This feels like the dumbest question. HOW do you help your child find colleges/ programs to apply too? I know there's that big thick book they sell about colleges & their stats (not sure if it's worth buying or not?) Then I know about the College confidential search engine (which I have not had much luck with). How else? I've just been googling places we already know about or that other people have mentioned having sucj and such program. There must be a better way to find places we don't know about! Thanks:)

We've had our NV 1.5 years now (before the Ford transits were available) I love it. Not as many perks as the Sienna had, but big:) I miss my automatic sliding doors on both sides & windows that go down in back & the fold down into the floor seating:( Terrible in snow (I'd always had AWD before), but with studded snow tires, it was a huge improvement, without them, you could barely turn around in a flat parking lot & could not get up our inclined driveway at all. It's huge though, & awesome! Get the tech package for the back up cameras. Drives good. Took just a few weeks to get used to.

I'd go for the special Ed preschool, for sure. The therapists: speech, PT, OT, & sped teacher should all work in the classroom with all the kids. For example, circle time may be planned by the teacher one day to go along with their weekly theme, then the next day by the speech therapist to work on language, with all the kids. Having all the disciplines in the same place every day all day usually works very well, as opposed to "just" getting speech privately a few times a week. You could also qualify for speech & other services at home thru the district in most places, but for kids with lots of needs, it often works better to get them in preschool so all the therapists are working together in a program, rather than speech coming one day, OT another day, etc. Good luck! Hang in there.

I just heard recently that the U.S. ones do indeed come with the guidebooks, so now we're going to try one:)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sample-Lesson-Traveling-Through-History-with-Doctor-Who-1394730 The forensic science books are on Amazon. Science Sleuths - Solving mysteries using Scientific Inquiry Forensic Science for Kids- CSI Expert

Minecraft stuff (t shirt, mouse pad, mug, etc) if he's into that. New Star Wars movie coming out, so I bet there's lots of Star Wars t shirts out right now too.

I should fess up though & say I do anything to avoid taking everyone grocery shopping:). Even with the teens, it's no fun.

What are your kids ages? I have 5 but their ages are spread out- two teens who either go off on their own & meet back up at a certain time or who help with the littles. A severly disabled 7 yr old someone needs to push in his wheelchair, a toddler, & infant. Toddler or infant go on my back, depending.

If you think MM is too visually cluttered per page, so is CLE. Less problems per page than MM, but my dc found it too cluttered per page & lots of pages per lesson. Lots of problems per lesson, lots of spiral review. I really wanted to love CLE. But my daughter cried over it... Even with crossing out un needed problems, it was visually junky & distracting, IMO.

Remedia publications has a decent selection of workbooks like that. We just got Menu Math & Market Math, but they might be a bit too low level for your kiddo. They have others though on a higher level, but still Life Skills math. Good luck!

We used Time4Learning as a trial for a month this year. It was " eh". Decided we prefer textbooks (easier to look back for info) & lectures of my choosing. Haven't tried their Writing site.

Remember that learning doesn't have to Stop at the door to the public school. He can still prep for AP classes, listen to Great Courses, read great books & discuss them with you, watch documentaries, take summer courses or programs, code, act, create, make music, (insert whatever he's "into" here)... Even if he goes to public school. Obviously public school demands will cut into his time, & you don't get to choose the basic curriculum, but it's certainly not the be all end all for life long learning:) It'll be ok. Lots & lots of very well educated people attended & still attend public schools.

Middle school co op things I've run the last few years: Mock trial using the Fairy Tales on Trial book Forensic science labs & solve a mystery (ordered teacher books off amazon) put on a play book club (prep for a library run 6 book trivia competition) art classes (ok, not run by me, but a local art teacher homeschool mom) Harry Potter Dr. Who History (used a curriculum) creative writing workshop arts n crafts (cartooning, Sculpey Clay figures, book/movie characters out of perler beads, paper mâché, holiday wreaths) Shakespeare (modern adaptation play for a small group)- another mom is running this later in year

Oh yeah, they'll definately hang in there! My son pointed out that none of the "3 day" groups got it either. We have a late competition, not till early Feb this year, so they have time, but I think they're a bit freaked out as last year their robot was built pretty early & worked well. I can't wait to see what all the other teams come up with! Last year we had a brand new baby & I almost didn't go to the competition, but I'm so glad I did, it was very cool. (It was our first FTC year, but had done FLL before) good luck everyone!!!

First Tech Challenge teams- Now that your teams have had some time to work on this year's challenge- how's it going? Does it seem super hard to your kids compared to the last few years? Don't give away your robot plans, but just curious how everyone is doing so far... Our team is struggling with design issues right now & having a tough time getting up the ramp bars, especially with balls on board. The new operating system doesn't seem too hard to use & they're confident about the coding, but the challenge is, well, a challenge this year, IMO:)

Oh, I'd consider adding learning about: weather/ seasons, gardening, animal care (pets or for food), & child care/ child development (but from your kids ages, I bet she gets that one already).. All science but more life skill style. Your local "extension office" may have classes for the public on food groups, gardening, etc that you could do together, or let you borrow their curriculum if you want one. The Remedia Publications catalogue has a decent selection of Life Skills & health stuff for SN students too.

