Oh stop Stop STOP already:lol: I just bought History Pockets American Revolution thinking that I was done buying up resources for our study next week. I suppose I could find 1 Scholastic title and use the $10 coupon. But then how do I choose??? And what will the dc think of all the extra work to do?

Here's a link to ours. Includes photos of my kids' pencil grips (a past and present issue), and also their handwriting. http://teachafish.blogspot.com/2011/08/pencil-grips-and-handwriting-samples.html We used HWOT in the beginning through 3rd grade, and then I dropped formal handwriting practice. Now we're working on Italics Cursive (I don't have any of those samples yet, since we just started).

What about Killgallon? Sentence Composing or Story Grammar. I'm wondering if you could take apart the sentence "chunks" and then try putting them in different orders? Or, you might be able to try that with the Daily Paragraph Editing book (not its intended purpose, I know - but some of the sentences are rather clunky in there anyway.) Another thought - what if you took older, forgotten writings to edit? I'm tempted to try this with my kids. There is less of an emotional connection to older writing than current writing. If sensitivity is an issue, you could even point out how they have really improved in their writing since the older piece was written.

OhE, I'm just thinking aloud here... My dh just recently wrote and published a sci-fi novel on Amazon Kindle. He's in the middle of writing his 2nd, and I'm his editor:) This is making us talk a lot about the writing process, and how we arrive at communicating certain thoughts. We are both middle brained people, but certain aspects of our thinking tends to fall in different camps, lol! He writes with more left-brained thinking strategies. Before he writes a chapter, he makes a list of all the things he'll include in that chapter. He generally thinks in a linear, organized fashion. He's brilliant and can also think in a crazy, creative right-brained way, but he tends to attack things in a very linear, strategic left-brained way. Whereas, when I write, I type a lot of things in a big heaping pile on the page, and then hope I figure out what I'm trying to say at the end of it. Or, I leave it to my audience to find meaning in what I've said. Dh detests my writing. I've always aspired to be a writer since I was a little girl - so I took this very personally at first. It wasn't until I read SWB's intro to WWE (for the 50th time) that I figured out WHY I'm a bad writer:) My eyes have been opened! Simply put: my writing is unclear. I realize my biggest problem is trying to figure out what I'm saying. Secondly, I think rather visually, so I have some of those VSL struggles in putting things on a page (how do I WRITE those images that I'm seeing in my brain?) But I think this visual problem is secondary to the first issue: how do I figure out what I'm trying to say, and then present that clearly to other people? Often, I don't arrive at that until after I've vomitted words on the page. I use writing as my method of discovery, and then edit later. If I edit, then maybe I can make that heaping mess into something worthwhile. Anyhow, I mention this because I wonder if your dd has the same thing going on in her head. Fortunately for me, I love writing, so writing things 20 times doesn't bother me. But it would be nice to arrive at a clear, concise idea, and set that to paper the first time! I think you may be on to something, though, with teaching writing by linear thinking.

I love what Faithr said:001_wub: I have to remind myself of that. I've always been the type that hungers for information, and loves to dive into a stack of non-fic library books. It would be impossible for me NOT to model a love of learning. I'm having to re-define what an "environment of learning" and what "love of learning" looks like for each of my dc. I see that their own personal relationship with information is very different from my own. Strewing works fine for my 8yo, who has a strong emotional tie to things (she's very feelings oriented). This does not, however, work at all with my logical, practical, "just give me what I need to know" 10yo! Love of learning for her is very hands-on, real life application. I'm still working out the mechanics for this one. I'm not sure whether I should teach her how to run a tractor, put together a computer, and oil change a car...or what? LOL. I'm still not sure what gets her going. I do know that she'll never get excited by a stack of non-fic library books, or a bunch of Sonlight novels, or a lapbook. I have to remind myself that she actually IS learning vocab and real life stuff that I wouldn't think to teach her from all those Babysitter Club books she's reading right now. She gains a lot from watching movies with subtitles turned on (she loves subtitles, lol!) And, I'm discovering that this child will always need some unhappy pushing to move her forward. Unschooling would not work for this child. She hates school, and reminds me of this daily (which is always like a shot thru my heart...). But I'm realizing she needs fact-based education and she is finding some (dare I say it?) "joy" in memorizing the facts that I assign. She also needs to somehow practically incorporate that info so that it is useful to her. This is very different from my vision of "love of learning", LOL!

