I took one for my elem. ed. degree. It was a waste of time. She wanted us to read different books and discuss them in groups (to model how to do this in a classroom, which wasn't a totally bad idea) ... and I'd read just about every choice she had to offer. (No one else had read any.) So I was stuck with a book I totally hated (which is why I hadn't already read it!). It was pretty sorry as a class. I worked for the public library, and was 'encouraged' to go for my master's degree (which wasn't an option, as I couldn't afford the tuition or the commute). The bribe? A children's lit class. It was all I could do to be polite when I pointed out I'd been reading children's lit since I was a child, and hadn't stopped yet, and read in a wide variety of genres. It hardly seemed worth getting a whole degree to take one class where I already knew the material. Sigh. (At the time we had great librarians in the children's departments ... now they're mostly new, and though I've been out of the official loop for several years, I still probably read more kids' books than they do. It's sad when they haven't ready any of the classics, new or old.)

My therapists keeps harping on me to exercise more ... he swears it will help. So, yes. :) It can also be helpful during, actually, as it gives the panicky body something to do. It's about the only time I use my exercise bike.

I guess it would depend on what it covered. If it's general, like "learn about your city in third grade", then it wouldn't be too bad ... though in general I am opposed, because once they make it, they can change it. I think each area ought to teach what is relevant to each area. Some of the special things in our community wouldn't be of interest elsewhere ... but I love that they spend time on city history in third grade, and our state history in fourth. If you live near mountains, trees, and tornadoes, like we do, those are easier and more interesting to teach hands on. If you live near a desert, your resources will be different. And that ought to be part of the fun of teaching and learning.

We have a good library system ... but so many of my favorites are OOP ... owning them is the only good option if I ever plan to read them again. Which I do. I've been collecting since I was a child, and have no plans to stop now. (Except dh's mandate that I keep most of it in my library room, and not all over the house!) I do plan to purge the picture books and easy readers as the kids age out of them ... some are there merely for practice ... but plenty of them are excellent and well worth keeping, so we will. Some I do collect duplicates of (like our FIAR titles) so the kids can each have a set when they move out ... but then *I* won't have them! LOL. I will say, most of my purchases are used ... we have a lot of thrift stores and many of our library branches sell off donations and discards ... so that helps on the cost. I do worry about a house fire, because my collection is absolutely irreplaceable ... many of these books just can't be found anymore. I just hope the kids grow up to like reading as much as I do. :)

I find the Dear America ones to be depressing ... particularly the epilogues. The Royal Diaries were at least historical, so the depressing parts were more accurate ... but with the fiction ones, it seemed like there was a writer's guideline to kill off all the characters in the epilogue, as miserably as possible. Ugh! The younger series wasn't quite as bad. I did read the Elizabeth one recently, and was surprised that though they included Lady Jane Grey as a character, the epilogue made NO reference to her being a short-term queen. As she's one of my favorites, I was disappointed. I haven't read as many of the boys' versions, but they seemed about the same. I will say, my mom and my niece are loving them.

My son (8, 2nd grade) knows some of his materials are for a higher grade level (kind of hard to miss when it's printed on it! LOL). This is important ... he's a perfectionist and he needs to know that he's doing 'hard' things sometimes. He expects to even be able to play grown-up brainteaser type puzzles and get them right the first time ... it's VERY hard to convince him that some things are meant to be hard even for grown-ups, and he's not supposed to get it easily! So we have to talk about what's age-appropriate and what's okay to expect and what's not. We haven't used the term gifted, though ... mostly because we haven't done official testing yet. His sister is equally accelerated so far (5, pre-K) but fortunately less perfectionistic. From my own perspective, I think it's important to know. Most of my own lessons were NOT accelerated, and I recall being frustrated that others couldn't get things quicker so we could move on. I knew I was 'gifted' but since nothing much was done about it (other than a basic pull-out class), it was hard as a kid to know how to translate that over to the classroom. All I thought it meant was that I read really fast (because I'm a natural speed reader). And then, when we did hit concepts I didn't get the first time, not only did I feel extra-stupid, but other kids would laugh about it. One advantage about homeschooling ... my kids may know that their materials are on different levels, but they really don't have anything to compare with ... so although my son is proud he's ahead in math, he really doesn't think to compare his advancements with another kid who's struggling. He's much more likely just to see what that kid is good at, and feel bad himself. (Which is not okay, actually. But at least he doesn't make fun of struggling kids.)

