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tenoraddict

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  1. I went to a "Meet the Author" event on Saturday night, hosted by our local independent bookstore. The author was Marisa de los Santos, who wrote Love Walked In, Belong to Me, and Falling Together, along with a book of poetry. The event was fun; Marisa was gracious, funny, and personable; the food was delicious. All in all, a lovely adult evening. But the really funny part happened on my way out the door of my house. As I was saying good-bye to my boys, one asked where I was going (asked and answered 4 times already). "To meet an author," I replied for the 5th time. "Oh," says DS14 confidently, "Susan Wise Bauer." Not a question, a statement. "No, actually, it's a different author," said I, thinking, "I need to get out more." DS9 chimes in, even more confidently, "Well, yeah, that's because you've already met Susan Wise Bauer." Apparently I have unconciously conditioned my children to believe that either I only read SWB, or SWB has written every book known to man. :lol:
  2. We're getting our house ready to sell, and are in the process of packing things up to give away or put in storage. Everything must find a home! I'm really torn on the encyclopedias. A few years ago we gave away a set we never used, but then somehow inherited this one...so maybe that means we're meant to have encyclopedias in the house. :confused: Maybe I'll just have to be more purposeful about getting the boys to use them. Thanks.
  3. We have a set of 1989 World Book Encyclopedias. I can’t remember how we acquired them, but we have only used them once in the past 3 years. I have a 3rd, 6th, and 9th grader. Do you experienced homeschoolers with older children think we should keep them? Have you used encyclopedias frequently enough to warrant giving up precious bookshelf space for them? Thanks, Becky
  4. We had a joint paintball party for our son with another couple and their son last summer. We jumped on some Groupons that we saw for the facility, because it IS expensive. The boys both knew that the party was their present from their parents. Of course we didn't make anyone pay! That's ridiculous!
  5. So maybe I'll bump up the SOTW map work. I like what I saw from skimming MOH and WP. They end with the birth of Christ, though, and SOTW ends with the fall of Rome...so I could just fill in as needed. I am NOT a fan of projects (I am actually craft-averse...they ALL fail...since I was in preschool - you should see the paper chains I made...just not my thing), so we don't do a lot of them anyway. We read a lot of books (individually and corporately) and make food from whatever nation/geographic region we're studying. My kids don't beg for activities, so we're really OK with not having them. Thanks for the tips, Hive Mamas. :001_smile:
  6. We've been there twice, both times in the generic, less expensive rooms. We've never had a problem. To keep costs down, we bring food for breakfast and lunch (rooms have a fridge and a microwave). Last month we stayed on the ground floor, and we've never had a bug problem. Here's a tip: Request a room that is NOT above the teen center. Loud, pulsing music reverberates through the floor until 11pm.:angry:
  7. Next year will be our 4th year homeschooling, but we started with SOTW 2 for several reasons. So next year we'll be doing the Ancients. My rising 9th grader will use SWB's Ancient History book, and my rising 7th grader will follow the Logic Stage history in TWTM. My question is about my rising 4th grader... He reads well above grade level, but has an attention span at or below grade level. He does OK with SOTW 4's story, outline, and map routine, for the most part. I'm concerned that SOTW 1 will be too babyish for him. I have the activity book on request from the library to see what it's like, but I'd love to hear what the Hive thinks. Thanks, Becky
  8. I agree that 18 seems too young to be a youth group leader, since it's the same age as some high school Seniors. Maybe this is a remarkable young man...but I'd ask some questions about why he was hired, especially if I had a teenage daughter.
  9. These are a hoot! Maybe some of you are in this video? ;) Merry Christmas!
  10. Misty, I am THRILLED for you that your kiddos have had such great responses. Well done, Mama Bear, in following through with what they needed. I'm SO happy about the VT. It did wonders for my middle son, and I'm glad you're seeing results as well. dkpalaska... For most supplements/vitamins, I find vitacost.com to be significantly less expensive than anywhere else, unless somewhere else is having a big sale. I switched from a B complex to P5P. I've been trying different brands, so can't recommend a good one. I'd go with Misty's rec there if I were you, and am going to consider switching to it myself. I'm pretty passionate about our mg/zn combination. We use Maximum Living's Mineral Rich, because it's the perfect ratio of mg to zn, which apparently is very important. It's a liquid (cherry tasting). It's the cheapest from Valley Naturals. http://www.valleynaturals.com/valley_naturals_index.html The benefits for your kiddos are that it's a liquid as well as being a two-in-one.
