Neither of my kiddos complained when they got their braces off. My boy is very senstitive and he said it didn't even hurt when they took the brackets off. I think a lot of it has to do with the skill of the ortho.

Considering that most people use Saxon a grade ahead, yes I think it's behind. If you use it as most people do then I think it is "fine". I'm using K now with my 4 yo and I'm ready to chuck the stupid thing and move to either Saxon 1 or MM. When my son used it he was always at least a grade above. We used it thru 5/4. My daughter did Algebra 1 as a 6th grader as enrichment to her PS curriculum.

We love LA here! It is the first thing my 5th grader asks to do every day. He would do it all day, every day if he could. I se an amount of tie we are goingto work. Some days we dont finish the day, other days we get 1+ days done. We only use parts of it now, but when we did all of it we'd spend 2-3 hours a day.

I say this every year when I have to shell out $$ at the begining of the year for my DD. I'm glad only one of mine goes to school. I'd be in the poor house if all 3 went. This year I had to shell out: $20 for ASB card. ($5 I could see, but $20?) $25 cooking class fee $18 for Gym uniform (seriously, they can't wear a crapy T from home?) $5 for composition books, couldn't use the .25 ones I got, HAD to be the ones from the school $25 for PTA Other fees I can't remember. I paid $50 at registration (including the ASB) the others were all in addition to the $$ I spent the first day. I think I spent close to what I spent on curriculum for my other two in school Fees and that was only the 1st semester.

Have they said anything about a Phonological Processing issue? My son at 3.5 had the same issue. I'd say red, he'd hear wed. We'd go back and forth but he honestly thought we were saying the same thing. My speech therapist caught it right away. I was told the phonological proccessing had to be dealt with before they could work on the speech delay. Once they started working on the phonological proceessing he was finally able to start the reading process. And yes, the reading was totally independent from the speech. He could read words, long before he could say them.

Just started here in Sammamish. I'm looking forward to some rainy nights.

When my son was learning I made him a cheat sheet. It was very simple. 1. Divide 2. Multiple 3. Subtract 4. Bring Down 5. Repeat

So the Fun Tales are about the level 1 of the Bob books? Or do they go higher? I have level 1 & 2 of the Bob books, but honestly my other kids never read many of the Level 2 because by then they wanted to read "real" stories.

Thanks. I have all the readers for 1. I'm hesitant to buy the Fun Tales because I think he will have a big jump in ability soon. I am thinking I may hold off on doing the readers with him for awhile and continue working thru the Bob books & a phonics program. Then when is more confident I will pull out the readers. I don't plan to really use this as a formal curriculum. More of a reading list maybe some fun activities to go along. With the science I may or may not do experiements, but I am going to add in other books and do a theme for each unit. (I don't necessarily plan to stick to it being a week.) Because he's younger I will stretch it out like I did with the 3/4. (The 4/5 we did in under a year because he enjoyed the stories. What I've typically done is just mark the pages to be read each week. Put them in a pile at story time and have him pick which one he wants. When we are done with all the stories for the week I move on to the next week. Sometimes we were done with the week in 2-3 days other times it took us 2-3 weeks. Whatever floats his boat.

I have a 4.5 yo son. We are almost done with Sonlight 4/5. I have Sonlight K w/advanced readers. At this point he knows all his letters & sounds and is starting to read the Bob books. Will the Advanced readers be too difficult? Should I get the K readers ( which I think is just fun tales?) or will working thru the Bob books be about the same thing? Another quick ? I got this used. Wha do people do about activity sheets? I'm assuming they aren't important for K, but what about later? I have the answer sheets for science so, but not any originals for silence or LA.

I had issues with my 3rd. He was nursing nonstop but he wasn't really nursing. He was 9 pounds at birth and at his lowest a bit under 8. He got to where he was totally lethargic. My pediatrician had given us till morning before we took him to Childrens. He was 3 days (I think). The lactation nurse had me do the following around the clock, to build suppy & make sure he was getting enough. I did this every 3 hours. Nurse for (I think 15 minutes) Pump Feed bottle of pumped milk My husband would do the bottle while I was pumping so we didn't have confusion. It took 6 hours of this to get him semi alert again and 48 hours before my supply was up. That being said it took him forever to get back to birth weight. He at one point during the first year actually fell of the weight chart. My pediatrican said she was not concerned because he was on a steady decline down and that was just his curve. He was meeting all his milestones etc.

I think you are thinking of ammonia and bleach. That is a toxic combination.

I've been using Aveda Smooth infusion for a couple of years. I have frizzy, wavy hair. This is the only product that as worked on my hair when I go to Florida. Keeps me from looking like a troll doll.