I agree ... T replaces whichever year you choose to introduce cursive, and then you go on from there. We'll be doing T instead of C, and then D after that.

No official total (I'm behind on cataloging, and don't keep track of the kids' or dh's books), but I'm betting we're at the 5,000 mark. But for sure a couple thousand fiction titles in my collection, and at least a thousand non-fiction. Maybe more. Yeah, I'm obsessive. :D But they're all good stuff and I do re-read them. :)

Mine are 8 and 5, in second and pre-K. We are using FIAR, and for sanity's sake I keep them in the same book. :) Right now we're using some from v. 4 and a few from the earlier volumes. Next year we'll finish up v. 4 and start on Beyond. So far we love it. We do add other things to fill out the day ... but that's because we want to, or because I found I kept skipping certain parts of the manual. But if you do all the suggestions, and have fun with rabbit trails, it is more than sufficient! (Plus math and phonics, anyway.) And the forums are awesomely supportive. You do read the books to the children. That way you get to cuddle, and discuss art styles, and things like that. Your olders might like to take a turn reading aloud, especially at the end of the week, and sometimes we even use the Scholastic video books for a reading or two (things like Snowflake Bentley were really cool to see as video as well as read in the book).

Haven't read all the replies yet, but dittoing that you need a pulmonologist. And a good one. Even once my niece was in a pulmonologist's care, they differed on how to treat her ... she was ALWAYS getting sick. Move to a new state and a new doc, and voila! turns out she has very severe asthma and they were able to get it under control. Her health is WAY better now. My son sees a doc in the same practice that my sister dealt with, so I approach with caution (only ones around here to see), but his is much milder than his cousin's, so we're pretty lucky. My friend with severe asthma (adult) has to not even have drapes, can't have stuffed animals in the same room, has to double up on meds to even vacuum the carpets, things like that. But she's used to it now, though not real happy about it.

I live in a city of rocket scientists. :) I know a great many people of high IQ, many of whom are probably above the 'genius' level, but may not make obvious world-changing impact. Some prefer to work on a smaller scale. :) I do not consider myself a genius, but depending on how you scale things, I've been told my scores might qualify. I personally doubt this. But I definitely think in a weird sort of way, and have many bright friends who are equally odd, and we all get along well together. And I am sure some of them are geniuses. At any rate, I don't think genius is quite the same thing as prodigy (and a few I know definitely fall in the prodigy range ... they are amazing to be around).

So, would I, as an adult with a diagnosed panic disorder and a deep passion for children's safety, benefit from reading one of these titles? And which one? (My kids aren't old enough, so at least I don't have to worry about that.) With an anxiety disorder, you begin to lose the ability to trust your intuition ... because EVERYthing makes you anxious. (And yes, anxious people do observe a lot ... and can take a line of reasoning to some really long distances!) I'd love to be able to discern better when to take action and when to tell myself to calm down ... my therapist is great, but I'm one who really does learn well from books. But I don't want to scare myself silly either.

Thanks for the heads up! My youngest will be eligible and is very excited!

Well, I haven't read the rest of the thread, but I thought the rule was that the FIRST vowel does the talking. :) I'm a natural speller, so I rather like the rules and things, because they make sense to me. I don't think my son is going to follow in my footsteps, and my daughter is too young to tell. But I do think spelling rules are important, if only because it makes people look uneducated if they make too many errors. First grade, though ... that's young. I think it helps to be able to read and perhaps even pronounce all the letters correctly before working on spelling. LOL. I get a kick out of my preschooler and her phonics ... she can do the work so well, but can hardly pronounce some of the words!

Patricia Wrede wrote other books too, and she may enjoy those. Unlike many fantasy authors, I don't think she had anything objectionable in her books, so age level doesn't matter. (Some, like Jane Yolen or Diana Wynne Jones, who I love, you have to watch the older-reader stuff.) Try 'Sorcery and Cecilia' for starters, for Patricia Wrede. It has two sequels. And she's got another fantasy world, Lyra, where all her books are set in a different era of that world's history. My favorite of those is 'The Raven Ring'.

ETC gets hard in book 4. I hear many parents skip it for later. (We don't.) It has syllabification, for one. You might consider alternating, after ETC 3, the Beyond the Code books with the ETC books, for variety. My son liked that, and I figure my daughter will too. We've only used ETC and BTC so I don't have a comparison, but it's working well for us. We just do a page or two a day. So we started very young but will probably wrap up the two sets by the end of 3rd grade, right on time. And then we'll do something for spelling, I guess.

