called missing-girl-genes-itis... ...I mean, I was never good with hair or makeup or fashion. My husband is a better cook than I am. I'm not sure I know what an iron looks like. And the one year I took home ec in high school, I didn't even finish sewing my stupid stuffed animal (which was coming out truly awful anyway). I wrote a story instead. And despite my current shortcomings, I'm still grateful to that teacher for letting me pursue my own interests at the time. :P So now, when, say, a button has to be sewed on or something, I ask my husband to do it. (Yes, he can actually sew a bit). So, when our social studies syllabus for this week suggested making our own quilt, I blinked a few times, told myself not to panic, borrowed a few books about quilting from the library... ....and then proceeded to tell my daughter: "We're making a "quilt" out of construction paper today!" Okay, now, let me have it. Am I awful? :lol:

NOTE: Update in Post No. 34. I have taken the majority advice and significantly shortened my message, so no further need to specifically comment on my original post, which I am now removing. Thanks for all of the input, I appreciate it! :)

Well, *I* never had lessons. I can move around in the water but never did learn how to really swim well. I can doggie paddle and I can swim underwater pretty well but to do an actual proper stroke about the water? Never did learn that all that well. So my kids all take swimming lessons each summer.

My daughter's a pretty good speller and in fifth grade this year. What I do is assign her 10-15 spelling words a week. A couple of them might be words I saw that she did spell incorrectly in her writing assignments the previous week. The rest I just get from a "fifth grade spelling word list" off the internet. I then have her review those words in various ways four times a week. One is writing it 5X each, one is writing it with "bubble letters" for the initial letter of each word and then coloring or decorating those bubble letters, one is just reviewing it orally, and for one she likes to draw little pictures or shapes that remind her of the word and write the words in or near it. The fifth day she takes a quiz.

We play Timez Attack (free base game; paid upgrades), games on multiplication.com (free), and we used the Times Tales DVD. We also sometimes play War (the card game) but before the winner can take their cards, they have to multiply them. Or Memory- same- the person turning over the cards had to multiply them. There's also a board game called Totally Tut which is a "math operations" board game.

Well, I don't know if this is what you mean, but we do Story of the World in the summer. We enjoy doing it but don't have the time over the school year on top of our "regular" curriculum, so we do it throughout the summer, just taking our time with it and moving along at whatever pace we get to it at. We will be doing another typing program this summer as well. Other than that, we just continue reading and taking various field trips and classes and camps and outings and so on over the summer.

I wish mine did! When I called my Red Cross and asked, they said they don't do first aid for kids and that they could only do like an disaster preparedness class (which had nothing to do with first aid and only had to do with putting together a disaster preparedness kit). Maybe I'll try calling them again one of these days and ask specifically about that Together We Prepare class! I wonder if it's just regional, though?

Have you looked on meetup, or tried posting on the PA Home Educators Yahoo Email group to find others in your area that may have a group going, or want to at least get together...? I'd invite you to my group but you're a few hours away lol.

Ah. Yeah that makes sense. Personally, the word doesn't bother me (even as the parent of a child who does have some mild to moderate retardation) unless it is used purposely as an insult. To use it as a straightforward description when discussing a condition or as a verb (as apparently is the case here?) never did bother me. But I can see why it might bother other people.

I tried contacting Red Cross about doing one for our homeschool group once and they said they don't do it for that age. But subsequently we requested a tour of an EMT/ambulance place and they ended up showing us a first aid slide show, showing us the CPR dummy, giving us a tour of the ambulance garage, and letting the kids climb around inside one of the ambulances. It was pretty cool. Maybe you can do something like that? Or you could maybe contact your local hospital and see if they know of anything?

I feel like I'm always the last one to "get" these things. What's the word that you guys are talking about?!

That stinks, I haven't gotten any spam or emails at all. It did take a while (probably like a month and a half) before I heard back about the books though- how long ago did you visit the site?

