Our dd's do sound very similar! I hope it works out for you. Christi

It is the first time that either one had had any instruction outside of our homeschool. My daughter is in 9th; my son is in 11th. They are having a very good year! I thought I'd address your cons--some of them were the same ones on my list. Most have not been at all what I thought they would be. Our situation and dd's sound very similar. 1. My dd is pretty shy too and my son is reserved. Both have a good circle of friends--many of whom were homeschooled at some point. My shy dd loves her new circle of friends. We've been very pleased with the girls she hangs around with at school. 2. The charter school is 13 mi from us and doesn't have a bus option. The carpool/pick up/drop off is the one thing that is still a con. It would be lovely if it were closer but it's not. 3. My dd loves to sleep until 10 or 11 and when homeschooling would regularly stay up late to work ahead on her school work so she could sleep a bit late. She still sleeps really late on Saturday mornings. She has not had any trouble adjusting to her new schedule. She has said that sleeping is the only thing she misses about homeschooling. :-) 4. My dd is also very thin and is not a good eater. She has learned to eat some breakfast (she did not before) and takes a lunch to school daily. She snacks when she gets home. This was a big concern of mine (her weird eating habits/needs) but it has worked out very well. 5. My dd hates PE and has to take it this year. She still doesn't like it but has learned the rules to volleyball, kickball, football and soccer. She's also working through some physical fitness routines. She has friends in this class and that makes it better. I figure that we all have to do things we'd rather not (like PE). 6. My dd had no friends outside of church. She now has school friends that she can invite to church and she does! As I said before, she has found other girls with similar values to befriend. There are bad kids at the school too but she doesn't interact with that crowd. 7. My dd also knew only one other kid at this school but has a large group of friends there now. 8. The homework load is not anywhere close to the amount I expected. It's far less. My kids find time to work on homework at school (or the teacher's give them time in class) and they work on it when they get home from school. Every once in a while they will have a bigger load but it is infrequent. I've been so pleased with this school. It has been a very good transition for our previously homeschooled kids. They are taking classes I could not teach or outsource ($$ & time) like psychology, geography and art. Both are doing well academically. There was a bit of a learning curve trying to figure out what each teacher wanted, where the homework for each class was turned in, class rules, school rules, etc--things that the other schooled kids already knew how to do. I hope that helps! Christi Mom to: 19yo homeschool graduate, 16yo 11th grader in charter school, 14 yo 9th grader in charter school, 12 yo 7th grader homeschooling and 10 yo 5th grader homeschooling.

My son used them together during his 10th grade year. It was a lot of math but they are so different that he didn't have any problems with it. He is in a charter school this year for 11th but is calling his pre-cal class "easy." Just a plug for CD in general. My dd did CD pre-alg last year and is finding Alg 1 this year to be a review of all she did last year. I'm so happy with CD math!!! Christi

Both of my high schoolers are taken a physical science class at their charter school. Neither has a take-home textbook for that class. They were required to purchase a flashdrive. Each night, the teacher uploads the parts of the book that they need for their homework or any worksheets that they need to complete. I'm pretty sure it's a money issue---not enough money to purchase books for all students and not enough money to replace all of the books that kids destroy during the year. The flash drive was $10. Christi

My 11th and 9th graders in a charter school for the first time this year. They have been homeschooled since the beginning. Our kids have great teachers and the social scene is better than we were expecting. Having our son (11th) in school has helped our relationship a lot. We needed to have the mom relationship separated from the teacher relationship. This year my 7th and 5th graders are still homeschooling and our oldest dd, our homeschool grad, is working full-time in her field. Christi

Found it! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18953&highlight=foreign+movies Waking Ned Devine was repeated on the lists often--so good! Seducing Dr. Lewis--great! Children of Heaven--mentioned a lot. I did like it too. Once--was great--the language was rough, especially in the beginning--but the story was nice. Have fun! Christi

I always get great new movies to watch when people ask this question. :-) My favorite is Amelie (French). I don't time to list all of my favs but I'll try to find the other thread that had some really good suggestions. I look forward to seeing all of the replies. Christi

