When I started grad school (first time away from home since I did my undergrad at a commuter school!) I was sick for about the whole first year. They said it was very common when moving to a new crop of germs to be hit with every. single. one. of. them. That was 1994-95, and I've been fine ever since, even the years I worked in doctors offices and hospitals! :) So here's hoping he's approaching the end of the run of new germs and will do fine from here on out!!

And she might, just hypothetically, be in good company. Not that I would know... Or bear any grudge against the aforementioned previous owners and their ridiculous choice of unglazed white tile and 1/2" grout lines in the bathroom. :mad:

ROTFLOL!!!!!! The Well Educated ones are tastier. :p

I'll be the tenth to say "trust myself". It bears repeating. :) Read the advice, appreciate the shared experiences, but really... no one else has your kids, no one knows them as well as you do, and no one can really tell you what will work and what won't. I am hugely appreciative of all the many many many ideas that I've gathered from other homeschooling parents, but in the end the plan that works will always be the one that takes our little quirks and uniquenesses into account, and I'm the only one that can do that!

LOL!! I have to say... as much as I do know about food, first it has to taste good. Even if that means it's not the healthiest, most perfect, organic, homemade meal in the world. My major strategy for maintaining my health is to avoid stepping in front of buses in the street... so an occasional tater tot (or several!) doesn't bother me.

We also did a Hep A vaccine last time DS was in. It was optional, but there's a good chance of travel in his near-ish future where Hep A immunity would be an excellent thing. And I seem to remember something about a meningitis vaccine that I think is recommended for high school ages (not there yet).

That's the theory I'm going with too: We're doing one four year cycle (except our schedule is a little off... we did two years in one and then one year in two.... we'll see how "year four" paces itself... LOL), and then some unit studies. After a year or two of that we'll regroup and decide if we should do another four year cycle or continue with the topical approach.

Now you see when I hear "cultural literacy" I immediately think classic sitcoms, movies, and music. :p So a culturally literate child (well okay maybe teenager... LOL) should know who Bob Newhart, Mrs. Robinson and "John, Paul, George and Ringo" are... and of the last four, which of them are really talented. Then your final exam is to watch ten episodes of the Simpsons. If you get all the references you get an A. Bonus points for episode #254 :D giggle *snort* But I promise we read Mother Goose and Aesop's Fables, Greek myths, and Shakespeare too.... I would also include traditional songs in the cultural literacy list -- patriotic, relgious, traditional, etc.

Same here! We don't make a big deal of it, but I do keep grades. It's a convenient way to communicate with DH how things are going in a very "snapshot" sort of way, and a way for me to keep an eye on whether things are too easy or too hard. I give half-credit for re-worked problems (which amounts to about the same as averaging two scores), which reminds DS that it's worthwhile to get it right the first time!

Various things I've used: Bite-size Physics (caveat: I've not been doing the teaching on this one because DS is in a group using it, but from a parent's perspective it has looked truly excellent, appears to be very easy to teach, and the experiments have all used very "normal" stuff - legos, paper, string, toy cars, balloons) Snap Circuits for electronics, and I've heard excellent things about Quick Study Labs to beef up the "theory" end of it. A friend of mine uses it, but I've not myself (yet!) She says it's hard. :) Elementary Engineering with Legos -- pretty good, but I like using it in a group if you can because there are challenges that make good competitions for kids that find that inspring. Simple Machines with K'Nex -- fairly straightforward, but just simple machines, nothing else, and even though it says middle school I think it would be pretty light for that level... I taught it as a co-op class for 8-10 year olds and it fit pretty well. I think that's everything... We use Singapore for a spine and I do like what it does with physics, but no one year is all physics, so that isn't quite what you're asking for.... Hope this helps!

We've used Bite-Size Physics and really like it!

Nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom.... LOL!! Mine has a weakness for carnations :rolleyes:

My main frustration is the conversations among moms of more than one where they imply that "first time moms" are naive, or that they're overprotective, or whatever. Um, I'm STILL a first time mom here. And I kind of resent the "first born child is the test case" type of conversation, to go along with that. All I have is that test case -- I'm not flailing about hoping I get it right somewhere down the line! :mad: We do, however, end up with more than one kid much of the time because we're usually free to host whatever playdate or small group or whatever (with no sibs underfoot) and I have extra booster seats in my car for the number of times I end up driving extras. That's actually a lot of fun for me, except that sometimes (very rarely) circumstances will conspire to make it clear that every. single. mom. in. our. group. was assuming I'd be free to watch her kid at [the park, the field trip, the class] and I end up with like ten. :eek: And each one of them starting with "since you only have the one, I was figuring you could watch my darling Egbert...." and when they realize that I have six trailing behind me already it comes out that they had no backup plan. *sigh*