I wouldn't. It's common sense and if she doesn't "get it" it's because she doesn't want to. It would be a "NO," and that's that. :D

My husband wasn't dead set against it but he wasn't convinced of it either. I did have to work on him some- having several conversations about it, showing him various articles about it, giving him my reasons for wanting to do it, letting him talk to a friend or two to see what they thought and so on. I said, "It's not like it's irreversible- let's just try it- I don't think I can possibly do any worse than this school is- but if we decide it's not working, we can always send her back." And "You'll get more time with her! With your work schedule, she hardly ever sees you!" (She was in public school at the time, in third grade). Finally, he said okay. Next, I had to work on him about the WHEN. He wanted me to wait until the following school year- it was already February/March by the time we started making the plans to definitely do it. School ended at the end of May. He thought she should just finish the year and then not go back in the fall. I thought if we were going to do it, we should just do it (I was so excited to start!) and that we should just pull her out. I sort of nagged him into it but finally he said "fine, pull her out after her PSSA's" (as she had to have standardized testing that year anyway). So, March 20th was her last day- I pulled her out, and we've never looked back. It's gone really well, and my husband has been supportive ever since.

My son is 5. He wasn't ready for (interested in/focused on) K this year so I held off until next school year and we're doing another year of informal pre-K right now. He is watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD, playing around on starfall.com, and we're making an "ABC Book"- using a scrapbook, we write the upper and lower case letter on one side of the book/page, and then glue or tape or make something that starts with that letter on the other side. So for A we did apple prints (cutting an apple in half and dipping it in red and green paint). For B we glued on buttons. For E we glued on egg shells. For F I gave him an ink pad and we did fingerprints. And so on and so forth. We're still working on it. And, of course, I read to him a lot. Other than that, I do nothing formal with him. We play board games sometimes. He plays games on the computer (he loves the computer). He plays with his toys- legos and pattern blocks and playdoh and musical instruments and dress up clothes and a geoboard and building blocks and so on and so forth. He goes outside. He watches educational TV shows. He goes on most of our field trips with us. We chat a lot. He helps with things around the house here and there. We play conversational games, sometimes at home, sometimes in the car. He likes to do simple mazes, so sometimes I print those. Sometimes I'll spread butcher paper over the kitchen table and leave out markers and crayons and stamps and let the kids play during their meals or while they wait for them. None of this is on any formal or strict schedule, it's just sort of as we get to it or as it comes up. I wouldn't worry about any formal curriculum stuff at ALL for a 4 y/o. As for your second and third graders, I don't know what most of those programs are but it seems like an awful lot of "initials" for second and third grade lol. Are you sure you need ALL of those things? Like, when my son gets to second grade, his curriculum will be: OM2. (That's Oak Meadow 2... and that's IT). That and continuing to read for fun, play games for fun, go on field trips for fun, talk, do things around the house, watch educational shows and so on. It's all in one, it's not overly time consuming... Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide!

My daughter got one when she was like 8 but honestly we mainly just use mine.

I let my husband deal with telling his family. As for mine, I emailed them lol. I basically said, this may come as a surprise to you but I wanted to let you know that for many reasons, we have decided to start homeschooling the kids. We have read up a lot about it, we have read many good things about it, and there are a lot of reasons why we think it will be a good idea for our family. I then listed a few reasons. I ended with something like I know that not everybody would choose this lifestyle, but we have decided on it for us and hope that we will have your support even if it isn't something you personally agree with. In this way, nobody could give me a kneejerk reaction. They'd have to think about what they were going to "say" before they typed it, and basically, all of the responses were either positive or at least pleasantly neutral.

So, I thought I'd bring this thread up again and update. I ended up applying to a PJ Library that was not in my area (as my area doesn't have one) but the closest area to where I live. I had said I wasn't sure whether they'd accept me or not. It turns out, they did. :) Someone, somewhere had to make a choice as to whether to say, "Nope, they're not in our area" or "why not, we're all they've got" and they went with the latter. I appreciate that because the area I'm in has like NO Jewish people and it IS hard to find relevant books in our library, etc. An adult friend of my husband's actually told him, "I've never met a Jewish person before" and the schools around here have "Christmas," not "holiday" parties, and the town square gets decorated for Christmas and so on, so this program was really nice to hear about (so thanks to the OP for posting about this lol). Anyway, I got the letter a couple of weeks ago that we were welcomed into the program, and this week, the first picture book came for my 5 y/o son. We read it together yesterday. I figured I'd bring this up again for any Jewish families who may not have seen it. It's worth looking into seeing whether you've got a PJ Library in your area, and if you don't, it's worth applying to the next closest one anyway- you never know!

