:bigear: This sounds just like my husband!

I use the form on the FPEA website, but any form should be sufficient. I agree that you should send it registered so that you have proof.

Hi Lisa - Are you looking for a rural area or are you city folk? Orlando and Clearwater/Largo are very congested in my opinion having lived in both areas, but then I'm a country girl at heart. If i were to choose a city, it would be Tampa, hands down. If you're looking for rural areas, try Polk County or North Tampa. Our unemployment rate is horrendous right now throughout the state so you may want to choose based on job availability! Florida's a great place to live with low taxes and no income tax at all. I personally live in Sumter county, about 40 miles north of Tampa on 10 acres. I have family in both Orlando and Largo, and they love where they live , so it's all relative to what you're looking for.

We're in Sumter which is right next door to the east. Hello neighbor!

I have the same problem with my 4 yo daughter although it is sporadic. Mints, gum, and a dvd player seem to help her. My doctor also suggested dramamine, but we haven't tried that yet. When I was young I got carsick, and looking out the window was a really bad idea. I've considered placing a towel/blanket over my dd's window to aleviate it too because in my case, my eyes couldn't seem to focus on the fast moving things (ground, trees, signs, ec.) going by. Being able to focus on the horizon is helpful too, so putting her in the middle seat is an option. Hope this helps!

:iagree: We did this and tacked it to the wall with finishing nails. I'd really like to put a frame around it so it looks finished. My kids and I LOVE it! Plus, if you wipe it down with a damp cloth instead of an eraser, you won't have the problem with chalk dust. We use it for eveything - grocery lists, reminders, and the kids have a huge wall area to write on and they don't draw on any other walls anymore!

We're North of Tampa in the middle of nowhere!

Thanks for the tip! :)

Great suggestions! I checked out ETC yesterday and ds thinks it looks like fun, so I'm going to consider that. I also like the whiteboard idea. I think I'll try that for today's lesson and see if that helps. We have a couple of Scholastic computer games and a leapster with word/reading games, but I don't tend to allow computer time unless its a reward. I could probably rethink that......as long as it works, do it right? It might at least motivate him. Thanks again! It's great to have so many experienced people in one place!

Thanks everybody, I think I panicked there for a minute! I'm going to check out your suggestions. Now that I've thought about it, something that's more active might be good for him. He's okay doing his sight word flash cards so it might just be the sitting still and staring at a book that he doesn't like. Thanks again!

Hi everyone, this is my first thread, so please forgive any repetition on the boards. I need some advice. Today is our first day of school! We were really excited about all the new things we were going to learn and we were having tons of fun until phonics killed it. Dead. :banghead: I need to decide if I should stick with OPG or find another program. We have used OPG for K and got to lesson 70 after going back and re-reviewing because he still decodes 3 letter words. I took a break for the summer because we both needed it after struggling with OPG. I think it might not be a good fit for us...... My ds6 is not a motivated reader. He likes his Bob Books (set 1 & 2) but won't pick them up without my asking. He can decode well IMO and can remember his digraphs and how long vowels work. He's having a hard time blending consistently. He's bright, but he doesn't like to read because "it's not fun". When he sees OPG he stalls and today he told me he hates it! It put a huge damper on all of our motivation for the day. Is there a better program out there for reluctant readers that he might consider fun? My budget is pretty well blown for the year, so I'd like something inexpensive. I've considered just using books and seeing if he'll learn that way. I have a decent collection here at home and our library is close by, but I'm concerned that it will frustate him more and that I'll miss something important Any input is appreciated!

My husband and I have frogs as pets, if you can identify the frog, you can go to http://www.kingsnake.com and look up care sheets. That should help you. Water frogs like bull frogs will sometimes eat fish food, but in my experience, most eat bugs like flies and crickets. We feed our poison dart frogs flightless fruit flies, and our red-eye tree frogs crickets. Hope this helps!

I was born at 10:00 pm and am a night owl - definately NOT a morning person! ds6 - born at 4:00 am and is also a night owl dd4 - born at 1:07 pm and is a morning person

I'm right there with you! My ds6 is about to start his 1st grade curriculum, and I worry that I chose the right things. He's also a reluctant self-reader. He loves for me to read to him, but when it came to phonics - forget it! We went to lesson 70 in OPG last year, and he's a good decoder, but he doesn't have the confidence to read alone yet. We even started over from the beginning about half way through because I think I was going too fast! Talk about frustration! I've decided not to worry too much about it though, we'll review from the beginning again and just go from there. He WILL get it! Yours will too - it just takes patience and practice. That's my new mantra "patience and practice"! We're using SOTW1, Saxon 1 (because it made the most sense to me), WWE, and HWT. We're holding off on FLL until he's reading better, and that decision took alot of pressure off. For science, we're using encyclopedias, the internet, the library, and our backyard. And we're going to read, read, read. That's it. That's all we're doing. I did not want to stress either him or me by doing too much too soon and losing the excitement right off the bat. Don't get me wrong, I feel the pressure to do it all, but I made the decision to do what was best for me and for him. It felt sooooo good to let it go! So know that you are not alone in your stress, we're in the same boat, and I for one am confidant that it will not sink!

Hi everyone! I'm Susan and wanted to introduce myself. We began our homeschooling journey last year for Kindergarten and we're looking forward to our first "official" year with curriculum. I found WTM last year and decided immediately that it was for us. I'm excited to have found this forum and look forward to learning lots from you!