Never mind.... I just saw Maria Miller's answer. Yay! It will be corrected.

This is my 5th grade, 10 year old son.

A quick update: I timed my ds for 30 mintues today. He did nearly 2 pages of math!! Yay! It wasn't perfect, but I can see that this will truly help ds. We actually got through everything today *and* did history and art!!!!!!!

We started our new year today. My oldest is starting with the same problems that we ended on last year. Math takes him FOREVER. We are finished with RightStart and are starting Math Mammoth grade 5. He *can* do the math, it is just very time intensive *and* he wants me to sit right beside him in case he has a question or wants to talk about something. Today, since 9:00, he has done 2 pages of Rod & Staff Bible and is working on the 2nd page of math. That is it. It is now 2:30 here, he is almost done with math. He complains, carries on, moans, groans, gets up, talks to his siblings and more. If I just tell him to get done what he can in 30 minutes, no leaving the table, concentrating, will that help solve this problem? Will that help him learn to concentrate and get it done? I'm so fearful that he won't keep up at grade level doing it this way. BUT, we can't go on this way. It drains me, him and the rest of the kids. I don't get to everything b/c I'm always waiting on him.

Very nice!! We started our new year today and I am so not organized yet! I like your font. :D I'm going to have to see if I have one like it and use it on something.

It is quite cost effective in a 5 gallon bucket. :)

I've used it for several years! I really like it. I do use a laundry booster in my whites and towels loads, but I used that with Tide too. :) I don't use any fabric softener any more, our clothes just smell clean! We have well water, but have a water softener, so maybe that makes a difference. My MIL, SIL and I all use it. We buy it in 5 gallon buckets.

Bump.

Knowledge Quest's Easy Timeline Creator looks really neat. My techy ds would really enjoy making a timeline on the computer! Is it easy to use? Does it look nice and neat when printed? Anything else I should know? It would be for my 5th grader this year.

Thanks for the book of centuries link. I'm going to just give it a whirl and we'll see how it goes!! :) I'm soooooooooooooo good at winging it..... :001_huh:

I know they really prefer email. I have emailed and received replies within the day. Maybe you could state your concern and ask them to call you and list your number.

I'm going to use WTM recs for history, science and writing for my upcoming 5th grader this year (uh, starting Monday!). I would like to make notebooks as recommended in WTM as well, but I'm really not understanding how to use the middle grades one. Do you use it? How? Help please!

We are starting on July 12. I have a LOT of work to do to get ready. :( I know what we are doing, I need to make copies, type up memory verses and poems, and I'd like to type up what oldest ds needs to do everyday for writing via WTM. I do not wanting to give up my nice, lazy, free wheeling days yet! But, I really want to try a 4 day a week schedule, so I need to get started!

Thanks, Jennifer. I'll look into that resource.

Jean - The parents honestly did what they thought was best too. I'm not going to be upset there either, although I agree, that is who could have made the biggest difference in this situation. I just didn't realize that boys would be that way. Here is a kicker: My ds and 2 out of the 3 other boys are supposed to go to camp for a week, starting Sunday, and room together. I could just puke. I don't think there is any way to put ds and the other boys in the same position again. I don't know if they will have a counselor in their room or not (it is on a college campus in quad rooms) or if they will have another child there. I'm thinking we will just skip camp this year or not? I just don't know what to do.

It might be "normal" but that doesn't make it right. My ds was hurt and he was being annoying, I get that. The parents knew they weren't sleeping and had given them a bedtime of 3:30am. The parents went to bed around 11:00. It was a bad situation. One I do not intend to repeat. And, we will be working with ds and his behavior. I am not excusing that at all. None of them had a way out or knew what to do. Not good.

Well, I think the issue that I have with the sleepover is that they were unsupervised for hours and hours and hours. Being allowed to stay up until 3:30, the parents sleeping, the boys becoming tired and their frustrations just overtook everything the boys knew to be right or wrong. So, no more sleepovers being unsupervised as this was. I do hope that this helps my son, but I'm not sure he is able to stop it just like that. I'm just not sure. He does have OCD. I did talk to him about it and I really, really pray that it helps him stop his actions when asked. We will be working on it more at home. He just doesn't do this unless he is stressed. So, I'm not really sure how to help him beyond talking about it. Maybe roll playing.

I did talk with both other moms. It was very good to talk. My ds was being annoying - singing over and over loudly, jumping on their shoulders, not stopping when asked to. Their boys took to being hurtful - yelling at my ds, giving him noogies and t--ty twisters. They thew ds out of the camper, out of the pool and squirted Febreeze in his face. Their boys both became tearful when asked about it. They *knew* it was wrong. I will be working with my ds to stop whatever he is doing when asked. I think it is a nervous repsonse to being a situation that he is uncomfortable in. That doesn't excuse his behavior. I'm also not going to permit my dc to go to sleepovers with a group anymore. These things just don't happen when it is one on one. These were very close friends from church that I totally trust. Please be careful about sleepovers. I have learned my lesson, unfortunately my ds had to get hurt.

My oldest ds spent the night at a very dear friend's last night. In total, there were four boys. They went to a baseball game, then home and stayed up until 3:30, unsupervised for most of those hours at home. DS told me today that they were mean to him and hurt him. It went on all night and that it was worse when there weren't adults around. Ds was crying and upset, but wasn't able to tell me any more than that. And I was dragging that much out of him. Ds is a unique child (aren't they all!), but is loud and can be annoying. I chalk it up to being uncomfortable in situations and that is his way of coping. Ds also has obsessive compulsive disorder, but usually doesn't affect things when he is with friends. How would you handle this? I did email the moms of 2 of the boys because they are very close friends. Do I keep trying to get my ds to talk? Or, just let it go and never permit sleepovers anymore? Because of homeschooling I just haven't had to deal with this type of hurts from friends before. My heart is absolutely breaking for him.

I've used a Trail Guide to World Geography. :) It is good with daily short questions to answer, the questions have different levels - elementary, middle and high school. I never did more than the daily questions.

I'm looking at this as a serious option and would love to hear personal stories!

I am Mennonite. I have a TV, computer, eletricity, and even had my nose pierced for a while. :) Several friends at church have nose piercings. I would be glad to answer any questions you have. I didn't read the entire thread.

I have this book and the little booklets that come with it. It looks really good, but I'm just not quite sure how to implement it. How have you used it?

I'm now re-reading through the grammar stage stuff. I'm going to give WTM science a try for next year with my youngers too.

I just re-read through the WTM for the logic stage. It is wonderful, beautiful, just what I want for my ds!!!!!!! Why, oh why, have I strayed so far? Somewhere along the way I decided that a curriculum for everything would make things easier. So, I picked up a science curriculum (which has been rather boring), a writing curriculum (which ds hated), and a history curriculum (which has more reading than needed and no allowances for ds to learn more about topics he is interested in). I have just about killed off my dc's natural curiosity in learning by only sticking to all the curricula. And in the process, I have just about quit homeschooling because it is so hard. I've read CM stuff, and it looks good, but not quite what I want. After listening to SWB's writing MP3's I pulled my WTM book back out and I got very, very excited! Now I have to figure out where to start with these changes and how to keep it organized. I think that is the hardest part. But, I've been schooling long enough to know that I can do it! I can't wait!!!!!!!