Why don't you drop a formal spelling program, but pay attention to what words she spells wrong in her writing assignments in a given week, and then the following week, assign some or all of those (depending on how many there were) for review?

My daughter's test last year had her stanine scores ranging anywhere from 6's to 9's depending on subject (talking about all subjects, not just math). I'm not worried about or upset by any of them. Hers said: Reading Vocabulary - 8 Reading Comprehension - 9 Total Reading - 9 Language Mechanics - 9 Language Expression - 9 Total Language - 9 Math Computation - 6 Math concepts and application - 7 total mathematics - 7 Total Battery - 9 Spelling - 7 Study Skills - 6 Science - 6 Social Studies - 6 I know my daughter does great with Language Arts, has dramatically improved with math from the year before, is a natural speller, and is doing fine with the science and social studies we are currently learning (there was stuff on those tests that had to do with things we just aren't covering right now). I'm not going to worry if she's at least "average," or on point with where she's "supposed" to be at her age and grade level. Which was where she was last year with math, and I wasn't upset by that. (I think she had mostly 5's last year in math!) But she did improve using TT and I was glad to see that, even though I hadn't been worried the year before- rather, I was glad to see that after more than a year of relaxed homeschooling after being pulled out of public school, she was right where she "should" be for her age/grade.

No kidding, that's insane. My younger daughter went to public school from K through most of third (and is only going into 6th now) and my older has been in the school system (special needs school) up to the present time and I have never spent anywhere NEAR that amount of money on school supplies, including clothes, ever.

Thought I'd throw this out there, too (though not sure about age level and you'll need to preview) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/salem/ It's an interactive website: "Experience the 1692 Salem witch-hunt in a terrifying online trial: 'Are you a witch? How long have you been in the snare of the devil? Confess!'"

Very happy with it. 1. It frees me up to do other things since it's not teacher intensive. 2. It's done in a way that makes it easy for the child to understand and "get" math, which is great for us since neither my daughter nor I are particularly "mathy." 3. It's done in a way that makes math more fun and entertaining than a dry textbook would be, so there's no complaints of it being boring. 4. My daughter's standardized test scores improved dramatically in math after just one year of using TT at grade level with no supplementing. 5. My daughter no longer thinks math is too hard, no longer dislikes math, and no longer thinks she is bad at math. In fact, she now LIKES math.

I put probably, we'll see how it goes. I don't have specific plans to put my kids in school at a particular point along the way. But I'm willing to if it ever begins to seem apparent to me that it may be more beneficial for them to be there for some reason, or if they really want to and I feel that they are old and responsible enough to help make that decision. We'll just see what happens!

Yes.

Yep! My daughter was never very "mathy"- but she wasn't "behind" in math, either. She scored pretty much average two years ago in math as per standardized test scores. Then last year I decided to start TT, and use it at grade level. I wanted her to "get" it, I wanted her to enjoy it, and while I heard a lot of people say they thought it was "behind," I decided I didn't care. I figured even if it did nothing but help her with review and help her build confidence, that was fine. We used TT5 this past year at grade level with no supplementation and it went great. It did everything I hoped it would. And her test scores vastly improved. She enjoyed math all year, and now counts math as one of her "favorite subjects." This kid who used to say "Math is too hard," or "I'm not good at math." And because I saw what her test scores were and know they stack up against kids who used all sorts of different math programs, not just TT, and because I've seen a relative down in Florida bring home 5th grade math homework while we were vacationing there and didn't see it as being any more "advanced" than what we were doing, I'm not so quick to believe all the "TT isn't good enough, TT is behind, TT requires supplementing" etc. hype. :)

Shelves or cases? I have three book cases in my computer room/den area, with 13 shelves between them. Plus an old china cabinet that I converted and now use for school and art supplies. Plus a supply closet. And I'm constantly "in danger" of running out of room for more books lol.

One.

I agree. If you really feel like it's too much to be out of the house etc, by all means, drop it if you prefer. But if you feel like it will be fun and you guys will enjoy being out of the house that much, by all means, keep it! Don't start stressing over whether you'll have enough time to do a curriculum- it's Kindergarten. It shouldn't take more than like an hour, hour and a half to do a curriculum with them, and kids that age learn tons just by getting out there and living life (or participating in co-ops, or playing, or being with you, or whatever the case may be). So don't feel guilty about doing schoolwork around life rather than living life around schoolwork, especially at that age. I'm going to have one in sixth grade and one in K this year and we still plan on being out of the house a decent amount. We enjoy doing so, and we enjoy having the flexibility to do so.

