You might like Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. The activity suggestions are genre-specific but not book-specific so you can still choose your own titles (within some limits - like, an animal fantasy, or, a hero biography). Because there are guides for multiple levels, if your kiddo's vocab and comprehension is high, you can do those activities on a higher level but still use the same book and on-grade-level suggestions for understanding genre, plot, etc.

Can you get some mutual guy-friend to give the husband a come-to-Jesus talk about intimacy and secrets and healthy marriages? If you can't talk the husband into telling, I would not go directly to the friend with it, and when she finds out I would not let her know that I knew all along. That kind of you-knew-and-I-didn't dynamic just adds an unnecessary layer of stress on top of the stress of not being as intimate with your partner as you believed you were.

Thanks for sharing this! My oldest son has recently noticed that kids in brick-and-mortar high schools are much busier than he is, and he's wondering if our homeschool is preparing him to face college. I emailed your post to him.

My son's sole purpose in testing is to show some outside validation to admissions officers that he can really do the work we say he can do. He's looking at doing one in Spanish and one in each of the four main subject areas - science, social studies, math and English. Neither of the colleges in which he is interested give credit for CLEP, nor do they require SAT IIs in any specific area. So our question is, which tests should he take, AP, CLEP, or SAT IIs?

My 3rd grader is using this in his public school and I am so impressed with it that I am pretty sure it's what we'll use when we get back to homeschooling him. It uses the things I loved best about RightStart and Singapore.

Yep, exactly. A true need for silence is a rare and debilitating disorder. Of course disorders get accomodation but if you treat normal kids like that you'll disable them.

When my kids tell me they can't concentrate with noises, I tell them part of what they are learning today is how to do just that, and that learning to focus despite noise is as important as math or history. I have never allowed them to demand silence. All of my kids and stepkids have tried insisting they need silence at one time or another and I have always responded that the world is noisy and they have to learn to work in it. It was hardest for my youngest son, who only this year, at eight, is able to stay on task despite sibling ruckus. There were many tears, and screaming fits, before he finally stopped fighting with me over it and started working on his own internal powers of focus. I'm seeing fruit now though. He's able to do it. (I acknowledge that possibly I may be the equivalent of the lucky parent who believes she produced little gourmets by never letting them say no to a food. As the mom of a boy who starved himself til he passed out rather than eat something that was not beige, I know we can't always create flexible kids by brute force. But it's worth a long, hard try. And I wouldn't give up before age thirteen.)

At the high school level, FIRST robotics teams don't have anything to do with Lego, except that sometimes teams volunteer to help younger kids at competitions and the younger kids' kits are Lego-based. On my son's high school team, there are animators (who almost never touch the robots at all but just sit at their computers doing the art), "team theme" designers (who come up with branding for the team including costumes and chants and posters and a service mission), and a whole subcommitee that focuses only on volunteer and fundraising opportunities. Even if you are on the drive team, which means you go to the competition and run the robot in the ring, much of the actual work of the team revolves around finding out what other teams are doing, and since most teams will be secretive unless they can exchange info or be of help or need help, there's definitely an art to this kind of inter-team networking.

My baby sister (19 yrs younger) went to a small Catholic school known for its good writers. All they did was expose kids to examples of good writing and have them write an essay a day from third grade to sixth grade. I think I might have them read a sample essay every day, maybe with a prompt that the author might have based it around. There are books of sample college admissions essays. Having a library of the forms and language in their heads will help a lot. They'll know what they're aiming for. I'd also get them writing daily. You could do freewrites for those who really struggle or give them prompts. (There are lists of them on the internet, if you Google.) Just get them in the habit of putting thought to paper for lengthy periods of time each day. Their hands will need to adjust, too. Require a number of words for the kids who are more competent with a pencil and a number of minutes (maybe 20 working up to 60) for reluctant writers. I remember our exchange a few years ago and have thought of your family periodically as I have struggled to keep my kids out of school despite circumstances. I will pray and cross fingers and such that you and your kids will be well served by whatever happens next.

I have too, but not among Christians who are genuinely trying to be good to each other. I do not practice any religion that is based around any scripture, but I am also a scripture nerd and can exegete with the best of 'em, and I have found that THE way to tell if someone is really trying to be good to you or if they are trying to bust your balls is to explain your practice/interpretation and see how they react. Super good close friends will argue because they know you love it, and acquaintances will either quietly back off (which means good) or correct you (which means bad). I guess I was assuming those parents are basically good people. There are basically good people in small Christian towns, usually. I wish you could find those and get some relief by sticking with them.

