:grouphug: I'm so sorry for you and your father.

I understand totally about the doctor stuff. I think a lot of things revolving around health care in the US is a crying shame. I try to be understanding of where doctors are coming from on the issue of vaccines, but I detest the inflexibility and bullying of a lot of doctors.

I personally have had MMR, Polio, and DTP. Last I received a booster for tetanus was about 8 years ago, before they were recommending boosters for the pertussis portion of DTaP, so I just got Td. Likely any pertussis immunity I had has waned.

Right :)

I hope it won't turn bad. I think it is an important topic that needs discussed. I think if I could have a discussion about it anywhere it would be with the educated folks here. :)

I want to start off saying I am not anti-vaccine personally. I do strongly feel parents should have the right to choose vaccines for their child. I have done a lot of research about the vaccines and diseases. I have been shocked by the strong feelings and thoughts people have about vaccine use. I know the subject is controversial, but I also know educated people are quite capable of talking about controversial subjects amiably. I'm very interested about people's thoughts on vaccines, whether it should be a right of parents to choose, people selecting vaccines or choosing not to do any vaccines, the future additions to the vaccine schedule, etc. I'm adding a poll because I am curious what vaccines most people have received if you're willing to share. I'm leaving out Hep A, hpv, and Rotavirus as there are only 10 options allowed and I doubt most of us have received them anyway. I'm leaving off smallpox because it isn't given routinely now. There is an other option for people need it and people can feel free to post and share if they've received vaccines I have left off. The option for DTP is just DTP for simplicity sake. I know there is dt, tdap, dtap, and if you've received one of them I'd say just click DTP. I'm sure some of us don't know exactly which vaccines they've received. This isn't scientific research, so just do your best. Here is a link to the history of the vaccine schedule if it would be helpful to see what vaccines where recommended when you were a kid. I have often read and heard comments regarding people not wanting their child around other children who are not vaccinated or haven't had all vaccines. Honestly I don't understand these statements. I wonder if people realize how few vaccines older adults received. They *may* have had polio, mmr, and dtp (possibly smallpox). People in their 30's likely had polio, mmr, dtp, and hib. The majority of the population has not received the vaccines young children are supposed to get these days, Prevnar, Varicella, hep b, hep a, flu, rotavirus, hpv, meningococcus. My oldest daughter is 12, my youngest 4. When my oldest was little Prevnar, flu, hep a, and meningococcus weren't being given. Rotavirus and varicella were never even discussed with me by doctors as options. Fast forward to my little one. Here is the list recommended for her- mmr, polio, dtap, hib, hep b, flu, rotavirus, prevnar, varicella, and hep a, meningococcus, and hpv as age appropriate. This means most of the population, including yourself and your own doctor, haven't received even half of the recommended vaccines children routinely receive today.

We are currently using a Foresman Science text I came upon cheap. I decided to add it in mostly because I have it and also because it is in the back of my mind to keep the kids prepared for the 'just in case' of public school. I have no intention of not homeschooling in the future, but things do happen. It is good for them to experience use of a Science textbook I think as it is very different from what we do for Science. If I hadn't gotten it so incredibly cheap I wouldn't have bothered though.

You'll probably love it then. :) It's delightfully light and juvenile while being incredibly clever at the same time.

I read it this year to my ds 10 and dd 11. They were able to get some puns on their own, some I had to point out, some I had to explain before they got. I think six is way to young for this book, but 9 may be fine, preferably with guidance and discussion. This book had us laughing out loud quite a bit. We all loved it.

Do you have any wall space? Bookshelves are a must around here, lots of tall bookshelves, lining every available bit of wall space. The bottom shelves can hold books, toys, and activities it is okay for the little ones to have. All upper shelves house school books, supplies, and activities you need out of reach. Also toy bins like this one, or similar with book sling on top of bins are actually quite narrow, but hold quite a bit. I use one with book holder and bins on bottom for my youngest daughter. I rotate books and activities weekly. It is in our dining room along with table, chairs, computer desk and chair, and 4 tall bookshelves. We have other bookshelves where ever we can fit them, much loved, well used. Be sure to anchor them to the wall though, with the little climber. As to the planning, your kiddos are pretty young. At that point I was fairly fly by the seat of my pants, laid back, etc.