If you really feel like it's too much to be out of the house etc, by all means, drop it if you prefer. But if you feel like it will be fun and you guys will enjoy being out of the house that much, by all means, keep it! Don't start stressing over whether you'll have enough time to do a curriculum- it's Kindergarten. It shouldn't take more than like an hour, hour and a half to do a curriculum with them, and kids that age learn tons just by getting out there and living life (or participating in co-ops, or playing, or being with you, or whatever the case may be). So don't feel guilty about doing schoolwork around life rather than living life around schoolwork, especially at that age. I'm going to have one in sixth grade and one in K this year and we still plan on being out of the house a decent amount. We enjoy doing so, and we enjoy having the flexibility to do so.

Hm. My daughter attended public school from K through most of 3rd grade, and she, too, had friends and enjoyed some aspects of public school, but there were aspects she didn't like, as well, and she actually DID want to homeschool. So she was happy to be pulled out toward the end of her third grade year. She did have what I called some "school sickness" though (like homesickness, but not!) where she said that she missed her friends at school. That happened on and off for probably the first few months, but with less and less frequency, and then she just eventually stopped saying it. I did involve her in lots of extra curricular activities, with a homeschool group that did lots of get togethers and field trips and whatnot, and planned a lot of fun things for our homeschool, and she really did enjoy it. In the case of a child who says that they just don't want to homeschool period, I guess the best thing you can do is be kind but firm, tell her something like: I'm sorry that you don't want to do this, but we have decided this is what we are going to do, and we are not going to change our minds. If there are friends you want to keep in touch with, you are welcome to do so, and we know you will also make new friends at (homeschool group, activities, whatever). We have a lot of fun field trips and activities planned and things we know you will like, and I hope that you will help me plan them. Something like that. Then just try to get her as involved as possible in choosing field trips she might want to go on, things she might want to learn about, activities she might like to join and so on. Good luck!

Fiction, I'm going to have to say the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I don't have a favorite non-fiction.

What is the fairy tale based one??

I'm not sure, nobody mentioned anything about awards or anything, so I guess they might have. We don't know the numbers of anyone else on our teeball team (except for my brother as my nephews were on the team too, and he didn't get a call either). So frustrating. I'm glad I didn't mention it to my son because then he would have been upset, too. It's bad enough that I'm upset lol. Maybe... it's not his first year coaching though. I know he coached last year too at least (no idea if he coached even longer than that). And his wife was there at every game helping out, too as his own two kids were on the team. And he had a couple of parent volunteers for helping to coach, but everyone brought their own drinks and nobody exchanged numbers other than the coach having our numbers. He called us initially to let us know about first practice, and once to let us know about one being rained out, but we never heard from him about anything else again, and while the parade irritated me, the pool party has really upset me, that we had to miss out on that altogether because of him. Sigh.

