Thanks for the responses and input! Nope, none of my children will attend public school. I think it would be hard for someone to claim they are religiously opposed for one child but not another. Basically my thinking is, "we do qualify....so, why wouldn't I take it??" It is so much easier than having to test or get the eval and I really feel the state has no business in my homeschool. (though, I do realize I'm under the laws of our state and country and I will follow the law.) I grew up in Fairfax County. Many of the HS'ers I knew were in Loudoun or Fairfax. The woman I mentioned who has been doing this for 20+ years and won't take the exemption is in Loudoun. I'll have to ask around in my county....of course, we could move. I don't see us moving out of VA, but we might move within VA. What I do know is that almost everyone I've met in my county takes the exemption and when my mom was HS'ing in Fairfax Co., almost everyone did the testing. I'll have to pray on this specific issue. Thanks for bringing it up. That was my thought too. My husband and I truly cannot think of a circumstance where we would put them in PS. As prepared as we are, you just can't prepare for every situation. I would not want my children denied an education.

Vaccines didn't even occur to me when starting the thread. Sorry if I was unclear. We fully vaccinate because we are not religiously opposed to it. ;)

Thanks! This is what I was hoping to hear. The reason we HS is religious. I've spoken to HSLDA in the past and we do fall under the exemption. I will probably call them again about this, but I let my membership lapse for the moment. So, I thought I would ask here. I also have no problem avoiding the PS system completely. We really don't have any intention of using them for anything ever. I was planning to go forward with the exemption this year, but for some reason this scared me off. I thought this info was wrong, but both of these people have been HS'ing much longer than I have. The second one has been HS'ing in VA for over 20 years and believes this to be true so she has never taken the exemption. Almost everyone I know who homeschools has taken the exemption. I realize that is not everyone's experience as another poster stated. But here in our area, it seems to be the norm. (But that is not why I'm thinking about it. I only found out most do it that way when I started asking around for a referal for an evaluator.) Do you know of any reason not to take the exemption since we do fall under it? Specifically legal reason, but I'm open to hearing others also.

Looking for experience from those HS'ing in VA, especially those who know the laws really well or have experience taking the religious exemption. I've been told a couple times recently that if we decide to take the religious exemption and then someday needed to put our children in public schools, they could deny them entrance. Is this true? We are on the fence about taking it. (I may have even posted about it a while ago) We definitely do qualify. We have zero intention of ever putting our children in public shool. We are fully committed to HS'ing for the long haul. We are leaning more and more toward taking the exemption. But, this does make me hesitate...though, I'm really not sure why it bothers me, probably because we are still early in our journey. Oldest is 8 and youngest is 1, so, many more years of this. Anyone with experience with this? Thanks!

Thanks for explaining that!! Do you get to download everything? Is it yours forever? I ask because if I recall it is written to do everyday, but I'm not sure I would want to do it every day or even if I would want to do every unit. For $12, I should just get it. LOL!

I used MFW Adv this year. And, in fact, I was thinking I might do this exact thing. So, I bought the BF guide to look at it. My assesment is the same as the above poster's. I also decided as much as I live American history, he just doesn't need it 2 years in a row. BF looks good to me, but it doesn't really look any deeper than MFW. In the end, I decided that MFW was enough American hisory for us for now and we enjoyed it. So, we are moving to ECC for 3rd, which I had originally planned to push off till 4th grade. Reading this thread and just the 2 posts was like reading my own thoughts and ideas and then my own conclusion. It was like reading a self discussion. LOL!!!

