My kids love the "Allowance" game. We play many of the other games listed as well, but this seems to be my ds6 favorite. That could be because he always wins at this game. :lol:

I don't have an answer for you but I'm interested in what others have to say as I have the same problem. I was at the library for hours the other day with my ds8 to try to make a reading list based off of books that are near his grade level but also holds an interest for him. While he was perusing the shelves I was looking through these huge resource books trying to make a list based off of his grade level (or close to it) and what interests him, it was difficult. He is going into 3rd grade but he reads on a 5th-6th grade level so it makes things even harder for me, plus he doesn't like to have long chapters to read. I was told by the librarian that usually in August they receive a list from the local school district of the books that the kids will be reading in school so hopefully that will help a little bit, but it is usually only 2-3 books. For his 2nd grade year there were only 3 books they read together in class, and I would like more than that. It's funny you mentioned Charlotte's Web as that was one of the books he read with his class this year. He loved that book and still talks about it. Another group of books you may want to consider is the Merlin series by T.A. Barron. There are 8 books in all and they are split into "The Lost Years of Merlin" and "The Great Tree of Avalon" series.

My ds8 loves the MTH books and we recently started looking at the Teacher's guides and activities they have online at Teachers@Random. These are good starter books for reluctant chapter book readers as they are short and they don't feel overwhelmed. My ds6 has now started to gain an interest in them and I'm hoping these books will help turn him into the reader I know he can be. He is very reluctant and is constantly complaining that he can't read when we know he can, he just doesn't want to do it.

I do not like the idea of Unisex bathrooms or locker rooms. I have no problem with transgender people and would have no problem with a male now turned female (and vice versa) being in a bathroom/locker room with me or my children as long as they have actually gone through the whole process (surgery). I know to many that probably sounds bigoted and wrong, however my concern are the people out there that would take advantage of a bill of this nature to attack more easily. If a person has gone through the surgery then I doubt it would be for the purpose of attacking more easily, hence I would feel safer. My ds8 hates that I make him go into the woman's restroom with me when he needs to go, but I don't feel comfortable sending him into a male restroom by himself, nor will I enter a male restroom. I have no issues with a father bringing his daughter into a woman's restroom, but I couldn't go into a male one due to the urinals. I would feel uncomfortable and I'm sure any male in the room would as well.

kmansen, my ds has used EM for 2 years, 1st and 2nd grade. He encounters some problems in certain areas but excels in others. The teachers at his PS HATE EM. They wish the district had never used that Math program, and this isn't just 1st/2nd grade teachers that hate it, all the teachers up through HS don't like the program either. What I did last summer, and plan to do this summer with him, is find the areas where he had the most issues and work on them without using the EM model. Since he didn't understand it using their model, I'm not going to push him to try to understand it again with that model. Instead I went onto free Math sites and pulled off worksheets or made my own for him to work on. I also used many manipulative's to help him understand a concept. I found last summer, and I'm sure I'll find this summer as well, is that he understands the concept fine but can't do it with the way it is explained in the model. Sometimes the way it is worded is what confused him or it just wasn't explained in a logical manner. There were times I would struggle with his Math homework and Math was always my very best subject. :001_huh::lol: I will be starting homeschooling with him in Sept, when he would've been going into 3rd grade, and I have no intention of using the EM program. My other ds just finished kindergarten and the only area he struggled with was the coins. He does fine with regular coins or play board coins, but the way they have them used in the EM model is really confusing to him. He may not homeschool come the fall as he is really pushing to go to PS for 1st grade. I of course am dreading the EM problems I think he'll encounter but at least I've already gone through it recently with my other child and have some handy sheets prepared to assist me if he is confused with the program.

Done? HA! Our summer just started. My 2 just finished PS yesterday. We had quite a few snow days to make up for this year. :glare: If I ever said to them "Summer is now over and we're going to start our Homeschool tomorrow", I think they'd kill me. :lol:

Because of the age of the children involved, I agree with the majority. This is tacky. Camp is not a necessity at this age. If the children were younger then I can see it being a necessity, especially if both parents work during the day. The children cannot stay home alone all day every day without proper supervision. Since 3 of them are teenagers with one of them being old enough to work as it is, then they are very capable of staying at home alone and watching the younger child.

Thank you for sharing the list.

I'm glad to see there is someone here from the same town! I'm new to hs-ing, so new that I haven't even started yet. ;) DS8 will be starting 3rd grade in Sept, and DS6 will be starting 1st grade. Right now I'm in gather mode. I can't believe the wealth of information out there. It's a daunting task trying to weed through it all to figure out what I need and what I can live without. :ohmy:

I'm sure my username already gave it away. :tongue_smilie: I live in Merrimack NH and will be homeschooling 2 boys starting in Sept. :D