Probably others will disagree, but we avoid telling the kids that their work is good when it isn't. We do try to say something positive when possible, to appreciate effort not just results, and not to be unrealistic in our expectations, but we don't engage in the ritual of telling them 'good job / well done / that's great / I love it' etc for every single thing they do, even if it's lousy work and they dashed it off in seconds. You can require a decent effort without critizing. For example, if she just slaps on the color, you can simply hand her another copy of the coloring picture and gently say something like "I can't wait to see this one when you've colored it carefully".

Sounds like you have plenty on your plate. I think you are wise to work on something that is realistic for your family. Fifteen minutes that actually gets done without anybody getting too upset (or 10, or even 5 minutes!) is better than a longer session that feels like torture, or that only gets done a couple times a week because it's too intimidating. That is great that your elder daughter experiments with different sounds and plays her own compositions. It's how some famous players learned. Maybe you could try a deal where she is supposed to play for 15 minutes (or practice 5 things) but if she tries hard she gets to replace the last 3 minutes (or last item) with her own free playing? The 5yo is probably pretty normal as a lot of kids that age can't easily concentrate on doing anything challenging for very long. When my now 6yo started music, I used lots of game elements to keep her engaged. If your little one likes to be competitive, you could use Zuki Beads (or a home-made alternative) and play a game along the lines of 'every time you play what I ask without talking, you get a bead, but every time you talk out of turn I get to move a bead back' (and pretend to be devastated when she 'wins' one). Or get her favorite stuffed toy to 'listen' (the toy loves hearing music and feels sad when she procrastinates or chats too much). Add variety whenever you do repetitions (eg once loudly like a lion, once quietly like a mouse, once with the 'proper' dynamics). If she can't sit still, try 5 minutes of playing, then march or dance while you play her piece (or play a recorded version), then 5 more minutes of her playing. There are hundreds of things you can try, but only you know what would work well for your kids. Finally, it's OK if you don't actually achieve something every day. I try very hard to have practice as something that happens on a daily basis, but if I can see that it's not going to go well (eg kid is unusually tired, hyped up from a birthday party or whatever, or even if you are too exhausted to help them) I will only have them do a token amount of practice, where there is nothing challenging and the only goal is to reinforce the daily practice habit.

You have a 3rd grader, a kindergartner and a toddler, is that right? I'm not sure that explosive tantrums nearly every day would fit into the 'normal' pattern for your eldest. What are your instincts telling you about her? Does she have any other issues? Would you consider taking her to a neuropsych or similar to get another opinion? Pediatricians aren't always across all of the problems kids can have. How is your family situation generally? Are you all under particular stress at the moment? Has your daughter always found emotional regulation difficult or has this come on more recently? If you have had a bereavement, a drastic change in circumstances or anything else that might be effecting her you could consider some kind of family therapy.

We do hair brushing, teeth cleaning and face washing as part of the basic personal hygiene routine. Most of the time we also ask the kids to get dressed, and Ms. 6 always has to get dressed because she sleeps in nothing but underpants. But occasionally we declare an official Pyjama Day when everyone can lounge around in whatever they want - usually the girls wear onesies and ds wears trackpants and T-shirt because he doesn't actually like sleepwear.

I have found quite a few toys, games and puzzles that are now too young for the kids, but I'm hesitating on whether to rehome them. How do you handle this?

Oh and yes, although being able to avoid crowds isn't our only reason for home schooling, or even the main reason, it's definitely one of the (many) reasons. When you have kids with sensory/autistic issues, they really can't learn much from places like museums when there are vast numbers of other people there causing them anxiety.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

nm

That is a benefit not to be sneezed at. Yesterday it was 36 degrees (97F) and we decamped to the local swimming pool. It was infested with kids. I can't wait until all the over-4's are imprisoned in school so we can have the deep end of the pool to ourselves. I wouldn't even contemplate taking my kids to a theme park during school holidays!

In the thread about whether/why kids seem to hate math/arithmetic, a couple of members thought that splitting it into a number of separate numeracy 'subjects' might be more manageable for kids. Older kids generally have separated math subjects (although they are conventionally studied sequentially), but how could we go about doing this for elementary/grammar stage kids? And how would that work considering most of us are using a curriculum (or several) that offers integrated numeracy study?

Chances are the other kids are just jealous. Is there any way your kids could avoid even engaging with this?

I haven't done any proper research on divorce, but if I had to guess I'd say that the person who is primarily responsible for ending a marriage isn't necessarily the person who initiates the divorce. It's well established that men are statistically happier and healthier when in a marriage. It's also well established that women are much more likely to experience poverty and its consequences when a marriage ends. So isn't it likely that these facts would lead to a scenario in which a husband will informally renege on his marriage committment but his wife will (eventually, and sometimes after heroic efforts to save the marriage) be the one to ask for a divorce?

Now you have gone too far. We will have to step outside.

The number of gods and goddesses throughout human history has been estimated at around 28 million. I find it mildly amusing that so many people argue for the existence of "a god" and then make a leap of logic to assume that the god in question must be their particular one, as opposed to one of the other 27 999 999 or so deities. A lottery ticket would probably offer better odds than a pascals wager on all those goddesses and gods.