I read some of the responses. I was where you were 2 years ago with my oldest. It's a hard place to be because with the oldest, you don't know what they "should" be doing or what is normal. You tend to blame yourself for any precieved short comings. I struggled not to compare him with others and not to stress because *I* felt like he was behind. In fact, he wasn't really behind, he was just on the slower end of normal when it comes to reading. So, that said, here is my son's story: My son is now 8 and going into 3rd grade. When he started K a month before he turned 6 (so still 5), he still could hardly recognize all the letters and didn't know all the sounds. I had worked and worked and worked with him to learn them. He just did not care to learn them. When he finished K, he could read CVC words. But, any time I asked him to read, he immediately started to complain. He disliked it. He struggled through BOB books. It was not fun for either of us. He started 1st just before he turned 7, so still 6. This was when he learned the bulk of his phonics. Phonics lessons were miserable for both of us. He could read a word on the whiteboard all by itself, but put more than 2 words in front of him or open a book and the complaints and bad attitude and struggle would start. Our phonics lessons took 3x's as long as they should have. Reading a story in his reader was torture for both of us. It should have taken him 10 minutes or so and would often take 40+. And, I felt the biggest reason it was a struggle was actually his horrible attitude toward it. He just seemed to hate doing it. I felt he could read, but his lack of confidence and dislike of doing it caused a huge problem. By the end of 1st grade, he could read, but he still hated it and it was still a struggle and very slow when he did read. He started 2nd grade at almost 8, still 7. He was still struggling though books like Frog and Toad and still complaining about it like crazy. So, I just stopped. I put it all away and required no reading or phonics at all. I bought him several books that I knew he would enjoy...non-fiction easy readers about animals. Eventually, he got curious enough and did read some of them here and there. After a few months off from reading (probably 2-3), I got the emerging reader books on HOD's emerging reader list. The books were clearly below his reading ability. That was fine because my purpose was to build confidence and help him to discover that reading could be fun. Previously, it seemed that I was mostly having him read books on an instructional level. That is hard work. It's not easy to decode word after word after word. That isn't fun. So, we went through the emerging readers and slowly worked up from things like Frog and Toad to things like Balto and Sarah Whitcher's Story (that may not be how you spell her last name). They were good books that he could easily read. We did this over the course of like 6 months. We went slowly. I didn't want him to hate it. I didn't push. Finally, when he was finished with all of those, I handed him The Trumpet of the Swan. He hesitated and didn't think he could read it, but within a few minutes of reading he couldn't put it down. This was at the end of March. Now, after all this struggle and many, many tears from both of us, he is a book worm! He loves to read and I can't keep up with him. He reads things like The Indian in the Cupboard and On the Banks of Plum Creek. Before I was struggling to get him to read and now I'm struggling to keep enough appropriate books in the house. It is hard to find books that have appropriate content, but are on a high enough reading level. Sometimes he turns his nose up at what I bring him and says, "That isn't a chapter book. That is for little kids. I want long, chapter books." Ha, ha, ha!! 4 months ago, if I had said he could stay up late if he was reading, he would have gone to bed. Now, he comes down 2 hours after he is supposed to be asleep and confesses sheepishly, "I finished my book, Mom. I couldn't help it. I had to finish." To which my heart does a huge leap of joy as my mom voice says, "You are supposed to be sleeping." He is at camp this week and even brought 3 books with him. I wonder how many other 8 year olds brought books to read while at camp. LOL! I am so proud of him!! So, don't lose heart. Try not to get discouraged. He is still only 6 and he has plenty of time. My advice is try not to stress and definitely don't pressure him. Encourage him and build his confidence. Tell him how good at reading he is. Give him a break for a while if he hates it that much. Maybe break till August or Sept. Go slow. Find books you know would interest him even if it isn't the "quality" books everyone talks about. For now, the important thing is to show him it can be enjoyable. I definitely agree with picking a program and sticking with it. As much as I doubted and stressed over my late reader, I never once change our course. We used MFW to teach reading straight through. Another thing, I agree that comprehension and reading are 2 different things. I often would tell my son that if he read it to me first, I would then read it to him. I didn't worry about his comprehension at first. That will come. I just reread it to him afterward so he would understand and he did. Sorry, that was very long. I hope it gives you some encouragement and ideas. Good luck!!

Sounds normal for my oldest, who is the only one that fart along in our house. My son came out of MFW 1st able to read just about anything, but not wanting to and still struggling with confidence. He could read it, but it was painfully slow too. I was proud of him, but I wanted to him to really want to read and was a little discouraged that I knew he could read on a higher level than he was reading...if that makes sense. He had the abiitly, but not the confidence and stamina needed. In 2nd grade (this past year) I did find that he enjoyed non-fiction a lot more than fiction and I got him lots of those. I got him lots of easy reader books that I knew he could read easily and would build confidence. I got the books on HOD's emerging reader set (starting after the Bible because we already had a Bible program we were using daily...MFW ;) ). We went through all of those which got longer and harder as the year went on. Finally, after he finished those, I handed him The Trumpet of the Swan. He complained and said he couldn't read it. I assured him that he could and that it was required for school. Well, within a few minutes, he couldnl't put the book down. He has been reading non-stop ever since. I'm now struggling to find books that are appropriate in content, but on a high enough reading level so he feels like they aren't "little kid" books. He has read books like The Indian In the Cupboard, Charlotte's Web, On the Banks of Plum Creek and Cricket in Times Square. I'm so proud of him. He has read more books in the last 3 months than he did in the entire 2 grade year before that and they are 4x's the length and difficulty. He took 3 books to a week long camp to read while there. I would bet he is one of the few and very possibly the only 8 year old to bring any books to read at all and he brought 3! I don't know if he read them. He comes home on Saturday. But, it makes me smile just knowing he loves to read so much that he wanted to bring them. It was one of the first things he planned out when thinking about what to bring. :D For my son, he really just needed practice and to build confidence. I was able to do that using mostly non-fiction easy readers at first. Then, we branched out into true stories, like Balto, and historical realistic fiction, but still easy readers. As the we went along, the books got longer and more challenging. As I said, I used HOD emerging reader book list. My son enjoyed them a lot. Many of them were about animals which my son really loves. They fit very well with MFW Adv for 2nd grade too, if you are doing that. It was a struggle at first, but I praised him and told him how good he was. I started at a much lower level than I knew he could read. Reading isn't fun when you are constantly reading at the very top of your skill level. It is hard work to decode word after word after word. Start slow and allow him to build that confidence and fluencey. If he can easily read it, he can enjoy it too. You have to find a way to show him reading can be fun. Sometimes, it actually brings tears to my eyes to think back on where he came from with reading. My son really struggled in 1st (and even in K too) and still didn't enjoy reading and still struggled when he started 2nd. He has come amazingly far this year. To have him come down 2 hrs after he is supposed to be sleeping and tell me, "Mom, I just finished my book. I couldn't stop reading," is music to my ears. I can't get books into the house fast enough. It is a wonderful problem to have. :D Sorry, that was long. I hope you found something useful in it. :)

have they changed the format? I thought you bought the program, but it looks like now you only have access for a year. The program isn't yours to keep anymore?? Of course, anything you print is...or I guess you could save it to your computer? I don't seem to understand how things like this work. Interesting. I have looked at this program several times in the past.

I like it too. We are doing MFW Adv this year and doing R&S spelling grade 2 with it. Simple and quick. Gentle intro to spelling as a subject. Builds confidence. Teaches how to read and follow instructions carefully. I also think it teaches a bit of independence. All good stuff. :)

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm just not finding it. If there is a thread and someone wants to point me there, that is fine. My son is in 2nd grade and we are using FLL2. We aren't very far into it, maybe 1/3. We also used FLL1. We do like FFL. That isn't the problem. I have 6 kids younger than him and I need him to have more independence. So, I'm thinking of changing him to R&S grammar for 3rd grade. I have heard it is a great program. I've heard it is more independent. Is it more independent? How much does it require from me during the school day? I understand there is more to it than just grammar. Can someone please compare these two? Thanks so much!

I've had many more than I can count. I have 2 sets of twins and was pregnant with a third. Tons of ultrasounds! Yes, I can clearly see it and I usually know what I'm looking at with regard to both gender and organs/parts before I am told. I knew my 3rd set of twins was twins before my midwife when we were looking at the ultrasound. I said, "Isn't that a second baby?" She said, "No, that's the yolk sac (start of a placenta)." I gave her the "I don't think so" look. Then, a minute or two later, "you know, I think that is another baby. Let's send you for a better ultrasound to make sure." At that ultrasound, the tech would not confirm 2 babies or 2 heartbeats and couldn't get them in the same screen shot very well either. I left with her saying "I only see one." But, I KNEW there were two. I saw them. I knew they were not the same baby. Sure enough, the radiologist confirmed, two babies. (I lost one a few weeks later. :() With one of my babies, the tech told me it was a girl. I told everyone, while holding the ultrasound photos she gave me, that I thought that was a bad shoot, you couldn't tell from it and that it was a boy. I was right. But, I haven't always been able to see it so clearly. I have had a lot of ultrasounds on 6 babies.

