I'm 32 and I'd much prefer the book. But, I am the kind of person who will almost always pick the book option in any circumstance... if your 20-30 something isn't much of a reader then I'd keep looking. The best gifts from my parents are nice things they think I'll like but that I would never set money aside for - like a lovely shawl, perfume etc.

We used to live just off poets lane, where we had streets like tennyson drive, keats court and wordsworth place. Very snooty sounding. Wordsworth way scholars Sonnet Grove school

I know that for baking unsalted is the standard, but I generally use whatever is on hand which is usually salted. Never noticed the difference or had complaints, though I do tend to leave out the 'pinch of salt' if it's in the recipe.

I started one in my local group, passed the torch and it's still going successfully. We aimed ours at about 3-6th grade, and also had a separate activity group for younger siblings (who often also heard the book as a family read aloud). We had boys and girls. I would put a selection of 3 books to the vote/any objections heard, then I'd just pick one. We gave about a month to read it. Fyi- our first selection was The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane which everyone loved. At the meetings, we'd give a quick run through of the plot, maybe asking what everyone's favourite part was. I would choose one literary device to lead a discussion with the kids about. This was about half an hour or so. After the discussion, the kids would take turns giving an oral review of another book they had read (I provided a basic template). Then food and play! Very positive experience here. In my experience, you need someone to just lead/organise, be firm in making it what you want (don't pander!) I'm working on the idea of a mother & teen/tween daughter bookclub at the moment, but haven't been able to make it happen yet. I got the idea because dd and I enjoyed reading and discussing Little Women this year.

Beware - this came back to bite me! He did go and think about how to make a funny joke. Said child tests out all of his jokes on me (at appropriate times!)... they need work. ðŸ˜

I call them on it. "You and I both know that you know how to do this. If you need a reminder, we can practice it over and over until you remember" I may also add that I don't find it funny and if they want to be a comedian, they need to work on their material and choose better moments. If they are really carrying on with it, I literally would have them 'practice until they remember,' take the trash all the way to the bin, put it in, close the lid. Open it and bring the trash bag all the way back to the door. Repeat 3-4 times. Then "do you think you understand how to do it now? Okay then, thank you for taking out the trash." <-- all of this is done in a jokey tone- usually by the 3rd time they are smirking in a 'concede defeat' way. I've only had to do this once or twice, then I can just ask if they need to practice it. I wouldn't take it personally, but I also wouldn't take it iykwim. :)

What I see in my community, generally, is the religious folk taking HS very seriously, as a directive from God. I see more concerning attitudes from secular, natural learning 'let them play' folk. I think that here, the issue is less religious freedom than parental rights. I will oppose any push for more oversight because the department hasn't provided evidence that 1. There is a problem with neglect/abuse in the hs population. I would define problem as more frequent/severe than children educated in other ways. 2. Increased regulation would identify or discourage abusers. 3. That there will be any resources available to actually enforce adherence or support those struggling. So, it's increased regulations as a salve for the public conscience. In the meantime, it promotes the stereotype that homeschoolers should be viewed with suspicion and that parents are generally not to be trusted without government oversight. I believe that price is too high for no proven benefit. I do believe that a supportive community that encourages high standards and taking the responsibility of education soberly (regardless of the method) is much more effective. Admittedly, I am an optimist!

Yes, I agree. The default should not be that homeschoolers are neglectful abusers unless we have docunented evidence to the contrary.

Here in Australia, it is much like you describe. Pre elementary, we have free maternal child health nurse visits every few weeks at the beginning to yearly. They aren't compulsory though, and you can always go to the gp instead. We have free vaccination, usually with a nurse at the same centre or gp office. We also have free or heavily subsidised doctor visits for school readiness at 4-5. We also have school dentists where kids can access free/reduced fee basic dental care. Homeschoolers can access this if they are registered. I have met many many homeschoolers. There were only 2 that I had a question mark about neglect. One of those was already on docs' radar for other reasons; the other was a 'not coping' situation, they were lovingly confronted and supports put in place. The kids are young enough (under 10) that they can fix this. But people noticed. I don't let neglect type comments go unanswered, if someone jokingly asks if they have to teach to algebra, I tell them heck yes you do! We work hard to make sure that our community encourages high academic standards. I've actually been thinking about this topic - regs - a lot lately because it is currently up for review in my state. We get much better adherence rates, in terms of registration, when the regulations are not onerous and when there is genuine good will from the department. A cooperative approach, rather than a demonising, punitive one.

We are home bodies and free/down time for our kids is a priority for us. Not counting weekends, I don't like to have to leave the house more than twice a week. For us that means Wed - swimming in the afternoon and homeschool group fortnightly, Friday - excursion or visiting friends and violin lessons. We still do a little school on those days but our full days are Monday/Tuesday/Thursday. We are also introverts, so this amount of socialising, plus church on the weekend and random play days (probably twice a month) is enough for us. As for social circles, we started homeschooling in one area and built relationships, we moved an hour away but still travel back regularly. We have made new friends in our new area and see them regularly, and we have church friends and extended family.

I don't know, but it sounds interesting! My kids just watched some of the great ball contraption videos on YouTube that use lego technic and were inspired!

The movie Riding in Cars with Boys. I sob through the last 2/3rds basically. I may have some issues...

