I loved BJU English, up until this year when I bumped dd up 1 grade level (she was excelling and the work was too easy). Now we're sort of struggling a bit. I've noticed that BJU 5 combines topics all on one page, and that's partly what's causing the problem (not sure what gr 4 is like, since we skipped it). Otherwise, I do enjoy BJU English. It's short and easy, and most of it is explained on the workbook page. I like the pictures, bright colors, and themes. I like simple and colorful. I just wonder if we missed something in BJU 4, having skipped it:confused:. Every time I look at Rod & Staff, I start to hyperventilate. I just know I could never use it. So that would be on my "hate" list. However, the kids have had such terrible attitudes lately, I've been tempted to lock them in a room with Rod & Staff for 2 weeks as punishment. Just as long as *I* don't have to look at it, we should be OK:lol:

What if you did 1/2 year of Rod & Staff English, and 1/2 year of composition? Many programs are divided this way, so I think it's OK to just do half year of each. I'm not sure how these particular programs are written - you may need to skip some things to make it work. Consider also dropping Wordly Wise. You have Spelling. You have French. You also have a lit discussion group. That would probably cover all of the vocabulary that you need. Editor in Chief might be another one you could shelve. If she is editing quite a bit in her writing course and/or in English, then a separate editing program might be more overlap. Definitely keep the things she enjoys! The list is very heavy on Language Arts. Not a bad thing...but if something needs to be dropped, that might be where you start weeding. I remember in high school I had so many Language Arts credits that I had to count a bunch of them as electives:) Guess I liked Language Arts!

Here's mine: www.teachafish.blogspot.com I'm also participating in the Yes! We Did Science! Friday blogging (it's underneath my Weekly Review post)

Sometimes everything runs smoothly and othertimes it's sheer chaos. Today, we did 2 science experiments (1 for the 7yo and 1 for the 9yo) which took extra time and made a big mess. Next, we did math. The 7yo is working through subtraction with borrowing in multiple columns (in my mind, a big concept!) The 9yo hit fractions, but it required more thinking than ever before. The baby had just woken from her nap. Everything just erupted!!! I suddenly couldn't understand numbers and was pulling my hair trying to understand 4th gr fractions, LOL. I sent everyone out of the room to go play with the baby while I sat with the teacher's guide and some manipulatives:) Two minutes later, I understood and was able to bring one child in at a time again to explain and work with them. Because science & math were big, long topics, we did 3 subjects total for the day. So here's my list of tips: know when to stop for the day (we stopped after 3 subjects because school was beginning to drag and I didn't want to frustrate everyone, esp myself!) recognize that it might look great on paper, but in practice, there will be times when you're going crazy, pulled in too many directions, or everything seems to be happening at once. don't be afraid to send a child or two from the room so you can get a handle on the lesson. Once you restore order (with your kids, with your lesson, or within yourself...) then you can pick up again. keep it short and sweet with the K'er. Little bits every day. Have fun. Take pictures:) I'm learning to enjoy this process, even when the kids are whining "I hate school" and the baby is wrecking havoc. It makes for great blogging material, LOL!

We're on Week 2! So far, so good... www.teachafish.blogspot.com

If so, can you share how history looks at your house? Also, do you happen to have a blog so others can follow along in your homeschooling adventure? TIA!

If the problem with Horizons is strictly the number of problems, you could easily reduce those by crossing off what's "too many". Heck, I cut BJU's number of problems down, and it has a lot less problems per page than Horizons. One option: if you do so-many of one type of problem and get them all right, you don't need to do any more of that type.

Any good sci-fi book suggestions? I'm trying to find some good audio-books to order from the library for dh to listen to on his long drive to work. It doesn't have to be adult-only; just entertaining enough to be enjoyable to an adult:)

Me, too! I love BJU Math. When we switched to Horizons, I really didn't like it and ended up switching back to BJU. We mostly stick to the workbook. I have the TM on hand when I need to check answers or know how to teach something. But we don't do songs, dances, crafts, or puppets:) Now, in a perfect world, that would be a wonderful thing to do...

