We feel we can use RS and get the full understanding with it because both my husband and I are fluent in German (the language we chose for our kids). Like someone mentioned before, the pictures can be confusing at times, and there are not explanations for the concepts they are trying to teach. We have supplemented with brief grammar lessons occasionally so the kids KNOW what the point is and how to get it right. We have the newest version (3) which we think is a BIG improvement over 2. Version 3 has speaking included and it is a huge PLUS to the program for what we needed. The problem is that my daughter's voice doesn't seem to be picked up as clearly (she also doesn't speak as clearly either, but still when she does, it is more difficult). Whereas my boys voices have no problems being picked up. We were given this, so no cost involved. I think we would still purchase it but only because we are available with necessary supplements. We borrowed a friends version of the Chinese RS and returned it after 1/2 a lesson. We didn't understand A THING and couldn't clarify when we were right or wrong, and there's NO WAY we could have helped our kids!! I WOULD recommend the program if you have a knowledge (fluency not needed) of the target language and can assist for those times that are necessary. Our kids have learned A LOT from the program.

Okay, we narrowed our trip down to (most likely) sometime over the last 2 weeks of August. Anything specific to that time anyone would recommend? Or anything else along these lines? THANK YOU!!!

Hi Everyone. My name is Jennifer. I'm a bookaholic.

Hands down favorite books for children about saints are written by Amy Welborn. Loyola Kids Book of Saints These read SOOOO easily and explain in simple terms how life is hard, God can help you through it, look these people (saints) were just like you, and they were able to do it too. Step by step. Yes you are imperfect. People are imperfect. God loves you. Never give up. We read one story a day, and say the Our Father prayer to start our morning. Simple - takes 5 minutes and it's a good way to start the morning just as everyone's getting out of bed. Then it's off for breakfast, getting dressed, whatever. BIble - my favorite Bible for kids - Day by Day Kid's Bible: The BIble for Young Readers (Tyndale Kids) by Karyn Henley. Broken down in simple terms that kids can understand the MESSAGE trying to be conveyed. We will graduate to a youth/adult Bible when they are teens. This is not a Catholic Bible, but that's okay, we can cover the other books later. This is the basics. It's a good place to start.

Okay, what do you think about graphic novels? I open them and my eyes just go crazy because of the drawings and small words - I have no interest in reading them. But I don't know how kids react to them. I thought it might be fun to have some educational things in a "fun form". Just because I don't find it a fun form, doesn't mean my kids wouldn't still enjoy them. It might be a way to review and remember stuff we've already covered in our "boring" textbooks... Any thoughts? What have your kids reactions been like? I'd love to hear pros and cons! I have seen them in the Timberdoodle catalogs, but I'm sure there are others. Any you would recommend or not recommend from anywhere?

Continue to watch him and take notes of your concerns. EVERYONE has SOME sensory preferences. When they start to interfere with everyday life is when they're a problem. If he does these things when he's 8 - that's a concern. Our child (now 14) has Sensory Integration Dysfunction - read the Out-of-Sync child by Carol Stock Kranowitz. It's an excellent book even if you're not sure he has a problem, and it's helpful when you see other children around you who may be behaving like that. It's a quick read and has lots of black and white checklists. Like I said, even some of the things I prefer are on the checklists, but 1 out of 10 or 2 out of 10 checks doesn't mean I have a problem. My son would have 7 out of 10 things from the checklists. But not all of them either. Some checklists he would be normal - just one or two things that are difficult for him. It's also harder when they are 3 or 4 to diagnose because a lot of the things are typical. My son didn't like his feet to leave the ground (no swings, wouldn't climb, etc.) - I loved that I never had to worry about him at the playground. My son would cover his ears when fire trucks would go by. Isn't that normal? (not now, not when he's 14 years old and acts like a 2 year old when they go by.) He touches people when he talks to them. Normal at 3, not normal at 14. (He has a poor sense of space, so if he touches them, he knows where they are in space.) He talks too loudly (doesn't have a gauge of normal voice), trips over nothing, and can't feel when a cup of hot chocolate is too hot. His senses are "out-of-sync". My 4 other kids are all fine. They did sensory things too when they were little, and may still have a few preferences, but not enough to disrupt their normal every day life. Read the book and either: 1. Put your concerns to rest 2. Continue to keep a watch on things and see where things fall and 3. Become more knowledgeable!

