I think you are in a very enviable position. You have another pair of eyes and ears, another head (think 2 heads are better than 1) to help your kids get the best education you and your dh can give. I think a lot of homeschool moms, myself included, are completely on our own when it comes to curriculum planning, scheduling, and accountability. For those of us who are independent, strong-willed, and fairly confident this doesn't seem so bad. But we are all human and there will always be weak spots only sometimes we're so busy juggling everything we don't have time to see them. You have another pair of eyes to help you out with those. Take advantage of that. Sit down with your dh and ask him to be very specific about what he thinks is lacking. Saying that the kids don't seem to spend a lot of time studying is too generic to be helpful. But his saying that, might be his way of saying that something is "off" and he's just not sure how to word it or if you would even be amenable to this type of discussion.

My oldest boy (and oldest child) has always been an avid reader. He's also an intuitive speller and writer. In the beginning most schoolwork was super easy and he would get bored easily. Math was a bit of a struggle, however. At the beginning of this year (12 yo, 7th grade) he really turned the corner with math. He was struggling with science and I had to slow down and teach him how to take notes from the text (his first experience with that). Now he is a real go-getter with all of his school work. He is a self starter and does very well. I don't know about the boy/girl dynamic but I attribute much of his personality to his birth order. My first born girl is similar in many ways. She writes more, whereas he reads more and math seems to come a bit easier for her at this point than it did for him. But they are both academically inclined, very serious and anxious to please Mom and Dad over others. And so darn antsy to grow up and be their own boss :001_smile:

We did a 2 week unit on Texas this year and we read two books by Carol Hoff. I think they may be out of print: Johnny Texas and Johnny Texas on the San Antonio Road. Hopefully you can find the at the library. My kids have gotten a little choosy with their read-alouds lately but they LOVED these. In fact we enjoyed the first one so much we tracked down the 2nd as it wasn't part of our original plan. They are well written and wholesome without being overly goofy with a lot of Texas culture and geography throughout. They even had a shocker of an ending....always a plus.:001_smile: ETA: I was so proud to learn why Six Flags is called Six Flags and my dh made such fun of me saying everyone everywhere already knows that. :glare: We had a lot of fun with Texas and we don't even live there.

:iagree: Love to have an 8 to 5 homeschooling/homemaking job. Part of the stress is that it never ends and even when you're taking a "break" you're always on call. :D

I have a chart exactly like yours on my wall. It helps me manage everyone's school schedule. I read MOH many many years ago, but I just put together my sticky note schedule this past fall. Did I learn that from MOH? I think I read about ideas and they just simmer in my brain til the necessary moment. :001_smile:

I have read Elizabeth, Anne, and Bloody Mary. I enjoyed all 3 very much. I'm not much of a historical scholar so I can't speak to the accuracy. But they were well written and enjoyable to me. At the time I read them I thought Anne was inappropriate for young teens. There was nothing explicit in it but just him lusting after this girl was yucky, imo...and her enjoying the lusting. :001_huh: My oldest daughter was a baby when I read these and so my oldest was 5 or 6. They had not been exposed to any sexual innuendo and it was my plan to prevent that from happening. Reality has played out much differently. Indiana Jones was our downfall. :glare: When dd reads the other 2 she will probably discover there is another and ask to read it. So if I read it again I may or may not change my opinion on whether dd should read it. I still limit inappropriate sexual content but it seems to crop up in the most random places and I try to remark on it so at least to guide their own thinking on the matter. I do think some discussion would be a must either before of after that particular book is read. It would be worthwhile to discuss them all but Anne would be a must...not just a let-her-loose-with-it type book.

Wow! I had no idea how frequently people lose fingertips. I took dd to the hand surgeon today for a check (all is fine) and he said that he had seen 3 other children this week who lost fingers in doors. He said the doors must be hungry this week trying to get dd to smile. It didn't work. He also said it happened to his own son when he was 3. Crazy!

I vote for the ER. I don't like to take chances.

My 5yo dd lost the top of her finger in the church doors on Mother's Day. It is reattached. We're praying that it takes and that she has normal feeling and use in the future. Since then I've heard of 3 children who have had similar incidents. Everything turned out fine in all 3 cases. It caused me to wonder, just how common is it for a child to lose a finger?

:lol: We converted just reading the articles in the Veritas catalog :lol: O.K. we did a little more reading than that but hadn't read Omnibus yet as my oldest was in 4th grade. Love the "dark" side :D

:iagree: I was frustrated with Fallacy Detective for this reason and switched to Art of Argument.

Treasure Island :ohmy: I don't know why it was so awful. Peter Pan was worse.

I've seen a lot more than boxers due to low-risers. I think some of the stylish moms with cute little hairdos would be mortified to know that when they squat down to wipe a nose or tie a shoe they are impersonating a plumber.

