So, my brother in law was just diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and at first it was like living "a beautiful mind." We all felt like part of who he was died. Mental illness is so very sad not just for those around the person but mostly for the patient. Losing your mind cannot be easy. My only & best suggestion is to take advantage of his moments of clarity and beg him to be medicated. It makes a world of difference. Hugs to you. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, this is our 6th year so I would like to think I have learned a thing or two by now about what works... but there are still some areas I need to perfect LOL.... 7th Grade: Loving: Saxon Math- After working though 1b-4a of Math in Focus my daughter tested into Saxon 7/6. We needed something more spiral. It has been slooooooow like we still have have 7 lessons, 2 tests and an investigation before we get to start 8/7 and we started 7/6 over a year ago! She still manages to test off the charts though so I will take it. I wonder sometimes if MIF wouldn't be more fun but I am so happy with how well she is doing and she is happy with how well she does that we see no reason to jump to something else. BookShark Eastern Hemisphere- We are longtime Sonlight turned BookShark lovers in this house. She adores nearly all the book selections and asks me to pick their books for summer reading also. She has been completely enthralled with Eastern culture since she was little because she was born in Korea while we were stationed there so this has been fun for her. Elemental Science Chemistry for the Logic Stage- She loves that the experiments come first and the DK book. I also ended up getting a subscription for MEL Chemistry just because she loves science. English LA- Easy Grammar, AAS, Vocabulit, Writing According to TWTM (Narrations in Science, History Outlines & Literary Analysis based on her readers) Latin For Children A Rosetta Stone Japanese 1 Sphero Shakespeare in Bits (A Midsummer Night's Dream) A Child's History of Art Sculpture

My daughter is in 7th and struggled with outlining last year. I follow the Well Trained Mind Methods but apply them to the curriculum we choose. We are using BookShark Eastern Hemisphere which comes with a "notebook" to fill in. I tweak this "notebook" to follow TWTM. For example this is our first week studying Russia. So she read a section of the spine outloud to me. Then I sat with her and read each paragraph one at a time and asked her to tell me what she thought the main idea of said paragraph was and she wrote the answers down in her notebook. Then she had mapwork as assigned. The next day we did the same. Every few days we cook a meal or do a fun project around the topic. Her readers and read alouds are also scheduled and pertain to the history. I like that the books are already picked out for us, it keeps things simple. Our plan for outlining is to start with the One level outline and work up to a three level outline by the end of this year and I am having her write literary essays from her readers. Her science has narratives and outlining also so that everything gets covered. I think something that is key is the hand holding and walking them through the process several times until it clicks as a previous comment stated.

We have Farmland and my daughter loves it. If you want number recognition you will need to add that. They recommend Beginning math reasoning or something to that effect. (The one in the kit) Right now I am using it, AllAbout Reading pre reading and memoria press preschool. I own mother goose time, before 5 in a row and a year if playing skillfully. I have an addiction, admitting it is as far as I have gone in 5 years of Homeschooling... Luckily I have enough kids to use some of it.

I wear Miss Me jeans. I love them. I purchase a few new but they are pricey so I usually try to hit the local resale shop for them at less than 1/2 price :)

Okay, for me this was supposed to be the creme de la creme of science curriculum. It is our first year using it. We are in Week 7 of Chemistry for the Logic Stage. So far our circuit for week 4 did not work at all. we swapped out wires and batteries... no luck.... now for week 7 she not only logged all of the results incorrectly (she was supposed to write sink or float I got responses like "nothing happened" or "it turned maroon") Granted this last experiment I allowed her to do on her own after we added the salt to the colored waters, because I have a toddler and infant also, but I still feel as though something is off. She is my science kid so I feel as though she is not really trying to just get it done with. I think either she or the experiments are the issue and i just need to figure out which it is. Has anyone else had issues or is it just us? TIA

I watch my neighbors foster son on a semi regular basis. He is 3 and is on the severe end of the spectrum, has seizures. So far I have figured things out on my own. So far I bring down my daughters mattress for him to "cool down" on when he flips out and he uses that willingly. He LOVES trains so I make the train set off limits to all other kids while he is here (other wise he freaks out). I had turned octonauts on for him because that is what my friend said he liked... He spiraled into a fit... I switched to baby einstein for my son and he is in love! Is there anything else I can get or do for him that would comfort him while he is here. I have read about swings... are there any free standing ones for indoors that don't require mounting? Anything? I would like to get to a point where I can school my kids while he is here LOL

He is in therapy once a week.... we have had him almost a year now and never saw this coming... we had no issues last school year or over the summer but the past two weeks with him have been a mother's nightmare...

just when I though everything was good ish (mind you I have been contacted every single day since school started, aug 5, about this child...) note from school: today **** stomped on and kicked another student...... me&dh: why did you do that **** ****: because another kid was already kicking and hitting him so I joined in..... I have no words that are appropriate to follow this..... none.... my heart is breaking as I am sitting here writing an apology letter to the child's parents....7 is a bit young for this....

