My five year old boy LOVES to take photographs. Does anybody have any ideas how I could channel this into something useful and educational, rather than him just taking lots of random digital photos?

I have 4 children - ds5.5 who is doing school at home with me, dd4 who goes to kindy 3 days a week, with ds2 and ds5 weeks just hanging out! My ds5 is a very sociable chap - he likes to play and chat and visit people. He is happy at home though, enjoys what we do, and keeps himself busy with jigsaws, legos, audiobooks etc. He does riding, soccer, gymnastics and swimming, plus has a few friends we do play dates with. Yesterday we spent ALL afternoon at the park with the other homeschoolers. Just recently my dd4 has started being invited to play at her friends' houses - without ds obviously. He is upset and angry at being left out! Incidentally dd4 only does swimming as an activity. She often has to hang about waiting for him to finish something or other. So why do I feel so guilty and what do I need to do? Should I let him have a friend over to play when she goes out? I don't mind at all having friends over (in fact they keep each other busy and I get to relax a bit), but I don't want to start setting a precedent. There is no way I want to send him to school, but I know he would love it because he would be surrounded by people all day. I think this might be part of the reason I feel guilty - I am choosing something for him that if given the choice he probably would not choose! Any thoughts?

Here's my experience for what it's worth.... We are British and have been in NZ for almost 2 years. Sadly I think we will have to return to the UK soon. We are on a work visa. I hs my ds5.5, with 3 littlies also at home with me. I have seen a few other Kiwis on the boards so hopefully they will have more to say. Homeschooling here is perfectly legal and acceptable. For all children over 6 years you need to apply for an exemption certificate - we haven't done this yet obviously but I have heard it is fairly straightforward. Kiwi children (or their parents!) are then given a small amount of money to go towards resources, books etc. It's about $700NZD I think. We hs for religious reasons. In our town (Tauranga) there are lots of other hs families, many who are Christian but also many who are not - it seems there is a broad range. We rent - the price is similsr to Britain. Really sorry my kiddies have just got back from soccer so I need to go! I might get chance to write more later! Hope that helps a little bit.

Please excuse my ignorance - how do you make a 'notebook'? I think this is what we need to do here, but I need to understand what it is first!!

How do you keep a record of what you have done? How do you know what the dc have learnt a few weeks down the line? We're gearing up to start this here, but this has me a bit stumped! Thanks in advance.

But I LIKE white things!!!:tongue_smilie:

Thanks Jana - that site is really helpful. Not looking forward to not eating what I want though! Milk, eggs, wheat - all my favourites!!

Thanks so much for all the replies. Sorry, forgot to say I'm breastfeeding - I did wonder if I need to think about my diet but didn't really know where to start with it. Food diary?? Start with the 'usual suspects' eg. dairy, eggs?? Also wondered about reflux, but he doesn't seem to sleep any better in his chair than in his cot - does that rule reflux out? We don't have a baby swing - maybe I should invest if I'm gonna get some peace!

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.......... My newest addition is just over 2 weeks now. He's number 4 so you'd think I'd know what to do by now but I'm stuck! Basically he's REALLY hard to settle most of the time. If I manage to get him off to sleep, he wakes up screaming after 20 minutes or so. It makes no difference if I let him cry to sleep, or if I hold him. He is feeding well and putting on weight, but he feeds sporadically because he's not settled in between. Sometimes he'll go 3 hours, other times much less. He does seem quite windy, more so than my others. Any thoughts on what to do?

:lurk5:

Why not let her take both French and Spanish, then you're both happy. I took Latin, French and German and it didn't do me any harm at all. I started German much later, and whizzed through it because of the background knowledge of the other languages.

:iagree: Magic flute and Gilbert and Sullivan are great fun.

Wow! I'm impressed. I would love to start eating 'more healthily' (I don't think we do too bad, but there's always room for improvement!). To be quite honest though I wouldn't have the first clue how to start avoiding most of these things - any tips for a beginner?

