I would have him evaluated. My own 7 yo DD was supposed to grow out of this, and she hasn't. She is finally in speech therapy at a university clinic (after arguing with our school district, who was telling us first that she would grow out of it and second that they wanted a full IEP and her in school to do the therapy). Our first eval was at 2 when she wasn't talking. We had it done again at 4, and we were told she would grow out of it. We started the process all over again at 6. What is normal at 2 or 4 will not be normal at 6, but a thorough evaluation done by an independent therapist is going to tell you either way. I wish we hadn't waited so long and had just gone for a private evaluation and therapy before now, because other kids are noticing and making fun of her. And it is harder the older she has been, because some of it is habit now. Look at it this way. If you get another evaluation, the worst they can say is that he needs the therapy. Otherwise, you will at least feel better for having checked it out and you won't continue to worry about it or be sensitive when it comes up. ETA: It is not only which mispronunciations are being made but WHY they are being made that matters, and you can't tell that by just looking at the charts. Which I only say because I spent two years looking at the charts and waiting for the magic growing out of it to happen, and I really wish I hadn't. Your situation may be very different. Best wishes!

Proud Roman Catholic Christian here.

OK, I will play. I hate reading posts about people not being able to choose between two or three really expensive curriculums that I can only dream about. Or successfully using really complicated curriculum (sometimes in multiples) that just makes me feel dumb. I hate reading posts that trash the curriculum I just bought and talk up on that I didn't buy and make me think twice (who am I kidding? 20 times is more like it) that maybe I didn't do the right thing after all. I hate reading posts that talk up the new and greatest curriculum, which sends me running off to spend hours I don't have looking it up. Only to find out that the people in question have either never used the curriculum, are selling said curriculum and therefore may have a horse in the race, or don't actually have kids old enough to use the curriculum. I hate reading posts about 2 year olds reading Shakespeare and 3 year olds finishing Calculus, when my rising 3rd grader just started reading well enough for me to consider her a reader. I hate reading posts about people who have completed their whole school day, have immaculate homes and are going off on a service project while I am still in my pajamas trying to start our school day, made more difficult because we are missing a book, crayons, or a ruler. I hate reading posts about any religion or moral compass (other than my own, of course ;)) being the only right way, the only true way, the only moral way ... you know, it isn't just religion. Maybe I just hate to be told everything I do is just wrong, wrong, wrong. But I love all of you anyway.:D

Gosh, no. Well, I am on here instead of sanding the bathroom cabinet ... :D In my defense, I got on here to buy the science book for the co-op class we just got into. Is it my fault if I got lost on the way to CBD? :tongue_smilie:

OK, so we need to have more fun, finish more projects and get all the stuff ready to start the first week of August. If I wait until I am ready to start school, I might start in the year 2020, right about the time my baby is graduating. Oh well.

:iagree: Pretty soon, our lovely, PC, tolerant world is going to have us walking on eggshells and carrying lists of appropriate terminology and topics of conversation. I am getting a little offended myself at all the little nitpicky stuff that people seem to find offensive, especially when it is pretty obviously and traditionally innocuous. Or maybe I am just getting defensive over nothing.

Have you looked at Heart of Dakota? It kind of sounds like your philosophy on history matches theirs pretty well. HOD takes the sensitivity issue well into account. You would need to check the placement chart for them, but it looks like your DD may be able to handle either the LHFHG, which is an overview of world history and biblical events, or BLHFHG, which is an age-appropriate American history overview. Good luck to you. There are a lot of great programs for that age, so I am sure you can find something you and your DD will love.

Yes, and it is spooky. I had someone come up who has no FB friends in common with me but who I went to a co-op with several years back. I know her, but I have no clue how Facebook KNEW that.

Well, I am in the process of doing what you are talking about, but not without hurting feelings, unfortunately. I have struggled with homemaking for a long time, and recently, I have had to completely reassess what we are doing outside the home and in our school to be able to make time for two hours a week of speech therapy for my middle DD and 4+ hours a week of swim team for my oldest DD, and it has caused some hard feelings with a high maintainance friend. It is rough, because I never intended that as a consequence, but honestly, all the people in my life who are really my friends have been so supportive and understanding and helpful that I should really be grateful and focus on that instead of the feathers I inadvertantly ruffled. And honestly, I don't think I realized until all of this how much I have been arranging my life to make other people happy and putting their needs ahead of my own and my family's. So that realization is a blessing too. I really think most women struggle with this, to some extent. But it is even harder when you are pressuring yourself and feeling selfish, while trying to carve out time for yourself and your family amidst the chaos that life can become when your priorities get misplaced. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was trying to be a good friend, good group member, good whatever, and I just got to a point where I was completely overwhelmed and not doing all the little things that mean the world to my own family and homeschool. Good luck and best wishes to you. Hopefully you will be more successful than I have been with this. As for myself, I think I am finally going to give myself permission to be "selfish" with this and do all the things that make up my vocation as a wife, mother and homeschooler, and let all the things and people who interfere float out of my life.

