This sort of statement exemplifies my post.

I guess as a relatively new comer here and someone who doesn't homeschool, I'll ask the same question. I joined this forum as a result of stumbling on it accidentially while looking for forums on this topic. I happen and still happen to think it provides a depth of knowledge and insights. That being said, I have been advised that this is a homeschooling forum and in some posts my opinions are slightly discounted because we do not homeschool. We are terrible candidates for homeschooling and really feel no need to do so. Should I need to justify my position? No - no more than you need to justify yours. Can I offer opinions on related topics? Why not.... Since I've been advised I now tread the waters here much lighter. To be honest, I've really feel unwelcomed but continue to read posts since I do gain valuable insights from many.

Wow... When I posted this I didn't intend to start a controversy. Just sharing our experience and yes as with anything it's a personal choice. So is the decision to Homeschool and the reasons for doing so. When I joined, I did so from stumbling on this site accidently through another search trying to find a forum that focused on adults discussing education topics in regards to their kids. I had no clue until after I joined that the focus was Homeschooling. I guess at this point, I can delete my account since I neither want to Homeschool or fit into your definitions.

Here's our experience. I'm confident my wife and I agree on this as we've reflected numerous times over the last 3 years. Our daughter will be entering K in the fall. She attended what we would define as a quality private preschool on this schedule: 2 years old - 2 days a week for 2.5 hours 3 years old - 3 days a week for 2.5 hours 4 years old - 5 days a week for 5 hours As a background, all non-school hours she was home with one of us activitely doing things but not really "focused" around academics. Her playroom is/was set up to give her access to all sorts of different things at her leisure.. Blocks, puzzles, art supplies with an art table (which is still her favorite), books everywhere, kitchen set, tons of dolls and animals for tea parties, etc... When not in school we took her on a weekly basis to the Zoo, National Museum of Play, a music class and an assortment of weekly Library classes. Actually, we still continue to do these same activities. The benefits from preschool have been astounding. We are completly confident saying there's no way she'd be able to do the things she can do with the preschool path we chose. Absolutely, 100% no way. We've taught her a ton - no doubt. But the socilaization in addition to the required listening to someone else in a group, interactions and dealing with other kids and their behaviors, and oh so many other things have been experiences that she would of never, ever received just being home. A completely totally different environment she's adapted to which we believe have positioned her well for what's to come. Lastly, I know personally a few "K" teachers and they can tell immediately who has quality preschool experience and who doesn't. We have no doubt we've made the right/best choice for our child.

Standard is the 28/36 rule but lower is better if it's possible. Payment, including taxes and insurance, to be less than 28% of your gross monthly income. All debts no more than 36%. In some areas of the country though these are not realistic. Only you know your comfortability. Also, what are the start up costs versus longterm costs? Not show stoppers but something to consider.

This will continue to go down this path because what's broke can not be fixed by the Government (Fed or State level). It can't be fixed by School Admin's or teachers. It's the culture in which kids grow up in. The 'system' continues to support the broken family structure which represent the largest population of decline in education. Coming from a family with several teachers at elelmentary and secondary levels across different districts, the story remains the same. 12 year olds having babies, people having more kids because it equates to more checks, not spending any of the assistance money on anything of relevance but garbage. Is there a corellation between the money and the educated? Yes. Does it always? No. We can't flunk kids. We must pass them along knowing full well they can't do anything at their appropriate level. There's no accountabiltiy so now we're going to push it all on the teacher's results in test scores. Guess what - it's a losing deal and soon that path will close too.

Keep your computer clean by following these steps.... http://securitytango.com/# Go the the "Let's Dance" tab at the top and select your OS. Once done, you should be clean as a whistle.

I've been driving Subaru since my first Loyalle in the late 80's or early 90's. From then it's been Outback and Foresters for both my wife and I. Our cars get driven very little. Currenlty we have a 2004 Outback Wagon with 90k and a 2008 Forester with 40k. Outback had 1 major issue needing a head gasket replacement. Forester has had nothing major to date. We intend on replacing the Outback next year with a Forester. I just find the Forester more comfortable to drive.

If I may, please let me provide perhaps another / different perspective. Though I'm not in the airline industry, I am someone who has worked off/on for a large company for about 20 years. My "off" times were due to unwilling to relocate. I'm now able to work from home full time so I'm back "on". The city I live in is terrible for employment overall and even more so with someone with my skillset and background. Housing is affordable here (taxes are outrageous though) and my wife currently has a job that she isn't too keen on. When I resumed the company I communicated to them that if my employment was contingent on relocation, this time we'd relocate. It'd most likely be Dallas, Texas or North Carolina. Trying to find a decent job at 47 years old that pays even close to well with any sort of benefits is brutal. I've had enough of trying to make this town - which we've been in all of our lives - work. No more. I wish you the best of deciding of what should come next for you and your family.

I'm with the others saying it's normal. Our daughter went through this phase as well. We (and school) Just had her keep writing it daily. We'd also ensure we gave her the spelling on a laminated paper we could hang up for her to copy which was at her writing table. She can now do first, middle and last without looking. Practice, practice, practice.....

My 4.5 daughter can. Around 2 or 3 we began retelling our day while lying in bed at night until she feel asleep. We'd start off by saying in a calm, relaxing soft voice saying "Let's talk about it. Let's talk about our day". Before you knew it, she refused to go to bed without doing it. Eventually she began doing it all by herself once we opened up with the line.

Been to Dallas a lot... Love Shiner Bock....

