We're doing two years of American History. I'm using Sonlight Core 100 (secularly), which uses A History of Us by Joy Hakim as a core. The Core 100 is meant to be completed in one year, but I decided to add in Literature and space it into two. We will then restart the 4 year cycle with Ancients and my youngest will be a Kindergartner. I haven't decided if she will complete the whole 4 year cycle or just Ancients and Middle Ages, then 1-2 years of age appropriate American history (not Core 100), then restarting the cycle as a 4 year spread and at some point doing Core 100 when she is older.

I love this!

Thanks everyone so much! :) I really love the idea of making things for the kiddos anyway and always mean to make more.

We're still reading The Island of the Blue Dolphins and The Phantom Tollbooth. The Island of the Blue Dolphins is good so far, but sad. It says a lot in surprisingly little text. The main character is a strong girl determined to survive. The Phantom Tollbooth is really good. All three kids, 11, 10, and 3 are listening and enjoying the book. I like it as well as it is funny and clever. We'll probably be reading Walk Two Moons and Because of Winn Dixie next. Although with threads like these I see so many books I want to read! We recently finished Missing May by Cynthia Rylant. We all liked the book, though possibly I liked it more. It is a thin little book with a lot of meaning. There is a death in the main character's family prior to the beginning of the book and the plot revolves around dealing with the emotions and family left behind.

Okay, my post was quoted in your post so I thought you were talking to me! Thanks for clarifying. :)

OP- Another thought I had was if you are assigning her mostly independent work maybe try doing all subjects with her as the constant interaction may help her to get some school done. Science, Literature, and History as read alouds, possibly with narration or notebooking. Or Science as nature study. Or Science and History as watching documentaries. Grammar could be done orally with First Language Lessons or Simply Grammar. Math you could take a break from curriculum and play Math games with her and use hands on manipulatives for lessons. Spelling can be done orally or on a chalkboard or whiteboard. With an eight year old you could plan on 10-15 minutes a day for Spelling, 15-20 minutes for Grammar, 30-60 minutes for Math, 30-60 minutes for Reading and anything else as icing on the cake. So help her understand she could have school accomplished in 2 1/2- 3 1/2 hours out of the 24 there are in a day. She may like to set a timer and if it is okay with you to limit the time spent on the subject it is a great idea and can really motivate kids.

With the last part, the ETA part, if you are addressing me you are completely mixing my post up with someone else's. I never said anything about not giving my kid breakfast. I have never in my parenthood withheld breakfast or any other meal for any reason. Those things you are talking about are not from my post at all. Aside from that, it didn't cross my mind when I posted someone might think I was trying to scare a kid by talking to them about the law in relation to schooling. I can see how I wasn't as clear as I could have been, I was trying to hurry. That post was mine. When I talked with my kids about it we also talked about the other possible consequences of not getting an education, such as limiting career choices.

I think this part of your post is in response to my post? If so, I'd like to say I think you took my post completely wrong. I think an eight year old child is old enough to have a conversation about schooling being the law to let them know that yes, one way or another it needs to get done. I clearly stated not to threaten them. I meant nothing more than a calm, reasonable discussion on the law and consequences of breaking the law. I had this discussion with both of my kids at about that age, not because of any problems we were having with school but because they are curious kids and ask questions constantly. I assure you they were not in the least bit scared and they understood quite well. An eight year old can understand the reality that schooling is the law, just like not stealing is the law, and crossing at crosswalks is the law without it making them fear policemen or authority figures. I AM into gentle parenting. I do not spank or use physical punishment of any kind. I do my best not to yell or belittle. I am very big on explaining things to my children and trying to let them have a say in things. THAT is what I was advocating, not scaring the kid. As for withholding food for a child, I agree it isn't a good idea.

I do, would I just search gifts?

Thanks for the links and ideas. :) I found some cute hair accessories to make for dd 11 and a recycled t-shirt hat. Still not sure about ds 10. I find it hard to even buy him gifts anyway. I'm never sure what he wants!

