just another saying there is great variety. My first child was writing the alphabet before she was 4. My second knew more pokemon by name than he did letters of the alphabet when he was almost 5. They both were reading about the same level by 1st grade. My youngest learned letter names fairly early but read the latest - like 2nd grade or 3rd depending on what you call reading.

Yes, it varies. My daughter was in public school and took algebra 1 in 8th grade. My teen son took pre-algebra 1 in public school in 7th and we tried and failed and tried and failed to do algebra 1 in 8th. We started over with the singapore upper level books and re-did prealgebra in 9th, plus some algebra. My youngest is currently reviewing 6th grade math and will start LOF pre-algebra and bio probably by the end of next week, which is 5th grade. He's my mathiest kid.

I agree with the fact that pushing someone down the stairs should be non-negotiable, but otoh, you cant be there every time to stop him. When negotiating causes worse behavior, imo, sometimes thats just growing pains. Sometimes things get worse before they get better. BUT - imo a child who is being physically violent with no emotion is maybe showing signs of something deeper? My kids are all challenging but gratuitous violence without remorse is to me signs of a bigger problem. I once read that any times kids are violent, its a sign of a physical problem. I dont know if they had any backup for that, but it stuck in my head. I know that my youngest was less violent when I took him off all artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, and his behavior improved further when i took him off gluten and dairy. I've heard of other kids who were actually having low-level seizures which affected their behavior. Oh, and my youngest used to also scream at me when I offered food choices - i finally would just put something on the table and drag him over to it and he'd finally stop screaming and eat. I also had to sit on him to stop him from trying to bite me sometimes. But really, food seemed to be the problem for him. It became clear to us when he was at preschool around valentines day, and he got in trouble for hitting a child in the face - first time ever - and when I asked, yes, it had been AFTER the pink cake with pink frosting. Then a few days he ate a red heart-shaped bagel and spent the rest of the day screaming. He's still challenging, and immature, but we're getting there. I also find for him I needed clear consequences like timeouts, which i never did for any of my other kids. good luck . . .

Its hard not to get really uptight when we are going through this. But we ALL make mistakes and slip-ups. Because we are all human. It gets easier! Be kind, to yourself and others. Remember its a long haul, and there will be bumps, and thats ok.

My husband still eats bread, but has actually almost quit dairy over the 6 years we've been doing this. When I started off on my personal allergy trip, saying I wanted to have NO stomach pain any more, he laughed at me and said it wasnt possible. But I was so much better, I guess he started to believe it was possible. My boys still have some issues. The older one sometimes reacts to rice, the younger one i took off soy. My older one didnt have much behavioral benefit, the younger one did but that was also largely from quitting all artificial color and flavor.

Thanks - Crimson, the second book, the one you linked, i realized i already had on my amazon wish list. I added the first one you recommended. I've heard other ppl talk about drawing circles and saying who is in and who is out or at what level you can talk about what. I think what threw me off (after the last time I started looking in to this) was his therapist. We asked her about it, and her answer was "dont talk about politics, religion or sex." Well, that didnt work. He has gotten to a stage where these are his favorite topics. He is even willing to weather his step-fathers 'annoyed' tone to 'discuss' politics with him. We ended up dropping one subject per kid this month, and I need to add something back, but i think i'll wait until after spring break (which is in a month) - and then I'll probably get two of these books and have him read / discuss them. take notes, even. thanks

Yeah, i was thinking about an explanation for this the other day. Say you have 8 cookies and you are giving out portions and each person is to get 8 cookies. How many people can you give cookies to? 1, because 8/8 = 1 8 cookies and serving size is 4, you can feed 2 people because 8/4 = 2 8 cookies, serving size of 1, you can feed 8 people because 8/1 = 8 8 cookies, serving size of 1/2, you can feed 16 people, because 8/(1/2) = 16, which is the same as 8*2.

My boys both begged to be homeschooled and were horrified at the thought of going back to school. But I imagine it would have to be a family decision, since i cant see either of them actually doing the work of homeschooling. I imagine they would support it if their wife wanted to. Not that i think its not ok for dads to homeschool, but my teen is just way too scattered, I think (tho i thought that about me, too lol) and my younger IS pretty uptight about gender roles. My daughter was not homeschooled and seems to hate everything about me, but she has a good enough head on her shoulders that I think, if she found herself with kids who were failing due to bad schools, she would be open to the idea.

My daughter had me watch The Mummy, and i found some scenes scary and i jumped/yelped, whatever - she teased me for YEARS that I was afraid of it and its not even a horror movie. Whatever.

I had an email about a response to my thread, and I came to 'my content' and it wasnt there. I was a bit panicked it had been deleted! But then I navigated to where I posted it, and it was there. Sounds like the board software is being buggy.

First of all, I only use turkey thigh, not turkey breast. I start by putting some flax meal in a bowl (which i already had for other reasons when i started this, but you can skip it), then add a big pinch of sugar, a dash of soy sauce, a couple dashes of salt, some celery seed and some parsley. I mix that first (because the flax meal is weird), then add in the meat, and then add a tablespoon of olive oil. The olive oil helps it not be so dry, and also makes it easier to form in to patties. Which is to say that - oil makes it taste better. I dont believe that fats are automatically evil. Fried food is pretty bad, but our bodies need some fats

