We do a few thing on our own, but I most often go with the homeschool groups I belong to. $35/person is insane. Most of mine are $5 each. Some can be $7-$10, and very few (and they have to be super good) can be $11-$15. This is just for the child. Parents and siblings don't have to pay usually, unless we're participating. Almost all of the field trips we do are drop-offs and parents can stay on-site to keep younger siblings occupied (like at a museum, science center, zoo, or garden). At 8 years-old, my son is old enough to do the class without me. I enjoy chaperoning, though, so many times I'll sit in the class or tour with him (I also like seeing what he's learning). My 13y/o often comes along and I feel bad leaving her to her own while I'm in ds's classes, but she passes for a chaperone most times, lol. My groups do lots of "field days", game days, playdates, clubs etc, but we're not interested in those. We stick with the educational trips. Although, if there was an issue with ds and no friends, I'm sure he'd want to participate (those are free, btw). I belong to 5 different homeschool groups. All of them have full calendars of trips, classes, tours, and get-togethers. We just pick and choose what we like. I actually just planned a class for this Wednesday for 7th to 10th graders (at a film museum). It's $5 each for a 45-minute video-game making workshop and 90-minute tour of the museum. Great price for all that I thought. The best place to start looking for places to go would be your state or city's tourist websites. Call places and see if they have workshops for certain age ranges. It's not hard to put something together. Does your group have an email connection site like Yahoo or Google groups? Yahoo now has an RSVP application thingy that is awesome. Think about what your ds likes to do and go online. You can even start with your own neighborhood. Pizza shops will let 4 or 5 kids make pizzas. Ice cream shops love giving tours. Whole Foods gives an EXCELLENT tour (with lots of free samples!). Factories and facililties in your area might do tours as well. Call a nearby farm, nursery, botanical garden, zoo, or tourist attraction and see what they can do.

My all-time favorite Broadway show is Les Mis (saw it 3x). I also loved: Chicago (with Bebe Newirth and Ann Reinking) Lion King (2x) Annie Get Your Gun (with Bernadette Peters) Rent (3x) Phantom of the Opera Ms. Saigon Beauty and the Beast (2x) Forum (with Whoopi Goldberg) Grease Didn't care too much for Aida, Movin' Out, Ragtime, or Saturday Night Fever. Off Broadway I loved Schoolhouse Rock Live!, Little Shop of Horrors, and Vagina Monologues.

Yes. I bought TT5 for my ds at the end of 2nd grade. We're half-way through 3rd grade now and we both love it. The beginning of each level is always really easy - being a review of previous years. This works well for ds who seems to need a lot of repetition (and he loves being able to zip through the lesson, lol). New concepts are learned throughout the rest of the CDs but always with the continuous review of previous lessons. I'm not sure if we'll continue with TT next year (I have all the LoFs I'd like to try with him as well as researching other programs, like MUS or something).

My youngest is 8 1/2 and we do tons of field trips. We try and do at least one a week - sometimes 2 or 3 a week. Usually these are set up as on-site classes and ds just loves them. I think they are very worth it - especially since ds is very hands-on and learns best by being immersed in something. What annoys me are the ones that are expensive or far away. I avoid those. Unless it's something truly spectacular, I won't spend more than 30 minutes traveling there. My favorites include: a behind the scenes trip into American Airlines (we got to sit in the pilot's seat in the cockpit and visit the air-control tower), Central Park (Urban Rangers and Zoo School classes), the Botanical Garden, the Queens Farm, and the NY Hall of Science. There are so many more I loved - too many to name. Check out my blog to see all the trips and classes we've done. :tongue_smilie: Usually, if it's a field trip day, it takes the place of any scheduled academics. Sometimes the trip is after 1pm, which gives us the morning to get some schoolwork done (a lighter version). This is why I love using a weekly schedule instead of a daily one so we can finish the week however we like. If we skip a day, we can make it up later - or plan ahead for it.

