Geometry in 8th is not unusual anymore. I actually did Alg 1 in 9th (I moved states and was put into regular track math, excellerated at my school was Geom 9th, and remedial was PeA 9th) and was a science major in college and all was fine. But, the new competitive track is geom in 8th. Im for putting her where she will have success but still challenge. One of my kids finished Alg 1, 2, and geom in middle school (PreA was 5th and part of 6th). One of them will finish Alg 1 in 8th. Both are fine with me because they are what was best for each child. So, do what’s best for your child.

If I had a 3rd grader who had good focus and work ethic I would expect core skill subjects (math, ELA) to take about 1.5 hours a day and content area subjects however long we decided to spend on them. My 7 year old starts at 10 and we end by 2:30, but that includes plenty of “breaks” for her while I work with other kids and do things around the house. The total amount of time of actual work for our Morning Basket, Math, ELA, violin, and one content area I would guess averages 3-3.5 hours. I will say that my oldest two took more time at that age because they were distractable.

Conjuguemos is a verb practicing website that includes Latin

Really?? That would be great! Let me know if you find out how (aside from takingvtheir phone or logging into their account) I’d love to know. One of dd’s Habits is “tolerating bad Dad jokes” ? and another is “texting boyfriend” ?

I have to admit I have not used the app yet. I too was waiting to get everyone on it - 4 of 6 in our house have adhd - for the free trial, but with the commotion of the new school year it actually slipped my mind until this thread ? And I think my starting up with Habitica with the oldest and DH kept it from resurfacing. I found out about it from a podcast (Tilt Parenting maybe?), and it sounds great! I wish I could answer your questions though.

You might consider IGotThis. It was designed for families with one or more member having ADHD. It lets you do to-dos for people, and it alerts you when they are completed or missed. And for pomodoro type timer I’ve been using Forest. It’s a little gamified, and it keeps you off your phone while it’s running which is nice. ETA for spelling and autocorrect mistakes ?

One summer we moved from state where school ended June 23 to a state where school began August 11 - and my oldest was in public full time then. While the break was short, it set the pace for how we did homeschool later. We used to run “full tilt” from Sep-May, and August was ramp up and June was ramp down. And July was fully off. It was easier for me to add in a thing or two each week in August than to start up everything at once. And by the time May was over so was I, but we continued with math, writing, and Latin so as not to lose too many skills over summer. Now I have one full time in public and one part time dual enrollment so we go by district/college schedule.

So sorry!

Mini splits sound perfect for your situation! They are more visible than ducts, but not more visible than propane heater and they heat and cool. Heat pump is $$ up front, but cheaper on your electric bill. However, if you don’t have ducts everywhere I would invest in it. We had one in our last house in the PNW and it was great. We live in the high desert SW now (hot summers, windy snowy winters)and are building and going with forced air gas furnace and AC units. We looked at minisplits but they way our roof is it would be unattractive.

We love Goodnight Moon (and others of her works). We were gifted Goodnight Goon (Halloween parody), and I saw Goodnight iPad (parody about putting devices away at night).

First idea, use Alcumus to review Algebra and Geometry. Second, Switch away from AOPS. We love it! But I can even see the difference in its value between my oldest and the next child. He’s still doing well with it, but he doesn’t retain as well as oldest. He did three years of BA and the PreA successfully and likes the discovery based method (in fact, that’s pretty much how he likes to learn anything), but he needs more review. We use Alcumus and its enough for him. But oldest didn’t even need Alcumus. So, don’t be tied to AOPS as the only way for your math student.