I have my prepaid automatically draft its own $20 every three months so it won't expire, but I rarely carry it, rarely keep it charged, and only depend on it for emergencies (and clearly not many of those! LOL) I charge it and carry it if I'm out of town, especially if DH isn't with me, and always if I have other people's kids with me. And Fridays when I need to call the pizza place on our way out of tap class ;) When we were in Michigan for SIL's wedding last summer I actually used some of those minutes I'd been stockpiling, because there was always somewhere we needed to be at some time to meet someone who was running late or missed the exit or whatever. And going to Michigan is a 700 mile trip... So I'm glad to have the cell phone just in case AAA has to be called at some point, but I don't call to just chat. And at home I usually let the machine get it :) If there's chatting to do I'll either email or wait till I catch up with the person in question! Except about twice a month I call my parents to catch up -- but that's a long distance thing. If they were local we'd just have them over!

Honestly even the ones aimed at 9 year olds aren't really challenging, and for all the work of getting him in, the payoff has been seriously disappointing. Especially the Saturday class type activities and the summer camps are more often used as daycare and the crafts over-run the science. I have successfully signed up for non-class activities, where the content was really REALLY high (like community hobby groups -- astronomy clubs and geology hikes and whatnot), offering the promise of my sticking to him like glue and yanking him out if his behavior was the least bit disruptive (including excessive questions -- he and I had a long talk about asking me first because there was a lot to cover and if I knew the answer he didn't have to take everyone's time on that). Those were really worth the effort and we didn't have any trouble getting in under those stipulations -- in fact we were invariably invited back for future events and the adults were thrilled to have a truly interested child who would hang on their every word about whatever the topic of the day was. I've also been on the other end of it all... Kids who knew their stuff but really couldn't behave appropriately for the setting, or who really didn't know their stuff at all or didn't want to be there, and parents who wanted to change the setting to suit the kid when there were nineteen other kids for whom the original plan was just fine thank you. That didn't work, and I'm afraid those of us who have organized things for groups have been burned by "that" kind of parent enough times that we're shy of all parents bearing advanced kids -- even if we have our own! So my other advice would be jump in and organize something yourself, and pick who you invite. We have a dissection/ biology club with three other kids, and on the surface of it they're all four WAY too young for that kind of thing but honestly? these particular kids are just right for it. They're pretty evenly matched for maturity and interest, and I can aim our projects right at their level on both. Even in a group of high school students picked by age alone, we would have some less mature (that I wouldn't give a scalpel to in a million years!) and many less interested. So I couldn't really drop DS into even a high school group for dissection and get the same results we get with our club of selected 7 and 8 year olds. Sometimes you can get a local high school teacher who might like a little extra income over the summer to lead an event or two (like field trips), or maybe a college student who wants to play technical advisor in their field of study while you deal with lesson planning and pacing and the "teacher" stuff. And some interesting places will do field trips/tours for small groups where you get an expert from their staff to answer questions while parents deal with crowd control. Thinking outside a "class" setting can really open up a lot of options!! :)