I LOVE Chalkdust! It was a mind-changing, eye opening math experience for my non-mathy oldest daughter. She had so many "a-ha!" moments while using Chalkdust Alg 2 that she many times verbalized how much she wished we had found Chalkdust earlier. She placed into college math after that and made an A in her math class there. It didn't think it highly advanced---she's REALLY non-mathy! Dr. Mosely's explanations are very clear and we always had the option of rewatching any session that needed more time devoted to it. My next child is very mathy and had already tried Lial's with the DVTs. After doing some of Alg 2 with the oldest, he really didn't like the teachers on the DVT's when compared to Mosely. He did Geometry and Alg 2 last year. He found the Geometry to be challenging but got an A in it. My neice who is a good student but not particularly mathy thought the geometry was pretty easy. My ds really liked Alg 2. My 3rd child is a good student but not particularly mathy and used Pre-Alg this year. She learned a lot and had to work harder with math this year than any previous year but again, Dr. Mosely's instruction was excellent and there were plenty of practice problems in the book to work with. I've used Lial's w/DVTs and without, Saxon, and Jacobs Alg 1 and Geometry. If you couldn't tell, I'm a huge Chalkdust fan now. BTW, I found all of my sets plus an Alg 1 set for my sister used online. I save a bunch like that. Hope that helps, Christi

After 14 years of homeschooling with one homeschool graduate in that time, for the first time, 2 of my kids will be going to a charter high school next year. It has been a difficult, 10 month long decision and it's is the right thing for the two that are going. My oldest is 18. She's the poster child for homeschooling through high school. She graduated at the end of her junior year so that she could apply to a highly competitive medical program at the local cc. She got one of the 20 coveted slots and spent what would have been her senior year, in that program. She's 3 classes away from her AA and will sit for her licensing in Oct. She's been offered a full time job in her field that will start next week. On top of that, the best part is that we have a wonderful relationship. She is kind, hard working, focused, well spoken, polite, responsible, friendly---homeschooling allowed us to focus her education in the direction she wanted to go (medical field) and allowed us the time and intertaction to build an incredible relationship. The rising 9th grader asked us to pray about sending her to school. She wants a new experience--new people around her, new teachers, new conversations. She's not the same person as our oldest dd--she's herself. She's a really neat person! A spot in the charter school was offered to our rising 11th grader. After a great deal of prayer and conversation, he's going. There is a lot going on with him---too much to spill here but I think this has the potential to be just what he needs to take the next step in his life. The 10 and 12 yo's will be at home with me. I believe in homeschooling through high school. It works. I've lived it. I know the incredible blessings and opportunities that came our way because of it. I also know that it can be different for each child and this is a new season in our lives. I'm both excited and stressed. A side note. Funny thing is....I'm not stressed about education, goals, meeting expectations educationally....I'm stressed about uniforms (how many???), making lunches (how much?), commuting + being tardy to school, dentist appts (how does that work?) home work load and how many work hours the 16yo will be able to squeeze in this tight schedule! The logistics are making me sweat! Homeschooling for 14 years with my loves---18yog, 16yob, 14yog, 12yob, and 10yog. Christi PS. I've edited this post to add. We did choose not to send our two to the local ps. It is big and although it has a good reputation in our community and we know LOTS of kids who go there, it did not meet the goals and expectations that we've set for our kids. They are going to a small public charter high school.

