anyone homeschooling in maine? my husband has a temporary work contract in the Lewiston/Auburn area and i'm wondering if it is feasible to homeschool for the few months we are there. it will probably be dec-mar.

i follow WTM pretty closely and have for the past 4 years. but i have a 9th grader that has always struggled with getting his work done. putting him back in public school isn't an option in our town since it's so horrible. i've thought about a private school, but want to him to put forth some effort before we dump a bunch of money into something he isn't going to do. does anyone have any experience with a project-based curriculum at the high school level? i love WTM philosophies, but all the writing and reading just won't work for him. any ideas? :confused:

we will be moving to montgomery in august, from california. we've never lived in the south. it seems that there aren't too many co-ops in the area. i would really love to find some people in that area that teach classically so we could get together on occasion, or even teach together. my children will be 12, 8, and 4 when we get there. we've been homeschooling for about 4 yrs.

Does anyone know how the brain is affected differently by listening to an audio book instead of reading a print book? Has anyone heard SWB's stand on this? Are they completely interchangeable without losing any educational value? I know that for younger children, it's often recommended that you read out loud to them above their reading level to help build their vocabulary. But what about an older child who can read just fine, but really rebels against doing so? Would the audio book serve as a solution? Or are they missing out on something by not reading it themselves?

i have WWE so i am looking for instruction on how to do writing for the middle and high school grades. sounds like the cd isn't completely what we heard at conference. just to be clear... the cd is susan speaking, correct? or is it just documents of notes from her?

Anyone familiar with the 'Writing Without Fear' CD that is sold on the Peace Hill Press website? I went to the WTM conference in VA a few weeks back and am trying to read through my notes. I have come to find that I didn't note as many things as I should have. I still don't see anywhere that Susan Wise Bauer has uploaded her powerpoint slide info. Is anyone familiar with the content is on this CD? I'm hoping that it is what she discussed at the conference.

i think if you're more interested in content than the curriculum suggestions, then you're probably fine with the 1st ed. my friend has a 1st ed and i have the 2nd and she is planning on getting the new updated 3rd ed. because her daughter is still young and she continues to review curriculum and change things every so often. for instance, because WWE was just released last year, it's not in the 1st or 2nd editions. but i already have discovered it, so i think i'll stick with my 2nd ed for a while.

i think it's important to know what your own educational philosophies are. when i first started homeschooling, that was difficult for me. i had never really had to define them before. but when faced with educating my own children, i had to decide what i wanted for them. i love CM philosophies, but coming from public school, there just wasn't enough structure for my children. they struggled. WTM has worked really well for us and because it fits my own personal philosophies, i try to follow it as closely as i can, without overwhelming my children. we don't follow all the time guidelines, but we do follow most of the subject suggestions and i use FLL and WWE, so they're learning language arts the WTM way. i have middle-school children that were in public school. i have a 1st grader that was never in public school. i can really see the difference in following WTM from the beginning, contrasted with the other 2 children that learned a different way.

well, we absolutely LOVE the apologia science books. i can't say enough good things about them. we have done the zoology 1 (flying creatures) and zoology 2 (swimming creatures) but i have all the elementary ones on my shelf waiting to be used. (christianbook.com was having a sale :P) i love the way you can skip around and not do the lessons in order if you need to - i.e. we saved the bugs and birds for the days we could go outside and explore in nice weather. i love that the experiments are all outlined for you. my kids read and do the notebook pages during the week as a group. my husband does the experiment with them on saturdays. i love that there is a website for extra stuff. it's the perfect format for us, and we will be using them ALL!!! and we too are eagerly awaiting the release of anatomy.

yes, i actually agree that FLL would be the way to go. i have all 4 levels and am also using WWE. I think they really are designed to go hand-in-hand. There might be some repetitive things with regards to copywork and such, but really the FLL is more parts of speech and learninng how to put the sentence together and the WWE will be more of the comprehension, narration, and writing skills. If you find that the lessons are the same thing on any given day, you could always skip one here and there. but as far as something that requires no teacher prep, this is it. and it's a huge part of why i love it. i also think it's really great for kids that are behind and need to build a good foundation. in no way does it make them feel less, but it teaches them to follow simple steps to get stronger.

we are planning on attending the WTM conference in williamsburg. i was wondering if anyone knows what the parking is like near the hotel that the conference is being held at. we're not planning on staying there. but i was just trying to get a feel of how difficult it will be to park there when driving in to attend each of the days. is there parking available in a hotel parking structure? or is there parking on the streets surrounding the hotel? and is it metered? thanks.

okay, this might seem silly, but i've never understood how to use those base-10 blocks. i look at them at the store and can't picture how i'm supposed to use them. i have bingo chips that i've used as counters for him, but how are the base-10 blocks better?

