Try looking at Step Up to Writing. It is incredible according to a friend of mine. It took her son from 3 sentence paragraphs to 5 paragraph essays in less than 6 months.

My son is 5. My husband is British. We are wanting to go back there to settle. Are there co-op groups or clubs that get together on any sort of frequent basis? We are looking to live in the Home Counties, but are not sure where we will start out.

I love Stalag 13. My husband loves Great Escape. I also think South Pacific has merit. I know it's a musical, but shows a different side of things.

Have you checked out the Homeschool for Dummies book? It is the very first one I looked at that led mt to Classical Education. It was very helpful and had resources for many styles of HS'ing. Don't be fooled by the title. It is a great resource.

My family may be moving to the UK very soon. I was wondering if there are any UK people here that can tell me the difference between the US and the UK in regards to schooling. Do many people HS there?

I want to start with pre-historic and go through the ancients. I am flexible. I mainly want it to be chronological. I may not be saying this right. I'm a bit new to the terminology.

I am looking for a secular history for my K'er. My husband and I are history buffs and want to pass that on to our kids. I am having a hard time finding a secular history and even more difficulty finding a timeline. Any advice?

Thank you so much everyone for the great ideas and support. I love these boards.

I'm not sure how old your son is. Have you thought about finding someone at a retirement home that was an avid fisherman? They could tell stories while your son works on interviewing skills. It could develop into a service project as well.

I do know something about the 3 lines that might help your son. Draw a house with the roof in the top line, the house in the middle, and the basement down below. When teaching the letters. tell him things like "letter t starts on the roof and goes o the bottom of the house, but doesn't go in the basement." or "letter p starts in the house and goes down to the basement." It is a good visual for them. I draw the house every morning as part of circle time. I hope that helps.

We have been using the Muzzy program. DS (5) and DD (2) watch it after breakfast while I am clearing up and getting ready for the day. It is WONDERFUL. We are working on French because that is what everyone in my family speaks. We watch 75% in French and 25% in English. My DD greeted me with "Bonjour!" this morning. The kit they have right now comes in 5 or 6 languages. We have really enjoyed it.

You should check out the great books academy reading list. We are doing SSRW for phonics and instruction, but GB for our reading list. DS is only 5. i don't feel the need to over do reading with segments from good books in a reader. When I was a teacher, I hated readers. They took great works of literature down to such a skeletal level. I love reading the entire work with DS and DD (2).

My DS is 5. He is very eager to learn to read. We are doing SSRW right now and he loves it. I went with the 1st grade version because he was very ready for the reading part of the program. The problem I am having is with Writing. He is ADHD, but mostly inattentive. He gets very frustrated with all of the writing. He wants to move ahead, but the time it takes to do the writing about kills him. What does everyone think about moving forward with the program, but reducing the writing componant. I don't want to burn him out, but I do want him to learn the material. How do you know what and when to reduce while making sure they know what they are doing? :crying:

My son has expressed an interest to learn French. He is 5 and would be starting Kindergarten in the fall. Any suggestions? Also, does anyone start Latin earlier that 3rd grade?

Everyone seems so nice!! I am so glad I found this forum. Thank you for everything. Any more advice is always appreciated!!:grouphug:

My ds is too young for them. I can tell you that as a Special Education teacher, I loved them. Many of my students had behavior disorders and hated school. They enjoyed reading these. The books also sparked an interest in the subjects they were about. One of my students decided he wanted to be an Egyptologist when he grew up after reading those books. Before that he told me that he wanted to work at 711 so he could get free slurpees. I do think they have merrit. Are they the best form of literature? No. But, they do expose kids to areas of interest.

We are using Sing, Spell, Read and Write for LA and Miquon/Singapore for the Math. This is all assuming we make it work in our family budget. I'm following the Great Books Academy for Literature. He wants to learn a language, but I don't want to bite off more than we can chew in the beginning. I also need to find a religion that goes with our Episcopalian beliefs, science and history curriculum. I am a certified teacher and that makes me want to overplan. It took me being a part of that backwards system to realize that I can do better for my son. I don't want to repeat the same mistakes that schools do in my home. Can I also just say that I am scared out of my wits??? This goes against so much that I have been programmed to believe. I know it's the right choice. Making that decision and taking that leap is just a bit terrifying. Thanks for the cheers and any advice.

:confused: I am brand new to this. My son starts K in the fall and we recently (yesterday) made the final decision to homeschool. I am almost panicked about what to do and how to schedule. I've found curriculum that I like. Where do I go from here? I am so overwhelmed that I feel sick. Any advice on where to focus and where to relax?