If you haven't already, I would explain to the child that doing school is THE LAW. When she refuses to do her schoolwork she is breaking the law and causing you to break the law. You could get into trouble for truancy and/or have problems with CPS. This is not a threat towards her, it is the TRUTH and a FACT that she needs to know in my opinion. I would set her down and have a good, long discussion on the what the consequences for her actions could be. Then I would have her help make a plan for school. Would she prefer doing only one subject per day in an extra long session? Would she prefer each subject in small bites every day? Would a written plan for her day or week be helpful? My son really likes seeing the plan for the day prior to starting, it helps him know what is expected of him that day. What subjects does she like least and how could the two of you go about making it acceptable, oral work, written work, living books, narration, videos, notebooking, keeping a drawing/writing/note taking journal, setting a timer, etc? Only doing her least favorite subject once or twice a week (unless it is Math)? Getting rid of some subjects altogether for awhile, such as Latin or other foreign language, vocabulary, Spelling if she is a natural speller, etc. You decide what is truly important to you to do and make sure she knows what isn't negotiable. Make a solid plan with her, insist she sticks with it and comes to you respectfully and maturely with any ideas for changes that she may have. Promise you will take her ideas into consideration and do your best to meet her needs whenever possible.

They both love to read, play with legos, video games, and own nintendo ds. Ds enjoys chess, loves Mario Bros., and computer games. Dd loves art, manga, and making digital art.

I'd really appreciate some ideas for hand made items for my children for Christmas gifts. I can knit and sew. I have quite a lot of yarn and material stashed, but money is tight and will be even tighter close to the holiday. My kids are dd 3, ds 10, and dd 11. So far I've come up with more ideas for dd 3. I plan to make felt food, costume skirts, and a cover for a stand we already own made of felt. The cover will come with felt words that can be stuck onto the felt cover and will say a variety of things like shop, restaurant, bakery, vet, doctor, nursery, etc. She already owns a play kitchen, cash register, pets, dolls and things like this that she will be able to use to go along with the stand. I'm thinking of making an apron, chef hat, and grocer hat. For the older two I'm drawing a blank beyond a hat and mittens, which isn't very exciting. The materials I have probably wouldn't be good for pajamas. I'd love more ideas of what to make the three children.

I was just coming to start a similar thread! :) I need a light week next week so we are only doing the 3 R's. I've decided Math will be only games and incorporating fractions into cooking. We're doing fractions and it will be good for them to get some hands on practice. I will teach them how to make pancakes one day and biscuits another. The pancakes I'll have them halve and quarter the recipe so that they will be able to make pancakes for themselves and each other for breakfast some days. They both already fry eggs all the time, for themselves and some days for each other as well. The biscuit recipe I'll have them triple, then halve. Half will become cheesy biscuits. Then all the batter that isn't cooked will be frozen for later use. Home economics and Math while feeding them. For Writing I may have them do 2 lessons from Writing Strands, but may not. I will definitely be taking about 5-10 minutes a day to focus on my son's handwriting issues. For Reading we will continue our Read Alouds and they always read alone at bedtime. I'd like to have a few more Math games or Home Ec things that won't be extra unnecessary work, but that'll be that.

Dd 11 - witch Ds 10 - zombie Dd 3 - black cat very happy because we've spent a total of $10 on all costumes this year- yay!

I haven't read the whole thread, but I highly suggest the free videos at knittinghelp.com. Her videos are very clear and easy to follow.

:iagree:

twoforjoy- Thanks for sharing. Incorporating phonics into spelling is an interesting idea. I'll file it away in my brain for possible later use. :)

:iagree:

I'm currently on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for health reasons. The book is Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall. It allows no sugar, lactose (you can have store bought butter and hard cheeses like cheddar-no lactose there), grains, potatoes, canned veggies (only frozen or fresh are allowed), and certain fruits and veggies aren't allowed. At first beans and nuts are not allowed, but you get to add those back in about 3-6 months into the diet. You are allowed honey, Welch's grape juice, orange juice not from concentrate, and 'sweet' fruits like bananas, although at first you're to peel and cook all fruits. The certain sugar yeast and some bad bacteria feed off is what is restricted by the diet. You are to include homemade 24 hour yogurt in the diet and can make homemade 24 hour sour cream, cultured butter and french cream. Sorry no chocolate on this diet. It honestly hasn't been that bad for me at all regarding sugar. Not having beans and needing to cook fruits and veggies so much in the beginning instead of raw food has been harder. I'm not used to eating so much meat and eggs. I've never been much of a sweet tooth, though I do enjoy good chocolate!

