I grew up in a small town and truly it is a totally different way of life. I sent a teenaged friend to the bank for me with a written note to withdraw money from my account... and they actually gave him the money. There were 2 stop lights downtown that got turned off every night at 5 pm and were not even turned on at all on Sundays. The ENTIRE police blotter was printed in the newspaper every Tues & Thurs.... with stories like a horse in a house on Pecan St. and goats loose on Guadeloupe. Someone asks what special thing you had to do earlier in the week because they noticed you didn't make your usual turn onto their street at your usual time that day. You lock your house, but keep the key hanging on a nail right beside the door in case anyone needs to get in for something and you're not home. And my personal favorite was when a classmate of mine in high school got called to the principal's office. He never got in trouble so we all asked what the deal was when he got back to class. He had forgotten to take his gun out of the back of the truck before coming to school that morning and was told to go take it home and leave it there at lunch!

We just experienced this last Friday as well. Our homeschool group's Sand Sculpture Day got rained out, so we decided to head to the aquarium with another family. When we got there, there were already 3 lower elementary groups lined up waiting to go in and at least 2 Jr High age groups. Inside it was even worse. We found at least 3 other school groups inside and the noise was deafening! Ds and his friend walked with their hands over their ears and we had to basically shout in each other's ears to be heard. This is NOT a large aquarium by any stretch of the imagination either. We gave up at the 3rd exhibit and went to a park instead despite the dark clouds and threat of rain. It was blissfully empty there!:D But, as we were leaving the aquarium, another 2 tour buses were pulling up to offload!

There are things called opaque projectors that would allow you to project an image from a book onto a vertical surface, but I haven't seen one in years. I borrowed one from my dad's office for a school project back when I was in high school. Sorry, I don't know of any current brands or prices. Hope someone else can give that info. :)

Anything carbonated will always and forever be a coke to me! I grew up where they turn the traffic lights off at 5 pm )and don't even bother turning them on on Sunday), kids are reminded by the princpal to go home at lunch and take the gun out of the truck before they come back to school, and you can send a friend to the bank with only a written note to withdraw money from your account.... and they'll do it! I just can.not get used to hearing soda or pop! :tongue_smilie:

My dd has a friend who keeps asking to "go to homeschool" with her. She evidently thinks we get up and go somewhere and have classes just like she does.

Me, too! My "d"h left us about 2 yrs ago, but we only went to court to divorce this past Feb, and I still haven't gotten the paperwork from it. I'm committed to continue homeschooling since my dd has quite a few learning differences that wouldn't do well in a public classroom. I get most of my living money from child support since their dad has a very well paying job. I also am the head of my church's nursery, which is a paid position, sell Usborne books, teach another child for pay, and do a bit of online work with websites and such. My biggest challenges are staying motivated to keep the house orderly and finding time to myself. By the time I've planned, taught, worked, shopped, cooked, etc... I'm done and let a lot of things go I used to not. Since their dad works out of the country, they only see him about 1 weekend every 4 or 5 months. I am totally responsible for them the rest of the time, and I live over 1000 miles from the nearest family. I do have a lot of good friends, a good church family, and an awesome homeschool group to help out, though.

But, you see, the portion in Genesis 2 doesn't say that man was created before the animals. It just states that He had created the animals and then brought them to Adam after Adam was created. (I'm no Hebrew scholar, but many commentators say that the language of the 2nd chapter suggests the pluperfect tense.) Like Aubrey mentioned, Genesis 1 is the big picture while Genesis 2 provides the details specifically as they relate to Adam. It talks specifically about plants of the fields, not necessarily every form of plant life. When it talks about the trees being made to grow up out of the ground, that was in reference to the special garden God planted for man, not the whole earth in general. Chapter 2 takes the 6th day of creation and goes into detail what the 1st chapter briefly described. Does that make sense?

I'll be a dissenting voice. I personally don't see a problem with it. My dad would often take my friend with us when he was helping me learn how to drive even before I had my permit. She was learning to drive also and her parents didn't have time to work with her so he took us both and let us take turns driving his car on some stretch of open road. I think that as long as the Dad is in the car and your son knows how to behave as a passenger it might actually be a good thing. Your son would get to see how much a new driver actually has to pay attention and exactly what things he needs to observe that he might not think about now. The other kid gets a chance to practice having passengers with Dad around to keep a handle on the situation and cement what is and is not acceptable while driving. Of course, it would depend on what the traffic is like and what time of day they are driving. I wouldn't feel comfortable with it say in Houston proper or on the interstate.... but just around quiet city streets and not heavy traffic, sure.

