yeah it totally stinks. This year I got our withholdings all wrong. Usually I set them for us to break even so tax time doesn't really "matter" for us in that we only get maybe $100 back. But things were different this year & I should have changed our witholdings partway through the year but never did and now we'll be getting back $2k. I'm so irritated with myself because I'm definitely of the "not going to give Uncle Sam an interest free loan" mind-set and then this year not only did I do that but he's going to hold on to it extra long!

I ended up ordering Singapore Essential A & B. We just got it in the mail today and dd has flipped through it and is excited about it! So that's good. She even sat down and did a few pages on her own and she loves that she can color in all the stuff which hopefully will keep her interested without being too terribly distracting.

Well I LOVE the Insanity, Asylum, etc type videos but I sure didn't used to. Initially I started off with Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred and I did it every other day for almost 6 mos. I wanted to get into the habit of exercise and that video really did the trick for me. Then of course I started to get bored, tried different things (tried p90x but found it ridiculously boring), and eventually landed on Insanity which I did for about 1.5 yrs on & off with other things. I just love plyometrics & Insanity is about the only thing out there that's all plyo. I'm doing The Asylum right now just because I couldn't stand to see the same Insanity video one more time without actually going insane lol. JM 30 Day Shred was like my gateway drug to fitness. Before that I had always hated working out - I actually failed gym class in high school and I always did the bare minimum to pass PT tests when I was in the Air Force. Now I'm totally addicted! Initially I did the 30 Day Shred just to get some fitness in my life - I was feeling a bit "blah" about my body & just needed some time that was "me time." I did lose weight, but not sizes, but I felt good about it. Then when I switched to Insanity I started losing sizes and feeling really good in general: lots of energy, sleeping better, and just in a better mood overall.

My kids are complete opposites and as such what is awesome for one kid turns out to be a total fail for the other. Best curriculum choice ever for ds was/is MUS. It's a total flop for my dd - I could see she would hate math forever if I kept pursuing it with her. Curriculums I did not like: Sing, Spell, Read, and Write. Made my ds cry and it was way too much writing for him. Possibly my dd would like it. Independent K12 Language Arts 2nd grade. Over all it's solid but I discovered that I am not a "school at home" type and ds & I hated, hated, hated the worksheets even though we skipped at least half of them. SOTW. Granted we never got very far in the first volume but I did not like the way it presented the Egyptians myths as myths and stories like Abraham as historical fact. My ds just plain hated it. He was SO bored with it & he didn't "get it" at all. As a 1st grader he could barely understand what "last year" meant let alone thousands of years ago. It confused him. MCT did not work for us either although I suspect it will work for dd so I'm holding on to it. I can't say I really liked it though. Too flowy or something. I guess I'm more of a "get to the point" type person.

Ok, I know I said spiral, but I just came across Math Mammoth. Thoughts on that one? I'm thinking Singapore for the rest of Kindergarten and then MM next year?

I think I've looked at Right Start at least 10 times in the last few years and their info on their webpage always turns me off & then the price ultimately leads me to click away from the site. I'm gonna have to ask my HSing friends what they use - maybe someone has a sample for me to look through. Overall I think dd prefers worksheets. She does not like to be asked questions directly for school or otherwise. I certainly could never start a math lesson asking her to count as high as she can or asking her to group manipulatives in different ways to make 9. That would be an immediate shut-down on her part. Yes, schooling/teaching her makes my life "interesting" lol. The best way I have found is to give her worksheets & then say, "here let me show you how to answer these." CLE looks good but we're secular and the samples I looked at seemed fairly steeped in a christian theme - any secular folks use this and care to comment? The color and pages of Singapore look like something dd would love. What is the difference between the different editions for 1-6?