I think there is a video on youtube that explains lattice multiplication and why it works (it might be a khan academy video). The video explains the place value in the lattice and why it gets you to the right answer. But no, the place value is not obvious, and lattice multiplication outwardly appears to be more of a parlor trick:) It is not something I will teach my children.

We did flashcards (guiltily, since sightwords aren't popular, lol!) but even that wasn't what made reading click. It was real, honest to goodness books that did it. None of that controlled phonetic reader nonsense. It was saying things like "oh look, that word starts with an 'e' and there's a picture of an elephant, so what do you think that word is?" Yeah, I know. Sheer evil. But her reading is fantastic now, so our quirky method of guessing didn't ruin her:lol: I like that. I also liked what one of the other posters said about quantity rather than quality. I think that's our aim this year. I'm just so timid about making her write, because hearing those complaints is just so miserable for me. LOL. I need a backbone. I'm reading some posts from Nan in Mass now, thanks for the tip! Furry ears...sigh...I have trouble figuring out which things to listen to. If I listen 100%, then we won't do school at all! LOL. But if I can hear just the right things, I get a good clue for what we need to be doing. Sometimes. But sometimes mules need a good pushing. I have trouble pushing mules, lol. One of our most successful writing escapades was last summer. We took a trip to Chicago museums and dh assigned a 10-page essay about our trip. I thought he was insane! Does he know that dd doesn't write? Anyhow, took a month, and we worked together to brainstorm lists of things we visited. We went online to the museum websites to find more info about the things we saw (add content to the essay). Dd typed the essay section by section. Then, we sat together and edited. I did most of the editing (modeling), but sometimes asked her advice. At the end of this, dd had a 10-page essay of her trip. It was time intensive for me, though. This year, I have one of those toddlers that you keep mentioning. Argh! Dd doesn't focus so well when her toddler sis is throwing WorldBook Encycs at her head. That's it, right there. You just explained life as we know it:)

I'm excited about this thread because its giving me new ideas. I have a dd who is a bit...different:) She seems to fit the profile of auditory/sequential in her learning, but only up to a point. Then, she really needs a real world application with more of a whole-to-parts structure. I'm finally starting to figure this out, but writing has me baffled. She's pencil phobic (likes computers though, so I really need to start those typing lessons!) so the idea of "brainstorm your ideas first" on paper is a no-go. Why do more writing than is necessary? The idea of correcting and re-writing is a no-go (again, why? once is enough). I've never been able to name her learning style, because it seems to incorporate a bit of everything (auditory, visual, kinesthetic). The closest I've come is concrete-sequential ("just the facts", needs explicit, laid-out instruction). When we did WWE, she was so frustrated because I was taking her through the process of finding the basic info and answering questions in order to lead her to a good summary. Finally, one day, she grabbed a piece of paper and pencil and said, "can I just write it?" She saw where I was going with the step-by-step writing instruction and just wanted to get to the destination. Learning to read was similar. We beat phonics like a dead horse. She knew all of her sounds. We went through SWR until list I (the magic list that makes reading happen). But she just couldn't get the sounds out fast enough while reading to be a real reader. So I ditched phonics and we went straight into children's picture books. I'm glad I gave her the phonics (parts-to-whole), but to make it work we needed the whole-to-parts practical real life application. I think writing is the same way, but I'm not sure how to get her past the simple summary writing stage. I'm off to research the resources that you've all mentioned. I'm wondering if an imitation style might work, or not.

