Wow, your local school district uses HOD? ;)

I second the rec's for MacArthur, Piper, Sproul, and Begg. I'll even be so bold as to include my own pastor's sermons.

My brother is working on his nursing degree through Indiana State University. We're in CA. ETA: He found someone to oversee his clinicals using a professional association -- can't remember the name. For one of his class finals, he had to perform a physical evaluation of a patient. He did it on video (my ds9 was the guinea pig) and sent it to his teacher.

Punxsutawney Phil says, "Six more weeks of school."

Ha, JudoMom, I was just coming to pose the same question! I gave dd11 the test today. I was surprised to see that she scored into the "algebra-ready" zone. She did Singapore through half of 5A, then switched to Saxon 76 when I put her into the cottage school for spring semester. She's getting a B+ so far in the class, with almost no help from me. My dd did the best on parts 3 and 4, Representing Relationships, and Using Symbols. She practically aced them. The other two parts, Pre-Algebraic Number Skills and Concepts, and Interpreting Mathematical Information, were her weakest. That gives me something to go on for summer, but it doesn't solve my dilemma for which class I should sign her up for this fall. I'd been debating 87 vs. Alg 1/2, but now I guess I should add Alg. 1 to the list? The other thread's consensus is that you shouldn't rush into algebra. I admit that I'd love to get some college-prep out of the way as soon as possible, and I would really love to bypass the 87 vs. 1/2 question entirely, LOL. But I need to choose what's best for my dd. Guess I'll watch this thread and have her take that other placement test...

I think the very basic stuff (alphabet) at the beginning of Book A would bore a child who's almost ready for Book B. You could go back a few levels, but I wouldn't advise going all the way to the beginning. And yes, one TM for you, plus one student book per kid. You need the TM -- it has all the instructions.

Phonics is done when you get to the end, whenever that happens. Slow down if he needs it. It will pay off and he'll take off again. A lot of people like the supplement "The ABC's and All Their Tricks." Haven't used it, but I've heard it explains all the why's of the rules. Short answer: English incorporates words from several different languages.

My 2nd grader is slogging through SM 2A. She needs more drill, and I can't seem to stay consistent with adding it into our day unless the book tells us, "Drill X,Y,Z today using these materials." I'm so lame. :lol: We have Math-It, we have flash cards, we have Flash Master, we have the demo for QMM, we've started Khan Academy (big hit, btw). Her brain is like Teflon. I see her falling behind like my oldest did, and I need to switch now. I love, love, love, SM, especially for all the conceptual knowledge it builds. But I need to give her something that incorporates lots of drill. Maybe I can switch back to SM when she has her math facts down. Does MM have enough, or should I switch to CLE? Any other suggestions?

This is my son to a T, only we left Spelling Workout behind. IIRC, we just did placement tests until he started flunking them. There are directions in the book, I think. We also skip a few things. Some of the exercises involve tracing or reading words, then copying them, then writing them from dictation. It's enough for us to simply do the dictation. We take 2-3 days to go through a lesson. We might get through all the practice exercises in one day, then do the spelling test the next day, then the dictation sentences the day after that.

Well, if it makes you feel better, I didn't specifically tell him to say sorry "right this minute." But I do hope he did it when he had some time to think about it and say it sincerely.

I thought that was the biggest problem. You are the one who brought up the argument about his actions being limited to "his own family," so I was answering that objection. I didn't know about my dh's shoes until yesterday, fyi.

I think I should add that we have several scouts in our pack who are "on the spectrum"/special needs. Their parents have them in scouts expressly for the social conditioning aspect of the program. One family in particular has a kid who's a real handful. They don't use the special needs handle as an excuse. They must be exhausted, but they are on top of that kid every minute. Someday, it will pay off.

Look, my kids are neurotypical. But they're still kids, and they don't come out of the womb knowing how to behave. They have to be taught. And I'm finding that it takes them a long, long, long time to learn. Either no one told me this when I first had children, or I wasn't listening, thinking I'd have no trouble responding the right way every time. (HA! Yes, I really was that delusional.) The worst part is, they have me as their mom. I'm such a royal screw-up it's not even funny. Too many times I don't behave the way I expect my kids to behave. But I'm still tasked with the job of doing it. I still have to give them a goal to aim at. I've had people criticize me in public before, and it stings. And if they're right about me, it stings even more. But I have to decide what to do with that information. If they're wrong, it's no big deal. If they're right, and I've screwed up, I need to be a grown-up and humbly admit it, and resolve to do better next time. That kind of self-reflection is painful, but necessary. Do I gain anything by shooting the messenger and reveling in my own self-constructed perfection? I don't want to minimize any pain people have caused you over the years by coming right out and insulting you, or calling your special needs kid names, or anything else like that. I guess I look at this new world we live in, where you're not supposed to give anyone else even a hint that they are less than perfect, lest you shatter their world to pieces, and I realize I don't belong. I'm from a world where you see your own faults and try to improve them, and you try to help other people (especially the younger ones) do the same. I think the general emphasis in our culture on "tolerance" has ironically made all of us a lot thinner-skinned, and it emboldens more people to foist the intolerable on everyone else around them.