I get bored to tears studying Botany but assigned it to my kids (cheerfully) on their own (3rd and 6th grades) and they REALLY learned a lot! I probably would have bailed or simplified it if they had complained a lot, but seriously they did GREAT!

My kids can listen to music if 1. It doesn't distract anyone else 2. Their final work isn't effected. I agree the best book is The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias to explain all the different ways people learn best. The advantage I see in our house listening to music is that it tunes out the rest of our crazy household and actually helps them to focus more.

We were able to check out the first 2 lessons for free, and loved it for kids on the normal reading track. We mostly were looking into it for our son who has dyslexia, and it was not a good fit for him. He enjoyed it, but it would go too fast for him. I would have purchased it probably for our older children years ago if it had been available for them then.

Sometimes life is just very sad. :( Excellent suggestions so far! Set low expectations - DEFINITELY! It's very frustrating when we reach out and the other person doesn't acknowledge the effort, or doesn't care. It's hard, but just try to focus on being the best YOU can be! If you keep getting hurt, you need to step back a bit. Try setting up something every other week, or once a month, etc. My in-laws can go MONTHS (seriously) without talking to each other. Not that they don't like each other, they just don't see the need. Then there are my parents, whom I haven't seen or talked to in 4 1/2 years because, well, my mom is just not a good person and my kids don't need to be around her and we don't need to explain to them the problems she has. Very, very sad. It slowly gets easier over time. But I still do get jealous of others with good family relationships... AND...like so many pointed out...let that be a good reminder to US to not do the same things! Be sad, give it to God, move on, do your best, and strive to learn and be the best you can be! Blessings to you!!

7 in our family. We have a front load extra large washer. Average about 1 load a day. Save a LOT with this washer on laundry detergent. Half as much (or more) as we used to use, coupled with the fact that we do half as many loads.

I scanned through most of the replies, so if someone already suggested this and I didn't see it - sorry! We have 5 kids, one with Asperger's and one with strong behavioral struggles. I just want to let you know that schooling doesn't have to be all one way or another. You don't have to do 100% homeschooling or 100% public school. At least in most districts. We have sent both our kids with behavioral struggles to school at one point or another for a few mornings or a few class hours a day. Our public school has been willing to work with us. Basically I tell them we are homeschooling, but we'd like to try a few mornings a week (or a specific class) and we are willing to do all the driving, come any days, etc. etc. For our Asperger's child, he wanted to do more hands-on science projects, so we were able to drive him to the charter school every day and he stayed for 2 hours every morning. Yes, it was a lot of driving, but it worked out well. We only went one quarter, but it was still a good experience. For our other child we told them we don't know what his exact struggles are (besides dyslexia and behavior-related), and we wanted to be sure we weren't missing something, so could we bring him 2 mornings a week and have him assessed by the district's "experts" and have him be with other kids as well. Maybe they would be able to pinpoint what his struggles were. (We actually did before they did finally.) Now I don't know if this is purely selfish, but we continue to bring him to school, even though I think we could teach him more at home for those 6 hours a week. The reason being is that it is peaceful in our home without him for those few hours each week. I guess we're using them as a daycare. He is well cared for and they attempt to teach him things and he is learning self-control in a public environment. (His teachers and class are great, maybe I'd think twice if they weren't). I'd like to have that same peace all the time, but with their behaviors 24/7 they are always intruding on someone's space or someone else on theirs and it is constant monitoring and problem solving. I guess after nearly 15 years of that I'm getting drained and welcome the two mornings a week where we have a break and we're not all walking on eggshells. Anyway, my point is - I encourage you NOW to start looking at options, talking with the district, etc. for down the road in case you ever do start hitting that melting point again! Of course, keep in mind you can pull your kids back out any second too if for whatever reason the district doesn't work well for you. It's not all or nothing.

For less cost - try ebay.de I'm looking for even younger readers - like beginning readers like Dr. Seuss type books. Not beginning phonics, but stories that have simple words. Is there something similar to Dr. Seuss in German? I like Richard Scarry for preschoolers to learn vocabulary in a fun way, and we have lots of older readers. Just missing those middle levels!

