Dots, stars and logo are missing for me also. I'm using Firefox.

My question is, Are the other parents doing this for their kids? If yes, that is inappropriate, and the teachers have unrealistic expectations. If not, - Enough kids are cheating to make it look like they can do this (unlikely); or - The other kids already have enough skills/experience to do what is expected without a parent coaching (Is it a K-12 school?); or - The other kids are getting enough from the class instruction and provided resources to complete the assignments successfully from there, and yours is going to need either ongoing help from you or a transfer to a school with lower expectations if you want him to get good grades.

My mom moved and only was able to get back to the old house sporadically on weekends to sort through the rest of the stuff. A pipe in the attic burst and flooded the house. I think it was days before anyone noticed. Stuff she had wanted to keep was ruined and just had to be trashed. :( Your movers sound awful. I've only hired pros twice(?) but they worked like lightning, getting everything out of a full apartment in under two hours. Review them publicly and/or call the BBB so others are warned. Oh! Another one. DH had called the electric company to get the bill switched over into our name the day we moved into this house. The dumb****s shut the power off instead. The old owners had paid a carpet cleaner to come, but they needed the electricity and left without doing anything. It was like 9PM and pitch dark before we finally got them to come out and switch the lights on.

What a nice problem to have, so big a gathering of dear ones! :) I have more china (inherited from DH's grandparents) than places to sit, so it's never been an issue for us. I was going to suggest the Goodwill idea as well. But now you are all set with Fiesta... you should post a picture once the table is set on Thursday! Have a happy holiday.

A phone call to the pharmacist should be all it takes to verify that her anti-depressant is compatible with breastfeeding. I have a friend who is taking one and finding it very helpful, and continues to nurse her 1yo. I actually suggest the reverse of a PP's suggestion: nursing at night (instead of going to the kitchen for a bottle) and transitioning to some formula during the day. This would decrease the urgency of pumping at work and allow the breastfeeding relationship to continue as well. If she has been sold on the idea that we feed and change babies for fun and delight, please continue to reassure her that the point is just to keep the kid alive and healthy. If she is concerned at how hard it is to make choices or solve problems like this, remind her that sleep deprivation and depression can both temporarily impair cognition. FWIW the worst parenting advice I ever got was "Sleep while the baby sleeps." First of all, you have to do everything while the baby sleeps (shower? eat, and replace those 20 calories per ounce of milk? write the thank-you notes? make the pediatrician appointment? laundry?), if the baby sleeps, and some babies feel that they should only sleep in actual contact with a warm, cuddly parent, and only for 45 minutes at a time. Second, I am apparently nap-impaired (which made me such a fun baby, no doubt). Yay for your friend if she can get a nap in, but it's also normal if that doesn't always happen.

"Oh, I didn't know you had been working on your PhD in psychiatry! Have you opened an office near your home or....?"

I could see letting DS ride at 12, especially with a friend--for one thing, he has pretty good odds of being taller than I am by then--but I didn't vote because that's too far off to be sure of. Right now (almost 7) I'm sure the bus driver would not let him on unaccompanied. I feel that the buses here are safe, but we don't use them that much because they don't go a lot of places or at a lot of times.

If he were going to school, changing his class year would be probably irreversible and therefore a Really Big Deal. But if you intend to homeschool all the way through, you can change your mind later if he suddenly speeds up, right? And he sounds happy about the prospect. So I would. A family I know spread high school out a bit extra (to accommodate the student's performance schedule, etc.). They gave her diploma a semester "late"--thus maintaining her graduation year, just December instead of May--and had her wait until the following fall to start college. (Meanwhile, she took an AP test or two as well as continuing to take advantage of music opportunities.) If your DS later wants to graduate with his original class, you could probably do something like that as well, especially if you work in the summers.

Admiring his rock collection Flipping through books above his reading level Playing with toys (matchbox cars, etc.) Helping me bake (on Wednesdays, usually, if it's too cold/far/rainy for park day) Practicing piano or just messing around Imagining or re-enacting scenes with stuffed animals Telling the same few knock-knock jokes and stories over and over Playing with his camera (often taking pictures of the stuffed animals) Pestering the cat Pestering me to show him YouTube clips Asking me questions.

