My dd loves the Gail Carson Levine books like Ella Enchanted, Fairest, and Two Princesses of Barmarre. She refused any of the present tense written books like Ever (ex: I go to the store. I am saying. rather than I went or I said). We've exhausted Percy Jackson and Harry Potter books too. She does not like archaic language (hated reading Narnia). Any suggestions?

Yes! Do a google search for Partial Quotient Division (you might find it under Partial Product Division too). Khan Academy has 2 vidoes and there are other insyruction sheets / demos online. My dd used this method for awhile and eventually settled on doing division the normal way. It helped her over the hurdle. Btw, she was just really slow at it for a long time -tends to think/process slowly, but is good with concepts.

If it is a visual thing, would it work if you READ the final draft to him (reminding him of caps, punct, and giving the spelling as needed); and then he writes it as you read it? It would become more if a dictation than a copywork thing, which might be easier for some kids.

Blog in siggy if you want to see our relaxed days. I looked at the big picture and said "what do I want my kids to be able to do by homeschool graduation?" The top 3 answers were: able to do basic math functions and apply to their lives, ability to read and comprehend anything they pick up, and able to express ideas and information in well written form. The secondary list was huge: fluent in a foreign language, well read in the great books, having history dates and events memorized, etc...I realized that second list seemed overwhelming, esp in light of who my dc are as people (one hates all things academic or intellectual). Driving *that* bus might take us no where. Great books seem really important, but if my dc can't remember the main theme from Beowulf and it does not spark their soul or challenge them forward, what was the point? I also have a very challenging year ahead of me: a very destructive 3yo, a sensitive turning-10yo, and a hormonal turning-12 yo (who hates everything). I sometimes feel that I'm trying to pull 3 massive boulders forward with chains. So I decided to lessen the strain a bit this year. I sought out each child's interest and am trying to plan a daily school grid around these things. 9yo: math, write a novel (I track her progress), read/journal about animals(sci), read about a country of her choice and memorize maps (geography). She takes a lot to bed with her too - she's read several good books and books about history at bedtime. She's amazing at piano so I give her a lot of free time for her to practice. The 11yo: math, writing paragraphs, essays, reading Bible, reading American Girl World series (its the facts behind the time periods, she doesnt like the novels but she likes the fact books), art&photography, science experiments (drilling those facts thru experiments and observation this yr). She is forced to do piano. For reading, I'm just leaving her to read whatever I can find that fits her interest. I'm giving her lots of space to figure out who she is and what her interests are. We've done a lot of field trips, a lot of cooking, and some great books as movies lol! Right now my job is exposure and trying to see where interests might lead them. I obviously force some things. I also decided to stop worrying about whether our school days take 2 hours or 6 hours. We've had both ends of the spectrum, but I decided to stop worrying about it (ok, confession: I still worry about it).

I have 3 girls. #1 was full term & a healthy pregnancy. #2 - completely unexpected situation: severe preeclampsia resulting in emergency c section. She was born at 29 weeks and weighed 2 lbs 9 oz. She stayed in NICU for over 30 days, and came home weighing about 3.5 lbs. #3 - we knew we faced risk of preeclampsia again, but did everything we could to prevent it. She was born at 30 weeks and weighed 2 lbs 14 oz. She stayed in NICU for 28 days and came home around 3.5 lbs. It is scary at first to hold such a tiny baby. My NICU nurses were really good at pushing moms forward and getting them to care for their babies - changing those tiny diapers, taking temperatures, coming in for bathtime, arriving for feedings, etc. Pumping breastmilk is the earliest thing you can do to help your baby - even if you cannot hold or touch your baby, you can bottle that milk. When you are able to start holding your baby, ask about Kangaroo Care. Wear a button-down shirt, and have the nurse put the baby skin-to-skin on your chest. This helps the baby with breathing, heartrate, etc., plus it helps with that bonding time between you and baby. Breastfeeding - don't expect it to go well until baby reaches due date. My 2nd dd started to latch on about 1 month after her due date, but didn't nurse. It seemed like such a fail, 4 months after she was born, and I gave up. Looking back now, I know I could've gotten her to nurse if I'd just stuck it out a little bit longer! My 3rd dd, though, began to latch around her due date, and I kept trying - she became a full time nursing baby not long after that. She nursed for 2 years and 4 months, lol! My 3rd dd is now 3 and the most common thing I hear people say is "is she big for a 3yo?" This throws me for a loop because she was so tiny at birth, and I'm a rather short person anyway:)

sounds so much like my dd (except she won't read Hunger Games because it is written in present tense, and she simply refuses to read stories in present tense). The only advice I have is to keep throwing books at her. If you throw 100 books her way, she's bound to find the 99th one to be a winner. And try not getting frustrated by each rejection.

