:iagree: with most of the above. We also are doing WWE (generally) 5 days a week. We set the timer for 20 min and do what we can. Day 4 (narration & dictation) is generally a day by itself though. I think when we start WWE 3, we'll only be doing one day a day - although I do plan on continuing to do a lesson each day of school.

I don't have the witchcraft/occult concerns, but I did have the same concern about the darkness in the books for my son. We've handled it by reading the books aloud (lets us talk about any topics) and holding the books to one a year. So when my son finishes the school year, I read a book aloud :) We're at the end of Goblet of Fire right now. By knowing that he'd only hear a book a year and making it a family thing, it's worked well for us without our son begging for the next book.

Pdfs from AMS (American Mathematical Society) giving some information about ways math is used. Some include podcasts and additional information. Found here.

Thinking of you this morning.

I have done days where I tell my son to do things I can record for school and then let him go. I think of the days in public school where we had a sub or where a teacher had a headache and we sat in the dark for much of the day. I allow myself a couple of those :) Netflix works well. I've also done "reading days" where I have my son just read during the day and I make a list of what he's read. If you need to get days in, you can do half days on weekends if you need them. (Or full days.) :grouphug:

Was it this? I read it & was envious... :) We did a refi much earlier this year and got 4.25% for 15 years. Under 4... wow!!! (We used USAA. I like Vanguard a lot and might have checked with them too though.)

I don't know that I'll be much help. My son used to do wild guessing when reading words and refused to sound out words. I think he finally became willing to make the attempt - either because he matured to the point where he was willing, or because I beat him down by yelling when he refused and encouraging when he made an attempt. :rolleyes: The dictation in AAS isn't nearly as strong as the dictation in WWE (Writing With Ease). We are in AAS Level 2 (I've also looked ahead in AAS 3&4 and it still isn't as much as WWE). We're in WWE Level 2. Having my son segment words helped in making the transition to spelling on his own. When he asked for help spelling a word, I have him segment it. Sometimes I have him use the tiles as he segments and that really helps. I'll see him move his finger for segmenting when he's sounding something out. It was a huge battle when we started :) For sounding out a word, could you spell it with the AAS tiles on the board, then have your daughter move the tiles (segmenting) to sound it out? Maybe that might help with making the connection.

No. I must have misread & remembered wrong. Thanks for correcting me! "If Congress does not act, the tax rates expire for everyone on Dec. 31, meaning an increase across the board. The rate in the lowest bracket would rise to 15 percent from 10 percent and in the highest bracket to 39.6 percent from 35 percent." from NY Times here. So cuts expiring Dec 31 means we're good for taxes for 2010, but rates etc would change for 2011, meaning higher taxes when filling out forms in 2012.

This IS for 2010, so this will affect what you're paying for this year. Bit of a deadline to it...

I fill up at different times. Sometimes after 200 miles, sometimes closer to 250? I'm still not exactly sure when I have to fill up :001_smile: I get about 29 mpg if mileage is poor. I don't think I've gotten above 34 mpg. Generally 30-32. I'm still adjusting to having the first automatic since I was 16. I haven't shifted yet, but I do try to. It is nice in traffic though! I have sat there wondering why the key won't come out of the ignition and then realized it needs to be in Park. :lol: It's fun for me to drive.

I generally manage not to tell my students who whine about including units in their answer that I make my son write out a complete sentence when answering a word problem. :D

We do the best under the Obama plan on that site.

We recently bought the Fit ( our first new car ever!). The hatchback lets us fit a good bit in. It goes over 200 miles before needing a fill up and it takes under 10 gallons :) We've only put about 3500 miles on it, but I'm happy with it so far. Although I had to scrape ice off and the windshield is HIGH compared to our Accord. (I like Hondas).

I'm thrilled that Enjoy Life makes chocolate chips and chocolate bars that my son can eat. He didn't have chocolate until he was over 5 years old. I also remember when everyone was complaining about food prices a couple years ago and "the price of milk!" I was at the store and compared the price of a gallon of milk to a half gallon of soy milk. Yup... I'd be thrilled to pay the price of milk. :glare: But then, I'm very grateful we don't have a gluten allergy :) Dairy is tough enough!

I really enjoyed listening to Walter Cronkite's Autobiography. He reads it :) Of course, I grew up with him as the evening news, so it was fun hearing his voice again. It's depressing as all get out, but I also really enjoyed Angela's Ashes - read by the author, Frank McCourt. Lovely Irish accent.

You're not selfish at all. You're grieving for what your child is suffering and for the loss of what you had hoped for your child. :grouphug: I was at the mall with my son yesterday. We walked through the food court and I was very sad. I would have loved to take him to lunch - pick out anything, sit and eat together as a treat. We can't and we probably never will be able to. He is allergic to dairy and that eliminates most places to eat out. He had an anaphlactic reaction to cashews and the recent skin tests show the dairy allergy is still very very very strong. I have it easy. As long as ds doesn't eat something unsafe, he should be fine. And yet, walking out of the food court yesterday, even knowing how lucky we are and how many people have it worse, I was angry for what I don't get to do with ds and angry at the people who are able to sit with their children at a restaurant and who can do that without knowing how lucky they are to even have the option. We had to go home and cook. Give yourself permission to feel sad, angry, and yes, selfish. It's okay. You're not a bad mother for feeling cranky at your child. Some nights ds has been in bed and is sniffly with his allergies and I just am thinking "Would you shut up already!?" It's okay. I'm still there with the hug, with the medication when needed, and it's okay that I just want some peace. If you spend time beating yourself up for your feelings, you have even less energy to do what's needed for your child and your family. :grouphug:

My SIL doesn't. She only recently stopped leasing. :glare: Talk about throwing away money...

