Glad it was something that will work for you!:-)

We are currently going through the course for the second time. The number one benefit for us has been that we are actually talking about how we manage our money and what our goals are. Not always the most pleasant conversations to have but there's a session on that. ;-) We are mostly on the same page now. We are already debt free (except our mortgage) so this time around we are really focusing on what we want/need to do about life insurance, investing, and retirement. We have really enjoyed it.

Thanks for this! As newbies to the martial arts world ourselves, it is nice to know what to look for in a school - and nice to see that ours meets every one of these criteria. :-)

I started by looking at what was available to us and what their schedules were. We live in a rural area so that meant three places within a half hour drive. One didn't have class times that would work with our schedule. That narrowed it down to two. We chose the one that offered a homeschool family class in the mornings. It is a Korean style martial arts school. It is taught by a homeschool mom and she has two master black belts that assist her. We loved the class time, mix of ages and abilities, the fact that no contract was required and the cost is extremely reasonable with excellent sibling/family discounts. We tried out a class and were very impressed. We've had to make up classes missed due to snow and were pleased to find that they offer a weekend family class that was also excellent. We also liked the variety the school offered. They offer both family classes and age based classes, weapons classes, combat for adults, tournaments that are optional, and a demo team. The school's students do very well in tournaments so they are well trained. It seemed like a good fit for both the casual participant as well as someone who wants to take it to the next level. We don't know where we fit in that yet so we like the options. :-) We are new to martial arts, having just started in January, so I don't have any other advice to offer. Basically, find out what is available to you and go from there. It won't do any good to fall in love with a specific style only to find out that the closest school is 3 hours away. :-)

It means that the first beat of the group will be louder than the others. So if the piece you're playing has 3 beats per measure you can set the metronome to match that and the first beat will be louder than the next two. Most metronomes that have this feature also allow you to turn it off (or you can set it one "1" so that all the beats will be the same). You can get free metronome apps for smart phones and tablets as well. I had one that worked well but it ended up being better for us to have a free standing metronome. I had one app that worked well but had pretty trashy adds so you may want to watch out for that if you go the app route.

I used to have that one and I don't think it had the time signature/measure groupings (2,3,4,6 beats per measure). That was fine by me because I find that obnoxious. :-P This one looks like it has everything she wants: http://www.amazon.com/Korg-MA1BL-Visual-Counting-Metronome/dp/B0055BMQG0/ref=pd_cp_MI_2 I've never used this one so I don't know anything about quality or ease of use. It just has all the features you're looking for. Hope the link worked!

On Tuesday I took the kids to the beach because they wanted to see if the sand and salty air would melt the snow. It doesn't, which was cool to see. But as I was standing there on the beach in 4" of snow watching my children throw ice into the ocean, I realized that it was MARCH and I was standing on the beach in 4" of SNOW. So, so wrong. Today it is snowing again. We have 4"+ out there and hours to go. A friend got her van stuck in a snow bank and the ice on my driveway yesterday and it took us 45 minutes to get her unstuck. We have 3 feet of packed down snow covering everything and piles taller than I am around our driveway. In a normal year we get a snow storm and then it mostly melts before the next one comes. This year it's been too cold to melt so it just keeps piling up. We had a little melting yesterday but there's no where for the water to go so it just forms massive, muddy puddles that freeze overnight. How old exactly is this old man we call Winter? Isn't it about time he died?

We live in the country. We are about 15 minutes to the closest shopping area and about 30 to any small cities. We're happy in the peace and quiet and ok with the drive to get to civilization. We live in a "Town" but there's more cows and corn fields here than anything else. We have a feed store, a gas station, 2 convenience stores, 2 mom and pop pizza places, and a liquor store. A couple of years ago the USPS set up a small counter in one of the convenience stores. That was a big deal. We also have a small Town Hall, a very small library, a volunteer fire department, and we're up to 2 resident state troopers. There are 400 students (combined) in the elementary and middle schools and no high school. That's it. But we like it that way and the property taxes are lower than most anywhere else around.