Thank you for this update. I have thought about you guys from time to time and wondered how things were going. I'm glad to hear that the baby seems to be doing okay in regard to normal brain development! I hope that the repeat scans continue to show that! I'm sorry your sister went through such a rough time though! I hope that with the surgery behind her she recovers rapidly and that they can go on to the business of being a happy family very soon!

The shelters by me love having people come in and just play with the animals. (You can even volunteer to bring in some food or some toys or some blankets or some such and make a donation out of it, too). Pet stores that sell kittens (not that I'm a fan) would allow you to play with the kittens. And if you have any farms nearby where you can go on a tour or field trip or some such, they often tend to have a bunch of cats and kittens around, too. Around here, anyway!

I suggest you go on meetup.com and see if there's a homeschool group in your area that you can join. If there's not, you might want to consider starting one! You might also see if there are places in your community that have homeschool programs. For example, by me, the YMCA has a "homeschool P.E." program. The bowling alley has a "homeschool bowling league." Some libraries sometimes have homeschool programs. Many museums and other recreational places or historical places often have "homeschool day programs." These are all places where you might be able to meet other homeschooling families in the area, and see if you can get to know some of them, or find out what they do for support/socializing. Also, you might find a yahoo email list or something for your state/area, and you might be able to meet people that way, too, or find out about groups in your area. Good luck!

My daughter had ADD. She went to public school and she's got special needs to begin with and required a special ed class, ADD was just another thing on top of it. In first grade the teachers suggested I look into getting medication for her. My initial reaction was probably similar to your husband's. I thought "medicate her?! No way!" I thought that would be putting a bandaid on a problem, turning her into some sort of zombie who wasn't herself, taking the easy way out in a selfish manner and so on. But she was really having trouble. Couldn't focus, would just start ripping papers or getting up and wandering and once walked right out of the classroom (and there was no defiant attitude going on here, it was just she couldn't sit, she couldn't focus). Finally, I took her for a couple of consultations and gave in to giving medication a try. The difference was amazing. She was able to sit still, she was able to focus, she was able to stop getting in trouble in school, I was able to stop getting phone calls and notes about her, she seemed happier, I was happier, the teachers were happier... She did NOT turn into a "zombie." She just became more focused and a better "listener" because she was more focused. She ended up being on medication until she was like 16 1/2 years old. The only side effect she ever had in all that time was that she didn't have much of an appetite around lunch time so she wouldn't really eat her lunch. She'd make up for it at dinner time. When she was 16 1/2 or so, I asked her doctor if he thought we could try taking her off the medicine and seeing how she did, seeing as she was so much older. He agreed, we gave it a try, and after a minor adjustment period, she ended up doing just fine without it. She's now 19 and still attending a special needs school/life skills class but still doing fine without the medication. I have NO regrets whatsoever about the years she spent on it- she needed it, and it benefited her, and by default, everybody else around her. Good luck! ETA: Oh and let me just say I love Chris's post, the one that said: "NOt medicating a child like this is setting him up for failure and depression or anxiety. Think how he feels that he can't do things that others do. My medicated daughter is very successful and without medication, she wouldn't be. Medication is not a moral failing. Wouldn't you give a tyoe 1 diabetic insulin? Wouldn't you give a heart patient his medicine? Wouldn't you give a child who needs glasses, glasses? It is the same with ADHD medication."

About 190, I think. My husband and I both have iphone 4's with 700 shared minutes, unlimited calls to other ATT&T users, unlimited texts, internet, etc.

I'd recommend this thread, personally :) http://welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259625 Nance, (who is a HUGE Teaching Textbooks fan)

Nope, you don't need it. Some parents like to have it because then they can see all lessons at a glance, and just in case they want to do math when they don't have access to a computer, but you got a great deal on those discs, I wouldn't worry about the book in that case! :)