:grouphug: Some of this depends on the priest. Two priests ago, we had a priest I could have called at 3 a.m., and instead of letting me apologize for waking him, he would have apologized for not being awake when I needed him. My current priest, not so much. And priests now are just spread so thin. If it can wait, I would try to catch him after Mass this weekend or call on Monday and make an appointment to come in or do a telephone conference. If you feel like you want to talk to a priest, you should talk to a priest. It is just all in the timing. Confession tomorrow is also a great idea. I wish we were closer and could help and support you better. Prayers and best wishes!

Terri, (gently) I think you are really working hard to try the right fit, but you are overthinking this! Sometimes it is like we get on a treadmill with these decisions and we just can't get off. I think your idea to keep it simple and go with mostly textbooks for the next year would really work well for you. Implementing any of these programs (HOD, MFW, WP, Sonlight) honestly may be more work than you are going to be able to fit in while having the new baby and taking care of all your other responsibilities, and it is totally OK to admit that and have a year of getting the basics done and fitting in the other stuff as you have time and interest. None of these programs is really set up to have ALL of your kids in one guide, since they are either too narrow with your ages or begin the combining when the kids reach 2nd grade. And while I am sure there are great benefits to working completely out of one program, there are also good reasons or just seasons in our lives when that is just not possible. Have you thought about doing just the basics and maybe buying one fun thing for either history OR science? I think you may be on the right track looking at KOF recommendations with just WP AW, or doing a science textbook and picking just Beautiful Feet history. Maybe if you broke down what you want to do and just have one more complicated subject at a time, you would feel more confident about getting everything done and still having fun things in your schedule. Good luck and best wishes! I am praying for you as you continue to think this through.

Most of them, unfortunately, seem to be more interested in the bedroom than the drawing rooms. If you want to read more of the same type of things, maybe you could look at Fanny Burney? Not Austen and more graphic, but still worth reading, IMO. If anyone else knows of a clean "sequel," :bigear::bigear::bigear:.

Thank you! And thanks to Asta for her link also. Off to read!

Feel free to add! I am also jealous about the "large educational section." See, I think this stuff is where I wonder about things. Why would the library carry these sort of things if it was illegal to use them, but exactly what is fair use and at what point are you ethically obligated to buy the book vs. previewing or using it from the library? Isn't any book -- workbook or otherwise -- you are getting from the library depriving the author of sales and using their intellectual property without paying them for it? Isn't the whole purpose of the library to circumvent having to buy every book you want to read or use and therefore at some level unfair to authors, book publishers, etc., as it is depriving them of sales? I say unfair and not illegal or even immoral. And even though I put it that way, it is only because I don't know how else to say it and not because I am trying to smear library patrons, myself included. Maybe selfish is more appropriate? I love my library, so it isn't like I want to or feel the need to stop using it, but if the argument is that we should all be buying new to support authors, then the library should be one of the first things to have to forego. So is it selfish to use the library instead of just buying all the materials new? Sorry, now I am hijacking my own thread! And again, for the record, this is just my musing, so please no flames because I am not calling anyone selfish or calling anyone anything at all. There is no way I would be able to buy everything new, and the library is a huge asset to homeschoolers in so many ways. I guess I am just wondering, in light of the other threads, if anyone else has asked these questions or if I am the only person with too much time on my hands with this today?

OK, so I don't buy consumable workbooks with the intent to copy and resell them. For me, that one is clear. But, what about getting library books and copying something out of them? What about copying a one-page map for your homeschool? Or copying recipes by hand out of a cookbook? Is one OK? 10? And what about if you check out a library book with a how-to thing, like for crafting? Can you copy the diagram for a craft or should you just work from the library book and try to renew it until you finish? Is it OK to copy it to just make one yourself, as long as you are not selling the item/items made? I don't have any real answers, but I am really interested in opinions on the ethics of this stuff. Just for the record, I haven't copied any maps (yet). I often check out cookbooks and copy recipes, but for my own sanity and hand cramping, I buy the book if I need more than a few. But I am guilty of checking out a knitting book and copying the pages because I was almost done with a complicated project and could no longer renew the book the pattern was in. Any takers?