I'll throw this out there from our experience: My oldest's thumb went up the pencil and didn't seem to be used for gripping. The pencil was held by her first two fingers. I tried everything - nagging, pencil grips, more nagging, more pencil grips. I even made one of those goofy rubberband pencil bracelets for her to wear, lol. Nope. I finally gave up. Dd, now approaching 11, holds the pencil just fine now:) I'm seeing her younger sis, approaching 9, doing the same thing. The younger also has extreme trouble with scissors and holds it upside down to cut. Everyone criticizes her on this, and she just melts down. I've tried working with her, but its very awkward and painful for her to hold scissors correctly. So, I think what's really going on is weak hand muscles. My older did a lot of sewing, crochet, making bracelets, etc. I think all of the crafts helped strengthen her grip enough to hold the pencil correctly. I used to notice her hand would cramp up and hurt after pinching her pencil for a few words. Now she doesn't have that trouble. She still has lousy handwriting, though :glare: Fixing her pencil grip/hand strength did not help the handwriting, lol. So I think grip is related to muscle tone. I'm making my almost-9yo do hand strengthening exercises and we'll see what happens! I'm also giving her arts and crafts to do. Cursive did not help my oldest with handwriting. It added more confusion, and her letters looked ugly, lol. So this year we're trying Italics. We'll see what happens. I picked Italics because cursive Italics is more like linked print. The letters start at the top, not at the bottom like other cursive. There aren't any weird awful loops (which was making my dd's handwriting look very cluttered). And she doesn't have to try to remember how to make a whole new letter, when sometimes, just getting her b, d, and c in the right direction is enough to make me cry. (And YES, I have seen backwards cursive letters - argh!). I don't want to discourage you from cursive, but thought I'd put my experience out there. It's possible that I just didn't nag enough or stick to cursive long enough or endure enough complaining while enforcing it to see it really click. (That's very likely true - maybe if I'd given it more time and a lot more attention, it would've been the answer for us).

I should add: I'm not too worried about letting my kids read something strong in one opinion, even one that I disagree with. I'm constantly confusing...I mean challenging...my children with different ideas. When Sunday School tells them one thing, I challenge them to think, "is it true? is there more to it than that? is it possible to believe something else?" Same thing with science: they get a lot of young earth creationist ideas from some science texts we use and from church, but they also get a lot of evolutionary ideas from supplementary books we read, from sci channel documentaries, and yeah, sometimes from their mama;) Same is true of history. I don't read everything that I assign to them, but I also know that I'm filling their minds with all kinds of different opinions. I know that whatever they throw out to me, I'll challenge it with opposing information. My poor children. Sigh. I often wonder how confusing it is for them to live with me, LOL!

Yes, I think so. I really had to just pick something relatively independent this year and not go out of my mind searching and planning:lol: I have a 2yo, so everything is geared toward that. So far, the kids read 1 chapter (or half a chapter, if a chapter is long). They write a 3-5 sentence summary of what they read. I'm getting ready to ramp up the 6th grader's writing by having her write a 1 sentence outline for each paragraph in the chapter (she's gonna hate me, lol). I also pick something from Sonlight's core D&E to read alongside it. They read 1 chapter of that every day, as well. Once we have read through a time period, we take a break from CLP. We finish up our novel and do a research project/written report for that time period. So far, we've gotten through Colonial Times, and are getting ready to begin American Revolution. For Colonial Times, we read Witch of Blackbird Pond alongside the CLP chapters. Then, the kids had 1 week for a writing project on Colonial Times. Next, we'll read CLP's American Revolution chapters alongside Johnny Tremain. I may slip in the American Revolution History Pockets, too, to keep it interesting.

We use Daily Paragraph Editing by Evan-Moor. There are 4 days of paragraphs to edit each week, and then a writing prompt based upon the week's theme on Friday. I have both kids doing 4th grade. I think the practice is challenging enough for my older child, too (6th grade). They needed my help, at first. Now, they edit as much as they can, and then we go over it together. It's not 100% independent, because we do discuss the answers or the mistakes that were missed. Also, some of the answers are open to interpretation. For example, one sentence yesterday read something like: "Rats I was hoping it would arrive today". One child used a comma between Rats and I, while the other child used an exclamation point. I believe both are correct. The TM said the comma was correct, but after discussion, we all decided we liked the exclamation point better. I wish I had purchased the e-book, because scanning the pages from the book and then printing for my kids is becoming a headache.

Need some direction. If you have an older child that CAN write, HATES to write, struggles a bit with the mechanics of writing (i.e., forming letters legibly, making spaces)...how do you procede? I'm not at the point where I'm shouting "Dyslexic!" yet. I almost yelled "Dyslexic!" when teaching her how to read. Turns out, she really just needed less phonics, and more real world reading. So, now I'm thinking maybe the same is true of writing? If so, how does that look and how do we procede? She's overcome pencil grip issues and letter reversals. Now, she needs to work on spacing between words, and making those capital letters into lowercase letters. Well, here...I'll just show you (it's on my blog). Whenever she struggles with something, it is always a matter of timing (is *she* developmentally ready for it yet?) and practice (am I giving her the right kind of practice to develop that skill?) I've seen it with reading and math. Now I need some direction with writing. I think she is developmentally ready now (she tends to be a bit slower coming to those points), so I need to provide the right kind of practice. If you see her alphabet on my blog, it isn't bad looking. She can write nice and put spaces in when she tries, but it really slows her down and seems to be the area of contention right now.