There are some denominations that do consider any anger to be a sin, just like there are some denominations that consider any drinking of alcohol to be a sin. I was using one reading & phonics curriculum that had 1st graders reading section after section about not becoming angry under any circumstance. I eventually stopped using it, but not because of that. I would just explain my own personal views on the matter after those portions were read and move on. I consider myself a Christian and feel there is no restriction on becoming angry. Like you said, it's what you do with the feelings that could be sinful. I can't remember the exact chapter & verse, but I do recall reading many times, "Be angry and sin not." Even God becomes angry with a righteous anger.

This is the first year I've NOT had to do 2 states in almost a decade, BUT..... I'm trying to wade my way through doing income earned outside the US for the first time. Aack! I'm definitely sharing your misery.

Keeping them rearfacing in those bigger carseats may be safer, but it's just about impossible for those of us driving older, smaller cars. I drive a 1995 Camry that has absolutely NO tether points or LATCH anchor points. From what I've read, virtually all the larger seats require the top tether when the kids get above a certain weight. Also, I tried to put my Britax Marathon rearfacing for my then 1 yr old and it just.would.not fit, even with the passenger seat all the way forward and the back of the front seat leaned forward a bit. I had to turn him forward once he outgrew his infant carrier since I already had the Britax from his sister and couldn't afford another seat that was rated for rear-facing at his weight.

The only book I've really wanted to burn was actually a children's book. I can't remember the title, but I found it displayed on top of the shelves in my library's children's section a few months ago, and the cover intrigued me. The boy in the story wanted all the adults in his life to go away because he thought they were being mean to him. He wished on a magic box and they all died. He was even happy his parents died because of his wishes.:001_huh: The illustrations were even creepier than the story!

Thanks for the replies! I know it's a huge age range, but some of the younger kids are the siblings of the olders... you know how it goes! I had never heard of "The Elements" before and will definitely be checking it out. I do already have a copy of Adventures with Atoms and Molecules and Fizz, Bubble, Flash from when I was intending to do Elemental Science chem with my then 3rd grader. However, life got in the way and we never even downloaded the teacher's manual. That's one reason I'm leaning towards chem for this 4-H course. The other is my strong background in chem and little to none in life sciences. I'm using AiG's Properties of Ecosystems this year and have found it to be really dry. Is their chemistry one more engaging?

I might be teaching a science class for my homeschool group's 4-H club next year, chemistry if possible. I'm looking for a curriculum that would work for a wide variety of ages, or at least be easy to tweak. We'll have kids from K through 11th grade in the same class (only about 11 students total). It would not have to count as a full year credit for the high-schooler since he'll be doing work at his level at home and is just looking for a supplement to perhaps help him understand his own work better. We did this two years ago using Apologia's astronomy text and everyone loved it, but their chemistry text is definitely high school level and would be much too hard for the younger set. We met every week for the astronomy class, but have only been meeting every other week for last year and this. Any suggestions?

It's a mixed bag around here. There is one homeschool co-op in town that has actually been asked to leave certain establishments on field trips because of their behavior. The group I belong to has very strict by-laws pertaining to behavior and such so we don't have that much of an issue. Of course, there are the occaisional flare-ups, but the parents seem to be right on top of the situation and make the offender apologize or simply pack up and go home if the behavior doesn't improve. In fact at least 4 of our recent members actually came to our group to escape the co-op I mentioned.

:D I LOVE his attitude! My dd was like that, too. Just be aware that it may take a while longer than you think it should for him to wake up dry. My dd has sensory issues, too, and she FINALLY didn't need waterproof pads or GoodNights right before she turned 8. Of course, night-time wetting runs in my family as well. My uncle and several of my cousin's kids were almost into their teens before they were dry all night. Hopefully, that won't be the case with your son.

Thank you all so much for the info! I now have a LOT of reading and more research to do.... I guess what bothers me most is that she could do these things in Kindergarten! At the end of K she could add up to 10, say the next number through about 50, count backwards from 20, etc. The more we work, the worse she seems to get. We also just had our ST re-eval. Things she could do 6 months ago, she now can't. Even her therapist is stumped.

I have been receiving emails with her updates and links to download the new material automatically. I bought the entire Light Blue series last year during the buyer's co-op's Math Madness month and have received at least 3 updates. One of those was a complete reworking of the 3rd grade material.

I didn't get past this post, but thought I'd chime in. When I was in school, algebra simply wasn't an option before 9th grade. Honors track students were placed in "Honors Math" in 8th and then Alg 1 in 9th. I was still able to take Trig and Alg 2 in the same year along with AP chemistry and then AP calculus together with AP physics. There was room in my senior year to add in Elementary Analysis together with the calc, but I decided against it. So, while I don't think Algebra has to wait till 9th, it's not the end of the world if it ends up that way.