This is driving me crazy. I'm a mathy person and not having a curriculum that fits both myself & dd is driving me insane. We've used MUS for my 8 yr old ds since he was in kindy. Dd HATED it. She said it was too boring, didn't like the blocks, etc. So we've been trying MEP and while she seems ok with it, I can't stand it. It feels disorganized to me. It's hard for me to follow in that sometimes it refers to things I can't find online or I don't know...I just don't like it and I guess I have a hard time putting my finger on exactly why. So, other ideas? I hate how expensive most of these other programs are. I strongly suspect dd will flourish more with a spiral approach. I believe the mastery of MUS is what bored her along with the black & white worksheets. Right now where we're at: she understands number concept, can count to 29 but then often goes from 29 to 80. This entire year I've worked on her with recognizing a 6, 9, or 8 and for some reason they are not clicking. She can count out 8 of something but if she sees the number 8 she just guesses at what number it is. She has no number recognition of the teens. She seems to understand adding & subtracting but then sometimes something will come up that makes me think she doesn't actually understand the concept at all. Help? I'd like to find something that works this year so that we can progress from here on out - I do not like curriculum jumping when it comes to math.

Bummer! I checked that candy mentioned above by the pp that's at Target & I think it would have been great except it's made in the same facility as gluten :( You'd think if they were being all careful about GMOs, colors, hydrogenated oils, etc that they'd be careful of allergens as well.

Dd has been declining treats on her own now for years because of the gluten issue. She understands that she has celiacs and can't have it - it probably helps that dh has it as well & I am gluten sensitive so it's normal for her to see people declining yummy looking food because of dietary restrictions. When she was in preschool last year she must have told me at least twice a month that her teacher forgot and put a regular cupcake on her plate but she would always announce that she couldn't have it and remind her teacher of the frozen GF ones I had made and they kept in their freezer. Dd is NOT the same way about the food dye as show-cased by her sneaking into the pantry & eating sprinkles. They were the only food dye food she has access to (dh eats loads of junk food but the kids and I eat none) and they were old and I just forgot they were there. Now they're in the trash of course. But keeping her away from the food dye is hard because she doesn't care that she goes completely out of control for a week or longer when she gets it. Maybe when she's a bit older she'll hate that feeling of loss of control of her emotions but for the moment she does not. The issue at the science center was just so incredibly awkward. I like the idea of just saying "food allergies" and keeping it vague especially because I also don't let other people make us food due to cross-contamination. The science teacher also went out and bought a disposable pan, used disposable plasticware for mixing...I mean she REALLY went out of her way, in an informed sort of way, to make it safe for dd. I also couldn't just be vague for that situation since it was a class that required a health form. Dd will be taking more classes there this next semester and I will be talking with the instructor first about our "new" discovery. Oh and thanks about the tip about the candy at Target, I'll check it out and see if it's GF too. We just moved and finally have a Target to shop at so I love an excuse to go lol. Previously we had to drive a few hours to get to one.

Another Kindle lover here. I have the Kindle 2. Dh got it for me about 4-5 yrs ago for xmas (for $275! can you believe it?!). Basically it's a bit heavier than the newer kindles, no color or touch screen, and it has 3G but no wifi. I use it a ton for myself and also my 8 yr old has begun using it. Right now he's reading The Sign of the Beaver on it because I got it for a fantastic deal. I get a bunch of e-books from the library as well. At some point I plan on getting a newer one (not the Fire though, I just want a dedicated e-reader) and I'll pass this one down to my ds.

How do you deal with the social situations with grace though? The ones where someone went out of their way to include your child, like the example above, or where someone made/brought something specially for your child? I'm a master at having something else on hand available since most times the treats offered have gluten in them but when someone goes out of their way to include dd and buy GF items (which are pricey) I don't feel like there's any way to decline without coming off as rude/ungrateful.

You know I used to be like this. I've been anti-screen for a long time ever since I saw my own grades improve drastically in college 15 yrs ago when my roommate moved out and took the TV & computer with her - at that point the only screen time I had was going to the computer lab to type my papers. So anyways I've always been super restrictive about the kids and TV. However then I began to notice something about my oldest. He learns REALLY well from electronics. He understands & retains almost anything he sees on TV. In 1st grade I started to let him watch some History Channel documentaries and 2 years later he can still talk about those topics relating back to the information from the show. He does not have the same retention from books or me teaching it to him. So I've had to re-align my thoughts on electronics, at least for my oldest.