Yellowstone is a wonderland. Tetons shouldn't be missed while you are there. As I recall the two parks are about an hours drive from each other. Jackson Hole is a village community with plenty of shopping, etc.... and is close to the Tetons. We stayed 7 days in Yellowstone and 6 in the Tetons to soak it all in. If you haven't already done so, go to the National Park Service site and you'll get a ton more info. Also check out Frommers on the same. As stated by some others, staying in the park is the best solution and even though they are full now, keep checking in for last minute cancelations. I don't know though about snow issues the time of year you are going so be sure to see if all roads are open to cars. Assuming all roads are open - Yellowstone is vast but very driveable. As I recall, it's a big "Figure 8". Allow stopping time for Buffalo crossing or wildlife viewing. These can take some time from your planned travel. Tetons are extremely driveable, again assuming the roads are open. Early morning or dusk is the best time to see wildlife. However, buffalo and perhaps elk will be around almost all of the time. Come to think of it, there were a few moose that never seemed to go away either. Grizzly and black bears can be seen during the days as well so always be on the lookout for them as well. Mammoth Springs is pretty amazing so be sure to check that area out as well as the Old Faithful Area and The Canyon Area. Have a great time and if you are into it, take a little hike even if it's just for a little bit. Your experience will change a great deal than just looking at it all from the car or sidewalk.

One thing to consider when looking at Net Worth or any rolled up number for that matter is what's behind it. For instance, how much does your real estate or other illiquid assets factor into it? Are you sure you're "valuing" the market values accurately? Are you including Life Insurance Cash Values or Death Benefits? Should you? If so - are you also calculating tax impact before applying the number? One number doesn't really say much unless the details are well thought out, scrutinized and known.

I know it in an instant since I use Quicken for all things financial related. Have been for many years and have always found it helpful to budget, etc.... Inside of that number some people may or may not include Life Insurance info - I don't. I find the Net Worth thing interesting and yet, don't care.... Life changes too quickly to be proud of it.

Oh... we use our own home resources for the paper / toner and time. Because, as you say, the schools won't even provide that. Ipads haven't come our way yet. I'm sure they are just around the corner though.

I'll add this. None of these great ideas will do much good if you don't stay on top of it once you're done. We weed out constantly and always have. We always ask the question "Will we take it when we move?" If no - it goes. Either donated or sold. Anything that had no value was tossed out immediately anyways. You must stay on top of it or you'll discover you're right back to where you started soon enough. I sell things cheaply too on C/L. No point of overpricing them so they sit around and never move. I look at comparables already posted and sell about 80% cheaper just so it moves fast and it's gone.

Unicorn: "That's what happens when you try and hold teachers accountable for kids who don't give a shit, and neither do their parents! There's a great deal of truth to this. In my opinion, the Schools & Government aren't able to address or deal with the real issue which permeate a good majority of the issues... The breakdowns in society. In many cases it can’t be from a book. They keep changing the tests and the infrastructure of books is too costly and time consuming to keep current so many teachers do not have the resources to teach with any longer to meet the goals of what’s being handed to them by their district leaders. As a result, they are printing worksheets at night and on weekends from various sources on the web.

We're the crazy neighbor to them / they are the crazy neighbor to us. We're even.

I can totally relate. My wife is an elementary teacher and within her family are a slew of other teachers. The letter sums up what I have oberved and heard in conversation over the last decade or so. Ironically, that teacher's letter is within 90 minutes of my house. That being said, it's the true reality experienced by most teachers. Couple that with undisciplined kids, parents who threaten to sue for obscene reasons and a complete and utter lack of administrative support, you have a failing system in place. My wife, along with many of these teachers are now on daily prescription meds for anxiety and depression that resulted from their jobs. My goal within the next 24 months is to pull her out from under that rubble and hope she never returns to it unless she's volunteering in our child's classroom at will. It will most likely mean a relocation so I can be more gainfully employed, but it's worth it.

One week into this and loving it. Never had a touchscreen anything before so took a few minutes to realize how simple it really is. When my 4.5 year old saw it she asked me what it was. I said "it's something called a Kindle hunny" She said in reply "Oh, I thought it was an Ipad" :confused1: Coming from a family with one laptop that is only on a few hours per day. I was shocked and surprised at the response. Had no clue she knew anything about this stuff. Apparently she has access to her teacher's Ipad during some rest time. Since she barely naps any longer, and certainly does not nap during those hours of the day, it's how she sometimes passes the time away. Joke is on me.

This is way too funny.. Love this one.. "swiss cheese can go #@! itself. there’s no nutrition in holes."

Kindle ordered today along with the Otter case, and charger . No 4G. Hope to have it next week. Appreciate all the input!

I'm no where in the league of offering advice whatsoever, I will say what we have done thus far with our child and see if there are any similarities. We focused on just one or two of her favorite age appropriate reading books and pointed at the words as we read them. This eventually got her very interested in reading them by herself. Her school (she's gone to pre-k since age 2) for the last year has made her write her name everyday. In September it was hard to decipher, now, with daily practice, she can write her first, middle and last name well. To get her to write, we used the Dolch Pre-Primer word list and had her write a few of them on her own each week until it became consistent and she could eventually read and write the word. Using the same list we'd combine a couple words to make a sentence. Also we'd tie those same words back to one of the books we were reading. For us it was consistency and practice. Again, I'm in no position to offer advice, but can only speak on behalf of what we did and what has worked for us. Obviously your child gets the point of reading and writing so it's now connecting the puzzle for her. Is this what the phonics tools are to help with? I don't, just asking.

We haven't even done an easter basket yet. We're terrible, I know. Our child gets a 2-3 giant ones full of all sorts of things from family so we decide to only use ours for easter egg hunts with a couple dozen plastic eggs. For that matter, we have raised her on the philosophy that the e-bunny is just someone you visit at the mall if you want. She has no clue that the thing supposedly comes and brings you anything.