Thanks for all the advice! There are definitely some things in here I'm going to try. I can't decide if I like the morning classes better or the afternoon ones. The morning ones have the advantage of getting out the door first thing and then have the rest of the day/evening at home. Plus, my DH is home then to help. The afternoon and evening activities have the advantage of allowing us to get a full morning of school done. Maybe the mix gives us the best of both worlds. One of the biggest issues is working around my DH's schedule. We stay up later and then get up later in the morning. We are getting better at setting an alarm so we don't sleep too late and lose our whole morning. We also have our main meal of the day at lunch time before DH leaves for work. Sometimes it is hard to have dinner ready at noon. We also try to adjust our "weekend" to match up with his. Last week we had our "Saturday" on Thursday so that we could all have a day off together. We do a normal day of school on Saturday instead. I like the idea of doing a lot of cooking prep work for the week on one day. I already meal plan and shop one day a week but I think spending Monday or Tuesday night cooking would be a big help for the rest of the week. My kids have been wanting to cook more so I'll have to get them in on this. We already have morning chores that keep the basics done. DD10 starts a load of laundry, DD9 unloads the dishwasher, DD7 wipes down the main bathroom, and DS5 takes care of the dog. Maybe if I added a few minutes of dusting, vacuuming, or folding laundry to the other days maybe we could keep the rest under control. We try to be consistent with picking up at night but it doesn't always happen. We need to get better at that. I like the idea of telling them to put things away so they are pretty. That may help with the problem of moving the mess from one room to another. I like the idea of doing some school work in the car too. My kids tend to get car sick so reading or workbooks are out but we could listen to CDs or practice memory work. I'll have to look into that. We definitely like all of our activities and aren't ready to give anything up. In fact, there a couple of other things we would like to add. I just want to figure out how/if we can make what we're doing work before we add in anything else. I'm also trying to keep in mind what these activities may turn in to in terms of the time commitment as the kids get older. I know life will be even busier when we have 4 teenagers so learning some organizational/multitasking skills now is probably a good idea.

Thanks! Just downloaded it free on my Kindle. Looks like a fun series.

We have scheduled, outside the house, activities 6 days a week. I know this sounds like a nightmare to some families but is perfectly normal to others. We are still trying to decide what we think. Most of our current activities are new to us since the beginning of the school year. At the end of last school year we had church on Sunday and I was teaching 3 piano students a week. That was it. Then I decided to that our kids were old enough for me to start taking more students and the extra money meant we could try some classes for our kids. We love everything we're doing but after our first week of all activities and nothing being cancelled due to snow or sickness I am TIRED! Our current schedule is: Monday morning - Sign language class Tuesday morning - Martial arts class for the whole family Wednesday - I teach 5 piano lessons and take voice lessons then Bible Study in the evening Thursday evening - Piano lessons for the older two Friday afternoon - I teach 4 piano lessons Sunday - Church all day, choir, Dave Ramsey class My DH helps as much as he can but he works 3pm-11pm and his days off rotate weekly. We also live in the country so most everything is at least half an hour drive. How do you fit everything else in? When do you find time to grocery shop or keep the house liveable? What about school? Do you cut things or do things less often? I try to cook healthy meals but that takes time which is getting hard to come by. I want my kids to have plenty of free time in the afternoons to explore their own interests but we also need to get school done. Are you super organized to make it work? We're not ready to give anything up yet. Most of it is still very new and I think we just need time to adjust. I just don't want to be exhausted or feel like I'm running all the time.

We are currently reading "Our Little Spartan Cousin From Long Ago" to go along with our history study on ancient Greece. My kids and I are really enjoying this book about the life of Spartan boys. There has been a few times where Spartan girls are mentioned and we are interested about reading more about what life was like for them. At one point it was stated that Spartan girls were well educated like the boys and also that they were among the most beautiful Greek women because of their time spent outdoors and the physical exercise that was a part of their schooling. I don't know how true that is about them being beautiful but it certainly got my girls' attention. My DH and I have been looking for ways to gently encourage diligence in school work as well as physical activity in our girls and I thought a book about Spartan girls may fit with that goal. I did a quick search but didn't come up with anything for children. Any suggestions? My girls are 10, 9, and 7.