  11. Ironically, last night DH told me that he's not sold on hs'ing HS yet. AND DS told me today that he wouldn't be that opposed to going to Charter after all (this is the kid who just about cried through the tour of the school and has all but begged not to go there). Just when I get peace with hs'ing HS, the rest of the family goes rogue.:glare:
  12. You could do a lot with 10K/year! My older 2 take some online classes through Veritas Press Scholars' Academy, which costs $550/class/year. They have received much higher quality education than I could give them in subjects that are above me (Latin 1 &2; Logic 1 &2) or that I dislike and wouldn't do justice to (Science). I also like to think, "OK, that's an outstanding school/teacher, but look at what I can I give my child that they can't." If we (my DH and I) are truly committed to raising well-rounded Christian boys, well...I can make sure that happens, as opposed to the excellent school, where we will sacrifice them on the altar of education at the expense of character and relationship building. (Can you tell I've just about talked myself out of applying to Charter?) :tongue_smilie: I hear you on the sports team friend thing. We have the same situation. Most of my kids' friends are from church, but we live 30 min N of church and most of them live near it or S of it. It can be lonely for them at times. At other times, it feels like we're not getting school done because we're running to or from hsing activities. I just keep reminding myself to breathe. :001_smile: My DH and I both moved every couple of years growing up, so we know that friendships come and go (sometimes to our dismay), but family is forever (sometimes to our dismay ;)).
  13. We do the text and corresponding workbook pages each day. If it's a concept he struggles with, I'll have him do the IP pages before we move on. CWP and the rest of IP are alternated during the summer.
  14. Nothing's changed. We simply have had a policy since pre-school to evaluate every year for every child, so that's what we're doing. As each day goes by, I feel more strongly led away from Charter. Like Jenn W. was saying, the "warm family relationship" is a priorty for us. Being in a school building, with hours of homework, tore our family apart. My boys are finally friends again and enjoying each other's company (for the most part). Today was particularly frustrating because both of my middle school boys (8th and 6th) showed how very unmotivated they are. I am only in my 3rd year of homeschooling (and I also have a DS3rd), and this is our first "typical" hs year. One of the reasons we pulled them from school is because there were some learning/behavior problems which needed to be assessed. I spent the 1st year hs'ing teaching and assessing. Our 2nd year was all about treating the issues found in the 1st year. So now we're in our 3rd year, which is supposed to be the year which tells us if we like homeschooling or not. I'm finding that I don't loathe it as much as I did the previous 2 years, but now all of a sudden I have students whose heads are up their bums! It's very frustrating. We're doing more outside "school" activities than ever before, and I'm trying to figure out how to get all of the curriculum in. The older 2 are starting to fall behind, and I don't know whether to extend grace and say, "Hey, that's OK, we'll just continue longer into the summer," OR, "You need to do 'homework' on evenings and weekends to get/keep caught up in your schoolwork." There's the rub, and what I try not to let keep me up at night. How to raise a self-motivated, godly young man who will be able to provide for his own family some day...and continue to convince yourself that's what matters...not grades, or SAT scores, or the name of the college he attends. The thing is, this boy has been like this since birth. We had to arrive at birthday parties 15 min early so he wouldn't be overwhelmed by walking into groups of children. At age 6, he told us that he didn't want to play team sports because he'd have to meet new people. He allows himself to be put (by us) into situations out of his comfort zone, so that's good. And he usually enjoys himself (except when we took him to New York on the day that turned out to be the day they had the ticker tape parade for the Yankees 2 years ago... He literally had nightmares for days after that.). I do know that he'll be a fully functioning member of society; he's just an introvert. He can be as loud and obnoxious as the rest of them when he's with his friends. :iagree: So true about the emotional energy and need to decompress. I have a lot of the same traits (crowds suck the energy from me...I went to the mall for an hour on Sunday and felt like I needed either a nap or the rest of the afternoon in an empty field just to recover from my hour at the mall), so I understand him. I guess the horror of middle school isn't all about the school and peers. It's just an awkward age. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember that what IS isn't what will ALWAYS be, you know?
