Please add me to the group as well, if you're still taking new members. Thank you!

Most of my homeschooling friends do some type of work part-time, and the schedule you described sounds very manageable. I work roughly 15 hours a week, but only have to go in to the office on Tuesday mornings. We're very lucky that my MIL is available and willing to watch our younger kids most weeks.

I would definitely not have him do any AoPS. If the student needs review of basic algebra concepts, AoPS is likely to be an exercise in frustration and would be absolutely unnecessary. It sounds like he started taking classes through this online private school quite recently? He may still be adjusting to the new assignments or grading style. I wouldn't worry about subpar essays at this point. If his very basic writing skills (especially sentence and paragraph construction) are underdeveloped, I might consider having him work on those over the summer.

We tried schooling year-round, but found it a little soul-crushing not to have a long break to look forward to. We've now switched to a sort of hybrid of condensed academic semesters and light schooling year-round. Our "school" schedule roughly follows our local university's calendar. For the last few years, we have started our 15-week fall semester in the last week of August and finished in mid-December. Our 15-week winter semester runs from the second week of January through the end of April (we take one week off to ski). During our "school" semesters, we have fairly a fairly structured routine, we devote a solid chunk of each week day to academics, and our oldest takes some DE/online classes. During our long summer break, we look a lot like more like unschoolers.

After she sounds out each letter (f - r - o - g), can she put the sounds together to say "frog"? If she can, it sounds perfectly normal and like she's well on her way in reading! If not, I still wouldn't worry at her age, but would work on some blending activities - "After I say the sounds, you say them together!" Begin with compound words "cup - cake", then syllables "mo - ther", then individual sounds, working up from "a - t" to words with 5-6 sounds.

Yes, but we don't use backyard trampolines (not that I would ban my kids outright from ever using them, it just hasn't come up). My kids do flips at the gymnastics center or indoor trampoline park.

No, you do not need to include how you calculated each grade. I include the title, final grade, and credit awarded for each course, and then the overall number of credits earned to date and current GPA.

My first thought is that although we usually think of strengths as helping to compensate for weaknesses, in some cases those strengths can actually contribute to students falling further behind in their areas of weakness. A kid who memorizes easily and processes information quickly can skip over fine details, such as those necessary for reading and writing. If he can memorize entire words, he's likely to skip over decoding much of the time especially if decoding is hard for him in the first place. Before recommending an intervention plan, I would need to know more about the deficits that led to the dyslexia and dysgraphia diagnoses. How low are his phonological processing scores? Which specific skills does he struggle with? Can he decode nonsense words at all? How quickly? Has he memorized irregular words? How quickly can he read them? Etc.

Churches all work so differently that it's hard to know who the best person is to speak to about this kind of thing, or how best to approach it. In one way, I can see approaching the meeting with "Let's discuss how the church can support children with disabilities" would go over better than "... support my son". At the same time, it sounds like your son has some unique needs that may not be addressed if they institute a blanket system for supporting kids with disabilities. Right now, it doesn't seem like anyone thinks that your son's needs are their responsibility. Does that sound right? His previous SS teacher, if she's been thinking about how to help him and other kids, may be the exception. Holding a meeting may help to clarify who is actually responsible, especially if people have been shying away from taking on the responsibility because they don't feel qualified. Another way to go about it would be to make people care by directly asking them for help and make them feel qualified to help by telling them exactly what you need. The music issue would be a no-brainer at our church - I would just ask the music director for his help. He'd likely be flattered that someone cared enough about the musical selections to want an advance copy! In our church, the SS director has been my go-to person for anything related to my kids, especially my Ds8 who also has some unique special needs. She has basically taken on the responsibility of ensuring that all kids in our church are able to participate fully in SS, VBS, special events, etc., and does have some experience working with kids with special needs. She and I have worked as a team to make sure Ds8 always has an appropriate buddy, to make sure his SS teacher understands his needs, and to handle any issues that come up.

I'd wake him up. I don't think people always need to experience consequences of their mistakes to learn from them. For some people, just knowing that they fell asleep and could have failed the assignment would make them remember to drink a cup of coffee next time they're tired when they start an assignment. (Or start the assignment earlier, which is less likely to be the lesson learned, whether the consequence occurs or not.)

