Klogs are great if you are walking around on a level surface like inside your house or the mall. Klogs are the only shoe that makes my feet feel comfortable all day long. They use to be called Klog USA. A very long time ago I had a pair of Merrells that were wonderful, but they stopped making that particular shoe. I wore them through a pregnancy. You may want to call a customer rep. at Zappos and ask these questions.

I'm currently reading Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. They explain how to discuss books with young children through examples of their book discussion groups. Honestly, I wish I had this book a long time ago, when I had a first grader reading chapter books. I believe just a few good discussions a year would help promote active reading year round.

Cbollin you're my kind of gal. ;) I have the kind of kid that I spend most of my time trying to figure out what he doesn't know. For high school science I've decided to use the DIVE program coupled with a few courses from The Great Courses. I plan to be the lazy science partner too! :)

"cranberry meatballs, mini quiches....." Where is your house? :)

You are doing better than you think. The last few years I have scaled down holiday meals. I only make a few specialties with the main dish and a few deserts. I make the favorites and call it a day.

She won't take her children to the Dr, because she is afraid CPS will get involved. She knows she is wrong. They know they are wrong. That was all I was stating, hence the "they".

My 13 year old is reading and listening to Ancient World. He told me he was ready for a more mature history book. We downloaded it from iTunes because I don't have an audible account. If you use iTunes make sure you put in on the device you will use the most, because you can only download it once.

If they are already afraid of CPS they know they are wrong! Maybe it will be the kick in the pants this lady needs to finally take care of the kids, home, and make better life choices.

A few weeks ago my SIL made sure to brag about her daughter getting into college early. She told me she already had a scholarship. She was being extremely snarky about it. After asking my niece a few questions I soon realized she was actually doing duel enrollment her last few years of high school. I hugged my niece and told her I was very proud of her. We bought her first musical instrument a few years earlier and now she is winning band competitions. We are never invited to her band events. Her parents like to gamble, and do whatever else goes along with that lifestyle. They gamble, smoke, and drink but she goes to church. She acts uppity because we don't attend church. I don't gamble, smoke, or drink. Anyway I sat there and let her go on and on bragging. Then I turned to my MIL and said your grandson just blew the top off of his last assessment test and scored up to college level in most subjects. Crickets chirping, complete silence. The MIL was happy. I feel bad for my husband though it finally hit home with him how little she cares about us. We are a bank when they can't pay a water bill.

Ditto to what Sadie said. If you do reading lessons from a guide, teach them how to write their letters and numbers 0-9, count, play around with numbers with small addition and subtraction numbers, and read a lot of books you will be doing well. If you don't want to use a math curriculum, I am using a book called Kitchen Table Math Level 1 as a guide. I have The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (it's like someone at IEW named that book..haha), the lessons are already written for you, it's very open and go.

You need to print a syllabus next year! LOL

I'm so glad I wasn't drinking when I read redsquirrel's post! My DS couldn't tie his shoes for so long. I bought a little book shaped like a shoe and he learned to tie almost immediately, regardless of all the other shoe tying books I purchased. I kept the book in case he ever forgot. Today he wanted his phone and he began spelling phone with an f. We just studied ph words in a spelling lesson, we all laughed.

This reminds me of Walter the Farting Dog, I checked it out of our library about 5 years ago. We had just started homeschooling and DS was in first grade. I thought it would be great for a laugh, but he looked at me like my hair was on fire.

We are doing reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and math. The content subjects are reading and writing assignments. All the other fluff is at leisure, like music and art. It's working out fantastic. My DS is making tremendous progress.

The local GED programs usually have free classes or tutoring. IMO, I suggest taking her to the local health department for therapy first. I grew in a similar situation with a lot of abuse, at 18 I was tired. She is of age so she will qualify for inexpensive therapy if the local health department provides those services. If not I would look into what services are available in the community for her. It would be easier to get her up to speed if she is also healing on the inside. I have a book called Phonics and Word Study for Struggling Readers in the beginning of each lesson there is a diagnostic pre-test, so you can figure out what phonics they don't know to remediate it. My other suggestion would be The Logic of English Essentials. For science you could use Exploring Creation with General Science (it's Christian, if that matters), they have an audio cd that can be purchased to use with the book. For content I would use audiobooks, until she is reading on her own. Math would easier using videos. I recommend looking at Mastering Essential Math Skills Book One (grades 4/5), and Essential Math Skills Book Two (middle school/high school), after these two she could move on to the pre-algebra book. I've never used these math books, but they look like they could be used to remediate someone quickly. You can get them with or without a DVD.

We did this in between a military PCS. If you hate cleaning a house, and you are the outdoor type this is the ideal lifestyle. Daily housework takes 10 minutes. From my experience the smaller the home the more people will go outside. I had more private time to myself, and actually took up an old hobby.

You can also explain the name like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_East_and_Latin_West