Well, if you're in Texas, you have to eat at Whataburger. I like the Justaburgers or Whatachickens, myself, but my older brother dreamed of Whataburgers when he lived in Maine. Don't have any teens yet, but my tween loves the Ripley's Wax Museum and also the Believe It or Not, both right across the street from the Alamo. SeaWorld is a must-see. The Shamu show alone is worth the exorbitant price of admission. We love Rudy's Barbecue (get the lean brisket -- delightful). San Antonio has a couple, and out toward the suburb of Leon Springs, which is not far from Fiesta Texas (a Six Flags Amusement Park). Oh, and for breakfast, go to any hole-in-wall mom and pop place you see, and you will get the BEST breakfast burrito (although they are generally called Taquitos here). The tortillas are usually homemade. My fave is bacon-egg-potato-and-cheese. DO NOT get your taquitos from a fast food place or convenience store. It must be a shabby-looking restaurant or lunch-truck. The BEST.

Maps Charts Graphs Comprehension Plus Winning with Writing (none of these are mathy, but they are worthwhile and independent)

LL Bean carries Sunwashed Canvas Cropped Pants that are fabulous! Super comfortable and lightweight. They are my warm weather wardrobe essential this year, and I live in South Texas so I know about warm weather. The Sunwashed canvas shorts are great, too, but too short for me when I sit, so I went with the capris. I look forward to trying out the long pants when winter comes back around. Love them! They look really cute with a coordinating t-shirt.

Ability to tailor the curriculum to the child's learning style. Knowing exactly what your child does and does not know. Ability to promote a love of learning rather than making education a drudgery to the point where even valedictorians think that what they spent all that effort doing was just pointless and only proved they know how to do what they're told. (Wasn't there a youtube video on this?) Ability to celebrate a child's strengths and explore them further. Giving hours of one-on-one teacher time to the child every single day. (What's the statistic for regular school? 3 minutes or something?) Making sure your child has enough sleep. Flexibility. Promoting the values of the parents rather than the values of the child's peers. Family vacations can be taken any time. Being sick for a few days doesn't mean that the next several days will be spent in pain of doing hours upon hours of make-up work, in addition to normal workload, all while the child is still not feeling 100 percent. Not having to deal with snarky school secretaries or other school officials who think they know better what to do with your child than you. I could go on and on.

If the albuterol isn't helping, I'd get her to the doctor right away. Breathing problems are not to be messed with. I don't know anything about parasites, but it does seem like they may be related to this illness, given the start times. ETA: I just looked up waterborne parasites and some of her symptoms match. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterborne_diseases Please, get her to a doctor right away.

Rod and Staff Grammar is thorough but black and white, and my dd hated it. Abeka Language 3 has color, but my dd didn't do so well in it either. I suppose it's more interesting than R&S. If you want fun grammar, you might try The Sentence Family by St. Michael School.

Maps Charts Graphs BJU Heritage Studies Evan Moor Literature Pockets All software by Critical Thinking Company

Could it be heartburn? Like from stomach acid? Try milk and some bread and see if that helps. I don't know anything about strep, so I have nothing to offer there.

My dd is right brained, and math has been torture for us for a long time. We've tried lots of different programs. This year, for 6th grade, we are going to be doing Singapore Math 3A and 3B, US Edition. We had been trucking along happily in Singapore Math, Standards Edition, for 4th grade, getting through 2A and 2B. Then 5th grade just tanked. The Standards Edition was no longer a good fit. Tried Teaching Textbooks, and a few other things. This year, we're back to Singapore, but using the Singapore way instead of the California Standards way. My dd definitely needs mastery. I pray it works. I think it will. 5th grade wasn't a total mathematical loss, by the way. We did get the multiplication facts memorized (we used a combination of Memorize in Minutes, Dianne Craft Right Brain Multiplication Cards, and Times Tales). We're cementing them for speed this summer, but things are going well in that area (Abeka 3 speed drills book plus Abeka Multiplication Flash Cards). If we don't get to Algebra until high school, so what? Let me say... I majored in math in college, and I love math. I am a very sequential person. My dd is not at all, and teaching her math has been super super hard. It has made me not like math, at least at these lower levels. Give me Calculus any day.

We had a lot of success with creating a schedule for special days like Scout Days or Church Days. Use colorful clipart, accompanied by two word captions, to detail everything that needs to be done. Add times if needed. Print it out on a piece of cardstock, laminate it, hand it to the child. Then the only redirecting you do is "are you working your schedule?". This works particularly well for children who have great visual memory and not so great auditory memory.

Just had another thought. What is her learning style? You said "doesn't seem at all interested in following any directions whatsoever." Are you giving these directions verbally? Maybe she's not auditory? If you want her to read the directions herself, maybe that's not working either? For my dd, she has to read the directions herself, but aloud, to hear herself say them. Even though she's primarily a visual learner, she needs to hear herself say stuff like directions to actually comprehend them immediately. I am thinking it might just be a learning style issue. Are you asking her to write too much? Maybe you should teach her to type. I would recommend really trying to figure out HOW your dd learns best. It will make both of your lives so much easier. I think she's pushing back to tell you that this way is not working for her.