How do you keep it completely out of their diets? It's easy enough for me to do it at home but I run into issues when we're out. It seems like every activity with kids always involves some sort of food. I posted previously about possibly sending dd to public school because of the major issues we were having when it turns out she was sneaking sprinkles from the pantry. Took out ALL the food dye & trashed the sprinkles and she's been a pleasant child ever since & homeschooling is going great. So previous to this we were food dye free at home but if the bank teller sent a sucker I'd let dd & ds have it. Now I can see that even a little food dye makes a huge difference so I want it completely OUT of their diets. How do you do it though when it feels rude to decline? For example dd was taking a homeschool class at a science center. On the last day before break her teacher was super excited to tell me how she went completely out of her way to make sure dd could have all the treats. Dd has celiacs and is therefore gluten free. The teacher said she ordered a GF brownie mix, made sure the icing was GF, called the juice company to double check that it was OK, etc. I really felt like I couldn't say no at that point, kwim? So I watched as the kids had brownies with a bunch of colored icing and a huge cup of some sort of red juice :( How do you deal with that sort of situation?

I just wanted to update a little bit. I know it hasn't been long since I posted initially but soon after I posted we found out that dd has been sneaking into the pantry and eating sprinkles which are the only things with food dye we had in the entire house. I don't know how long she's been doing this as I had a bunch of different kinds but it looks like it had been going on for quite awhile! So of course we got rid of the sprinkles right away & she's been a lovely little girl since then! It's funny because dh & I were starting to think that maybe she didn't actually react to food dyes because she was still acting so crazy....then we found out she's been sneaking them! She still gets upset of course but it's not the crazed tantrums like before. Now she can generally calm herself down after a few minutes. Or we can send her to her room and she doesn't destroy everything along the way. School has been going spectacular since then. Not only are we actually getting all our LA & math done but we're even able to add in some science. Geez, I was about to send the poor kid to PS over some sprinkles! I know things won't be perfect but things are WAY better now. I think perhaps my 8 yr old sneaking the sprinkles too because he was having bouts of weeping over his work like he used to in the past but this week he's just happily doing his work.

I guess I'm a HUGE meanie because we only took 3 days of for the holidays. We took last Mon-Wed off but we did school last Thurs & Fri. Initially at the beginning of the year I had planned on 2 weeks off since we generally follow the school system's calendar but then we made a big move to another state and we ended up with 4 weeks off from school so we're playing catch up. We're almost all caught up now though!

Oh, well that's a little disappointing. We were actually in the area just yesterday to do some shopping & that would have been the perfect time to check it out but I didn't hear of it until last night after we got back home :/ It sounds like maybe it's not worth the trip or the admission price.

I tried to do a search but didn't get anything. I just found out that a replica of the Nina and the Pinta are docked somewhat nearby to where we are. They are leaving on Wednesday. I'm wondering if anyone has been and what exactly was there? It's about an hour drive so I want to make sure it's worth it, kwim? http://www.thenina.com/