I think nutrition, cooking, health & human body, reproduction, hygiene, dental & medical care of yourself, etc, is WAY more important than the "book work" science, especially if she's not grasping the book work. When I taught special Ed, for kids who were not getting regular diplomas (ie- they would get an IEP diploma or some places call it cert of completion), it was my decision as to what curriculum to offer & we usually chose to go with useful rather than what non special Ed students had to take. My higher functioning kids who had to take chem, etc & rarely passed would've been better off actually learning life skills rather than wasting time failing chem in a gen Ed room, IMo. Our local BOCES has an awesome grade 8/9 program where the life skills class plans & runs a restaurant one year (as their complete curriculum- they plan menus, cook, design Flyers, serve meals, take money, etc) then the following year does work in the community with a job coach. it's awesome. It sounds like she wouldn't be taking physics, chemistry, etc at the high school level, but of course, who knows? Regardless, I'd go with what she needs & seems ready for now, kwim. We just decided to ditch science with our daughter for now too, to focus on more life skills. Although she could read & answer the questions in my hi LO books, nothing was clicking either.

My 10th grader is currently doing a WWII elective, designed by me. Basically a HUGE reading list of non fiction & biographies, plus some historical fiction (he started over the summer & this will take all year- could probably take 2 years- I got sort of carried away with planning), a lot of documentaries, lots of fictional movies set in the time period, & the Great Courses WWII lectures & essays. Will probably sum it up with a big project of some sort, likely a research paper as he doesn't have much experience writing them. Also went on a trip to the Holocaust museum in DC & he's going on a trip to Europe in the spring where he'll do some related stuff too (I didn't plan a Europe trip just for this, lol. Grandparents are taking the teens) He's a history buff & we do re enacting, so he was kind of over typical U.S. history at the high school level & I couldn't find anything I liked other than college course type things which he doesn't have access to locally until next year (we didn't want an online class)

[quote name="Gwen in VA" post="6627774" timestamp="1445047300 Colleges are concerned that hs'ers don't know how to interact with others. Reenacting would not only break the "homeschoolers are always alone" stereotype but also be a great essay topic. (My oldest wrote one of her college essays on the question "aren't you hot?" that people always asked her when they was her in the heat of a Virginia summer dressed up as in the Revolutionary or Civil War era! The prompt was something about a question you are routinely asked.....) That's awesome! I've been asked that about a million times! Of course I'm hot, I'm wearing 2 wool petticoats & 3 other layers on top! The guys are wearing 2 wool coats & wool pants & carrying gear out in the hot sun. Yes, we're hot. My personal favorite most asked questions are: "do you really sleep in those tents?" And " is that fire real? (As I'm stirring a lot of something bubbling over the flames). Or-" is that baby real?" That one just confused me. Yes, my baby is real. So is the toddler I'm chasing away from the real fire;)

We are a re enacting family, several different time periods. Ds has used that background as a springboard for, of course, lots of good history knowledge, but also papers & presentations over the years. But as far as credits, nah. It'll be listed as an extra curricular. Even though he's planning on going into STEM, not history, it's still pretty cool & has been a long term commitment. As he's gotten older, he's one of the men on the battlefield & has quite a few responsibilities in the unit all summer.

Have you seen these free ones? We just usedTom Sawyer, it was fine. I looked at Lightnening Lit but it was pricey & the samples were about the same as these free ones. http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/

I'm not ready to give up on math yet, so I'll look into those suggestions. I'm really looking right now though, more for "what the heck is the future going to look like, math-wise for my kiddo" than "what curriculum should we use". Which of course, no ones knows without that crystal ball.... Like- how far can kids with her limitations actually get in math?

Memorized, no. Truthfully, we pretty much gave up on memorizing anything, ever. We tried some Ronit Bird stuff & she was adamantly opposed.

Sigh. Not sure how to word this post. Dd12 struggles with math. A lot. She's completed MUS through division, but really doesn't grasp multiplication or division. I let her use facts tables or a calculator. She's got memory issues & will still forget how to do double digit addition or subtraction if it's been a few days. Shes dabbled in TT & enjoys it the most (but doesn't get a lot out of it). I got CLE for her this year, but it's not going great. We used the placement tests & moved Her back to level 2. The stuff she knows already (addition & subtraction) she's doing some of the problems for review, I'm mainly using it for things like money which she doesn't know yet. Even with crossing stuff out, it's too much per page (not quantity of problems, but too busy a page, I think. I started a separate post about that). She said yesterday that it "makes her brain feel like she's trying to watch a bunch of different TV shows at once" She specifically asked for " real life math" (after I'd ordered CLE) so I also just got a few Menu math, shopping mall math, etc workbooks. I guess I just don't know what my expectations for her should be. (I'm a former special Ed teacher, but just am having a hard time translating that experience into expectations for my own kid). Her IQ is borderline. I'd like her to be able to add, subtract, multiply, divide, understand Fractions & money.. And when to use each operation in real life. I don't think she'll ever get algebra & I'm ok with that. I just don't know how much to push & what to expect that she "could" understand eventually, kwim? I don't want to short change her with too low expectations either. She's into dance, art, comic con events, Harry Potter. Loves audio books! But. Not. Math, that's for sure. The future scares the heck out of me, now that she's almost 13 & still not grasping basic math. Her reading skills did a huge leap this past year though & she's reading pretty well now, yippie! Anyone want to commiserate or share your experiences or thoughts? I appreciate it, thanks.

(Cross posted in K-8) I'm wondering if there is any other math program with pages laid out like MUS? - not too many per page, lots of white space, etc. We loved that aspect of MUS, but switched to CLE for the spiral, but am finding its too much visual stuff per page. (We cross out & don't do all of the problems, but the page is still busy). Basically, I want a spiral MUS... Thanks!