:iagree::iagree: I've had 2 toddlers the last semester of this school year. AARRGGHH!! Next year my soon-to-be 3 year old should be much more manageable. Then I'll just have the one who likes to steal our sharp pencils and toddle dangerously with their sharp points threatening his eyes or his spleen. He also eats markers...did you know eating a pink marker will turn your poop pink? And this week he just discovered how to climb onto the kitchen table. :eek: Regarding newborns, I have tried to rush back to school before I felt normal. That doesn't go well. I've also learned that it takes a little longer to feel normal with each successive baby. Normal means that I physically am back to myself. I also want the baby to have fallen into a nice eating/sleeping schedule...not strict but manageable....sleeping through the night is a must for me, but I realize is not a must for everyone. You can do it!!! I delivered my 4th, May 31st and my oldest who turned 5 March 28th was due to start kindergarten that fall. I was quite anxious about how it would all work out. I started kindergarten in January so that we would have a semester under our belts and could really slack through the fall if necessary. It wasn't. We were back to normal by fall. It will work out just fine.

:iagree::iagree::iagree: The "It's Boring" whine doesn't go far in this house. Practicing scales are boring but even very advanced musicians warm up with them. Use it or Lose it. :D

I found this incredibly valuable, especially for those experiments that we didn't do, but also just to verify that we did the experiment correctly.

:iagree: I also read and took notes myself and then we would come together and compare notes. This discussion helped his retention immensely! We also discussed the On Your Own and Study Guide questions. My son enjoyed the labs. He did most of them independently. We did skip some. The ones that required digging into dirt in January up here in the tundra, we did not do :D My son enjoys this book alot and is drooling over catalogs dreaming of the other courses he gets to take in years to come. A word of warning, the first chapter is a quick overview of the history of science. There is a LOT of material and the names do start running together. Don't give up on it after the first chapter. The rest of them are much different.

Well that is disappointing but good to know. Can you recommend the best sources you found for offering a different view?

:iagree: Getting pregnant is not the same as getting cancer. Life is GOOD. Death is BAD. I feel for your situation OP.:grouphug: And I have no advice to offer. We've struggled with this off and on over the years as well. We claimed we were done with each one since #3 and now we have 7. I'm not particularly in the market for #8. I can't imagine what life would be like without any of the little lives that we've been blessed with thus far and sometimes I wonder what little person are we missing out on because of our willful actions. Deep down I don't think we are officially done but we are definitely on hiatus for financial reasons. And I'm 37 going on 38 too. If we push it too long we could end up being done and that makes me sad. :crying:

This is a three-part series by Gerald Johnson: America is Born, America Grows Up, and America Moves Forward. I think I've seen it recommended on some book list somewhere but I wonder if anyone has read this and can comment on it's accuracy and bias. Thanks!

I mainly used Developmental Math with my older boys before switching to the upper elementary Saxon books. They did just fine. My daughter did Saxon 3 this year. We did not enjoy it. The younger Saxon is just not the same, imo. I don't want to rush her into 5/4 so she's going to do BJU 3 this fall and start Saxon 5/4 in 4th grade. It's quite possible to do another math program in the younger grades and then jump into 5/4. Go for it!

I'll help you out. I've got a BF Early American and World History for Jr. High handy. Lesson 1: Student reads Columbus & Sons pp. 1-23 There follows about 6 discussion questions. These are not typical comprehension type questions, but explain your answer and some ask you to support your answer with Scripture. To top off lesson 1 there is an Essay Topic. Lesson 2: Same idea Read, discussion questions. There are some assignments to draw some types of ships and to study a few artists using library books. Also an assignment to do additional research on Fra Mauro and record in notebook. There is an essay topic at the end as well. Oh, I see some map work in there too. Flipping through...there are 12 lessons on Columbus & Sons. There are 5 essay topics given throughout. There is quite a bit of additional research assigned. The section ends with a Literature connection with 3 classics suggested to enhance your study along with 4 video suggestions. Then you're off to The World of John Smith. We started the year off with this. I think my son read about half of Columbus before I scrapped it. I did not get that far in the book myself. I did not assign every assignment because it was too much for us. The suggestions for using the guide recommend the student write 2-3 essays or research papers per month. Of course, that's just a suggestion. :001_smile: I believe my plan when I started was to get through the guide in 1 semester. :lol::lol: Totally not possible. There is a LOT of reading. I like the Foster books alot, but there is a lot of information to digest. It would have worked better if we had slowed down and enjoyed the ride. HTH

The design cards helped us get A LOT more mileage out of our wedgits especially as the kids got older. I don't think they are very expensive if your used set doesn't come with them.

I don't get it either. It seems to me that education should be language driven. Reading and Writing (and their components) should get the majority of the time and money. Of course, you have to read and write about something so history is a logical thing to read and write about but certainly not the only thing. And trying to match our reading up with exactly where we are in history is a nightmare. I refuse to stress over it any longer. We do MOH and are done with it. Love it!

I would say that my kids got the most enjoyment out of them between the ages of 5-8. My 2.5 yo does play with them too in short bursts. Though she likes to take apart what other people have made :001_smile: