:grouphug: Will be praying for you and yours.

Imp, I totally know where you are coming from! Our 4th grade year has not accomplished much at all. I also see it as my fault because I was completely overwhelmed with care of my elderly in-laws and a move. We managed to keep up okay with the 3 Rs but that's about it. And even at that, since I was handing her over a workbook for math and saying "go do 2 lessons" she didn't learn much. :blushing: I finally discovered it and we slammed on the brakes. We are now doing Math Mammoth and catching up on some conceptual math that we missed, but she'll still head in to 5th grade doing MM 4, and I'm okay with that. I am kind of going to take the approach of "just do the next thing" all summer and into fall. I think if you can find a way to make it okay for your dd to call this next year 6th grade again, then to blazes with everyone else! That would be my biggest concern. I liked that suggestion of offering horseback riding lessons or something. We have a few places here that do horse therapy for kids with autism or physical disabilities and one could volunteer there easily. One place gave our girl scouts a few free riding lessons for work on their ranch. Just being around the horses was lovely. And if you re-do 6th grade and call it Jr High Prep (liked that idea too) with a horse unit study there are plenty of books about horses that could really challenge her reading level. :grouphug:

WOWZA!!! You look awesome! I bet your dh can't keep his hands off you!:tongue_smilie:;) We didn't see your face in the other shot but I'd be willing to bet that you look a lot younger!

Thanks again for all your replies. Do we have a "tail tucked between the legs" smiley? Maybe this :blushing: and this :leaving:. The director called me today. Of course she's been busy and she just needed some time to make sure it was okay with the new director to transfer my fees paid. If I were leaving the program it would be non-refundable, which I completely understand. She and the new director are good friends and are accountability partners so they worked it out with eachother and will transfer my fees and paperwork. I feel quite embarrassed for being annoyed. I should have given her the benefit of the doubt. I should have been more patient. And for Pete's sake I should have found her phone number and called her!!! Lesson learned. Note to self: :chillpill:

Thanks for your responses everyone. I was trying to be a little secretive so as not to disparage anyone IRL, but there are no secrets around here, eh?:tongue_smilie: Of course I should have been more transparent. It's that my familial circumstances have changed. And the program in my area is growing at such a significant pace that the campus I signed up for Feb. 1st (with some pressure, I might add, like "get in now while you can!!!") has changed dramatically. 2 new campuses in our area have siphoned off people from the existing campuses, and now there is one closer to me in my suburb. So I don't want out of the program AT ALL, I would just like to be closer to home. I have significant responsibilities to my MIL (elderly, disabled, almost shut-in), especially now that my FIL has passed away (just last month - after I registered), and I am concerned about being 30-45 minutes away all day one day a week. AND, this campus generally has a waiting list, so I guess I was hoping an exception could be made since it's so early in the year and she has other families waiting in the wings. Anyways, I was feeling a little...I don't know...ignored...last night so I posted here. Just whining and hoping for an exception when OF COURSE I do understand that there really can't be one made. In the light of day things don't seem so bad, and I will just have to work it out. Still annoyed at her lack of response though!!!:thumbdown:

This is in a somewhat professional capacity. She is the leader of a co-op...a large one. I am now a paying member of her co-op. I have a history of not receiving a reply from this person in the past one other time. I had my questions answered through my own research so I blew it off that she didn't respond.:confused: This time I have written to her with some serious concerns and questions regarding policy about refunding registration money paid. I wrote to her on Sunday night and it's now Tuesday night. I do know that many people do not have the email response time that I do. I've always been in customer driven fields in my professional career and it is unconscionable that one would not respond to an email within a few hours, much less within 24 hours. So that has kind of carried over and I get annoyed when friends or others don't respond very quickly. But this woman is in a professional position, as a co-op leader, and I have a hard time imagining her not checking her email for days. And considering the last email I sent her was not responded to, well..I am doubly annoyed. :glare: I am trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. Could be ill, could be on vacation, etc. But it's that darn history..... AND she is the one who through all her communication seems to encourage email correspondence. She's the one who made it clear that email was the best way to contact her. Just venting I guess. But curious too. I do have the option of going over her head. But I am concerned that if I do and wind up having to stay with this co-op, there will be a strained relationship there. WWYD?

Kelly, those are ADORABLE! The kids and the books! I will absolutely have to get on this as I know my dd would love it. Thanks for sharing!

:lol::lol:

Big changes here. The biggest change is moving to an LCC approach. Going deep with Latin, math, bible and language arts, and lighter with history science, art/music, Spanish by doing those once a week, each. Not sure how literature will fit in, but because dd is a big-time reader and classic lit lover it will probably be an every day subject. Also joining Classical Conversations and will use that as our guide for what we study in history and science. I'm excited for the changes!

Oh WOW! This is such exciting news !!! I am SO happy for you guys!:grouphug:

MATH MAMMOTH!!!!! I love it and dd is finally seeing math concepts in new ways and gaining so much confidence! Today she solved a sort of complicated problem all mentally. You should have seen her face light up. Priceless! **a big thank you to Jackie (Coralleno) for helping me figure out that MM would be right for us. If it weren't for this board and the helpful folks here I wouldn't have 1/2 this gig figured out!

I've been researching tons and decided to give GSWL a try. It's pretty cheap and I figured a good gentle intro. Then when it's done I think I'll go with Latin Prep. I really like the looks of it. But, I haven't used any of them yet so we shall see! Hopefully you'll get lots of good comments. :)

Terabith, do you HAVE to subject her to this test? Is it for your own benefit or required by the state? I just don't get it. Why put yourself through all that for a kid that is clearly doing great? Most states don't actually start standardized testing until 3rd grade specifically for the maturity issues you a concerned about. I wouldn't do it if I had the choice.