I'd wait until at least 21 days to see if it gets there. At that point you'll need to work something out with the buyer. If they didn't want insurance technically it is their loss. You might feel differently. In the future buy delivery confirmaion. It's around 65 cents and worth every penny. As a seller I will NOT send any package without it. It is my proof that I did my part. It's worth it to me to spend the money on it. I hope your package arrives very soon! Christi

My BIL didn't like his "puffy" mii and decided to do something about it. He cut his calories, started using the wii fit program and did some running (he likes to run). He checked in on Wii Fit every morning. As of Saturday, when he got on the Wii, he had lost 16 lbs and was out of the overweight and obese categories and into the normal one. He is thrilled. He really liked the visual part of the Wii that he could see his progress. He looks great! PS. My mii is still "puffy". Christi

I live on the outside of a very large city and the RR catalog is bigger than any phone book around here! I can't figure out how they can afford to send these very large catalogs out!! Christi

and I'll tell you upfront that I'm not fluent in a 2nd language. For three years, my three oldest kids and I worked VERY hard at learning Spanish with the goal of fluency. I can't count the number of text books I own as well as phonics readers, dictionaries, Spanish music, Spanish language newspapers, Spanish language TV---all of these things have a regular place in my home. We spent at least 1 hour per day of study and more if you count interaction with native speakers. My dear friend is a Colombian native and her children are in my house A LOT and are fluent in both English and Spanish. Her extended family loves my family like family. In those 3 years of intense study we got very far down the road towards our goal of fluency but did not reach it. We stopped because the next real step would have been to be immersed in the language. I don't think I could have advanced much from the point I was at without immersion (and I don't mean Rosetta Stone). Being around native speakers for long periods of time greatly increased my vocabulary and understanding. I am convinced (from my own experience) that without regular work with a native speaker it is near impossible to learn a foreign language. If you have access to that and include some great instructional things (books, videos, music, etc) you'll make great strides in your quest for language acquisition. HTH, Christi

I go twice a month and I buy specific items--only ones that are saving me money. My list usually has some or all of these items: Milk (always) bread (half the price of WM for the brand I like) eggs cheese (mozzerella and cheddar and cheesesticks) cheerios pineapples, strawberries butter tortilla chips ground beef bonless, skinless chicken breasts Gas is usually quite a bit cheaper sometimes significantly. We do buy all of our tires there and you cannot be the prices on glasses and contacts--at least not around here. I drive 15 minutes to get there. HTH, Christi

But I haven't seen it in person yet. I'd like to be able to look it over. Any opinions? Christi

I used Spanish Three Years by Amsco Publishers (I'm pretty sure that is the name). I continued to add in sections from the Practice Makes Perfect books, music and local Spanish language newspapers. We learned so much and had a great year! HTH, Christi

But now, at 39, I'm nearly all white. I'm naturally white but lovingly Clairol's Nutmeg Brown. My father was white by 40. Sigh---gotta love genetics (and Clairol!) Christi

I really like the way they are organized--similarly to Donna Young schedules but a bit different. Christi

Mine would likely be... Amelie Life is Beautiful A&E Pride and Prejudice You've Got Mail (my "comfort food" movie) Lars and the Real Girl or Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (new current favs) What a fun thread! Christi

We used Turbo Tax, had our refund directly deposited and our stimulus check was directly deposited on Friday. We paid our fees out of our bank account and not out of our refund. Christi

None of my children seem to associate numbers, letters and colors. I also have this visual of a rotating calendar in my head. I can see each month and where it is on my calendar. I always thought it odd but found that others with synesthesia have reported the same kind of thing. One article even had a person who described their calendar---it was nearly the same as mine! So cool! Christi

I've been incredibly impressed with SOS Spanish 1! I had Rosetta Stone and sold it. SOS is just what I was looking for. HTH, Christi

around 9pm and the line was wrapped halfway around the building! Our BR got really organized and had the line coming in a different entrance and we bought tickets (1 ticket per scoop) at the register and then gave those to the scoopers when it was our turn at the ice cream counter. They had employees handing out samples and some walking around with a list of ice cream flavors so you could have an idea of what you wanted before you got to the counter. The line moved really quickly. It was lots of fun! Two of my big kids work there so I'm hoping one of them finds out how much ice cream they scooped tonight. I'd love to know the number. :-) Christi

It was a blood test and had to be sent away to CA. It took a week to come back (and cost $200!). Christi

One of my dd's and I had pertussis two years ago. It was AWFUL!! I coughed for something like 70 days--coughed hard. Christi