so, i think for me personally, based on hearing what others have said... i feel that diagramming is an important skill and i would like my children to learn it. but now where do i go from here? my son can get through his grammar sections, and seems to understand the parts of speech when i correct his work, but he could sit and stare at the diagramming assignment ALL day (and i mean literally!). how do i find out where the breakdown is occurring? he can diagram simple sentences - subject, verb, maybe 1 or 2 other things. but when he has to diagram the more complicated ones, i can't get anything out of him. i think it's worse than pulling teeth. should i make him practice labeling more sentences? should i make him do the non-diagramming sections over again? i'm not quite sure how to help him along with the diagramming.

he's currently in the singapore 1B. he whizzed through all the other stuff, and got to this book early and then just got really frustrated. so what i'm hearing is that it's ok to continue through the book and where the book removes the pictures and just has equations, then it would be ok for him to have counters of his own to figure it out with? this would be better for him than to go back and redo book 1A over and over again? and if he's still counting on his fingers, that's ok too? i just wasn't sure if it will click when it's supposed to, or if i should be going back and repeating something. i think he's really struggling with the tens/ones concept. he has a hard time looking at a double-digit number and separating the tens and the ones. so when the picture groups things to show how the equation should be broken down, he just counts everything. i think he's just not quite understanding the grouping concept. thanks for all the advice! :)

my first grader has always loved his math and has always sped through it. but now it seems we've hit a snag and i'm not quite sure how to 'review' or get him past it. he does fine with the work that shows a picture, and it asks him to add or subtract and fill in the answer. but when the picture is taken away, he has no clue how to figure out the problem. i'm wondering where he's falling short. is it that he just needs to do more of it and memorize the addition facts? or is there something specific that i'm not seeing that he needs to work on? he can count on his fingers, but he's been through all that this past year and it seems he should be moving on. i'm wondering what wasn't covered thoroughly enough for him. (we use singapore math)

we've done FLL, Spelling Workout, Singapore Math, Zaner-Bloser handwriting, SOTW 1, and Apologia science. he picks a book to read out loud to me (out of a group that i've chosen). i did phonics pathways with him in the beginning and he breezed through that. picked up reading really quickly. i just found out about WWE and have ordered the book and will be starting that next week. we do SOTW and Apologia with 2 older children. the first grader does the activity pages out of the SOTW workbook and the older children have a bit of extra reading. they help the first grader with the activity pages for Apologia that i print from their website (so he's writing short narrations and drawing a picture) while the older kids do a bit of extra related to the same chapter. i'm really lucky. my first grader LOVES doing his schoolwork. my older 2 not so much. after 6 years of fighting it with my oldest, i'm glad to have finally discovered that there's a child out there that can like school, and one of them landed in my home! :D

i don't budget since there's no room in the budget for it. we're already in the negative before i buy school books/supplies. but because we feel it's what's best for them i try to be as frugal as i can. i try to buy as many things used as possible, and i try to use 1 book for more than one kid if i can. i resell things as soon as i find they're not working out. often i am ebaying clothes that we're not using to have side money for books. i have an amazon credit card so that i get points every time i use it and then they send me $25 coupons every once in a while. it's definitely not an ideal situation. but we have decided that educating them is worth going into debt for, and we know it won't be like this forever.

okay, let me see if i can address everyone's questions in one fell swoop... LizzeBee: there was mention of ODD in the psych visit but then asked if anyone had ever suggested ADD to us and had us check off things in the list of symptoms and prescribed the adderall. i'm not real familiar with ODD. is that treated with meds? the 'slow as molasses' and the 'i forgot' are ALL too familiar in this house! we have behavioral/reward systems in place, but he just assumes he 'can't' or that he'll 'fail' anyway, so therefore he doesn't even try. Pamela: yes we've tried numerous different systems and parenting options. i've read the 'love and logic' books and have tried to implement some of that. we operate on a token system - which is actually used often with disabled kids - but also in other places. we try to use natural consequences, but he just doesn't accept consequences of any kind. we try putting out another consequence when he won't accept the first one, but it just snowballs and he refuses. yes we've considered depression, but we're not comfortable giving those meds to a kid, so i guess if that becomes the end all, we'll just have to tolerate it until he's old enough to make his own choices as to how to treat it. Carrie: he's definitely of the 'i don't want to be here' mindset, instead of the 'i can't be here'. he sees no value in his schoolwork or his chores so therefore he claims they are not priority to him. he claims he wants privileges, but when they're taken away because he gets behind, he doesn't care to catch up to get them back. we have tried to get him to talk to the psychiatrist. the doc asks him questions during his visit and he gives very quiet one-word answers that don't mean much. and he tells the doc something different than he does us (his parents). we've had behavioral and school-related issues since he was 6. i know that there are certain phase-related behaviors to expect from a preteen, but i don't believe that's all it is because of his history. we tried taking him to just a counselor when he was 6, and he still refused to communicate so we didn't really make much progress there either. i try asking him questions about what he thinks is holding him back or what his reasons for doing things are, but he doesn't say much and 'i don't know' is a very common answer. there is just an excuse for everything. one day it's because it's raining. another day it's because his stomach hurts. another day it's because he didn't sleep well. another day it's because he was thinking about something and got distracted. another day it's because it's 'too hard' or there's 'too much to do' or it's 'too boring'. another time it's because the reward at the end just isn't good enough. it seems to be one thing after another.

