The good news is that he will get a lot more practice with the distributive property and exponents in level 4. I keep moving on as long as my DS gets the concepts. BA builds on prior knowledge, and hits the concepts again at a deeper level. So, while it isn't spiral, in the traditional sense, I find that review does happen when subsequent topics rely on previous underlying concepts.

We use BA as our spine, but do additional programs for drill and review (Prodigy and Times Attack, thus far). If a chapter is difficult for us, we will back up and review with something like Singapore Intensive Practice.

We will definitely neuter him, but the Cavalier breeders generally make you sign a contract that you will wait until their growth plates close. We were wanting to honor that, even though I doubt it's enforceable. Mostly, we were waiting for him to settle in with us. But, yes, it's going to happen in the nearish future.

This is going to be the first thing I try, as I suspect it's the largest issue.

I've always read that pee pads are the devil? Do you really think they'd help vs. just confuse him. Again, re the crate. I really think it's going to be more traumatic than anything for this dog. He won't even accept it for car rides, and he loves car rides. Doesn't matter how much I treat him.

About once per week, but sometimes more. It does help. :)

This is exactly what we did. He hated every second in the crate. He is not an anxious dog at all. He's just incredibly social and attached to us. Cavaliers are just people dogs.

I'm fine reading in French. Anything I don't understand, my DH can help me with. I will look at Alex and Zoe again. I don't remember why I picked L'Art De Lire over A&Z.

Do you think those little door bells would work with a deaf dog? He's cute and sweet, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. Do you think he would get it?

He is always on the couch with us if we are there. We tried having him on the bed with us, but I'm pretty allergic. I might have to suffer through it.

Nope. No room for that in an RV.

Re tethering himself to me, he almost always is right next to me. He doesn't seem to care. He will still poop right next to me while I'm laying in bed.

I think the feeding is a big part of it. He seems to be a very picky eater. He is getting a complete diet of high quality frozen raw food. Most of the time, he lets it sit all day until he gets hungry enough to eat it. Often, that will mean that he is only eating once per day, as I don't replace it until he eats it. And it can mean that he is eating at all different times. I've tried varying his diet with different raw food diets. Invariably, he is excited about it for a few days, eats twice per day, poops a ton, and then goes back to not really being interested, and eating only once per day. I've tried beef, chicken, rabbit, you name it. All different brands. I even mixed it with green tripe to try to entice him. It worked for a few days. Also, there's no easy way to tell him no. He doesn't hear, so it's hard to show him you're upset. I just use his "no" sign. Poop seems to be the bigger issue vs. pee, except for the marking in the boys room and when we have had a lot of kids over. I'm assuming the marking is territorial vs. the pooping.

Some of you may remember Cody, our deaf King Charles Cavalier. He is almost 11 months now, still intact, and having difficulty house training. We are now living in a 5th wheel, so space is an issue. He has access to an off-leash dog park multiple times per day (where he plays with other dogs and sometimes poops), and my husband also takes him for a 15ish minute walk twice per day (morning/night, where he is 50/50 on pooping. We have tried to "crate" him at night by keeping him in our room. He is not on our bed, but on the floor around the bed. It's about a 8 foot by 3 foot space. He has occasionally still pooped in our room at night. He will mark and poop in the kid's bedroom, so we have been keeping him out. He also has pooped in the living room/kitchen area. We tried to crate him when we first got him in May, but because he is deaf, when he couldn't see us, he barked and cried all day and night long. My husband couldn't take it after a few days. He does go outside regularly. The problem is that he still also goes inside. Sometimes, he is good for a week, then he will have accidents two days in a row. My husband has been more nonchalant about it than me. From my perspective, the dog is not reliably housebroken, and this will continue unless we do something. Any assistance is appreciated.

