Bummer this happened to us one year too. The insurance company paid our towing though. :(

I'm working on our sked as we speak. We are doing the following: TOG Y1 (History, Literature, Bible, and Art) Basic Math we have a weakness here but will hopefully start Algebra at the first of the year Apologia Physical Science Latin Winston Grammar IEW Writing incorporated with our History and other studies Gaming Class Guitar (still looking for a Video type instruction) I'm still working on it. I'm working with a younger sibling

I hate to be a kill joy but I feel this hurts homeschooling. The purpose of homeschooling for me is the control over the education my boys get and if I'm doing testing to get some Art, Drama and etc then it's too high of a price. We have access to sports and such already but my boys don't want to do it at our high school. They get lots of money for part timers and some school districts as discussed get nothing or maybe not enough to warrant it. Arizona is homeschool friendly and we don't have to provide anything to the state except an afidavit with the intent to homeschool. I'm afraid that if I submit to testing through them that I will help the laws change by giving them access to scores and then they will ask for more of us homeschoolers here later down the road because of choices I made now. It starts somewhere because they lose funding from us so now with the economy they are find ways to appeal to us and it is all about the money by offering enrichment programs. I thought about it this year because of what they offer but then I just found a way to do it here. I'm not trying to shoot it down for anyone because it's a personal choice and this is my personal choice. This is a way to ask for more from you later down the road Arizona requires Math, English, Science and History to be taught at home to be considered a homeschooler and if you are being taught any of that at a PS then you are considered a PS student and no longer a homeschooler. I'm just sharing because it helped me make my decisions. Great that you were offered these options and it meets your needs. I know that I'm lucky I live here in AZ because of all of our great resources. I hope no one is mad at me for bringing it up.

I love the banging on the wall thingy. lol The only thing hubby does is add strange comments (to make me bang my head) to the kids and gets them going and do something on top of what we are doing. lol I'm like we have enough going on without you adding to it. lol <breathe> Actually he helps with adding and subtraction problems since my youngest is dyslexic and doesn't learn any math I teach him. He does get it with hubby so we let that go to him. The other stuff he says he trusts my judgement and tells me that I have to teach it so I need to feel comfortable. If he doesn't care for it then he tells me also. I bang my head on that one too. He likes the kids sharing things with him and he loves hearing all the things that they learn. They get into discussions and since he is pretty good in history they all just love talking about that subject the most. It's pretty cool to hear them just go.

and well we are getting it from our customers. They act like we are slaves. I appreciate their business don't get me wrong but the abuse is just way out of control. My hubby fired a customer and told them to abuse some other company. I feel like eating berries and living in a hut too. People are being nice to each other and using the economy to be nasty to anyone. I think it's an excuse to get more from people. It seems to bring out the worse in people. Very sad.

Hugs to you is the first thing I want to say to you. I have two dyslexic boys and I tried Wilson and found it overwhelming. I never tried Barton but have access to it. It was an expense that we couldn't do. I'm using Phonics Tutor, it was referred by a friend and it has been great. I found it used. It's super simple teaching reading in a completely different sequence and all the info is sticking. It starts at the beginning and goes up from there. We started at the beginning but you can go over the beginning to see if he has all of those words mastered. It's possible that his skimming may be because he hasn't mastered some of those words or can't remember. I am not sure but this is what my 10 yo did and later he told me it was because he couldn't remember. I think it's truly wonderful he reads and loves to read. It's great. We used scrabble as well but the words didn't stick for us but it's a great way to review words that have been mastered as it's kinesthetic and that works for us. The other thing that works well for hands on learning is writing on a small chalkboard for spelling. It makes it fun to write but with your son being 12 he may not like it. My 10 yo has awful writing and we use HWT too. We do spelling tests orally and talk about the meaning of the words. He does awesome at tests that way. My older son does also. I've learned a lot from my 19 yo because he's a self advocate and does well explaining how he learns. He taught himself math. lol

It's our first year of TOG but here goes. TOG Y1 History Rhetoric Level TOG Y1 Literature D/R level Some read outload by me TOG Y1 Philosophy/ART/Government/Geography We plan to do a 2 week per lesson approach with tweaking Wintson Grammar IEW Writing Math TT Later in the spring ROsetta Japanese Apologia Biology (Coop hopefully) I haven't figured out the Health yet but somewhere we will have something regarding that.