I sometimes ask him what he is going to write and then will write the harder words on the whiteboard for him. He will copy those. That works well here too. :)

When your child is writing something, not for spelling, do they just sound everything out the best they can or do they ask for help so they don't spell it wrong? Do you sit with them and correct their spelling as they go? Do you have them fix spelling mistakes later or ignore because it isn't a spelling lesson? My son is in 2nd grade. A lot of his writing is copywork, but he does free writing for notebook entries and such. If he doesn't know how to spell a word, he asks me and I help him sound it out or just tell him depending on the moment. If I happen to look over while he is working and see him spell something wrong, I have him fix it right then. If I don't catch it till the end, I still have him fix it. Because I do it this way, there are very few spelling errors in any of his work and it looks like he is an amazing speller. However, It isn't because he is a perfect speller, though he is a decent speller, better than I was in 2nd grade. When I look at other kids work his age, I see a lot of spelling errors and it makes me wonder if we are odd. It works well for us because he likes everything to be done right. If I don't tell him and someone else points it out later, he will call me out on not having him fix it and go fix it right then. For me, I feel that writing the wrong spelling of something puts that wrong spelling in your brain. Then it is harder to spell it correctly the next time because your brain and hand seems to remember the misspelling better. At least, that is definitely how it works for me. I always struggled with spelling...I still do. But I've found over the years that if I don't know how to spell something, trying to figure it out on my own just muddles the letters in my mind. Then, I'll always struggle with that word. On the other hand, if I look it up and see and write it correctly, my brain remembers that. Interestingly enough, I'm actually not a visual learner except in this. I'm an audio learner, but I can't spell without writing it down and actually seeing it. LOL! So, what do you do at your house? Are we odd? Anyone with a theoretical reason we should be doing it one way or the other?

I'm so glad to see there are others who don't love this series. I thought I was alone in this. We've only done a few so far. We didn't even finish Little House in the Big Woods. But, we did enjoy Little House on the Prairie and we are currently enjoying Farmer Boy. I just can't see reading the entire series...especially not as read-alouds. I will make them available for any of my kids who want to read the rest on their own, without me. ;)

For us, the pages in WWE aren't a good fit. The lines are too wide. We started it toward the end of 1st grade. So, I had my workbook's binding cut off. I spiral bound the teacher portion and put the student pages in a folder on my shelf. I make my own workbook pages with different pages and have him use those. Out of copying or buying the PDF...I think I'd go for the PDF just because I find it so much easier than working with actual copying. But, in my opinion, you should probably wait to decide until you know if the lines will work for your child. I know we aren't the only family that makes their own because the lines are not the right size for their child. ;)

It sounds like mine are the only ones who build each set and rebuild it over and over. My oldest is especially organized with it. He keeps each set together really well. He either displays it until he wants to break it down and rebuild or he keeps it altogether in a bag. He likes to keep them displayed. He is 8. My two 6 year olds aren't as good at keeping their sets separate. My son builds his and then breaks it down and makes other things with it. His twin sister is just getting into Legos, the friends sets. So far, she is keeping them well organized by set, but we'll see how long it lasts. LOL. As for play, mine build and then play pretend play with the sets together. They enjoy it a lot. It's all Lego all the time around here, especially since we had a Lego Christmas. I'm trying to figure out how to handle duplicate sets and finding places to display each child's personal sets.

what are indies? I've seen this mentioned, but have no clue. Thanks!

I think this is going to depend on your area. Where I grew up and lived most of my adult life an hour on a Friday or Saturday night was typical...even at a non-chain. I would wait an hour depending on the situation. With kids, never. Without and if I wasn't really hungry or on a time schedule, sure. My husband and I (or whoever I was with) would just sit and chit chat. No big deal. There wasn't much point in trying anywhere else because they were all like that. Where I am now, a wait at all, even at a chain isn't super common, even on a Friday or Saturday night. I think I've only waited once or twice since moving here 3 years ago. Therefore, I would not wait more than 20 minutes or so because I could go to the next place over and probably find no wait.

