I also use SWR for my ds6. I chose it over AAS because it's more flexible and moves faster. My ds would have been bored with the pace of AAS. He likes SWR, especially the rules and markings. We are going through the program at the suggested pace which is fine for my mathy boy and his spelling is improving beyond the level of the words he's learning in SWR. I do suspect that I'll have to start further into the lists with ds4. Language is his gifting and he can easily spell the early lists already with an understanding of the rules and phonograms.

Oxyclean. You can soak the clothes in the hottest water possible for the fabric and it will even get out old blood stains. I've salvaged a lot of baby clothes using that stuff.

YES! Cutting out sugar is the key to weightless for me and keeping it low is crucial for maintenance. Dh and I enjoy the holidays but I usually do a sugar fast in Jan. I've found that I develop a sugar addiction easily and have to go cold turkey in order to regain control and for healthy food to taste good again. It'll be hard this year since I''ll be 7 months pg and craving sweet stuff but I'll manage. :glare:

This is what we do. Ds has doesn't do many worksheets outside of math. We also do quite a bit of dictation with our spelling program (SWR). My ds doesn't love notebooking yet so we do a lot of drawings and narration instead. As he gets older and is able to write more independently, I'll require more notebooking.

We moved here to San Antonio from San Francisco. We didn't like much about the Bay Area so Tx has been a breath of fresh air for us. We are still trying to figure out the catch with our house after 3 years. We're still in reverse sticker shock after living in SF and Boston. No problems yet but why was it so cheap? :D. The weather isn't my favorite but isn't terrible down here. The humidity isn't bad in this area but it does stay hot for a lot of the year. I prefer Boston weather so winter is really more fall for me. I miss snow. Now, it's great for my dc...Nearly everyday outside of July and August is an outside play day and my ds is still taking golf lessons in Nov and Dec. My family is allergy free, thankfully, but allergies affect a lot of people. Our biggest offenders are oak and cedar. The community is great. It's diverse and accepting. I seems that's true in the bigger Tx cities. The people are really nice. The Bay Area was tough for us in this respect and we're glad to be in a different environment. There's also a lot for families to do here. I agree with what the PP said about the lack of parks and outdoorsy things. We have some but it isn't as plentiful as where I grew up in Oregon. One thing I like about SA is that you can get acreage but still be close to the city. We live in the 'burbs with look alike houses and community pools but drive 10 mins north of us and you're in the middle of nowhere. That's one of the draws I'm pitching to my parents but they'll never move outside the PNW. For a girl that told my dh I never wanted to live in Tx, I really like living here. BTW, I did like in West Tx back when I was still in the military. I can't say I liked anything about it except that the people were friendly. It was a very different experience than we have here.

:iagree: well said! It isn't any harder to write for a lefty...just different.

Coking...no Cooking...yes. I've just started including my ds6 with helping out in the kitchen. He's nowhere near being able to handle knives or the stove himself but I'm hoping in a few years he'll be good help. He can, however, make a toasted cheese sandwich in the toaster oven. That skill's come in handy lately.

I tilt my paper to the right and still manage to slant my cursive properly. It will take some time and work before it will feel comfortable for your ds since he's remediating as it would anyone who is making changes to their writing posture whether left or right-handed.

We're doing it right mow and really like it. The experiments are coordinated with the reading. There aren't many at the beginning but it speeds up in the middle. The TM is mostly just a schedule, but it does have assignments for each day. Mostly they are "read the pages and notebook" but it also has you define important terms found in the reading. Because I'm using it with a 1st grader, I don't require him to write much. He mostly narrates to me and will draw a relavant picture. All of the experiments have been huge hits and have led my ds to declare science his favorite subject.

Isn't it great! I tried to use EB with my oldest a couple of years ago and didn't like it at all. I decided to try EM with my middle guy and love it! He's almost done with EM B and looking forward to PM down the road.

:iagree: There is nothing wrong with sticking with picture books at that age. You'll probably see a lot of improvement in his ability to listen and comprehend (that's a biggie) longer, more complicated stories in the next couple of years but there is no reason to rush into it.

I'm a lefty and the mom of a lefty... Sounds like you're doing great. I think it would be easier to explain to an 8 yr old that he needs to make some small changes to reap the benefits in the future. I had to do some remediation with my oldest last year when he came home after a year in preK and it helped to explain that eventually that my way would be better. It didn't take him long to agree. Your ds's writing will probably not be perfect for awhile. I was still perfecting the slant of my cursive in high school. With my lefty (4yo), I'm going only going focus on paper position, grip, letter formation, and hand position (not hooking) at first and let the artistry develop later. I smudged as a child but not any longer. I think a lot of lefties refine their hand position over time to correct that...and learn not use certain types of pens like fountain or erasable.

