We tried K-12 with the Texas Virtual Academy. It was good in that it helped me make the leap to homeschooling. But that's about it. To be fair, it was the first year in the DFW area so they hadn't worked out the kinks. Our first teacher was great, but quickly became overwhelmed and bowed out. Our second teacher was a ditzy woman who seemed to be completely unable to answer a single question. Texas requires you to jump in where you are supposed to be, so when we started in November, we had a lot of catching up to do. We couldn't do it. The pace was too hard for my dd. We were doing sixth grade, by the way. They basically hand you a math book and say "here you go." I guess that's ok if you are a math minded person, but I was at a loss as to how to teach some of the pre algebra and it was a nightmare trying to get through the math. It did show me, however, just how much she had not learned in public school, despite making all A's and B's. There is an unbelievable amount of busy work. Theoretically, you have to log 30 hours a week, which averages to six hours a day. There was absolutely no way we could accomplish her work in six hours a day. We had to skip most of the science experiments because the prep time plus the work time was too lengthy. To get credit for the courses, a certain amount of progress was required. So we were forced to drag along even if she wasn't getting something, which was really the reason I wanted her out of public school. In addition to her work, she had mandatory study hall every week. Not a bad thing except the teacher seemed to be under the impression that she was speaking to kindergarteners and not sixth graders. It absolutely drove my daughter crazy to listen to the teacher's sing-song voice. She spent most of study hall going over "ribbons" that various kids had gotten on Study Island, which was another mandatory thing my daughter had to waste time on. She was required to log into this thing every single day for a certain amount of time. Then there was the mandatory math tutoring they decided she needed. Great, but they were tutoring several children at once and never really helped her with anything. Texas also requires a certain number of minutes of "PE" each day so that was an hour of her day that had to be spent doing a sanctioned physical activity. Playing outside didn't count. Riding her bike didn't count unless she did it for the required amount of time. I don't have a problem with PE but it was just one more thing to worry about. What really was the clincher in our decision to leave the virtual academy was how much testing was required. We had to drive an hour away to do benchmark testing....twice. Then the TAKS test was two more days of driving an hour away. Then she had to take mandatory course completion tests that were to take two to four days....you guessed it.....an hour away. An hour away from home through Dallas traffic is a nightmare! In the end, the hoops were just too many to jump through and we left six and a half months after signing up. It is a big decision and I send you all the positive vibes I have to help you. Jeannie

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: I don't think I've laughed this hard in my life! Keep 'em coming!

I have found them to be extremely polite, helpful, and prompt. I love Rod & Staff! Jeannie

That's too funny! For me, it's my son who has to have the drama. He's 21 and he still hasn't outgrown the need to make everyone in the room roll with laughter! At the age of 13, he could no longer hold in his laughter at my best Mean Mommy face (you know the one you give your kids when you really want them to know that you are seriously ticked off). He burst out laughing and explained that it was impossible to take me seriously when I looked at him like that. There's nothing worse than getting a good mean mommy face ready to use, and then remembering that it will inspire laughter, not fear. LOL J

Ok, the funniest (and most awful) misheard lyrics I ever heard...... A friend's SIL insists that the words to "Eminence Front" are actually ....."m&m's f....." well, I can't say the word here but it's something that nice m&m's ought not to be doing. And the woman totally believes these are the correct lyrics, even though she's been corrected many times. J

What about having your littles do things like emptying the dryer? That's a great job for a little one. What about putting away things that go in lower cabinets when the dishwasher is emptied? Maybe baking pans or pots? Watering plants, dusting, and helping to sort laundry are all jobs that small children can do. My youngest learned to sort laundry when she was three. She does almost all the dusting now, but when she was small, she dusted only the things she could reach. She's 8 now, but very small for her age. About the size of a 5 or 6 year old, so it's been a challenge to find chores that she can do safely. Small children are also good at "fetching and carrying." You can have them return items to the rooms where they belong. It can be a challenge to find age and size appropriate chores, but it can be done. Sometimes, the chores you give them could be more easily and quickly done by you. Also, many of the chores they can accomplish aren't really going to impact the cleanliness of your home that much. The important thing is to get them into the habit of doing chores and understanding that you are all a family and you take care of each other. Many of my friends have waited till their children were "big enough" to help and then have been unable to get those children to help without a battle. I'd rather spend 15 minutes on a 5 minute chore now so that my child canhelp than spend an hour fighting with her to do a 5 minute chore later. (I don't know if that sentence makes sense. LOL) Good luck! jeannie

I second the notion! I've lived here all my life and I've never heard any complaints about Barksdale. And Shreveport/Bossier is only 3 hours from Dallas so entertainment isn't far away. And, as Krista said, we have easy homeschooling laws. Jeannie

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I am attracted to work boxes because I have been told by several people that they no longer get the "how much more do I have to do?" type of questions. I'd be willing to try almost anything to eliminate those! LOL

I realize that that's kind of a normal question for a kid to ask. Unfortunately, I don't really care how it is asked, it comes across as rude to me. My children might ask me "why not?" (and they don't get by with it) but they would never in a million years speak to another adult in that manner. And if they did, they'd be wishing they hadn't. It's a serious lack of manners and training on their parents' part. I'm sure I sound harsh. In all honesty, I have never found "why not?" from a child's mouth to be anything but rude. Sorry. jeannie