We are struggling too. We have 6 kids. That presents a problem because 6 is a lot to take on. My sister can't take them because she is disabled and needs full time care herself...in fact, if something happens to my mom, my sister comes to me. I have no other siblings. We have my husband's brother, but he already has triplets the same age as one of my sets of twins. He clearly doesn't want the children he has. :( It's so sad how much he resents them and how negative he is about them. (He never wanted 3 and really didn't even want 1.) Obviously, he wouldn't take my kids even if we wanted him to. My SIL is single, lives in a small city apartment and isn't in a position to take care of kids. Plus, she is our polar opposite when it comes to lifestyle, values and our faith. My husband's parents wouldn't want our kids. They would probably take them rather than see them go into foster care, but they would not want them. And, we would not want them to raise our children. But, they would be better than anyone else above I mentioned. Without having put it in writing at this point, we have chosen my parents. My mom is young enough because she had me young. Her husband is slightly older, but not much. He is still working, not retired. We have life insurance, but financially, it wouldn't be a burden for them even if we didn't. We completely trust my mom and she holds the values and faith beliefs that we do. We are less than thrilled about my step-father and would rather them not go to him, but he does love my children and would definitely want them. So, we do have my parents, but we aren't thrilled about it. I guess the bottom line is no one will raise your children exactly as you would. But, it's better to pick the best of the bunch rather than risk them ending up with the "worst of the worst." And, on that note, I need to talk to my husband again about getting this all down and legal. I've been pushing him for a while now...he doesn't want to hurt his parents feelings. *sigh*

this is one of my issues...more crafts. LOL! I would love to use Sonlight if there were not other, much more important, issues with Sonlight for us. I definitely lean strongly classical for LA's and HOD is strongly CM. I'm thinking by adding WWE and tweaking just slightly, I can move HOD more toward a classical approach. But, I don't know. I have Beyond and I've read most of the manual. I'm really torn on doing HOD, especially long term, because of the CM slant. I'm pretty set on Bigger for 3rd grade. But, I'm still slightly apprehensive and may continue looking. I supposed I may end up piecing something together instead of using a program like MFW or HOD. I just don't want to do that. I do well with it all written out for me. And, I have no clue what I would use for history......*sigh* BTW - We omitted many of the projects in 1st too. We have probably done 1/3 of the projects in Adv. We are in the process of making a model of a cell. The jello is setting now. :D

OP - I totally feel for you. We are using MFW Adv this year. We've used K and 1st. I haven't loved Adv to be honest. I did love 1st! I'm not into all the hands on projects. I'm just not, no matter how "simple" they may be. Anyway, back to my point...For several reasons, I'm not thinking ECC next year is for us. I think we are going to HOD Bigger next year for my oldest and MFW 1 for my current K'ers. But, I'm really not sure I want to stick with HOD long term. I have 6 kids. I would like to combine them eventually. I'm totally back and forth between HOD and MFW. I just don't know. I keep looking around hoping to find a program that is somehow best of both, but of course, that doesn't exist. LOL!! It's so hard to decide and know what will work best. :grouphug:

There is no way I would allow a false diagnosis. Whether it is supposed to be private and sealed or not, it can and will follow him everywhere. No way, no how.

We reuse all those things. We bought our plastic pumpkins off the big rows in Wal-Mart a few years ago. We got them for $1 or so. We haven't had a problem with them. One of them lost it's handle. My husband just put a string in it. $5 well spent for us since they have been used for 3 years and they are still perfectly fine.

We aren't big hand washers here. I have dry skin and it hurts to wash too often. I have 6 kids. My oldest is 8. I think we've gotten the stomach virus once. We get a couple colds a season. My oldest wasn't on antibiotics ever till he was over 5. We did go through recurrent strep throat. But, one of us was a carrier and believe me, we were washing hands and all surfaces like crazy to try to not get it again. It was awful. We haven't had it in over a year now and it was the only thing we my kids have ever been on antibiotics for. I have no doubt that hand washing can prevent illness. It's proven too. But, I think overall genetics and the strength of your immune system has more to do with how often we get sick. Anyway, not washing a lot seems to be working just fine for us. :)