I think people who blindly trust institutions and their officials, no matter how well-intentioned, are foolish. I also believe that protecting our right to privacy is of utmost importance, especially in the HS world. Paranoia implies an irrational or imaginary fear. There is plenty of evidence that shows that such visits have caused problems for innocent home schooling families. I didn't say I wouldn't do it. I'd just want to go in with eyes wide open to all the ramifications.

I like the suggestion to go over all instructions first. I have two working at the same level. We also have a list of independent work they can pull out and work on anytime there is downtime like that.

Texas again. I live in North Texas, in the Dallas suburbs. There is no TX regulation of homeschooling, no reporting or hoop jumping. If you withdraw from school you need a letter of intent, otherwise, you just don't enroll. The district doesn't even know my children exist (to my knowledge). Texas law requires that HS students be allowed to participate in academic and extra curricular activities, if they qualify. There are lots of museums, nature, and outings to enjoy. We have about 6 co-ops to choose from within 5 miles of my house and dozens more within 20 miles. There are co-ops, support groups, social groups, church homeschooling groups , HS scout packs/troops, HS gymnastics classes, HS library programs, etc. I personally know two dozen other homeschool families living nearby. My next door neighbor home schools. Lots of community colleges and Universities in the area and they welcome home-schooled students. It is pretty normal/acceptable around here. EDIT: Property values here are lower than most other areas of the country, meaning, you get a lot of quality house for your money. No state income tax.

Suspicious and protective, yes. Paranoid, no. If we introduced a stranger to our school room, my kids wouldn't do a thing I asked. They wouldn't get a true evaluation in a "natural" environment, since the environment was changed when they walked in the door. The OP has a tutor who could do the eval and/or video tape a normal situation. I think that's a far better option in this case, especially given the anxiety disorder described. HSLDA is very specific about visits from "officials," whether they be CPS or school officials. Inviting them into your home and/or providing them with any information that isn't required by law, regardless of how innocuous it seems, can (and has) opened the doors for investigations and legal problems that were completely unfounded. Any and all observations, whether related to the initial visit or not, can be used as evidence for investigations if you invite them into your home. If her local district officials are not supportive of her right to HS, she might find her family the subjects of investigations. The OP is already nervous about the visit, unsure why it is necessary and what to expect. That's enough to spur suspicion of the official's purpose. It may all be harmless and standard procedure, but I wouldn't go into it blindly. Contacting legal counsel is a reasonable precaution to understand the implications of these actions.

That smacks of a situation I would NOT want to be in. Before agreeing to this, I would call HSLDA. There may be legal ramifications to allowing them to evaluate you and your daughter.

Also, a neurologist is a good place to start.

He also has an audio retelling of the Tale of Two Cities.

That sounds great. Seems like a great plan for when we travel and take some school with us. We leave a lot behind for weight. One spiral book for the 4 weeks we're gone would make it easy, even if I just copy the chapter we'll read and include it. Great idea! I'm looking even more forward to 4 weeks abroad in the fall!

That makes perfect sense. We often do the math process like you described. I'm surprised at how my 8 year old thinks in math. Of course, I should have thought about modeling my thought...I think I struggle with putting my process into words sometimes too.

No problem. I wasn't taught to make tens. I have my own weird strategies and I talk through my strategies with my kids. Ds8 has HIS own weird strategies and while they are not the ones that I would ever think of (even in my weird math brain), he arrives quickly at the correct answer. It's fun to listen to his thought process while he works. The mind is mysterious. Teach as many strategies as you can find and encourage whatever works for him.

My 6 year old son is a fantastic reader, reading at about a 4th grade level. He no longer has decoding issues and has fantastic comprehension and information retention. He loves little work books, unlike my older children, so I use them as a reward after the rest of his work (go figure). He was working in a 2nd grade reading comprehension workbook today. Every other passage asks him to infer based on the 2 paragraphs of information. He frequently struggles with these pages. Today, the story was about a girl in a purple dress and shoes, with a purple backpack, purple pencils and 6 purple crayons. He read the multiple choice question: What can you tell about "Sally?" a) her favorite color is purple, b ) she rides her bike to school, c)... He immediately said, "OH, mom, listen to this...she's wearing purple and her back pack is purple..." (he was in effect, telling me why he knew the answer) So he knew and circled the correct answer. However, the next question asked him "how do you know this?" and he absolutely could not put into words the reason he instantly knew the answer. It's obvious he CAN infer from his reading, but he is rarely able to answer WHY. He struggles with other "how do you know" questions too. Is this an indication that he's working beyond his abilities/development? Is it enough for him to read between the lines without being able to explain why? Is there any way that I can help him verbalize how he knows what he knows? This reminds me of the way I feel about "showing my work" in math, which he struggles with from time to time too. Should I put away these exercises, which he enjoys until they ask him why, until he is able to verbalize this skill?

My son got Lyme disease at age 3 and spent a year on antibiotics because of a late diagnosis. We no longer see direct lyme symptoms.. It triggered another chronic illness (the emergency that caused us to look for underlying disease) that we still must treat regularly in order to prevent paralysis., If you haven't already, contact iGeneX about thorough testing. Lyme and co-infections can manifest symptoms many years later. Definitely find a lyme-literate doctor in your area and ask about what you are seeing. In our case, treating the lyme disease allowed us to increase the time between treatments for his other condition from 2 weeks to 6 weeks and has made all the difference in my son's quality of life.

