This thread makes for great reading as I prepare for my new school year in Australia. Many thanks to those who contributed so thoughtfully. Best wishes Jen in Oz

Thank you for all those suggestions. Off to spend a good chunk of time researching. Best wishes Jen in Oz

Hi, I have grade 5, grade 8 and grade 11 students, all boys and two of them not drastically inspired to do school and the other a dawdler who can work independently once he gets going. I also work 3 nights a week 4pm until midnight. I have been trying to put together my own curriculum as I used to before starting to work nights but I just don't have the energy, time or inspiration to do it anymore. I know of Sonlight that has a schedule. What other curriculums out there have schedules all worked out so that I can show the boys clearly what needs to be done? And so I don't have to make decisions all the time on what to do next. Thanks Jen in Oz

I didn't realise I would have a problem with an MRI either. Mine was supposed to be on a Friday for a month long migraine. I had to wait all weekend, panicking worse and worse, until my doctor was able to give me something and I could go again on the Monday. DH still had to lean in and hold my hand the whole way through. ((Hugs)) to you and your family. Praying for peace and answers. Best wishes Jen in Oz

@TX native I am doing the same with history for school, just hanging in there and gittin 'er done. I am getting to the point after 4 years of trying to complete a certain time period I am just going to get it done by hook or by crook over the next 6 months. A friend has used the same spine and she is helping me to condense it so I can just finish it once and for all. Best of luck Jen in Oz

Thank you for suggesting Galore Park. I had a look at it and realised I already have a resource on my shelves that is the same for layout and style of work presented. Yay, a curriculum suggestion that saved me money. lol Best wishes Jen in Oz

So after looking at them I have realised I already have FLL on the shelf that does a very similar job. I have the edition with two levels in it. That would require too much of my attention during school time. English Lessons and Cottage Press are both lovely but I have a boy who doesn't like poetry and doesn't like to do drawings. Thank you for the suggestions so far. Best wishes Jen in Oz

I would still like to keep WG so I don't have to "learn" a new program. IEW I could skip for a year because he is rebelling a bit against the amount of writing but I don't want to cave in when his older brothers are using the upper levels successfully. Another program would mean something new to learn and again not something I want to do. He is good at working on worksheets, has never really liked me teaching him but prefers to have me close by while he works independently. He is a good reader. I work 3 nights a week to midnight so my brain won't cope with more "new" that really needs me. Something has to give and this year it is his language arts. The easy work was an Australian resource called Fitzroy Readers but they are meant for struggling readers and early readers. He is neither of those now but he has liked the format so I kept blindly going on without realising he has outgrown them. I would prefer secular if possible please. Open to Christian though. Thanks for the help. Best wishes Jen in Oz

Hi My youngest is not getting a lot of my time (I also have a 12 and 15 year old doing more intense school this year) and wondered if you knew of one resource or concept that would cover most language arts content in one package. I realised the other day that we are doing grammar (Winston Grammar) and composition (IEW) but the other resources I have are too easy for him. I need to stretch him but not so far that I end up having to do intense school with him too. At least not this year. Next year should be better for him to get focused attention. So far I have come across this. http://www.criticalthinking.com/language-smarts-level-d.html I live in Australia so shipping kills my school budget. The above book comes as an ebook version. :D Any other ideas? Thanks Jen in Oz

We are using Audible for our read alouds. I always fall asleep reading aloud to the boys. lol I pick the titles in the most part but let the boys choose the speaker. I always get unabridged versions as my reason for quality read alouds is the richness of language in some literature. So far for 3 boys, 14,11 and 8, we have "read" Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer. In the list that the boys are listening to on our morning walks (they each have an old phone to use) are The Three Musketeers, Swiss Family Robinson, BFG and Around the World in 80 Days. On a friend's recommendation we will be doing Animal Farm next. Some of these books that would be about impossible for me to read aloud due to the complexity of the language and I just don't have that amount of talent while falling asleep on the lounge. lol Our library service is good but our old mobile phones are not capable of handling the app that we would have to use. For now I am sticking with Audible. Best wishes Jen in Oz

This is me too. I will be reading and following with interest. Best wishes Jen in Oz Mama to 4 boys, only 3 homeschooled

This has come up as a "big" issue in the evaluation of the program I laid out for my kids for the following year. (Queensland, Australia) I have year 9, year 6 and year 3 students. All boys! (As it isn't enough to have writing phobic boys I also don't understand how to teach Language Arts. Give me maths and science any day.) We are using IEW at the appropriate levels for the boys (as well as SS, Winston Grammar, AAS as needed) but I am not sure it will cover the issue that has come up. How would you go about interpreting, analysing and evaluating texts? Is there a curriculum out there to cover this and to tell me how to mark them properly? I need a whole lot of hand holding in this area. Thanks for your input. Best wishes Jen in Oz

Thank you for your input. I am feeling much better, I have an idea of more reasonable expectations, I have goals for future expectations, and I have information on how to make it easier for the boys to meet those expectations. Great ideas and suggestions. :grouphug: Best wishes Jen in Oz

Thanks for all your input. I really appreciate the steps laid out by Lori D. I will take those into consideration. I also appreciate the idea of typing up rough drafts to allow for easier moving around of paragraphs and sentences. I would certainly have appreciated that in senior Ancient History as I had to write out my biggest assignment of 2000 words several times to get it "right". I don't think we have dysgraphia here. The eldest is just a stubborn Aspie so if I decided it was important he decided it wasn't. :-) With the 10 and 13 year old I have gone back to basics. c and associated letters, a,g,o,q,d. Now they are being formed more nicely and the g is sitting on the line instead of above, we are working on what I call bump letters, r,h,m,n,p,b. Took about 3 months to get the first set better. I still play mystery C with them. They start the c and then I call out a letter for them to finish it. It guarantees the g sits on the line and that the a and d are more rounded in shape. I don't correct handwriting in any other lesson but I do congratulate them when their letters in other lessons look much better. I guess I should be patient. I will aim for higher and I will try to not panic. lol Ellie, if you had the same type of education as me with an expectation of lots of writing, how did you manage your expectations for your children? Did you expect lots of writing from them? Thanks Jen in Oz

No one game to put a number on it?! Maybe this is a hot topic. :huh: Is this one of those topics we just don't discuss like money or religion? Feel free to PM me with your input. :rolleyes: Even if it is to share an entirely different perspective. I need to be able to get this stress out of my head. Thanks Jen in Oz