RTP area in NC meets your requirements. PM me if you want details.

It was canceled because of the weather that day, and I haven't checked back to see if they ever rescheduled it!

As I'm cleaning out my homeschool closet, I'm realizing that expensive is all the stuff that didn't work for us. Honestly, it's everything that was sold specifically to the homeschool audience. I clearly prefer to create my own curricula or use materials originally designed for schools and repurposed by homeschoolers (things like MCT, AoPS). This has been an eye-opening discovery to realize that I actually really hate pretty much all homeschool curricula I've ever purchased.

I was really good at school (and also dating bad boys who had nothing in common with me). I was always at the top in everything in high school. Had tons of AP credits. Went to a private college and was one of only 2 people who graduate with both Sigma Xi (national science honor society) and Phi Beta Kappa honors. Got into psych/neuroscience grad school without a problem (and this was when neuroscience was just blossoming as its own course of study, start of the "Decade of the Brain"). I did a lot of other things like played field hockey, swam, skied, worked, loved art, but I was mediocre at everything else. However, I totally crashed and burned in grad school when I realized that I had spent my whole life getting to that point, and I met my (now) DH who was way, way smarter than me (he's PG), and he's far more relaxed about life. I realized I didn't like being in grad school and that my entire self esteem was based on academic performance. I had a major life meltdown around age 23 and quit grad school ABD. I've had a very successful corporate career now for the past 23 years (and I still work full time), but I purposely have turned down promotions because I didn't want to lose family balance or ever feel like I did in grad school again. At times I still miss science, but many of my skills are directly applicable to my current career. My goal in parenting and in homeschooling is to ensure that DD's self esteem and interests are much more well-balanced.

My 11-year-old volunteers at a preschool once a week for several hours. She loves it, and the kids and teachers love her. It's been an amazing experience for her. She is taking a babysitting class next week because many of the parents have asked if she was interested in being a mother's helper, and I wanted her to have a certification. So, that's a good example of how volunteering leads to other opportunities.

Gosh, I'm so very sorry for your loss of your DH and the impact on you and the kids. Truly so sorry. Honestly, I'd just try to find something interesting to him: - Documentaries about any science, math, or history that he might be interested in - Crash Course videos on YouTube -- they have them about so many different topics, and they are brief and engaging - Learn to juggle? Sounds crazy, but my kid is a circus kid and it's extremely therapeutic for her and we know tons of boys who are super into juggling

DD is very evenly split as an auditory, visual, kinesthetic learner so we often have to pull in techniques that work great for visual spatial learners when she gets stuck on something. For higher level math, we have used: a lot of suggestions from Crewton Ramone and have the manipulatives he sells http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com Algebra tiles -- DD has absolutely loved these so much so that I will probably be buying the more costly Algeblocks http://www.hand2mind.com/Search?fulltext=algebra%20tiles cuisenaire rods -- yes, even for higher level math! lots of ideas at hand2mind dice and card games -- I don't have the books handy but I found a bunch of higher level math books using these manipulatives math games like Suduko, Equate, Prime Climb, Math Dice, 24, etc. I have found a lot of ideas at hand2mind for fractions, percentages, algebra, etc. Also, we used Simply Charlotte Mason Business math for decimals, percentages: https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/your-business-math/

Yes, and you explained what I was getting at so much better in your other post too. I too am not just a facilitator. DD REALLY likes to learn with me. She loves to discuss things and banter back and forth. Maybe I'm a co-conspirator in her learning. I asked her the other day if she thought she'd ever get to the point where she would just take over her learning. She looked at me totally broken heartedly and asked why we would homeschool if I didn't want to work with her! Then she asked if she could go to college online. LOL

6th grader: - Reads - Strengthening, flexibility, stretching, tumbling, handstands, conditioning - Draws, other arts and crafts, this time of year she spends a lot of time making gifts - Sews - Rides bike, practices unicycle - Plays with cats - Texts friends - Watches DIY and art videos on YouTube - Cooks - Cleans/chores - Listens to music, practices singing

Dumb question--I haven't set up an Alcumus account for DD yet, but I think she's ready to try it. (Computer learning/practice isn't a strong interest for her, but I've been doing it on my own for a while and was going to show her my account to get her interested.) Do I just set up an account for her like I did myself and then just add her as a friend to mine?