I teach math at a cc. At one point, a problem asked students to write a ratio regarding states. I had students ask how many states there were in the U.S. So I put it as a bonus question on my test in all my classes. In some classes, at least half of the students couldn't get an extra point for filling in: "There are _____ states in the United States." I had one student argue with me about the answer. Sigh.

And the dreadful part is figuring out if he's truly stuck or needs more time to play with it or if he's just delaying. I've started doing the CWP problems so I can have the bar diagrams and give hints when needed (or say, "Draw the bar diagram before I answer anything"). I don't want ds to think that if he doesn't understand something it's okay to just wait for me to explain it. He needs to keep trying, ask questions, and then keep trying. But it's so tough not to answer. On the plus side, I do think he's getting the idea that we think his attitude and work ethic is more important than what he knows or is able to do - so keep trying. And he did get an IP problem correct yesterday and ask to do a similar one :) Of course after that we tried one that he wasn't able to figure out - and I didn't give help - and we set it aside to try again later. So I did succeed in not explaining it which was good.

We don't have an antenna on the roof or outside. We do have rabbit ears inside and we get pretty good reception. Might be worth a try. We don't watch much tv, but I do like sound. You might be able to build up your CD collection with classical pieces. You can often get recordings that are pretty inexpensive and they're pretty good to listen to repeatedly.

This is what is tough for me. I find the challenge problems in the IP books from Singapore are the ones that my son has to think about. I am expecting 100% once corrections are made in the text and workbook. We use the IP Challenge problems and it's SO HARD for me not to explain how to get the answer to him. Instead, when he's worked on a problem for a bit, we set it aside and return to it the next day. Some problems just need time to percolate. But ending a day with a problem still unanswered - and letting him try again and not giving suggestions.... OH it's tough. I do believe that this is best for him though... to continue to try and to learn that he needs to continue to attempt a problem and return to it again.

I wouldn't have had a problem with the Alanna books. I think there is a sex scene in Book 2, but everything is behind closed doors and nothing is overtly stated in my memory. I love those books :) I do warn my son to stay away from some of my books (fiction & graphic novels). In particular, I've told him to check with me before reading "my" books because I don't him to see some of the pictures from graphic novels (Sandman, V for Vendetta) and I do have a number of mysteries (some very graphic) and a lot of romances. I don't want him reading those yet :) My son reads very quickly, so I don't manage to preread what I give him. We had quite a few interesting questions when I handed him a book about the Bill of Rights. It discusses ways in which interpretations have changed and court cases. The first amendment was fodder for quite a few questions: "What's abortion? What's pornography?" It was also funny since it was written in the 90s that it said regarding 4th amendment: Airport searches aren't considered invasive. We had a discussion about that as well! At least he knows he can ask us questions - even if he startles us with the questions. :lol:

I don't think any will work poorly with MCT. I think it'll depend on what your child needs to learn effectively. We started with Spelling Workout but that wasn't a good fit. We've switched to All About Spelling and that's working wonderfully (especially since we weren't doing phonics anywhere else). I don't think you'll go wrong with any spelling program that works for you though.

We're using MPH 3/4 with my son who's 8 and in 3rd grade. These are my opinions based on how we're using the program. YMMV!! First, you can see some other samples at the Singapore site: here. They also have a forum where you can ask questions, although there's more discussion on the math side than the science side. If you use only the textbook and the workbook, the program would be very very light. There are 5 text/wb combos. The order the program suggests is: Diversity, Cycles (use in Gr 3), Systems, Interactions, Energy (use in Gr 4). We're still in Diversity and we're halfway through our year (although I skip science more often than I should). I think the Homework book and the Higher Order Thinking Skills book (HOTS) are very important parts of the program to make it challenging. I think the HOTS book is where a lot of the actual thinking comes in. For instance, one problem had a table with "lab results" that my son had to then interpret. He had to do subtraction of two-digit numbers to find how much water had been absorbed every hour for both an experiment and a control. Then he had to graph that data on a line graph and answer questions about it. I don't think he would have been able to do it last year without a LOT of help. I also am using the Tests book to check for retention. It is challenging. I have the Teachers Manual and the More Notes book. I don't think I'd get More Notes again. It has 1-2 experiments (often that you need supplemental supplies for) and more information on each topic (background info and more in-depth info). The TM is not essential and is designed for classroom use. It has wraparounds for all 5 texts and workbooks. It has "Reading Material for Teachers" which gives a bit more in depth info on each topic (less than the More Notes book, but probably enough). The "Lesson Plans" help some in pacing and in providing extra things to do with the textbook. It also has a number of websites linked for extra info and teaching. Unfortunately, a number of the sites are down or links have changed in the 2 years since publication of the TM. :glare: I do not find MPH to be "open and go". Some of that may be how I approach teaching my son and my planning techniques. I do think that I would have been disappointed to just use the text/wb. Both are very small. We do activities from the TM along with the text/wb for each chapter, doing additional reading on some subjects, then the HW, then the HOTS, then Tests (when they come up - and they are challenging!). I have a spreadsheet (Excel) that's a bit hectic but it has my working notes of sections in the text, websites, and supplies needed. If you're interested, email me through my contact info and I'll send it to you.

Just as my opinion... we're using Island level and are having no trouble completing the course within the year. We're using all the components (although I really need to get back to poetry!). I think I would recommend waiting until 3rd grade or past mid-year of 2nd at least. Spending time with parts of speech in 2nd grade (hello, Schoolhouse Rock) would be useful as preparation.