September is a great time to go to Disney (other than the humidity). It's cheaper and less crowded. Early March can be okay, but it will be a bit more expensive than September. My suggestion is to stay at Port Orleans Riverside. They have rooms in the Alligator Bayou section which sleep 5. You could stay 10 nights with 10 day base (no park hoppers or water parks) tickets for $3407.15. For $281 more you can get a Preferred (close to the main building and busses) or River View room. I do not recommend park hoppers for first time visitors and longer stays anyway. If your family isn't big on swimming, the resort pool and slide should suffice. I cannot imagine free dining not being available next September. That leaves you $1600 for travel and souveneirs. A pp suggested the Art of Animation suite. While those suites will accomodate the size of your family, they are the same price or more than the moderate hotels and you only are eligible for Quick Service dining if the free dining promotion is offered. In fact, in years past the family suites at the All Star Music resort were excluded from the free dining promo. That is why I recommend Riverside. You also won't qualify for the Free Dining promotion if you rent DVC. We've had trips where we had very Disney meals, too, but, if you choose the right places, the dining will add a lot of fun and memories to your trip. If you PM me, I will be glad to recommend Disney restauraunts (I've been to nearly all of them) and some other fun things for your family! And, I really will plan your whole trip for you. I have access to the crowd calendar and will be glad to help you with that once you settle on your dates.

Go to www.disboards.com, www.wdwinfo.com, www.allearsnet.com, www.wdwtoday.com to feed your obsession and answer your questions. :)

Do you consider her 6th or 7th grade?

I'm in!

Personally, I would not switch to TT. Could you double up on the CLE lessons? My dd does CLE Math and sometimes does two lessons per day. Depending on the new material, it takes her about 1.5 hours to do 2 full lessons. If we get behind (and she has been scoring high on her tests and quizzes), I will mark out some of the review problems that I know she has mastered. We skip lessons 5, 10, and 17. I am sure there is merit in doing them, but...we just don't. :tongue_smilie: We also don't do the first light unit because it is all review, and we do math, more or less, year round. Many have said that a student who completes level 700 can go straight into Algebra. Much of 800 is business math which is not traditionally taught during the middle school years. My dd is on LU 709 now, and I am still trying to decide where to go from here. If you double up, you should be able to get through all of 700 by the end of his 8th grade year. He'd then be ready for Algebra in 9th grade.

Exactly! The child was not in danger. Is a child never to feel any discomfort? Nobody but MIL was concerned and she certainly didn't discuss the concerns with anybody before announcing she would be staying.

I agree that the rest of the family should not have been brought into this matter. I only spoke with the step-mother because she was visibly upset, and I could sympathize with her. No one else in the family is ever fazed by MILs overbearing behavior, so, I must admit, it was nice to have someone else see things from my perspective. I encouraged the step-mother and her husband to call MIL and tell her, in a polite way, that she needn't return. That didn't happen. My DH mentined the situation to his sister as we were leaving, and he now realizes that was a bad move. Yes, we had quite a "discussion" about his role in this matter. There are a lot of great things about my MIL. She is truly a lovely person. We just have very different personalities and child rearing beliefs. I posed this question to the hive just to be sure I am not completely off base in my thinking. It seems the majority agree that MIL crossed some boundaries, regardless of her intentions.

What did you do to remediate the working memory and language processing issues?

Thank you all for your input. As the previous poster said, I feel that her intentions were 100% pure, but her actions were rude and overbearing. My husband agrees with me; however, it was a situation of 'I can talk about my mama, but no one else can.' :) The step-mother, to maintain peace as the newcomer to the family, backed down and apologized to everyone for not being appreciative of MIL's assistance. I am not apologizing to anyone for my opinion. Had she asked to stay the night, I would have a different opinion. Although, I still would have thought it unnecessary as the father and step-mother were perfectly capable of handling the situation. I did not express my opinion to anyone other than the step-mother and my husband, and I knew both were in complete agreement with me at the time. My DH brought the rest of the family into the discussion which caused a lot of hurt feelings, then he sided with them. Argh! This is certainly not the first instance of coddling and crossing boundaries with her children and grandchildren. Yet, I am always made out to be the irrational, crazy woman because I think differently than they do.

Last weekend there was a family birthday party for my nephew at his father's home. The nephew is from a previous marriage and until recently has spent very little time with his father. The father is recently remarried and just settled into a new home. The boy was celebrating his 7th birthday, and at the party were the step-mother's children and the boy's cousin. It was decided at the party that all four children would be staying the night at the father and step-mother's home. The last time the boy spent the night with his father, he became homesick before bed and cried for his mother. They father and step-mother were able to reassure the boy and he went to sleep. MIL was told about the incident at some point. MIL became concerned that the boy would become homesick again, so she announced that she would also stay the night. Her plan was that instead of the children sleeping in the bedroom with the bunkbeds, she would "camp out" with them in the living room. While she drove home (just a few miles away) to get her overnight bag, the step-mother expressed her displeasure to her husband (MIL's son) because 1.) MIL did not ask if anyone wanted her to spend the night or if it was okay - she just said she was, and 2.) the step-mother felt that they were capable of handling the boy and did not need or want MIL's help. I agreed with the step-mother and brought up similar incidents that have occured in the past. My husband has always agreed with me when we've discusses those incidents, so I wasn't saying anything he hadn't heard or even thought himself. Over the next two days, the whole family (3 siblings, their spouses, and MIL/FIL) became embroiled in the argument with the step-mother and me on one side and everyone else defending MIL. Their argument is that she did it out of love and selflessness. Our argument is that she crossed a line of respect for the son and his wife. Boundaries. Would you be upset if you were the step-mother?