Verbs of motion are a total nightmare in Russian. I don't envy your DD, 8, with those prepositional prefixes. <Shudders.> Re study abroad programs, they often have a wide range of language learners in these programs. I was in a program with people who could barely speak Russian and people who were near native speakers (kids of Russians). They usually split up the classes by language level (so I wasn't in the same classes with people with little fluency). I would definitely pick the language in which he is most interested. Wars come and go, and economies rise and fall. You can't really predict the future.

I was in the Army with a Colonel Grenade. I also worked for a law firm called Payne & Fears.

CAP has two books now, and the French speaker has a decent accent on the DVD (unlike their Spanish, which is horrendous). It seems to move verrrrry slowly though. I do have L'Art De Lire, which is a Canadian program. It moved too quickly for my DS last year when we tried it. I shelved it, and had forgotten I have it. I'm going to pull it back out and take a look. There aren't any videos, that I recall, so it would be better with a tutor or parent who can speak passable French.

I have to be honest. Latin is feeling like a giant time suck at the moment, and I really feel like shelving it to focus on modern languages (French and Hebrew at present). The difficulty in finding the right progression for him, given that we started Latin so young, is only adding to my inclination to shelve it. I would honestly much rather pick up Russian as a third language in a few years than continue previewing curricula with these mind-numbing recitations (looking at you LfC and FF Latin). It just seems to me that continuing with Latin is going to be a huge commitment, and I'm not sure that it's worth it when you have a native French speaker and Russian major in the house, and all the Spanish at your fingertips in San Diego. I will have to think more on it and gets his thoughts. I promised him that he could drop Hebrew after his Bar Mitzvah; he's not getting out of it until then. ;)

Because I'm a fool. I drank the Latin Kool-aid on this board, and now I've got this kid interested in it. Plus, no AP or SAT Russian to verify, short of making the Russki Olympiad, like 8's language prodigy.

Ha! I meant Classical pronunciation. :) I think Memoria Press suggests the Forms series for this age, but dang, the videos of recitations seem sooooooo boring. I somehow managed to learn an inflected language with a bajillion cases without having to endure that stuff.

I wonder if they would allow a 3rd grader in the class, though?

Thank you for all the feedback. I looked at LL more closely, and I don't think it's going to be a fit. After all the other Latin he's had, I don't think he will get much out of it until deep into book 2. Cambridge looks like the best fit for him, personality wise, but I know it needs supplemental grammar. Trying to decide if I combine with Latin Prep or something else. What do people do after Cambridge, or where do they transition to something like Lukeion. I know little about Henle. I always ruled it out because I thought it was uber religious and not classical.

Anyone?

Posting this here for help with an AL re Latin. We've done CAP SSL 1 and 2, and Minimus. Currently working through GSWL and Minimus Secundus. Looking for classical pronunciation and secular, ideally, something fun, something with reading and translation, but with additional grammar. He liked the Minimus stories and style, as well as the CAP Monkey, but needs more explicit grammar instruction than just Minimus. Not looking for boring recitations with little connection to actual language usage. Not looking to go back to the beginning, unless it's a super compressed review. He has a lot of vocab, at this point, that seems to be solidifying. Not opposed to combining curricula. I'm working and learning along with him, but have a broad background across several languages. He will be 8.5 ans in 3rd when we start using the curriculum, and thus far likes Latin much more than French or Hebrew. Our goal is to get to AP Latin early, with someone like Lukeion or the Harvey Center, to leave room in the schedule for STEM interests later. Options: Lively Latin. Charter already has the book, as the author is a teacher at our school. Have heard that it is fun. My concern is that he already knows too much - where to place him. Latin Prep/SYRWTLL. Concerned that he is too young and that it will move too fast, even for an AL. Cambridge or Lingua Latina. Worried that there won't be enough grammar. First Form Latin or Latin Alive. Worried they will be uber religious and boring. Something else or a combo of the above? What would you do? Help! :)

Mulling over CAP French for Children or Galore Park SYRWTLF. Does anyone have any thoughts on where to go next? Background: My husband is a native speaker, and I had through French 4 in high school. This would be for my DS, who will be 8 in Janaury.