We aren't strict WTMers either but our 3Rs are rigorous. To balance that, I keep our electives fun. I also consider everything besides math, language arts, and read alouds elective...even history and science. Electives are also the first thing to get pushed from the schedule. Since they are so much fun, they're usually requested outside of school time and get done anyway. We are actually still doing science and Latin this week due to a special request from my 1st grader even though we 'officially' have the week off. With all of that said, we do everything in my sig along with a few extras not listed and school a couple hours a day not counting read alouds. All three of my boys enjoy read alouds and we could spend hours doing that during inclement weather. On nice weather days or just plain busy days, it might be cut down to 1 hour (including bedtime). This has worked out well for us this year and I don't plan on changing anything for my next 1st grader. However, his view of fun electives might differ and we'll adjust that.

I don't think you made a mistake talking about hs'ing with this person. They seemed genuinely interested. Now that you know they aren't you can stop talking about it. Their opinion has no effect on your hs'ing. We (hsers) sometimes have a need for validation in our choices. I have that. However, I've seen that trying to get out of our harshest critics isn't a wise course...especially with such a young child. I'm blessed to have few IRL critics of my choice to hs but I know that several on this board have dealt with a lot and have learned to ignore it. BTW, it sounds like PR is working well for you and your ds. Congrats on the progress. It might help to remember that even brick-and-mortar schools don't agree on the best way to teach reading.

:party: Way to go! We're going on 7 years and expecting about 3 more.

1-21 lb turkey + 1-15.5 lb turkey all for 8 adults and 8 children. I hope to a lot leftover for all of my post Thanksgiving recipes.

Just got back and have my 2 turkeys (15.5 lbs & 21 lbs) thawing in the fridge. Grocery store wasn't busy, kids were great and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg. Great start to the holidays. Doesn't sound like enough to me either. Another option is to borrow a turkey roaster. We cook two turkeys each Thanksgiving and Christmas. We grill one on a charcoal grill and cook one in my turkey roaster. They both come out great and it leaves the oven to heat rolls.

We're heading out now! Got my list and getting the kids dressed. I like shopping for Thanksgiving. I just hate the dreaded cleaning out the fridge to mke room for everything.

I just picked it up at the library and started reading it last night. I've only read the goal-setting part but I like it so far. Thanks for the rec.

I'd still start with the Primary book. The book takes into account that the child is advanced so it won't be covering typical 1-3 grade topics. My ds is almost done with 2B (plus exploring algebraic concepts and negative numbers on his own) and is really at the entry level for the book. There are sample chapters and tables of contents for both books at Prufrock Press so you could see if your ds is beyond the first book.

I just picked up Zacarro's Primary Challenge Math. It has chapters on a lot of topics from money to algebra but is written to advanced 1st-3rd graders. My ds6 loves it and it's the first book he hasn't been able to race through because it is pretty challenging. He can work through the first 2 levels in each chapter leaving the harder 2 levels for later. It is a great filler which is what I bought it for as well since I'm waiting to place a big curriculum order after Christmas. There is also Challenge Math for 4-6th graders.

I just put it on hold at the library. Thanks for the rec!

You might be surprised by how much they pick up even when it seems they're not paying attention. My ds4 is the poster boy for this. Ds6 needs to be actively listening. He'll often snuggle next to me or walk in circles around the room while I'm reading. He gets too engrossed in what he's doing otherwise and forgets to listen. There are so many great picture books for this age. I highly recommend Sonlight's P3/4 for the ages of your dc. It's really just a great collection of stories, most of which would be at your library. I bought it because it gets used each and every day in our house by all three boys. My older two are now reading the stories to each other and their little brother.

Wow, I thought getting up at 7:30ish would be late on the poll but find myself with the majority. I used to get up later but ds2 is an early riser (for our family). My only issue with it is that my only student, ds6, is the latest riser and we don't start school as early as I'd like. Sure, I could get him up earlier but I appreciate the beauty of sleeping in too much. We get restless and wake him around 9 most days.

This is what I do. Both of my older boys will stop me if they need to know what a word means so often I let it go unless they ask. Lately, I find myself explaining idioms more than individual words.