He's not Neal Patrick Harris is he? We love the Far Side in our house too. :) I love the one with the husky kid on the top of the slide and the spiders at the bottom with a web across the end of the slide who say, "If we pull this off we'll eat like kings!" I love the "bird's view of the world" one too. :D

Woot! Miami Heat 2012 NBA Champions! :party: :hurray: :thumbup: :cheers2:

Yep. :) Jean is not the only one. :p

Ay, I do this too. I get so weepy sometimes when i'm reading it's ridiculous! Dr. Seuss? I can't even read Oh The Places You Will Go without breaking down in tears. It always makes me think of my son and all the places he won't/can't go. :(

I can't tell who the man is. Who is he supposed to be?

You have to keep a portfolio and get an evaluation each year by a Florida certified teacher to submit to the school board, but that's pretty much it. I submit a letter of intent each year (for good measure :p ) along with my evaluation results and I've never once had a problem with anyone from the school board. They also have virtual school here too. I know a few homeschoolers that do Florida virtual school with success. :) Florida has a large homeschooling population too. There are lots of opportunities and activities for homeschool families here. Our homeschool group has a drama club that puts on gorgeous productions, we do field trips, have monthly meetings with speakers and lots of get togethers. We have spelling bees, geography bees, science fairs, prom, promotion night every year yearbooks. The whole thing. :)

Absolutely! :) I wore my Miami Heat shirt all day today. I hope they win. When the Dolphins let us down we have the Heat to lift our spirits again. :p hehe

WooooT!! Anyone else watching the game? Post here only if you're rooting for Miami! :p ;) :D hehehe

Awwww! :grouphug::grouphug: Congratulations! What wonderful news! :) :party: :hurray: :thumbup: :cheers2:

I have a special love in my heart for old school Ibanez guitars. I own several dating from the 70's & 80's when they were in their glory days. I also have a 20th Anniversary Road Flare Red RG550. :drool5: Ibanez guitars are known affectionately as Ibbys and since I love my Ibbys so much I'm Ibbygirl. :)

My secret weirdness is that I LOVE to play heavy metal guitar. The heavier the better. LOL I love to be hooked up with one of my Ibbys into my amp through some pedals with serious distortion and just tear it up. I'm in hog heaven. I also really love cars and Brazilian soccer. Yeah, I think I should have been born a guy. :tongue_smilie:

I'm Jennifer. I found the these boards in 2009 while I was searching for a used curriculum. I had never heard of Susan's book at that time and was thrilled to find not only the curriculum I was looking for, but a whole thriving community here. I read TWTM shortly after being here and it really resonated with me and gave me a good plan to go on right at a time in my home school journey where I was needing a more structured plan (we started out as quasi un-schoolers). I really appreciate that there is a board here for special needs kiddos as well. I have two children on the Autism spectrum and it's nice to know I'm not alone. :) I have been homeschooling for 13 years now. I'm married and live in South Florida. :)

LOL Awesome! :D

Thank you so much. No she's definitely not going into a math/science field. She really wants to go to art school, but most likely we will only be able to afford a regular 4 year college. Okay I had to ask. Are you really doing Lord of the Rings for English?? Or do those initials mean something else?? :p I'm so curious. :)

Oh this is heartbreaking! I'm so sad for them. Praying here.

I'm so sorry about your SIL. :grouphug: I'm glad he got caught up though. He sounds like he is doing amazingly well! :) How exciting that he got to go to Europe! :)

Doodler you are a treasure! Thank you so much for your posts! :) Can I ask you what outside books you had your dd read? What was most helpful for her? That Algebraic thinking book you mentioned sounds really interesting. I'm off to look it up now. Thanks for the rec. :) Thank you so much!! This is so helpful. I did realize the need to slow way down once we hit the wall with Algebra in 8th grade. We've done it for 2 years now and it's just now starting to click for her. I used Kinetic Algebra for 8th grade thinking it would help her, but the rigidity of the it just frustrated her so much even if the visual aspects of the games and stuff were helpful. She would just get so frustrated how it would mark answers wrong if it weren't in a specific answer format and it made her really dislike using it. :( We have been using Straight Forward Algebra for 9th grade over a traditional textbook and that has been better for us. I know she's not going to fit a traditional schedule because of her disability, but I do want to prepare her as best as I am able with what she is able to do for the PSATS. Dual enrollment looks enticing, but at the same time I don't want her to be overwhelmed, kwim? Thank you. That's what I thought too. I read somewhere that the PSAT only has like 4 problems or something like that from Algebra II whereas it has many more Geometry problems on it so it was better to have Geometry first.

This is so awesome!!! :hurray: :) Thank you for this. It is reassuring. :grouphug: I'm really happy for the moms who have bright and mathy kids. I think it's wonderful that they can do the work and keep up with the challenge. I wonder though for a child like my dd who is not mathy and who has difficulties with processing and understanding due to her Aspergers what is the best path to take. I realize it's going to be different because of her disability, but as far as the sequence goes there must be a reason for it beyond just "this is what you take next" kwim? What is the reasoning behind the sequence in the first place and the benefit of that order I guess is what I'm wondering. :confused: And btw Doodler, this isn't all directed at you! I'm not expecting you to have all the answers. :p I was actually just using your comment as a springboard and throwing it out there generally. :) :grouphug::grouphug:I know exactly how you feel. Believe me! I second guess myself all the time and hope and pray that I've made the right choice. I think at the end of the day you have to do what you feel is the best thing for your child where they are at and make the best informed decision that you are capable of making at the time. That's all we can do really since we never know how something will play out until it's behind us. I can totally empathize with your agony though believe me.

Sigh. I wish I knew. I keep dealing with the same feelings. My dd is my eldest child and she just turned 15!! I just can't believe where the time has gone. How did it slip by so fast?

Thank you ladies SO MUCH for sharing your schedules with me. :grouphug: For those of you who are doing Alegebra II and Geometry together can you tell me how that works? Do you teach them simultaneously or one after the other?? :bigear: Also, my dd is on the Autism spectrum. Math has always been her weakest subject, but she had always managed to keep up with her grade level until we hit Algebra. She did Algebra I for 8th and 9th grade (we had to slow waaaay down and spend a lot of time on each concept until she finally got it) and I have my Geometry already purchased to do in 10th, but I'm not sure if I should be doing it for 10th now or if I should be doing Algebra II?? Or should I do them together? What would be the best route for a kid who struggles with math concepts and needs a lot of time and practice to "get it"? Thanks so much for your guidance. You ladies are SUCH a wealth of help, support and information. :) :grouphug:

So many of you are doing Algebra II in 10th. :ohmy: Those of you who are doing Algebra II have you already done Geometry? I thought I had to do Algebra I in 9th, Geometry in 10th and Algebra II in 11th? :confused: I was planning to do Geometry in 10th.

My dog can't fly? What? Your dog can't fly? :confused: I wonder what is wrong with it? I thought all dogs could fly. My dog can. :)

Awww he's so beautiful!! I can't believe it's been 7 months already!!! :)

I don't know whose husband that is, but he looks uncannily like my neighbor Tim. :ohmy: hehehe Tim is unmarried btw. :p

My dd will be in 10th grade next year and I'm getting her schedule finalized and would love to see what ya'll are doing. :) Thanks to all who reply. :)