I'm trying to sort through what I want my younger kids to do for history this year. There are 4 good options, I just need some input from other moms of many to figure out which would be the BEST option. I know IN THEORY it is best to have everyone studying the same time period in history, but there are several other factors to consider. DS1 LOVES history. He spent 2 years studying SOTW1, then 2 years of Hakim's Story of US with an online class, then SOTW2 with an online class. If he continues with the online class (which he wants to do), he will study SOTW3 & 4 this school year, then move on to a high school level online history class the following year (currently taking suggestions for this!). The younger boys haven't studied history formally yet (2 years ago was "basics only" as I focused on my health, and this past year has been "basics only" as I had a hard time figuring out how to fit in schooling all 5). They are 8.5, 7.5, 5.5, & 4 years old. The 8.5 and 5.5 year old have both told me they want to do history this year (the 5.5yo especially begs for it). The options are: 1. Let DS1 continue to study history on his own, and start SOTW1 with the younger 4 boys this year, keeping them all together. I like this plan because I have the most outside resources for this year of history (bought waaaay too much when DS1 did ancients, though in hind sight maybe this led to his love of history?!?). I realize that the younger 2 won't really remember much from this level, but the older 2 are planning to take the National Mythology Exam in the spring, and this way we could spend the school year reading mythology along with our history studies. I would be more likely to do many of the outside activities with this plan because we would do one chapter per week. However, it would be 4+ more years until any of the younger 4 would have been exposed to modern history (so they would be 13, 12, 10, 9). Long term, DS1 would be on his own path for history (which is how it has been up to this point), but the younger 4 would be together. 2. Let DS1 do the online class this year, have the younger 4 do SOTW3 & SOTW4 along with him, then do ancient history next year at a slower pace, with DS2 & DS3 doing early Logic stage readings and such. They are a little young for SOTW 3 & 4 this year, BUT they would enjoy doing all of the fun websites, videos, games, and such DS1 does with his online class. We would not do a lot of the activity guide fun stuff because we would have to do 2-3 chapters per week in SOTW (audiobook and coloring sheets, with a few additional books). One benefit of this plan is that we live near many field trip destinations (ie Colonial Williamsburg has homeschool days in September). It would also give DS2 & DS3 a quick overview of more recent history, giving them current geography and such to base things on when they get to ancients. I also like the idea that they won't have to wait until they are in middle school to have their FIRST exposure to modern history, which they would in plan #1. Long term, all 5 kids would study the same time period with this route. 3. Have DS1 stop taking the online classes and have EVERYONE do early modern history this year. We would do SOTW3 at the rate of 1 chapter per week, and we would have time to add in projects and lots of reading (sooo many great books for this level!!). DS1 would be sad to stop his online class, but I would add logic stage stuff for him, and he would have the time to dive so much deeper into many topics. The Revolutionary War period is his favorite, and even though he spent 2 years on American history already, there is a lot he would discover choosing this route for history (I would add History Odyssey Level 2 or something similar for him). Long term, I would keep all 5 boys together in history, each studying at his own level. 4. Keep them in groups. DS1 would continue with his online classes doing SOTW3&4 this year, then start high school level online classes next year. DS2 & DS3 would do SOTW1 this year (for reasons mentioned in option 1), and continue through the years together. DS4 & DS5 would not do history this year or next, but would start ancients together when they are 7.5 and 6. Even though they are asking for history now, I can meet their needs with reading historical stories, or even letting them listen along to older brothers' SOTW1&2 and not worry that they won't remember much of it because we they will be doing it again in depth the following year. This option would have 3 different periods of history happening at the same time. Additional info to consider: - DS1 lists history as his favorite subject and currently lists it as what he wants to major in at college (we will likely dissuade him from this as a career path, but it shows his passion for it) - all of my boys are strong readers, so this isn't an issue - we are not a history-focused home, it does not form the backbone of our studies - I have a very weak history background, and due to changing schools many times I never had world history (but had US history about 5 times) - I already own all 4 years of history materials, so finances are not a factor - each boy is studying science on his own, so I won't need to factor in time for science as a group - we are planning to homeschool through high school, though later history studies will probably be outside classes If you have managed to read down this far and keep it all straight, THANK YOU for any advice you can offer. I feel like I have four GOOD choices for history, and I want to make the best choice for the LONG TERM of all 5 boys. Wow... if nothing else, typing this all out has helped me make sense of all the random thoughts that have been clouding the "history planning" part of my brain! :D PS -- Is there a way to tag people like you can on facebook? I especially want to be sure JudoMom, Colleen, Kinsa, and other moms of 5 boys see this. I value the advice of those who have girls, but ... teaching 5 boys has its own unique "joys," and the advice of moms who have BTDT with 5 boys is priceless to me. :001_wub:

