Sounds like what I've been learning about in our adoption classes on childhood trauma. It sounds like, for whatever reason, Christmas is a trigger for your child and they are showing their grieving through anger towards you. I'm sorry - it must be very hard all around. Your solution sounds very loving to all parties involved. I hope it is the start of new traditions that can make for a more positive holiday time. Hugs.

I got an email too. I'll have to log on and see what we need to do to find a proctor.

Does your husband have asthma? I have found that using my inhaler (even when I didn't feel I needed it) will make that feeling go away. I believe it is my body trying to tell me it needs more air or feels slightly smothered. If I check my lung capacity before doing it, I see it is down just a bit - not dangerously low but not my normal.

Grace Lin has a middle grades trilogy that we love. Appropriate for all ages.

Yes, it is expensive. I bought some used and think they are neat. Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding is also good (better, perhaps), but it is work to structure it and plan. MBtP takes very little thought/planning to implement decently. As far as writing ability and matching age, I just go with a higher age bracket and don't expect things to be written but discussed. A science curriculum isn't necessary, but if someone with an advanced and connection-making bright child wants one, I think MBtP is a lot better than many texts and other curricula I've seen.

Moving Beyond the Page is an option to check out.

Something like "Thank you for your participation"

Chester Comix - you can get them on Amazon, but we did get a good deal at Homeschool Buyer's Co-op for all of them. Fun history resource.

A few thoughts: Is it possible that your son is extremely quick at memorizing facts, but understanding the concepts takes him more work (not necessarily more than average, but more than fact memory work)? They are very different tasks. Would it be helpful for you to give him a math test to see what level he is at in different areas? Then you could skip things he has mastered and focus on things that are new. The ADAM test is good. Just don't let him answer "I don't know" - that makes different areas of the test stop - just have him guess. There isn't a penalty. I know the frustration of feeling "behind" for the school year in a subject, even though it doesn't really matter *I* had a vision and it bothered me that I wasn't fulfilling it. FWIW, it helps a LOT in homelearning if you can let go of that. It's about learning concepts, not completing curriculum. Math is the worst for that, but there is so much value in deeply integrating math through play - board games, cooking, fun stuff... As they get older those things don't work to cover the material, but in lower elementary they are better than a workbook and cover the same stuff. HTH

Yes. It took a day or two for us to get an email from them acknowledging we'd done the test, so I was feeling a little unsure. But we got an email today and it said they'd be in touch about things.

As they get older, they cost more. For a Golden Retriever, I think if you expected a monthly cost of about $200, that'd be pretty normal. Food, grooming, flea/tick stuff, toy or pet bed/blankets, etc. You can do it on less, and we have, but in general that's what I'd expect. If you don't spend it all, set some aside for the vet bills. Vaccinations. Allergy meds (I never thought I'd be person who bought daily allergy meds for their dog, but when she needs them, you buy them!). When they are young there are the added training costs and setup costs (crate, toys, pooper scooper or bags or what have you). When they are old you are left wondering how much you should pay for and do to prolong their life. They bring unconditional love and joy, and a golden will bring a LOT of hair. :) Good luck with your decision! ETA: For the cost of the dog, even a paperless golden around here would be hundreds of dollars. However, it is better to go with a reputable breeder, and that is in the thousands. And really, ultimately the initial cost is nothing compared to the regular costs.

That sounds very hard. I remember being the daughter home after university, but my kids aren't that old yet. Would it help to have a small amount she pays as rent/cleaning fee? Have a hired maid come 2-4x month and clean the bathroom and perhaps another little bit with the $$? Then things would be cleaner, you wouldn't have to do it, and your daughter wouldn't have to do it either. For meals, would it work for you to just assume she won't be there, but would want the leftovers for her lunch the next day (so you'd make enough for her to eat too)? That way, you wouldn't end up frustrated and disappointed wondering if she would come, but if she did come for supper you'd have food to serve her? For the life choices, it must be so hard to watch. I know my parents watched me make some pretty unwise choices as a young adult. I don't know how a parent does it with grace, but you can. You've gotten this far. I don't know how you can help her, perhaps there are ways you can ask her to buddy with you on growing certain healthy behaviors, and that might lead to her working on them with you? I really don't know. Hugs.

Sounds like family camp to me. It also sounds a bit like some resorts or cruise ships, except of course a cruise ship isn't in the woods.

My son did the math and computational tests yesterday. Anyone else do them? He found them fun. I haven't gotten any results back about if he made it to round 2 or not - I suppose that would come after the testing window is closed on the 18th? Anyone familiar with it?