These are good points. Figuring out their learning styles and trying to meet them will help a lot. Maybe audio isn’t their input modality - it was for two of my four kids so we could do some read alouds. They did one ~30 min read aloud (audiobook of great literature, not necessarily content area literature), and then the years they did SOTW they listened to the audiobook of that for ~10 min. I read short things in morning basket like poetry, a short bio anecdote, maybe a fable, but not a ton. Most WTM approaches did not work for my ADHD kids. Listen and narrate? Um, no way. Write from dictation? Pulling teeth. Memorization was ok, but not of lists or facts out of context (we memorized poetry). Writing was not the best way for them to internalize or for me to assess what they learned. We discussed a lot, oral question and answer, and tried to use hands-on or multi-sensory input when possible (ie one child preferred classical music in the background while doing copy work and reading, another wire ear pro to block it out; they were allowed to sit/rock/bounce as was comfortable as long as it didn’t distract others; we did lots of audio in the car where there was deep felt motion from driving and visual variety out the windows; one child preferred to work in low light; etc). Also, we used audiobooks instead of mom reading aloud most of the time. Although I consider myself a decent reader, the kids needed variety. Raising three kids who think completely differently than I do has been very hard for me. But it becomes easier, and my children happier and more engaged, when I recognize the difference as a difference and not a detriment, and get behind them instead of dragging them through their education in the way that makes sense to me. But still, it can be very difficult and most people won’t understand the struggle. ? I keep adding to this post hoping something of my experiences a few years down the road from you might help you and your family. Keep up the hard work, and let love rule. My sincerest best wishes!

I also use MCT writing books as general overviews of aspects of writing and use a different writing program (was W&R, currently LToW). I actually dropped vocabulary when my kids started Latin too. So we use MCT grammar, practice book, poetics, and the writing book as an overview. I imagine you could do something similar with IEW for writing (they also have other products but usually when people say IEW they mean their Structure and Style based writing options). But I wouldn’t use IEW writing, and spelling, and poetry memorization, and ___, plus all of MCT.

My three oldest all have ADHD and each have at least one other thing going on. Here’s what worked at our house for those ages: 1. Morning Basket while they ate breakfast, which allowed me to squeeze in bits of stuff I thought important while their mouths were occupied. We followed this with audiobook while they busied hands with crafts or legos or the like. 2. Next was non-negotiables - Math, writing, reading/spelling, grammar. We did this on rotation in short lessons and breaks. 3. Lunch 4. Personal Studies - this is where I was able to get their buy-in, and where their out-of-the-Box thinking shone. They covered science, history, and interests this way. At the beginning of each semester I have a one:one meeting (usually at frozen yogurt place) and I talk to them about what they want to learn. I have a few parameters (they need to have books to read, so ideas for books; they need to have something from history; need to have an area of science; need to have an area of self-improvement; can add interests outside those categories). I write things down, and make suggestions if I think of them then, but mostly this is info gathering. Then later I research a little and presentbthem with some options (for many things they actually research though), and they chose. Then every week we meet and review the last week and plan the next week. If they have chosen a curriculum it’s usually putting the next parts on their weekly checklist. If it is their personal interest I will ask “how many days are you going to study it this week?” and put it on the checklist accordingly. I show them how to look up things at the library and request books, and they work from them. Examples of things my kids did for personal study time: SOTW2 (by request, audiobook, coloring from activity book, and map work), Snap Circuits student project book, designing and sewing stuffed animals, Science Olympiad studying and project work, typing program, online leadership class, AOPS elective classes, Magic Schoolbus human body kit, Thames and Kosmos Astronomy kit, First LEGO League work, programming with Scratch, Spanish with Rosetta Stone, and lots of small things they started learning about and then switched interests. My kids learned so much through those years. And it wasn’t just content, it was about executive skills!! Making a plan, executing, following through/accountability, etc. My middle dd is now full time public school, oldest is dual enrollment, and youngest is still just doing morning Basket and the non-negotiables,but this is still roughly the way we do things with DS. He may still lose a million pencils a day but he’s managing AOPS self-paced Math, Lukeion Latin, and onlineG3 history on his own! He still dislikes English, but he knows he can endure it with basic cooperation and effort because he has the things he *wants* to do as well. The Adhd puzzle is hard, I know. Best wishes to you!

