Lol. My kids are going to a Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants) meet and greet soon. I'm not a classical homeschooler....

I don't know how much grammar a gifted kid needs. I think my kid is picking up enough grammar reading good books. We did do MCT and really enjoyed it, but it didn't seem that life changing as far as grammar knowledge. I'm going through a little homeschooling identity crisis though, and maybe I shouldn't be trusted. :lol:

It seemed like a repeat of what we already read in Island & Town. We are doing the intermediate Literature Level instead. :) As for time a day, that's totally flexible as well. We spent 30-60 minutes a day because we loved it. You could definitely stretch it out and do shorter lessons.

We have only done island and town, and we are skipping voyage, but the set up is the same for all the lower levels. MCT provides a flow chart but in a nut shell, start with grammar voyage, read it through and then move onto essay voyage and the practice book. Midway through that add in poetry. You can do the vocabulary at any point. This is a very succinct answer as I'm on my phone, but just know it's not something that has a rigid schedule.

I hear you, it's definitely not the ideal. Honestly, in your shoes, I'd just let him switch to piano. It might be easier having both kids on the same instrument.

We are almost in the exact same predicament, same age and everything, except ours is double bass to piano. I think this year we are going to suck it up and pay for both lessons and then have him decide at the end of the year. He doesn't seem to love the bass but plays piano every chance he gets. It's tough and I have posted on here for advice in the past and still don't know what to do. My DS has been playing Bass for almost 5 years, but if it was only a year, I'd have an easier time switching him.

I don't micro plan. I am not detail oriented enough for that, and since my oldest is a pretty accelerated learner, any time I did micro plan was a lesson in futility. How much do you plan at once? Maybe you can plan smaller chunks at a time? Give yourself a coffee shop date once a month to plan? (I have to reward myself to do these things, so I just assume others are that way. :))

Costco strikes again! Just bought wall maps, a Hamilton biography, this Literature book which looks awesome, and a DK coding book. I think I'm going to change my forum name to Costco Homeschooler. :lol:

Yes, that's the deck. Yoga helps with focus, body awareness, self-esteem and mindfulness. It's a great tool to use if you are the kind of parent who values teaching emotional awareness and emotional sensitivity to others. I often use the breathing exercises with my kids when they are flying off the handle.

For yoga, I'd start with 30 minutes or less. Only a couple of poses and maybe a game. For 6-10 year olds I was taught to do sun salutations, 4-6 poses and a game for an hour class. They can't do 20 poses like adults do, and the lose interest. For meditation, just a couple of minutes. The sitting still like a frog book has a CD with guided meditations. I'm not sure if there are samples online for you to listen to to make sure they jive with your beliefs. I'm a Christian in the loosest sense of the word, so I'm not a great judge of that stuff! From my perspective, anything remotely spiritual works well with my kind of Christianity which is just kindness to one's self and others. There aren't any deities discussed.

I just buy books and put them on the shelves. I figure between 3 kids, someone will read them.

I've got everything planned, but not purchased. I just don't want to deal with it yet.

sitting still like a frog is a nice meditation practice for kids. For yoga, I love the kids yoga deck. The back of the cards even spell out how to teach the pose. (I just did kids Yoga teacher training, so if you have other questions I'm happy to help.)

My 9 year old just finished the Harry Potter series and is now beside himself. Lol He enjoyed The Wrinkle in Time series, but is not a Percy Jackson fan.

Good Luck to him!!!

We will be doing something sort of similar. For DS 9 We will do Caesar's English I & II in the fall, and then Level 4 (Literature level) in the spring. We do lots of BW lifestyle stuff, (I love The Writer's Jungle!) and probably a BW online class. MCT is more grammar, BW is more writing. MCT does have writing exercises but we never did them in Island and Town. I might mix in some Boomerang stuff but I'm not entirely sure yet. Trying to keep it relaxed here. DD & DS 6 will be doing Jot it Down. I'll probably start Island with them next year.

IIR, you've visited, and she wants to go, correct? If that's the case, I'd definitely apply, and most likely go. Reno is not any where on my places I'd like to live list, but if it meant my kid was happy, and it was the easiest way financially to make her happy, I'd suck it up for a few years.

I'm the same way, I could have written bakpak's post. My 9.5 year old DS is the same way too. I only get frustrated when I've sunk a lot of money into something and he moves on after a week. However I recognize he's a kid, and he's still figuring out who he is and what he likes. I try to look at it as him using the opportunity he has as a child to hop around and try a lot of things. It also helps to remind myself to value process over product. Plus as I mentioned, I really have little room to talk. Beginnings are exciting. :)

So excited for your boy Ruth. Thank you for sharing his journey with us!

Very encouraging!

Safe travels to him and big hugs to you!

Ok ok ok ok. I think we are back out of the box. :driving: I had yet another heart to heart with DS. His heart is in music. Yes he's interested in science but that doesn't mean I'm supposed to grab that and run with it and sign him up for a class he isn't interested in. (and frankly is probably not at his level anyways.) He's decided to add piano lessons, in addition to the double bass Suzuki program he's doing. He is not passionate about the Bass, so I think we will probably only have one year of doing both. I'm approaching this year as kind of a music conservatory year. He also wants to do some coding, and all the other stuff he told me that I tried to PUT INTO A BOX in order to look like traditional academics. :lol: :lol: :lol: Plan number 5? I've lost track at this point. I mainly just post to talk it out. My husband is sick of me. ;) Music: Piano & double bass Math: Jousting Armadillos, Counting Coconuts, hands on equations and LoF as a fun supplement History: US history cobbled together with a Hamilton focus. (also a trip to DC!) Science: Astronomy through books and MOOCs Chemistry with MEL science, and Nat Geo magazine as a jumping off point to other topics, also classes at the History museum Computer Science: Scratch workshop through G3 online Spanish: Homeschool Spanish Academy online & Duolingo Writing: He's going to start a blog to showcase the music he makes in garage band, and Bravewriter lifestyle free writes and edits as we feel like it. Literature: A combo of AO, Great books academy and the Mensa list Art: Cartooning at our local art institute PE: swim lessons Other fun stuff: He wants to learn to cook and skateboard. (He also still needs to learn to ride a bike!) considering: MCT grammar and vocab. We are at least approaching hat box status. :hurray:

Thank you! I swear we had one on this board a couple of years ago. :huh:

I can't seem to find the master thread that lists all of the online classes. I had it bookmarked a long time ago, but lost it. I searched but the worlds "online" and "classes" produce a trillion results. TIA!

This is going to sound goofy and stupid, but what does your gut say? Because, when I read your posts I get a strong, "she wants to go for her DD" vibe. Also, we are really starting to feel the pain of lack of peers in our area. I'm not really seeing any where local we could go find like minded peers for DS. He's not PG, at least not on paper, but he's gifted enough that he's an outlier and he's old enough now where he's starting to feel it. So far he is ok with not having friends, but my mom instinct says that this isn't going to last much longer. He loves reading books about kids in middle and high school and wants to be like the characters in the books that hang out with their friends. (When he's older, I know it sounds silly, what can I say? He's nine. :)) If he had the scores to go,we'd be really seriously considering it. My DH can work from anywhere, and my other two kids are easier to place in peer groups, so we wouldn't be sacrificing all the much except it would not be a city that I'd ever want to live in if the school wasn't there. Ok, off to meditate and do yoga and leave the intellectual discussion of proper placement of PG kids to the pros. ;)