My plan is to try to do math 3 times, writing 2-3 times, and science and history 1 time each week. I'll take each week at a time to determine when we'll do it. Ideally we would have one regular school day and then just a bit of math and writing a couple other times. But really during the summer, play and friends takes priority. So we'll mostly do school around other plans and when it's too hot to play outside anyway. That's the plan now. Ask me again in August and there's a good chance our summer plans ended up being a complete break from school.

I agree with previous posters that a lot of this time isn't school, it's just life. What I would do: The puzzle pieces for my almost 9 yo that I've been trying to fit together are: 30 min daily piano practice (his choice to play) I would have him do this during times that would otherwise be wasted such as while you are making breakfast or lunch 30 min daily viola practice (his choice to play) Same as piano. Could also be later in the day just before or after dinner. If he isn't already teach him to self-start piano or viola if he gets up earlier than the rest or before it's time for breakfast. 1 hour (roughly) eating breakfast I would use this time (or at least half of it/once I was done) to read aloud and/or listen to an audiobook. You could get in a lot of history and literature this way. 30 min morning routine (getting dressed, brush teeth, straighten room, etc.) 1 hr reading (half English, half German) 30 min writing/copywork (only one language daily, it's only a few sentences, but he's really slow at writing - it's something we're working on) I would probably drop this to 15 minutes. My DD9 also struggles with writing and progress would slow down considerably if I kept her going that long. Anything past 15 minutes or so would just be a waste of time. 1 hr Math/Computer stuff like typing, Code.org (he loves to code, and I feel like typing is important, given his struggles to write) 30 min morning walk/exercise You can use the walk time for discussions, nature exploration, memory work, math drills, possibly some of his speech work depending on what it is. 30 min family time (reading bible, sing a song) Personally I would shorten this one, this seems long for such young kids daily. 1 hr (roughly) eating lunch Have them watch a science or history video while they eat. You can alternate between something like a history documentary and something lighter like magic school bus. 30 min Social thinking and speech homework from his speech therapist and psychologist 30 min daily chores + time wasted transitioning or goofing off, because... you know... kids. We always make use of car and waiting room time by doing some of our work. DD9 brings her math workbook, reader, and anything else portable with her. This can help keep out of the house time from being quite as disruptive to the day. I bring more for her when the class or appt is for her sister and she can keep busy the whole time.

DD9 has requested that we have all-day subjects. She wants a math day, a science day..... At first I thought no-way. It seems daunting to me to do a whole week's worth in one day and really unbalanced. But I thought about it more and transitions really are our downfall. We are working with 3 people with anxiety, 2 with ADD, and 2 (maybe 3) with SPD. We honestly spend at least half of our "school time" on transitions. Probably more. So I'm considering it for next year. Maybe not strictly one-subject only for the whole day like she envisions, but closer to that than what we do now. Math at least I want to keep doing every day. But maybe math, main subject for the day, then reading. I'm not worried about science or history at all. I'm just worried about lumping a week of LA into one day and not doing it the other 4. But there is writing involved in science and history so it's not like she wouldn't get any LA, just not formal LA. She doesn't care for writing so I'm worried about push-back there. But maybe it will be easier to get her to sit down and do it once for an hour and a half instead of 4 times for 20 minutes. Any cons to this way?

When I think "school at home" I'm picturing using a program that exactly mimics the ps and you choose a grade and get it all. Like k12 online, calvert, and I think Abeka? Not just using resources from these places which could be used in any way. But when someone just signs up for a grade and then the system tells them what to do and when to do it. Their work is scheduled, checked, and boxes marked. A friend of mine uses one of these online, I think it's calvert. They consider school to be the few hours her son (8th?) spends online watching teacher videos and submitting his work. It is all planned for them. They do what is next, period. They submit every assignment as directed. Now I'm not saying anything bad about them, it works for them and that's great. But I definitely consider this "school at home" more than "homeschooling".