For copying stuff, just make her redo it the wrong parts. Every time. My dd had problems copying also. I would have to specifically point out what should have been done and that copying meant exactly making everything the same, including spelling and punctuation. Some kids understand this automatically, some don't. Mine didn't. Sounds like your doesn't. If she misspells words like you mentioned, I would brush up on some phonics rules. For the math, what worked for us were incentive charts. For every math assignment that was perfect with no corrections, she got a box checked. Once she filled up her incentive chart, she got a ten dollar toy. Word problems earned extra boxes. If the concept was confusing that day, she might get a box just for trying, but if it was something that she knew and it was mainly practice, then they had to be perfect papers. We did this for over a year, with much success. HTH!

For your watery eyes, they have over the counter eye drops called Zatidor or Alaway. My optometrist recommended them for me, since I have frequent allergy eyes. You could also got a prescription for Pataday from your optometrist, but it's the same stuff and more expensive. They work great, by the way.

I went to college there, and we enjoyed the College Deli (if it's still around). The hot holly (a sandwich) was awesome! The Cheese Shop (a different place) makes good sandwiches. You can also get great bread ends and house dressing from them. Yumminess!

If he is advanced in grammar, maybe Easy Grammar Daily Grams? Or Evan Moor Daily Language Review? Spectrum Spelling? Evan Moor Building Spelling Skills? For comprehension and context clues, you might look at Modern Curriculum Press' Comprehension Plus series. It's full color and has letter levels instead of grade levels, so you can go back as far as you want. Also, you might try Reading Detective by Critical Thinking Company. For vocabulary, how about Scholastic Vocabulary Cartoons of the Day? There is also Garfield Vocabulary Escapades for Middle School. Queen Homeschool makes some decent vocabulary books as well. If you don't mind lower than grade-level stuff for vocab, we have liked Super Duper Inc.'s Core Curriculum Vocabulary Cards. Marie's Words (from Timberdoodle) look promising, but I am thinking they are for older kids.

Mardel carries A LOT of homeschool curriculum. Hobby Lobby has started to carry a little bit, too, although they have more science kits and hands on stuff. Half Price Books often has a decent homeschool section. Teacher stores like Lakeshore Learning Centers carry a lot of good stuff, especially hands on things, but not so much the more common homeschool publishers.

It wasn't too bad. I did have to talk to a human on the phone to get it all done, but it wasn't too aggravating. That was a few years ago. I think it might be easier now, and possibly the on-line registration works well for homeschool now. I think they improved it. I don't think you have to register to order from their Teacher Store. (Although I'm not positive. Since I am registered, it hasn't really come up.)

Well, I got it here, from Scholastic: http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=26235&langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10004 but you can see it better here, at Mardel: http://www.mardel.com/store/item.aspx?ItemId=362843

I only used Abeka 1 with my dd, and she was reading at about the 6th grade level after we finished it. So my vote is skip Abeka K, and go straight to Abeka 1. And use all the "optional" flashcards.

We enjoyed the Language Smarts series from Critical Thinking Company.

Berenstain Bears Science and Nature Treasury. Scholastic Grammar Tales, Punctuation Tales, Parts of Speech Tales, and Idiom Tales (my dd loves all of these!). Usborne Time Traveler. Any of the Usborne Beginner books. History Dudes books. Mike Venezia books, especially those about artists. Graphic novel biographies (check out timberdoodle.com). My Father's Dragon. Any of the Great Illustrated Classics series. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Chronicles of Narnia.

Colorful bulletin board sets and posters. Seriously. I was going to teach place value in a few weeks up to trillions, but I got my bulletin board set from Scholastic early and put it up. I don't have to teach place value anymore. She's got it. Also like the workbook series Maps Charts Graphs for map skill and geographical stuff.

Any science kit should suit your purpose. Science Wiz kits are very good. There are also Young Scientist's Club kits and Magic School Bus kits. Perhaps NOEO Science might be what you are looking for, if you want a bit of structure? Evan Moor History Pockets? If you want crafty stuff. I have also often that that those toobs at Hobby Lobby with the army men and samurai guys and pioneer people would work awesomely well with a history program. Here's an example from Amazon of Jamestown settlers. http://www.amazon.com/Safari-LTD-Jamestown-Settlers-Toob/dp/B000GZGF3A For grammar, what about Montessori materials? http://www.amazon.com/Montessori-Basic-Wooden-Grammar-Symbols/dp/B0079F1OPE

Do you not want to buy separates? Catherines has really cute tops for sizes 16-18. I would think you would have to pair them with skirts in your 10-12 range from elsewhere. LL Bean and Lands End also carry nice plus sized stuff, more casual of course.

Scholastic published Grammar Tales and Parts of Speech tales, which are story books. Some of them are written by Liza Charlesworth.