After the first 6 wks of utter chaos, I reworked everything. I figured - the curric was really great, but if I was biting off swear words and crying myself to sleep every night, maybe those choices aren't so great for me. So we're taking an interest led approach (mostly) for the next 6 wks. We're focusing on Math, Handwriting, and Writing. I decided for these, I wanted to answer - "what can my dc DO at the end of 6wks", rather than how many pages we've read or blanks we filled. We'll still plug thru Math, as usual. But Writing is more focused to the dc. 9yo is aiming to write a novel. 11 yo is working to craft a really good paragraph, and build up physical writing ability...and will eventually return to WWS. Science and History is purely interest led (I'm having to push, guide a little here). I'm still tweaking this plan, but so far, I feel so much more relaxed and less likely to strangle somebody:) (btw, yes, we dropped grammar and spelling -gasp! and literature is pleasure reading at bedtime and/or when they first wake up in the morning).

I had poison ivy that lasted 3 weeks this summer:( The best I came up with was this: break adult dose Zyrtec pill into 2-3 pieces, take 1 pc in am, 1 in afternoon, 1 before bed. (so 1 dose taken thruout day). washed spots with fels naphtha soap about 3-4 times per day (helped dry out rash and take away itch for a few minutes). ivarest cream or calamine to help keep itch tolerable.

Over the course of 1 year, I lost 50lbs. It was hard work (I overeat when I'm stressed), but I did it! I just gained 5-6 lbs in the last 6 weeks (when we officially started our homeschool year) - and I'm pretty sure most of that weight was gained over the last 2 weeks. Dh is coming home from a business trip tonight and I'm sure he's going to notice that my stomach is huge!!! :eek: I really really don't like how our school year is going. Homeschooling really sucks this year. If I could figure out how to clone myself, I'd have one of my clones work on laundry, and one of me out exercising off all this weight gain. Or I'd have them homeschool the kids, and I'd handle the rest. Yeah, I think that's a better solution. Is cloning humans legal yet? I just wanted to complain about school and my huge gut. Sigh. Thanks for listening.

This. My 1st child is a no-nonsense, black and white, yes or no learner. It's totally a personality thing. I try and try and try to light her fire, it's exhausting. I just wish there something that sparked an emotional response (other than her severe hatred of schoolwork). She complained so bad this week about school that I said, "alright, we're dropping the schoolbooks and going interest led" and she cried! So apparently there is something worse than organized schoolwork: unorganized interest led schoolwork.

Homeschooling and Lovin' It has been my fav this year.

Thanks OhElizabeth for checking in! After I posted the question, I read this thread here - http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=419289 and figured you sort of answered it :) For example, using the science labs and skipping the textbook (but maybe adding in the textbook later, once the labs are grasped). I've been considering this because dd also has a very strong hands-on element to her personality (but it never shows up in the personality quizzes because she is a very still person that doesn't move much, she's content to just sit there like a bump on a log). I worried that if we removed the textbook element, it wouldn't be very robust learning and she wouldn't be prepared for the drudgeries of high school...BUT if she isn't learning from a textbook anyway, what difference does it make? At least this way, she might be learning something and laying that foundation for understanding textbooks later. Yes, read that and we're doing that THIS WEEK! Last year, I was really good at having everything organized by Sunday night. Lately, family needs have made it impossible to find time to draw up a chart of school subjects. But organization is so crucial! That's what's bugging me: she has no subject that she loves and is really good at. Her little sister takes history books to bed, so I know that one has history no matter what I do. But there is no academic subject that the older one likes. She likes to cook, paint/draw, and watch certain shows ad nauseum with subtitles turned on (she likes to see the words - so there's spelling and vocab for you!). She likes to read at bedtime and in the morning, but finding *just the right book* is tricky (so not a lover of lit, although sometimes I get lucky and can interest her in something lit-worthy). She likes art this year, but NOT famous artists, or art history, or art whatever...she doesn't even really care for the project books as much - just wants to paint for awhile. I think she is going through that negative adolescent funk. Shoot, I did nothing but read Sweet Valley High books at her age, so I guess there are worse things. There's my ugly public confession. Luckily, I outgrew it the next year and found a love for ancient history. So I remain hopeful for this child. Anyhow, she hates schoolwork, but I do have to say that I am proud of her curric choices for herself. I showed her a bazillion different math choices, and she actually stayed away from the easy-looking maths, and chose something challenging. She wants to stay on that path for pre-algebra, even though I've warned her that it is a rather challenging curric. She hates math, it is her most hated subject, but she tends to want math that isn't too easy (but not too hard, either). Same thing for Spelling - not her fav subject. She chose Sequential Spelling, but found level 2 was too easy, so together we opted for SS adult. We laid out the plan to finish it by end of 8th grade and be done with it. So...even though she hates academics and complains horribly, lol, she is owning some things. I think I should just realize that this is a negative phase as she figures out who she is, and we just get through. Maimom, this is encouraging:) I do think this is an age of figuring out who they are as people, and who they want to become. Beth, this is so true! I find when one kid is being awful, at least one other kid is sweet as can be (hands folded in lap, halo around head).