I didn't take it as a personal attack. I was responding to this statement from you: "I am surprised, too, as it does not meet the requirements listed in the Part 100.10 regulations". Because it's not true. The problem lies in the fact that many districts take it upon themselves to overstep and ask for things not actually in the regulations. This can be caused by the over-eager parents who can't wait to prove how much better they're doing than the public schools, so they send pages and pages of stuff they've covered. This tends to set the paperwork-sending bar higher for other parents. This is also caused by district personnel who just have no clue. When parents blindly accept that they have to provide this or that even when the regulations don't ask for it, it creates new rules and that district becomes known as "strict". Not that this is happening in your particular district, but it's terribly rampant around the state. 20 miles away from me in New Jersey, there aren't these ridiculous regulations. And each distrit in NY interprets the regulations in its own way. Why is that? The truth is you absolutely can be very minimal with your paperwork. I even knew of one woman who used my sample in her "strict" district and sent a highlighted copy of the regulations along with it. She was confident and proved to them she knew what she was doing. They never bothered her again. There are certainly those districts who thrive on giving parents a hard time. I made mention of that under my quarterly sample - that a district may in fact ask for more info, and I offer other suggestions. Thankfully, these are not the majority.

Daybreaking, I've used this for 5 years with absolutely no problem or so much as a question. My district appreciates the brevity. I am in NYC where we have over 3000 homeschoolers. Many parents use this format and have thanked me for saving them hours and hours each quarter. I have even been invited to present my paperwork to new homeschoolers to alleviate that fear all NY homeschoolers initially have after looking at the regulations (in fact I have another presentation coming up soon). The NYC Central Office of Homeschooing regularly reads my blog and the only comment they've ever left was about updating a zip code on one of my paperwork samples. I consistently receive congratulatory compliance letters, too. I know it's minimal but these formats work for me and for dozens of other NY parents (could even be hundreds based on the number of emails I get) - from NYC, Long Island, and everywhere north. It's OK to disagree. To each her own. :D

My son (now 8) was the one I noticed this with. He was very active in the womb and very active out of it. This is funny - whenever I would cough or sneeze while pregnant, he would startle. I mean really jump. After he was born, he still did that whenever I coughed. Dh and I laughed hysterically. His whole body, legs and arms went straight out. That's exactly what it felt like before he was born. :D He also hit every fine and gross motor skill really early. He's still an extrememly active kid.

Don't try to do the whole museum. Besides the dinosaurs (4th floor), try to visit the Discovery Room. It's a cool little hands-on playroom for kids. Also the Hall of Biodiversity is awesome. It's always been my kids' fave. And right next to that is the underwater room with the life-sized blue whale hanging from the ceiling. Go under it and lie down on the floor. :) My kids also like the Human Origins room. There's some nakedness going on there, but if you don't mind that, it's such an interesting exhibit. Most of the other exhibits are mainly animals, people on each continent, and rocks. I usually bypass those - kids find them a bit boring. Look online and see if that's something you'd like to skip. Food there is expensive. We usually go out the front (2nd floor exit) and get a couple of hotdogs right there and eat them on the steps. Way cheaper and fun to people watch. Central Park is right across the street. Try to get in some of that while your there if it's not too cold. Have a great time and let us know how it went!!

Ok, well, as fabulous as the AMNH is, your kids may have a better time at the CMoM. Being only 4 and 2, CMoM is more geared toward their ages. AMNH involves a LOT of walking around and can be really overwhelming and boring for preschoolers. I just think CMoM has so much more for them to actually do. Save AMNH for when they're a bit older. JMHO. :001_smile:

According to the AO site, kids are to be read to until about age 9 or 10, and then they can start reading some of the selections on their own. It is advanced and the point to get them used to really good writing. They'll start doing written narrations (composition) around this time, too. It may sound like it's a late start, but the narrations (done with every scheduled reading) and the copywork lay the foundation for excellent composition skills. You can combine the readings, but I have found that keeping kids in their own Years is pretty easy. I had ds doing Year 1 and dd doing Year 4 last year. I read to him and she read on her own - completely different time periods - and it worked fine for us. They had their own timeline pages and were at different levels anyway, so for the 15 minutes a day spent on history, it was easy enough to keep them separate.

