Put the bottle in a ziploc bag and keep it in your purse or in a fanny-pack so that its handy. You should probably get more than one bottle.

My irish-twin and I are best friends. My parents lost 2 sets of twins.

Well, you could pretend that there is a wonder-tutor out there for your family who has expertise and a passion for all the subjects that matter, Or you could suppose that getting tutors based on subject/grade/skills you'd want is possible, would you? Do you think that it could be as effective as homeschooling currently is for your children? Less so, or more so?

Just type your name. Though scanning something to be a PDF isn't hard...

I just wonder how much of the parent bond goes into motivating (or not) kids to succeed in academics in a home setting. Clearly, on an internet message board, I'm not going to get quantifiable, statistically sound responses, but I do wonder all the same... Since many of the members of this board are home-schoolers, I have to ask but I suppose that this question is better suited to those who HS for academic reasons: If you think that the continuous one-on-one attention is one of the main benefits/advantages of homeschooling your particular child--and this may differ for children w/in the same home--do you think that a long term individual tutor for 8-12 years could get the same results? Of course no-ones going to sign off and go hire a personal tutor for their childs primary education because of it, but just as a thought experiment: Do you feel that by virtue of being the parent helps or hurts your one on one time with your child-student, in general? Do you ever feel that there is a time that the parental relationship gets in the way of teaching your kids to their potential? (i.e. Puppy dog eyes, whining, tantruming, your wanting the kid to be happy, not having the energy to argue, threaten, cajole to make them comply?) If your kids ever act better for others than they do for you, have you ever thought that a 1-on-1 personal tutor could accomplish the same thing more efficiently? Having their own personal tutor long term would mean that your child would have a chance to bond with them, and they'd cater to your childs individual needs without there being the parent-child emotional dynamic. You could, in theory, have the perfect K-12 tutor for each child in your home-school, or you could get a new one for each new stage (elementary, Jr High and Sr. High) or higher a specialist in the subjects that your child is eager and motivated in or struggles in, but the point is they'd be dedicated to each individual students success.

This is something that I have been thinking about and dabbling in lately thanks to the 3yo in my life. Anything that you can do that engages them as an active partner rather than the passive subordinate, is helpful. I don't know what to recommend for this, as we've been using physical games and activities, as well as progressive activities to get the 3yos attention and require she engage. We did a cooking activity the other day and it went really,really well. Hubby taught her how to do a lot of cooking skills--hold a knife, spoon sauce and drizzle vs dump it, how to wash her hands thoroughly, gather all the items needed prior to starting, etc...We did a lot of things and it was detail oriented but she was engaged the whole time and eager to do the next thing so she had to pay attention. The end result was almost 90% of her efforts but it was edible, and we all liked it. Don't just tell them what to do, describe to them what they should be doing and invite them to think about it, explain it back. Rather than just tell them to "mix this up" Hubby and I did something like this: Adult: "Okay, now use the spoon to gently blend the ingredients. How are you going to blend them?" Child: "Gently" Adult: "What does gently mean?" Child: "soft--not hard or wild."

It would depend on what I wanted out of the program...I guess I'd ask about grade/age ranges, instruction methods, scope and sequence of some of the programs, the philosophy of the school, how will my childs' needs be met, schedule of fees', any lab fees or 'hidden' costs that I'm over looking... I'd try and get there early and note the Q&A of the other parents and see if any good questions jumped out at me--then ask those.

For what its worth, I know that I took history in Middle school, High school and I must have taken it in college, yet, for the life of me, I can't remember a thing about history. I never cared for it, though I did really well in it (I had a great GPA, so I must have done well in it). I don't know what all those buzz-words mean to glean any real meaning from your explanation of your children's unique needs and issues. To me, History isn't that important. When I need historical facts, I look them up--and not always online either. I have a series of history books on my shelf from survey classes, I just don't care about the subject. I wouldn't break my head over trying to force a love of a subject in a child who just isn't inclined. You can't make anyone learn anything and you can't make anyone care about something...Sad, but true. Let your son love history and let your daughter do what must be done.

I'm with Mom2bee, never give up and fight for it. Look for other families in the area may be able to help with Telugu or Tamil. Check the local highschools, universities, churches, community centers, youth programs and Indian markets etc...don't just say "Oh, there is no established group near-by, oh well." Look for families in the area. If you want to pass on this language, it can't be a feeble attempt. It has to be made a serious priority. Weekends are for Telugu and Tamil. When you come home from school Friday, you leave English at the door. We eat, speak, rest, play, read, do chores, discuss, argue, laugh, fight, try and fail in Telugu. Period. Use labels and put labels on things around the house. Play games to build vocabulary and work on sentence structure. Spoken skills should be worked on before reading becomes explicit, but just mandate Telugu study. Do your daily counting and skip counting drills in Telugu, coloring books --Telugu. Don't just turn them over to media apps and computer games. Make them do non-electronic activities in Telugu--where they are actively using the language, screens are too passive for their current stage in Languages. Set aside 30-45 minutes of time each day, just for Telugu activities and don't negotiate with them. My husband is bilingual and they used the minority language at home and with their parents only. It was a little different, because his parents and some of his brothers and sisters are Deaf, so speaking English with them wasn't an option. Period. The hearing kids weren't allowed to leave out the Deaf kids by just voicing--they had to sign. They played games, did activities and crafts, took trips, read books and discussed their day in ASL when a Deaf family member was present. Because of this, Hubby got good at speaking and signing simultaneously. My husbands house hold was 97% Sign and 3% English. He grew up fluent in both and now we are signing at home with our son so that he can communicate with the Deaf world around him.