I don't know if I would pay that price because I'm so cheap but you could find it here or another list perhaps. Keep checking and you may find it. I found mine and I think I got it for $20 on Ebay.

We were using MUS Beta and it was confusing my 9 yo. He got behind while we were unschooling. Not a big deal since he seems to catch on pretty quick. He got lost in PS with carry overs for multiple digit in adding so I bought MUS thinking he needed a different approach. He didn't do well at all. I taught it a different way and he caught on, now we are trying to learn subtraction (regrouping or borrowing) and I didn't know what to buy. I kind of like Math Mammoth. Any other suggestions? Any great websites to suppliment? It's nice to see him catch on so quickly. Anyone use this and if not what do you use? BTW he is already catching on with multiplications. I would like to use LOF after we master the multiplications or TT.

It's the district level that has the issues. These boards need to clean house. Get rid of the useless superintendents. Agua Fria School District is a good start in Arizona.

I'm in AZ also but what we have gone through in Agua Fria School District and Avondale School District is appaulling. They are not the better school districts for sure and coming from Peoria School District I expect more. We have teachers teaching that truly don't give the profession a good name. I have five teachers in our family and they aren't impressed either. I am not okay with doing away with Athletics. I don't think we have enough excercise as it is. This is why our country has too many overweight people. My incoming senior would have quit school if it weren't for football. Football will get him into college. He is dyslexic and will never be a 4.0. He is smart and gets okay grades but many of the teams get sponsorship outside of district money. I don't know why we are paying for Pros unless you are referring to Hamilton High. That is not acceptable. The parents can pay for that. We pay for most of the stuff as parents so I'm not sure what moneys are going toward athletics specifically. I'm not impressed with our schools in AZ at all. We are too busy teaching English to kids who should already speak it.

They don't do it. They cram bunches of kids in the class. They answer to no one when the private schools have to answer to someone.

So true.... we could use that money for extras and things that deal with higher learning. I would love that budget. I couldn't get the teachers to even like my ADHD child because it required real work to teach him.

I would love that budget per child also and I have special education kids that someone mentioned. The PS thought buying Wilson Reading for 5th graders was smarter than buying it for a 1st grader. They were testing it out. I had a 3rd grader with Dyslexia and they didn't think testing on him was good. I asked them what they would be using and couldn't get answer. I couldn't even get an answer on what they were using. It wouldn't cost that much if they simply used the right programs to begin with. I got further with him then they did and give him the same amount of time. What you do has everything to do with their success. They never clicked with him in three years. I did it in one year with limited knowledge and money. The cost for our journey in finding the right one was $400. The programs are reusable and the one we are using will last him through all of his reading. I don't think they spend their money wisely to begin with. They don't get rid of ineffective staff (principals, admin and teachers) and this is one thing broken big time. I vote these things down big time. The superintendents are horrible where we are. They don't return phones calls nor do they hear problems. I should not have to go to a board meeting to solve simple things. I have one in PS and I can't even get them to do the non costing things related to his IEP. He is in HS so the Sped depart doesn't have to do much but oversee which they don't do well at so when the HS asks for more money it makes me mad. The teachers run the asylum (I am referring to our school) and yes I mean that because I think it's crazy to ask a teacher a question and get an answer of "What do you mean?" I will have to go to a board meeting to get anywhere. It's insane because one shouldn't have to do that to get a simple thing resolved. The simple thing turned into a wild crazy thing. Schools need to fix what they have and clean house.

I got totally overwhelmed by the samples but then found the set for a great deal and thought what the heck.. I have a diverse group.. 3/4 grader with dyslexia and a hs in 9th grade. We have just started and so far so good. We can tweek it.... We can do the sections longer for the highschooler and then get him AP credit if all goes well. I'm totally okay with that. If it doesn't work I'm okay with that too and better yet.... I get my younger boy there too. We are doing great so far but it's new to us. We are struggling but in a good way. I got more into it by seeing it entirely. I wish you lived here so I could share. It makes a huge difference.