But, most importantly, who has pictures of the presidential candidates in kilts? :leaving:

17yo w/ Aspergers. He's completed everything listed below in my signature. The only thing left between now and graduation in May is driver's ed. He's working now on getting his learner's permit. He needs to have it by March 15th and then he's been accepted into a grant study program at the University of Virginia where they're teaching teens with Asperger's how to drive using a driving simulator. He's very excited! In the past, what's worked for him was Alpha Phonics for reading, Easy Grammar for grammar, IEW for writing, Math-U-See (younger grades) and Teaching Textbooks (upper grades) for Math and Sonlight for everything else. I'm also teaching my 9yo (she turned 10 Wednesday, just haven't updated my signature!). She's fairly delayed in academics. We just brought her home this school year and I started her off at the beginning with K/1st grade materials. She'd been in a self-contained autism class since the age of 3, and we finally received a much-fought-for request for an Independent Educational Evaluation. The first one (audiology) discovered a hearing loss, so we're now waiting for the speech eval, which is next week, and for the results of the occupational eval to come in the mail. We know she has a speech / language delay and sensory integration disorder and she has some autistic traits, although she hasn't been formally diagnosed yet. We're concentrating on math and reading right now. She's doing well with Math-U-See (she's halfway through Alpha now) and the Reading Lesson (she's halfway through the book). Wow..that turned into a mini-novel! Sorry. :blushing:

My oldest daughter used it from Prealgebra through Precalculus -- she's in college now. She's not a math lover. My oldest son is completing the series now. He's not math-y at all. My youngest son loves math and he loves TT. Because he's "math-y", I tried to put him into Chalkdust, but he didn't care for it at all, so it was back to TT. We've used just TT for the last 6 years. Before that, we used Math-U-See for about 6 years. Prior to that, when I was just starting out with homeschooling, we used BJU.

I agree with the above poster. When we did the early levels (up through TT 7), we used the CDs only. We very rarely opened the book. He would enter the answers on the CD and go from there. He had a notebook for scratch paper, too. Now that he's in pre-algebra, he's using just the textbook. He hasn't reached for a single CD yet. He completes all work on notebook paper and files it in his notebook binder. We have the earlier edition, so you can't enter the answers on the CDs for pre-algebra and up.

My youngest had private OT therapy when she was younger (age 4 to 5). During OT sessions, they would do various things to help her with her sensory issues. They would swing her on a swing, or she would put her hands into a tub of rice where they'd hidden little toys and alphabet letters, etc. They would have her roll around on a large rubber ball. They would have her sit on a scooter and push herself around on the floor. Things like that. I imagine that kids with different sensory issues would do different things. They would also work on her pencil grip by having her complete basic handwriting pages and coloring pages. My daughter REALLY enjoyed it and it helped her tremendously.

My kids have been raised on rock and roll .. of all varieties and tastes. Full disclosure...before I had children, I was a disc jockey...so I have a vast -- and I mean VAST -- music library. Jimmy Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and AC/DC are played here almost daily by my oldest son, who also plays the electric guitar and the piano. Rush, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Van Halen and Guns 'n Roses are my youngest son's favorite bands -- and he plays the drums as well as the piano. My youngest daughter prefers Lady Gaga, Rhianna, and Katy Perry. All the "girl bands". She also likes the Go-Gos, which takes me back to high school every time I hear it! I remember several years ago, when we were at a BBQ at my brother's house. "Slow Ride" came on the radio and my youngest son commented loudly, "This is my favorite Foghat song!" My brother looked at him and said, "You're 8. You're too young to have a favorite Foghat song!" :lol:

I live in Virginia and my youngest daughter receives speech therapy at the local elementary school for 30 minutes, twice a week. It's group therapy, not private one-on-one therapy and I have to drive her to the school and then wait the 30 minutes until she's done. We've had no problems at all. I'd check with the laws in your state.

My youngest son is really enjoying Rainbow Science! We're using Year 1 this year, which covers chemistry & physics. And he can't wait for next year, when we'll use Year 2, which covers biology. The textbook is very interesting to read and colorful -- he loves that aspect about it! Each lesson in the book is roughly a full page, front and back, so it isn't overwhelming. He does science 3 days a week. Mondays and Wednesdays, he reads a lesson in the textbook, writes down any science definitions, and answers the questions at the bottom of the lesson page. Fridays are science lab days and he'll do a science lab in the lab book. (His Dad handles Lab Fridays, so I can't really comment on this, but I haven't heard any complaints!) The one way that you could save money, perhaps, is on the lab kits. The majority are every day household items (balloons, candles, aluminum foil, magnifying glass, vegetable oil, etc.) and you could gather those on your own. The other items (a glass beaker, graduated cylinder, etc.) you could probably locate at a teaching store without too much trouble. I purchased the lab kit mainly because we live out in the country (30 minutes to the nearest shopping center) and it's very convenient, knowing that I have everything I need right at hand. I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

My youngest son is halfway through the last book, The Return of the King, and he's really, really enjoyed them. He wants to tackle The Silmarillion next. I've never made it all the way through that book!

CNN just announced that Joe Pa has died. ESPN is reporting it, too.

How many times a week do you do: Science -- 3x History/Social Studies -- 3x Math -- 5x Phonics/Language Arts -- 5x Geography -- 3x Spelling -- 5x Critical Thinking/Logic -- 1x (12yo only) Handwriting -- 5x (9yo only) Music/PE -- piano lessons for each child 1x per week; practice 5x week PE -- basketball (17yo) - 2x; Tae Kwon Do (12yo) - 3x; swimming (9yo) - 2x Art -- 5x

I agree with the hormones aspect. My oldest son has high functioning autism and around the age of 12-13 is when we started to notice a real change in his temper. He would rage out of control for seemingly no reason. Certain things did affect it more than others (we discovered that he's highly sensitive to artificial colors, esp. red), but sometimes it was for no reason at all. He will be 18 in May and things have calmed down tremendously over the last year or so, but from the ages of 12 or 13 until around age 17, it was a roller coaster ride!