We used to have someone come to our house to cut our hair. It was someone who had cut my hair in a salon, I asked her if she would be willing to come to my house instead and do my entire family at once (and later we added 2 more families as well). Maybe check with a local beauty school, perhaps one of the students would welcome the opportunity to come to your house and practice.

This is news to me! http://www.singaporemath.com/Secondary_math_s/22.htm

:bigear:

**GASP** Or you could RECYCLE them... or COMPOST them... or save them to let your toddler cut up and make collages out of... but the rest of the advice is good, and is the way I like to do it. I actually save the catalogs, because often years later I will want to look at it again. I have a huge stack now. (Adding a note that Tess is my friend, and of course I'm just teasing her, and there is no need to jump all over my case for being mean! :D)

I have tried (and failed)at HST+ so many times I have lost count. I had a local mom sit down with me 2 years ago and walk me through exactly how to use it... and I did it for a couple of weeks and got overwhelmed. I want to use it. I want to love it. But I don't. Sigh.

I have five sons, and as far as academics go... I have 1 son who is completely average across the board. He is using traditional materials at the intended level. He will do whatever schoolwork I ask of him, and rarely struggles. I have 1 son who is gifted (confirmed with testing scores that qualify him for Davidson Young Scholars - above 99.99th percentile in IQ and achievement), and fits the "out-of-the-box-head-in-the-clouds" stereotype of gifted kids. None of the standard homeschool curriculum works for this child. I have no idea how to teach this child most days. He struggles in a lot of areas, both academically and otherwise. I have 1 son who is accelerated across the board, but not gifted. He is using traditional learning materials, but several grades ahead. He thinks & learns just like I do, and is a joy to teach. He works hard, and struggles a little, but takes pride in working ahead and asks to continue to do so. I have 1 son who would probably be considered gifted on certain tests, but his gifts are not easily measured on academic tests (meaning -- high IQ, but low achievement, he'll make an EXCELLENT engineer one day LOL). This son is JUST LIKE my husband was at that age (when DH was tested in school, he qualified for special ed AND the gifted program; his teacher didn't know what to do with those numbers so she had him repeat a grade instead of doing either program). I have 1 son who is just getting started with school stuff, but so far is following the pattern of my "average" son mentioned first. All of my boys started with the same gene pool, have been exposed to the same opportunities, have homeschooled since day 1, and are "normal" in every way outside of school work (ie no extreme gifts in sports, art, music, etc). ETA: I keep all of my kids with their age mates for outside activities, so I don't think anyone who knows us IRL knows any of the above information. We are very lucky to have found an inclusive co-op group that lists ranges of ages for their classes, and there are a large number of kids who are gifted, 2e, LD, whatever, because of that. None of my kids views himself as anything other than normal, except I have explained to my accelerated kid that he shouldn't mention what level math he is working at to other people, because most people are only looking to compare, and we don't play that game.

Sigh... yes, I will most likely be there. Every year I say "I don't think I'll go this year," but every year I end up going anyways. And every year when I get home, I tell my husband "I don't think I'll go next year." I will be there to shop only (since none of the 130 workshops apply to me), and my husband will be at home (since I don't want to shop with 5 kids and the theme of the children's program isn't appropriate for my family).

The example I gave above is from OnlineG3 classes, yes.

