I have some hearing loss in one ear, I went to an audiologist and got a hearing aid that fits in the canal. so pro's and con's: wearing it got rid of the constant ringing I was hearing in that ear (a symptom of otosclerosis) and it did improve my hearing so that I wasnt answering the question I heard rather than the one that was asked and I could hear my kids without turning to look at them. things like that. but I couldnt get used to using it with the phone and it was really uncomfortable. it took over a month to get used to it, hearing aids do not improve hearing the way eye glasses improve vision, the whole sound quality is different and since I have a real sensory thing going on, it was actually painful at times. also, it caused that ear to produce lots of wax, again, very uncomfortable. and it always felt like it was falling out, which could be due to a poor fit thanks to the audiologist. had I known better, I would have returned it, I believe in the US you have 30 days or so to return a hearing aid. but I thought I'd get used to it. It cost $2500 so I didnt get another one, this one ended up in the box in my closet, it was just too uncomfortable to wear. so I'm back to the ringing and turning to face my kids and sometimes giving strange answers to questions people ask me. but I'm saving up, I think next time I will look into a behind the ear, might be more comfortable. and they come in fun colors : )

yes, we have some like that too. controlling what I bring into the house and teaching the kids to be independant in the kitchen helps.

I think you're awesome!! I've been wanting to do that for years but I'm too embarassed.

I wish we had a hs store nearby. very jealous. we are in the middle of saxon 8/7, its ok. I didnt give it much thought because a) ds did well with saxon 7/6 and b)I am still relatively new to hs'ing and am limited in how much time I can spend obsessing over curricula. I'm still figuring out how to actually get through the day. I know SM won't work with my next ds, so I'm starting to obsess a bit more... thanks for the link to that ginormous thread. Its making my head spin, but that's part of the fun.

I finally figured this out recently. I have two anxious kids and I tend to over-parent. one day I was just t.i.r.e.d. and .... didnt. and you know what? not engaging helped him bring the episode to an end more quickly than had I engaged. I'm not so good at remembering, but lucky me, I get many opportunities to practice. adequate sleep helps too. its remarkable how much sleep some kids need.

I pulled my ds out of school in the fifth grade. he was working in saxon 76, which I called 'a grade ahead' because it was ahead of what the kids his age were doing in school. now I will be hs'ing my next ds, primarily because he 'was not performing at grade level' in school even though I know he's a smart kid (really-not because I'm his mom or anything!). I'm planning to use Math on the Level which I am calling 'at his level' and I think that makes a whole lot of sense. sometimes I wonder if the grade levels on the book covers are like womens clothing sizes - tweaked to make us feel good about ourselves. todays size 6 is what a size 10 measured 20 years ago. and if you shop ann taylor you know that a size 2 skirt fits like a size 4 from another brand. marketing ploy : )

Are you sure it's a bite? Sounds similar to ringworm to me.

my schedule is a bit of a mess, and needs serious tweaking. my big issue is that we are a homeschooling and a private schooling family (with kids in three different schools, and on three different schedules). so I dont even try to start school at home until my schoolers are out of the house, since I drive my youngest, we dont begin until 9:30. I need to pick her up by 3, so we have a short day. this also limits our ability to meet up with other hs'ers, participate in co-ops and go on field trips. in the evenings I need to be available to my schoolers (especially my oldest) for homework, or more accurately, afterschooling. so my hs'ing ds (last year it was just ds12, this year his 9yo brother is joining us) tidies his room, prays and reads before 9:30. then we do math and bible study. break. then writing/reading/vocab/grammar. break for errands as needed. lunch. history/geography/science/religious studies. short break. then he studies talmud with his rabbi from 2-3. then he's done for the day. some days we do less. some days we do more. he plays piano by ear and is always improving. he started composing when he was 7 and recently got back into that, so he's at the piano most evenings. or reading. I still read to all of my kids every night, sometimes one book for all (usually on weekends) or a few minutes with each before bedtime. I need to tweak because I have no time for the laundry, many days I realized at 4 pm that I had no idea what I was going to serve for dinner and needed to go to the market, and forget having any time for myself. I think I've had one haircut in the last year.

we never stopped. before I started hs'ing I summer schooled my kids during their school break. now that we're hs'ing we do a pared down version so that we have more time for important things like hanging out at the pool or the beach and other summer activities. we do math, reading, a bit of journaling, some bible study and now that I just got a new grammar curriculum they've been wanting to start that too. Our school district starts right after Labor Day but the Jewish Holidays pretty much take up all of September. I dont plan on adding in History or Science or even a formal writing program until after the holidays when we get re-settled, probably second week of October.

I'm in the middle of reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the kids are enjoying, but its not my favorite book to read aloud. dialect and such is not fun for me. Also in the middle of Iqbal. the last two good ones were The Tale of Desperaux and The Witches. My kids can listen to Kate DiCamillo and Roald Dahl all day, every day.

I will call the author. Thanks Merry

oh, that's hard. my dd is like that, she's 14, reading on a 4th grade level with interest on a sixth. she enjoyed the ramona books a few years ago but wouldnt admit it. Maybe Charlotte's Web? or Trumpet of the Swan? not sure if those are 2nd gr reading level but my kids still enjoyed those in the fourth and fifth grades.