My son's teeball coach was constantly saying, "We're going to have a makeup practice next week, I'll call you and let you know which day" and then he'd never call, they'd never make up the practices (a lot of rained out practices etc). Fine, whatever, I didn't really care if we had make up practices. Then there was a fourth of July parade where the paperwork we were initially given said we would be meeting at a specific place. Then my mother happened to mention that she'd seen the parade route in the paper and commented that it was starting from somewhere entirely different. I called the coach to clarify and he acknowledged that it was starting in the place my mother had mentioned. So I said to him, "Well, maybe you should call the parents from our team and let them know. Not everybody gets the paper, and I would have gone to the wrong place if somebody didn't happen to mention it to me." His response was something along the lines of, "Oh, I talked to some of the parents, a lot of them are busy with holiday plans and won't be going, but you guys can certainly go participate if you want to." :confused: He talked to SOME of the parents? Why wouldn't he have called ALL of the parents from his team??? But the final straw was when I noticed a notation on my calendar for tomorrow saying that the "annual teeball picnic" was tentatively scheduled for tomorrow at a town pool. I texted the coach yesterday asking him to confirm. He never answered. So this morning I emailed the Little League President and asked HIM to confirm, and described the communication problems I've had with this particular coach like with the parade, and said that he has not been in touch as of yet about the pool party, either. His response: "Unfortunately, the pool party was last Saturday. It wasn't available on 8/13 when we reserved it in May. I called all of the coaches with the parade info and the pool info. I'm sorry it didn't get passed down to you. Happened with another team too. Next year I'll put more info on website." Great. So my son missed the pool party which he would have enjoyed attending and which I would have enjoyed taking him to, especially with all the money we spent and fundraising we've done for teeball, because this coach is an idiot who couldn't be bothered with communicating with the parents of his team. I'm pretty aggravated. And while there's not much to be done about it now, I wouldn't have minded hearing, "I'll speak with that coach, he should have communicated better" or something along those lines. I just wrote back, "That is extremely disappointing that (coach's name) didn't even bother to pass that info on. My son would have enjoyed attending. I'm pretty unhappy with him as a coach." But I guess it's irrelevant now. Teeball's over, the pool party's over, and I'm not sure if we'll continue with teeball next year, but if we do, there's no way in you know what I'll allow my son to be on that guy's team again. ETA: This wasn't his first year coaching either, so he's not a new coach. Two of his own kids were on the team and from conversation I overheard, I know that he at least coached the team last year, too.

Shows I'll Be CONTINUING To Watch: Biggest Loser Survivor Fringe Desperate Housewives American Idol and Shows I'll Be STARTING To Watch: Terra Nova (this looks just so cool, Jurassic Park-ish) Person Of Interest (Yes, once again it will be a never-ending battle to try to keep some room in my DVR, but somehow we always manage). :D What are you looking forward to watching?

I didn't subscribe this year but prior to that subscribed two years in a row and really liked it. When I was last there, much of it was free, but to access the whole site and be able to print a lot of the materials, it was $20.00. I found it worth it for a while and may subscribe again at some point for my son. My daughter is going into sixth grade and I found a lot of it more relevant for preschool through say fourth grade or so for her. My son just isn't interested in the crafty stuff, and the written stuff is still too advanced for him, but maybe next year I'll subscribe again.

Speaking for my own homeschool group, we've got classical schoolers, unschoolers, secular homeschoolers, Christian homeschoolers, cyber schoolers, people who have some kids in school and others at home, and everybody is welcome. Are you considering homeschooling at some point and want information, to meet people etc? If not, I guess I'm not sure how it will suit your needs anyway as most homeschool groups do things during school hours that your kids wouldn't be able to participate in if they were in school during the day. Or do you mean for younger kids who aren't of school age yet...? If so I think it's fine to just explain to whoever is in charge that you are homeschooling your younger children and afterschooling your older children and you wanted to inquire as to whether it's okay for you to join, and see what they say.

You think they are swingers just because they invited you to a cabin and told you about its features? I guess it's possible, but it's also a little bit of a leap, I think. Since you said "the last time" you saw them, I'm assuming you've spent time with them more than once, you've emailed back and forth with them, you have similar interests and get along- maybe they were just being nice and figuring it would be like camping but free since they own the cabin, and that it would be fun having another family or couple or two along to hang out with? If you want to go, go (you can always leave early). If you don't want to go, don't. But no I would not start asking someone if they are swingers, that would be just too weird and awkward.

I think you should be able to leave whenever you want to, but I agree that you should offer feedback to either the sub or the director/manager (in a nice way) so that perhaps the sub can gain insight from that and improve instead of just having people walk out and perhaps never know why.

In that case, I absolutely agree with you. I will say that I have a personal homeschooling blog and I take pictures of my kids at homeschool group events and post them even if other kids happen to be showing in the picture, but the focus of the picture is my child/ren. I don't just post pictures solely of other peoples' children and can't imagine doing that, and especially not for business purposes without permission!

Teaching Textbooks. Love it! Will try out LOF alongside it this fall for fun to see if she likes it, but it won't be mandatory if she dislikes it or it becomes too much on top of TT.

I wouldn't expect MY five year old to retain anything from it (or to have any interest; he's not remotely ready for that yet). In my experience/opinion, SOTW is much better for like 3rd grade and up. My 10 y/o and I, on the other hand, have been working on SOTW sporadically over the summers only since she was 8 and she's always loved SOTW. This year we'll be continuing it over the school year, too.