Yes re: drawing instruction - I am loading her up with art and drawing this year (her request). She loves art/drawing but is very sloppy with these, too, which leaves me scratching my head. Anyhow, great idea! I noticed that her physical grip on the pencil improved after some time of crafting (crochet, sewing, making bracelets). She had a big problem with letter reversals, but those are coming around now, too. I'm making her do cursive and she is working on fixing her print in hopes that I will drop cursive :) So its cooperative learning. Lori - thanks for typing up all of that, I know that takes time, so thank you! I will be printing that out to help me plan these assignments better. And thanks to everyone else for chiming in. Ruth, I always find your writing and science threads very thought provoking and follow them with interest!

Hey, can you share how you use orton cards with seq spelling? We're using seq too, and I try to pull in rules when I can. Always looking for new ideas...thanks! And yeah, I picked up spelling power used very cheaply, but decided my brain couldn't handle the quick start guide + mom of new baby syndrome. I sold it a short time later.

Great suggestions from everyone! Dd 5th gr had this assignment today (she's a day later than her 7th gr sister this week). This is the problem she ran into. She kept saying "I need to research first! There's not enough there!" I finally got her to write from SWB's list exclusively, but I do like the idea of reading some background info to give them more familiarity with the topic. It was funny teaching the same lesson to two different learners:) 7th gr dd started small and minimalist in her topic, which made her short on words. 5th gr dd had trouble selecting a topic from the list, and didn't seem to understand that she was only selecting a few events (even though I kept saying that, it was like she couldn't hear me). I realize Topic Selection is a huge thing to teach!

Thanks - this is very encouraging and helpful. I tend to be very relaxed, easy going in our homeschool, so not sure when to be hardnosed. Her pick of topic beforehand was not appropriate (she picked the bit about riding the horse) and I knew ahead of time that it would not be enough to fill 150 words. I warned her of this, but she went ahead anyway. So I think the lesson was "how to choose a topic that will give you enough words". Or, I hope she learned that lesson! LOL. Thanks for the reminder to take as much time as we need - nothing says we have to finish 36 weeks in exactly 36 weeks. We could take 1.5 years to finish this and still have a good writing education.

Typing would be much easier for her (she doesn't type well, either, but prefers it to writing). However, I wonder how to make the physical act of writing easier for her. I was hoping to overcome the physical writing issue by writing :lol: She does very little handwriting in other subjects (a sentence here, a few sentences there) so I wonder how to come up with the perfect blend of handwriting and writing. I don't want to turn it into handwriting practice (i.e, I'm not going for neatness at all!) I just want her to be able to physically write. I know copywork is an option, but that has never gone well when we do it (I think writing from her brain is easier than copying someone else's writing). I sometimes think that her physical writing issue stems from years of writing assignments on the computer, and from not having to physically write 150 words on a sheet of paper, kwim? So I'm torn on this.

We're working through WWS this year. I think what SWB has written and is setting out to accomplish here is brilliant. My child might think otherwise. The young 7th grader hit the writing assignment that tasked her with writing between 150-300 words using the list of items from Alexander the Great's life. It. was. painful. 45 mins of writing, counting, begging to stop, more writing, more counting, more begging... We finally landed on 131 words, and we'd reached a crescendo of crying, so I said to finish it tomorrow. She started with a topic that was too narrow, and got 98 words. So I insisted she broaden her topic. So she is essentially writing this assignment somewhat backwards - she wrote her narrow topic, but is gradually adding more topic in to get more words. Also, her use of time words was very repetitious (then, then, then...). Not sure whether to even address this when our first problem seems bigger. When asked, she says she has no problem coming up with words to write; the problem is that the physical act of writing those words is a tough task. I'm making her handwrite these things, because I know that physical writing is tough for her and I'm trying to make it easier for her through practice. I'm hoping that this is just the shock of the first assignment, but that she'll gradually settle in and handle 150 words without a problem. Anyone else have this problem? Have you successfully resolved it, or any suggestions?