Yes it can. Pain from appendicitis typically starts of centrally and 'comes and goes'. It's like a cramping pain. After a while the pain is supposed to move down and to the right (over the area where the appendix is), becoming more severe and more constant. Lots of things can look like appendicitis though, and appendicitis often doesn't follow its own rules IYKWIM. If you're worried, and it sounds like he's in quite a lot of pain at times, it might be worth getting him checked out by a doctor. At least that would set your mind at rest, and it's better to be safe than sorry. Hope he feels better soon.

I hs my ds5.5, and also have dd3 and ds2 at home with me. Number 4 is expected in 5 weeks........... I'm TIRED!! My ds is happy to do his schoolwork (an hour or two per day of maths, reading, writing etc), but he is REALLY bad at finding things for himself to do outside of these times! He has always been quite dependent, and likes to have company, but I need him to be able to entertain himself a bit more than he does at the moment. Usually things are 'too hard', or 'boring' or some other similar excuse, so he ends up flopping about and getting up to mischief. My younger 2 are already significantly better at keeping themselves busy for small amounts of time. Ds is reading, but not fluently. He likes maths, but struggles to build things like lego etc without my sitting with him because he says it's too hard. He likes to write, but wants me to sit next to him. He likes to ride his bike. Most of all he likes to be with people! He's perfectly happy to go outside and chat to the neighbour (a lady in her 80s!) for hours if she'd let him. Anything that requires a small amount of brainpower - jigsaws, pattern blocks etc - he gives up almost instantly unless he's trying to outdo his little sister! At the moment I am managing (just!); but I'm concerned that when the baby arrives, and I have even less time and energy for puzzles and games and baking, that we will have a difficult few weeks. I was thinking of making him a visual list of things that he could do so that he can see what's available, and then HOPEFULLY go and do it for a bit more than 2 minutes!! So, what I'd like to know from those who've been-there-done-that is: can you suggest any activities that might be suitable for him, and how can I get him to be a bit more independent and not give up so easily? Sorry, turned into a long post. Thanks so much for reading

Not snarky at all Tress! Was wondering if I should put an example of what makes sense to me....... To use your example of 43-8: I would do 43-3=40 (round to nearest 10) then 8-3=5 then 40-5=35 In the HIG I have it does mention 'my' way towards the end of the section, as I think one of the previous posters stated, but really it seems like this is a secondary technique in this instance? I can understand how the Singapore method works, and can do it if you ask me to (!), but just don't get WHY when to me the other way seems to be so much more straightforward! Obviously I just don't fit the singapore mould!! Thanks for your time and help!

Hope you don't mind if I deviate slightly from the topic...........we have also just recently been working through this section. But I just don't get WHY SM wants me to teach subtraction like this! It seems such a cumbersome method to me. Can anybody explain the usefulness of this for me??

Wow! Thanks for the list - I would never have found them all!!

Any hints/tips/even a list for those of us not on facebook??!! Thanks

Has anybody used this? I would love to hear what people think. I am considering using it in conjunction with BFSU. I love BFSU, but want to try and make things a bit easier planning-wise because number 4 is due in 9 weeks, God willing.

Thank you!!

Hi, I was looking at the McGraw Hill website but couldn't work out how it works - sorry bit rubbish with websites! If you get chance would you be able to explain it to me please!? Thank you!

Sorry if I'm being a dunce, but I'm fed up of looking at MEP's website!! A question for those of you who are in the know................which bits do I actually need to print off? I would like to use MEP as a supplement to Singapore. We are only on 1A at the moment, so which level of MEP do I need? Or should I just go with Miquon??!! :tongue_smilie: Thanks a lot in advance!

That's really helpful - thank you everyone. My question now is - at this fairly early stage how do I know if my ds is a 'natural speller' or not? He seems to be picking up phonics quicker than I expected, but he's not great at independent work at the moment........!

Agonising (surprise!!) over what to choose for next year. Current decision is whether to go with AAS or SWO for my first grader next year. Any advice or suggestions really appreciated.... Thanks