It is really only necessary to buy new cleats if they no longer fit, are visibly falling apart, have lost their support, or are causing pain (which can include things like shin splints, not just foot pain). If they fit, feel good, and look okay, they're good to go.

My 8-year-old was referred for a neuropsychological assessment last year, and we (and his doctors) found the results extremely valuable. I also read neuropsych/psych reports regularly in my work and find them useful. Whether a neuropsych assessment is more helpful than another psychological assessment will depend on the child, the questions you are hoping to have answered, and the other types of psychological assessment available in your area. If your child's needs are complex or there are any neurological concerns (a history of seizures, brain injury, FASD, trauma, etc.), a neuropsych evaluation is likely most appropriate.

You are looking for a school/educational psychologist or a neuropsychologist. A school psychologist is able to assess for and diagnose learning disabilities, provide documentation of the disability, and give recommendations for accommodations. Neuropsychological assessments are typically more expensive, but are able to provide more information about things like memory, attention, executive functioning, etc. It is likely worth your while to contact your local university to see whether they have a graduate student training clinic for their school psychology students. These are typically much cheaper, but are still able to provide a diagnosis, appropriate documentation, etc.

My oldest son (nearly 14) has friends his own age, as well as older friends in their late teens/early twenties. I don't think that every child needs to have same-aged friends, but the friendships my son has with other kids are important to him and have been since he was 8 or 9. He is goofy, extroverted, competitive, and has a high level of energy that only seems to be matched by other boys his age. His closest friend is only one year older, and I love that they have the experience of growing up together. My 9-year-old is quirkier and more introverted. He gets along well with girls of all ages, but his only close friend is his slightly older cousin.

Within the last year, we've done soccer, baseball, tennis, swimming, and music lessons.

What an interesting group of kids! Congrats to all the special kids and proud moms!

I love reading everyone’s plans – advanced or not! If you went strictly by age, I would have had two 1st graders this year (2015-2016). Ds7 is "ahead" in most areas, while Ds6 is "behind" due to his special needs. Forcing either of them to do 1st grade level work this year would have been a disaster, which is one of the reasons that homeschooling is such a great fit for our family. For a few different reasons, we decided to consider this Ds6's kindergarten year, so he will start 1st grade in September.

I think it's kind of awkward that the fireman told him to stay in school. Did he think your son was a drop out? Or just that he was skipping school?Plenty of people (including at least one cop) have asked my oldest why he isn't in school, but so far no one has accused him of doing anything wrong.

I think it's fine to have a mix. Singapore Math textbooks are in color, the workbooks are in black and white, and none of my kids have ever complained or even mentioned it.

Duchess of Cambridge.

I would keep the afternoon class for now, and plead your case to the professor if you're still waitlisted a few days before the class begins. If the prof's not able or willing to accept an extra student, I'd ask for permission to attend the first few classes in case someone drops out.

Not a dumb question at all, and I'm sure people have figured out different methods. My Dh is tall (6'2"), but still finds it much easier when he has someone to help him out. We usually send our oldest son up onto the roof of our Tahoe, and Dh passes the bikes up to him.

We use a roof rack.

We pay ludicrous amounts of money for hockey, but I'm always pleasantly surprised how reasonably priced baseball is! Ds had try-outs today, for an all-star baseball team that will have about 30 practices and play 30-40 games. That's well over 100 hours of baseball, and the total cost for the season is $300. I would pay $3 an hour to watch my kid play baseball. I do have to say that I'm very thankful that private coaching among little leaguers hasn't caught on here, so that my kid actually has a shot at making this team.

We'll never move anywhere permanently because Dh loves where we live and is closer to his family than anyone I've ever known, but we have talked about moving somewhere for a year. I'd move to Manhattan in a heartbeat, but Dh has a thing for Berlin and likes the idea of sending the kids to public school there to learn German. If we were going to send them to school to learn a language, I figure we might as well make it French and spend the year in Paris? Or Lyon, where I have a few friends? Dh doesn't share my love of France, so that's about as far as we get in the conversation before he decides he doesn't want to go anywhere after all.