We got an inexpensive one from Amazon. (Might be this one.) I like it for addition and subtraction, not so much for multiplication and division (at which point it seems harder than using pencil and paper). You start with knowing how to count and how to compose 5s and 10s (little friends and big friends). There are a couple of YouTube videos you could watch to see how to use it. It can work fine with whatever math book you're using; a book specifically for the sorban might not be needed.

No library?!?

I have one that gradually lights up for 15 minutes or so before it turns the radio on (I set it on the classical station at a moderate volume). It's by Philips and we found it on Amazon. It was costly IMO--over $100--but it's great. I picked it because it's hard for me to wake up before sunrise, but it's necessary at certain times of the year.

Rows of desks in K would be a red flag suggesting instruction will be done via large-group lectures; I'd rather see a nice block corner and puppet theater in a kindergarten. Does the charter have space to admit students for grades other than kindergarten? If so, I'd definitely choose the public school and keep the charter in mind as a back-up. That's assuming you've ruled out homeschooling, which I chose for DS over an adequate public school, an excellent private school, or trying for a spot in a very good Spanish immersion Montessori charter school. As Ellie pointed out, this forum is mostly people who decided the same way. :)

NC law says grade placement is at the discretion of the school principal, except early kindergarten admission. They will place high school kids appropriately as long as there's documentation. Here's my district's written policy: https://www.wcpss.net/policy-files/series/policies/5535-rp.html

KatieCat is the kitty cat. I counted Katie as a person's name. Then again, she is most often called Kitty, Fuzzy, NoisyFace, or Substantial.

Count all your snacks. How many cookies/strawberries/grapes/peas? Food is a high-interest topic, and very hands-on. I think unit blocks rather than C-rods might be a good manipulative here, too, if you want to get to 100. Or if you have C-rods, use only ones and tens for a while.

I sent my son to nursery school two mornings a week for two years, even though we knew we wanted to homeschool starting when he was 5 (and in fact wound up doing so when he was 4). I don't see any problem with letting little ones go and play in a group for a bit while mama gets some work done, and then bringing them home when it's time to start something more academic. Actually, if DS had been enjoying it a bit more, and learning social skills better, I would've sent him another year as well. Unfortunately, the school was too focused on preparing for elementary school, all write-your-letters this and pledge-of-allegiance that, even for the three-year-olds. I wish they had done more duck-duck-goose, and left the ABCs to me.

Have you tried giving him the questions before he reads the passage?

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If she were unable to write essays, she wouldn't have passed the AP exams. Ergo, she has had sufficient writing instruction. She is feeling unable to write these essays. My question would be, Is she afraid of failing, or of succeeding? What would it take for her to not feel scared of this? Has she talked about it with the counselor yet? If not, now's the time.

Can you pull up the math standards for PS and see how that compares to what your DC are doing in SM? I consider SM on grade level to maybe half a grade ahead, as marked, but I haven't seen the upper levels. ETA: Here's the SM scope and sequence page: http://www.singaporemath.com/Scope_and_Sequence_s/120.htm This says it's an Australian math scope and sequence: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/mathematics/curriculum/f-10?layout=1

By the start of 4th grade, so 9.5, should work out for DS.

To me, homeschooling is a means to an end: a great basic education. If it is not working, then finding a better means to that end is a win.

From Math Mammoth: You can now get 25% off of all Math Mammoth & Make It Real Learning downloads & CDs at Kagi. Use the coupon code THANKSGIVING. The sale starts TODAY and runs till Monday, December 1, 2014. You can go to www.MathMammoth.com first, find a book or product you want, and from there follow the links to Kagi's order pages. Or, if you know what you want, you can find direct links to the order pages at Kagi on this page: http://homeschoolmath.blogspot.com/2014/11/math-mammoth-thanksgiving-sale.html

What if you tried the thought process backward? First make your list of things to do/give each day. Then ask yourself whether this one $75 item is all that will make you happy to use for this, or whether something else could be nice and festive for this year while you wait to buy the expensive one when it's on sale. We are very merry paper-chainers, and you likewise might like some simple solution that the kids can help with. But if the one you're looking at really is the thing that will make you merry, skimp somewhere else to pay for it and don't feel guilty.