Wow, lots of replies! We're in the middle of just a break right now so I'll comment on some of it & will come back later to answer more. She's been high needs since birth. Crying for hours on end, would go 7-8 hrs at a time awake as a newborn, etc. She was 20 months old before she ever slept longer than 45-90 mins & that's only because I finally made her cry it out because I was hallucinating from lack of sleep and wasn't even safe to drive anymore. She had medical issues going on that we had a hard time figuring out so much of that time she was "high needs" because she was in pain & we knew it but we just couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Anyways, finally figured out she had celiacs disease, took out the gluten & she physically healed. That was when she turned 2. We had always felt so awful for her, knowing something was wrong, that our whole life as a family was "don't upset the baby" and it was until she was about 3 that we suddenly realized we were still doing that & creating a toddler monster. She's not "high needs" in group settings. She's agreeable even after she's totally comfortable within the group. I wish so so SO much that we could just talk to her like a pp said. We try to sit her down and talk with her but she just wants to run away even if we're talking about fun stuff (i.e. asking what things she wants to see/do on our next vacation or asking about her xmas list). She's hard to describe. She's this sweet easy going kid half the time and seemingly randomly flies off the handle at other times. She's emotionally draining because you never know when it's going to hit. The other day, on the way to HS group, she realized she forgot to bring a toy with her in the car. She wanted to go back but we were already running late and halfway there. Now, I get that she's 5 and going to get upset but what I don't feel is normal is her extreme reactions. When I told her we weren't turning around she started trying to unbuckle herself, kicking the seat in front of her, I got the usual shoes thrown at my head (a regular occurrence and when she starts to get upset I immediately try to grab the shoes off her feet before she can chuck them at me), all while she's sobbing and saying she doesn't want to go to HS group anymore. Then she moves into convincing herself that her toy is actually in the car and loudly declaring that it's in the car with us (and still kicking my seat hard enough that I worry she'll break it). Now that particular tantrum was short lived because we arrived at HS group and she instantly forgot it all and went off to play. However typically the crying, sobbing, trying to break stuff, etc will last 30-60 mins. She's distracting my ds in that when she gets upset she's coming over and messing with him on purpose during school. She's not just being annoying, she's stealing his paper, going under the table and messing with his legs, pulling out his toys and trying to break them, pulling on me in an angry mean way, etc. So then I'm constantly trying to get her into her room for a time out but she won't go and won't stay in there. There's no talking to her when she's like this. She doesn't hear us. It's like a 2 yr old tantrum where you can't reason with them, kwim? We've tried taking things away but it just makes her rage even more & for longer. We've tried rewards and those only work so long as she gets them. As soon as she doesn't achieve one then it's meltdown time. I tried a treasure box system for school - they each got 3 checkers and if they still have 3 checkers at the end of the day they can have a piece of candy (a big deal in this house). If a checker gets taken away I gave them the ability to earn it back. It worked wonderfully for 4 days. On day 5 she lost a checker and went into crazy tantrum mode for almost 2 hrs. Now I feel like I'm making her sound bad. She's also super sweet and she can go days or longer without any of these tantrums. She's always willing to share her things & she has a huge imagination. She's nice to other people and has a lot of empathy towards others. I guess I don't really feel like there's any SN going on with her. Maybe because she's just like me. I remember acting the way she acted. I remember trying to make people mad and I remember how angry I used to get over small things & most of it was all directed at my mother (who is now one of my best friends). Like dd, I didn't act that way in large groups. That book the pp mentioned really is dd & I - we're in the "dreamer" category. Ok, gotta get back to school - so far so good this morning.

It's really late here and I need to get up early tomorrow so I'll have to answer the rest of your post tomorrow but I did just get that book about 6 weeks ago and I have not been able to get through it. It's been emotionally hard reading it because it's my life. So many of the examples of bullying & events are things that happened exactly to me - all you have to do is change the names in most of them! All the emotions and reactions are me. It's been an eye-opener for sure but one that has been hard to deal with on a personal level. I know eventually it'll help me understand dd as I finally begin to understand my own self but it's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster to read and I actually put the book away for a little while after it made me break into uncontrollable sobs (and I am not a crier at all typically).

lol yes! My ds is exactly like my dh. Dh & I get along fabulously so it's no surprise that ds & I get along really well too. FTR, dh gets along really easily with dd lol. I think in writing my last post, I finally had an "ah-ha!" moment in that I'm realizing we need to figure out her behavior & reactions before we can even begin to make a decision regarding school. Once that is figured out then I think schooling will be much more clear. Now I'm just worried we'll never get her behavior sorted out because we've been trying for years & nothing we've tried has worked. :(

I wish I could get a sense about why I'm so torn over the decision. I'm typically a quick & accurate decision maker. When decisions take awhile and I agonize over them it's usually because there's something I'm not seeing/understanding and I tend to end up making the wrong decision and learning everything the hard way. I talked with dh again tonight & he's feeling like public school would just be a band aid on the actual problem which is her behavior in general. She also does not deal with transitions/change well at all so he's really worried about putting her in school and then potentially pulling her back out later on down the road. She goes pretty nuts with just small changes. She was a tantruming beast the week before her first girl scout meeting (partly nervous of course but I know the bigger issue was the change in her weekly routine). On the other hand he also pointed out that if we don't find our groove then both her education & her home life will be affected negatively if we try to keep HSing her. Regarding the issue of her not being allowed into 1st grade next year, the school board policy clearly states, "(Name of School District) does not accept students in grade 1 form Home Education Kindergarten program." Yes, they have a typo on their policy, drives me crazy too. I didn't use their pre-printed letter of intent for that very reason because the same typo is on there as well, but I digress. Kindy here is full day with no half-day option. I asked dd about it just a little this evening & she says she doesn't want to go to regular school because it would be boring. Her & I are alike and I totally believe her. I did terrible in school until about 5th grade when I had a great teacher - prior to that my teachers said I would literally turn completely around in my chair to stare out the window. I try to make it as fun as I can for dd here at home but she freaks out if she doesn't know an answer when we're playing a game or if she gets something wrong. Usually our games or fun activities end in tears & tantrums.

