I took a 4 week roadtrip from Maine to Idaho&Utah with 3 kids alone this summer. We had a splendid time until we ended up with food poisoning. We were all in urgent care, 3 of us on IV fluids, and a round of Zofran for all. Spent an extra day in Wyoming that was unplanned, but the people were great.

I opened this thinking it must have something to do with Pokémon, maybe a tough level on some video game. Must say something about the level of Pokémon-mania at our house now, right?

I went went the never fail rubberband on the watersprayer for whichever family member turned the water on first. I'm now soaking wet.

We usually just chop up and place a large plate of assorted veggies or a salad on the table at dinner. 3 out of 5 of us refuse to eat almost any cooked vegetable, but love crunchy raw ones. So we have whatever the main course is and veggies. Seconds can be taken after all the veggies are eaten. It's drastically cut down on the dinner drama, and I get to cook one less thing.

We've always said we'd make decisions each year based on each kid. We've never brought them home from b&m because we were really unhappy with them, situations just arose that made other options a better fit. Dd13 b&m kindergarten, homeschool 1-3, b&m 4-7, online public charter school 8th (current) Dd10 homeschool k-1, b&m 2- halfway through 5th, hsing the last half of 5th Ds8 b&m k-2 - his sisters are both currently home for school, and he's asking to come home. I think he's under a mistaken assumption that we play video games all day and he's missing out. We're giving it a trial run over February vacation next week, and will probably let him come home the rest of the year.

Thank you for the very thorough suggestions. It's a lot of information. It'll take a few times reading through to make sense of it all. But, really, thank you!

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I will call her pcp and ask about a referral to have her hearing tested and screened for an auditory processing disorder. Those ideas were never on my radar. Back in first grade I did notice she had a tough time hearing the difference between f,v, and th. Her teacher said it was developmentally normal. Within months, her spelling had improved, and we never gave it another thought. Makes me wonder if it's not just vowel sounds she's not able to distinguish. Im looking now for basic phonic books (she's a workbook kind of kid) to work through, but they seem rather "babyish". Any suggestions? Links to great websites with phonic games for older kids?

Last week we decided to bring out dd10 home for the remainder of the school year. We were doing a simple spelling assignment today where she needed to decide if the words had either a short a, short e, short i, or none of the above. She was unable to pick out the vowel sounds, or even separate the sounds of a word like 'cat'. I'm dumbfounded! She taught herself to read at 3, was reading Harry Potter in kindergarten, has always been at the top of her class working well above grade level in reading and spelling (just competed in the school spelling bee!). I guess we just assumed she knew the sounds. How do I help her? The simple request to circle the words with a short a sound literally sent her into hysterics. Even as I set next to her and slowly said each word exaggerating to sound, it seemed that she was guessing (if the word just had an 'a' in it, she'd assume it was a short sound, no matter the pronunciation). ETA: maybe I'm overthinking it? Is it really so bad if she reads completely by sight?

Dd13 was hsed k-3, and then went to ps 4-7. This past year she was diagnosed with a medical condition that makes attending a b&m school tough. We've tried to get her into one of our state's online charter schools, but have ran into a massive waitlist. So, we'll hs. She's excited, but I'm terrified! The pressure is so different this time around. She has been labeled as gt in science and language arts, and is working about 2 grade levels ahead in these subjects. I feel totally confident that I can help her with math and science, but her writing abilities surpass my own. She's specifically asked to study biology, coding, Japanese, and ancient world history. Biology - ck12 - can anyone recommend a good science kit or virtual lab? Algebra- ck12 History/Literature - beautiful feet ancient history - not totally sold on this Grammar - fix it grammar Writing?? She saw the Groovy Kids Fantastic Beasts and if possible, wants to fit in that class P.E. - she's a runner Coding- scratch? No idea where else to start Japanese- Mango, Irasshai, Skype with Japanese relatives, and numerous books she brought back when we visited. What are we missing? Thanks for any feedback.