Excellent points people! Thank you again! I've just had a bunch of feelings and don't always know how to express them - what you're all sharing expresses how I feel very well! My words just come out a lot like this....argggghhh! (Never very helpful. :) ) This will be a thread I will continue to come back to to re-read for encouragement and to help me find the right words to say! It's not that I'm all against sending the kids to school either, I've always taken it year by year and assessed each one for where they were at, their own learning abilities, progress, etc. Thanks to your encouragement, I did tell my husband that I don't think sending them to school because he wants me to work is a fair option and I nearly fell on the ground in surprise when he agreed with that point, although that was the end of the conversation. So it's not like he's "seen the light" :) But he sees that particular argument won't be accepted any more. It doesn't solve any long-term problems, and the issue may come up again tomorrow and next week and next month, but at least with all your wisdom - I feel better prepared in what I can say! :) It's always hard to explain things when they just seem like common sense, so this helps a lot! We've tried minimal counseling in the past, that may be on the agenda to push for again soon. He really could benefit from someone else (a third party) helping him to hold himself accountable. The hard thing is that he only sees today and is a terrible problem-solver. Today's frustrations, today's problems. My prayers for years has been that he could get an overall perspective on LIFE, and see how the little things we do, the little reactions we have, are what make the big impact. I really feel bad for him (when I'm not so frustrated :) ) life doesn't have to be so hard.

Wow, you guys are awesome! There is a lot of wisdom here! Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my personal struggles and encourage and strengthen me! What a great network of support!! :)

I have battling this decision for a long time (years), because it is hard for me to not be a team with my husband in all this. I think your words really hit the nail on the head when you said I am in this emotionally by myself probably anyway and should choose to do what I want to do. And that the decision would only easy the surface tension. (For him, that is.) For me, it would break my heart. In church today I kept nearly breaking into tears thinking of sending them to school. Then having me work from home in an "empty" house. :( I hate being the strong one. I know God is in this too, but it would be so helpful to have another teammate in the house on my team as well.

We have talked for years about all the great reasons for homeschooling (the reasons just fall out of his head, and he doesn't see any real difference and thinks the kids would be the same if they went anywhere). He has been taking some medicine to help, and his stress is much better, but still he is stressed. Really, unfortunately the best thing would probably be if he lived all by himself and had never gotten married or had kids. Life is really, really hard for him. And with five normal kids thrown in the mix, I understand how hard it is, but it still frustrates me that we (in my mind) should sacrifice the kids long-term benefits for his short-sighted immediate personal stress. (Which again, is only stressful because it's him. It would be your average normal life for anyone else.) It's also really a matter of perspective. He doesn't see that he should be the leader or provider of the family and gets frustrated when I ask him how he's doing on his job thinking or ask if there's anything I can do to help. It really needs to come from HIM (or some outside source that gets him) to decide to lead our family or go outside his comfort zone to be the main provider for our family. I get so tired of waiting for a lightning bolt of realization to hit him. Or am I the one that needs to be hit with something? What is my role in all this?

I've been homeschooling for 10 years and love it (although there are days.....) My husband has "tolerated" it - he hates to stand out, and thinks schools are just fine. I guess I should add that I'm pretty sure he has Asperger's (academically intelligent, but socially clueless) and is a perfectionist - highly critical. He resigned 2 1/2 years ago from a job he hated and hasn't been able to find anything else he wants to do. He's taken occasional jobs here and there, but doesn't want to go back to school, doesn't want to move, and doesn't know what to do. I finally took a temp job to help out, that turned into a 2 year temp job (will be over this summer) and I work 30 to 40 hours a week from home plus homeschooling, etc. He has stepped in somewhat and does an excellent job with certain subjects but has little tolerance for kids normal life - it stresses him out. He expects them to act like miniature adults. He wants to send the kids to school so I can work. The FIRST thing I want to do in life is be a full-time (or even most-time) mom to my kids. He doesn't get it and is mad I say I prefer not to work, but am only doing so right now so he can "figure out what he wants to do in life". I'm a little tired of waiting for 2 1/2 years and he still hasn't figured it out. HERE'S WHERE YOUR WISDOM IS NEEDED! Do I be the obedient wife and send them to school so I can work and he can continue to think? I am tired of fighting. The benefits we've had so far have been HUGE, but my dh's perspective is - they've done fine - now can they be allowed to go to school like normal kids? My arguments are endless and continously hit brick walls - I would be soooooo incredibly depressed and resentful if this is what the final decision was. If he wanted to send them to school because he thought they would learn more, or for some other reason - I would be more understanding. But because he wants me to work? I just get so angry! :( Thanks for any feedback!

