Honestly, keep doing whatever you are doing. I made the mistake early of really wanting to stretch and challenge my DS and I agonized over what he should read and curricula. If he was reading Dickinson for fun, I'd have been dancing in the streets!

In short, read the classics, ease up on the grammar (it's just probably not really needed at this juncture. Pick it up again in middle or high school just to refresh her, but I'm guessing she'll be fine without it. Just my 2 cents.) and personally, I'd try everything possible to keep writing fun. If she likes to dictate stories to you, keep up with that! It's a wonderful way for her to develop her writing voice.

We are much happier with G3, the age of the students is a tad older and it lends to more mature conversation skills. Athena's had a lot of really young kids who didn't know proper etiquette for speaking out of turn. I also didn't feel like they went deeper into the subject. (It was SOTW 3, so there really wasn't time to go deeper I guess, in a semester course.) DS is REALLY enjoying his Scratch workshop. The workload is good, and the depth is perfect for him.

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry for your family. :grouphug:

I finally finished The Paris Wife. It was "meh" Just picked up "Why I Read" by Wendy Lesser. It looks like a quick little read.

I just read this article and thought of this post. It's not exactly what you are talking about but it's on the topic of feeling judged as a parent and how to handle it. http://www.judymouland.com/blog/stop-judging-mesome-kids-are-harder-than-others2016419

I have heard something along these lines, but always seem to forget in the heat of the moment. Thank you for the reminder, and also the book suggestion.

This. My boy has been in and out of mulitple therapies that would look on paper like he is on the spectrum. (He definitely kisses the spectrum if he's not officially on it.) For numerous reasons we haven't had a full neuro work up yet, but I see it on the horizon. Anyways, we still do the therapies. Right now he's in a social skills group with both neurotypical peers and his actual "quirky" peers. I don't know what his labels are but I know what therapies he needs. Big hugs. This is hard stuff.

Love these ideas. We do have a half price books and visit it frequently!

I struggle with this too.

This is all so great, thank you!

I guess not STEM? :) Seriously though art, music, history, literature..... PS your kids sound awesome.

Great list! Thank you.

My DS likes Shakespeare, we are going to see Hamlet in November. :)

What does "school" look like in the middle school years? I'm thinking we are going back to our Bravewriter lifestyle sort of learning, which is a great foundation to build on, but I love reading what others do, it's very inspiring!

I just finished The Paris Wife. Meh. I'm a Hemingway fan, I just didn't care for the writing. I'm re-reading Free Range Learning. Because of course I am. :laugh: I also have a stack of New Yorker's I need to get through.

everything? :lol: Just kidding, it just feels like that sometimes. I'd say mostly books, and Beast Academy. I still don't get that one!

Bumping on the off chance someone has used this, because I am interested too. :)

No pressure! I love the plan you posted, I'm inspired. :)

Bumping this because I missed it the first time, and there's good stuff here. (It's always nice to see some language arts on this board.) Ruth, I'm wondering how this is going? I know you are doing typing for the dysgraphia, and have followed your other posts, so I guess I'm just checking in. :) My DS sounds similar to your younger. He's not dysgraphic, but we definitely have some other stuff going on that we are contemplating labeling at the moment.

AoPS is just not working. It takes 90 minutes everyday and he's kind of checked out most of the time. We are going to work through The 5B IP book from SM and do LoF pre-A, possibly the next Arbor book for the rest of 2016, and start Jacobs in January. ETA: He is disliking math more with AoPS and I do not have it in me to deal with more push back.

I traded him for The Mysterious Benedict Society, and he's liking that better anyways. :) Thanks for the heads up everyone!

Yikes! Good thing I posted about it. I'll have a talk with DS tomorrow. He didnt get very far I think just a chapter.

I have to admit, I didn't look into it very closely. DS really wanted to read it so I just gave it to him. I don't really limit what he reads but now I'm nervous. I guess If common sense media says 14, I'm ok with it for my almost 10 year old. Lol

I just finished it and I agree, it's not really useful for "professional development" as a teacher. I was hoping it was. Lol