Yes, but it's an accelerated 2nd grader. I have a 2e gifted 6th grader; she's accelerated in math, not gifted compared to some here but definitely well above grade level. She too intuitively got the distributive property early on, and at that level I wasn't requiring a lot of output because her weakness is processing speed regarding output. I wasn't willing to hold back her progress for that. Now in 6th grade, it's a completely different ballgame. Her output skills have caught up and she's fine.

I think I phrased this incorrectly. I do not expect a teacher to be able to do what I am doing. I too have a gifted kid with 2e issues that would be extremely challenging for all involved. It's why we homeschool. So, I worded this wrong. I was looking at it from the perspective of finding a way to objectively evaluate what I am doing. If I stepped outside and looked into our overall experience, am I happy with it? How's that?

Yes, of course I do. :-) We have a very open communication about this. It's just a real struggle for her.

I think about this a lot. If DD attended school instead of homeschooled, and her teacher was using the same curriculum, teaching methodologies, and attitude as I was, would I be happy with her education? My biggest challenges are when I get frustrated with DD's perfectionism. When we knock heads because she simply won't try because she's afraid to fail, I know my reactions sometimes make it worse. I'm aware of this, and she and I talk about this a lot because it's a huge growth area for us both. But, I'd probably lose my mind if her teacher reacted like I do sometimes. So, I feel like I need to confess this! I just want her to TRY! I don't care if she gets it wrong, just do the work! Like, I said, it's a growth area. I'm generally happy with our curriculum choices, and I think they are well-matched to her learning style, and I'm happy to make changes because neither of us are happy using curricula that either of us hate. We have excellent high-level discussions, Neither of us like curriculum that has her working entirely on her own. We have 1:1 and independent work in every subject. She is not a worksheet type of learner, and that's not the type of teacher I am nor want her to have. So, I think we're getting top marks here. Her output also continues to be a growth area too. This year has seen huge gains here, but her 2e issues have to do with processing speed. So, I am happy that I've been able to gradually build up her ability to generate output. She might not quite be at grade level for quantity, but she's beyond for quality, and I'm happy with that now. I would be disappointed if I saw a lot of poor quality work. Timed tests are still an impossibility for us, and I'm going to start tackling that next year as she edges closer to SAT (though she will qualify for accommodations). So, I'd give us a mixed score for quantity and quality, but since my focus is on quality, I'd rank us pretty good here, especially since I have not put any emphasis on testing yet. So, I think overall, I'm pretty happy with how things are going right now. How about you? Would you be happy with yourself as a teacher?

He's going to be exposed to the distributive property many, many more times in his life. For me, personally, it would not be a hill to die on at this point.

I'm fairly motivated to keep learning interesting and fun around here, and I still hold true to that even with a 6th grader. I consider it to be one of the benefits of homeschooling for our family. So, when DD gets stuck on something like that and is clearly frustrated, I do step away from that topic or curriculum for a bit. I might introduce new ways of looking at the same material. In the example you gave, I've found doing things like working with manipulatives to be very useful and engaging. I think it goes to what Mike in SA said about the level of depth being off and pulling in other materials.

WTMA also offers a course based on AoPS curriculum. They said in another thread in the main curriculum board that pre-algebra is full this year, but it was going to be offered again in the fall. The instructor described in detail how she is running the class, if you wanted to compare. I have no personal experience with either, but we do use AoPS pre-algebra on our own, but not using the more typical discovery method.