I can't answer the first part, but I think I can answer why some people and most private schools switch out. We do A Beka math for 1-3. Originally, I planned to do this because that is what the Mother of Divine Grace syllabus suggested, and I was too new to argue. But then, once we got going with it, I figured out why. When my oldest, who is not a mathy kid, got to A Beka math 3, she stalled out. It started to move too fast for her and it didn't give enough time to practicing new concepts before it moved on, so she was always feeling panicky and behind, like she didn't understand math. There really is a change in the 3rd grade book with regard to speed. We had her tested that year, and math was actually her best score, but she hated the A Beka book, and so we went ahead and switched to Saxon, which doesn't make her cry. She did well enough with A Beka math 3, even with all the drama, to test into Saxon 65, but I put her in Saxon 54 because of her math phobia, and it was the right choice for her. My next daughter has had no problems with A Beka so far, and she loves math, so we may stick it out with A Beka a little longer. I imagine we will still switch over to Saxon though. If you stay with A Beka, you will only make it to Pre-Algebra, instead of Algebra in 8th grade, and that can negatively affect your child's test scores in high school, since they won't have geometry in time for the first round of testing. A friend who uses A Beka all the way through once told me this was the only thing she would have changed for her kids, and she would have doubled up in the early years or done school round to stay with A Beka but still get through 8th grade Algebra. I think this one is like most of the other homeschool decisions we make. If you like A Beka, and it is working for your child, you need to weigh that against whether improving a test score down the road is worth it and what kind of advantage or disadvantage that really is for the long- and short-term of it. ETA: Saxon changes after 3rd grade. The homeschool version they sell is a soft-cover textbook that requires writing in another notebook to do the work, and only the test packet is consumable. If you have a child who really likes workbooks, Saxon 54 and up may be a problem in that respect. And it is a spiral program, but so is A Beka. I haven't skipped anything so far. We do the speed drill, then we do up to the last problem set orally. She has to write out the last problem set, but it is only about 25 problems so far, and I don't feel like that is excessive for her. I know if you post this part of how to adapt Saxon on the high school board or do a search, you will end up with tons of responses! Good luck!

We just have an end-of-the-year swim party and potluck at the house of one of our leaders. It was a lot of fun this year!

Thanks for the laugh!:lol:

:grouphug: and prayers for you and your family.

I think I would let her go, too. It sounds like you can trust your brother and his wife, and it sounds like your DD has a good head on her shoulders.

Two suggestions, neither of which may work for you! First, have the child tested by an independent speech therapist and audiologist, not the district. My insurance covered this, even though it does not cover therapy, so you may want to check if this is an option. This gives you something you can take back to the district. Also, you may want to check and see if you have any other therapy options besides the district. I first called my isurance to find out where to be tested, and then I got a list from the testing clinic of what my options might be for therapy. In my area, we had a Shriner's hospital, two children's hospitals, and three area universities. The universities have speech therapy Master's programs, and they offer fairly low-cost clinics for area children. It isn't free, but you aren't at the mercy of the district and they aren't interested in your private business or in doing IEPs outside of the area they specialize in. The clinics are done by people in the MA program, with heavy supervision from the supervising clinicians. We got into one of these clinics and have been very pleased with the results so far. Good luck!

Kindergarten should be low-stress, for YOU and the child! It is really about learning to read, being read to, and doing some basic math. Have fun, go on lots of field trips, use your library and follow your interests. Which curriculum have you chosen?

Well, I never say never. But I don't intend to send them voluntarily. And if I am forced to put them in school, hopefully, I will have a job that pays enough for a private high school. I would not put them in the public schools in my district. Here we have several co-op options, two nice community colleges, and a small possibility of doing something part-time at a private school that will be opening the year before we need it.

Good for you! I am sure you will feel a lot more comfortable and safer when you get out of that neighborhood. You and your family have been in my prayers!:001_smile:

As is, HO would be a big shock to your system coming from Sonlight. Have you thought about using it with some of the Sonlight Core 6 readers? We are doing Ancients Level 2, and we really like it, but I add in a lot of extra reading to make it more interesting. It isn't hard to substitute or add in things, as long as you know what you want to do that with. You would also need to have worked on outlining before you start this (like in Rod & Staff English) or you would probably need to buy an outlining workbook to help you along, or at least we did! HO provides great structure, though, and we love the mapwork, which is all included. And it does not take over your whole day or whole week to do it. Best wishes!