  15. I wrote a super long reply on Saturday night, and it all disappeared on me. UGH! Only a few free minutes on my lunch break at the moment, so I won't be able to type it all now, but here's a start. Thanks to everyone for your comments and encouragement. I'm a bit less freaked out than I was this weekend. I was planning on doing standardized tests at the end of this year, but as you said that won't help me for the application. They have admitted homeschoolers to Charter in the past, and they told me just to give them whatever I have. The backup test scores are for kids who score low on the Terranova test Charter gives them in Dec, because Charter acknowledges that a kid can have a bad testing day. And I am prepared for the creation of the high school transcript, I'm just grumbling about creating a report card for a school I'm not sure I want him to attend. Like I don't have enough to do! ;) They want the final 7th grade and 1st quarter 8th grade report card. As far as my son wanting to homeschool...I don't consider that a plus with this particular child. He's an introvert and we have to force him into any outside activity. He plays sports, participates in church and community activities and classes, etc. He's out there, and enjoys it...but has to be forced to do it. He would never volunteer to go somewhere, have and adventure, etc. So my concern with him is that he will continue to live in his comfort zone and then go into some kind of shock when it's time to go to college and live/interact with thousands of people. I know he has almost 5 years of development and maturation ahead of him before then - and I'm not opposed to the idea of a gap year - so I'm not letting that drive me, but it is a consideration. Thanks for the reminder. I feel like I'm surrounded by friends whose sons are driven to learn, excel, achieve, etc. However, SWB said at a seminar this summer that boys between 10-14 should just sit on the couch and think about their hormones because they're not good for much else. :lol: She also said that all homeschool moms, herself included, are sure that they're kids are going to end up living under a bridge. I appreciate the reminder, Lori, that the pushing on my part isn't over (and since I have 2 youngers sons, I guess I'll be pushing for 7-10 more years :tongue_smilie:).
  16. She exists, and she is my mother. Granted, she only raised one daughter at a time (I had 1 semester of high school left when my parents adopted my sister as an infant), and only homeschooled off and on for maybe a half a dozen years (my sister, not me). My dad traveled for work at least 50% of the time, so it was often just Mom and a daughter at home. She used to scrub the garage floor on a fairly regular basis, just for a frame of reference of how clean her house was. Our home was beautifully decorated, we were deliciously fed, she was at every school event, she entertained on a semi-professional level... My mom set the bar VERY high; she could hang with Martha Stewart. I, on the other hand, had 3 sons in 5 years and am married to the King of Messy (who grew up in chaos with 7 siblings, so it's taken him 20 years to learn that cleanliness and organization are good things). It took me over 10 years of marriage and 3 sons to realize that I am not my mother. I'd LIKE to be, in some ways, but the men in my family are too busy LIVING in our house for it to look like a showroom. It was very hard for me to give up the idea of having a beautiful, tidy home (which was all I knew, to be fair to myself) and embrace the idea of having a lived-in home. My family is fed well (I did pick that up from my mom), clean, clothed, educated (at least I'm trying to educate them!), and happy. They tell me I'll miss the mess and fingerprints everywhere, but I'm not sure I believe them. When they're all grown up, maybe I'll have the home I want. I really don't think that anyone who homeschools multiple kids (who are also in mulitple activities) can "have it all" in terms of home management, "work," and quality family life. I've long said that no working mother can, and homeschooling moms are working moms.