This happens A LOT in Eg myths. Eg was a divided country in it's early history. Ea town had it's own local deity & myths. As ea town was conquered & added to others, the gods were added as well. You see Pharaoh identified with Horus, but other times Ra, Amun, Amun-Ra. Gods get combined: Amun, Ra, Amun-Ra. People are made when Khnum formed them on his potter's wheel, or from Ra's tears. Take your pick:) Also, there were times when certain gods were more popular than others. Khnum was a very ancient creation god, whereas Amun-Ra became much more popular in the New Kingdom. This confusion didn't seem to bother the ancient egyptians. There is an explanation here: http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/thegods.html nursing a wiggly baby, excuse bad english:)

Published a book of poetry about 15 years ago. I write fiction (fantasy, sci-fi) and non-fiction. Since motherhood, my writing has mostly been blogging and the occasional attempt at NaNoWriMo. I wrote the 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo 2 years ago - after that, had a baby, so writing is on back burner. Would like to do NaNoWriMo again this year, but not sure how successfully while chasing a 1yo. I miss all the novel writing I did in my teens and early twenties. Those days will return again....someday.

Funny, I've been wondering the same thing. How do I know we're doing what we should be focusing on? What should they be learning and retaining? Exactly how well should they be writing, speaking, etc. in order to be considered "doing a good job"? Etc., etc. That question doesn't go away. It helps if you know where you want to end up (*the end goal*). It helps to know that you're building memories most of all (when he looks back at his K year, he might not remember horses or continents, but he will remember Mom spending time with him). And it helps to know that when we have that kind of relationship with our kids all the way through schooling, this is what they take with them - this is what is important. I hear stories all the time about kids that had half the education my kids are getting, but they came from a good home, loving parents, and had lots of room to explore. They go on to college and do wonderfully. I store those stories up in my head and think about them on days like today, when I kept asking myself "why on earth are we doing this?" and "am I even making a difference, here?"

Reward systems just don't work for us. I keep trying them, however...LOL. There was some talk awhile back about a ticket reward system. Try doing a search. I was able to pull up this one: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126688&highlight=ticket+reward But I know there are others, too. Also, places like Pizza Hut (reading) and Dairy Queen (good grades) offer a free item certificate if you sign up with their programs. Look into that (I'm thinking about trying the Pizza Hut one and using a booklist that I create). M&Ms are a great bribe, LOL. My 1st dd always had a bad attitude about school until this year. She's 9-turning-10 and doesn't like school, but does a good job completing it. My 2nd dd loved school until last year, and now it's really horrible getting her thru a day. We stick to 1-1.5 hours. My goal for her is learning to do her work and learning how to learn when we don't know something. If we can accomplish that by the time she's 10, I'll be a happy mom.

I have an almost 16mo baby, born 10 weeks preemie. She's most likely my last baby, so I'm not in a big hurry. But so far, she's my latest to walk. I think she may actually be "caught up" developmentally, but just sort of happy to not walk, LOL. So I'm curious about other late walkers. When did they walk? Were they late in other things, too? If you've gotten past the learn-to-read phase, were they late readers, too? (Yeah, I'm sort of wondering if this will be my "not reading until age 12" child, which will totally kill me and all of my extravagant homeschooling ideals).

If it was a short page, we did the whole page. If it was a long page, we did half the page. (Usually the conversation ran like this: dd - "do I hafta do the whole page?" *insert whiney voice* mom - "sigh. no, just do half"). We did a little every day. Their handwriting is really horrible, so I should probably pick up the next HWT book. Or teach typing. Or send them to school and let someone else agonize over it. Other than that, I love HWT - I think it's an awesome handwriting curric. It's better if you don't have lazy, whiney kids, though.

