Happy Anniversary!! That's such fantastic news!! You have a lovely family. :)

Thank you. :) We are very proud of her as well. :)

Awesome!! :) I had that happen to me too just the other day. We were out shopping and dd figured out the discount on something she wanted to buy.:) It was great! :)

Gasp!! Someone was looking out for her! :)

I was surprised myself to hear your problems with the car because Honda typically enjoys a reputation for high quality. I didn't realize it had such high miles on it. Yes it seems you've gotten quite a few miles with it in those 6 years and I guess a new transmission isn't that far out on a 6 year vehicle. I apologize for any misunderstanding with my comment about the lemon law. When I read your original post about the transmission problems with the Hondas I thought you were saying that the transmission problems were prolific for this model type. That is why I thought that you could find a recourse through the Lemon Law. I'm sorry for my mistake. :blushing: Blessings, Jennifer

Me too!! I am learning so much myself. I never got far in math in my own schooling so I'm enjoying learning along side my daughter. I have had quite a few "ah ha!" moments this year with the Singapore. It's challenging, but it's a wonderfully thought out and executed program. Now wonder those kids in Singapore consistently score so well in math. :) I'm so happy that your dd is understanding more. That's wonderful! :)

:( That's too bad. :( What about the lemon law?? Is there anything thing you can do with that?

If the car has a history of transmission problems, I'd take advantage of the Cash for Clunkers and get a Nissan Quest instead. :)

Wow!! That's so scary! Thank God they didn't go earlier in the day. That happened down the street from me too. Literally like 4 or 5 blocks away a bank was held up and there was a hostage standoff with the police!! We had no idea what was even going on there until we saw it on the news that night. We were floored when we saw how close it was to us! :eek: This is a crazy world we live in.

:) Thank you. :)

Oh that's great!! Yeah, my dd loves the workbooks too and that they are so skinny! hehehe It makes her feel like she's doing less. :p I wish you success on your journey! :) Blessings, Jennifer

Saxon is a solid program, but it has A LOT of practice problems which just wasn't a good fit for my ADHD and Asperger's dd. Even when I assigned just every other problem it was still too frustrating for her. A friend of mine recommended Singapore and she liked it much better right away. First, she liked the look of the book. I know that may seem arbitrary, but the way a book looks is important to her and if it's all black and white with no pictures she loses interest very quickly. She liked that the books were small, she loved the pictures of the kids and all the colors and she also liked that there were a lot fewer problems than Saxon. Singapore is a mastery program. It is tougher than Saxon to be sure that is why I had to start a year before her actual grade level when I transitioned to it. But, I LOVE how it teaches you to think not just solve a problem that looks a certain way. It has a three pronged approach to teaching new topics and even my dd who has neurological issues was able to keep up. You can see sample pages at their website. Singaporemath.com Just click on which book looks interesting to you and you can see sample pages of that book. :) My dd is not mathy either. In fact it is her worst subject. The last evaluation that we had while she was still on Saxon she scored in the 36th percentile for math. Last year for 5th grade she scored in the 39th percentile. And improvement, but still low. I figured that might happen since we had to start a grade earlier in the Singapore and she couldn't possibly finish all of 5th grade and 4th grade math in one year. This year she scored in the 82nd percentile. I was totally blown away! After such a modest increase last year over the year before I wasn't expecting much more this year. I was so happy when the evaluator showed me her scores and my dd was beaming with pride! :) It was so great! :) Since your dd is so young, you can take advantage of Singapore's Standards edition which I hear is even better than the US edition that I used. They have a placement test also on the website that you can administer or just look over for yourself and see where the skills fall on the grade levels for Singapore. It worked for us. Maybe it will work for your dd too. :) I wish you all the best. :) Blessings, Jennifer

:) yes it can! :) Thanks. :)

DD just had her end of the year evaluation today and she went up in math 43 points!!! I figured her scores would go up some, but I never expected a jump like that! We switched from Saxon to Singapore 2 years ago when she started the 5th grade. The Saxon program is good, but it just wasn't a good fit for her and there were a lot of tears and frustration when we would do math each day. When we made the switch to Singapore, I had to start her in 4A & 4B. Since she was in 5th grade I decided to do 4A, 4B and 5A last year and this year we did 5B, 6A & 6B. The poor kid has had to do school over summers for the last 3 years, but it was worth it. She is much less frustrated with math and her scores were through the roof. Now that she is starting Singapore's 7th grade program right on target, I hope that she will be able to take it a little easier and enjoy her summer next year. The evaluator told us that she is in the 91st percentile for all basic skills and when dd heard that, she told me that it made it all worthwhile. She left feeling a foot taller! I'm so glad that we made the switch. :) Thanks to all who read this and share the joy with me and my family.:) Blessings, Jennifer

I have to tell you a funny. I took dd to Pizza Hut for her celebration lunch after her evaluation and right next door to the Pizza Hut was an IHOP. hehehe I thought of you! :p

hehehehehe I LOVE babies and I used to teach 2 and 3 year olds in a preschool! :)

OOOH I want to come to your school! :p How nice that you're taking them to breakfast! :) I'm taking my dd to Pizza Hut for lunch after her evaluation tomorrow. :)

I'm finishing school tomorrow. :p My dd has her evaluation at 10 in the morning. I'm going to give her a week off and then we'll start 7th grade. :) My son goes to ps (Autism cluster) and his is a year-round schedule so my dd will have 3 weeks off soon in November when ds is home. :) Today I'm just getting everything together for the evaluation and then tomorrow I'll start planning my schedule for 7th. Thank God I already have all my curricula purchased. :)

The homeschooling regs are pretty easy. I send my letter of intent each year to the school board along with a pass/fail slip from a certified teacher. I do portfolio evaluations which are really just samples of the work dd does throughout the year. The evaluator looks at her portfolio, asks her some questions and that's pretty much it. She gives me a copy of her scores for my records and gives me a paper saying she completed the grade that I send in to the school board. I've never been contacted by anyone from the school board and have never had any problems. There are several support groups in my county alone and there are lots of opportunities for homeschoolers to get together for field trips, monthly meetings etc. We have annual school pictures, student id cards, a year book, senior prom and promotion nights. We also do spelling bees, georgraphy bees, science fairs, co-op etc. In Broward County we have His Players drama group where they put on wonderful (professional quality) plays and we also have SAINTS which is a p.e. program for homeschoolers. :) There's lots going on for homeschoolers. :) **edit** I just thought of this. http://www.fpea.com/ This is the link to the Florida Parent Educator's Association. There is tons of information in there about homeschooling in Fla, requirements, laws etc. :)

My microwave is always immaculate!! :D :p hehe

Oh EWWWW!!! We had an infestation of cockroaches in one of the houses I lived in when I was a kid! I'm still traumatized by that! YUCK!! That new roach kill gel from Combat is great stuff! I cannot spray for bugs in my house because of my son, but that gel attracts them, they eat it and then take it back to their nests and then when they die, the bugs in the nest eat them and they die!! :eek: It sounds pretty awful, but I haven't seen a roach since I've been using it over a year now! The palmettos fly in sometimes, but we kill them pretty quick with my heavy chunkyheeled cuban sandals! ;) :D

Double post! Sorrryyyyyyyy! :blushing:

LOL Too cute! :)

LOL Good luck! :)

Bring a cooler for the car. It's a loooooooooong drive. ;) :p