Pushcart War. It's funny and a great intro into the reasons some wars happen as well as the role of the press and propaganda. 😊

Totally planning on counting sleeping in a tent. Our 3 week camping road trip should set us up nicely. 😁

Tomorrow is our "official" first day of school for the new year. We school year round, so it is always just a day I declare as our first day. We have crepes with all the toppings for breakfast, do something fun (either go to the Gathering Place in Tulsa this year or possibly tube down a river) and the First Day of School Otter brings fun school supplies. It's silly but I always loved the first day of school as a kid and with homeschooling I didn't want them to miss it. Although theirs looks different than mine did, it is something the girls look forward to every year. Plus, this is the first year that all my kids are officially, legally, homeschooling! My 5yo would be starting Kindergarten if we did traditional school. It's quite a milestone for me. Also, starting my 8th year at this, which is nuts. I'll have a K'er, 4th, 5th, and 7th graders! This is also when they learn what grade they are in officially since it really doesn't effect any other aspect of their lives. 🙂

My kids have been enjoying Nintendo switch's new game programming game which has built in lessons. They have also been enjoying CS First lessons. Especially my 12, 10, and 9yo.

We got an induction cook top when we remodeled our kitchen last year. My mom's had one for almost a decade so I was fairly familiar. The pans are definitely the catch, but cast iron works. I even bought an induction capable pressure canner and it works great. I do use a silicone mat under the cast iron to protect the top. My favorite part is the fact that it doesn't put off nearly as much heat as our old glass top. The cooktop itself puts off no heat, so the only heat is from the pans and food. Our kitchen would get so hot in the summer if we cooked and now it's a non-issue. 😊

So I ordered the official Oxford University Press Study Guide for the first volume. On Amazon it has free returns, which is awesome since I want to look at it first. If the prompts are as good as I'm hoping and requires thought rather than just regurgitation, my plan is to have dd10 read a chapter a day and do the study guide page for the chapter that day as well. That should take her about 45 mins on average? I'm going to have her do it instead of another writing program, since she's sort of bored with CAP and I'm just looking for more practice until she's ready for Writing With Skill. It will give us a good way to really focus on her writing. That should get her through the set in a little over 2 school years, which seems reasonable to me. I'll share how it goes. Up until now we haven't done a formal history for any of my kids, and I think I'll consider this more as a writing program than a history program, the history is just a big bonus.

Thank you! My set came with one of the study guides. I was looking at it and it looks really solid. I'm actually considering having her read a chapter a day and then do the study guide daily as part of her writing. There's a fair amount of writing and I like the look of the prompts for the most part. I'm not in a hurry but I also don't want her doing it for 6 years either. I need to give it some more thought. 🙂

I was lucky enough to score an entire set of her History of US for $10 this weekend. I've had my eye on them for a while and it's perfect timing as some of my kids are getting to about middle school age. But I'm looking through them and wondering how you use them in your homeschool. There are so many books and so much content that it seems like it would take a while to work through them. If you've used them, how did you do it?

You guys are including a lot of books that are free online. Since they have tablets, I wouldn't spend money and space on those and just maybe preload them...

Haha, yeah. I can totally see that happening. I'm glad we have the freedom to work with our kids where they are. But nope, I'm happy with the amount of school and progress we're making generally. 😊

I find it very difficult to measure by outcome. For one, kids get blocks in some areas and take a lot longer than you think to get somewhere. I don't want to feel like a failure or put unnecessary pressure on my kids to meet an arbitrary goal that I set. I also don't have specific goals in many areas at this point in this age. Something like writing just needs to be worked on. Spelling too. Get a little better every day. I also have a child with special needs and literally have no idea what level of achievement she will be able to accomplish. For example, she does TT for math. A program I have no respect for generally but which is what makes sense for her. However, even that was too much this year. We had to take a few months and switch to another program to help slow things down for a while. I didn't feel like finishing a given program or having a solid understanding of some math concept within a certain time frame was most important. But progress was made, however slowly. For me, measuring effort is more practical.

I agree it is a silly requirement. I do think for some people there is value in making sure you are on track in some way or another. We all see or know those homeschoolers that think they are doing more school than they actually are. For me, counting days for myself was comforting rather than confining. It was like living within a budget and knowing that I had enough money to splurge on something I want versus having no idea how much money I had to spend on what I want, doing it anyways, and feeling guilty. I found keeping track freeing. I knew for a fact that it was OK to take off random days and we'd still be in a good place. My natural inclination was to slack a little more than not, and I didn't want to do my kids a disservice because of my laziness. My homeschooling goals are very academically-minded, so that may have something to do with it. I want my kids to be able to play, but that's not what drives my homeschool.