subtitle: our homeschool is in utter chaos So...the 2yo climbs on the school desks and throws pencils during school time. Or grabs World Books off the bookshelf and lobs them at her 10yo sister during math. Or fights for dry erase markers and... dare I go on? I realize this post makes me sound like Bad Mommy. She's not quite ready for 3yo type activities (her only color is YELLOW, and will even describe the rainbow as "yellow". and gets angry when you give her yellow, because she actually meant pink or some other color). Here's what we've tried: Sorting activities - not ready to sort bears or count bears. But she can THROW bears. TV shows - not ready for those, very little interest except 2 secs of Wiggles. Lacing cards - no, not really... Flashcards - yes, love these. All over the floor. Chew, spit. Stickers - we eat these. Finger paints - we were really into these this week, but now we're into scooping it with our fingers and throwing it. Water - yes, we like water. Water, water, everywhere... Library books - yes, we like those, too. Rrriiiipppp! Am I supposed to do some sort of child training thing? (I've never been much of a child trainer type of person). If so, pretend I'm an idiot and tell me step by step how that all works. Or, am I just supposed to embrace the chaos? (This too shall pass, and I'll laugh about it when she's grown).

Our last 2 years have been very LIGHT, so hoping to work on specific skills. Here is what I have planned (both have fall bdays and are young for their grade levels): Young 6th grader: Horizons Math 5 (quickly, finish in half year, start 6) Getty Dubay Italics Handwriting (need to fix handwriting) Typing (free programs online, Word Doc practice) Grammar - undecided. We've hit grammar over the head for soooo long at the expense of writing. Spelling - probably Sequential Spelling, start at Level 1 Writing - write summaries, outlines in History and Science. Occasional journal writing, word sprints, etc. Daily Paragraph Editing (Evan-Moor) History: CLP's Exploring American History, list of literature from SL cores 3/4, History Pockets gr 4-6 Science: Elemental Science Biology (Logic) Young 4th grader: Horizons Math 3 (quickly, finish in half year, start 4) same as 6th grader on everything else, but with lowered expectations on the writing, history, & science. Spelling will also be at a slower pace. She is also reading from the same lit list (she has good reading skills). Last year, our school days were 1-1.5 hours long each day. This year, I'm trying to ramp up to 3-4 hours. We also have AWANA, gymnastics, co-op, and field trips. I don't think we have time/patience for logic, foreign language, etc. Need to get those other skill levels up, I think.

Do you have a link? When I go to the Plato website, all I see is options available to schools (and you have to sign up for more info). I'm wondering how homeschoolers can use this in their homes, without the local school district? One of our area schools is using Plato for 1st-5th for their virtual school option - they are offering these classes for at-risk students and for homeschoolers. But then they switch over to e2020 at the 6th+ level. I've been curious about the program, but didn't like that the school switched to e2020 after 5th grade, so I've sort of discounted using the program at all. We've used T4L for the past year now. From the demonstration I saw of Plato, it looked very similar to T4L, except T4L lessons seemed to have less graphics, but far more humor to the lessons (Plato was very serious and straightforward in its presentation).

LOL! Thanks for checking on your past orders, and thanks to everyone for the bump:) If the last one was in May, I'd think they'd have another one in the Aug-Sept timeframe. I'm kicking myself for not ordering the books I wanted back in May!

Thanks Chrissy - just a little more info... She tends to be a bit slow with certain developmental things. I had been very persistant with pencil grip and letter formation, up until the baby was born 2 years ago. She wasn't gripping her pencil correctly, and she was confusing b and d (and some other letters). In the 2 year break that I took from hammering her with handwriting practice, her pencil grip corrected itself (???) and she is able to turn her letters in the correct direction without thinking about it. However, her original solution for letter reversals was to capitalize those letters, LOL! So now it is just a bad habit to have a smathering of B and D intermixed with lowercase letters. She has demonstrated that she *can* put her letters in the right direction, she is just far more comfortable with those capitals, argh! I really think (oddly...) that it was a developmental thing, until now.