My son will be 18 in 2 months. His diagnoses include pdd-nos (very mild autism), bipolar, tourettes syndrome, and a few processing/executive function issues. He has been tapering his bipolar meds down, and the risk is always that he becomes less appropriate, socially. I'm starting to really want to find something to work with him on social boundaries before he starts community college in the fall. The main issues are talking about politics, religion and sex in inappropriate times/places/ways. For example, we are atheist and liberal and i sometimes express lighthearted exasperation about things conservative christians do which i disagree with - but only at home. My son will say similar things out in public to people he doesnt know - obviously a very high risk of offending people. He once got a talking-to from another homeschool mom at park day, and honestly, even after the talking-to, he didnt realize he'd done anything wrong. He needs VERY explicit instructions. Just last week, he and the only other kid his age at his homeschool martial arts class were arguing about religion - some detail about virgin birth, i think. i have no idea. They both seemed pretty engaged, oppositional but not angry or disrespectful - but - i could tell the other parents were uncomfortable. I tried to stop them, but finally just pointed out that small kids were coming out soon - they agreed to take it outside. He has also, in the past year, become obsessed with the idea of being transgendered. i honestly think its an aspie-type obsession - he never talked about this before, and it seems more abstract, like he thinks about it and feels excited, not like he already thinks of himself as female. I told him its not something we're paying for and I think he really needs to figure out who he is first before deciding to change it. Now, we go to a UU church which is extremely liberal and welcoming to gays. But he seems to talk about his gender issues any time anything about sex comes up in the youth group - and right now they are doing OWL - the UU 2-month-long sex ed class. I'm sure he's probably going overboard - but to be honest, I think he should feel safe there - but otoh, I was talking to someone who was the youth adviser 2 years ago, and whose daughter is in the class now, who said my son 'has no boundaries'. He said his daughter was upset about something, but when her father explained it that way, it made sense. so i'm thinking i need some way to address this. I'm not sure if there's a relevant book? maybe even something with exercises? This kid is very smart but usually unable to apply things without a lot of coaching, and sometimes it just feels beyond me. He had one therapist we sort of liked, but we eventually stopped going because she would spend the whole time talking about how much he missed his biodad (when he was younger) and about what he wanted to do about his transgender feelings (more recently) and it just never felt productive.

Not really sure, except that LOE essentials does not address reversals/handwriting. My son had not really mastered printing well, and I took the first lesson super slowly and just reviewed all the letters, but its not specifically addressed. The spelling really helped my son, though, and his reading improved as well.

Our cats always spend more time indoors in the winter. Its annoying, as they wake up at 4 am wanting to go out! But they really hate the snow. They will cry at the door, look out at the snow, look up at us and cry some more. This is the first year we've seen all three of them sleeping on my 10 yo's bed together (its the only twin bed in the house lol). I took some curtains down in the dining room and left them on the floor for a few days and everyone loves sleeping on them, for some reason - i've even caught cat and dog sharing the 'curtains'. But one of our cats will only be petted standing on the bathroom sink . . .and he's been wanting a LOT of affection recently. Honestly i get tired of it - i'm the dog person!

thanks, i missed that. I mean, i saw the 'in italy' but wasnt exactly sure what that meant? nevermind . . .

I was also thinking of Story of 1, which was on Netflix when we watched it?

Virginia hasnt adopted CC - they issued a statement saying SOLs were equivalent. Which i know doesnt answer your questions but I'm wondering why you brought up your daughter's homework issues in a CC post?

ugg, i cant believe i still have like 3 or 4 years left . . . lol good luck being done soon

I'm not sure my way is RIGHT, but its how I do it because its simple enough that I can manage to enforce it :001_rolleyes: We have 'school hours.' They are approximately from 10 am to 4 pm. If I catch them doing electronic entertainment during those hours, they are grounded off of electronics for the rest of the day. If they break that grounding, it'll be 2 days, and it goes up from there. they have never gone up from there. If work is not done at 4, electronics are still out-of-bounds until work is done. Other than that . . . whatever. However, we have a computer per person. Also, they are allowed to read fan fictions and check social media occasionally during 'school 'hours - no playing or watching, but reading is ok. after all, I check my fb during school hours . . .

As an atheist, I think the guy is a serious jerk. However, I agree with Regentrude that to be a scientist, you have to follow the facts where they lead. There can be no off-limit topics. Faith, otoh, is not a topic for science and should be none of her school-mate or professor or advisers business. jmo.

Sounds like you wont be having any cheese either. I just whine about the fact that i havent had any cheese in 7 years. Still, sorry you missed your special date - esp for such an annoying reason

Interesting. My son was doing at least an hour a day for the first few days, and now is doing more like 20 minutes a day. He started maybe 5 weeks ago? and he's about halfway done. He's loving it!

I think shes' saying she would just skip the grammar lessons from LOE, not the spelling parts. There is a fair amount of grammar in there. I think it would be fine that way.

just as a warning - i was allergic to wheat and milk as an infant, was off them about a year and put back on, having 'outgrown' it. By middle school I had constant stomach problems, but so did my dad, so my family thought it was just 'normal'. Sometimes in young adulthood it was so bad I had to leave work, or would be up in the middle of the night, clenching the tp roll with my fingernails trying not to cry out. It wasnt until 8 years ago - at age 40 - that I finally decided to try going off of wheat and dairy again. My stomach was better in just a few days, my headaches went away, my body aches and fatigue were dramatically better. So just dont write it off completely. Remember - and teach her - that if she starts having symptoms again, she should try elimination again.

No advice, but this reminds me a little bit of my 10 yo. He maybe isnt that bad, but i'm getting so frustrated. Yesterday we had 20 minutes of drama over 4 spelling words. He really doesnt complain about martial arts THAT much, but i dont feel like he puts in much effort. but when i suggest quitting, he doesnt want to. He is good about some things (the school subjects he likes - which are very light - he will do himself as long as its on his own timeframe, and not complain). But if its something he doesnt want to do, or he has to get off his computer to do something - growling and angry words under his breath and sometimes tears, and if you try to talk to him while he's angry, he yells - you have to completely ignore him until he calms down. I am starting to feel like i'm over my head here. He wont do anything without punishment and I HATE punishing and I really am too ADHD to keep track of everything.