Here's a little piece of advice, the sooner you stop trying to prove to people what you are doing is Ok, the less stressed you will be. My MIL is a teacher, school counselor with lots of gifted experience. She HATES that we are homeschooling my middle child. I tried explaining why, justifying etc. now I just show her the annual test and smile at the rest. I hope you didn't think I was bashing you earlier. My point was, if it was working for you then, then don't stress yourself out. My rule with extras is that no kid can be out of the house more than two nights a week. I also do not schedule anything before 12 except the rare Dr. Apt. That is our school time no exceptions. Now, my kids are older so they require more time, my 4 yo I just fit it in hen we can. You just need to figure out what works for your family. I personally would drop everything I can get out of and add things back in one at a time. See which activities she asks about/misses. Those are what you should do.

Here's my question for you. Why was it OK to only leave the house once a week when she was PK4, but now that she is in K you have to prove to everyone that she can be socialized? If it was working for you last year and everyone was happy, that's all that matters. My son is a total homebody. If he never left the house he'd be pretty happy. The first 2 years he was home we didn't really do many extras. Yes we went on field trips and such, but no planned activities during the day. Near the end of the second year he started asking for friends, so the next year I enrolled him in a co-op type class. It's one day a week and it's just enough for him to get out and "socialize". Right now, 5th grade, he does Classical Conversations, Cub Scouts and in the spring he may do baseball. My daughter on the other hand is a total social butterfly. She has never been homeschooled, but she is always asking to sign up for something/go somewhere. I do the best I can w/o taxing myself too much (and wearing out the homebody). Right now, 7th grade, she does Soccer, Softball, and any and every social activity I will allow. My third, at this point, is happy with whatever is happening, so he is only in extras because I have to drag him along. Right now he is in Classical Conversations (because we are already there), PreK 3x/wk (so I can have 1 on 1 time with other son) and in the spring he wants to do TBall.

I saw a monkey costume @ Old Navy. Not sure how big they went though as I was only looking at 5's.

So do you not use your ring finger? And what finger do you use for V & B, because the way you do it I see you using your index finger for c, v & b?

I was going to suggest Apologia as well. This is our second year. My 5th grader does it all by himself, including the Lapbook by A Journey Through Learning. He loves it. I do help him with experiments, but we don't do them all, only the ones that interest him. Usually he does them all by himself, I'm just in the room to supervise as he likes to try additional things. (and doesn't always use good judgement ;-) )

Times are way different than even the early 2000's. In today's world being able to type well is more important than being able write a ton by hand. In the "real world" most everything is typed. In schools everything is typed, my daughter rarely turns in hand written work. My husband never writes in his job. Everything is done on the computer, everything. In schools kids start learning to type by second grade by 4th or 5th all papers have to be typed. All the teachers I've talked to said typing was more important than being able to write the paper out. I asked one of my teacher friends if I should do cursive with my struggling writer and she said no way, typing is more important. My son wanted to learn cursive so we did it, but he never uses it outside of handwriting practice.

:iagree:I taught my son to type at 7. Best. Thing. Ever. He loves to type, he loves that he doesn't have to redo it all after he makes corrections. Save tons of time. More importantly, save tears and frustrations.

This is not the truth. 3 of the 5 members of our family are GF, 2 by choice one due to allergies. If you the fruit/veggies & meat that are on sale your cost doesn't really rise that much. You actually are hungrier and eat more on a grain diet vs a high protien/high fat diet. We eat mainly Paleo and we fall between Low cost and Moderate right now. And this include buying my DD GF/Dairy Free replacement treats (bread, cereal etc). If I didn't buy her bread that was $6 a loaf I'd save a ton of money. Once I figure out the Paleo a bit better I can meal plan again and I have no doubt I can get back down to between Thrifty and Low again. :iagree:It's the GF replacement products that are expensive. Real food (fruits, veggies, beef) aren't what makes GF eating so expensive!

My STEM Child would rather poke his eyes out than do another Saxon math lesson. Math Mammoth, on the other hand, he tolerates. Doesn't love it, but toerates it.

I'm looking for fun ideas that my 4.5 yo can make grandparents & great grandparents for Christmas. Most of them will need to be shipped so cookies etc are out. My 10 yo is making beeswax candles. No idea what my 12 yo can do either. She's not really crafty, but loves to make a mess. :glare:

If its just one topic, I'd get the corresponding topic from the math mammoth blue series. Get him refreshed and then go back to your regularly scheduled curriculum.

If it was the childs choice that is one thing (to an extent). In my experience they tell the children to help or "ask", but what 5yo (or 7yo) is going to say no? They are taught to do what the teacher asks, I'm sure most young, obedient children, aren't comfortable saying no. They don't move them along for two things $$ and test scores. If you move the kid up a grade you lose out on a year of funding (yes, they look at it that way). Having a gifted child remain in their grade also raises test scores. Take a look at gifted programs. Districts that have full time gifted programs only at certain schools will always place the program at the lower performing schools. This raises test scores. When my daughters program was moved (they added another school), the school they went to raised their test scores significanly the first year and suddently became school of distinction, which got them extra $$ and awards.