Staples Better Binders (some we’ve had some for 7 years now)

Mon: 30 min violin lesson(#4), 90 min soccer(#2), 60 min parkour (#2 & 3) Tue: 30 min sax lesson (#2), 60 min parkour (#1 & 4), 60-75 min soccer games (#2 & 4), 90 min youth group (#1 & 2) Wed: 60 min homeschool group (#2 & 4), 60 min math club (#1), 60 min choir (#3), 45 min group violin (#4) Thu: 45 min soccer (#4), 90 min soccer (#2) Fri: field trip group every few weeks (#2 & 4), scout camp-outs once a month Sat: 60-75 min soccer games (#2 & 4) #3 recently quit swim (mixed feelings about that) so the lessened the schedule, and soccer is only 2 months in the fall and 3 months in the spring. It still looks like a lot when I type it out.

We never used AAR but got kids reading at about 2nd grade level with 100EZ, then dropped direct reading instruction and started spelling (first AAS then later LOE). I don’t think they would have liked any more decoding instruction!! Encoding through spelling was helpful, but honestly the most helpful was having them read aloud to me every day, improving fluency and confidence and allowing me to point out some things if they struggled.

My accelerated learners have always been asynchronous, so at times they don’t seem so accelerated, and at others it is very obvious. And each area of development and learning is different. Generally they have stayed accelerated in certain areas (reading for all three, math for two, music for two, science for two, etc). Also, there are the instances of areas of pure raw talent that isn’t worked on (I am looking at you middle dd ?) and so of course they don’t stay accelerated compared to peers who work at it. But that’s ok, and as others have mentioned, you teach the child in front of you. And sometimes you just have to get out of their way.

3rd-5th grade? NaturalMath, LetsPlayMath, Math4Love, MathPickle websites and Circle In a Box PDF Math Circles for Elementary book, as well as Family Math, Moebius Noodles, Playing with Math Also videos from Numberphile

When we used BA it was a certain number of pages/problems or a certain amount of time, whichever came first. I would pencil in a little stop sign in the practice book where to stop. Honestly though if you like the problem solving in BA and MM but you like the explicit boundaries of Saxon you might consider Singapore PM. It isn’t 100% independent, but I usually only had to spend 10 min. on a lesson. Another thought is, where do you want to go after arithmetic? You might look ahead to secondary maths and choose a good arithmetic to prepare him for it.

I listen on my iPhone using the podcast app. You can browse, download, and listen to podcasts directly in the app. I listen to The History of Philosophy without Any Gaps (dd16 listens in with me), Tides of History, and The Fall of Rome (ds13 listens in with me) in order. I also listen to episodes of Brave New Mom, Tilt Parenting, Freakenomics Radio, Radio Lab, and a couple other random ones piecemeal. When they were smaller we listened to StoryNory, but really we don’t use them a lot.

I can’t find a way to contact Circe about an order I placed over a week ago that has had an unchanged status of “Processing.” I realize it’s the beginning of the school year, and things are busy (I went to order it 4 weeks ago but they were out of stock, once that changed to in stock I ordered). But I would really like to contact them, and I can’t seem to find a way to do so. Does anyone here know how to get ahold of them? Is this typical MO for them (slow, no communication)?

Not a lot. Mine did hand written work in W&R writing workbook, some short answer questions for LLftLotRwith occasional project, a sentence analysis for MCT daily, a few worksheets for science, and worked out math problems by hand. Everything else was on the computer or didn’t involve writing. I would estimate that his writing for W&R was about 2 pages a week, average, of hand written work.

My child in 7th used the self-directed book aimed at adults.

I grew up with 50 year old California sycamores in my yard - no nuts (but leaves!! and shade, and zip line anchor points, and forts... loved them!!!). Around here trees grow about 12-15 feet tall and are scrubby, and the only nuts you might find are pine nuts and juniper berries. I would loooove to have a big tree again, nuts and all!! All the same, sorry for the loss of seep!