Because mustaches are awesome :huh: I thought everyone knew that. :lol:

:iagree: While I don't know that literacy is a right, it seems that literacy should fall under the right to an education. It seems like the "three Rs" are the most basic definition of 'education.' The way phonics was taught to dh, our older two dc and myself (all in ps) was very different from how I am now teaching it to our youngest. We had one year of phonics in K. After that all 'reading' was comprehension based. Luke has been learning phonics for almost a year now and he has another year of phonics ahead of him. He reads well, but there is still a mountain of rules ahead of him. I have to wonder if ps took a long term approach to phonics (2 or 3 years) how many more children would become high schoolers who could read well.

:iagree: We love dickblick.com :)

I wait for, "But..." If it does not happen then I am happily surprised and hope the subject changes. I will admit to wanting to call them on it, just because it seems so snobby to say that :lol:

Kahnacademy.org

For math, you could let her use Kahn Academy. It is free (so there is no financial burden) and online. Every video lesson is followed by a practice session. My dd loves Sal, he does the Trig lectures.

http://m.youtube.com/#/user/EarthquakeReviews?client=mv-google He normally posts daily updates on earthquakes around the world. Simple maps that show plate boundaries and stars for where the quakes occurred. He also posts interesting videos like the recent solar flares. He has very few followers and that is really too bad. Iow, please follow/subscribe if only to encourage him to keep going. We enjoy his show.

Way to go :D We need more people like you.

They will not cross talcum powder or cornstarch. We had a year where every flat surface of the house (floors included) was edged with a line of powder. I also taped over unused outlets. It took awhile, but the ants moved on to more open pastures elsewhere. Yes, you will look like a creepy voodoo house for a bit, but imo it was worth it.

:iagree: :lol: Mine too. Make the bed first and you protect the sheets ;)

I do, but it is a protective measure :p If I don't then the kids or dh make it a total mess and I have to straighten it out to go to sleep. I can't sleep if the sheets or blankets are not in the right direction.

I have gone through so many links my head is spinning :). I am being more hands-on and we have started using a few things you all recommended as well as looking at root words. I am hoping that with all this and lots more writing we will see some improvement. For those who asked or mentioned his writing and reading skills, he tests above grade level consistently in those subjects (shrug) no problems outside of spelling. Thank you. What makes this difficult for me is that everything else is average or higher. It is just spelling that stops him. Thank you. Perhaps that is the problem. Ds is very rule oriented. He likes things to work according to a set plan and spelling doesn't.

Thank you.

We have the same schedule in the summer as we do in the winter. I don't convince the kids, I make the schedule and they live with it. We take one week a month off and that leaves us with four extra vacation weeks that float around until we want or need them. Youngest ds thinks this is perfectly normal, it has been this way all his life. Older ds has accepted it and will tell his friends that he has to finish his work first. Dd doesn't care too much, her best friend spends the summers out of state with her dad.

He is "above average" in everything else. I would rather he become a competent speller... at least mediocre. His spelling really is horrible. I thought he was doing alright, his spelling tests were all B or C grades.

Hmmm I thought I would look up the averages for VA to compare with my dc's scores, but all I can find is pass/fail. Where do you even get those numbers?

I understand why they were no good. I was just hoping there would be something. I have the joy of anti-hsing relatives and I almost shared the stats when HSLDA posted them, but I realized how biased they were. Irk. I agree with you. I was just hoping someone knew of better numbers.

Ds was pretty upset by his spelling score. I thought SWO was good enough, low average at least passes.

Do you know of more honest stats somewhere?

Ds has always gotten the bottom end of average as a spelling score on his standardized tests. This year he scored 13% :( We have continued with Spelling Workout to no avail and to be fair last year was our worst hsing year ever. What can we do? Spelling rules are not sticking. His spelling is atrocious. Please help. Silver bullet anyone?

This And this. Public school is standard, there is very little choice involved. Private schools run the gambit, if they're in the area and you have the money you can choose what sort of education your child gets, this makes it closer to hsing, imo. Even as a card carrying PTA mom and constant volunteer I just had to go along with what the ps system wanted to do. I couldn't even request what teachers ds and dd had. The private school a few blocks from my house lets parents decide what their kids are doing and when you volunteer you actually get to have a vote in what and how things are done. Even in less democratic private schools parental control and choice is pivotal in what your child does, because you get to choose the school with a curriculum that works best for your child. Imo, it is choice that separates the two.

If marraige was supposed to be all about the kids then I guess no one would get married without them. Iow, marraige is a promise/union between two people and can involve children, but doesn't revolve around them. Iow, I agree with you completely.

Last year, we didn't. Ds was... irksome and we moved away from TWTM for the last part of the school year. So far this year, 6th, things are going well. We have combined some harder classes (grammar and Latin) and his focus for writing is quality, not quantity. That has made a big difference in time, less writing is less whining, less whining is more working. Iow, you won't know until you start. Then, start looking at the time wasters (whine whine whine gripe grumble) and then look for some way to mend it. Math is whiney too, but the time I put in to keeping him moving saves us all an excruciatingly long day. We didn't change what we did, we changed how we do it. Also, ds is a procrastinator, your dc may not be procrastnators so what works and what doesn't will be different. :lol: The best part of hsing is individualized education. Individualized education makes it so hard to give helpful advice.

:iagree:

I didn't say they weren't, but I was not sure of their particular situation and wanted to be clear that my post was not referring to just anyone who dates a person with children. I know enough adults pushed into these quasiparental relationships as children to know it is not healthy. Dh had a slew of step-fathers and between them his mother dated a lot. Enough of those men tried to be instadaddies to make being a stepfather and biological father difficult for dh. The lines had been so blurred when he was a child that he did not understand where they were as an adult. So, they may be a family and she may be their parent forever, but possesives should not be taken on and used lightly. If they are, indeed HER kids and she is committed to them, great. :iagree: Dh would not cotton to it. Ok :)