As a child I loved camp counselor hunts, water fights, and capture the flag type games. What about a mini Olympics complete with build (wood, nails, hammer) and spray paint your own trophies, draw your own flags, etc.

The word passages made me think that someone needs to come up with a Charlotte Mason inspired typing program. ;) I wonder if this is something Julie Bogart will touch on in her CM in the 21st century themed lecture?

I didn't know what we did was looping. :) We rotate though biography, nature study, Shakespeare, and geography. So in the afternoons M-Th it goes Catechism, History, (biography, nature study, Shakespeare, or geography), read aloud, and silent reading (followed by tea and poetry if it's Thursday).

An idea from Living Memory, that you may want to adapt for your family, is to make a memory folder instead of a box. Boxes get dropped/knocked and spill in my experience. I was thinking you could keep a master folder instead of seven individual folders?

My girls enjoy the Chi Sweet Home series and the eldest, age 8, likes Classics Illustrated Deluxe Graphic Novels and Graphic Biographies.

Thank you for this practical advice. I was feeling like I would derail our whole school day by stopping for breakfast mid morning.

How does "other" not fit? ;) I guess my second career as a poll writer is on hold. ;)

I tried to correct that in the posts above. No special nutritional needs. The 6 and 8 year old can make sandwiches and scramble eggs (though I like to be present in case they forget to turn off the stove or if an accident were to happen). Our microwave is a built in above the stove so it's awkward for them to use. Personality: 8- intense and grumpy, 6- late sleeper and ...um...ethereal, 3- starving active boy yet he eats two bites of any meal and is done, 2- loud and my only good eater who wears more food than she eats.

You're right Ellie. ðŸ˜

I've got young kids- 8, 6, 3, 2. I've never thought of mixing cereals before. I may do that on Sundays. I don't allow cereal on weekdays.

MWF are usually egg dishes- breakfast burrito, frittata, casserole, etc. T and Th are hot cereal with egg stirred in Sometimes Friday's we have pancakes and sausage or just pancakes. On the weekends they have cereal. So, I'm trying to ensure they all have protein. The problem is they're just not eating it. In my defense, my DH has the same breakfasts and he likes them. So it's not just my cooking....I hope.

After making breakfast for the kids, watching them eat a few bites and toss it, and then listening to them moan about starvation around 9:30, I'm considering canceling breakfast. But it's the most important meal of the day, right? I want to come up with some better ideas instead of just beating my head against this wall. Have the kids take ownership of breakfast so they'll appreciate it more? Skip breakfast and offer a large snack earlier in the day? How do you handle breakfast?

Well that was a fun rabbit trail that will require further exploring.

You are a brave, brave woman!

Read your blog post. I didn't know Miquon was available on currclick! Thank you for saving me some $!

You can get AO copy work for free by joining their copy work email list https://www.amblesideonline.org/Copywork.shtml SCM's Spelling Wisdom Book 1 looks like it has a great selection of quotes from literature, famous people, scriptures, hymns, and maxims. It's not free though and (since it's a dictation program) you'd have to make your own copy work pages.

I have a similar type daughter. One of our snuggle subjects is math now. We use Beast Academy. Doesn't really work with MM but reading the comics together in BA has been a blast. She also likes to snuggle next to me on the couch while I work with her sister on reading and ELTL. TC is definitely a snugly program.

It's sad enough to see this in the homeschool community, but two Christian organizations- worse.

How about you just let me put an affiliate Iink in my siggy?

Their website says two weeks, but expect longer in May and June.

This could become a whole new niche in the homeschool market- DIY purse-sized de-stress toys! You could write and sell a how-to e-book. ;).

On BJU's site it has a separate area for scoring. So do you buy the test and then pay extra for scoring?

I'm looking forward to reading other answers for inspiration. New Books- Norms and Nobilty one section a day. I'd also like to find a good audio book biography on Abraham Lincoln (any recs?). I did this with George Washington and Abigail Adams last year and I was able to teach American History instead of just facilitate it. Lectures/Talks: I'm listening/relistening to Andrew Kern and Cindy Rollins talks on Circe. Last Nov. I purchased a bunch of SWB lectures on sale- Writing, independent student, If I could do it all over again, and Homeschooling the Real Child. Wow those are great. I've signed up for the free summer lectures on WTM and plan on purchasing a few instead of going to a convention this year. Favorite Threads- Lori D's lists for whatever topic we're covering. Planning threads are great too. I love reading about what others are using. However, I really enjoy it when they step away from curriculum listing and discuss how they intend to tackle a subject or learning hurdle. The high school board's acceptance thread is wonderful encouragement. So are the homeschooling outside the box style threads. More than almost anything I would love for my children to find their passion and then tailor education to help them soar. Blogs- I'm kind of blog weary right now. They all seem to be the same or at least using the same marketing system. Homeschool/Parenting blogs seem to be more a combination big PR machine, e-booklet store and affiliate link party than a source good information and inspiration lately. That said Angelina Stanford's articles on Circe are just amazing. Planning ideas- Next year we're going 8 weeks on 1-2 weeks off (and Christmas, etc.). I'm trying to plan by day and not date. So day 3 term 4 instead of March 3rd or Week 1 Monday. I'm also only detail planning 8 weeks at a time. I'm still using the planning format and teacher's notebook from MerryAtHope's site though. Adding a What I Should Be Doing category- Latin. I need to start learning Latin. Writing- I need to do something to improve my writing skills. 8's program opened my eyes to how little I knew about good writing. I need to find something to walk me through the next step (so I won't be embarrassed every time I post here about poor sentence structure, grammar, etc). :)

I taught and provided "after school care" for a friend's daughter this year and it was a humbling experience. Biggest lesson I learned is that my ego needs to get the heck out of the way when teaching. That was a painful lesson. Other lessons - Using manipulatives in early math can not be over rated. - Writing programs can and ought to be tweaked for the child. - Finishing a program is less important than internalizing the truths taught in the program (or those taught by struggling with a program). - I am horrible with lap books.

Same problem here. I think it's a flash thing because when I use photon on the iPad I can play from the audio library again. I've been listening to the Quiddity podcasts instead. Andrew Kern just posted a great one on Socratic Discussion.