We did this with my 9yo, but it has been rather confusing and difficult. Her bday is Oct & our school cut-off is Dec 1st (so by school standards, she'd have been 4-turning-5 in K, youngest in class). To further confuse this, the teachers here (MI) strongly urge parents to NOT go by cut-off date and wait a year (stressing 5-turning-6, oldest in class option). I attended the K-round up meeting and frequently hear same advice from parents & teachers I talk to. So...what to do? Going by a Jan 1st date makes social activities difficult to judge because it doesn't fall within the school cut-off. Do I put her in ending 3rd grade VBS or ending 4th grade? When she starts AWANA in the fall, do I put her with the grade level up or grade level down (because technically she'd be 4.5 grade level). Some things (AWANA) we picked that grade level when she was 5, so she is stuck with what we chose back then (so she's stuck in 5th gr for AWANA). For VBS, I "measure" her against the other kids - if she seems similar in height to the younger group, that's where she goes. Also, for some reason there was a huge birth of BOYS in 2000, so if I put dd in the upper grade level, she's usually the only girl with all boys. She hates that!!! LOL. So, it works out better to put her with youngers if there are more girls in that group. Academically: our goal is to get our kids a bachelors degree by age 18/19. However, in "real life", I ended up repeating 2nd gr with her because she hit a bad attitude wall at age 7 (same age as her sister is now, who is also going thru that awful attitude phase, hmmmm). Then, we sped up to try to catch up, so we did the half year thing (Jan 1st grade transition). We school year round. By summer, I never felt like we made enough progress in our books, and was frustrated. I realized this year that I really needed a clear cut-off grade and a summer vacation:) So I'm bumping her up into 5th grade in all subjects except Math. (She reads very well and tested above avg in all subjects on the IOWA test). All that to say...I think it can work for the relaxed family that isn't going to be stressed, frustrated, or confused by it...but it wasn't us! LOL.

I suspect moms are using the laminator/velcro duo for workbox systems:) I used to make Evan-Moor file folder games and used velcro for the game pieces. Now I don't (too much work!) How about a pocket chart for calendars and weather station? They make some pocket charts specifically for this purpose.

I always wanted to name a dog either Pavlov (after the scientist that worked with dogs) or Peeve (as in "my pet peeve). I'm an Ancient Egyptian nut, so I always wanted to name a dog "Anubis", but that wouldn't fit a really furry dog:)

Ya know, history just did not work for us until my kids could read it themselves. They were just bored, bored, bored with whatever we picked. I'm a big history buff (esp ancients), but teaching it was a whole 'nuther story. Now, at age 9 & 7, I can hand them SOTW and they read it. Another thing - getting through ONE WHOLE CHAPTER in a day was TERRIBLE (insert gnashing of teeth). But somehow, doing 1/2 a chapter every day is just right for us. We don't do map work, we don't do activities, we don't do anything else. But for now, this is working. I will add, though - having been thru the trial-and-error phase of curriculum shopping, if you really and truly hate something, it doesn't do you any good to continue. I feel the same way about Saxon Math or Rod & Staff - good programs, yes. But if I had to use it everyday, the kids would end up on the yellow schoolbus within 2 weeks:lol:

Fascinating! I imagine that system would be perfect for those that need to log hours for the school district - or those that count hours towards credit hours for transcripts (high school credit).

Nice!

I agree - move on. Dd (now almost 10 and reading novels) did not "catch on" to reading, really, until we dropped controlled readers and started using real books. A good place to get book lists (by ability, not phonics skills) is Teach A Child to Read with Children's Books by Mark Thogmartin. You can find it at the library, and just pick up some of the books on the booklists in the back. It ranges from short repetitive stories all the way to books like Frog & Toad.

Like it, love it, hate it, loathe it? Or is it just OK? FTR, I'm not looking for anything exceptional. Just want some word lists to pull from - I like how it's listed by grade level and spelling rule. I've waffled this year from doing no spelling whatsoever to going through Spell to Write and Read (already own it). The kids specifically asked for spelling "because it's easy" LOL. And *I* need easy this year (1yo on the verge of walking around here tearing up the place).

We aim for 2 chapters per week, doing 1/2 a chapter per day 4 days per week. My kids don't have the attention span for more than 1/2 a chapter at a time. This works out well, and gets us through the book in 24 weeks - unless we add books in or take longer than originally planned.

I will do that (in between chasing a 1yo, that is! lol) I'm hoping it works. I'm still in hot pursuit of the perfect science. I hate teaching science. I've never been an "experiment" person, even in school. My 9yo has requested "more experiements!" - oh dear. My 7yo hates experiments as much as I do and usually ends up in tears ("my experiments NEVER work" sob). So we'll give BJU a go (without the TM), skipping some experiments and doing the ones I think I can handle. I'll try to keep my blog updated, and maybe even post pictures (I love seeing science in action on people's blogs, I just don't like doing science myself!)