Ask that in October, but never in June-September. There are about a 100 little Fahrenheit reasons why I want to leave Texas right now...but I come to my senses again when it is 70 degrees and beautiful in October.

We tried the Adventure Bible Memory App. It's very neat, BUT it hasn't been updated in 3 years and there are some errors. It looks as though the Support team abandoned it. The books of the Bible are out of order. (3 books appear AFTER Revelation) Limited verses. I say all of this to let you know that I really loved the format, but was disappointed to find that there are errors and no support team. Don't spend your money on that one.

Hmm. It still says $4.99. Is there a code or something?

Also, this skill is greatly aided with the advent of internet dictionaries, which read the word aloud to you. :-)

It is taught in Level 3 FLL during the dictionary skills lessons. You use the dictionary to find the word and use the key within the dictionary to decode the pronunciation. We haven't spent a lot of time on this, just as we encounter it in the dictionary. I think it will become more practical and well practiced as they get older and are looking up more words for their writing. I wouldn't stress over it, just covering what you find as you look up words. It'll come naturally through the course of normal learning.

This is a great idea.

I gave my kids an option between typing and cursive writing at 3rd grade. One chose typing, one chose cursive. The irony is that the child for which teaching manuscript was so unbearable, was the one that chose cursive. By 5th grade, it is assigned learning.

We struggled with structure too. I found myself forgetting to prepare the 5-a-days in advance and then my kids were waiting on me. I also felt paralyzed by choice on what to introduce next. I've got math-minded kids who need to be challenged and they move a lot faster through the list of concepts than I was prepared for. Yea! but also, a lot of prep work for me. :-) Overall, we're using a combined approach between Life of Fred because it is fun and MOTL. LOF introduces concepts and then I add them to the 5-a-day as necessary.

The planning spreadsheet is an ENORMOUS file and crashed my iMac in the transition to Numbers. My husband spent 90 minutes writing an app for me to use to track progress. Once I got that up and running, it was much easier to use.

There is a pool of problems for creating the 5-a-day practice sheets. At the back of each teacher handbook there are problems and answers to pull from. In the lower levels though, it's far easier for me to construct my own I can create a 3-digit addition problem with regrouping faster than I can look it up, kwim? The 9s down math fact practice is great, I like the theory behind it. Unfortunately, it means that you can't use other drill sheets that you might have or print from the internet because they mix in the lower facts that are presumed known. It's not been a big deal. We've struggled to drill enough fact practice. It's a student problem though, not a MOTL problem. There are no sample word problems. The idea is that you experience real life math and you don't have to read a word problem to get it. I suppose, if your child will have to be tested you might want to practice word problems. However, I think if they've encountered the math in real life, they won't struggle with word problems. I haven't needed any kind of supplementation in the way of worksheets. We chose the curriculum because my kids HATE worksheets and drill and kill and the 5-a-day is just right. They practice what htey need to and we don't think about it again until tomorrow. Remember that you don't add the concept to their 5-a-day until you have introduced and worked with them to a level that you think they can attempt it without you walking them through it. It doesn't mean they won't make some careless mistakes, but by the time they see it on 5-a-day, they've got the idea so they don't need 20 practice problems. The teacher is the absolute make or break on this curriculum. If you aren't confident in your ability to introduce new concepts (they have ideas and guidelines and explain it to you in your book) or confident in your ability to judge whether they are understanding what you teach, this is not the curriculum for you. You also have to be able to keep simple records and be disciplined enough to write out a new 5-a-day each day.

These are acquaintances. If you can afford to buy or make a card for each of them, perhaps a bookmark with a special note from you on the back, that would be more than enough. For those who sent a specific invitation, I would be sure to offer a special congratulations in person after the ceremony, perhaps give a card. I would not concern yourself with the rest of the graduates besides a simple "congratulations" and a smile when you pass them at the ceremony.

I'm not a homebody and I struggle to stay in the house, but we've made a concerted effort to not over-schedule the kids and ourselves. I posted a thread recently about this, for as much time as we have available, our friends never seem to have any and that makes it difficult for my kids to form close relationships with other children. Though, we've recently found some other families who are available more frequently. Our schedule: Monday - girl scouts a.m., school pm, cub scouts evening Tuesday - school am, gymnastics 1-2pm, home Wednesday - home Thursday - home Friday - home Saturday - home (though, we visit family and make social plans) Sunday - church, home, small group study 1st and 3rd Sundays. I'm perfectly willing to not be home, whether at the park or playing with friends, running errands, etc, but we don't schedule recurring commitments that would take us away from a relaxed atmosphere. Even with all of our free time, we struggle to find friends who have any time to spare for playing. :-/ To me, it sounds like you have plenty on your plate. If your kids are active and fulfilled, I wouldn't worry one bit about having some gaps in your schedule. That's good!

My first instinct is to blame the test. I don't like them, I don't trust them and I'm so glad we don't have to take them in our state. Hugs. I really adore Alphabet Island Phonics. Start in level 2A and work through 2B. Here's something I wrote a few months back for someone else asking how to remediate. This is not a reading phonics program in level 2, but heavily focused on spelling phonics. When the stress of the results wears off, you'll be able to look for a program that will best serve your daughter. You can do this and more importantly, SHE can do this.