I think we follow AO pretty closely. As an example, here's what a Monday usually looks like for my 8yo ds: Math, Poetry, Copywork, 3 AO readings, and Nature Study. We start on academics around 10:30am. Ds likes to do math first. We use TT5 and it takes him about 20 minutes to complete a lesson. I sit with him for most of it - he likes to show me how well he does, lol. Then we'll sit on the couch and read 1 of the scheduled readings. AO gives a weekly schedule (as opposed to a daily one) so we can break the readings up any way we like. After I read to him, he narrates back whatever he remembers. This can be one important fact or a whole summary. I don't give him questions or prompts - unless he's stuck (one small lead-in can unleash a whole summary, so I do know he was actually paying attention). Then I read him a poem by the current term's poet. After that he does copywork. He prefers using poetry books for this. He'll read me the whole poem out loud, then wrtie out the first 2 or 3 lines. He knows to follow the punctuation and capitalization precisely and use his best handwriting. Then we'll read another scheduled AO reading with narration, followed by a few pages of one of the free reading books. Right now we're doing Doctor Dolittle. We update a Book of Centuries whenever we read about something that can go in it. Maybe he'll draw a picture on an index card or right in the notebook and he writes a caption (name, date, event, etc). This is when we usually have a snack. Each day we do 1 "special" subject like Artist Study, Nature Study, Composer Study, Art/Science project, or French. Mondays we do nature study. We pack up a few things like a magnifying glass, colored pencils, a field guide and a notebook. We follow the current term's nature study - this term is trees. We spend about 20 minuts outside just observing, drawing, looking up info, and relaxing. That's it. We're usually done before 1pm. I keep the lessons short and the afternoons free. Twice a week he does a Master Reader lesson (reading and spelling help) to help with his mild dyslexia. He'll do independent reading on his own as well. Sometimes we'll throw in some mapwork or science workbook (he loves doing science projects). He does about 3 or 4 outside science or history classes per month with the homeschool group as well. By the time he's 9 or 10 he'll be writing out his narrations and doing some dictation exercises. We try and follow as much of the Charlotte Mason method as we can.

He sounds very bright and creative. Do whatever you can to foster this creativity. My ds is also 8 and is all into claymation, animation, cartoon drawings, etc. We got him a videocamera (not expensive). Now he makes movies, animations, skits, and interviews. Maybe you can help your ds start a blog. Use it as a place to showcase his homemade books, products he wants to sell, and as a journal for more of his ideas. Of course you can keep it private - only open to family and friends. It's funny, but this is the sort of thing all the unschooler blogs I read talk about. It's all about following the child's lead this way and being in-tune enough to know how to help them move further. Here are a couple of my favorites blogs featuring creative unschoolers. HTH! http://unschoolgirls.blogspot.com/ http://circletheworld.blogspot.com/

2 hours a day is the usual for us.

Bury a small statue of St. Joseph upside somewhere in the front of your house. You don't have to be Catholic. I've never known it to fail. :001_smile: Prayers going out your way.

We have a set payout amount allotted for each paycheck. We don't save receipts (I'm so not good at that). We love using envelopes. Bills are paid 2x a month (rent, bills, and debt are lumped together and all done online). We designated dh's paychecks for that. (Gasoline is always done on the same card, so we pay it with the bills). My weekly paycheck goes to groceries (food & household). I do 2 regular supermarkets one week and Costco on the alternate weeks. My monthly sales check gets broken into the envelopes. We have categories for: Gifts Dance tuition Dance competitions Clothes/Shoes Homeschool group classes/trips $40/week to keep on me ($160 in the envelope to take from each week to use on myself and the kids) $30/week for dh to keep on him (morning paper, coffee, lunch out, etc) Copays (medical, dental, vision, prescrip) Miscellaneous The categories change around sometimes. Every now and then when I want to do shopping, movies, restaurant, etc, I take from the Misc. envelope. We also always leave a cushion in the checking account, just in case. It works great because we can always see what's available in the envelopes so we plan accordingly. I used Quicken a long time ago. All it did for me was categorize my spending, which wasn't worth the time it took. I already know what we have to cut out (dh and I talk about how we're so bad with the "friv"). This is the best system we've used in almost 17 years of marriage. We're both in charge of it (ok, me mostly, shhh, lol) and both always know where we stand.