Exactly the same thing, four years younger here.... although I'm seeing some improvement -- quite a bit actually (except pronunciation -- that's still driving me nuts!) My approach has been this: We spend one hour on math every day during which time I'm helpful and supportive and cheer him on and don't nag about the details. Then I check his work. If he has made honest mistakes, we'll save them for tomorrow to discuss (that is, if he really doesn't understand the concepts). If he has made careless mistakes, I circle them and he has to correct them right then and there. I repeat once AGAIN how he could be taking a break right now if it weren't for a missing negative sign/ mis-copied or mis-read problem/ calculation error. And then I remind him that he's really doing great (he really is!) but that little errors really do make the whole problem wrong and waste his time. What has changed in the past year or so is that he has started checking his own work, he has gotten more careful to write down all his steps, and his careless errors have been reduced quite a bit. It has been a very long time since we've had any conceptual errors, so basically this whole past year has been an exercise in correcting carelessness... I don't know if it's a significant difference, but when he has to re-do his work, he has to re-do it by himself -- I tell him it's wrong, but he has to find out why and correct it on his own. If I thought he didn't understand I would walk him through it but if it's just carelessness then it's his own time he's wasting and I'll be getting on with whatever I was doing myself. I did sit him down a few times with a full sheet of blank paper and one problem and walked him through neatly showing each step in order (and not starting at the bottom and working around the available space counter-clockwise, for instance!), and with two-column proof paper showing each step on the left and justifying it on the right. I've done a kind of Socratic approach of questioning each step -- why are you allowed to do that? what rule allows it? why does that rule apply to this situation? And I've let him use a calculator for some problems when I wanted him to focus on process (~especially~ with a calculator available I want to see all the steps written out! I do NOT check work that has only the answer and "well I figured it all out on the calculator" as an excuse!!) I think it's the combination of: absolute clarity of what I want to see (did you simplify, did you check your negative signs, did you check your order of operations, is every step justifiable) a really hard line of not letting any careless errors slip by, being clear that it's his time he's wasting, not mine, and repeating all of the above until he can hear it in his head without my saying it. And definitely, making sure he knows he's doing great, but that that hard work deserves clarity in communication. We're working on the writing in a similar way, but not quite as far along with it.... and on the enunciation I'm just nagging with no effect... LOL Interesting on the IQ question Melinda raised above, that DS was high in everything except processing speed, which was WAY low compared to everything else. He rarely changes a number (which makes sense considering his working memory test was great), but he does skip over or forget the details (negative sign, carry the one, reducing fractions, reading every single word of the problem and "oh they were asking how many MORE girls there were in the class, not how many girls overall"...), which I think kind of fits with the processing speed, as far as I understand it. Hope this helps!

If I want leftover roast I need to make two to begin with ;) But stroganov is one of my favorites when I manage to have some to use... Or meat pierogies! Mmmmmmmmmmm......

Well I don't really put a lot of effort into my looks, but I do like to look good.... So my general rule is to have a lot of good choices in my closet and get rid of anything that makes me feel dumpy. So when I found jeans that fit (finally!) I bought five pairs so I can always wear well-fit jeans. Right now I'm working on tops... I have a lot of trouble keeping enough good shirts and blouses around, both because I tend to spill coffee on them :rolleyes: and because they just plain wear out... But that's my current quest. I think I should probably be buying all brown and black shirts... you know... to hide the coffee stains. :p But what I really like is nice crisp white blouses, of which I currently have zero. Oh, and socks!! I'm stocking up on socks I love (okay okay socks I knit myself -- I'm spoiled for "bought" socks now... LOL!!) -- there's nothing I like more than to be wearing socks that fit me just right with a neatly turned heel. It's not something that anyone else would care about if they were looking at me, but it makes me happy. And I'd love a nice pair of brown leather shoes with a tiny bit of a heel. I have boots I like, but the heel is too high for anything practical... I miss the shoes they replaced. So I guess my ideal outfit would be white blouse, jeans, good socks and good brown leather shoes. Not fashion-model stuff by any means, but cute and flattering and reasonably practical.

Hee hee hee! We went out for a Chinese New Year celebration last weekend, and DH's cookie said that there were many celebrations coming up for him, to which he had to say "well I certainly hope so!"... because his birthday is THIS weekend. I obeyed the fortune cookie. We're having a party. :p Hey, mine said I was patient! It could be true! LOL

We're using Lingua Latina, and I've heard from about a billion others now that I really need to be about ten chapters ahead of him.... I'm not quite there yet but we're still in the easy early chapters ;)

It seems to me that when we've had problems in Singapore that referred to "length", it meant the longer direction. I wouldn't mark it wrong if switching them changed his answer, but it seems that that is what they mean...

According to the butcher at my grocery store, yes. And I hope he's right because I have one in the crockpot right now!! :D

I bought the text (Familia Romana), the workbook (Exercitia Latina I) and the "college companion" which covers the grammar and whatnot (I think it replaces three other books... The Latine Disco, Grammatica Latina, and the Latin-English Vocabulary book) And so far so good! ;) I've only just started, so I'll defer to anyone who has done this longer. LOL

The one we have is a Digital Blue and about $100, but I think it's more of a kid thing than a high school thing... I think if I were going USB for high school I'd go with a good quality regular scope and a USB eyepiece adapter.

We did frogs with three 6 and 7 year olds and it was really excellent... My only trick was that ~I~ got a frog (which I took apart carefully and showed them pieces of as we went), and they each got a frog (which they chopped up more or less randomly...) That way they saw everything they were supposed to see, but weren't responsible for the careful disassembly process. The other thing was that we had our microscope handy. Ours is a Digital Blue (kids' scope, but USB so it displays on the computer and you can take pictures) and the kids loved being able to throw whatever under the scope and see it up close.