Okay, given that you don't want to out yourself as polytheist (I think? you said gods, right?), and that these are preteens who have apparently picked up that religion is his weakness and is using it as a source of bully power, maybe you could have him say, "Jesus said that those who pray in the streets are hypocrites. My mom told me that faith is private and personal. That means I can't talk about it. Please stop talking to me about it so we can just play." If they persist, he could go over to a parent, say the same thing, and then add, "It feels like they are using your religion to tease me and that's not very Christ-like. Can you please help me explain to your kids that my relationship with Jesus is too personal a topic for me and i just want to play?"

I think my advice would depend on how you know these people and where you and DS see them. We live in the downtown of a big city and we constantly bump into clean-cut fundies from the 'burbs who are here just to save the unwashed masses. I think they target me because I'm less intimidating than a lot of the other people living here in downtown with me. I'm white, I usually have my children with me, and my visual counterculturalism comes across as the gentle hippie sort. They come up to me, and I smile because I can't tell right away if they're asking for directions to the museum (which I am happy to give) or going to tell us about Jesus. Then they say things right to my sons, who are always annoyed. My middle boy likes to drown them out by chanting ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn but I have usually stopped him, not wanting him to be rude. When one actually cornered my oldest kid this last autumn, separating him from me, I finally realized that there's a place in the world for anger. Now I have no qualms raising my voice and saying, "Do not EVER talk to ANY children about your church without parental permission!" So maybe DS can say something like, "Perhaps it was a mistake to tolerate this for so long. Let me make it clear. Stop. Do not EVER mention your religion to me again. EVER."

I hear you! I believe yours would be my life if I didn't have a pleasant way to assign a time when we all work together to pick up. Announce it at the dinner table. Or in the car. Wherever they all are. "Okay guys, from now on, we're going to have something called Pick Up Time. We'll decide on some music, put it on loud, and for the whole 15 minutes everyone will rush around putting things where they actually go. Dad and I will do it too. Whoever gets the most things picked up will get to pick the music next time. We'll have our first practice Pick Up Time right after dinner tonight, with no music in case there are questions." Make it fun. Or maybe just reward yourself... If you have them put a quarter in your therapy jar every time you have to remind them, soon you will be able to afford some very yummy "therapy."

My heart goes out to you and your poor puppy. My ten-year-old Australian Shepherd, who had been with me since I was 18 years old and she was six weeks old, was attacked by the neighbor's two pitbulls. They broke through a fence to get at her. She also just cried while they ripped into her leg and neck until finally we got them off by simultaneously punching one in the face (my ex) and throwing a trash can at the other (me). She survived after surgery but is now aggressive when she sees other dogs. Of course I leash her at all times but I am always afraid we will be forced to put her down if we are someday unable to quickly enough tell another dog owner that she isn't friendly. We should have been helping her re-learn to socialize from the very first day. Please for your own peace of mind talk to your vet or a pet psychologist about helping her stay friendly towards other dogs. Also, please contact animal control and see if the dog who attacked yours can be picked up. In some counties dogs who attack must be put down.

I like carpet better than wood flooring.

I would wrap a big empty cardboard box and put a letter inside saying what the box represents, or maybe a trinket. Like, if they want to go fishing with Dad every weekend, I would put in a little plastic fish. Or if they want to go to a concert, I'd put in a keychain with that band's name on it.

Yup, this. Life is random and can't be fair and needn't be - it has no conscience, no moral standards to live up to. People, though, should be fair, especially people (like parents) with other people's emotional well-being in their charge. But really we all have each other's well being in our charge, don't we? And that is a central message of the holiday. Life isn't fair but it is our moral obligation to make it as good for everyone as we can. I have always gone for excitement equality - gifts should be the same amount of big deal. I spent $100 on a cruiser-style bike for my oldest and then only $50 on the set of all-the-colors Prismacolor pencils my middler has wanted all year. One gift is physically larger and twice as expensive but they are the same sort of meaning to the boys, both things they daydreamed about but knew better than to ask for because we're poor.

Can anyone recommend some picture books or living books on science topics for K-3 that are in Spanish?

My eight-year-old learns so much faster and easier when he can use music and somewhat faster when his main mode of input is auditory. Math is his trickiest subject. What would you recommend?

