You've done a good one-off sig.
To do a more 'solid' sig, look at the page. At the top on the left, you will see "User CP". Click on that and it takes you to a window with your details. On the left hand side is a column headed "your details" and at the top of this is "Your Profile", then the next heading below is "Networking" then below that is "Settings & Options". In the "Settings & Options" list is "Edit Signature". Click on that and it should talk you through it. You could take what you've typed here, copy it and then paste it into the sig window.
I'm a bit puzzled - why the $1000 fee for Distance Ed? I thought there was a Dept of Ed version of this in Queensland, as in NSW. Or are you talking about a private school version of this?
And a brief housekeeping point, just getting in ahead - I probably don't need to tell you, but just in case: the Christian background for you and your husband is something in common with my own family, but on this site we need to ensure that we don't push any particular barrow too much, so that we can avoid risking making anyone else feel uncomfortable or out of place. We can say what we are, but we leave it at that. The site is primarily for people who are struggling with children who are challenging. You & I may have our own ways of dealing with this in terms of spirituality in common, but others have their own different ways which are equally valid.
The rules apply to political stuff too, so we don't disenfranchise anyone who really needs help here. The help comes first.
And purely from one Aussie to another - they're also fairly strict here on what language we use, in terms of not being offensive. This can be tricky for us Down Under, because words which are acceptable here are often NOT acceptable overseas. I've had my knuckles rapped a few times! And vice versa - I am horrified sometimes at ways other people express themselves. But there are words which are in common use in Australia (commonly heard uttered by our political leaders in the highest places in parliament) which will get censored by this site. The censorship is on two levels - first, there is an automatic censor tuned to certain words (some of which I still don't get) and also the moderators watch us like hawks. Which is good - I feel relieved to know that any flamer causing trouble on this site will be quickly squashed, I had some bad experiences a few years ago on other sites and still get nervous.
Now, back to the meat of my reply - is your Distance Ed connected to a private Christian school? Or possibly a subscription to a private school correspondence curriculum? If so, it could explain the cost.
The Distance Ed we use is part of our public Dept of Ed and is for a range of purposes. We can't just plug into it because we have chosen to home-school, but if the reasons for home-schooling are related to disability, to health issues, to school avoidance/school phobia, to people who are travelling, to kids who are heavily involved in sports, performing arts or have other reasons for not being able to attend school regularly. I noticed in our most recent school newsletter, they had a special "mums & bubs" session through the correspondence school, for all the teenage mothers who have chosen Distance Ed to help them through their education during maternity. A good initiative, I felt. Of course we weren't told about it ahead of time - difficult child 3 isn't likely to need a discussion on breastfeeding while you study! The school would have only informed those students for whom it was specifically relevant.
A couple of things to consider - have you looked into Mathletics? It's a bit like a more expensive (and heavily promoted) computer maths tutoring package, but it's cheaper and we found it through difficult child 3's correspondence school which subscribed to it for a couple of years. Instead of spending thousands for a computer licence, Mathletics is A$99 a year per student and spans the grades from K-12. We let our licence lapse in December but have been thinking of spending some of our Rudd bucks on renewing. There are also some really helpful computer packages which can help.
A word of caution with Mathletics - you need to be on Broadband and preferably with recent upgrades of internet browser. Dial-up won't do it.
They may have a telephone query line in Brisbane, plus I tihnk it's a 1300 number anyway.
From your draft sig, you sound like you've got the homeschooling down to a fine art. Do you have a homeschoolers social network in your area? We have one near us but we don't get along there, I've heard good things of them though. They're worth either checking out, or even starting one yourself if you haven't already got one.
Sometimes I think I'd prefer homeschooling to what we do now, but there is a lot of paperwork involved, trying to meet government requirements. But on the other hand, the freedom to instantly modify a lesson to suit the needs of the child at the moment, I think I would really love. We have still done tihs a bit at times - difficult child 3 said one day (we watch ABC TV schools programs, between 10 am & 11 am on weekdays), "I'd love to go see the mangroves after school."
So we did - we went a bit early and just walked around the mangroves near our home and were able to consolidate a lesson from the TV, by having a close-up look at aerial roots, plant succession, the soil reclamation and the fish nurseries you get. It really hit the lesson for a home run.
We've done it with rainforest as well. Plus when we travel - same story, we get difficult child 3 to keep a travel diary and we try to cover as much as we can in terms of education opportunities. And now whenever we travel, difficult child 3 asks to go for a walk through any mangroves there are.
On the topic of fostering - I have a close friend with a foster son. His mother is also very disorganised. But then - I'm not brilliantly organised myself, when it comes to prescriptions. I leave all our repeats with the pharmacy, all I have to do is turn up and say, "Can I have another supply of...?"
The packet tells me how many repeats I have left, plus the chemist will also tell me. It also means that one shop keeps all the records for us so at tax time we just get a printout from him for the medical section of our tax form.
Could you suggest something like this to the bio-mum?
Thinking back to your 8 year old ward, the encopresis could be related to Asperger's. Where is she at, in terms of assessment? It could also explain any apparent intellectual disability. Aspies are often a lot brighter than they seem; both my boys are very bright, but 'failed' their first IQ tests. We were initially told, with both boys, that they were "retarded".
We know better now.
Again, welcome aboard. You sound like a very together lady who has already put some good strategies in place.
Marg