We're using Horizons and like it. It's got enough variety to keep the kids engaged, it's easy to cut out unnecessary repetition, and my kids think math manipulatives are toys, so we have plenty of that too. :) The TG does go into suggestions for when to start introducing concepts, usually quite a few lessons before they appear in the workbooks. We mostly use it as a reference to make sure that a strange problem set is being dealt with the correct way. But I can see using the TG more and more as we go on. My kids do well with math, so it's possible most any program would work for them, but we find this one engaging and usable, so we'll stick with it for now. (They're doing 3rd and K this year.)

Something else to keep in mind ... the state-sponsored savings programs can't always be trusted. Just google for all the hoopla over Alabama's PACT program, which was supposed to guarantee tuition. Guess what ... investments went bad and they ran out of money. Oops. We're hoping AP and CLEP and community college will cover the first couple years, and then the kids can go to the local state university. If they want. And they'll have to work part-time, too. That's how we both did it, and with some scholarship assistance, managed to pull through without any loans. I know that's looking harder and harder, but we can't afford the tuition either. It's just nuts! And our university wants all freshmen and sophomores to live on campus now, which doubles the cost. Um, no, not gonna happen. So with any luck, smarter heads will prevail in the next ten years or so, or our kids will get some scholarships, or some savings. We do also have some money set aside, actually... a banker grandfather gave all the great-grands some bank stock (as he did for us grandkids when we were young). So that will have some value ... not enough for four years, but a start, perhaps.

No ideas for older kids, but just had to say HI to a fellow Kristen! :)

Oh, I've had lots of background checks too ... church work, scout work, etc. And I swear I'm also harmless. :) A little looney at times, perhaps, but harmless. :) But I *also* know of folks who would currently pass a background check, who shouldn't, because paperwork is slow and convictions for 'minor' things take time ... and they are just out there loose. Which is scary.

Wow, I had no idea webcams could do that. Makes me want to unplug the one on the Wii that came with the Your Shape exercise game ... because I know we look totally ridiculous exercising in our jammies, never mind all the other family stuff that probably goes on in front of that stupid camera. creeeeepy

I ditto the suggestion to check with other home health agencies. My neighbor used one for her husband, who passed away this past month. He was declining from Parkinson's, slowly at first and then very rapidly near the end. Not sure he would have passed a hospice check earlier on, but she definitely needed the help. And then the same nurse stayed on to help her with her sudden cancer diagnosis and surgery, after her husband passed. So that became a blessing all around.

Wow, this is a great thread. Only on Wolf Cubs here, but taking lots of mental notes! I know our pack records are all a-jumble at the lower levels ... hoping the Webelos are a bit clearer. (And partly my own fault, as den leader, but this was the precedent I was set so I'm kind of stuck with it for the rest of the year.)

Stephanie ... lots of hugs to you. You'll find your way to the right answers! Your kids will be okay. You're not alone, and neither are they. (((hugs)))

Also look at how long it's been going on, Kristi ... sometimes we spend so long in the 'down' side of things that we forget what normal looks like. (I am SO thankful for my therapist who helps remind me!) If your general practitioner doesn't take you seriously, some gyn's are good at spotting depression (some aren't). So that can be a route to go. Mine got pretty hard to hide ... my panic manifests most often as severe nausea, and, well, if you're sick you're sick. It took months to get diagnosed way back when, because the docs kept asking, "Are you sure you're not pregnant?" And by the time we got a diagnosis ... my first child was on the way. So much for meds! LOL. But things are much better now. I too can have very angry irritable days. We're tinkering with my meds right now, and the kids can see the effects. One day recently we were just having a terrible day, and I finally said to my son, "You know, if anyone else was yelling at you like I've been yelling at you, I'd be yelling at THEM. Let's call Daddy to come home." And we did. I apologized for my behavior (this gets very humbling over time, but I daresay it's good for me), and we called for help, and we dealt with it. Most days aren't that awful, of course, but it helps to have a plan in place just in case. (And thank goodness we're not on that med anymore!) Maybe being too transparent, but I've learned over the years ... I can't get the help and understanding I need if I don't open up, and I sure don't want anyone else to go through this and think they're alone! If we all stand together, we help hold each other up. :)