Give me a bit. It's still the 4th over here. Takes us a while to catch up! :coolgleamA:

The discount store where I shop doesn't offer this service and I am not in a position to up our grocery budget to accommodate the stores that do offer it. If possible I would do it in a hot minute and hire a maid service too. No guilt, not even a little. I have other things to do. Unfortunately, this will not happen for me , so I will continue to schlep to the store and back, even bagging my own food..... sigh.

Here placement tests and disabilities are irrelevant. They place students based on age by the cut-off date. When dd1 started school in third grade the issues were primarily getting used to things like standing in line, turning in work, remembering her homework folder, raising her hand.... Go over that stuff with him. He will remember some from kindergarten but a "burocracy refersher" would likely be helpful. He will be fine, really. In my experience kids move in and out of elementary classes pretty frequently. I bet some soccer friends will be in his class and they will just take him into their group without a hitch.

If she was your only child, I would say to keep her home and try again after the first of the year; maybe she would be ready then. However, families aren't just about the needs of one person. SOmetimes you have to make decisions that are best for the group as a whole, including your other children. You know she is well cared for and enjoying herself. Maybe a little special time with mommy on occasion will help her feel better about those times she is away from you.

I am almost 38 and will be starting back to school in the Spring. I don't think I will qualify for any aid, but I will file a FASFA because I am pretty sure it will then split the expected family contribution between my college age son and myself, helping him get more financial aid. That's just a guess though. I'm just starting the process and it turns out it is taking a long time, so I am glad I am doing everything early.

I would just ask here. This place is smarter than Google.

Your oldest is 22yo. You don't have to be done with babies! ........ you just have to be patient and let the next generation take over the hard parts.

I think you have to be creative to make it work but it is possible. Can you get up early to start work and have her sleep in? Once she is up she has a pre-determined list of things to do independently including chores. Kids with two full-time working parents so a lot to help around the house and with meal prep. Then in the afternoon when you are done with work, you do the one-on-one schooling things with her. I would continue to work on getting into some kind of drop-off program or part-time homeschool classes or sports activities that she could attend. Even if you can't get into a regular co-op right away, I think you will find those waitlists start getting called in September when people don't show up and then in January when people drop out or move, so do not give up on that. With all this extra income consider hiring a college student to be her part-time "nanny". (certainly no more money than the private schools you were looking at) The student can take her places, do time-consuming science experiments or art projects with her, go to museums... whatever. If you aren't in a set co-op the college student can take her to homeschool days at local historical sites and children's museums and run her around to any number of activities. There is a family in our co-op that has a retired homeschool mom basically act as their kids' governess. She homeschools them and runs them to activities and when the kids need to be in 2 different places the mom and governess divide and conquer :) Mom works full time but it is for their family business so she can be a little flexible and she usually brings her work to co-op and sits in the back with the laptop. I know parents who work full-time and homeschool. It can be done. You do have to be creative about it. Think of it less as homeschooling and more like you are directing her education. You don't have to do it all. You are more like the coordinator of her educational opportunities. Another alternative is part-time public school. I have a friend who is sending her kids next year to the local elementary school for a half-day. It is the appropriate compromise for her family and the way the school is set-up it will not be disruptive to them either. I wouldn't jump ship quite yet. I would wait a year and see if you can adapt things to your new reality. Last year you were caught off-guard but this year you know what your workload is going to be like and you can plan for the changes.

Actually, it's just Directors who have to have all their kids in the program, but the Challenge level tutors are considered directors, so that gets confusing.

No tests or grades until High School. With Abeka at the last 25% of a text will be covered as review at the beginning of the next year. Look, if Abeka DVD's work for you and you love them and the kids love them... great. But honestly, I can't think of a more complete way to just recreate school in your home - without the fun parts of school! Abeka was made to keep 30 kids busy for 7 hours a day. You can cut out a ton of it, really.

This would be a big 'no' in our religious tradition, and I have younger children, so nope, not gonna happen. If you are old enough to be engaging in adult relationships to that level then you are old enough to pay your own rent. I realize this isn't where everyone is, but that's how it goes here.

Ya, I think the guy pays. Dh paid for all dates even though he was a poor single father. Although I did pay his rent once, buy clothes for Dss and I bought groceries frequently during the months we were engaged. By then I figured we were a team and it was very shortly going to be a collective effort. We were from similar socio-economic backgrounds and that was significantly helpful. As a parent, I would expect that if a young man is dating my daughter, he is paying. However, I will be having conversations with dd about being a polite date and being aware of the sacrifice the young man is making to take her out. We encourage casual dates like going for coffee or hanging out and letting me feed them, especially as teens.

Nope. At that age she can't even drive herself to the store or anything. Is there a friend she can stay with? Do you both need to go help ds? I would look for other options, but ultimately not leave her alone for that long.

There are all sorts of great programs out there. My current favorite is Lively Latin. I have used Latin for Children, Minimus and Prima Latina for various children as well. The thing that made the biggest difference was getting a program for ME. I realized that I needed to understand the overall structure of the language. How many declensions are there? How many conjugations? That the case of adjectives matches their nouns and what is controlled by the preposition. I needed that global view for myself before I could really understand enough to answer questions and not just be a few pages ahead of the kids. For me, I got Henle Latin for that top-view and then Lingua Latina par se Illustrata for fun and practice actually reading. The first time you read and understand something in Latin, without translating it in your head, just understanding it, a total rush. So, pick a great program for your kids, but don't be afraid to choose something for you that fits your educational style.

dd went to ps in 3rd grade and truly, she did so well and they were able to give her things that I couldn't. The first week was tough, there were some tears because she missed home, but not much, and she was really tired. I found that her elementary teachers were mostly wonderful. That first year she had a man who retired after that year. He was patient and experienced and could handle anything. 4th grade was a teacher in her third year. She didn't have the wisdom and experience but she made up for it with creativity and enthusiasm. Her 5th-grade teacher was older and I could tell it was wearing on her, but she was still a very good teacher and understood her job was to get these little kids ready for the middle school. She really pushed them and it paid off. Each teacher was a different personality, but each worked really hard and dd did well. I made it clear to the teachers that I appreciated and supported them. That went a long way twoard a good working relationship. For the older ones you will want to talk about raising hands, and standing in line, and what to do if they are done with something and everyone else is still working, and how bathroom passes might work differently depending on the teacher. It is the group dynamics and structure that they are most likely to be confused by at first, but they will pick it up quickly. For the littlest ones, everyone is still learning that stuff so I wouldn't worry about it. Really, all of your kids are still young. They are not expected to know how to handle these things yet. That is part of what school is for. They will be okay.