or pudding. Ask your dd what she wants to study, and take a week off and do a unit study on that topic. :grouphug:

We're doing RSO E&S this year, and I've just used my local library to track down some of the suggested books and/or choose other books related to what we're studying (ie. weather). There are many great books not on the list that supplement fine.

This is our 2nd year using AAS, and we are enjoying it. Initially, I was worried about retention with my son; however, within 2 days of posting a question about it here, it's as if the light has gone on with him, and he's really gettting it now! The program is SOLID. With a child who has gaps and is a poor speller, it is definitely necessary to go back to the beginning. This will fill in any holes as well as provide confidence for your child. Just warn him that you have to start at the beginning, and his effort with it will allow you to move through it very quickly, so it won't feel "easy" for long. HTH!

Is anyone using DITHOR with a 2nd grader? If so, how is it going? Is your child enjoying it, loving reading, and retaining a lot? Do you like it? Pros/Cons? I'm all :bigear:. I'd like to say I can follow the WTM suggestions for reading at this age, but I find we're not getting it done. I really feel as if a reading curriculum would hold ME accountable. I'm intrigued by DITHOR, but I don't want to start it too young and squash ds's love for reading. I do like how we can choose our own books, and I think that would be exciting for him. What says The Hive?

Definitely a Monday here too... I finally gave up, and we skipped our last 2 subjects. More to do tomorrow, but at least I saved my sanity (I think) for today.

Praying for your DIL and your grandchild. :grouphug:

Oh gosh, so many... When I was really young it was The Pokey Little Puppy and The Saggy Baggy Elephant. Then as I started to read, I loved the Frog & Toad books. For novels, the ones that came to mind are The Secret Garden, Island of the Blue Dolphins, A Wrinkle in Time, Trumpet of the Swans and anything by Judy Blume or Beverly Cleary. It's so wonderful to relive these books with my boys, and I'm cherishing their awe, knowing how my awe affected me as a child.

Fabulous news!!!! Thank you for sharing with us! I will continue to pray for them as they continue to adjust.

The Bible The Evolution of Calpernia Tate (children's lit) I *just* finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest yesterday, and I loved it, so I'm trying to figure out what adult book I want to dive into next. The 3 in that series were such a wild ride that I'm not sure where to go from here! :lol: As for nourishing... I'm on a break from that right now! It's been too crazy to wrap my mind around something with depth.

So happy for you!!! Cherish every moment!!! THANK YOU to him, you, and your whole family for sacrificing so much for us!!! :grouphug:

We're also doing RSO here, and my son is really enjoying all the experiments. We use all kids of extra books to supplement the one page of reading they offer before the experiments.

That's a stunning room! I want a room like that someday. Know what I love the most? Your FLOORS! Those are the exact hardwood floors I want in my house. We're saving up to redo the entire downstairs with those floors - I can't wait!

:iagree:

Congratulations! Wishing you a speedy recovery and a great start for the new man in your life! :grouphug:

:iagree:It irks me that garbage like this is publishable.

Funny about your dh, as I was dictating to ds the other day, and the word get was in the sentence, so I said 'get' with the short e sound (I'm from the north, so this isn't a problem). Ds went ahead and spelled "git". I asked him what he wrote and he said "git". I pointed out the word was "get", and he was set on it being correct because he hears "git" down south where we live. When he was repeating it in his head, he was hearing "git" even though I said "get". It's funny how an accent can be heard even when the word is being said phonetically. I had to really excentuate the /e/ and /i/ sounds by exaggerating the opening of my mouth as other posters have mentioned. We now go over the 2 sounds regularly throughout the day to practice. :)

:iagree: There have to be parents with students struggling with the reading method being taught in the school. Is there a way you can get your daughter's name out there? Maybe through church, your local Y, your library?

I'm so glad to hear I am not alone! Thank you to the link for SWB's lecture regarding spelling not transferring over at this age! I was beginning to think I was dealing with a problem bigger than myself and my son. Also, thank you shanvan for searching for one of your old posts. I'm going to try many of these ideas and give the program more time. :)

Have him read about famous athletes and narrate what he learns. Use sports to teach math skills as every game has some sort of math related to it. Investigate the science of sports - physics & biology would be great. There's also an ESPN show dedicated to the science behind athletes and different sports. My son & dh love it.

Ds is a strong reader, reading 2-3 grade levels above his current grade of 2nd; however, when it comes to spelling, he struggles. I chose AAS because of the incremental, rule-based, phonetic approach to spelling. He loves doing spelling lessons, and he can tell me the rules when he sees the cards or when I'm dictating to him. Yet, when it comes to carrying this knowledge over to writing, he seems to forget everything including some of the simplest rules used in Step 1. He will sometimes misspell simple CVC words as if he can't remember the short vowel sound. When I try to get him to fix his mistakes, he becomes flustered and shuts down. He's a perfectionist, and to him, he's failing at spelling right now. How can I help him retain this information? Will ds eventually just "get it" and it will stick? I don't want him to feel like a failure, but he's really struggling in retaining what I *thought* he knew. Btw- we are moving slowly through the program and have only ventured to Level 2, step 4. Because of his struggles, I'm trying to really cement the info (even though it doesn't seem to be working).