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

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.

Like so many things, it seems to come down to the people involved. Our CC is that cost only at the challenge level where it is very much like a UMS. Ours is the only one I know well obviously so I can't speak to the others. The teachers are moms, but before they were moms they were lawyers, teachers, nurses and at least one dentist and a professional Cellist. They are collectively some of the smartest women I have ever met. I have read many a co-op/ CC horror story online, so I have enough perspective to know how fortunate I am.

Several posters have asked why people would join CC since there are other options..... I can't speak for other people, but for us, there aren't' other options. When the kids were younger it was all play groups while I wanted academics. We lived here for 5 years before I realized what the issue was. All the local co-ops are by invitation only. I didn't know anyone, so I could never get to know anyone. As the kids got older there were less academic groups for their age avalible and those that existed needed some kind of password voodoo to get any information about. People had their litt

Dh calls is a homeschool MLM ( and I work for two CC communities in the area!) Like any co-op, it is very very dependent on the people you are working with. If you have a good Director it can be a great place that is super supportive of classical education and an academically focused homeschool. At the 7-12 th grade level it functions like a UMS and your experience is even more dependent on the teacher. Our community is established enough that a small group of us basically pick who we want for each position, and tell the area manager (our boss) who it is so we don't end up with inexpe

Maybe this has been said, but the kids need to document EVERYTHING. Everytime they have a substandard dinner. Everytime they gask for homework help and it isn't given, every curse word, negative thing said about their mom, everything. With dates and in a hidden notebook. I suggest the two teens each keep one and hide them is separate locations (like their school lockers) in case one is found. They document everything and submit those notebooks (after copies are made) to the court along with well-written letters of their own preferences at the end of the trial period. If any of these childr

I really, really dislike Saxon math - serious visceral reaction. I actually have some good reasons why I don't use it, or recommend it, but my initial reaction is because I had to use it as a kid.

I

Sounds like a great solution.