Click in the box where you post to your wall, then click on the little lock icon underneath it. Go to customize, and you can exclude him from viewing the post, and if you'd like, you can set that as your default. I haven't tried it, but it's nice to know it's an option. ETA - *Jen* beat me to it! :)

Perhaps the Dianne Craft Phonics cards would help. http://stores.diannecraft.org/Categories.bok?category=Flashcards My ds had trouble hearing the difference between short i and short e. I made my own flash cards in put the i right on top of a drawing of an igloo, and the e right on top of a drawing of a bed. That helped him tremendously.

"Liked" it :)

At the library - not so much. But the book are coded as to where they are available so you can go directly to that company's website and order them. Have you looked at the sample pages on CBD? You can see a good sampling of pages there. I really do love this book.

I love it. In fact, I've been using it today to plan out our next school year. I feel like it's very organized and easy to use. It also has time-line sections (just text) so you can plug dates and events in on your own time-line. I'm trying my hardest to find books used or at the library, which makes the planning part a little more time consuming, but I don't mind. But if a book looks too good to miss out on, I'd pay for it new if I had no other options. IMO, it's the kind of book you keep and use year after year. ETA - to answer your specific questions, I do use it as a main part of our curriculum. My kids learn much more from reading good books than from standard curricula. And no, I don't feel it's overwhelming at all.

Thank you!! It worked for me. :)

I just did a MAJOR reorganization on my storage closet. It's just a hall closet, wide, like a bedroom closet, but it had deep shelves from top to bottom that were very hard to organize. I completely unloaded it (filled my ds's room with stuff from it) and my FIL worked his magic in it. Now, instead of deep, hard to access shelves, I have 6 big, sturdy, drawers in the bottom, a nice high counter area, and two more regular depth shelves on top. If I can locate the memory card with my pictures on it, I'll post some.

Thanks! Looks like a great resource.

I switched my son into CLE during 5th grade (mid-year). He also tested behind, but obviously he knew some things. I went ahead and ordered the level he tested into (4th grade), and every day he'd look at the lesson and either do it or PROVE to me (by explaining it to me and doing a few problems correctly) that he knew. If he truly understood the lesson, I'd initial it and he'd go to the next lesson. In 1.5 years he has completed all of 4th grade math (much skipping) 5th grade math (some skipping) and most of 6th grade math. He'll be done with the 6th grade math this summer move on to 7th grade math. I have no regrets about what we've done. He's on track, moving forward, and I know that the gaps he had have been filled in. I LOVE CLE math!!

My 7th grader will be doing CLE

My phone is with Straight Talk and it's true - CS reps are VERY hard to understand. But once everything is working properly, the service is great.

Sarah, we completed FF last Spring, right before summer break. I worried that whatever benefits he gained would be lost during the summer, but we all really needed the break, so we took one. When we got back to school in late July, it took him a little while to get in the swing of things, but I can happily say that this is the first school year that my son has progressed at a steady pace for the whole year - no giving up on this or that curriculum because he just couldn't handle it (we went through a lot of that :( ). Prior to FF, it was like he had hit a wall and simply was not learning. We had hit many walls prior to that one, but I think he honestly reached his limit. Since FF, we have not hit ANY walls. This past year he has really come far in his reading comprehension. How long has it been since your son finished FF? Debbie

My 12 yr old has this phone ($30) and 100 minutes per month for $10 through Tracfone. It works great for him. The minutes roll over so he's got over 700 on his phone right now.

It's not cheap, but Fast Forword did wonders for my DS.

After reading about the Feingold diet we eliminated all artificial coloring and most preservatives. It's hard to live by it 100%, but when my kids' diets are clean, life is so much better. My older DS in particular becomes very angry and downright mean when he's eating the bad stuff. Even my super-skeptical DH realizes what an enormous difference it makes. We made the change a few years ago, and have no desire to go back. My kids are very good about reading food labels. Here's an interesting article (on FB) that is related: https://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/healthy-child-healthy-world/us-vs-uk-mac-n-cheese-smackdown/10150181028187799 ETA: I try to make it really clear to my kids that this is not a punishment. Everywhere they go (church, little league games, etc) snacks that are given out are FULL of all the chemicals that they can't have. I've told them all they need to do is hold on to it, give it to me later, and I'll give them something yummy that they CAN have.

I switched from Horizons to CLE with my younger son after I saw how awesome CLE was with my older son. No regrets whatsoever. I will tell you, the only complaint my younger ds has about CLE compared to Horizons is that he misses the color pictures.

Tina, here's a program (free) that should convert the files. It says it works with RAW files from Nikon D2Xs, which is what she shot the pictures with. I downloaded it and it is working fine with my Canon RAW files. http://www.scarablabs.com/scarab-darkroom Debbie

How did it go?

So far I know of a couple boys from our troop who are planning on going. I'm on the fence- money aside (and it's a lot) my DS will only be 14 then. Makes me nervous to send him so far away, so young. But if I understand correctly, the next one that rolls around (other than Japan) he'll be too old. I really don't know what to do. :(

I've been wondering how this has been going. I can't imagine how she (photographer) sleeps at night. I hope in the end, after all the drama and heartache, your daughter gets her album and files. Keep me posted - especially if she goes on Judge Mathis I'd definitely watch. Debbie

What an awesome accomplishment! We're working on first class here. :)

How old is your ds? And what prompted the testing? If his testing results were lower than expected, and you know that it was a subject that you didn't cover as thoroughly as you could have - I'd take it with a grain of salt. Not being taught something is not the same as not having the ability to learn it.

If you uploaded screen resolution files, they will not print well, even @ 4x6.

Monica - we have this. It's good. And today it's Vision Forum's deal of the day. http://www.visionforum.com/browse/dailydeal/?&sc=7777777 Eileen turned me on to it. Call/email her to get more details. They've been using it for a while, and it sounds like they're all really enjoying/learning from it.

I did, but I've always been apprehensive about the kids doing it. After reading JoAnn's links, I think I'll tell them not to anymore.