Rainbow Resource carries them, too: http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1282466444-1261804&subject=6&category=951

Spread some between two vanilla wafers. :)

Ds #2 wanted to do chemistry this year. I did NOT want to do chemistry this year! But this program looks so good -- lots of hands-on activities, which is what he likes. So I've ordered it and it should be here any day now. :hurray:

This is my mother, too. She thinks that mental/behavioral disorders are either: 1. A ploy on the part of doctors to make money. 2. A ploy on the part of patients to get sympathy. I struggled for years with depression. Her response to it was, "Well, you didn't get that from MY side of the family!" Like it's a character flaw or something. There is no question in my mind, as I look back at my growing-up years and my extended family, that there is a family history of bipolar disorder. But she will never consider the possibility.

I am estranged from my mother as well (and I believe she is mentally ill -- probably undiagnosed bipolar). I tried to work things out with her, over a long period -- I even took more responsibility than I should have for the problems we were having. In the end, I had to make a choice -- my husband and our newborn daughter vs. my mother. No one should have to make such a choice -- but that's what it came down to. And my mother drew a line in the sand and dared the other family members to cross it -- and they didn't, because they didn't want to upset her. I believe I am the only person who has ever had the chutzpah to stand up to my mother and refuse to submit to her mistreatment. She is that controlling and vindictive. It's kind of lonely to be a club of one, but I have my sanity and my own family. If I had continued to be a player in her drama, I don't think I would've had those things. A book that was enormously helpful to me is When You and Your Mother Can't Be Friends: Resolving the Most Complicated Relationship of Your Life, by Victoria Secunda. She identifies different kinds of daughters, different kinds of mothers, and different kinds of troubled mother-daughter relationships, from over-controlling to non-existent. It was reassuring, in a way, to know that there were others who'd reached the same point in their relationships with their mothers that I had with mine. Sad, but reassuring. I agree with everything Mad Jenny said.

We loved Rod and Staff. I used it with another of my dc and wish I could use it again. I actually enjoyed teaching with it, and I'm not a math-lover.

I say ignore the bad rap re: TT and use it. It sounds like a good fit for you and your dd. If the consensus on it were uniformly bad, that would be one thing; but there are many happy TT users who are satisfied with how it is working with their dc. :001_smile: ETA: I have a dd who struggles with math. Teaching Textbooks is the only program that has made sense to her, and while she doesn't *love* math, she no longer hates it, she feels confident in it, and her test scores are good -- not stellar, but well above average. (She's in high school.)

MIL bought me underwear one year, too. They had pandas on them and came with a panda ornament for the Christmas tree. I don't know why, but the idea of MIL buying me underwear, with or without a Christmas ornament, creeps me out. This is my MIL, too, but you can't get away with leaving it at her house -- she'll either chase the car as you drive away or she'll call you every day for the next two weeks letting you know that the clothes are still there at her house and when are you coming back to pick them up? :rolleyes:

My oldest -- who was minimally homeschooled, FWIW -- is the quintessential student. She thrives in an academic environment. She's a semester away from graduation and wants to go to graduate school. She's like her mom. Her sister, however, has zero interest in college. She is extremely bright, articulate, and well-read -- she just hates most formal academics and prefers to teach herself. I don't see her going the 4-year route (or even the 2-year route, at this point), but that could change once she has a better sense of what she wants to do in the coming years. My youngest is an Aspie. He tolerates a minimum of formal academics. The subjects he knows best are the ones he's immersed himself in -- nature study, for example. He can tell you obscure details about birds-of-prey, but turn it into schoolwork and he shuts down. His attitude about college (at the tender age of 9) was summarized this way: "I'm not going to college. It's giant schoolery." A part of me wishes all my kids would go to college. I have to confess :blush: that in part, that's because of academic snobbery rather than practicality or farsightedness. It is an ongoing lesson in humility and unconditional love for me to accept my children for who they are without regard for credentials, present or future. And I say that without judging anyone else for their wishes for their children. :)

More K level. I think the publisher calls it "K-1." The first -- it teaches the child how to read. No prior reading ability is expected. Absolutely. (I've used Blue, Red, and Yellow.)