If you were going to remediate an almost 11yo's handwriting, how would you do it? We need to work on both legibility and speed. She can write a simple narration. I make her write a 3-5 sentence narration for history every day. But I think we really need to work on the legibility and speed of writing this year. I'm thinking of getting Getty Dubay Italic. Would this be a good font for legibility and speed remediation? If so, what level (is level C too young?) Any other ideas? I'm also tossing around the idea of doing a Word Sprint (write as many words as you can on a topic in 5 mins), and weekly journal, as well. I think we need to work more on building up the physical act of writing, and then focus later on the actual content. BTW, cursive bombed here. I hate the looks of it, and it slows her down.

Anyone know when the next Scholastic Dollar Days is again? I missed out on buying some books last time and I'm waiting until it comes out again:)

I'll answer a few questions, as this set-up seems slightly different per group, and definitely varies in different states. I am aware of 3 hs groups so far in MI starting this. One is religious in nature (has "Christian" as part of its name. I do not know how religious beyond the name). In my local area, we're looking at - No mandatory standardized testing, but it will be available for free* (see below) Part time, non core classes (keep homeschool status, but sign up as part time at the local school) Full time virtual academy, but still homeschool status (get computer, internet connection if needed, but parent can use the full time program as they see fit. I.e., if parent wants to skip Darwinism chapter in science, they can). Student can progress as quickly or slowly as desired (can accelerate the schooling). Grades are not tracked or kept. Student does not receive a diploma from school if this option. *I think gr 6 and up, testing is mandatory with the full time option. Full time virtual academy, public school - student is now officially a public school student. Gets all same things, except, parent must follow virtual academy program. I don't think they can accelerate under this option. However, student would receive a diploma at end of high school. Student also has option of participating in 5-yr highschool with credits counting toward an associates deg. I read on hslda's site that they do not oversee participation in public school activities. I think as long as the student still legally is called "homeschooled", then hslda would still be an option for them. I think the full time v.a. homeschool option is iffy - I think there are still some unresolved issues here. I think we're still lacking a good solid definition of homeschooling with this option. MI is a very relaxed state to hs in. No testing, no reporting, no registering. You just start homeschooling and your off the grid. It's typically only the families that enroll in ps, and then pull the student out to hs that have the most legal problems. Also, this is only something that School of Choice can do.

About 2 years ago, virtual academies opened their doors in MI. Now, all of a sudden, the big thing is Homeschool - Public School Partnerships. This is all very new in MI, and many of us are skeptical and distrusting. The idea is: the public school partners with a homeschool group. The members sign up as a part time public school student, or virtual academy student. Public school "counts" those homeschool students, gets money, and then shares it with the homeschool group. Homeschool group gets free non-core classes, field trips, community classes, etc. Apparently, hslda isn't opposed, so long as the parent is responsible for 51% of the education. Are these partnerships common in your area? How do they turn out? Are there any legal ramifications? (i.e., has anyone called this "fraud"? or has there been any legal problems for homeschoolers for participating in this?) I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this whole idea. It seems to be radically changing homeschooling in my state.

HI Sherri! I was going to ask you last night what you were using for pre-alg, but ran out of time:) If you like Horizons and are comfortable with the format, it might be worth sticking to for one more year (I don't know what their plans are for future levels). Since you are using LoF, too, you probably have all of your bases covered (and then some). I don't know, pre-alg scares me, lol! Thank goodness there are a ton of videos and hands-on activities online to help with that. I know there is one website that allows you to set up your algebraic equations using blocks, so you can see what is really going on. Khan Academy has great videos - I have already used them to understand fractions and long division. They also have a badge program (free!) where you can watch the videos, solve the problems, and earn a badge for each section mastered. Just another option, in case you find the explanations lacking in whatever you pick.

How do you schedule History Odyssey? Do you have to use it daily? Can you do a 2 day week? I'm looking at doing Elemental Science 2 x per week, and then history 2 x per week. Also, would Ancients Level 2 work OK for a 4th and 6th grader? They both read very well.

Another plug for Brewer Testing. We've used them 2 years in a row now for ITBS. Fast service. You do not need to get a pre-qualification to order the test. The site says you need a bachelor's degree to administer but they don't make you prove it. I do not have the degree but my dh does, so he administers the test.