We have dawdling around here too. One thing that helps is kids have to be dressed before breakfast. Also, breakfast must be started by a certain time or it is restricted to something quick/small/short. I'm thinking about making hair brushing a prerequisite to breakfast too, although that is possible to do in the car.

I have a similar dog, but now she's old and tired. Great companion, loved walks but if she saw something enticing - she'd pull quick and hard. Back when she was young and I'd walk her and a stroller at the same time, I found an easy way to solve this was to use a halti head harness. It is like the Easy Walk one above, from what I see. When they pull it turns their head back to facing you. I am not sure how it would work with a long lead, though. FWIW, impulse training would be the gold standard for dealing with this. My harness is more of a quick and dirty method - it gives results but doesn't actually solve the underlying issue so you always need the harness (or you need them to get old and not care anymore ;)). Now that she's old she walks so nicely a small child can walk her with or without the Halti (but I would be a little worried she'd fall back into her old ways if a deer bounded by as we were walking ;)).

Me too. My Pampered Chef can opener is at least 10, closer to 15 years old. Still works. And no sharp edges.

I know it isn't fashionable, but I love how over the top the whole place is. It's just so... ballsy? Who tacks frayed rope onto their bathroom counter? Who makes a regular toilet into a pretend outhouse toilet - in the middle of a room? Who puts barbed wire as a decoration on the wall? Who has open doors and walls to the bathroom? It makes me wish I had ridiculous tastes I was gutsy enough to follow.

I currently live in a semi-rural blue-collar community. The initial discussion (and question) misses most of the people I run into. They aren't looking to maximize their children's potential or expecting schools to do that. People around me mostly expect schools to teach the kids so they aren't dumb and keep them safe (which is getting to be a bigger and bigger issue with school violence). The majority of the people around us do not care about kids getting into college. They want the kids to finish school and get a job. Maybe learn a trade. The really super smart ones can go to college, but it isn't an expectation. People mostly do not care about music or art - it is considered frivolous. Travel is to Disney or somewhere hot for fun or visiting relatives, not for educational purposes. So to reach most of the people I run into every day, I think one way to get them to think outside the box might be to have them consider the $$ the government spends on their kids' education currently ($7.5k/kid+infrastructure costs), and if YOU got to choose how that money was spent, what might be better than what we currently have? So much of the $$ is lost to bureaucracy and infrastructure, and I *think* that pointing this issue out to people *might* help them see that there are better ways. Also, pandering to the current trend of "kids live in a technological society now and need to learn to operate in it" might work too. People do recognize that the world now is different than when we were kids and people might be more open to different educational ideas sold as a remedy for the current world order. ETA: For me, educating the kids so they have opportunity to succeed is important. Also, an emphasis on mystery, truth and beauty is important. I find that losing ourselves in stories and being observant of what is around us is an excellent way to broaden our minds. I love the idea of small group learning, mentorships, travel, and lots of time for personal exploration of ideas.

I'm sorry. :grouphug:

I don't see the article. My child was 8, possibly 9 when they used it. I will admit I don't recall exactly. I think finished that school year at 9yo. There are a couple of versions - the older version is targeted to be a little less juvenille for teens/adults. It is less juvenille, but it is still tedious, mindnumbingly boring games. About the boring-ness - well, my child was okay with it because they hadn't played many video games yet and they are generally a good sport (and I explained why we were doing it). Some of the games were "fun", but really, how many different ways can you play sound discrimination and pitch discrimination games? So for instance, there'd be a repeating sound "buh". When it would switch to "duh" my child had to click something. Then a cute little ball would fly into the basket if it was right. If not, it'd make a "zoop" sound and you'd try again. As you got more right you'd go up levels and get points. After 5 minutes you'd be done with that game and do a different one where two pitches would play. You'd have to indicate if the second pitch was higher or lower than the first. Then you'd get points and some on-screen animation would happen. Or there was a memory game with sounds (so when you flip the "card" it made a certain sound, and you'd look for the match). That one was more "fun", but it also had more visual cues (I *think it had the words or sounds written out, I don't recall), and was way easier for my child because of that, so it was completed sooner. It alternated months with literacy practice. That would have games involving reading sentences and finding the picture that matches what it says, matching the audio of a word with the written word, finding definitions, spelling, I don't recall it all. The phonological processing part of the games really seemed to make a huge difference for my child. The literacy stuff was good, but wasn't anything I found to be particularly unique. Well, I suppose it was unique in that it was very intentional, incremental, remembered what the child had learned so it was very attuned to the right level of challenege, and it rotated through games in 5-10 minute increments so it didn't get too boring. Hope that gives you an idea of it. I am pretty sure you can just ask to see a sample of it. I know I was able to play with a sample on the scientific learning website before we did it, however that was a number of years ago and I don't see the samples in the same place now when I look for them. Oh, and as far as the "coach" thing goes, I think it is so expensive because they make sure each person doing it is supervised by someone who knows how it works (a coach), so they make sure the games are working right, the child is being challenged but not totally stuck, and the teacher/parent knows how to make sure it is being done properly. I can see why they would want that, because it makes sure the product is being used effectively, but I am sure it drives the price up a lot. ETA: You asked where I got it paid for. We are enrolled under an umbrella school that offers it. It cost some of our funding $$ (so some of what we are allowed to choose curriculum for), and the school paid some of it out of their learning disabilities allotment from the government.

