Help! We haven’t been having success with Biology for the Logic Stage from elemental Science. I need something that is not so teacher intensive. I have a young sixth grader and the text for Biology for the logic stage is bare bones. The lessons are very teacher intensive. She is doing the readings and I’m having to carefully explain the material each and every week. I need her to be able to complete a chapter even if I’m not able to give a full, detailed lesson. So I need to jump ship. Any ideas for a curriculum that is a better fit? Thanks!

I've found wonderful reading lists for history, but has anyone compiled a fiction/non-fiction reading list for science. I'm looking for one that is geared for grades k-4. Thanks!

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all of the thoughtful replies. ? I think I will start slow and begin with the level A. I'm excited to be learning along with my daughter; I need a refresher course myself!

I have let my Dd 10 writing instruction fall to the side. She's very bright and loves to read, and has kept a journal from a young age. I had 5 kids in five years, was a bit shell shocked, and needed time to recover. Then, we had a bout of medical issues to take care. I feel awful that I let her writing instruction fall to the way-side. ? So there's my sob story. ? She's about to complete 5th grade and has finished FLL 4 and AAS 5. She has never had any formal writing instruction. I know I need to get her up to speed on her writing and plan to focus on that this coming school year. I am very interested in IEW Student Writing Intensive B. My DS 9 will be in 4th grade next year, he loves to read and has completed FLL 3 and AAS 3, but he doesn't naturally enjoy writing. Would it be a good idea to combine them? From what I've read, I could get the SWI-B and download the pdf's of the SWI-A pages and they could work together. Is it a full year program for those ages? It says 15-30 weeks, and at that price I would want to know *now* if I needed to purchase another level in the spring! But the year after, where would that leave me? DD would move on to SWI-B Continuation and could use that for 7th and 8th grades, correct? And DS would move on to the theme based books for 5th grade, and then he could use SWI-B Continuation plus Level B theme books for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade? Also, after they have finished FLL 4, do they need additional grammar instruction along with SWI? I saw that IEW has the Fix It! series and SWB now has Grammar for the Well Trained Mind. I have a Ds 7 finishing first grade and twin Dd's who are 5 and will be in kindergarten next year. I'm hoping to re-use this curriculum for all of them. It's expensive but my writing instruction suffered when I was homeschooled and I don't want that for my children. However, we have a tight budget. I don't want to purchase unnecessary levels and also want to stretch my dollar (and instruction time!) as far as possible. I have thoroughly enjoyed SWB's other books but I need more student independent work in this upcoming year as the twins will be in kindergarten. I am stretched thin with homeschooling and work responsibilities, and like the guided DVD lessons where the older two could be doing writing while I am helping the younger three. Thanks so much for any advice! I feel overwhelmed with my oldest starting middle school!

Thanks for all the replies! This gives me a lot to think about and incorporate during the upcoming school year. My Dd and I butt heads over math so I'm having one of my younger sisters, the Fun Aunt, help with math homework once a week. I'm hoping she can help wrap up any workbook pages we haven't gotten to by the end of the week. I'm trying to find a manageable pace.

I'm looking through the 3B HIG and the sample schedule seems to fluctuate between 3-5 days of math each week. How has this worked in other people's experience? Do you give extra assignments on the empty days, move ahead, or let them have the time off?

There is also this free resource. http://www.sonicfit.com/

I don't know of any MOOC's, but my husband teaches out of Tonal Harmony by Payne and Kostkas. There is no need to get the most recent edition. We both used it in our college music theory classes, and it hasn't changed much. :) My DH's high school students use the text and did well this year, six got a 5 on the AP exam and one got a 4. A large portion of the Freshman and Sophomore theory classes also is built upon the dictation and ear-training component. Do you have someone who can teach/administer those concepts? Those would be very, very difficult to self-teach and grade.

My 9yo daughter is wanting to study machines this year; planes, trains, and gadgets. Does anyone have any book recommendations, maybe cross sections or explanations? She is a very good reader. I know there are a lot of applicable field trip options in our area but am clueless regarding the book options.

We had this exact problem with SOTW 3 and my daughter is also 8. I have to say, reading about the Defenestration of Prague just isn't as much fun as learning about Greek mythology! :) Originally, I read our selection over lunch and then afterwards asked the questions from the chapter. I kept getting blank looks and had a table full of restless children. So in November I ordered the pdf version of the questions, had a cover laminated and comb-bound the whole deal. Now, I still read aloud the selection over lunch, but my 8yo has to go and answer the questions on her own. A lot of times, she needs the textbook to search out the answers because she doesn't remember it all. There is a lot of detailed information in there! She writes a small sentence in response to each question. I continue to supplement with fun read alouds and clips from netflix that highlight the more enjoyable aspects of the reading. This $9 purchase made history SO MUCH easier for everyone! https://peacehillpress.com/p/written-comprehension-responses-for-sotw-3/

My kids have really enjoyed Science in the Beginning by Jay Wile. The third grader keeps a journal, the 1st and K'er just answer the verbal questions. They love the experiments!

I watched a few episodes of this show over Chrostmas break on our roku and now I can't find it! I thought the name was Discover Science and that it was on amazon prime, but I can't find any trace of it on google or amazon. It had a British man speaking off screen while a group japanese scientists dressed in odd costumes performed the experiments. I remember one was seeing if the water pressure from a glass was powerful enough to support the weight of a sumo wrestler and another was seeing if the friction from overlaid pages of two books could resist a sumo wrestler trying to pull them apart. Any ideas? It was really fun! TIA!