So... I have 3 foster kids. I have had them for going on 8 months now. We have had some serious issues with one of them in school (I homeschool my bios). I have no boys and this is my only experience with boys. So.... I am not sure the issues that he has would be solved with meds but I will say that I have done all I can possibly do on the environmental & emotional sides of the house. They did give me the digression (although I still have to wait for the bio parents to sign off on it) to stop it if the meds are not working or are making him a zombie. Which are major concerns for me. He is 8 years old and they gave him the second to lowest dosage. My concerns are 1-With only a month left of school will we see much of a difference, especially depending on how long it takes for the case worker to get approval? (I only have mild issues with him at home.) 2-Has anyone else had a similar situation with age of child and specific drug that can tell me what to look for besides the typical side effects?

Yea I remembered that, I was just hoping the sample was still available and its not... :(

Okay... it was called Advanced Language Lessons and it looks like they took it down :(

...

Didn't I see a long time ago .... a logic stage grammar program being developed that never was released aside from a preview?....maybe i am crazy but if I did can someone send me the link....

Before I had Foster Kids I did an one day a week in depth clean.... I gave up on that for about 7 months now... they are leaving in 2.5 months though and we are closing our house... i am hoping to get back to my one day a week... the hardest part though is we used to only have 1008 sqft... and now I have 2400 sqft..... thats a lot more floor and base boards... I am going to be minimizing our belongings and stuff too though... i have had enough of the mess too...

Truth be told I am OCD about my bio kids stuff.. they are in bins that are labeled or baskets that are assigned certain toys.... HOWEVER, My foster kids have no such sorting skills nor do they want them. So they each have one large tub that I got them from Walmart..... I will post a link below... they each have their own color... Once a month I go in the room, dump one bucket at a time... throw away all trash and broken toys, pull out laundry and whatever else they have managed to hoard and let them go at it again... My foster daughter is a legit hoarder due to circumstance I suppose but I have finally got her to not sleep with her dirty laundry..

Oh and this time it was lesson 26 LOL

That makes sense! I will have her do that...

Hey my daughter is using Saxon Math 7/6 and this is the second time I have had her skip because I don't have a "dot cube" can some one please send me a link to where I can buy one... I am having no luck with this task.

I have everything planned and in E-Carts... and I hit the checkout button each time I have enough money for a whole cart... I should be done by summer some time LOL

If it makes you feel better I am 28 weeks... I was supposed to be on progesterone for the beginning of my pregnancy but it completely knocked me out...so I just didn't take it...Baby is ok. I am huge... already gained 28 lbs... this is my 3rd but I also have 3 foster kids and my hubs has been away for 4.5 months but luckily comes back next week! I have celiac so no gluten... no nuts.. and I am scared to death to do my glucose test tomorrow because I have been dizzy every day... I have been fighting depression since the beginning of this pregnancy...I don't have a C-section concern that would scare me to death... I honestly think I wouldn't have anymore if I had to have one... Hugs! We can make it through! edited to add- I have been sick since september when our foster kids moved in... stomach virus 3 rounds of antibiotics... strep sinusus ... etc...

We used math in focus for 3.5 years. My daughter loved it but somewhere in book 4a she decided to be a pain in my behind and although she was doing phenomenal in all other aspects i cannot tell you how many times I had to reteach fractions. I needed/wanted something slightly more spiral. Someone mentioned Saxon to me and I placement tested her. Well, she tested into Saxon 7/6! So I bought it and the Art Reed videos to go with it. She loves it oddly aside from the quantity of work involved in each lesson. She asked to go back to Math in Focus. SO I played lets make a deal. She continues with the Saxon and after every 2 Saxon lessons we do a Math In Focus lesson or unit depending. She agreed. So the plan is to finish Math in Focus 4a and 4b and Saxon 7/6 intertwined and then placement test her in both and see where she stands. I do like Math in Focus better for the higher thinking involved and the method of teaching in general. Plus its just pretty. But I love Saxon in that it has her constantly practicing all the different aspects of math all the time versus just moving on to the next concept.

If you have the book Susan presents lots of ideas for beginning in the middle. If you are worried about LA I would just pick up FLL4 and WWE3 and work through those with your oldest. They are the perfect transition to the Logic stage for grammar and writing. You could then follow with which ever grammar suggestion of hers you like and WWS1. I would just figure out where you are in a spelling program and pick up from there. For history, and science just pick a time frame and work from there. Same for Logic. Continue with a math and add in Music and Art appreciation. Don't stress it though. You can do this!

Not that it is super long term but what about using Beautiful Feet Geography with the corresponding IEW course. You could use the 4/5 Readers guide if she hasn't done those yet for Reading. I used FLL but my neighbor really likes Winston Grammar I think it is, two years and they are done. I still have not found a science I love but if you like experiments and you want to combine all of them you could use RSO Chemistry by Pandia Press.