  17. Warning: this is just kind of a rambling vent. :glare: So my eldest DS is in 8th grade. This is our 3rd year hs'ing, and high school is looming. One of the top charter schools in the nation (literally) is just down the road from us. We went to the Open House today, and while I was as impressed by the academics as I knew I would be, after 2 hours there I was no closer to knowing what to do about high school. I should probably go ahead with the application process, but it will be a big pain (I haven't done report cards or standardized testing for 2 years, so I'll have to go back through his work to create report cards and jump through several hoops to make up for the lack of standardized test scores); I don't want to bother if we are going to decide not to send him there. The other option is to continue homeschooling, which is what DS wants to do. He is very bright, but not particularly intrinsically motivated. He's not one of those kids who wants to go build robots from the ground up, or research something and write about it. He does well, when pushed, but at this point he still needs to be pushed. The 3-4 hours of homework at Charter are a bit daunting. We left the private school he attended for 6 years partly because we felt that we were sacrificing our children at the altar of education. We have finally regained a semblence of quality family life. Do we really want to go back into that homework mess? But at the same time, I'm nervous about being able to adequately prepare him for college (in spite of my college degree in the education field). And then there's the fact that we might move out of state, which would preclude us from being able to attend Charter anyway... I think it boils down to a trust issue. If I truly believe God equips those He calls, then I have to entrust my sons' educations and futures to Him. I just wish He'd call a little more loudly!
  18. Oh, dear. :grouphug: I believe God gave us women's intuition and maternal instincts for a reason. It's hard when you're the one spending the majority of the time with the children, but aren't being respected for your opinion - or your parenting. 1. Stop talking to your mom and grandma about it. Hard, I know, but you need support now, not discouragement. You can't really stop talking to DH, but how is he with reading books? My DH only accepted that there was something wrong when he saw our kids on the pages of books. The Sensory Sensitive Child was the most helpful to us in this capacity, and even got my parents to understand what was going on once we got a diagnosis. 2. I have no idea, obviously, what your parenting style is, but I know that my boys need tight boundaries. If I slack for even a little on the schedule (let us all sleep in, make pancakes on a week day, etc), the whole day is shot. If you're not already doing it, have consistent boundaries and discipline with your kids. 3. I don't know if you can afford a good (meaning he takes Xrays and analyzes you individually) chiropractor, but that was where we started. We were all messed up without knowing it, and now we are almost 100% allergy, headache, infection, and illness free. Less sickness means less antibiotics means less of a messed up gut. 4. Buy Dianne Craft's Biology of Behavior . Perhaps a dietary change and supplement regimen will help you as much as it helped us. I bet the GFCF diet will do wonders for you. 5. We had our kids evaluated at the local children's hospital, where they were diagnosed with ADHD and ODD, and medication was recommended. I wasn't comfortable with this diagnosis or treatment plan. I read The Out of Sync Child which sealed the deal on Sensory Processing Disorder for me. We then had our boys evaluated by an OT who specializes in SPD, and we went through a year of therapy. Our private insurance didn't cover it because SPD isn't recognized as a diagnosis yet. 6. ADHD, Autism, and Asbergers are all recognized diagnoses, and if your DC have them, they'll be covered by insurance - at least to some degree. 7. As far as "where to start," I don't really know what to tell you. I received no guidance from our pediatrians, even when I specifically asked. Even after a year of OT and several years of a modified diet and chiropractic care, they aren't interested in hearing what we've done for our kids. The developmental pediatrician at the world-renown children's hospital just wanted to do medication and not talk about other options or potential diagnoses. I have to warn you that you're likely in for an extended "battle" against the medical establishment and possibly your family. YOU are your child's advocate and you need to trust your instincts more than ever. Read, read, read. I had to fully educate myself and then ask intelligent questions of the "experts." But honestly, the only direction I received that was anywhere near helpful came from moms who had "been there, done that" on this forum. Fight the good fight, and keep asking for help. Power to the Mama! :)
  19. Yes, a healthy gut can make all the difference! I highly recommend that you buy Dianne Craft's Biology of Behavior . It was life-changing for us.
  20. My take on it is that you know what your child needs. Our dentist started in on our 3rd DS when he was about 6.5/7ish. He sucked 2 fingers, and usually only at night or when distraught. After we got his SID diagnosis and started OT, I told her (the dentist) that he was in therapy for his SID and I was not going to fight the sucking battle when I was dealing with so much other stuff with him. I basically told her, in a nice way, to lay off. She mentioned it again recently when he was 8.5. I told her that if she had seen photos of this child in infancy, before he had any teeth, she would've seen that it was obvious that he would need braces (7" overbite!). So are you interested in getting your DS to stop thumb-sucking or getting your dentist to back off?