My 7yo DD sounds very similar to yours when it comes to math. She's in 2B. I don't use the HIG. I only use the TB if I actually need it to explain something or we're starting something brand new - and then only as much of it as we need for her to understand it. If there are a lot of problems in a lesson we only do half of them. We do the rest the next day if she didn't quite "get it" (doesn't happen often). I sit with her to keep her on task and let her use manipulatives whenever she wants. We do the reviews over several days and use the extra practice pages only if there's something she's forgotten (I think that's happened once). We stop after about 20-30 minutes. We also do a facts speed drill every day that takes less than 5 minutes. Two days a week we do LOF and 2 days we do BA in addition to SM. She loves math and seems to like all the different approaches and levels we have going at one time.

I would be happy to share some of our New England snow with you. I was shoveling it up onto drifts above my head last night. And we have more coming tomorrow....

As far as I know, my brothers and sisters and I are all glad we were home schooled. My DH and his brother are too. Some of us wish our parents had done a few things differently - been more rigorous, tried a different curriculum for certain subjects, been more structured in high school, pushed college more - but I haven't heard anyone say they would rather have gone to school. We are mostly happy with how things worked out and are all homeschooling, or planning to homeschool our own kids. (That's from a ample size of 10. :-)

We use the elementary la Clase Divertida and he teaches the letter sounds. There are little things to spell here and there too. We're in level 2. My kids love the songs, crafts, and cooking projects.

I have no real advice but just wanted to say that I understand what she's going through. When I was a teen I had severe cramps on the first day complete with a fever and vomiting. I never took anything for it but would just sleep it off. Daily exercise helped and when I was consistent I would be able to stay functioning. My sisters were/are the same way. Having my first baby seemed to solve the problem - but that's not a treatment plan I'd recommend to a teen. Hope you find something that helps!

We want to do the vision test because of reversals, skipping words, switching letters, etc. Could all of that be a result of an auditory processing disorder? Is it normal to have both auditory and visual things going on at the same time? Is the CTOPP the most important one I'm looking for? Maybe it would be easier/faster to get it done with ps or SPL than waiting for full private evals. I haven't had time to make any phone calls yet but I've been told it can take months to get an appointment. I haven't looked for a SLP. I'll check into that too.

Thank you for the encouragement! This has all been so overwhelming. I haven't done much since Saturday to work on this as all my kids came down with colds/coughs and then a stomach virus. (And chance that DD coming down with a cold affected our test results? Or is that wishful thinking on my part?) We've gotten as far finding a couple universities that do testing - one on a sliding pay scale so maybe it won't be so expensive. I haven't had a chance to call the insurance company yet. I also played a "syllable game" with all the kids the other day. DD can correctly divide multi-syllable words 100% of the time and but also divides one syllable words into two syllables 100% of the time. So we'll need to work on that. I plan to do more of these "games" with the kids (when they're all done coughing, sneezing, and puking :-P) to try to wrap my head around our issues a little better. And to make sure no one else has things going on that I've overlooked. The more I read, the more I see my other kids in the lists of LD symptoms but I think that's probably more due to information overload than actual problems. I want to read some good books on LD. I've been given lots of suggestions but is there a top one or two that I should start with? We were talking last night about getting vision and hearing testing done while we figure out our neuropsych options. I know to look for a developmental ophthalmologist but what about the hearing test. Can I go to just anyone for auditory processing testing? Do neuropsychs do that as part of their testing? If so, should I just wait to do it then? What about the reading we currently do? Should I keep having her read to me every day like I have been, or should I put that aside while we work on these other things? I hate to lose what we've gained but maybe our focus should be elsewhere for now. Thanks for all the help everyone! I really appreciate it!