My ds (8) is also doing TT5 and I feel no need to supplement. There is lots of review, but ds likes that for now. I do keep cheapo workbooks on hand since he does tend to enjoy doing math, but it's not required of him. We have the first 4 LoF books that I may start with him next year.

My ds8 is using TT5 and is doing really well. I feel it has improved his mental math and reasoning ability. It constantly goes over what what learned in previous lessons and this has him doing all the review in his head at lightning speed. He loves math more than ever. And we also follow a Charlotte Mason approach (AO Yr 2). But, although my ds loves the heavy recap of previous lessons, your dc may not. Basically it gives about 10 problems to do on what you just learned, then about 20 on older stuff. Ds is good with concentration loves workbooks and worksheets. OTOH, Dd (now 13) used TT7 last year (mainly as a review) and had a hard time focusing and remembering one lesson to the next. She has mild ADD and did better with books and me right there with her. So, it really depends on the child. Yours may do better with something like Math U See done on the computer. It's more visual and tactile than TT. That's what my next purchase would be if TT didn't work out.

When I started hs dd13 she was 8 and in third grade. Older dd was 11 and ds was 3 - both preferred school at that time. Ds decided to homeschool when he was 5 (he's 8 now), and older dd swore she would never homeschool - until she got in with a bunch of queen bees at middle school. She homeschooled for 8th grade only with every intention of going to high school (new school, new friends, new beginning). Dd13 and ds are still homeschooling, but dd13 will be going to high school next year. She's a dancer and already auditioned for 3 performing arts high schools (she has another callback next week!). I'm looking forward to having just ds home next year. Scheduling just one child is a piece of cake, lol (not just academics, but all the outside stuff).

Ooh fun. This decade: I had my 3rd child (first son, 2001) Dh went through 2 major job losses (2001 and 2009) I started homeschooling (2005) I started working after 12 years of being a SAHM (2006) Dd(16) started high school (2007) Both my grandparents and my uncle died My sister got engaged I sang in a cabaret I played Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof (comm. theater) Dd(13) started doing regional and national dance competitions Same dd auditoned for 3 performing arts high schools in NYC My 90-year-old apartment was completely rewired and renovated (new kitchen, new bathroom, new hallway, etc) Dh and I went to Italy for our 10th anniversary We got ds a "male" hamster that had 13 babies 2 weeks later :glare: We adopted a parrot

I'm hearing good things about Sink Reflections.

I plan on getting dh small bags of really good flavored coffee, gourmet dark chocolate, a small framed pic of the kids (for his desk at work), maybe a cute ornament (sports related), and a CD. I love doing the stocking for dh. :001_wub:

I try not to follow the ps calendar (which is hard since I have one - soon 2 - in ps). I'm leaning more toward year-round with April, August, and December off.

:iagree: When kids can read a book on their own without too much help. Decoding words and knowing a few words by sight isn't really reading, imo. My dd could point out "stop" and "exit" from signs before she was 2, but I didn't consider that reading. It was when she would sit and read a children's book had more than 3 words on a page, had more than a handful of pages, and that she understood the story that I considered her a reader.

Congratulations! We're going through that now as well. Dd plans on going to a performing arts high school. We've been to a bunch of school open houses and she's done 3 auditions. We find out in February/March if she's been accepted. It's amazing how much choice we have now as parents. I don't remember spending this much time choosing a high school when I was young, lol.

We have these all the time. They're Italian, in every bakery, and very big in NYC. RAINBOW COOKIES