Who here has some kids HS'd and some in PS based on your own personal decision (not because of blended family issues, etc)? I am so completely torn about what to do about my 5 yr old. I've been HSing my 8 yr old since halfway through kindy. It was not anything I planned on but the academics were lacking. We lived in a small town & that was the best school there with no private school options. We started HSing and both ds & I love it! This year dd started kindy and it's been total misery. I know some would say she's just too young but she went to a fairly academic preschool last year & did very well there. Her teachers were confident she was ready for kindy & I was too. I still feel like she is but that her & I just don't work well together. She's my "high needs" kid & I knew HSing her would be more of a challenge but I really thought we'd find our way. We haven't at all. It's a daily struggle. Not only that but now she interferes with ds's work too just because she's so mad at me all the time. Ds mentioned today that she should go to regular school so he could actually get his work done :( I feel like I have 3 options and I just go over and over each one in my mind without feeling any of them are "right" 1) Continue HSing and hope that we'll hit our groove eventually 2) Enroll her in public school next week after xmas break 3) Continue HSing this year and enroll her in public school next year She LOVES what she knows of "regular" school. She loved preschool. She now takes a weekly 1 hr class at the science center and she talks non-stop about her school and her teacher and how much she loves it. Obviously this is more fun stuff than regular school but I feel like she most likes having a school, teacher, and class to call her own. I DO think she would do quite well in public school. If I waited until next year to enroll her she'd have to repeat kindergarten. My state does not recognize kindy HSing curriculums. Age-wise she'd be ok since her birthday is late July but academically I think she'd be bored re-doing kindy. We use the beta LOE kindy program and she's doing really well. The thought of sending her to PS makes me feel really guilty. Her and I have never clicked very well & I feel like this would be evidence of me sending her away. I love her. She's a little carbon copy of me and I think that's why we butt heads so often. I'm going to miss her like crazy during the day even though she drives me crazy, you know? I feel like my ds would be getting a better education than she would. And, I'm not going to lie, I hate the idea of giving up control of her education. I fear she would think PS is a punishment. She would be really upset when she gets home from school & finds out that ds was at HS group that day, or had a class at the science center, or we took a field trip to the zoo or whatever. OTOH she would also prob enjoy regular school. Omg I am so torn. I've been torn for months now and I can't deal with this anymore. Dh tries so hard to be supportive of my decisions that it's impossible to discuss with him because he just constantly tries to say what he thinks I want to hear.

Awesome, I just bought that one last night along with ordering Mindstorms. I figure ds and I can figure it out together. I have an aptitude for electronic/robotic/engineering type things but was never given any education in those basics so ds & I have been learning at the same time.

Well he's never done any robotic stuff but he loves electronics & I think he would like robotic things. Will he need a lot of help from me? He's not very computer literate yet. He's actually getting a computer in a few weeks but hasn't had one to use regularly.

Ds, 8, plays legos pretty much all day long. He loves making his own creations and also enjoys following the books (dh has been organized since the day he was born and still had all his lego manuals, in alphabetical order, from the 70's & 80's that he now gave to ds). He also enjoys his Snap Circuits and electronic things in general. He loves science and math and next year he'll be able to do First Lego League here (there is not a Jr. one nearby). I can't decide which ds would like more: the master builder academy kits or lego mindstorms? If I add up all the money for the MBA it's about the same price as Mindstorms. What exactly do the MBA kits show them? Is it anything they can't or wouldn't learn from years of putting together their own legos?