For the past two years we've started June 1 and ended at the end of April. We generally have done one day a week off with a couple of week breaks. This year we're trying to be better and do about 4 weeks on, 1 week off, with two-week break around Christmas.

I'm not sure how much this'll help (at least it'll bump the post), but I've liked giving the CAT at home so I can see exactly which problems my son misses before I send in his scores. I don't generally discuss the test at all with him, but then I know where he may be having a problem. So if you do a test you administer yourself, look over it (work it yourself) before sending in the work for scoring. Hope you get better specific ideas to help with these results!

If you're using the US editions, then they don't have much review at all. I think the Standards edition does a much better job of incorporating review. You can also get the Spectrum Math workbooks at any bookstore. Of course, you may need a couple of levels and to skip around in them for topics.

Wonderful! Hope you have a great time. I teach at the community college and one of my all time favorite students was a man who was in his 70s. He was a tremendously hard worker and was there to learn. He was a pleasure. So you could even be a young one in some classes :D

:iagree: I've read a lot of books on food allergies. Our son is allergic to dairy and had an anaphlactic reaction to cashews about 2 years ago. This was probably the best book I've read. The only point I differ with with Michele is that I've read that you may not always react with a food allergy. There can be very mild reactions and then a very severe one, or it can be possible to not have a reaction at one point to exposure, but this doesn't mean the allergy is necessarily gone. The only safe thing with food allergens is complete avoidance (unless you're in one of the studies being done).

For those of us with food allergies, the presence of food at every activity is a reason we limit some of our activities. I wish more places wouldn't include snacks at everything. :(

A couple years ago we had a break in the water main. Initially the water company didn't want to send anyone out to check it since it was the day before Thanksgiving. :glare: For us, the break was before our water meter. You can test this by shutting off your water to the house. If water still is leaking, you're not being billed for it. If the water stops leaking, leave the water off until it's fixed. I imagine it'll depend on your water company as to who is responsible. For us, if the break had been after the water meter, it would have been our responsibility, but since it was before the meter, it was the company's responsibility. Ours ended up needing a backhoe and our lawn was dug up quite a lot (down to about 5-6 feet to get to the break which was about a yard down from where the water was coming out of the ground). If I were you, I'd start by shutting off the water to your house to see whether you're getting billed for the water. If you are, then give a plumber a call. If it's before your cut off, I might call back and question whether it's their responsibility. Do be careful before just digging in your yard. In our state, you have to call before digging to get lines marked. They do have emergency calls, but if you don't inform the agency that you're going to dig and a wire gets broken, you're liable. (Information here is in the front of our phone book.) Good luck! :grouphug:

We used the Signing Time videos with our son (the library carried them, then we got our own set). One of the neatest things for me was when my son signed "more" when I was tickling him and stopped. It really stands out for me as the first time he used language in a new way (we'd only used it with food before).

You need to win 43 trophies. I don't see a cheat code for it. Gamefaqs has quite a lot of game walkthroughs, cheats, and forums. http://www.gamefaqs.com/wii/955135-nascar-kart-racing/cheats

I'd think books by Beverly Cleary would be fine. My son also enjoyed Half Magic by Edward Eager. Patricia Wrede's Dragon series (Talking to Dragons, Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons). You may also want to look on the Accelerated Learner's board. I'm sure there have been similar discussions there & I think there are some threads that have quite a few book lists.

Crud! And here I was thrilled to jump at $130 last weekend. Drat!! Oh well. The ancient set isn't listed as being under Amazon Prime right now - and it's full price. Here's hoping it gets back on and drops in price (although hopefully a bit later when I have cash again).

We were in a 15-year mortgage that we'd have had paid off in about 8 years. We just refinanced with another 15 year mortgage, dropped a bit over 1% in interest and pulled out enough cash to buy a new car :auto:. We figured that having a mortgage payment while our son is in college may help with financial aid. It's not the wisest decision in some ways, but the advantage of having a completely paid for car with low mileage and a bit more cushion in our monthly expenses is nice. (Or was nice... now it'll pay for allergy shots... sigh.) Interest rates are so low right now and we bought well within our means, we don't pay enough to itemize. It does make taxes easier to handle, but we really don't see any benefit with taxes to owning. So we've chosen to keep a mortgage for longer (basically taking out a car loan from ourselves and gambling that owing will be a plus for financial aid).

I got them. Now I'll be watching for the ancient times ones to go on sale. My husband picked up one of the medieval times books the day they arrived and said it looked really boring. He wondered where the pictures were. Turns out he was looking at the sourcebook :D He thought the actual books looked much better!