Well, I'm real thankful to moonlight for bringing this up. I think our 87 is the new edition but I have an older 1/2 edition. Stay with 8/7 if ds is doing well and then go straight to algebra 1?

I think this is genious, and am considering giving it a try. I'm getting totally addicted to the obsessive curriculum shopping/buying over here. I love this idea, six weeks, then evaluate and prepare for the next six weeks. so simple! question...do you break from lessons during your week off?

I would *love* for them to work together! makes my life so much easier. I think the actually do prefer to work alongside one another, but my younger is a weak fifth grader, I dont want to push him too much (he's is a reluctant writer as it is)

my son is halfway through 8/7, I just got algebra 1/2 and after looking through it, we will be skipping the rest of 8/7 and starting 1/2. it seems to me that there's alot of the same topics, at least in the beginning of 1/2. a friend of mine who hs'ed with saxon math skipped 8/7 altogether and went straight from 7/6 to algebra 1/2. I dont know about the dvd lessons, we havent used them.

thank you for the link to your very helpful review. what do you suggest for placement? one of my kids will be in seventh, he's a strong student but had a weak teacher (me!) last year, and the school he was in prior to hs'ing really didnt do much in the way of writing. my younger son will be in fifth, first year hs'ing. He's not a strong student by any means but his LA teacher last year was incredible and he did produce some nice writing (at least the small amount that made it home). I will definitely check out The Writers Jungle. thanks.

I looked, and I really like Essentials in Writing. My ds prefers not to learn from video presentations, but I'm going to see if I can sell this to him. I'm not sure about placement, he will be going into seventh, but I'm not sure if he got what he should have last year.

I will have a look. thank you.

remember that the mixed practice is spiral. each problem has the lesson number it came from next to it. I note which problems ds gets wrong in the practice and if I start to see a pattern, I will review that lesson. the reason I do the 'above 80 and skip the lessons' is because I didnt see any reason to spend time on skills ds already has, especially when I know those topics will come up in the spiral review. my ds is considering going to regular high school, and most strong math students here take the ninth grade algebra regents exam in eighth grade so I want him to keep pace. so far so good, but had we spent time on roughly 40 lessons that he didnt need, well, that's two months gone. If I saw gaps in his understanding, I would take the time to go back. no sense rushing through math if you dont understand it. you can work with the curriculum any way that you feel best serves your son, that's just what works for us.

I hate to admit this, but I'm a lousy writer. I avoided it as much as possible throughout my schooling and now its all catching up with me because I have no idea how to teach writing to my children. I feel like I need to learn alongside them (or at least stay up at night learning a bit ahead of them). I will be hs'ing two boys this year (12 and 9). I think I need a curriculum or guide that pretty much spells out what they need to know and comes with some sort of teachers guide to help me assess their work. Last year my 12 yo used Writing With Skill, which he found very boring and to be honest, I did not always understand the point of many of the lessons. In addition, I'm also on the lookout for any resources that might help me improve my own writing and/or teaching skills.

my older three caught wild CP 7 years ago. I exposed them to a friends child who caught it overseas. my younger ones still havent caught it, even though I did expose them to a contagious child 6 months ago.

I started hs'ing my 12 yo ds when he was in fifth grade (we began in May). he placed in 7/6 saxon and we were able to skip the first 20 or so lessons (I gave him the tests until he scored below 80). we skip the facts practice and the mental math (he does most of his math in his head, always). we school throughout the summer, and when we finished 7/6 and began 8/7, we realized it was probably geared for kids who take a summer break because the first dozen or so lessons were review. we skipped those with the same test-in-the -80's technique. ETA:we rarely use the worksheet book. I only give four tests/year because I am required to report a numerical grade each quarter.

your DD2 is 5yo, right? personally I wouldnt worry so much if shes choosing to read below her level right now. and for sure keep reading challenging books to her. but that's coming from someone with two very delayed readers plus a 6 yo who is just starting to pick out easy words like 'cat' and 'bed'. about the management of books, I stock our home library with good, solid literature. when we go to the library, I choose a few books for each child and they can each choose some as well. they usually read their fluff first, within hours, and then they will pick up the books I chose for them. which is fine, I think fluff-reading is fun and has its place.

what do you do when you have learners with different learning styles? one of my kids is a very 'student-y' kid, he thrives on sitting down and doing his work, plowing through his math, reading, writing, history, etc. the other (I havent actually hs'ed this one yet, this will be his first year of hs, he's going into 5th gr) is a dreamer with zero confidence. he's got big ideas and shares them to distract me to avoid the lessons. he hates to write. he loves to talk. I think a CM approach will suit him beautifully. BUT how on earth will I have time in the day to do everything? I can see hs'ing multiple children if you can do some lessons together, but these two have such different styles, I'm a bit overwhelmed. the older one is somewhat independant so that helps, but he still needs instruction, guidance, review, etc. He has no patience for (in his words) talky-talky type school. advice?