Someone once gave me some advice for keeping the cat away from the piggies. When they brought the guinea pigs home, they let the cat come up to sniff them. As soon as the cat got close and sniffed, the owner pinched the cat's nose really hard. It scared the cat, who thought the guinea pig had bitten him, and he never got near the cage again. jeannie (We love our piggies, Caramel and Domino)

We used to sit on the floor in front of the big console tv (remember those?) to watch Star Trek. Reruns, of course. When the Enterprise would fly "out" of the screen, we would all quickly lie down as it "passed over." This story pretty much convinced my children that I am now, and have always been, a complete goofball! LOL

He doesn't do it, though he's tempted. But he states that he's married. She says his wife is a lucky woman and he says he rather thinks he's the lucky one. That's when he realizes that he needs to go home to his wife. Wonderful movie!

Clearly, I need to reread this book. It's been too long since tenth grade. I remember very little and that one quote sounds interesting. jeannie

Not only would I call animal control, I have done it. I have issues with people who can not or will not control their pets. That being said, doxies are known for digging out. That just means the owners need to be more diligent. I can guarantee if you tell animal control that this dog has bitten you, they will get the owners' attention! In my experience, they do not take biting dogs lightly. Jeannie

My daughter had the same AR problem in 5th grade. We moved to west Texas and the school used the AR program. There were exactly five books in the library that were on her reading level, and three of them were reference books. The librarian tried to get as much bang for her buck when buying books, which is not a bad thing. Unfortunately, that meant that she spent her money on books that "most" of the kids could read, which left my daughter out. The really bad part was that it took a long time to convince her teacher that there weren't any books on her level. Eventually, she was allowed to read lower level books. I can honestly say that that year was the true demise of her love of reading. Since then, I have had to make her read. Jeannie

We have two corgis. Get a Furminator! Use it every single day! And make friends with your vacuum cleaner, you'll be using it a lot! Jeannie

Maybe it's just me, but it sounds like this reporter is trying to set you up to slam homeschoolers. I hope I am wrong. There are a lot of parents who just ship their kids off to public school and are completely uninvolved and uninterested in the results. I know, because that is how I grew up. My mother darkened the doors once a year, to register us. Many public schools don't offer much in the way of enrichment. When budget cuts come, things like art and music get slashed first. I'm curious as to the slant of this article. Why are you being asked to comment on parents who "don't do much to ensure a quality education" for their children. What makes this reporter think this is the case? Jeannie

Good answer. That's why I asked. That's kinda what I thought, too. I guess "used" and "consumed" aren't really the same thing. Another thing I don't get....why would anyone copy an entire workbook? The copy fees and/or ink and paper costs would far outweigh the cost of buying a new workbook! Not to mention the time factor. Jeannie

I am organizationally challenged. There's no denying that fact. :tongue_smilie: I have found that it is much easier for me to assign certain things to certain days. For instance, I clean the bathrooms each Wednesday. Thursday, I mop all the moppable (I don't think that's a real word. :D) areas. Monday and Friday are the days when I vacuum. I have no choice but to do laundry every day. But, if I don't skip days, I can get by just fine with one load a day for most of the week. I straighten the living room daily. It takes a lot less time to do it every day than to do damage control after several days. The kitchen is cleaned every day. Again, I only mop once a week, unless there is a huge spill or something. Then I have no choice. Anyway, that's just my two cents' worth. Hope it is helpful. Good luck! jeannie

Ok, what do you think of this scenario? If I bought a workbook, say Rod & Staff, and had my child answer the questions on paper instead of in the workbook. If I then sold the unused (and also uncopied) workbook, do you think that would be a copyright violation? This is a very interesting thread. I think copyright violation is something people don't take seriously at all. On the one hand, if I buy something, it really ought to be mine to do with as I please. On the flip side, companies-large and small-lose a great deal of money from copyright violation. Jeannie

That happened with my cat and the dryer. He was the same color gray as the inside of my dryer and loved to jump in there for some crazy reason. I didn't see him get in and he blended in. Silly cat just sat in the dryer while I threw in wet clothes on top of him. Never even moved. Thankfully, I decided to investigate the thumping sound in the dryer! There he was.....safe and sound thankfully. He never jumped in the dryer again! Jeannie

We have used Vol I this year. My daughter seems to enjoy it, for the most part. She really does not care for history, to be honest. It doesn't matter what we use, she won't be thrilled. She likes doing the maps and the small amount of cutting and pasting in the workbooks. We plan to use Vol II for next year. jeannie

A friend of mine posted on her Facebook wall that it was the second day of summer vacation and she was sick of her kids already. Then she said maybe she should get a second job so she could send them away to camp for two months. I thought this was the saddest thing I've ever read. I can only imagine what her children would feel if they read that comment. Jeannie

I second vocabulary vines. It has been far more helpful for my daughter than Vocabulary from Classical Roots. At first, making the note cards was a little confusing, but she got it down in just a couple of days and has learned a lot. jeannie