Hunter, thank you for sharing your wisdom with this board. As for my moaning first post, it feels more like needing to pull on my boots, march through something slightly difficult, and show my kids what self discipline is. I am feeling much more positive about our last week, so thank you everyone! And, my boost from yesterday... My oldest couldn't remember how to spell 'exhausted' - ironic, I know! She wrote about 5 different, increasingly frustrated, versions on her test paper. Eventually she wrote "I don't know. Does 'fatigatus' count?" Yes my darling daughter, the Latin word for weary/fatigue (spelled correctly!) certainly counts!

Also, our school looks very little like public school, I really don't spend much time or energy worrying about it. I just really want us to finish up a couple of things so I can feel comfortable with our progress this year. The world won't end if we dump it, but I think it's worth one more push.

Love it! We have actually been watching Bush Tucker Man which is really interesting, the first season is full of history! I have Christmassy stuff planned for after next week, we're going to watch swan lake and the nutcracker (we studied tchaikovsky), do some canvas painting and wood carving and baking for Christmas presents. And we were just talking about visiting the new pool with giant slides next Friday as a celebration of finishing. I was just so tired and I'm sick of constant colds, my kids don't do well with 'pushing through', it's like dragging them through quicksand.

Thanks so much guys, I feel a lot better. Today we visited my bestie and the kids did some end of year tests and we all had donuts. One more week one more week. ..

We school jan-dec and finish next week. We all got sick with colds again this week, which means that behaviour management takes more out of me. I'm so tired and finding it reeeeally hard to just get through these last few days. I want to be done and just rest. We're bare bones as it is and still, it's hard. Give me commiserations or a kick in the behind please?

I haven't yet regretted building our library. I love being able to say 'Yes, I have a book on that topic' and handing it to a kid. It just happened with ds1 and The Silver Sword, his lit up face was worth having it sit on my shelf for a couple of years. Most of our history is done this way. I'm becoming less enamoured with 'curriculum,' the longer I teach, the more comfortable I am with the material and going off script.

I'm so sorry. That is an awful lot to bear.

Yeah, that's a tough age spread. I mean that to be encouraging. Sure, there's things you can do or could've done better (I sooooooooo relate) but anyone homeschooling that many/those ages knows that it's just managed chaos! What I do that helps a little. My olders have 'independent work' checklists, so if I'm busy I can just say "go on with your lists" I don't put group or me-teaching things on the list. This helps because it gives them some ownership of their work and time, without it derailing everyone else's schedules. Your 8 & 9 year old could manage this, if you make sure that they actually can do/access the work (I use magazine file boxes, and the lists are just in spiral notebooks). This does require letting go of doing everything exactly the way I want it done... I also post a loose, daily routine on the wall (literally a list of subject order handwritten on paper and blu tacked to the wall) which helps us keep in the flow. My 3 year old is the wild card and so it's mostly stemming the chaotic tide...

I'm reading aloud Itch- adventures of an element hunter. We're all enjoying it. I'm STILL reading Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court. It's great but a tough read aloud. One day we'll finish it...

I haven't read all the replies yet, but my first thought is changing the mentality about sending kids to school = childcare so parents can work. We seem to be straddling the ideas of childcare and academics and coming up with longer school days with mediocre academics and I think that's the worst of both worlds. Ideal for me, for working parents, would be first - more workplace flexibility and reasonable cost of living. An average family should be able to thrive on 1-1.5 of a full time average wage, and it should be common for that 1-1.5 to be made up of options like 1X0.8 and 1X0.4 workers. Then, the 'school' should be part family daycare and part academic charter/coop. Small classes, like 5-10 students, with the ability to individualise lessons. Then you'd have other adults running the family part, get kids to help with chores and day to day running of the place, cooking, activities with younger/older kids, outdoor activities with adults who are ready and willing to mentor interested kids in things like gardening and carpentry. And plenty of free time to make use of the board games/books/art supplies/animals/outdoor spaces/musical instruments/science items. Kids can arrive early for breakfast, class times would be set, something like 9.30-12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30? Kids can stay until 5-6, until parents can come and get them. No homework beyond "discuss this idea with your parents" So basically, homeschooling in a (non crazy/cult) commune lol, with a classical/montessori feel. Totally pie in the sky.

Dh blindsided me with the idea when our oldest was an infant. I of course reacted with a gasp and 'I could never do that' He had known 2 homeschooling families growing up who were so-so examples, but the idea stuck. Dh said that it was my decision, but asked me to at least think about it. My library had WTM and I was sold. And angry at the 'education' that I received. Our infant never went to school, and is now 11. I know of at least 3 families who decided to homeschool after meeting us, honestly, I have mixed feelings about that...

I agree with the consensus. There is some review, not a lot, and it doesn't look like review. For example, at the end of the Distributive Property chapter you do some perimeter/area and perfect square stuff again - but literally only a handful of problems. I have my kids go through the reviews in the Singapore textbooks, and if they get stuck, we review the topic with the Singapore book - this doesn't usually take long. I also have my ds who is still working on multiplication do a quick drill app before we start. I am really happy with BA. Dd (still working on the level 5 stuff) took her first ever maths test this year - no prep - and got a distinction. This test was an Australia wide, optional (ie, self-selecting - schools generally enter their best students) competition. Her problem solving score was twice the national average. She's bright, but certainly not gifted. I credit BA, amongst other things.

I feel like an amateur. I usually keep it under 10, it's at 9 now and that feels almost extravagant...