Oh, I feel pretty comfortable with where we are. I was just evaluating how I count days. I don't have to count at all, it's more for curiosity and so I don't feel like I'm being a slacker when we take off 3 weeks for whatever reason. For now, I only count book work days. I know most people include field trips and other educational activities, which we totally do, but I'm just keeping track of bookwork because for me, there was a definite inclination to rationalize work done that really wasn't as much as I thought. Now, I'm in a better groove and routine and don't worry about that. I'm a little confused at your post though. Do you think we're not doing enough? Because it seems to me that we do as much or more than anyone else I know. If anything, I feel like I should back off a bit. 😊

The last 2 years I've printed out a year calendar and put an "X" on everyday we did what I considered a full academic load. Not field trips or other educational activities, just bookwork. My goal was 170 days (the state doesn't care). We've exceeded that goal both years. Now I'm wondering what is considered normal and what you count (if you do) for older elementary/middle school ages. Also just for curiosity's sake. 😊 I started counting because I felt like I was maybe slacking and being lazy so I wanted some reassurance.

I'm considering doing the MCT poetry program with all my kids combined. Different ages. I'll probably start with the first one (Music of the Hemispheres). What would you recommend I buy? Do I just need the teacher's guide? Do I need a student book for each kid? How consumable/necessary are they. ETA: I looked at the samples. It looks like everything in the Student book is also in the Teacher's book. So probably I can just do one teacher's manual and call it good if we're doing it in a group? Unless there's something I can't see in the sample.

That's funny. Dd9 was doing that exact section today and I let her skip the puzzle part, just like you said. I always make them ask if they're getting frustrated with the puzzle aspect to see if there is inherent value in it or not.

We used Miquon completely for the early grades then BA as our primary afterwards. I only do math facts and Prodigy for extra math exposure for my BA kids. It has a deceptive amount of practice built in and we do BA online as well for review. We do the books in order and then my kids have free(ish) reign on BA online so they get review and extra practice.

Thanks for letting me know that Your Business Math might be a bit dull. That sounds like we may want to give it a miss. The kids do tons of interest led stuff for most of the day, so I'm sort of hoping to more do something I wouldn't otherwise do but also that they might not otherwise do. So programming might be a good choice. They've played around on Scratch but haven't really learned how to do much. Or some project that is laid out for me? Is there something like the running your own fake business somewhere else that is done better? I mean, we could just do Roller Coaster Tycoon I guess. 😊 Maybe I should look for some cool Outschool classes or something. Maybe a poetry study or drawing course we could all do?

Anyone try Your Business Math from SCM? They would probably get a kick out of running a fake business if it is implemented well.

We are going to finish up the school year a month early. We do school year round for our sanity (the routine is important for us) so I was thinking of filling the time with some special studies that I normally don't get to. I was thinking a financial literacy class, maybe an internet safety unit, etc. What are some ideas for stuff like that which will fit in a month? About 3hrs a day total? Mostly for the 9-12yos (the 5yo can tag along or take it easy).

Nm

Right? Never again!

Yeah, I get 25 daily and 42 weekly on blue. It has to do with free foods. You have to work them in and it definitely takes work to figure out. For example, I made white chicken chili today. Chicken, beans, etc were free and other ingredients were 1pt per serving. That, with some Tortilla chips made for a filling 6pt dinner.

How's everyone doing? At my weigh-in this week I was officially down 16lbs total since the end of February. Slow and steady but consistent progress and I'm happy with it. I've been experimenting with using my weekly points too, which I've mostly avoided doing before. So far the results have been good and I've been happy with more wiggle room for my favorite desserts. Now I just need to figure out how to serve the Salisbury steaks we got in a WW-friendly way. 😊

A national meat company's corporate office is in our area and the gave away boxes of meat today as a PR stunt in several local towns. It was heavily advertised but you just had to drive up and they loaded you trunk with literally 4 boxes of name brand meat. We got 12 packages of Italian sausage, a giant bag with probably hundreds of breakfast sausage links, and 2 boxes of Salisbury steaks. It was so random. My SIL got some too but they gave her different meats with her Salisbury steak. 😁