I'll bold and enlarge the ones we've read and I think are good for a 6-7yo. I'll color the ones that I keep meaning to get to and would do with my kids at that age too. I LOVE Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and the other two books in the trilogy. We actually just got the brand new third book and are about halfway through it. Grace Lin weaves stories together really well. We did the audiobook of the unabridged version of Bambi and I found it very good. So much better than the Disney version. A couple of the books up there I found tedious (Meindert DeJong, I'm looking at you!), but my kids found them wonderful, so I just kept reading. Whenever I am wondering about a book and its content for my kids, I check the Amazon reviews for a quick idea of what I'm dealing with.

W&R isn't secular - there isn't a ton of Christian stuff in there, but it is an underlying assumption and I believe it comes out more clearly in some places. I don't recall exactly, but we have done a couple of the levels now. It is a GREAT way to get a reluctant writer writing, although I'm not sure a 6yo needs to be writing longer passages. For finding good books, there are a lot of lists out there - Sonlight is Christian, but their sister company Bookshark isn't. Try Bookshark's lists. Or Sonlight's - it's usually quite clear which ones have heavy Christian content. I chase rabbit trails on Amazon - if you go to the page of a book you like, check out the other recommended books. I get lots of really interesting picture books from our library that way. If you look up Newberry award winning books, or Caldecott winners, that is another starting point.

You mentioned dyslexia. It is expensive, but Fast ForWord was a program we were recommended that targets phonological processing and does "brain training". It was amazing how much my child's ability to handle information at a quicker pace changed (before, my child never had enough time to respond to people before they'd reiterate to try to help my child hear what they'd said, but then my child had to process THAT re-wording and anyways, talking with people outside the family was almost torturous. After, my child could respond and have a back and forth conversation with people. Mind blowing). BUT, FFW is mind numbing. So, that may be a hard sell with a teen. And it is pricey. FWIW, we have also done CogMed, after FFW. It was an interesting program, mostly targeting building working memory (at least for my child, I suppose it adjusts to the needs of the user?). We didn't see much of a difference, although there was possibly an improvement in holding words in their head for dictation. Also, FWIW, we had a vision therapist give us some stuff to do that must have been metronome type work, but my child could not do it. Just couldn't. Really, no matter how slow we went. I ended up having my child start playing an instrument, and that provided a non-stigmatizing therapy-like work on that sort of stuff. It has made a difference if I look back over the years we've been doing it, but it has not been the quick miracle-type change that FFW was for us. Oh, we did have other exercises from the vision therapist which included crossing the midline and dpbq distinguishing stuff which we could and did do, and it did seem to bring a little improvement in some things. Regarding technology, I am right with you on the lack of tech-savvy-ness, but am seeing as my 2e child with a similar profile to yours is aging, I am going to have to find a way to learn more to open doors for them. There are a LOT of tools out there that seem really great. Understood is a website that posts a fair bit of informative stuff about LDs and different technologies that support people with them (and it posts other informative things too about LDs, but the tech I find especially eye opening).

I don't remember where we got it online (Librivox?), but we have enjoyed the free audiobook of Grammarland. It does a good job of getting the different types of works to make sense in a fun way. As far as an actual curriculum, we really enjoy Royal Fireworks Press and their series - probably recommend Town level for your ages, although it'd be a shame to miss out on the fun of Island. It isn't a straightforward get-er-done type of curriculum, but it is very interesting and I think it does a great job of making the structure of grammar appear very basic and simple.