Is that pre or post-tribulation under? Should it be defined as unschooling or unparenting? Or is it just part of the Gay Agenda? Seriously, how can the formatting of your post be 'bad form'? Whoever said that must have very little happening in her/his life. I am so not bothered that I couldn't even tell you how often I post above or below the quotation unless I went back and looked at my old posts.

Sounds like a great solution, I hope he enjoys his internship.

Yay for enthusiastic scholars :)

Thanks for the responses, will pass on your comments and ideas :) (I don't think what I'm doing with my 6yo would have been much help because the two girls are quite different personalities)

Thanks for responding. That resonates a lot for me. People, including kids, are holistic beings so it makes sense to educate holistically. I'm not going to comment about human rights in education (that's probably a topic for another thread) except to say that I am sorry for the difficulties you have had and are having.

Are you able to explain further how this works in practice please? Are you talking about a child-led/unschooling approach to numeracy? Or just starting later and moving faster with the curriculum? Or something else altogether? Would you still 'hold back math to the student's literacy level' in the case of a child with a literacy-specific learning disability? A few people have commented on how 'Real Math' is so much more fun and interesting than 'Only Arithmetic', but surely the arithmetic has to be gotten through somehow before kids can start on the higher stuff? Here is an anecdote I have probably shared on this forum before: A friend of mine unschooled her son from the beginning through grade 6. When he enrolled to start school in 7th grade, the mother spoke to the school to find out what 'gaps' he might have that they could address during summer holidays before he began school. She was told that as long as he can read and write reasonably well and perform basic arithmetical operations, he'd be fine, because they don't assume any prior knowledge of content. Anyhow, she got him a textbook, he went over a bit each day, and he covered all of grade 1-6 math in under two months. Granted, this particular kid was gifted to some degree, plus the mom is both highly intelligent and highly educated, so chances are he may have learned more than average while unschooling. But could the fact that this feat was possible suggest that the 'normal' progression makes getting the arithmetic down far more laborious and long-winded than it needs to be? (Although, if the multitude of accounts of unschooled students going from illiterate to 500 page classics over a summer are to be believed, maybe elementary education in its entirety is unnecessarily laborious and long-winded.)

Do they enjoy the applied math in the household projects with Dad? As Jenne said, it could be the sheer level of 'output' that's a problem. Would you be able to incorporate more discussion, oral drill or problem solving, stories, and so on? I suspect that we (parents or teachers) tend to feel more constrained by the curriculum/program with math than with 'softer' subjects, yet there isn't really any reason we can't jazz it up more. How about reading a picture book about a famous mathematical discovery, then dressing up and acting it out? Writing numerals on everybody's hand, doing the same on a big sheet of paper, and playing Ten Bond Twister? Watching math related movies (there are lots, although most not suitable for younger kids)? Learning arithmetic 'magic' tricks? Obviously doing that kind of thing every day won't be enough, but at least having a bigger variety of activities would be an improvement on the prospect of 12 years (or more) of daily written problems. (I hadn't fully realized how bleak this prospect seemed until when my Mr. 11 asked whether there was a "Computer of Doom" somewhere, with an infinite amount of MM pages!)

I don't think it's a fact of life for all, or even most, kids. I think a lot of 'math hate' comes from either learning to dislike it from peers (often in schools), boring/bad presentation (from curricula and school pedagogy), and lack of teacher enthusiasm (school teacher and/or parent treating math like vaccinations "I know you're gonna hate this but it's good for you"). Since I became more enthusiastic I have had all of my kids start to enjoy it more. They don't enjoy it every day, but they have all been 'caught' doing math activities in their spare time, so they can't hate it that much!

Situation in brief: they have a 6-and-3/4-year old who has had little formal education so far. The family is transitioning from one location/circumstance to another, future plans are not quite decided, but at this point the mom plans to home educate for about 6 months with the likelihood of enrolling the child in school after that. She wants to spend some good quality time with daughter while doing some organized homeschooling to ensure readiness for school (although she hasn't ruled out home educating for longer, depending on how it goes). Little girl is bright, no learning difficulties or major issues (although a little bit distractable), rather creative and performance oriented. Extremely extroverted, so needs socializing time. She's got some basic literacy skills. They are Christian but have their own Bible study resources already so would probably be open to curriculum that's not strongly religious. I have suggested a few programs and products for her to check out, but I'd appreciate others' ideas.

Washing again is only necessary if you are an autistic kid (or other person who doesn't cope well with exceptions to rules). My aspie Ms. 6 takes the "wash your hands properly after using the facilities" rule very seriously. I have tried telling her that she doesn't need to bother if she is hopping straight from the toilet into the shower, because her hands will get washed in the shower, but it's not worth it. She wants to follow the rule and it's just simpler to let her wash her hands and wash them again 20 seconds later.

I think an underwear gift is fine if you're a small child and it's from your parents. Also OK if it's something a bit 'special' from your husband/partner. Otherwise I'd think it a bit weird.