:cheers2: Congratulations!!!

It was downright malicious of her, IMHO. And the fact that you don't care enough to do something like that to your ex is probably a very positive statement on how far you've come. :thumbup1:

When the Swarovski Bunny Babe did it, it was attempted homewrecking. If Scarlett does it, it's payback. :D

My mother never forgave my father for giving her a deep-fat fryer on their anniversary. I think he was trying to tell her that he loved her cooking, but that's not the way she took it... ;)

We're using this, too. I really like the looks of it.

We had the same experience with Singapore. One suggestion that was given to us was to use the supplementary books one level behind the main book. We did this, but it wasn't enough; ds really needed more regular, systematic review. If he wasn't using certain skills on a regular basis, they got rusty. What we did for a while was use CLE along with Singapore. It is spiral in design and has lots of review. As we moved up in levels with Singapore, we ran into the other thing you mentioned -- new concepts not being explained thoroughly enough (for a non-mathy mom). It was at that point that we switched over entirely to CLE. Not suggesting that you should switch. Just stating that we had the same experience and sharing how we dealt with it. :)

Oh, my -- yes. Been there, done that, have the guilt and the frustration and the feeling of being a terrible parent because I don't understand why my child is this way. (My son also has Asperger's and a seizure disorder.) We have not gone the medication route because we have gotten conflicting information from various doctors on medicating for ADHD when a child is already on a medication for seizures. I am so weary of conflicting information and often feel like I'm in this on my own. So no words of wisdom but lots of empathy. I will say that being able to homeschool my son has probably saved both him and me from losing our minds. ;)

Well... you *could* get along without the textbook. The main part of the textbook (and again, this was a couple of years ago -- don't know if it's been updated) is a general guide to the lessons: which concepts you'll be teaching in which lessons, what to look for in choosing passages, etc. IMHO, the real "meat" of the instructor's text is the introduction, in which SWB explains her philosophy of writing instruction -- why students struggle with writing, what's missing in the way they're being taught, what goals she thinks we should be striving for, how to achieve them, etc. There's also a *very* helpful Q & A section in the back of the book that helps you deal with specific situations ("What if my child has trouble recalling details from the passage?", for instance). So you could get along without it. But it adds greatly to the educational value (for you, the teacher!) of the program, I think.

Unless WWE has changed since I used it a couple of years ago, the workbook has the actual passages that you read to your child and that you use for narration, copywork, and dictation. You could use just the text, which gives you suggestions for finding passages on your own that illustrate the concept being taught -- and some people do that -- but I found it a tremendous timesaver to purchase the workbook with the passages already selected. The back of the workbook has lined paper for the copywork and dictation assignments.

This wasn't a gift for me -- it was for dd. One year for Christmas, when dd was about 4, MIL gave her ... 29 identical troll hair barrettes. They were the ugliest things I'd ever seen -- and who needs 29 of the same thing?!

When dd was going into kindergarten, we were asked to provide a clean white tee-shirt as an art smock. My older daughter, who is very artistic, used fabric paint to personalize her little sister's shirt; it was very sweet and very creative. Little did we know that we were not sending in a tee-shirt for *our* child -- the tee-shirts were pooled and sent down to the art room to be used by *everyone.* Dd's custom-made art smock vanished after we sent it in and did not reappear until the end of that year. I guess I should've known better. :rolleyes:

I definitely agree with this.

So true!

I agree with this. I have told my kids that while the early stages of learning an instrument can seem dreary at times, there does come that wonderful point at which you have learned enough that you can take off on your own. It happened to me. I took a couple of years of piano and felt like all I did was scales and arpeggios and other boring drills, while plodding through silly "baby" tunes. Then one summer I picked up a book that was a little above my playing level, and I spent time working on these tunes (which were more like "real" songs) until I had mastered them. Two things enabled me to do that -- a) motivation and b) a knowledge of the basics. I may not be able to instill the motivation in my son to do the same thing I did, but I can give him a knowledge of the basics.

We had the same experience with Writing Strands.