I don't want the kids to be using the laptop to watch videos and lessons on Discovery Streaming. Can I access them on a Roku or Fire? I have not used either and am not sure if that would be available. Thanks!

Does Mt Vernon offer discounted tickets or coupons? I have been looking online with no luck, and wondered if they had any fliers or mailers that had discounts on them. Thanks!

Thanks so much! I really appreciate all the feedback. I hope to get started on things after the holidays.

In the past, the president did everything. She posted everything, paid for everything, planned everything...I don't plan on operating that way! I guess I'm trying to figure out how I want things to work. I only know that I don't want to be the only person running the show! I would like to have some sort of regular meetings. I want my children to feel a connection to a community of people that homeschool, instead of hanging out with the people who happen to go to the same field trips. I want things to change, but I don't know what my options are. I'm open to all ideas. :)

Ellie, so far it's kind of a hybrid. We simply have an online calendar where the organizer posts field trips. For example, in January we have posted a homeschool day at the history museum, another museum tour, a puppet show downtown, Lego club meeting, Park day, and a Schoolhouse Rock live performance. We also have a book club that meets independently, but is comprised of only members of our group, and I teach a science class once a month. It's a pick and choose thing. You see something you want to participate in, you pay, if applicable, and sign up. If nothing fits your needs or schedule, you check back later. Every now and then, we will have a geography fair, field day, holiday party etc. But regular group meetings don't happen regularly.

Does anyone have words of wisdom they would like to share? :bigear: We have a local group that was started by our last president. She passed the baton to me due to stress and health issues in her personal life. The group was started on meetup.com, and run totally by her. There was no secretary, treasurer, etc. I would like to change that, and spread out the load and responsibilities. I'm not sure meetup.com is what I want to stick with. It's great for posting events and field trips, but maybe not so much for helping the leadership communicate with each other and forming a sense of community with the members. But, I'm fairly new to this (less than one month) and there may be features I'm not utilizing. So, I'm all ears to any advice you have to offer, particularly pertaining to the group's web presence. Thanks!!!

Thanks for all the wonderful advice and tips! I just finished talking to DH and he says the week of September 21 is an option. I think that is definitely the time to go! Now to start planning!

Well, I just found out that homeschool day prices are about $19 for adult multi-day passes, regular prices is $54. Kid prices are $13, regular price $27. So in June our prices would be $108 with teacher/homeschooler discount for DH and I, and $64 for February. After doing the calculations, I might just pay up the extra $44 and go in June. How are the crowds then? Will they get a chance to see everything?

Our family is planning to take a road trip. We want to take the kids to Williamsburg Va and Washington DC. We have two options: 1. Take the kids during DH's winter break (Feb 16). It's homeschool week for Williamsburg and the crowds and hotel prices will be lower in DC. But I don't want to be battling extreme cold (to us soft Southerners) and be utterly miserable the whole time. Possibly miss out on outdoor monuments, parks, zoo etc. See my sig, I have lots of littles. :) 2. Go in mid June. Higher crowds and hotel prices. No homeschool discount to Williamsburg but we may snag one with DH's educator ID. It will be hot, but we are intimately familiar with the heat and can handle it. We would definitely visit National Mall, monuments, zoo etc. Pros/Cons? What sayeth the great Hive?

I have been fascinated with the idea of roadschooling for a long time now. We are not in the time of our lives where this is a full-time possibility. But...we could do it for a few weeks in the summer. Money is tight and we live on a budget. DH teaches school and would continue to receive his monthly salary, but we both teach private lessons to help fill in the large gap between his salary and our basic needs. The summer is always a difficult time financially, since so many of our students take off from their music lessons while school is out. However, I think I have thought of a way to finance a summer road trip. We could rent out our home as a vacation rental or short term rental. This would help replace lost lesson money and cover road trip expenses. If we rented out our home on VRBO.com or some similar site, we would need to have our home rented for 4 out of the 7 weeks we would be gone to meet my projected expenses. We live in the suburbs of a large metro area, and are equidistant from high end dining/entertainment or remote national forest. We have a neighborhood pool and a 4 bedroom split level home. I have a sister in the area that cleans houses as a side job, and I could pay her to do the cleaning/property management for us between renters. I'm thinking out loud here. Does anyone have experience with family roadtrips and/or short term renting? I haven't even mentioned this to my DH. He's a planner and a worrier, so I need to start collecting answers to his inevitable questions! I want to load everyone up and take a road trip out west, and maybe visit family that lives about 1800 miles away. I've got a bad case of the travel bug and no money to satiate it. I'm having to be creative! TIA!

It's a Mother's Day/Fathers day get away. We split the difference and are going in early June. ;)

It should be good in May, once you purchase the deal it is good through October 2015. You just need to call and check on cabin availability.

Ok, all I want for Mother's Day is some alone time with my DH! I found this amazing deal and wanted to share since I know several of y'all live in the Southeast. Living Social has an AMAZING deal right now, $200 for 2 nights in a cabin plus white water rafting on the Ocoee for two plus your choice of paintball, horseback riding or ropes course. And travel deals are 10% off thru 10/26 with the code 10TRAVEL. I got a cabin weekend for 2 plus whitewater rafting and ropes course for $180. SO EXCITED! I can't wait for June! I really need a break. ;) Here's the link to the deal: http://www.livingsocial.com/deals/1155929-cabin-whitewater-rafting-for-2?ref=mobile-link-share-post-purchase&rpi=176951232&rui=21692049