  21. Another mother of an 8th grader here... SWB, if you're on track to finish one/year, then can we be greedily optimistic about WWStyle 1 being available when our kiddos hit their Senior year? If so, would you still recommend New Oxford once/week in 11th grade and 3x/week in 12th? Yes, this is years in the future, but if I don't ask now, I'll forget to ask later. Thanks, Becky
  22. Oh. My. Gosh. P5P, where have you been all my son's life?! Misty, I am so thankful that you posted what you do for your kiddos. As I've told you, after I read your post, I contacted Dianne Craft, who recommended L-Theanine along with the P5P. The L-T is like the calming part of Ritalin, and the P5P is like the focusing element. So I started the boys and myself (I'm not a hyper person, but I can always use help staying calm!) on 100mg twice/day of L-T last week, and the "hyper" ones were markedly calmer. I think it's been giving me sleep trouble (awaking every morning at 5, which is almost 2 hours earlier than usual for me), so I'm only going to take it in the a.m. & see what happens. I started them on P5P a few days ago. My DS8 is the one I'm most concerned about; we have an appt with the Dr. to talk about ADHD meds on Friday, which is very upsetting to me. We've done all we can to attack the root of his problems without chemicals. The 1st day on P5P, I didn't notice much of a change. But the past two days have been amazing. He has flown through his schoolwork with almost laser-like focus. He's like a different child. My DS12 and DS13 have not had the same results, though. I'm tempted to blame some of it on hormones, because I know boys this age are often off in la-la land. I've given them the P5P at night along with their Magnesium/Calcium/Zinc supplement. The Mg does help with calming and sleep, and the 3 elements work best when taken together. I'd like to try the P5P in the morning, but Dianne Craft says that B6 (of which P5P is the activated form) is only effectively absorbed when taken with Mg/Ca. Regardless of when he takes it, it's working. I'm so happy!! Thanks again, Misty!:)
  23. First of all, don't be hard on yourself. :grouphug: It's so easy for us to say, "If only I had known..." or, "If only I had done this..." You did the best you could with the infomation you had. You are continuing down a hard road, doing all you can to help your daughter. Power to the persevering mama! My son had typical ADHD behavior going into VT. One of his visual problems was inability to focus. After VT - after his eyes and brain had been trained to focus, team, track, etc - so much of his ADHD-like behavior disappeared. His eyes' inability to focus had kept him unfocused in every aspect of life. I think you'll see happy changes as a result of VT. :) It really depends on the eye issue(s). VT does nothing for myopia or presbyopia (near-sightedness/far-sightedness) - it's not for "vision" issues. So if a person has visual processing problems AND is myopic, he will still be myopic after VT.
  24. Here's the link to Cellfield's website. It will explain Cellfield therapy much more articulately than I could. It is much more than "just getting them reading." My son did an hour of Cellfield every day M-F for 2 weeks, and then went once/week for an hour for 3 months. If you click on "locations" on the website, it will list the facilities in the US which offer Cellfield. I'm not sure what you're looking for from me, but I can tell you that in a few short months, my son went from reading orally well below grade level to having oral fluency at grade level. His comprehension jumped to about 3 grades above level. For the first time in his life (he was 11 at the time), he felt confident about his reading abilities and could "hang" with his friends when they talked about books, because he had read them, too. I also have noticed that his math has improved; he couldn't figure out long division to save his life, and fractions were his enemy. I've noticed a big improvement in both those areas recently. Some of it could be maturity, but the numbers no longer float around in disorder in his head. Yes, he still struggles with left and right sometimes, and probably always will. Furthermore, while I'm confident that he'll be a great orator, he'll have to rely on memorizing his speech, because a teleprompter would not be a help to him (I guess that rules out politics as a career! ;)) "Cure" was your word, not mine. My word was "overcome" meaning that dyslexia no longer limits his ability or his confidence.
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