He assaulted my eardrums; does that count? He dumped rice on my husband's shoes; does that count? He inconvenienced the people who came to help his mom clean up, and slowed down the line so the 200 people behind him had to wait even longer; does any of this count? It didn't happen in a vacuum.

If I judged anything, it was one kid's behavior at one point in time. Not his value as a person, not his mother's technique. I said nothing to compare her child with my own. Standards I've set for myself and my children? They include not dumping food on the floor and throwing a fit; they include not talking to adults in authority so disrespectfully, especially not to one's parents -- special needs or not. They include apologizing when you've wronged someone. Do your standards exclude these simple things? Or are you simply trying to say that if a standard is not perfectly attained, then it can't be held at all? I mentioned all these things in my OP. Or did you miss that?

And if you had done that, I would have replied with something to the effect of, "I'm terribly sorry. I meant no offense. I wanted to help, and I could see that he was giving you a hard time. Here's a Kleenex." Wow. This is just... I don't know quite what to say. You seem very angry and defensive, and it's apparent I've hit a nerve.

Whoa, nelly! I'm away from a thread for one day and it just takes off! Where are all of you when I'm hemming and hawing over history curricula? LOL. If I'd just been able to find a place to set down my own plate, I've could've helped her clean up. That's what I really wanted to do. I do hope she took my remark in the spirit it was intended -- as one of support, not criticism.

We were in the food line at Cub Scout camp today, and I heard a woman ahead of me say, "<Kid's Name>, NO!", while a whole plate of food toppled to the ground. (Yummy chicken cordon bleu, rice pilaf, green beans, mmmm. :drool5: Sorry. Back to the story.) Little boy, about five years old, had knocked the plate out of his mom's hands because he refused to eat the food. He was going off about how he was just going to eat cereal and who knows what else because he didn't like that food and he was going to eat whatever he wanted. Lots of loud, "I don't like that!" and a bunch of other things -- just completely disrespectful. It was the kind of thing where you could tell food battles were the norm at home, and the mom's lack of effective response showed that this kid ran the show. The mom was in tears and muttered that she was going to have a nervous breakdown. She looked like she felt completely helpless. I felt so bad for her. I wanted to help her pick it up, but I had my hands full and no good place to put the food down, so I mentioned to the volunteers that "we need to get this lady another plate of food." They said they'd clean up the mess. I have no idea whether this kid was special needs, or having a bad day, or simply being a spoiled brat, or some combo of the three. But I could tell that Mom was down to her last nerve, and this kid was stomping on it. (I call these "Madagascar Days": a large shipping box, tape, and Media Mail postage to Madagascar. Airholes optional. :lol:) I wanted to say something to the woman to encourage her ("Hey, it's OK. We've all had tough days with our kids," or some such thing), but she just looked like she wanted to be invisible. Kid was still mouthing off, and when he finally paused, I looked at him and said very calmly, "Young man, you do not talk to your mama that way. You need to tell her sorry." He actually got quiet for a minute, but as I turned away he started mouthing off again. Sigh. I wasn't really expecting him to apologize, but maybe I put a thought in both his mind and his mom's that his behavior was out of line, and that she shouldn't have to put up with it. Then again, maybe she was ready to go all mama bear on me for addressing her little angel instead of her. :001_rolleyes: Maybe I crossed a line, but I felt like I had to say something to let this mom know that she wasn't crazy. And to all you moms who've had day after day like this, I just want to say that you're only being driven crazy. You have not yet arrived. Trust me -- not only do I live there, I'm the mayor. :D I hope tomorrow is a better day for each of you. (And if you need a "consultant" to take your little darling on a pilgrimage to the woodshed, I charge a very reasonable fee. :lol:)

I'd go with Canon or Epson -- something with separate ink tanks.

You and I are hair-based twins. Long, brown, thick, wavy hair, and we hate to fuss with it. And neither of us have a personal stylist to make our hair camera-ready. However, I do like to blow-dry mine if it means I won't feel cold when I go outside.

To me, it looks like they took the picture right as the hat was falling down the front of her head. But no, it's on purpose. I guess it's pretty impressive... for a phylactery.

I thought Posh's hat looked like a piece of See's candy. Did she glue it to her head to keep it from falling off, or did she just have to hold it up with frown lines?

Well, I'm not 40 yet, but having inherited my dad's FIVE-head with lines so deep I could plant crops up there, I'm rethinking the whole bangs idea. Maybe I'll get my hair cut like Amanda Tapping has it in "Sanctuary."

Along these lines is my dd's current fave: "If vegetarians eat vegetables, then what do humanitarians eat?"

Love Story? Gahhhhh.