These are all wonderful ideas! We get books through paperbackswap.com as well, but I don't even know where to start! I have one Betty Crocker cookbook (for all the basics), but I am OVERWHELMED by the amount of cookbooks out there - so this is great information! Oh, and we are one of the top 10 users in our library, but I guess I'm reluctant to check out cookbooks for fear of spilling on them! So I'd rather get them through sites like paperbackswap or Goodwill, etc. :) I am taking notes! Feel free to keep the suggestions coming!!

I am strictly basic when it comes to cooking - large quantities, quick prep, get the food on the table. My oldest (14) LOVES to cook, and doesn't mind spending extra time making something "fancy". He likes to make it look nice, and use different ingredients (meaning not just the same 10 staples I seem to use). :) Any recommendations on some cooking books? Keeping in mind we have a VERY LOW budget. We have a lot of "kids" cookbooks and starter cookbooks. So something at the next level. Also keeping in mind that I CAN NOT help him when it says something like: gerbayelflayel the chicken - yes, I know that's not a word, but if there are any instructions besides "cut" or "slice" I will not know how to help him. Maybe I need to start with a good cooking dictionary? Okay, by now you can all tell how utterly lost I would be in this area - so help is appreciated!

We thought it was great if we spoke the language and could be of help when the kids weren't understanding what they were supposed to do. We tried it for a language we didn't know and were completely lost. We love the third version that includes speaking, but yes, plan to spend time on the technical aspects and play with the speaking accuracy levels (lower the levels so the kids don't have to be PERFECT - and would be frustrated).

Depends on your child. 3 of mine didn't need them, they learned SOOO quickly and caught on, we whipped through the series. 2 of my kids NEEDED the 1/2s. Spelling, writing, and reading was SUCH a struggle for them. They are excellent, inexpensive workbooks and resale is TOP dollar - so I never mind buying books in this series ready to have on hand. Top writing/reading, spelling book we've used. One of my top recommondeations for homeschoolers and all schoolers alike when their children are ready for reading/writing.

Okay, so from the 20 minute look through the Gettysburg site, it looks like people go and stay there for DAYS at a time? Is it possible to just go for a one day event and keep traveling? We just kind of have time for a "taste" of what it was like, not many days. Or is that just kind of missing the point? What do you guys think? And if we were to pick a day - what would be the battle we'd REALLY want to see? (Last day? First?) I just can't even really PICTURE what this is all like. It seems HUGE and a little crazy and overwhelming! :)

Okay, never heard of this - but THAT sounds really cool too!! We'll definitely have to read up details about that! Thanks!

It's difficult to work full-time and homeschool but worth it! (I mean, wish I could give up the working, but since it doesn't seem possible at the moment, I'm glad homeschooling still works.) We are homeschooling each child (we have 5) for different reasons - 3 with some sort of learning struggles (Asperger's, auditory learner, dyslexia) and two children who are 2 or 3 grade levels AHEAD of where they would be in school. Oh yes, it is so interesting. :) All would be FINE I'm sure in school, but I just don't want FINE. The majority of MY homeschool work is from the last 10 years of RESEARCHING and scouring bookstores and curriculum fairs and forums :) for the best teaching tools/textbooks that work for OUR set-up, and work for OUR learners. I have spent so much time learning about how kids/people learn and how those kids learn best. There are a lot of good materials out there, and there may be some better than the ones we have chosen, but I believe we have GOOD basic materials for each of them, and I'm able to just look for more fun/additional things for them now. The second thing is a schedule. We schedule computer time, and time where we do classes together (morning reading, History, Writing). The rest of the things they are expected to do on their own and they come to us if they have questions. Ideally, we also do a once a week review with ONE of the kids on Friday (or the weekend). So about once a month we will "quiz" them on all their subjects and look through all their work (in case we missed something during the weeks). After schoolwork they have a checklist of chores and expectations before they can do other things (computer or video games, etc.) That's how we make it work!