:grouphug: I cannot even imagine what it is like to homeschool as a single mom. I don't know how anyone accomplishes that. FWIW, the times I NEED school to go smoothly are the times that they do not. It is like the pressure of the need creates this huge burden that cannot be carried.

Well, it sounds a lot like my dh. But I suppose that doesn't make it normal.

Getting math done has always been an issue for us. Dd9 really loves having me teach a lesson, but then she hates doing the practice worksheets. I had decided to slow things down a bit so that she didn't feel bogged down. So I did a lesson and then I was going to just let her do her worksheet the next day for math. Turns out that she got it done in just a few minutes and was ready for a lesson! I realized that what I have to do is teach the lesson and let her do her worksheet the next day before the regular math lesson. I can't believe the answer was so easy. :svengo: Of course, maybe it is just the novelty of it that is working. :001_unsure:

I am amazed that I am already using a lot of the suggestions here. I love CSMP for my dd. This is our 5th year with it. But I have a hard time seeing it as a "less is more" program. It is so teacher-intensive. And I have to actually omit lessons just to get through it in a school year.

I have been really drained every since I had my first. I finally figured out that there was a medical reason why. I don't think there is anything I could have done to get that diagnosis sooner. But if I could have a heart-to-heart with my self of 5 years ago, I would encourage her to try out preschool. I don't think it matters why you are so drained--just that you have that to deal with. If it would give you some time to breath and rest, then it may be worth it. OTOH, your children will inevitably learn things there that you wouldn't want them to learn. You will need to decide if it is still worth it. But you also need to consider what you are going to do with the youngest if the other 2 are in preschool. It can be even harder to have that one little one at home. But perhaps your older kids can take turns playing with the little one.

I have been following the "Less is More" thread on the other board, and I am realizing that this is really where I need to focus my efforts. I am wondering if we can come up with a list of curricula that you would recommend that gets more done with less work. (I realize that this may not work for every student.) There, they mention Bravewriter, which I totally need to check out now. I think I would add FIAR (for students who don't need a lot of hands-on) and MCT Grammar. I would especially like to see lists for math and science.

As long as you get delivery confirmation, media mail works fine.

We use Miquon without the manipulatives. :thumbup1: My ds6 doesn't want them at all. Once in a while, we get them out to demonstrate a concept that he needs to see. I use Miquon because I need something that will allow my asynchronous student to forge ahead in one strong area while he is still working on other weaker areas. He can be working in one book for one subject and another book for a different subject, and if he makes "lightbulb" leaps in an area, it is easy to skip ahead in only that subject.

I guess I am unsure why you want to combine rather than just use the volume that you already feel passionate about. Remember that he is going to have a chance to do 2 full 4-year history rotations after this year. Your goal is to rekindle a love of learning. The fastest way to quench it is overreach. You could use Vol. 3 and then go back to ancients. Or you could use Vol 3 this year, Vol 4 next year and then return to Vol 1. It is not that important that the 2 4-year rotations be from Ancient to Modern history. People with big families start their younger children wherever the older children are all the time.

I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and then got a Bachelor's degree in Spanish. I was competent at that point, but not really fluent. And then I served a Spanish-speaking mission, and it took about 2 months before I felt fluent. So even though I didn't have the immersion experience earlier on, the in-depth study of the language still allowed me to take full advantage of the immersion experience once I had a chance to do it.

I think there is a difference between kids who learn to read early because they want to and have a natural aptitude for it and kids who read early because they are taught sight words rather than phonics. (Of course, there is third group who learns to read early because they are taught phonics early, but outside of homeschooling, this is not a large group.) I think kids that are pushed into reading earlier than they are ready using the sight word method are bound to struggle later. And unfortunately, these days that is a very large group of kids.

What is ELTL?

My dd9 is very much like that. I looked at FLL and thought it would bore her (or me) to tears. I couldn't bring myself to do anything else formal at that age. We did do a year of Latin at 7yo. Also WWE and SWR have a fair amount of grammar thrown in. Last year, we did Grammarland with great success. And this year, we are doing MCT Island. She took the MCT pre-test and got about 80% correct, so I think our lack of formal grammar has not hindered her in the least.

Lapbooking is not the least bit interesting for anyone around here. My kids would rather act it out or come up with their own craft. And no, we are also not big on scrapbooking. I don't get that one, either. :huh:

The nice thing about Spalding (and SWR, which we use) is that you can do the written work on a whiteboard. We did dictation in the log book and quizzes and tests on a white board for a long time. Writing is a very important component to remembering spelling. If you have a child who struggles with spelling, you cannot skip the written work. But you can use a program, like Spalding, which makes it easy to tweak the writing.