You'd think they'd show the table of contents on the site (hmph). Level 1: Strategies for addition and subtraction within 20 (regroup, use number bonds, make 10, etc) Strategies for addition and subtraction within 40 (make tens/use tens) Addition & Subtraction within 100 Tests Towards the end, you ware doing addition & subtraction with two digit numbers completely mentally. Level 2: Addition & Subtraction within 1000 Level 3:Addition/Subtraction (within 1000; with three numbers (mostly two-digit), Multiplication/Division Strategies. Solutions actually show steps! (And I've just noticed that that's true for all levels! May have to use that!) Depending on mental skills & age, you may want to start with Level 1. I'm great at math (I teach) and really horrific with basic facts. I'm working through Level 1 with my son. He's quicker with basic arithmetic than I am on some problems - and he'll likely just keep getting faster. (On the plus side, I'm speeding up some!)

Nifty! Thanks!

Although you also have "technical virgins" who think that because there hasn't been penetration, that pregnancy is impossible. (It's sure highly unlikely, but I knew from a very early age all about birth control and exactly how pregnancy could occur. Sperm can be tricky!) For me, the whole "abstinence only" approach when coupled with ignorance about what sexuality entails is why I think there are more kids having oral sex because "it isn't sex since it isn't intercourse". (I'm not suggesting that's what people here are doing, so this isn't meant as a slam in any way.) So there's the whole question about how "sex" is defined. And for anyone interested, Consumer Reports reviewed condoms recently. (Before my husband & I started having sex, we checked condoms in CR to see what was the best brand to be using along with different spermicides (and be sure to follow directions - each can have different recommendations about when to use). Yup, I was absolutely paranoid about preventing pregnancy.)

Only 3 times? You're doing great! With my son's anaphylaxis, they admitted him to the hospital overnight since he had a biphasic reaction (throat closed first, then about 4-5 hours later (when they were getting ready to release him from ER), the hives broke out). I'm still cranky with the hospital since they sent him breakfast that has food he's allergic to. He wasn't able to eat anything since I didn't trust them once they sent up a tray with milk on it. In some ways, you can look at this experience as a blessing because now you know you can use the Epi when you need it, your son will likely remember this and take his allergy more seriously, and you know how severe his allergy is and won't be caught out without the Epi. (Of course, this is all much easier said than done.) Off for our second skin test. Sigh.

:grouphug: So glad both your sons are okay! We go for our second round of skin tests tomorrow. The first one was rough and showed that the dairy allergy is still very severe :( But at least we know it's still there and know not to slack off. LisaMarie - we carry our son's medications in a fanny pack. Two epis, an inhaler, benadryl, and orapred. (sigh) We don't leave the house without it and we've got it in one location in the house as well. I'd like to get to a point where my son can do one of the smaller epi carriers that straps to your leg or around your waist when he's older and more on his own, but for now the fanny pack does work well. He was even responsible enough to take it with him when he "ran away from home" a couple years ago :)

I may be misreading you, but it sounds like you're still stuck at Kiana's Step 3. Multiplying by 1 is what you do to write equivalent fractions when adding or subtracting. It's how you'd rewrite 1/4 as 3/12... by multiplying 1/4 by 4/4. Here you're doing the same thing because a fraction can't have a radical in the denominator and be considered "simplified". So you multiply by a choice of 1 that'll clear the radical from the denominator. Here, since you have two terms, you multiply by the conjugate (The conjugate of a-b is a+b and that's from the special product rules for a^2 - b^2). If you still had a question, hope this helps. If you were clear, sorry for misinterpreting :) Trig is great fun... but the algebra (lots of fraction work and factoring) is pretty crucial.

This is what I love about this site - it keeps me from feeling so alone! My son said yesterday (and today) that he'd like to go to public school because he thinks the teacher would have more patience. Unfortunately he's right in some ways. So we're taking a few days off. Part of my problem is that I overreact to his attitude instead of just squashing the attitude. It's tough. I'll be interested in other ideas as well. I've tried getting up earlier, going to bed earlier, having a clear schedule, and I think it mainly comes down to him not wanting to do school and me wanting him to be cheerful and excited about school. No unrealistic expectations here! :lol: So thanks for starting the thread. I like knowing other people are dealing with the same stuff I am.

Nifty!

No, that's place value. 3000 + 300 + 90 + 2 is expanded form of a number while 3392 is the standard form of the number. At a basic level, some systems have an identity property. With addition and the real numbers, the identity element is 0. This means that you can add 0 to any number and the number stays the same: 0 + 5 = 5 + 0 = 5 (for example). With multiplication, the identity element is 1. (1)(9) = (9)(1) = 9. You use the identity property of multiplication every time you get equivalent fractions.

I read forums for college faculty where they do discuss this and there's lots of complaints, so I did a wiki check (yes, not a great source), but turning in (even adapting) a paper done for a different course without citing is called "self-plagiarism" and so it does sound like it would be considered plagiarism. Interesting.

Actually, it can be an honor code violation. Some colleges do kick students out for this. Be very clear on what constitutes plagiarism and what is in your college's honor code.

At this point, I would not get an 81 or an 82. They really won't be worth it. I got my 82 back in 1996 when it was a relatively new model. Some of the features haven't changed, but enough have. Go with the 83 or 84 if you're getting a graphing calculator. The good news is that the keystrokes will be very similar to the calculator you did get, so there won't be many changes your daughter will need to make to learning :)