Oh, great idea for a thread. Here's our non-electronic list. Shared family gifts: - zip line - Mouse Guard the RPG boxed set and then every kid is getting a paper mache mailbox of their own to decorate (because with two sets of visitation schedules, the kids end up leaving their stepsiblings notes all the time). 13 yr old son: - a cruiser bicycle with a cargo deck and front basket - Pandemic, the board game - a chocolate fountain - build-an-engine kit - snowboarding gear 10 yr old son: - Pitt manga markers - glow-in-the-dark Sculpey - ouija board with a pointer hand carved by his stepdad - shark-shaped punching bag 8 yr old son: - candy making supplies - Wedgits - Perler beads - a beanbag chair for his room - an explorer's kit, basically an army-style backpack with a hammock, water filter, fire starter, pocket knife, compass, lantern and first aid kit 7 yr old stepdaughter: - climbing hand holds so she can make her bedroom wall into a rockclimbing wall - a GBOP - fancy personalized stationery - Story War 3 yr old stepdaughter: - Carhartt coat and overalls just like her dad's work clothes - slippers that make her feet look like dinosaur feet - a mini trampoline - a giant floor puzzle - something else but I don't know what which is why I was looking at this thread

Unless they have radically changed and are not mentioning it on their site, you don't have to send them a portfolio, just the forms they initially send you -- log sheets, credit request forms, etc. The "contact teacher" or advisor your student is assigned will become a mentor, a correspondent, almost a family friend. (I graduated 14 years ago and I am still in touch with mine and that is common.) If they get a funny feeling that you aren't working as much as you say, they will talk to you about it, and are probably authorized to request documentation of some sort (though I can't imagine them ever saying, 'no credit because you have no tests!' -- if you had no tests and needed to prove something, they'd find an alternative way to let you) but mostly they accept as proof your correspondence with them. They are really very reasonable, homey folks. They're professionals, yes -- running an actual brick and mortar school for so long, as they have -- but they are not bureacrats. Not at all.

They will not go over your head to co-design a curriculum with your son without your input. They will send a packet of information. You can talk to your son about it and look at it with him, let him know your requirements and boundaries. They will respect those. It really is completely, 100% okay to use whatever you choose. To answer your second question, let me explain a bit about how Clonlara records work and grants credit. You will get a grid that has days across the top and spaces for subjects down the left side. You write in any credits your kid is working towards in the spaces down the left. Then, each day, as your kid works, he fills in the box where credits and day meet with the number of minutes he spent on that subject. When he has a certain number of hours (I don't recall how many -- maybe 120?) he is granted a credit in that subject and it will go on his transcript however you choose to title it. If your child takes classes at other accredited schools, they will also appear on his final high school transcript. If your child takes classes at unaccredited schools, time spent on those will be recorded and credited to your child using the monthly log sheets I described above. I have a high school diploma from Clonlara and I have applied to colleges either as a homeschooler or as a private schooler depending on which I thought the college would better receive. At out-of-state colleges, they like seeing homeschoolers. In NYS, I just say I went to private school because of the weird Board of Regents requirement that to graduate you must have a diploma. I also was homeschooled in NY (and live here now, with a ninth grader of my own) and no, you can not issue a diploma as a homeschooler. Most colleges around the country do not care if your homeschooler has an actual diploma or not, but in NYS, the Board of Regents forbids graduation to any college student who does not have one. A college student may get around those requirements by doing any of the following: - not attend a NYS college (since no other colleges anywhere give a darn about it) - earn an equivalency degree by taking 24 specific credit hours while in college - send in homeschool paperwork all four years of high school and ask the superintendent in your district to write a "letter of equivalency" - take a GED

20 minutes of phys ed (Rodney Yee's yoga) 30 minutes of math (Life of Fred) 45 minutes of English (Cover Story + Editor-in-Chief) 20 minutes of music (Rod & Staff Beginning in Music + Alfred's Notespeller) 30 minutes of Spanish (PowerGlide) 40 minutes for lunch 45 minutes of read-alouds on religion + great books 85 minutes on Mon & Wed, history (Classical Historian); Thurs & Fri science (RSO Bio 2) 45 minutes on Mon & Wed, art (Artistic Pursuits 4-6 II); Thurs & Fri, Flash programming ('net tutes) On Tuesday afternoons he attends an immersion Spanish session with some other homeschoolers. On Tuesday morning, he has "project time" - a period dedicated to whatever (worthwhile) passions he wants to pursue. Right now he's using it to create new games, tabletop role-playing games and card games, and to promote those games via social media. During project time I am pretty hands-on with him, making sure he does stuff well and holding him to a high standard, but he is solely responsible for choosing the projects.

Isn't humanity amazing? Even the weakest and littlest and newest of us know to give up our bodies before we give up our spirits.

This person needs to be reported to the police and lose the privilege of volunteering with kids. It's never acceptable for a grown-up to punch a child. "Losing it" is having to leave the classroom to calm down, saying something snide, or concocting an overly strict rule or consequence. Punching a child in the stomach is a crime and it's child abuse.