Thanks. I'm not looking for encouragement to not do phonics, so much as wanting to understand learning/teaching reading. I know people here are very pro phonics. My older children learned to read before I came around to The Well Trained Mind and classical homeschooling so our homeschooling has evolved. How they learned to read is somewhat mysterious to me because they both made giant leaps and bounds on their own. That is why I am trying to think ahead for my youngest. I like to plan and think things through in advance (earlier today I sat down and mapped out a tentative plan for my 6th grader for Math for the rest of her school career). :) My youngest is very, very smart and may be ready to read early. I want to be prepared for what I am going to do when she is ready. I don't want to get in the way of her learning nor cause delay by not doing the right thing. It is a good point about the K12 phonics possibly not being a good fit.

My youngest dd is 3. I'm trying to sort through in my head how, if, etc. I will teach her to read. She is showing a lot of normal interest in letters and sounds. We are currently doing a letter/sound of the week just for fun. It helps me to have set activities, games, and things to do together ready. Background- My oldest dd is 11. She can read very well, but reads slowly to herself when alone and tends to reread passages for comprehension. If she is reading out loud she reads at a normal pace and can answer questions about what she has read correctly. She can read almost any word, I can't think of her ever stumbling over a word. Sometimes she will be unsure of the meaning of a word she doesn't know, but she pronounces correctly from reading. She also spells excellently and rarely misspells. When she was 4 she wanted to learn to read very badly. I taught her letter sounds and how to sound out and write CVC words. In K she was enrolled in a K12 virtual school and started K12 phonics. Her ability to read stopped progressing and she started to dislike learning to read. I decided to not re-enroll her for 1st and we've been homeschooling on our own ever since. I did not do any more phonics with her. We did play games such as word bingo, and for fun made a word family book, she did copywork for school and I continued to read aloud to her often. She didn't want to pick up a book on her own for about 2 years. At that point she was able to read everything very well at the same level she is currently. She began loving chapter books when she was 9 and reads daily. My ds is 10. I never taught him phonics or taught him to read. He played word bingo and helped make the word family book with us. He went through a phase where he constantly asked me what words were and how to spell everything. At 6 the child was reading everything. Words I had never told him what they were, everything. It is a complete mystery to me how he made the leap from not reading at all to reading everything, but he did. Starting at age 7 he did copywork for school. He reads fluently, he reads at a good pace, he comprehends well. He also spells well and rarely misspells words. He also began loving chapter books at 9 and reads daily. Before that he read all of the Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes comics. I know a lot of people, if not all on this forum are very pro phonics. Given my children's backgrounds I hope some will understand why I am not sure what I will be doing with my youngest. I am genuinely unsure how to go about this. Right now it feels right to be playing word games and exploring letter sounds with her, she is enjoying herself and littles love this sort of learning. I'm confused as to whether or not I want to have her do any formal phonics at all. It was not a positive experience with my oldest. I went very gently with it and followed the K12 program, it did nothing but frustrate and bore her. I think she would possibly have been enjoying books on her own sooner if she had never had experience with the formal phonics. Any insights?

Not free, so possibly not helpful, but Sonlight's Core 100 has questions for the chapters of A History of Us, as well as a list of timeline events and mapwork. The questions are for the entire book series and done in chunks of 2-3 chapters. I purchased mine used very cheaply on the for sale forum here. I use it secularly. There is some commentary in there, but my kids have no problem skipping it at all. The questions are followed by arrows, whereas the comments are chunks of text, so easy to skip.

Spanish for Children- I think it is too wordy for its worth. The pronunciation CD is not the best. I wish I had purchased Getting Started With Spanish. We'll trudge through it without rush, adapting as necessary. Dd seems naturally able to pronounce Spanish words phonetically correctly, so that is helpful. I think we will learn more reading and translating Spanish picture books. I'm all for the Grammar, but it should be plainer instruction.

FYI- I spent $3 on a few Math games. The coupon DOES NOT work on all items, only the ones linked for the sale. :)