Were the chews bought specifically for licking or ones you had already? DD9 licks, though not nearly as much as it sounds like your DS does. She will be fine some days and other days she just wants to lick. We already had necklaces for chewing but she didn't want to lick those. We got her a new one with a long flat side (it looks like a 2x10 lego) so there was a specific surface for her to lick. She named it her "lickie". She doesn't love it, but she will use it. This seems to work for her since her need to lick is not constant. She also seems completely aware, it's not subconscious for her. I do have to remind her a lot, though. If we're out for the day I'll have her wear it and I will just say "lickie" if she starts licking to remind her to use her lego necklace. She licks more when her engine is high so I also try to help bring her down.

I wouldn't worry as much about the label on what I used, whether it was above or below my kid's actual age/grade. I would use what fit them best at the time. I wouldn't stress about checking every box in our history and science curriculums. I believe in exposing them to it at this age, but if something doesn't grab their attention, read a bit and move on. More field trips and outings. I wish I'd tried harder to find what worked for DD with LA and stuck to it. We jumped around a LOT in this subject from k-2. A couple of things we tried were clearly not working for her and needed to go, but a couple others we should have stuck out.

Yeah, all of the other myths start out like a fairy tale saying it's a story these ancient people once believed and it reads as fiction. Then the christian stories are told as fact. I remedied it by starting out those stories the same as the others and editing the precise wording on the fly. We also address christian mythology separately and read about religions and how they came about so they can put it into context that way. It's the main reason I've been reading SOTW aloud instead of listening to the audiobook which I would prefer.

DD9 missed medaling by 1 question. Not bad for her first time taking it! I'm proud of her; tests usually make her panic. She really wanted to do this one, though, because she loves mythology. She is excited knowing she can probably do better next year and reach a medal.

I printed BYL double sided 2 pages to a side. That way I could have the print schedule in front of me but using much less paper and the whole thing proclicked together isn't too thick.

Simple answer: Yes However, it hasn't come up yet. They are 9 & 5 and we just got the trampoline earlier this year. They have not even come close to attempting a flip, yet. When they are ready I will let them.

We use AAS. I worried for a little while because she wasn't translating the rules over to her other writing. But that seemed to click somewhere around the end of level 2/beginning of level 3. Now she's doing great and she can tell in her other writing when she has spelled something wrong. We do a lesson over 1 or 2 days depending on it's length, then we spend a couple days doing the dictation sentences and writing station before moving on to the next lesson. I considered SYS for a short time just because I wanted to cut down on teacher intensive programs, but I don't think DD could handle that much writing. She would be so focused on the physical act of pencil to paper that she wouldn't be able to pay attention to the spelling. And she was absolutely appalled at the idea of no AAS, it's her favorite subject! I started using the app instead of the tiles on a whiteboard and that made things so much easier and I don't feel the need for a less intensive program now.

1. Played on my phone and text friend to make sure play date was a go. (from bed) 2. Made tea 3. Ate the scrambled eggs DH made. 4. Helped DD9 find more appropriate clothing for the play date (trampoline park and she was wearing an ankle length dress!) 5. Drove to trampoline park 6. Sat and chatted with friend while kids jumped. BTW, yay for trampoline parks that are completely dead around here on Sundays. So much cheaper than OT lol.

This isn't working for me. It has associated my email with this username (which I was dumb and entered because I thought it would be a great time to change my name since I don't like my old one. I assumed the email address was what kept the info together). I can't change my username back to my old one because it says it's already in use. I can't sign in as a new user with that name because it says this email already has an account. I think I messed up signing in. I hope it can be re-associated with my old account.

I think I messed up when signing in. When it said I needed to choose a username, I thought it would be a good opportunity to change it since I don't like my old one. But by doing so, it didn't associate this name with my account even though it was the same email. Now I can't change my username to the old one because it says it is in use by another member. I can't start over and register because it says this email is already in use. Now when I sign in it's under this username with no history. I'm CPSTanne. (<--no longer a cpst so I'm not a fan of this username) How can I get my account back together?

