No.

We are so stoked to finally have an appointment for DS to have an ASD evaluation. I just received our packet of info in the mail with a variety of questionnaires to be filled out by a parent and a "teacher." He hasn't really had a consistent teacher for more than 2 hours once a week over a period of a couple of months. I feel these teachers don't know my son well at all. Should I still have them fill out the evaluations?

We are also LDS. We moved to a new area just a month before school was about to start (this was before we decided to homeschool). I desperately tried to find a preschool for my 4 year old to prepare her for kindergarten. All pre-schools in our area were full and we were on several waiting lists when I found a delightful private christian school that had a preschool in it. I completed the entire application (which was very detailed and lengthly) before touring the school with the principal. It was perfect and I was sure it would be a great fit for my daughter. At the very end of the tour, the principal asked which religion we were members of and I told him we were Mormon. He later went on to explain that we would not be accepted into the school because of our belief in the Book of Mormon. I was so broken hearted because we had no other preschool options. I could not understand how our belief in the Book of Mormon would change our status at the school. I later emailed him and tried to explain a little more about my religion and asked him to reconsider our application. I never heard back from him.

We're in Washtenaw county. Anyone else a little closer to us?

I keep my "homeschool" books on a particular bookcase. I use an IKEA Expedit book case so it is easy to sort them into categories. I more or less use the dewy decimal system and I keep science and history organized by our four year cycle. I also store our textbooks and workbooks on this shelf and have everything sorted by subject and grade level. The kids have access to this book shelf but they know they must keep things in order. This is our special "homeschool only" bookshelf and it seems to make the kids even more excited to read the books on it. We have several other bookshelves through out the house with a variety of books but none of them are directly used in our homeschool. They are in no particular order and the kids are given free reign. These books are torn and worn. I like having the two types of bookshelves in our house.

DD7 has a deep love for reading and writing. We don't use a formal "reading" program but we have several book lists we are following along with reading living books in each subject area. Because she is a natural speller, I've decided to drop formal spelling. I purchased Caesar's English with the intent of starting it "when she is ready," but after looking through the whole book, I see no reason to wait. She is ready. I mainly need help with writing and grammar. We have done a bit of WWE but she has already mastered the skills of narration and dictation so I've dropped it. I am not sure where to go next with writing. My gut tells me to just let her write on her own with out a formal program but I'm still not sure. She writes well and often. I don't have to prompt her to practice writing, she always has a pencil in her hand. Of course, she still has a lot to learn about writing, but I feel like now is not the time to push it. I have not been impressed with any writing program I've seen. Can someone just tell me it is okay to drop writing for now? If not, can you recommend something that we would enjoy? For grammar, we just finished FLL 3 and will be starting 4 in a couple of weeks. (I just updated my sig today.) We have done well with the FLL series and I expect that we will enjoy level 4. We have progressed much faster than I anticipated with grammar but DD seems to understand it before we learn it. Looking forward, I have no idea where to go with Grammar after FLL4. It seems like there are so many grammar options out there. Too many! I am really having a hard time sifting through all of the options to find something that will work well for us. After reading through Caesar's English, I feel like we may want to give MCT a try. The only other thing I have considered is Rod and Staff for Grammar. The samples I've seen online for both programs don't seem to help. Any input or ideas for us?

Perfect. Thank you!

Thanks for the encouragement and feedback everyone!

When we first decided to homeschool, I was so scared to tell my DH's family the news. It is no secret to his family that I am NOT the sharpest tool in the shed. How would I be able to educate our children? My husband and I have never had our IQs tested. Making an educated guess, his is really high, mine is average or low average. Our children have not yet had IQ tests either, but it is obvious to me (and every stranger that my children converse with) that DD7 and DS5 are very intelligent. Because my children are so gifted, I feel completely overwhelmed as their parent. Completely. Overwhelmed. They live in a world that I will never understand. Only after reading several books on gifted children and spending more than 2 years lurking in this forum have I found a little peace in this journey. When people notice how bright my children are they say things like, "Oh how wonderful it must be to have such smart children!" I usually smile and say something like, "Oh, thank you." But deep in my heart I want to say, "Actually it is SO hard! My kids have so many issues that accompany their giftedness. I can be really overwhelming. I feel lonely and isolated. No one can understand the experiences we are having." Anyone else feel this way sometimes? It maybe sounds.... ungrateful. I almost feel ashamed to admit those feelings now. As I mention almost every time I post, I am so grateful for this forum. I particularly enjoy hearing experiences from those of you who were gifted as children. Hearing your struggles as a child and then stories of overcoming those struggles give me hope for my children. I also love hearing about your gifted children. It helps me to realize that mine are not the only "quirky" ones in the world. Somehow, I know I will make it through our homeschooling journey. :001_smile:

This describes me 100% I do have one thing to add, though. Even though I am a former PS teacher I don't advertise it with pride. Just because I am a former teacher does not necessarily mean I am more qualified to homeschool. Maybe because I've seen so many terrible teachers in action, I know that a concerned mom and dad will do a much better job educating their child. I tutored in the math lab at my university for 2 years and that experience prepared me to homeschool my children much more than my undergrad and grad degrees in education.