:iagree:

I definitely think it is wrong, wrong, wrong to vaccinate a child without parental consent. I am curious about the whole story and I seriously doubt the nurse will get into any trouble at all. I have few thoughts to add about adults needing boosters and being afraid for a child to be around unvaccinated individuals. I'm not anti-vaccine. I wonder though, if people realize how few vaccines older adults received. They *may* have had polio, mmr, and dtp (possibly smallpox). People in their 30's likely had polio, mmr, dtp, and hib. The majority of the population has not received the vaccines young children are supposed to get these days, Prevnar, Varicella, hep b, hep a, flu, rotavirus, hpv, meningococcus. My oldest daughter is 12, my youngest 4. When my oldest was little Prevnar, flu, hep a, and meningococcus weren't being given. Rotavirus and varicella were never even discussed with me by doctors as options. Fast forward to my little one. Here is the list recommended for her- mmr, polio, dtap, hib, hep b, flu, rotavirus, prevnar, varicella, and hep a, meningococcus, and hpv as age appropriate. If most of the population, including your own doctor, haven't received even half of these vaccines people really should reconsider any concern over their child coming into contact with other children who haven't received all recommended vaccines. My own son was given a vaccine without my permission. Not only that I had declined the vaccine. He was receiving some vaccines and I clearly declined the varicella vax to both the doctor and the nurse and had a discussion with both about it. I trusted them and they gave him the vax with the other vaccines. I was livid. How could they? My son then contracted chickenpox (quite likely from the shot, yes it is a live shot and the time frame was just right) and my daughter caught it as well. How could they know my children wouldn't be around someone who shouldn't be around children who received live shots? They didn't know. I took no precautions as I didn't know. They were extremely stupid and irresponsible in my opinion. You better believe my naivety was stripped from me fully that day. I will never again blindly trust a doctor or nurse. It is sad someone in a position such as this would abuse it, but they do it all the time along with their bullying tactics. Wrong, wrong, wrong. A parent has the right to choose. period. They do not have the right to take that away, but they do it anyway.

My children and I thoroughly enjoyed Simply Grammar. It does, as the name implies, just cover Grammar. My children actually asked to do lessons. That's a winner by me. They enjoyed making their own sentences, which we did completely orally. I participated by making sentences as well.

I wanted to suggest a couple other activities that my dd enjoys that occupy her for a good amount of time. Wood blocks of different sizes and colors, a small tub of water (with or without bubbles)and tub safe toys with little cups set up on top of a few towels, spoons, etc., rice or bean tub with pouring cups, spoons.

It sounds like he is doing lots of 'schooly' stuff already. My 4 year old dd is doing quite a bit of schooly things as well. She also whips right through it and finishes whatever I put before her in little time. I spend time making file folder games and she probably spends an equal amount of time occupied by them. I know you say he wouldn't want more independent play, but I'd like to suggest you try to mix the two. He doesn't necessarily need to be sent off by himself to occupy himself for a little longer. Dd has a smaller table and chair that is light and can be moved. We put it beside the big table in the dining room where we do school. She will play playdough, paint or paint with water, sticker, cut, paste, and marker paper. Very little is needed from me to start these activities as most of this is kept in her reach. I also suggest keeping open ended toys in the room and rotating them out frequently. Toys like duplo blocks, dress up, and very small toys like animals, lego people, that sort of thing. Kids this age love the small toys, dd is into calico critters and pet shop. My dd will absorb herself in setting things up and playing an open ended game for much longer than she will stay occupied by any school activity. She doesn't feel lonely because she is still in the same room and I'm fine with her chattering to me about what she's doing if she wants as long as I'm not reading aloud.

Thanks for the links. I'll definitely be checking them out. :)

Less than $500. This is the first year we have had to be so extreme with budgeting. Luckily I have been fortunate enough in past years to purchase all the Math manipulatives, Art supplies, and Science experiment materials we could possibly need for years to come. I also, as my husband puts it, have more homeschool materials on my shelves than the library, lol. So, yeah, we're good. :) We have three bookshelves full of quality literature, access to the library, and I've bought ahead on several curriculum in previous years. There was actually very little I *needed* to purchase. Though I admit, if the money were there, I would love to try All About Reading with my youngest next year.

Currclick has copywork for Math facts, C4 Creations has addition, subtraction, and multiplication copywork here for $1 each pdf.

:iagree:

What about Getting Started With Latin?

I use my laptop. We have several things, not all vintage, that we read on the laptop and it is no problem. It is portable and fine on my lap on the couch while reading. :)

Bump in case anyone else can benefit from these. :)

Okay, yeah, I should definitely have been able to figure that as I've owned one of those. Thanks! :)

I feel like I actually *know* this already, but my brain will not compute, lol. So what does BFSU stand for? TIA!

I think it would totally depend on the kid. I'm using SOTW with 4th and 6th this year. Neither of them are into the coloring or activities. I do still use the activity guide every day though. I use the questions/answers, the narration section for the 4th grader, and it is handy to have the page numbers of coinciding books we have and use, Usborne's Encyclopedia and Kingfisher World History, right there. :) I also use the tests (bought separately) and for the 6th grader assign extra reading, notebooking, and timeline work. I did use the maps in the activity guide when they were younger, but have switched to MapTrek maps now that they are older. You could totally still use the maps though. Probably just substituting 'use a colored pencil' for 'use a crayon' would help make the maps more appropriate for an older student. MapTrek maps do ask for more details to be filled in though.