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.

Did the above link work for you? I tried it too. We are beginning this also very soon. I'm trying to get our workbooks started.

Hello, Okay I'm asking for prayer for several things all connected. I pray that my children will continue to be humble and turn to all good things during the tough times. We are self employed and business is down. We have lost our home back in the fall but I'm at peace with that. We are renting a big house that fits our large family and two businesses. This saves us money but it seems it's still not enough. We are having problems paying for everything. We have no insurance and at this point that is a luxury that we need. I pray to get out of the holes we have been put in. God place people in our path for strength and help. I want prayer for my son in PS to get resolution for his violated IEP. It's a mess and the things we are asking for are small but being ignored. I want to say that we all need to band together in prayer and lift eachother up. I pray that I can be a mouth piece for you and share comfort, love and peace.

I'm reading a lot of posts about legal and ethical and well as a business owner and new tog user I agree that something being legal doesn't make it ethical. When you buy something and expect that product by a certain time you expect what you paid for. This one was purchased prior to the issues, right? If I'm understanding this correctly she placed this order when things appeared okay. If she paid for a printed version she should get a printed version. TOG should have contacted their customers to ask them if it was okay to switch the order. I would be demanding a refund if I were this unhappy. It's not about resale or licensing at this point. They aren't getting what they paid for. It is bad business even if that is not their intent. I don't believe for a moment it is their intent. It's just that it's hurting their business as a result. It's a darn shame. I personally don't want the DE version. I've been buying year 2 for later one unit at a time. I might be wrong about how I feel but really give your customers back their money if they don't want the new product before you lose other customers from the aftermath.

That's nice of you to say, but today I took dd to Kindergarten Registration at that charter school, *just because I wanted to see what it was like.* My daughter can read and write, but math is her weakness. She can count a little past 30 but even recognizing the difference between 12 and 21 can stump her on bad days. We are going to work through an entire Singapore K math review between now and the baby's birth b/c I just feel like she needs all that information gone over again before she's ready for the first grade curriculum. Anyway, back to the registration, there was a little boy who counted to 100 AND counted by 10s to 100! Listening to him, I felt like I have been failing my daughter! She can't count that way. :( That's when I thought, Should I send her here, after all, so they can teach her in a way that I might cannot? NAAAhhhh.... I would use a different curriculum for math. She will be bored in K and you may find her acting out due to that fact. The habits kids learn in PS is never good. I speak from experience. We have done charter schools but really you could coop with another family and get a better result. I'll share my story. My 9 year old is learning to read for the first time and he's in 4th grade. He's dyslexic and is in lower grade level for everything. You are ahead of the game believe me. I'm glad I didn't push the reading because if I had I wouldn't be getting the success that I'm getting now. I think you son feels the tension in grandma and that is why you are getting the behavior there. My younger two boys use to torture my mom. lol

Fantastic!!

First I must say that I can understand your hurt. I think we look for support from our family. My mil is a retired teacher so when she supported me I was shocked. She didn't support her daughter when she first HS and that was when it was controversal. I did laugh regarding the comment on what not to act like. I have 4 boys and we have only HS our youngest two for 1 1/2 years. I don't want them to act like these kids. My mom has this illusion that 3 years shouldn't do certain things and told me that her girls never did this. lol The boys were like aliens to her. They acted like boys and they acted like 3 year olds. lol Maybe she just forgotten what they do or she never experienced this before. It will be just fine. He is being a 3 year old boy. It sounds to me like you are doing great. I haven't HS with a baby but I have four kids and things can be overwhelming for anything anytime. The wonderful thing about HS is that you can do school when you want or need to. We are doing school through the summer. We take our breaks throughout the year and I have older kids. The socialization part is something have control over. I prefer my boys NOT hang out with the neighbor kids. They are not missing anything. They don't fit with them anyways. I have older children and they often leave the park because the PS kids are there up to no good. I'm glad that they have that common sense to stay away. Don't worry so much, you are doing great and you are giving your kids the best possible education. Join a group and get your local support there because we have a few in our group that have babies and they seem to work it out great. You just tweek it along the way. Nothing has to be perfect just interesting. Take the opportunities and lean on us if you need to. I wish I would have done it from the beginning like you are. You will do great.

I'm going to check them both out. I'm hoping to see them at convention. Perhaps we can just do what we are doing now online and get a far as we can and buy at convention or view someone's copy here.

I think either is time consuming to get all of what is being taught from what I've read. You have to add a college Biology book with it to make it AP and then make sure you have the 12 labs completed also. Does that make sense? I'm learning myself. lol

Actually I won't fill holes with any of these. We are doing something else for that at the moment and it's working pretty well. I just don't want a curriculum with holes in it afterward in Algebra. My ds is pretty quick to get math but if mom doesn't know something then it will be an issue. How is the instruction on these others.

You are in agreement over the MUS and Saxon. I was looking at Chalkdust and thought it looked good so far but still need to see it more closely. Do either of these have DVD instruction? Foerster's Algebra, Jacob's Geometry, and Foerster's Algebra II. I don't have higher math under my belt. I didn't go beyond Geometry. Thanks for the info on LoF because I haven't even looked at it but it's been suggested for other things.