Ireland or maybe England. Someplace green. Someplace where they speak English. And most definitely someplace cooler. (We are near Phoenix, AZ. It is beyond hot and will stay this way until Halloween or so. I would love to look at something green and cool and wet.)

Don't use vanilla! One of my husband's co-workers was Muslim and followed strict dietary rules that included no alcohol of any kind, not even vanilla in cookies. We brought lemon bars to a potluck and he was intensely grateful that there was something he could eat. I made sure to send lemon bars to all the potlucks after that day.

k12 does do consumer direct, but it can be expensive. This is the link to the FAQ page for the k-8 consumer direct part. http://www.k12.com/faqs/consumer_direct/ But as to your question, usually the most common supplements are Singapore Math, Miquon and Right Start for elementary students. I could give you a better guess as to a program that might work if I had more idea of what you are looking for. I hope that helps. And welcome to the board.

Thank you for the advice. I am still thinking and trying to figure out how to get ready for the fall.

I found it. https://eprcontent.k12.com/placement/placement/placement_math_1.html Thank you for the ideas.

I am intrigued by the K12 site, but I can't find the placement tests for math. Does someone have direct links to where I can get them? The link I found for language arts is: https://eprcontent.k12.com/placement/placement/placement_langarts_2.html Thank you!

Thanks I will look at k12 again.

Please help me figure out what to put in the comments section on the Calvert placement test. Please. Dd9 and ds7 did the essay and the math placement tests. Both are an accurate representation of what each of them can currently do. The issue is I want the Calvert people to help me decide placement based on how they did on those tests and NOT based on age and what a typical child of that age would be able to do. I want them to start by looking at the placement tests and then adjust for age, rather than start by age and then adjust for the placement tests. Specifically I am concerned that they will limit how high they will place ds7 in math because his writing is so... seven year old ish. It isn't what he wrote that is a problem; it is the fact that it is written in seven year old scrawl. It is readable, but he reversed some of his number 6 and a probably other numbers too. It is hard to deal with a kid who can do long division and add and subtract fractions with different denominators and also writes his numbers backwards sometimes. What can I say to help them to look past the reversals and at the content? His essay (all three lines of it!) has similar issues. It is in cursive, so the letters aren't backwards, but it is not pretty. The content is alright, but the pretty part is not there. I think he needs to be in Calvert 3 with something around Calvert 5? for math, but I would really like an independent person to reach the some conclusion. And dd9... I just have no idea where to place her. I really doubt that age/grade placement of Calvert 5 would make sense, but I can't tell. I don't know what normal looks like. And just because she is the way she is, she prints everything. She can do cursive, but she vastly prefers to print and she did the entire essay printed. She said because it was both easier to write and easier to read. I can't argue with that. And I don't know where to put her in math, she did everything that ds7 did and then some, but she also has some huge gaps, like she forgot everything she ever knew about percents. She did know this before but not right now... So I have no clue about where she needs to be in either math or the rest. So if you have any suggestions on how to put this onto the form in the comment section I would be happy to listen. Or if you can reassure me that Calvert has dealt with these kinds of issues and you have had positive results that would be wonderful too. (PS. We are doing Calvert because *I* need lesson plans already done for this year. And I need secular. This way the best solution I could find for that specific set of issues. It isn't perfect or ideal, it is just the best I can do right now. If you have other ideas I will be happy to look at them, but they really need to have daily lesson plans and have no bible references.)

Aleks math lasted a full 14 months with my oldest. Nothing else has lasted even 8.

As I remember the sequence went like this: Algebra 1 (two semesters) Geometry (two semesters) Algebra 2 (two semesters) Trig / PreCalculus (each for one semester) Calculus (two or three semesters) then other more advanced math classes I don't know of any courses to recommend, sorry.

For dd9 Calvert (level to be determined, maybe 6) Calvert Math (level to be determined) For ds7 Calvert (level to be determined, maybe 3) Calvert Math (level to be determined, maybe 6) For ds4 Dancing Bears reading A bunch of math books Goals: To save Mommy from massive burn out

I don't know. It used to be that my family and the house were enough. They aren't anymore. But trying to do any hobby type things is an exercise in frustration. I can't get ten minutes in a row without being interrupted by someone needing something. I wish it were easy and I know I will miss the interruptions someday. But today is not that day. Today I want to do something for me. And I can't.

Legos. My four year old loves legos. And anything with wheels, especially legos with wheels.