You're 100% certain that you have your dog right?

Is the order of the pronouns your only requirement?

My advice for hyper, high-energy children: start each day with plenty of outdoor physical exercise--stretches, foot races, bikes, scooters, laps, chase, jump rope, push ups, dancing, call and response games, hand-clapping rhythm games, 15-minute ball games, play physical learning games also if it makes you feel better, then take a short 10 minute walk to cool down, stretch and transition to calmer activities, even if you are just walking around your yard or up and down your block. Let that part of the day be mandatory so that you don't skip it. Call it "Morning warm-up" and put it on the schedule, never skip it unless there is some drastic circumstance that causes you to. Schedule two rigorous physical time blocks into each school day, one in the early morning. One in late morning, early afternoon. These periods are school-time. Don't substitute for quiet indoor play, or sedentary activity--take them outdoors and make them be active. Outdoors. Consider it gross motor development and good because they are following instructions, whatever. The second session can have a slightly more academic feel to some of the games, but just keep it physical first. Establish and enforce house rules for indoor behavior. Be consistent. Children need outlets but they also need structure. There is no real reason that 4yo can't learn to stop doing something like climbing on inappropriate structure.

What age/grade are they in--why can't she have a workbook driven history curriculum? What about biographies of famous men and women in the sciences and arts? Perhaps she'd be more interested in the history of scientific development or art history? Jealousy and bratty behavior alone aren't deserving of having your curriculum rethought, but if she really isn't taking to the subject, I don't see any immediate value in forcing her to "learn it" rather than just do the work...If she's not interested, engaged, cooperative, open to change, willing to meet you half-way, etc. then stop catering to her. Do what is fastest, easiest and most efficient and enjoyable for everyone else involved (since she's indifferent) and if that means doing it without her, then my vote is to do it without her.

Doesn't sound mean to me at all. I don't see where the guilt is coming from, in this situation...Are you planning on with-holding meals tomorrow just to drive the point home?

As a loose-rule, you can use any symbol you want to denote any thing in math, so long as you define it first. Clearly, you'd want to do this with in reason, but you can use it in a more anti-traditional sense if you wanted to, so long as you defined everything within the scope of your writing and are consistent through-out. I have seen [ABC] used to speak of area.

Well, we are taking a 'Shovel' (3yo Niece) and a 'Pail' (1.5 mo Jr.). My MIL is helping me make the costumes.

Since she is receiving therapy, you should probably talk to the therapists (and her pediatrician). I am learning, through my various readings, that there are many foundational skills that go into reading. If you and the professionals agree that there are legitimate doubts to be addressed, then I would spend time working on foundational skills and encouraging her writing and word interest without getting heavy into the skills that may challenge or upset her. There are, of course, 2 main approaches to learning to read and if she persists in wanting to read, and progresses well on things like letter sounds, syllabification, L-R following text, rhyming, identifying letters and such, then while she is working on her speech and skills, perhaps you could teach her to read some words by sight using her interests and abilities. (Words that she can say with some clarity, etc...) There are a bunch of books that teach reading via Sight Words and if your daughter remains eager to read, but has issues with phonics-centric skills, then perhaps you could take the Sight Word approach with her?

I am not familiar with the What Your Nth Grader Needs to Know series, but it is easy enough to make your own Scope and Sequence of math, Counting - Calculus, if you know what your doing. Even if you don't, you could just look some up online. My mom is a master teacher and an expert tutor. She did something like this, she had a big list of Concepts and Skills for mathematics that went from sorting and counting to writing proofs and calculus. She created, by hand, several note-pages and worksheets that spanned 3 basic 'levels' for almost every topic and she personally diagnosed/placed each student in her own scope and sequence. Being a teacher in the local schools, she was very good at helping kids to catch up, keep-up or prepare them for where they needed to be next year. She taught me, not just how to do mathematics, but how to learn and teach mathematics. I feel perfectly capable of teaching a kid math without any outside resources, just time to create and prepare my own materials ahead of time. Whether or not I'd want to do that long-term, like my mom, remains to be seen, but I have done it before and I could do it again. Now, however, I'd probably be more likely to use a worksheet generator, rather than hand-write the pages. But I feel that I definitely could do it and seeing as how I haven't found a math program that I like, just yet, I may wind up in the position of creating my own 'foundations' course based on how I like math to be taught and how my child will learn. It'd save me the trouble of spending $$$ and time on math programs that don't work...

You can't force anyone to learn, no matter what. You can lecture, incentive, advise, tell, threaten, yell, cajole, bribe, etc...but ultimately, the decision to comply with any of that is the individuals. If I had any wisdom here, I'd be happily spouting it out, but I don't know the answer (or that one even exists). Best of luck, :grouphug:

I should clarify though, that the ground rules for both me and him. Faults that I saw in other women and mothers that I didn't want to be seen in me 10+ years later. I was determined to be honest and truthful about things, rather than demure to someone else and resent them. There was a list of things I'd never say or do to my husband and the traits and qualities that I wanted him to possess. Later there was a column for how I wanted to be treated...that sort of thing.

Yes, we both had ground rules. I begin formulating my list when I was 9 or 10 and revised it constantly until I was about 19. Much of our lists overlapped and I took that as a good sign :).