DD and I were just talking about this the other day. She's totally a "leap frog" learner, and I never know when it's going to strike. With her learning style: If she or I hate something we're trying, we don't torture ourselves by continuing to use it. I believe she will have plenty of opportunities in her life to learn to "tough it out", and making her stick with a curriculum that either of us hates has no value to us. If she gets it, she goes through most curriculum very quickly. When she gets stuck on something, just doing more of the same doesn't work. She is fairly balanced as an auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learner which is great but it means that it might take a while until I find the EXACT thing that will click. When she gets unstuck, she leaps ahead like crazy, thereby making all the other stuff I had planned useless; see point 2. So, I basically have to be prepared for anything, at any time.

We started using them last year (5th, age 10, gifted 2e), but it definitely varies by topic. For example, we loved things like the Other Side of History but it does mention $exual practices so you should pre-screen. Some are just too high level. But, we have used bits and pieces of at least 12+ courses with good success, and we completely finished several.

DD's K year was pretty much spent studying mammalian birth. She was truly passionate about it. I'd wager that's an unusual topic, particularly for that age.

I think the challenge I have is that I have an accelerated math (not gifted) student who is gifted in other areas and who has no tolerance or success with rote algorithmic mathematical learning. She thrives in conceptual teaching but not so much via discovery method. Honestly, her idea of the worst punishment ever is a competitive math league or camp. She has absolutely no tolerance for puzzling through math that she doesn't get right away. But, she gets enough right away that it leaves me struggling to know what to use with her. The result is that I continue to use some of just about everything, and we are currently using AoPS as a supplement after she has mastered it in another curriculum. I know this sounds bizarre, but it works well for now. I do not want to continue this beyond pre-algebra. Right now I'm content taking however much time as we want during 6th and 7th, but I do want her in algebra I by 8th. I just have t been thrilled with any single curriculum offering yet.

That one wasn't me! I actually never use Netflix!

My daughter discovered that she prefers writing with drawing pencils because she likes a softer lead. I can't recall which one she settled on, but you'd have a lot more success trying to find a softer lead with drawing pencils. At places like Michaels or an arts store, you can buy them individually and sometimes even test them out so you can find the right hardness.

For us it is still worth the money. It's introducing her to a wide variety of writing techniques, and she is actually writing! Her weakness is not in the quality of content, but in actually creating it. This gets her actually creating content regularly without me constantly nagging her about it. She also likes primarily focusing on particular topic that she loves (her ongoing theme is circus arts), and I've promised her that we would do something with her work--either make a magazine or blog. So, she's motivated by that. My biggest fear is that she will be bored of it before we finish, but I'm hoping not. I have that book on my list too! I was considering it for the spring.

I don't know how to explain it without showing specific examples, but it's just a lot of filling in information. I'm sure it's supposed to be scaffolding and building up the skills, but DD doesn't need this level of hand-holding. There are several related videos together, and often it just feels like she really just needs to watch all those related videos and then do the final writing for it and not all the things in between. I just randomly opened to one of the assignments, and it was one that DD loved and did very quickly. But, she didn't do any of the intermediary work. It was about writing an acrostic, and she did a wonderful one about her best friend. But, to get there, they had all this pre-work, which, she didn't do at all: Three things I might like to write about: What emotion does each of these things create in me: Brainstorm details about your subject (how it looks, how it feels, how it moves, what I like/dislike) Circle any unexpected words. Draw line to connect ones in common. Write a sentence about your subject... THEN, you can finally write the acrostic. She simply didn't need all those steps. She watched the video, read through that stuff (without answering them) and then just wrote the acrostic and did it well. It was clear she didn't need to do all that stuff. So, to us, it was just busy work. I had heard that the OYAN was packed with a lot of religious references so I researched this one pretty heavily and heard that it was just pretty much the information about the person he interviewed (I think it was a missionary) and DD mentioned it to me. I think that's the only obviously Christian reference we've come across so far. We are secular homeschoolers too.