I live in very hot and very dry Arizona. Our thermostat is set to 82 for both day and night. It is definitely warm in the house, but the trade off is the relatively low electric bills.

My oldest learned to read very very quickly after about half of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She went from this is a letter a, it says a to Harry Potter in 4 months. She can spell almost anything. My middle could not get through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons or Reading Lesson or Headsprout (computer based phonics). I looked at Phonics Pathways from the library, it didn't work either. He is reading now, but it was whole words and lots of time. It was me reading the same early reader books to him and pointing out the words. It took four times as long to get him fluent. His ability to read new words is directly related to whether or not he has heard them before. If he hasn't heard it, he probably can't read it either. This is less of a problem because we read lots of books and talk about a lot of things. But it is a side effect of the whole words approach we needed to use. His spelling reflects his lack of understanding of phonics and is limited. We are using Sequential Spelling and that is working. He is improving practically daily, but it is definitely more work for him than it was for the oldest. My little guy is using Dancing Bears (phonics) and is doing well. He can spell as well as he can read. He is learning well and quickly, but not as fast as the oldest did. So in three kids I have either taught to read or am teaching to read we have used five different programs. Some kids are easier to teach to read than others and absolutely my middle guy was the hardest. I would suggest that you try phonics first, but mostly because there are so many good resources available for teaching that way. Whole words is not very well thought of and therefore it is hard to find good books to help you teach that way. Good luck (Just as a side note, I personally think the problems my middle guy has with reading are related to the ear infections he had as a young child. He was almost constantly having ear problems from the time he was 11 months old until just before he turned three. Something involved with how he interprets language was changed because he couldn't hear properly during that critical time. He did not get tubes and he hasn't had an ear infection since he was three. But my Mommy gut says that he missed something important in this time period and we can't go back. So if your young child had lots of ear infections and is having a hard time with phonics then I would switch to whole words sooner. And work on spelling/phonics as a separate course. )

We were both 21. It was the day after we graduated from college. We have been married for a little over 15 years.

For the just annoyed type of situation it is a grassy field that was behind a building while I was at college. It was huge and green and very empty. For the so stressed out that I am seriously out of it, then I close my eyes and let everything fade to black. I find the emptiness to be very calming.

I would let it go. I would tell my son that if he chose to tease someone to the point that they felt the need to get a baseball bat to make him stop, that he needed to seriously think about the effect of his words. Of course, her hitting him with the bat is wrong. But he started the problem. He initiated the conflict. And she found a way to make him stop, as unacceptable as it was. I know this will be unpopular, but I was a victim of intense teasing. And while I never got a baseball bat and hit anyone with it, I did think of some pretty awful things to do to my tormentors. I sometimes wish that I had done some of them, maybe then the torment would have stopped. And my tormentors would have understood some part of the pain their words caused.

Definitely talk to a supervisor. Do you think he could see as well with goggles? It might be worth a try to find out if they would work too.

It's no big deal. You don't need to worry. Monsoons are big scary lightning storms. But as long as you are not stupid you will be fine. Don't drive if you can't see because of either dust or rain. And be careful driving through large puddles. And you will be fine. And just so you know, last year we had a very small number of monsoon days. The drought is affecting monsoon season too. My four year old is totally amazed at the *idea* of rain. He doesn't see it very often.

You don't get over it. You do move on. I wish that I could have another child. I wish that I were able to carry another child to term. I wish that it were possible. But is just isn't. And no matter what I do it isn't going to happen. I can choose to dwell on the fact that I am not going to have another baby and be very very sad. Or I can choose to think about the things that bring joy to my life and I can be happy. For me, right now, it is literally a choice I am making every day. Sometimes every hour or even every minute. I have to choose to be happy. I have to choose to look at the positive parts of my life. Because if I don't then I will sink into an awful depression that will eat me alive. And I don't want that to happen. So I won't let it happen. So I will concentrate on the happy parts of my life. It isn't easy but it does get easier with practice. And I am getting a lot of practice.

I gave up. Everyone spells my name wrong. I worry about it on official documents and try not to worry about everything else.

The Fritz and Chesster programs are great for learning to play chess. I think there are three of them now. We have the first two. They are at amazon and have great reviews there.

Just I can't stand hearing the word just. "I just want you to...." or "Won't you just...." or "I just want to go to...." I don't want to hear just again.

I voted to exercise before breakfast but it isn't because of anything fitness related. If I do anything in the kitchen before I go on my walk the kids wake up and then I don't get to go. So I get out of the house as quietly as I can. And that means no breakfast.