Unfortunately we are the only church goers in our group and our church does not allow us to use the building for personal group activities like this. I may try calling around to other churches in our area. I know there are a few homecshool groups and coops in our area that meet at churches but a fee is charged by the church. I'll see what I can do, though Thanks for the ideas. I already have a few places in mind to call but I'm open to more ideas. Keep them coming!

I coordinate field trips and activities for our small homeschool group (5 - 10 families) each week. I am thinking of scheduling a monthly "show and tell" for the children. All of the children are age 8 and under and I think we will focus on sharing a favorite book, poem, or story each month. The goal is to practice public speaking. I would like to meet indoors at the same location each time. I live in a small condo and it is not possible to accommodate the group at my house. I don't think it would be possible to do it any one else's house, either. Most of us have babies and toddlers in tow as well. I hoped that we could possibly meet at our local library but they charge $200 to rent their multi-purpose room. Any other ideas of where we could do this?

I successfully started a small group in my area. I was more interested in informal playdates and field trips. Our first meeting was at our local library and we met another homeschool family there. We started with two families and grew to six by the end of the year. We meet once a week for playdates and try to do 1-2 field trips a month. Our kids are young (8 and under) so we keep the field trips simple. Grocery store tour, planetarium, recycle center, etc. We also do parties for Halloween, Christmas, and Valentines Day. We really like having a small group and have all become great friends. I've had to do all the leg work, but it has been worth it. Good luck!

:001_smile: This is Fred in our house, too.

I'll somewhat agree with the OP even though I know it is a loaded question. As a former PS teacher, the curriculum resources I had were TERRIBLE. I spent so. much. time. reworking it and basically writing my own. It was so overwhelming. I have seen dozens of programs since homeschooling that I would have LOVED to use as a PS teacher. I can't 100% remember how curriculum and textbooks were chosen for our school. I seem to remember a few big name companies sending in sample books for the teachers to look over. Many teachers didn't even bother to add their input. A few who did add their input seemed to pick the books with the most color and cute drawings. I recall one teacher that was adamant about a certain math curriculum that wasn't in the stack of samples but the school said no. I would have given my right arm to teach from Saxon or Singapore. I don't recall the math curriculum we used but it was awful!

THIS! Spanish and French have many similarities so it wouldn't be hard to transition to Spanish later if needed or desired. My husband and I speak Russian fluently (we're not native) and it seemed to be the most logical choice for my children despite it not being "useful." I spent 7+ years studying spanish (before learning Russian) and I felt like Spanish would be more useful than Russian. I don't speak Spanish and I don't love Spanish like I love Russian. Russian won in the end. I think when it comes to the tedious task of learning and teaching a second language, the parent really needs to be on board.

This is one thing that gives me comfort when I am feeling inadequate. I know that no other teacher or person cares about my children as much as I do. When I taught in public school, I would often see students that weren't having their needs met for one reason or another. I made my best effort to help these students but again and again I felt like I needed 40 hours a week to meet their needs alone. This is what I love about homeschooling, I can put all of my energy and power into my two (really 3) children to meet their exact educational needs. No other person in the world could do that for me. Yes, there is probably someone else in the world that, if they were my children's mother, would do a much better job of educating my kids. I have to tell myself that I am what I am and that is enough. Not perfect, just enough.

Some problems do need to be done to the side or on a separate piece of paper. We usually used a separate paper and then just wrote the final answer on the worksheet. The majority, however, can be done on the worksheet.

I have no advice for you particular situation whether or not Saxon is a good fit for you. As for what to buy, when we used intermediate 3 this year we only used the text book, the test book, and written practice book. The written practice book are all of the practice problems from the textbook written on consumable worksheets. The practice book isn't required but it is great for kids who don't want to copy the problems over to a new page. I think it simplified math for us. The power up book isn't required but it may be useful to you. We didn't use it, we just did the power ups orally from the textbook. I know they also have an adaptions workbook that is designed for children with learning disabilities. I know nothing about the book but you may be interested in looking into it. http://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=017959 Good luck!

Thank you for this link. It confirms my desire to have my son tested. I can't believe I have waited this long! I've been in denial for so long thinking this is just a phase or he is just a "quirky" kid.

Thank you everyone for your responses!

I agree, I am not worried about his reading comprehension or his test scores. I am mostly worried about his behaviors and I think I am feeling overanxious about getting the evaluation done. Thank you for your perspective.

Thank you Lecka for your thoughtful response. It helps me to hear about the experiences other people have had. We have been on the waiting list for 3 months now and we are on their call list for cancelations. Hopefully we'll get in soon.

There is also a "Power Up" workbook that we found redundant and unnecessary. I didn't need the solutions manual, either. The adaptions book is designed for children with learning disabilities. I'm not entirely sure what is included in it but we didn't buy it. The "Written Practice Workbooks" and the "Testing Book" are the ones that we used. HTH.

The workbooks are the problem sets in the textbook. We liked having it in worksheet form so we didn't have to copy problems from the book. The tests come in a separate book.