A word of warning: if your kid hasn't had outside or online classes before, you may want to start with one or MAYBE 2 classes. In addition to the class time, there are a couple of hours worth of assignments, many of which required my DS to learn how to do something new. For example: when he took the MCT Town class, he had to create a cartoon to show the vocabulary words, and the same week in the history class he had to use a different website to create a trading card of an explorer (online research, image search, learn to use the website, create the card, edit the card, etc). It seemed like almost every week there was something new he needed to learn to do the assignment, and he quickly got overwhelmed. He was 8 at the time, and in addition to the 2 online classes he had 2 co-op classes and 2 weekly educational clubs (all 6 of which required work outside of class) -- basically there was NO time for any other school work that semester besides homework for outside obligations. We both learned our lesson about outside commitments, LOL! This may not be an issue for some kids -- just something to consider, especially for younger kids.

*Pat on the back* Great job! :) I am working on losing the 50 pounds I have gained over the last 10 years (FYI: having 5 kids in 7 years and then fighting cancer for 2 years is NOT good for your waistline, LOL). I joined WW 7 months ago and have been slowly working my way down, I should make my 25 pound goal in the next few days. I know others are more strict and lose faster, but I choose to still eat out and have an occasional dessert, so it is taking me longer. I'm fine with that -- it seems like the people I know IRL who lose it slowly have better success at keeping it off, and the people who lose a lot quickly gain it back. Motivation of the day: Losing weight lowers your chance of getting breast cancer and makes it easier for your body to fight it. TRUST ME when I tell you that you DO NOT want to have breast cancer.

My oldest DS has taken 7 classes at Athena's & OnlineG3, and we have been happy with ALL of them! :) I wrote more about it on the other thread. The times listed on their website are California time, so a 9 AM class is actually a 12 noon class for me on the east coast, and I believe 11 AM in Texas. My 2nd DS is currently signed up for the Beast Academy class, but we have a schedule conflict with Tuesdays. I am hoping she adds another section on Monday at 9 AM (if that would work for anyone else, please e-mail her and let her know, perhaps if enough people beg she will consider), but if not then he will just watch the recording of the class and do the assignments and discussion forums.

PS -- For those in distant time zones - all of the classes are recorded. So even though your child wouldn't be able to participate in the class discussion, he/she could still benefit from the class and participate in the discussions on the message boards (which are moderated).

My oldest DS took the Mythology class 2 years ago and has taken six other classes at Athena's and OnlineG3. We have been very happy with ALL of them (though we use the classes as enrichment, so DS does not do all of the assignments). My 2nd DS will be taking the Beast Academy class (though I am HOPING Kirsten adds a second section at 9 AM on Monday as we have a schedule conflict with Tuesday classes) and the Intermediate Literature class. My oldest will be taking the Mythology class on Thursdays and a Lightning Literature class at OnlineG3. There are no cameras involved in the classes at all. It uses the elluminate environment if you want to look it up. Students are required to have headphones with a microphone. The instructor has a whiteboard/powerpoint style presentation and leads the discussion. There is a typing chat field ongoing during the class, and there is a way for students to talk when given access to the microphone (so there are no problems with kids talking over each other). There is a list of assignments to be completed throughout the week (mostly links to websites, BrainPop videos, and a couple of actual assignments), plus a list of chapters to read.

These are both VERY helpful, thank you!! As I was starting to lay things out for next year, I sort of felt like I was shooting in the dark with my oldest -- without knowing exactly what I'm aiming for. You've given me lots to consider to far! :)

I briefly taught first grade and fifth grade, so I have a picture in my head of where someone in either one of those grades is at academically. Ok, OBVIOUSLY there is a huge range of normal within either one of those, but generally speaking MOST kids are at a certain place (not talking about the outliers). I am not sure what the upper grades look like, though. What would you consider to be within the "normal" (however you choose to define that) range for seventh grade and/or ninth grade? And YES, I know that grade levels don't really matter in homeschool, and of course I teach to where my kids are actually AT rather than what grade label I put on them, but I think it is perfectly healthy and fine to have a general sense of where he would be expected to be if he were in school (this comment is to hopefully prevent some of the snarkiness other posters have received when asking similar questions). :)

She is 269... she just spelled her word wrong. :( Semi-finalists will be announced in a few minutes.