OhElizabeth - can you elaborate on item #2 please? I'm just coming back from a forum break, so haven't been reading messages until now. I'm trying to understand my almost 12yo dd, who has never liked academics. Whenever I give her the personality quizzes, she tends to fall more into the structured, workbook category, but boy - she hates workbooks! She only tolerates workbooks if it means getting it done faster. I'm really trying to think outside of the box this year, but I'm not entirely sure what that means for her. I keep trying to get her input, but her response is mostly "I hate school", which isn't helpful. She has picked her own Math & Spelling programs, which were the programs she likes the most (but likes is such a strong word). I'm not sure whether I should be throwing organized learning to the wind and just pull out the Monopoly game board each day, or what :001_huh: For now, it is a balance of: you have to do math, language arts, science, and history - but you have some freedom on how you do those subjects. I've been incorporating in Art and Science Experiments (her loves) 1-2 times per week, and also tying in cool things like horse riding lessons. I'm pooped, though, lol. Not sure what I haven't tried yet. ETA: I want to clarify WHY I'm asking...sometimes I think we (parents) are so close to the situation, that something really obvious is NOT obvious to us, kwim? When you mention trying something that isn't on "the list", I think sometimes we have trouble thinking outside of that list, and don't really even know what's possible. So, I keep going in circles, trying to figure out that obvious thing that I'm missing:)

Yup. This is why I bought our spelling lessons on dvd - so I wouldn't have to yell spelling words like I'm cussing:) It must not harm the dc psyche too much because now they complain about the dvd and would rather I give the spelling words. Hmmm.

I took an honors english class in high school that I LOVED - sounds like the idea would fill in your history and lit. We studied American History beginning with the first european settlers and read read documents that tied in with lit. For ex: we read a portion of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon to tie in with Puritans, read Nathaniel Hawthorn Scarlet Letter, the Crucible (play), the Devil and Daniel Webster, first hand accts, and so many other things that just made that time period come alive. Benjamin Franklin's autobio was on that list. I am hoping to recreate this for my dd in another few years. Not sure if there is an online resource that pulls this list together, but would love to know for myself.

A young for age 7th gr that hates all things academic:) Math: Horizons 6 (finish), Horizons PreAlgebra LA: Handwriting Without Tears gr 5 (must remediate handwriting!!!! lol) Easy Grammar Plus Sequential Spelling 2 dvd Writing With Style Science: Elemental Sci Earth/Astronomy The rest: may try an interest led for history, geography, literature, Bible. I have MFW ECC, but not sure if I will have her do this. I also have Minimus Latin and Fallacy Detective (logic). I may just hand her a list and stack of books and say "you have 2 hrs of study time. tell me later what you studied." Eta: looks like we will do Seq Spelling for adults/teens. Ss series has been too slow moving.

Popping in real quick just to say - I've had 2 preemies (2 lbers); I successfully breastfed my last one, but it took a while. Looking back now, I could've gotten my second baby to nurse, but I just didn't know. I'll share my story with my 3rd, in case it helps... It took us 2 months to get bf'ing started. I pumped & fed by bottle. She couldn't really latch well at first. She was in nicu for 1 month. After she came home, I continued to pump, feed, and try bf'ing often. It was rough :( As she got a little older, she had a real fussy period every night for about 3 hours. She just fussed and was unhappy with everything. She'd want to bottlefeed, but not really, just little sucks here and there. It was like she was looking for some sort of comfort. I guess the fussy thing is totally normal for babies, and some people even call it "collick". Anyhow, I started using this fussy period to try nursing. Some nights she'd latch better than others. But she never really got very far on getting milk from her latches. Most latches didn't last very long: she'd pop off and on occasionally. Some nights, our attempts at nursing seemed to offer a little comfort during the fussy stage. Sometimes it only led to more frustration. I also tried nipple shields, although I was partially terrified because of all the warnings and bad stories, lol. I also continued to try to hurry up and get a let down during her short latch, so she could get a taste of milk. I performed all kinds of circus tricks to get that to happen! LOL. Nothing really seemed like it worked, but I stuck at it. As fussy periods increased, she began to latch more like once per night (this was actually progress!). But after 2 months, I was ready to throw in the towel. I went to an LLL meeting to tell them I was done and the baby was going to go on formula the next day. Well...all I really needed was someone to sit and watch what I was doing and give feedback. Her latch was good, but short lived. I was doing the right thing by massaging milk out as she latched. We were also having some occasional success at the nipple shield. So with that encouragement, I kept it up, and 2 months 1 week after she was born, she was full blown nursing!!! She nursed for 2 years and 4 months :) If you have any questions about my experience, feel free to pm me!

Good question! I can't tell you how many lessons were sabotaged by the 2yo last year. Math manips were usurped, the mini whiteboard doodled on, the walls doodled on, flashcards strewn, chewed, or torn...Luckily, now she's 3 and more deliberate with things. Or maybe I'm just getting better at distracting her with other school supplies. Or maybe I've just lowered my standards, a lot.

I did that once (and I think it was micronor). My Sunday start then became a Saturday start and I had to apply the right day of the week sticker after that:)