Hoping for a Saints / Broncos Superbowl! Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!! :cheers2:

K xxxx 1 xxxx 2 xxxx 3 xxxx 4 xxx 5 xxx 6 xxx 7 xxx 8 xx 9 xx 10 xx 11 xx 12 xx I hope I filled that out right! :)

I nursed all four of mine. The three oldest weaned anywhere from 2 to 3 years of age. My youngest nursed until she was 4 1/2.

I'm homeschooling a 3rd grader with special needs, a 7th grader, and a 12th grader, and my oldest graduated from our homeschool in 2009.

Oldest daughter was accepted at Coastal Carolina University! We should be receiving a letter within the next two weeks and we're hoping there's some offer of financial aid because it's very expensive out-of-state. Radford University states "decision made" on their website, but no idea what the decision is. We should be receiving a letter in the mail in the "coming weeks". We probably won't hear from James Madison University (daughter's 1st choice) for another 2 months. Background .. oldest is graduating from the community college in May with her AA degree and will be entering college as a Junior to complete her Bachelor's in Psychology.

My 12 yo has one simply because it was his older brother's and he never used it. Ever. He's not a "phone talker". So they were sharing it for a few months before the older one said, "Just take it." ;) I do leave the boys alone when I run errands and I like to be able to reach them when I need them. My oldest son never remembered to turn it on or keep it charged. My 12yo carries it with him everywhere! His best friend goes to public school, though, so he doesn't text until the late afternoons / evenings and then just with this one boy. It's also just a plain phone. It does have a qwerty keyboard, but it's not a smart phone -- no internet access.

I haven't used the revised curriculum so I can't really offer advice when it comes to which to purchase. Have they revised the Prealgebra curriculum so that you input the answers directly into the computer? That's the way the younger levels of TT work. If that's the case, then you could get away with just buying the CDs. For the younger levels of TT (Math 4, Math 5, Math 6, and Math 7), I don't think we opened the textbook more than 2 or 3 times the entire school year. For Prealgebra and up, if you don't use the revised version, then there aren't any lesson problems on the CDs...they're all in the books. So this year, for Prealgebra, my youngest son is strictly using the textbook. I don't think he's reached for the CDs at all.

Based on our personal experience, it is about a grade level behind. My youngest son loves TT! He's used it since 4th grade and won't use anything else. He's always worked a grade level ahead. (TT Math 5 in 4th grade, TT Math 6 in 5th grade, etc.) Our plan is for him to use TT Precalc in 11th grade, and then take a math class at the community college in 12th grade. Each level of TT has a decent amount of review at the beginning of each grade level also. So at the beginning of prealgebra, for instance, the first 30+ lessons are a review of basic math (accelerated, of course), but I love that refresher after we've taken a few weeks or months off from school.

I can chime in for a little bit (now that the kids are asleep...insomnia is a blessing sometimes!) with our experiences so far. My oldest was always homeschooled and she studied at home exclusively (except for the occasional art class or co-op) until she was a Junior. She then started taking dual enrollment classes at the community college. She needed to pass the placement tests in order to do so. She is also a *terrible* test taker. She did well on the English & Writing sections of the SAT -- 550 range in both -- but she bombed the Math section (450). She was really enjoying her classes at the community college, however, and she decided that she was going to complete her AA degree and then transfer to a 4 year school to complete her BA/BS degree. So that's what she did. She graduates this year (yay!) and we're currently waiting to hear from her 3 college choices to see where she'll be attending in the Fall. It's actually been a wonderful experience! We've been able to spend the last few years with her and she's gained a great deal of maturity in the process. It's also saved us some serious $$. Spending her freshman and sophmore years at a state college away from home would've cost around $30,000; being able to take the same classes at the community college will cost less than $10,000. Our oldest son will graduate in May. He has no college aspirations at the moment. He has high functioning autism, Asperger's syndrome. Right now, he just wants to finish high school! He may or may not choose to attend the community college. He's working on getting his driver's license (a HUGE step for him) as we speak and he wants to get a job. He's always done things at his own pace and on his own timetable, so we're willing to give him the time to do so. Our youngest son...and the reason I'm in this thread...will be officially in the 8th grade this coming fall, but he's already working at that level now. He's always been a very good student. For the first time, I think I'll have to be watching those threads about AP classes! He's already talking about going to college (and mentioned Duke as his favorite school!) So I have my work cut out for me with this one! :)

Our 1st option is always a suite hotel. I love the ones with a little kitchenette, so that we can bring in snacks and drinks! Our 2nd option is two connecting rooms. When the kids were younger, I would be in one room with the girls and my hubby would be in another one with the boys. We would keep the connecting doors open so it would be like one giant room. Now that the kids are older, it's usually my hubby and I in one room and the kids in the other one. I've found that some hotels are more flexible than others about squeezing in 5 or more people. Holiday Inns are usually accommodating ... same with Quality Inns, Comfort Inns, and Days Inns. Your mileage, of course, may vary. ;)

We have a yellow lab named Buddy and a black lab named Spunky. :)

Sign me up! My youngest son will be an 8th grader in the fall. I have already graduated one, and have another one who graduates in May, so this will be our 3rd round of homeschooling high school!

I've never found one that works or works for very long! This year, we switched to mechanical pencils. :)