It is still at the point where everyone is in. The VA spellers will start in the next few minutes. The semi-finalists will be announced tomorrow.

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/source/espn3/id/457726/

Aside from cheering for the VA homeschool girl from my local area (a 14 yo there for her last chance at a win, she and her sister have won our local bee multiple times) and the VA homeschool girl who is the youngest contestant ever (a 6 yo homeschool girl who is soooo cute), should I also be cheering for any sons or daughters of hive members?

Sometimes I daydream about sending him to PS, just to see what they would do with him. :) I am so thankful I have my DH to be DS's voice. They just think SO differently, and approach problems from such a different angle. I know DS will be great in whatever path he chooses in life, I'm just struggling with how to help him get started on it! :(

(Cross posted on the general forum, but I'd love the input from this board as well) I tried to write a post with all of the details, but it was too complicated to try to explain. Basically... my 8 yo DS learns and thinks in a completely different way than I do. The former classroom teacher in me assumed it was various learning disabilities, but extensive testing showed that is not the case (actually, the testing showed that he has numbers that would qualify him for the Davidson Young Scholars program, but that is not a path we have chosen to travel at this time). When I try to explain something to him, I usually just end up confusing him. My wonderful DH (who thinks/learns similarly to this DS) often can "translate" things for me, but he is not home during school hours. Up to this point, my strategy has been to stay out of his way and let him learn on his own. This has worked... I suppose (his reading and math levels are great)... but he is spending less than 30 minutes per day on school work and I'm trying to figure out how to ramp things up for next school year. He has enjoyed several fun co-op classes (newspaper, chess, etc) and I am considering a few online class options for him. When I look at my plans for him for next year, I will not actually be teaching him ANYTHING. I am conflicted about this. On one hand, it doesn't seem right that I am handing off ALL of his education to various other people. On the other hand, I don't feel like I can best teach him (and yet I am willing to hand this over to people I've never met???). Please help me think this through! I don't have peace about my plans for next year for this kid, but I also can't really think of a better plan. FYI: If I let this particular DS choose what to do, he would play Yugioh and Minecraft all day. He is not motivated enough at this stage to be a completely independent learner. __________________

I tried to write a post with all of the details, but it was too complicated to try to explain. :) Basically... my 8 yo DS learns and thinks in a completely different way than I do. The former classroom teacher in me assumed it was various learning disabilities, but extensive testing showed that is not the case (actually, the testing showed that he has numbers that would qualify him for the Davidson Young Scholars program, but that is not a path we have chosen to travel at this time). When I try to explain something to him, I usually just end up confusing him. :( My wonderful DH (who thinks/learns similarly to this DS) often can "translate" things for me, but he is not home during school hours. Up to this point, my strategy has been to stay out of his way and let him learn on his own. This has worked... I suppose (his reading and math levels are great)... but he is spending less than 30 minutes per day on school work and I'm trying to figure out how to ramp things up for next school year. He has enjoyed several fun co-op classes (newspaper, chess, etc) and I am considering a few online class options for him. When I look at my plans for him for next year, I will not actually be teaching him ANYTHING. I am conflicted about this. On one hand, it doesn't seem right that I am handing off ALL of his education to various other people. On the other hand, I don't feel like I can best teach him (and yet I am willing to hand this over to people I've never met???). Please help me think this through! I don't have peace about my plans for next year for this kid, but I also can't really think of a better plan. FYI: If I let this particular DS choose what to do, he would play Yugioh and Minecraft all day. He is not motivated enough at this stage to be a completely independent learner.

If you click on Browse, you can choose to only look at items from Alberta.

If you are willing to drive to MD to pick it up (or pay to move it), there is a mobile classroom at auction on this site for $2.25 (not a typo). http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=727284 There are several other buildings listed there -- definitely worth watching for one closer! :)