What do you do with a child that simply can NOT count on from one number to the next? My dd will be 10 this summer and we have not gotten past a mid-1st grade level in math. I'm beginning to think it all boils down to this problem. I have tried and tried and tried to get her to see that once you know you've got 4 (or 15, or 30), you don't have to start counting at 1 again to add something to it! She says it's too confusing that way and she gets all messed up. She HAS to start at 1 every.single.time! For example, if I ask, "what's 2 more than 7?" she starts counting at 1. Or even, "what's 3 more than 30?" she'll start counting from 1 even when looking at the numbers on the 100 chart!!:banghead: She doesn't understand why 8+2 is related to 10-8. She was frustrated to the point of tears just a few weeks ago trying to write 1 addition problem and 2 subtraction problems for a picture showing a set of 7 blue balls and 5 red ones. She still doesn't understand place value and gets hundreds, tens, and units confused. And yet, she was on grade-level last year (3rd) for fractions! She thinks fractions are easy and I don't know why. I have the RightStart abacus and games, MUS blocks, cuisenaire rods, a math balance, fraction balance, a hundred number chart made of Lauri pegs.... I've tried just about everything I can think of to help her understand how numbers work and it just isn't helping! I don't think it's just my teaching since ds has learned everything I've been trying to teach her and is now teaching himself multiplication. I just don't know what else to do!

What do you do with a child that simply can NOT count on from one number to the next? My dd will be 10 this summer and we have not gotten past a mid-1st grade level in math. I'm beginning to think it all boils down to this problem. I have tried and tried and tried to get her to see that once you know you've got 4 (or 15, or 30), you don't have to start counting at 1 again to add something to it! She says it's too confusing that way and she gets all messed up. She HAS to start at 1 every.single.time! For example, if I ask, "what's 2 more than 7?" she starts counting at 1. Or even, "what's 3 more than 30?" she'll start counting from 1 even when looking at the numbers on the 100 chart!!:banghead: She doesn't understand why 8+2 is related to 10-8. She was frustrated to the point of tears just a few weeks ago trying to write 1 addition problem and 2 subtraction problems for a picture showing a set of 7 blue balls and 5 red ones. She still doesn't understand place value and gets hundreds, tens, and units confused. And yet, she was on grade-level last year (3rd) for fractions! She thinks fractions are easy and I don't know why. I have the RightStart abacus and games, MUS blocks, cuisenaire rods, a math balance, fraction balance, a hundred number chart made of Lauri pegs.... I've tried just about everything I can think of to help her understand how numbers work and it just isn't helping! I don't think it's just my teaching since ds has learned everything I've been trying to teach her and is now teaching himself multiplication. I just don't know what else to do!

:crying: Oh my..... The devastation is unimaginable!

:iagree: My ex would constantly invite "the guys" over without ever mentioning it to me, and sometimes one of them would even show up to the house before my ex would get home. I would often seclude myself in the bedroom to read or in the living room if they were outside... but ONLY once the kids were in bed and not needing to be watched/cared for. I just couldn't stand the constant drinking, swearing, and basically shop talk any longer. Now, if any wives were over, too, it would be different. I would stay around and be pleasant until I just HAD to get to bed. My ds was still very little at the time and he got up super early every morning.

I read the whole series as a freshman in high school after my mom recommended the first one to me. I know she read the first one, but I'm not sure about the rest. I was SO bored and school and reading anything I could get my hands on from Agatha Christie and Isaac Asimov to Danielle Steele (NOT my favorite) and Michael Crichton. I don't think Clan of the Cave Bear bothered me as much as Ender's Game did, though.

I also never remember not being able to read. My mom likes to tell about my 1st grade teacher not knowing what to do with me because I could read so well. Our school didn't have a school library, each teacher kept her own library in her class and I had read every.single.book in her class library well before Christmas. I think I was reading Beverly Cleary in 2nd and Isaac Asimov by 4th or 5th. However I do distinctly remember being taught phonics in 1st grade... down to the schwa sound being represented with an upside-down e. We had to write our spelling words both the regular way and how they would appear in dictionary for pronounciation. I'm still waiting for some sort of "aha" moment for my dd. She's getting better but will soon be 10 and is not quite past Henry & Mudge type books. She does have other issues, though, that make learning and remembering quite hard. Ds seems to be able to read much better than he realizes or lets on. I think his "aha" moment is just around the corner.