Ours doesn't have a selective process, but we don't have commitment issues. We have a per family fee that is reasonable but not cheap, plus some individual class fees, so people aren't going to join just for an occasional play date. The only families in it really want to be there and get something out of it. Plus everyone has a job to do all day. No one just drops off or hangs around talking waiting for their kid's class. Everyone has to teach or co-teach a class. Blocks you're not teaching you are assigned somewhere else to be to help out. We have somewhere to be each hour and we have an assigned week we stay after to clean. We have an active fb page and if you won't be at co-op you post to the group so they can shuffle people to fill in for you. Every week there's a family or two out, but with so many families that's inevitable. People get sick or go on vacation. No one just flakes out and skips for no reason. Individual teachers also use the fb page to post things about their class. So the ones who have homework can post it there each week and tag the parents who have a kid in that class. I'm sure that helps some of the older kids with keeping on top of work. My oldest has only had one homework class but the one week I helped in that class every kid had done theirs.

Technically it probably is assuming the person had to open a door, turn off a light, and then turn on the water in the kitchen before washing hands. This can always be done with a different hand than the contaminated one, though. (or in the case of my kids, the door was never shut and the light won't be turned off either way.) But really, hands are getting washed so I'd call that a win. I never consider the kitchen sink to be sanitary to begin with. If I were going to do anything in the sink that I needed it to be sanitary for I'd clean it first anyway.

Our current Co op requires a background check for any adult who will be on the premises. When we signed up last summer they were accepting any new families. The only requirement was at least one school age child (so you can't join just for the preschool options. We offer those for younger siblings.) Now we have nearly reached capacity at our meeting place so for next term they are only accepting families who have at least one kid over 11. But that is to try to even out the demographic which is currently 6-9 heavy. If we get into the new space we're hoping for it will open back up to any family with school age kids. We have four moms who are on the board and they make the big decisions. I assume they handle it if a family needs to go, but I haven't seen any indication that it's ever been an issue.

This exactly. I hardly ever make time to fold my laundry, I'm definitely not folding plastic bags.

We use BA as a supplement behind Singapore, which is our primary program. DD9 just picks up wherever she left off the last time whenever she does it. Typically she does BA on Mondays for about 30 minutes, for 10 minutes or so anytime our Singapore lesson is short, and any day we have a lot of errands or appointments so she can do math in the car/waiting room without a lesson from me.

Mine are only 4th and K. We use portable file boxes, like these, each child has one and I have another that doesn't have the storage lid. All of their workbooks go in their bin and scissors, dry erase markers, glue stick, and a few pencils go in the top compartment. Each also has a couple of pencil boxes in their bin that has their most used math manipulatives. They have to put everything back in their bins when we're done with school. Teacher manuals go in my bin. We have a large plastic crate that holds extra manipulatives, some office supply stuff, and some rotating things for my K to do while I work with DD9. All history stuff is together in one magazine holder so I can keep it together. We have a school room but it's in the basement and it gets quite cold in the winter. So this is what we are using while we are doing school upstairs so we can keep it organized and accessible in the living room.

I voted love, but it does depend on the brand. I don't like too many raisins in it. And it must be cinnamon raisin bread and toasted with butter.

I'm horrible. On days we stay home and just have a full school day, I sometimes only get between 2 and 3k steps. I feel like I tend to sit a lot when we're doing school. I sit with them to do LA and math, I sit on the couch to do read alouds, I sit on the couch with DD5 during quiet reading time... I typically sit at the table on my computer during breakfast and lunch to hit here or fb while I eat. I tend to stay sitting past whatever I needed to sit for. Especially in the winter I just have a desire to curl up under a blanket and not move. I have a hard time pushing past that when there is nothing that absolutely must be done right that moment.

I'm looking for one, too. I want to have something good in mind before the kids start requesting some disney movie we've seen a hundred times already. We last watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Before that we did all of the Star Wars movies.

My kids love it. For us it's been worth it because it's easy to implement and it means someone else teaching. I am not very good at art. Their aunt is very good and she often does things with them when they are at grandma's house, so I just want something they enjoy that they can call art time. They ask for Ms. V all the time. We've used K, 1st, and now 2nd. (My 4th has fine motor issues so running a couple years behind works well for her. Homeschool buyers co op always has it.