I live in Georgia. Our county had an $8 million deficit this year. Teachers have not had a pay increase in several years and they were cut 1% this year. In addition to that, they have about 8 furlough days. Many non-essential postions have been cut and teachers who have left have not been replaced. Some wealthier parts of the state (North Cobb, North Fulton, Forsyth, and Gwinett) many not be having such a difficult time, but I think all counties have seen a major reduction in funding from the state.

Oh Elizabeth, what type of evaluation do you recommend? Auditory Processing? I will check out that book.

Thank you all for your input. I agree it is difficult to diagnose via internet. Her phonemic awareness skills were tested twice (public school and private Wilson tutor). She passed both tests with flying colors. We went all the way through Reading Reflex and other pure phonics programs. She excelled - no problem. When she asks how to spell a word, I encourage her to sound it out. Sometimes I will sound it out for her slowly and with emphasis, but she still adds letters that aren't even remotely close. Perhaps I will look into an auditory processing evaluation.

Thank you for your reply. Isn't that phonics? I know it is weird, but she has no trouble going through a phonics program. She learned to read with a direct instruction (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons) method, did a phonics program at home (don't remember the name), Wilson with a tutor, etc. She knows all of the rules and sounds then, but she can't apply them when spelling.

I apologize in advance that this is so long. My dd is 12 and "unofficially" dyslexic. I've never had her officially tested, but she has all of the characteristics. She was tested for the Wilson program and the tutor who has a masters in Education with a Reading Specialist credential did believe my dd is dyslexic. She can read and comprehend well. She tested post high school in all reading categories on her last Stanford test. The problem is that she cannot spell. I pulled her from ps after 2nd grade. When she took the Stanford in 3rd grade, she scored at the beginning 1st grade in spelling. We did Sequential Spelling 1 and 2 over 4th and 5th grades. At the end of 5th, her Standford spelling scored at 5th grade 6th month - just a few months behind! She still seemed very behind to me though. For 6th grade, our co-op had a teacher offering the Wilson program. As I mentioned, she was tested and the tutor placed her in the program in level B. She sailed through the course. Made 95 or better on all assignments, quizzes, and tests. The tutor advised me not to do any other spelling program, that Wilson would be sufficient. At the end of the year, her Stanford spelling score was 5th grade 1 month. She regressed?? I did not have her continue with the second half of the Wilson course this year because it obviously didn't help. Now this year. Since Sequential Spelling had worked well for her in the past, I thought we'd try that again. I gave her the placement test, and, according to it, she needs to start back at the beginning of book 1? Maybe it hadn't worked so well!!! I am at a loss. Many of her misspelled words are not spelled phonetically. However, we have tried many phonics programs and she has no trouble at all. She cannot distinguish vowel sounds. Other letter sounds give her trouble as well (g and j, t and d). She still doesn't fully understand rhyming. She has a hard time recognizing smaller words within larger words. Here are a few examples or recent mispellings (her spelling - acutal word): pumink - pumpkin coninet - continent conit - also continent (same paragrah as error above) insitly - instantly mealted - melted tempenter - temperature rasbeirrie - raspberry though - thought (always mispells this despite many corrections) collasped - collapsed wereing - wearing quinities - quantities meatle - metal mealts - metals (same paragraph as error above) Gology - Geology pross - process Rassia - Russia compan - company moring - morning advent - event knewl - knuckle Words missed on the Dolch Basic Sight Word List: pretty, well, who, does, goes, write, always, three, buy, those, which, clean, upon, laugh Programs we have used: Sequential Spelling 1 and 2 - she liked AAS level 1 - she hated it; too easy Reading Reflex - for phonics work; too easy Wilson - Level B 1 - 6; too easy Megawords - 1 through 3; too complicated just to use for spelling Evan Moor spelling and phonics I appreciate you reading this far and any ideas or advice you may have. I am just at a loss as to how to help her.

Yes, we do share and use them frequently.

Okay, just for the heck of it, I did a little price comparison for you using 2011 rates. They'll go up a bit for next year. Free Dining Plan during Value season (mid-August through late September) at Port Orleans Riverside for an 8 night stay would run your family $2538.93. Hotel, most meals, and park tickets included. This assumes your 2 year old will be 3 at the time of the visit and would require a park ticket. If not, the total would be a couple hundred less. Homeschool Days in October - 8 night stay at an off-site hotel (@$89/night + tax) = $801 Discounted park tickets 8 days = $920 Parking for 8 days = $128 Total without food expenses = $1849 That's a difference of $690. Can your family eat for 8 or 9 days for less than $690? For your family, I would estimate Disney counter service meals to run about $35 - $40 and sit-down character meals about $100 - $125 with tip. I hope this helps!

Thank you so much for posting this!

Have her drink a big glass of orange juice.

#8 for me Bill's WTM post was first.

:grouphug: I can completely relate to your situation. My sil and bil are the same way and it frustrates me to no end.

I haven't read all of the replies, but I did see that at least one or two people in the Atlanta area have voluntered to host. I'm in a fairly rural area, so it wouldn't be the best place to meet. However, I will definitely attend a conference anywhere in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, or northern Florida.

Thanks, Keniki. We are just starting 705 this week. It takes my dd about two to three weeks to get through a light unit, and we do math year round. So, I expect to start Algebra some time next fall/winter. We're going to do most of the 800 level, but not the consumer math lessons. Can you, or anyone else, compare the rigor or scope and sequence to other algebra texts?

Thank you so much for this, OP. I'd love to hear reviews from any of the beta testers.