well we saw a psychiatrist and i'm not quite sure he listened to everything we told him. but i've heard that's how they are. in my opinion, it's not solely a school problem. but when the psychiatrist meets with him, that's how the discussion goes. he lectures him on school and how if he doesn't get an education, he won't have job choices later. he immediately gave the script for adderall on the first visit. he does have a lot of ADD symptoms that the psychiatrist had us check off a list. if i stand over his shoulder all day and direct him every 15 minutes on what to do then he can stay on task. but if i leave him to do his independent schoolwork or chores, when i come back into the room he's piddling with something - a toy or a gadget or anything but what he is supposed to be doing. we went back to the psychiatrist after only being on the meds for a week (psych told us it would take 2 wks to see results) and he already wanted to give him some anti-depressant because i said i saw no change. my husband is a physician and said SSRIs are absolutely out of the question, so i can't go that route.

can anyone out there share their ADD experiences? i would like to know what type of problems you had. did you choose to medicate? if so, what medication worked? has anyone tried ADD meds and had the problems NOT go away? how do you determine what is an attention disorder and what is a lack of self-discipline that needs to be learned? how do you decide if there's truly an incapability to control oneself or if it's just passive aggressive behavior? i have a 12 yo that we've had problems with since he was 6. we recently put him on adderall, but almost 3 weeks later we don't see any change. i know that the affects of adderall aren't immediate, but i was told that we would see improvement by now. i can't find anything that motivates him. he speaks in absolutes (never, always, nothing, etc.). if we enforce consequences for his behavior (i.e. not finishing schoolwork or chores) then he just seems to get worse. he just doesn't want to even try to catch up. but then it seems that allowing him to stop and not telling him he's behind is just allowing him to be in control. there's no hyperactivity symptoms, just lack of desire to do anything at all. anyone else have similar experiences and found a solution?

peg, are you going to follow well-trained mind? if so, it gives specific instructions on curriculum and weekly schedules for each grade, along with book lists. make sure you get the current version (and the 3rd version is due to be released any moment now, so you may even want to wait a week or so for that one). then you take what they recommend and review it and choose what best suits your child's academic level and learning style. and you may not even know those real well yet. i didn't when i first pulled my kids out of school, because i had no clue what public school had done to them. it was (and still is) a process of trial and error to find out what fits them and to find out what public school left out. well-trained mind makes great suggestions but you can't do EVERYTHING in the book, so just know that up front. pick and choose what is best for you, your child, and your schedule. and know that she will have to do some decompressing from public school. there are a few good books on that subject too. if i track down the titles, i'll PM you with them.

there are millions of curriculum choices out there, ranging from total packages to cherry-picking on your own, to no actual textbooks at all. i think you probably want to do some reading of different homeschooling philosophies, and once you decide which one suits you best, then you can follow recommendations from there. if you've decided for sure on the WTM way, you'll find lots of lists and specific guidance for curriculum at all grade levels. i started this journey 3 years ago, and at the time, my older 2 children were in 4th and 5th grade. i think, if i were to look back and wish i had some sort of knowledge then that i didn't, it would be to know that the transition takes time. i've learned that i need to be patient and try my best not to compare my kids to the ones next to them or the ones still attending public school. i've learned that homeschooling is constantly changing and i always need to be adapting to my kids' needs and how they change. i've learned that if i choose a curriculum for them and it doesn't work, i shouldn't feel like a failure... just move on to the next choice and keep trying until something clicks.

are you already using SOTW with him? i see that listed in your signature. would he prefer the audio version instead, perhaps supplemented by just some simple geography activities, such as maps or globe or atlas reading?

i have 2 older children that were not homeschooled from the start. and even our first year out of public school, i had not yet discovered WTM. when i did, i felt like this light turned on. it just fit. but because of public school methods, my older children (currently 6th and 7th grade) seem to have so many things missing from their basics. i feel like i'm rushing to catch them up, but at the same time, trying to build a tower on a foundation that has cracks in it. i know i need to slow down and somehow fill in the gaps. has anyone had experience trying to teach older kids the SWB/WTM methods when they didn't learn that way from the beginning? has anyone tried using FLL and WWE with older children just at a faster rate, to try and fill in the basics so they can move better with a better understanding?

is copywork a substitute for penmanship? if i start WWE would i remove the zaner-bloser handwriting that he's been doing? or would that still be separate? and if i start WWE now, and have already been doing FLL for a couple months, will i still be able to skip some FLL based on the WWE lesson for the day? or would they need to be going alongside each other for that to work right? i currently have him reading out of a book out loud to me each day and then discussing that. from what i can tell from the WWE sample pages online, i would be able to eliminate any separate reading, correct? it looks like it provides certain literature passages and narration exercises specifically related to that.