I don't see how HFCS is in any way better than artificial sweeteners. But really the point is to get the fake stuff out of our diets. I think with Mountain Dew the biggest problem will be the caffeine as a pp mentioned. they are loaded with it. So I'd try to find a tea you can sub with until you can reduce your caffeine craving, then you will be more successful in cutting out the Dew!

Okay. Yes. This is more like it!

This thread is making me depressed. It seems like everyone else has it all together sometimes. We have some poor choices under our belt and years of struggling. Right now we are making it on dh's income but there isn't anything left over for all the savings we are supposed to be doing - college, retirement, emergency fund, car replacement, extra house payments, vacation, etc. Sometimes it scares me to death. But the alternative is plopping the kids in ps so I can work and we aren't willing to do that. OTOH, I don't necessarily want to "retire" in the sense of how my inlaws did it. Work like a dog to retire and DO NOTHING. Literally they spent the last 25 years hanging around their house reading the paper. That doesn't seem like the kind of retirement I want. I'd rather work until I can't anymore at something that I enjoy - especially if it could only be part time so I can still take care of my home and family (help with grandchildren). Right now we are just doing the best we can in the moment. We do have a meager 401k now that dh is employed by someone else and we will endeavor to contribute more to that. Otherwise I don't know what the future holds.

:lol::lol::lol::lol: I've never seen that before! Too funny!!!

My only concern would be that he get too much of the "wet" food and it cause that disease where they get diarreah (sp?). Maybe you can cut back on his wet food for a few days to see if he will pick back up on his pellets. Our guys really like a brand called Ecotrition or something like that. It's not just pellets, it's also got little bits of dried fruits and veggies in it. GL!

Hi Terri, I'm going to implement LCC this coming year. I had a good long talk with dh about our priorities. I didn't know I thought Latin and Greek would be important to me until I read LCC and it really resonated with me. I have been doing tons of thinking about this. We plan to do Classical Conversations this coming year so it will provide some spine I can format from. Every day I will do bible, math, latin, and lang arts (mostly grammar and composition). My little guy is only K so he'll tag along with latin a little but mostly he will do phonics/reading and math. Then Mon-History, Tues-Science, Wed-Art/Music, Thurs-Literature, Fri-Spanish. Every day during lunch we will review their CC memory work for 20-30 minutes. And the history and science we do will come from what we are memorizing in CC. I will follow the LCC literature suggestions though. I think what you are pondering might be doable but I do agree that certain subjects like math and maybe even grammar/phonics will have to be done every day. At least for my kids! Could you plan that 1.5 hours out of every day (45 min each) were used for math and grammar/phonics and the rest of your time you will spend on one subject a day? Only you can know how you will manage combining everyone but it sounds like MFW does a good job of that. That's kinda the reason I am joining a CC. Gets my two on the same page sort of. (but CC would be prohibitively expensive for your gang). I'm not sure you even need the LCC book. It's a bit philosophical in the discussion of the "why's" of certain literature and language choices. You are more doing this as a means of simplifying your life, and I think it's an intriguing idea!

:grouphug: So sorry for him! Didn't know about the milk thing. I assume the calcium protects the teeth fragments or something? But in cases like these do they really ever even try to glue back on the pieces? Again, :grouphug: and so sorry!

Thanks everyone!! JudoMom, I was just going to pm you because of GSWL and then Latin Prep in your sig! This sounds like it might be a good plan for us. I do like the looks of Lively Latin, but honestly I am already doing all my own printing for Math Mammoth and I'd rather have something a little more open and go. I know that sounds lame, but there you go. And right now I'd rather not spend over $100 on something like LfC. I just don't see it when we are so new to latin. I think I will go ahead and order GSWL and see how that goes. We might even start now so she has a head start before fall, then move on to Latin Prep. I really like the looks of that one.

Excellent responses, thank you! It's good to know LCI would be too easy-slow. That's the kind of info I needed, so thanks Gratia!!. I'll be attending 2 used book sales in a few weeks and I'd love to know what to keep an eye out for! And I'm loving the combo of things in Lively Latin that you mentioned Deb. I'm off to take another look at that one. I'm not too concerned with our pace at this point. But I would like something enjoyable. She seems to enjoy linguistics, so I am hoping she and I can both have a little fun and stretch ourselves this year with Latin!

I am moving to an LCC approach to my homeschool. Also we are starting Classical Conv. this fall. Originally I planned to just do the Latin memory work from CC and not worry about more. Then I read LCC!:tongue_smilie: Now I want a full Latin program. I'm not going to do anything this coming year for my little guy, he's just K and not reading yet. My dd will be 10 - 5th grade. No prior Latin experience at all, but we've had a year of Spanish that she has done well with and we plan to continue (prob with Discovery Streaming). She's so-so on grammar. I'd like a strong grammar type program to start her (and me!) off with. I think her grammar is weak and I'd like to reinforce those concepts through Latin, so I'm less concerned with vocab. I've taken a look online at Getting Started with Latin (looks good as a gentle intro - but what to move on to from there?), and Latin for Children, and Latina Christiana, and Latin Prep. Then there's FFL, LL, and so many more. My mind is swirling and I have no idea what to buy. I like the idea of Christian based but it doesn't have to be. Help! Would any one of these be good, should I go with one with DVDs since I have to experience with Latin at all? I like the cost of GSWL right now, but I really want to start strong so I'm willing to make the investment. Are there any programs I should avoid given my goals?

Good for you!!! :w00t: I'm gearing up for 2 local used book sales and scouring the internets for pricing so I will know a good deal when I see one!

:grouphug: and prayers for your family.