I may e-mail her next week and see what she says. Thanks.

Can I do the LiPS program with her on my own? They don't have any centers within 2 hours of us. I looked briefly and it sounds like it requires training. Is that right? What are some of the other things you mentioned? OT? CAPD? RAN/RAS? Motor planning issues? Sorry, all these new terms and abbreviations....I just feel in over my head. Two days ago I was thinking we just had a relatively minor issue with our bright DD and that a few small adjustments to my teaching would have her reading in no time. Now? My head is swimming with new information that is all very overwhelming. My DH doesn't have his head in the sand about this. He doesn't do the much of the teaching so he isn't aware of problems until I bring them to his attention - which was just a few days ago for this. I've been thinking about this for weeks, he's had two days. He needs time - we both do really - to think about this, do some research, and figure out what our best move is. He IS also concerned that our children do well in school, and especially for this DD's reading. He called me 3 times from work yesterday just to talk about how the tests we did went and what the results meant. Please don't think we're downplaying this or brushing it aside. We aren't. We are seriously considering all of the suggestions and advice we've been given. But there is a lot of information to sift through, and, like I said, it's extremely overwhelming.

So what would a good "dyslexia curriculum" be? Specifically Barton or Wilson or would something like LOE, AAR, or Spalding also fall under that category? I'm drawn to LOE Foundations. I think my DD would love the colorful cuteness of it and I really think the vertical phonics (New term I've learned from you helpful ladies :-)) would make sense to her. It seems like a similar idea to SM where addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are all introduced close together. Not exactly the same I know, but she loves and does very well with SM because it introduces multiple functions of numbers together and she finds that interesting. I think vertical phonics might click with her the same way. I also liked the focus on how each sound is formed and voiced and it seemed strong in phonological and phonemic awareness. It also seemed very clearly laid out and like it wouldn't require much planning from me. Then there was the added bonus that I could use it with my 5yo too. Am I missing something important by thinking that LOE might work? I haven't decided for sure. I still want to look at more samples and read some reviews for a few programs before I make my final decision. It's good to see that there may be more options for testing that may be more affordable. I'll ask our local homeschool groups as well and see what recommendations people have. I definitely want to make sure that whoever we go with is homeschool friendly. I was talking to my DH more last night about the results of the tests we did yesterday and getting some professional evaluations done. He is hesitant to do any testing right now regardless of whether it is through ps or a private group. He is concerned that she will start to think there's something wrong with her or that she's dumb. He thinks we should just back up, review, try a different method and see what happens. He also wants to make sure that whoever we choose is supportive of homeschooling. I think he sees too much government agency overreach at work in regards to parental decision making and wants to make sure we protect ourselves from that. I'm torn on getting evaluations now or waiting a bit. I see his point and tend to agree while at the same time wanting to do something now while it might be easier to help her catch up. I also wonder what else may be going on. A slow processing speed definitely sounds like something we may be dealing with and I've wondered about ADD too. It's so hard to know exactly what to do and when to do it!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm really not sure what we're going to do. We can't afford private testing right now and my DH doesn't want to go through the ps. We know someone who is in the process of getting their dc tested through a neighboring school district so maybe we should sit down with them and find out what their experience was like. If I understand correctly, schools in our state are not required to offer an services to students who aren't enrolled. So there's no guarantee there either. Maybe our insurance will cover some of the testing. For now, I'll start researching ways to improve the working memory and phonetic awareness and do what I can there. My DH also wants me to order a phonics program and get started on that. She likes reading right now. I just don't want to mess that up.

Every place I've looked at so far for testing is $2000+. I'm not sure if we can get it done through the public schools either. Schools aren't required to offer services to students who don't attend the school. Some choose to but some don't. I figured out a few things when I did the tests with her today so I'm going to start working on those things while we figure out our next step.

I posted over on the Learning Challenges Board with the results of some tests we did today. If anyone has time to help me figure out what to do with them that'd be great! Thanks for the help!