I use TOG. I haven't used MOH, but I did look into it when I was deciding what to do. IMO, is too advanced for the age of your children. I looked at it when my kids were the age of yours, and even though my oldest loves history, loves being read to, and has an advanced vocabulary for her age, I decided that MOH would not be good for her. I would recommend that you get your hands on a copy before buying it. We are using TOG quite successfully here. But understand that the reason that it works for us is because my oldest absolutely loves history. I don't think it would work well at this age otherwise. For me, much of the history reading is very dry, boring and repetitive. What saves it for me is that we supplement with SOTW audio CD's. That makes for a very pricey history curriculum, though. I have had difficulty implementing the geography. In many ways, my kids are way beyond the geography assignments. My ds6 can name more than 50 capitals, whereas the LG Geography starts with continents. OTOH, it is really writing intensive, which is not really appropriate at the LG level, so you have to tweak it, which I have found to be too cumbersome to do. I have looked at WriteAids for years, trying to figure out how I could use it. I love the high school level, but I don't think it is very appropriate at the LG level. My dd9 is just starting the UG level this year, and this is the first time I have considered using it for her. Dh and I decided against it. We both had a pretty good education and consider ourselves to be good writers. But we could not remember doing the level of work expected at the 4th grade level in TOG until about 6th grade. The activities in TOG are really awesome, but I am not a crafty person, and I have had some health issues, both of which combine to make planning a craft or activity rather tortuous. So I hand the books to my dd9 at this point and let her have at it on her own. So for now, it is really an elaborate book list. I keep using it, because I am confident that the Socratic discussions will be well worth the cost when we get there. I also like that it has a weekly plan that I can tweak to suit our family, rather than a rigid daily plan. If I didn't have a child who loved history as much as dd9 does, I would just use SOTW.

I have not seen it announced yet. If I remember correctly, I think they are shooting for September. I recall them mentioning and apologizing that it will not be ready for the beginning of the school year.

I am really disappointed that the HST+ lookup feature is permanently disabled. I was on their forums and saw that they have decided not to put any more resources into HST+ and to focus solely on HST Online. I think it is rather dishonest of them to suddenly announce that they will suspend support for a product only after they have a problem that they don't want to fix. I am reluctant to give them money for HST Online, because clearly they will only support it until they have a problem that is too much trouble to fix. It seems to me that they ought to be giving us HST+ users a break on HST Online since the lookup feature was the big draw for so many. Anyway, what are you all doing? I can't decide whether I want to just put up with manually entering new books, but keeping what I already have for child #2; start over with a different program; Try HST Online.

Do you have a therapist with experience in ODD or conduct disorder? I have a friend with a child with conduct disorder, and it was absolutely imperative to have guidance from an expert. They used a lot of contracts, and the therapist provided a lot of guidance as to how to administer it.

I have always been very honest with my kids about what they can expect at public school. Yes, you get to ride the bus. . . at 7am. Yes, you get to meet a lot of people and make friends and play during recess . . . only with kids in your grade. And if you talk to them during class, you will get in trouble. (And I have one that cannot stop talking.) You will have to do more work in less time, and you will bring home homework most nights. I tell them that if they ever had to go to school, they would do okay, but that there are challenges there just like we have challenges at home. They don't have any interest in going to school, and sometimes I worry about that. At this point, there is no option to go to school. But I knew a homeschool mom who died in childbirth, and all her children had to go to school. So I know that nothing is written in stone. I don't want my kids to be afraid of public school, either. It is hard to walk the line between touting the benefits of homeschooling without making them afraid of going to school.

I have a child that is very perfectionistic, and he will get whiny or grumpy when things are any harder than simple. He is smart, but he really thinks that there is something wrong with him when he makes a mistake. So punishing him for his attitude actually exacerbates the problem. My other one has this tendency, too, but is not as bad. (And quite frankly, I am the same way. This is a family endeavor.) So I started the cheerful jar. Every time my kids did something challenging with a good attitude, I put a marble in the jar. When it got filled up, we went out for ice cream. Sometimes, I would put a marble in the jar when I could see that he was just starting to have a hard time but trying to control himself. That was sometimes (not always) enough to help him through. Other times, I would put a marble in the jar when his sister was doing something well that I wanted him to notice. I have also used mini chocolate chips to reward him for working, rather than for getting it right. (For example, when he started to learn how to write, he would get a chip for every letter he wrote. This was really important, because he was so upset that he could write his letters as good as I did.) I don't like to use food as a reward, but it was important to find a tangible and immediate way to show him that his work was more important than his perfection. And for the record, my kids both get really whiny when their daily schedule changes. It happens at the beginning of every school year, and at the beginning of every summer. It takes a couple of weeks each time to get over the hump and get back into the swing of things. Now I have gotten in the habit of letting them know ahead of time that this will happen, and when it does, I just remind them that this is something our family struggles with and it will be okay in a few days.

As far as I am concerned, whatever you do at the K-2 age is enough. But if you are going for the "making connections" philosophy, it is going to depend a lot on the child whether that will happen with living books. I have one child who loves to be read to and loves to discuss what we read. The other one would rather read it on his own, and we will only discuss it if and when he gets excited about what he reads. :tongue_smilie: It certainly wouldn't hurt to try it to see if it works the way you imagine it working. If not, no harm done. They are young.

History for Music Lovers YouTube channel

We made a matching card game with Greek and Roman gods. It gets played just like Memory, only you have to match the Greek god with the equivalent Roman god. Both of my kids enjoy it.

I think before you give consequences for dawdling, you need to make sure it is something that she has control over. I have a very smart dd9 who appears to dawdle. If her father didn't have the same problem, I would have been punishing her. But I know that there is something going on that she does not have control over. We plan to get her tested for LD's soon.