I think so often we sit through something like this, with our kids coming home daily in a foul mood because of things that have happened to them in school, and don't realize there IS a different and better way. I spent the better part of last year with my 3rd grader in PS and watched her get worse as the months wore on. I told someone at some point that I felt like being there was literally 'changing what I thought she could become' right before my very eyes. I pulled her the first week of May from 3rd grade and although it WAS scary, and I had my hands full at figuring out curriculum over the summer for both kids, I haven't yet regretted my decision. We live out in the country, but are so busy with gymnastics, soccer, piano lessons, church activities and friends that they truly aren't missing anything other than the daily behavioral issues of their peers and the constant drama of being surrounded by them. They are learning a TON too, and that certainly makes my heart happy. I personally would not say that I was one of those people that would ever homeschool. I don't have a ton of patience, and I like my free time. But, frankly not having to spend the day worried about her and the evenings UNDOING her day has been a blessing indeed. I wish your friend well. You don't realize what a great journey it is until you are on it.

KarenAnne, I'm not quite sure I am ready to take on Clarissa yet, but I just ordered Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman from the library and am looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the suggestion! LoriD, what version of Hamlet were you working with with your kids? Was it geared towards kids specifically? I've got a 7 & 9 year old and while they read quite well, I was trying to figure out the best version to read them. I have seen Lois Burdett's Shakespeare for kids and wondered about that as a starting point. Oh... and I checked out all the info in the post link you sent. Those are great ideas!

my dd9 and ds7 are doing their indiv levels of R&S English. The lessons are short and usually take them about 15 minutes each to do. The 7 year old is doing R&S 2 and the 9 year old is doing R&S 3. I think they are very rigorous, but every day we follow up with MCTs Grammar Island and they LOVE that!! They both ask to keep going everyday. I think they are a good blend as far as grammar goes.

Can I ask is the EPGY gifted program that you have to test into the exact same material as the open enrollment? How did you gain access to the open enrollment classes without having 8 students together as it states? I am considering this as a supplement to MM for dd9 and ds7 and wondered if the open enrollment was also the gifted program. Thanks so much for any help.

I too have been looking into EPGY math as a supplement to MM for dd9 and ds7. Do you all use the actual indiv. enrollment that you have to pretest to be allowed into it, or is it the open enrollment? Are they the same gifted program? I read that the open enrollment required 8 students to do it, and I only have my two. Is there another way to get access to this gifted program? It seems quite expensive for the test into class if I chose to use it as a supplement. Not sure, so I wanted to ask more. Thanks

I too have been looking into EPGY math as a supplement to MM for dd9 and ds7. Do you all use the actual indiv. enrollment that you have to pretest to be allowed into it, or is it the open enrollment? I read that the open required 8 students to do it, and I only have my two. Is there another way to get access to this gifted program?

I can imagine that was quite gratifying to read such an essay! Especially on a topic that you already know so well. I can only aspire... ;-) I did love reading that she started writing at an early age, and performing for her family in their 'living room'. That sounds so "ordinary" and "possible", like something my own 9 year old dd would do today.

Yes! I keep waiting for Elinor to pull out a bow and arrow!

Thank you both for your wonderful replies. There is a lot to dig into, and I am excited to see more. Lori, having not finished all of her novels, only Sense & Sensibility, I can say that the "action" that I am accustomed to is not there but her quick wit, and way with words, is quite pleasing to read. Having just come from reading "The Hunger Games" trilogy, I keep waiting for someone to kill someone else. lol. So far it hasn't happened. That being said I can see how it would be more beneficial for us to actually "read" the words regularly than to just study them in passing. KarenAnne, thanks so much for your information about Samuel Johnson and Ann Fadiman. I don't think I can even pass as having something intelligent to say to an 18th century lit PhD major. lol. I think the beauty for me is that while so many others have long sang the accolades of Jane Austen's work, this being my first year of HS and really the first opportunity I have given myself to delve into more classic literature beyond what was expected in high school and college, I am both pleased and eager to keep going. ** Oh and Lori, I am going to be watching all the movies as soon as I am done with the novels. My husband will be wondering what in the world is going on when the marathon starts! ;-)

and her use of Classic Words. I have been thinking (and posting on my blog) about Jane Austen today. If you all get a chance, pop in and read the post and tell me IF or HOW you use these words with your children. I am just fascinated by the articulate way in which she weaves these classic words into her literature.

I also added Geography, Critical Thinking (Building Thinking Skills), Cursive & Typing to the mix with my 4th grader. I have two different sciences going at the same time. The main one is a study of Astronomy for a semester, then I fill in when there is extra time with a TOPS electricity study. I bought the entire kit with the book and just copy a one page lesson out of there whenever they have 30 minutes, or sometimes even on weekends. I for one HAVE to keep them busy to keep them out of trouble, and getting along. ;-) Our afternoons are full with gymnastics, soccer, church, etc. But too much time on their hands isn't much fun for any of us. ;-) Good luck!

I started MCT Island this year with my older 1st grader (7) and my 4th grader (9). Before beginning, we did The Sentence Family, which uses pictures to describe the Parts of Speech (ie.. parts of a sentence). I felt like that was a great intro. After that, everyday we use 'Grammar with a Giggle' editing of ONE sentence each day, then MCT's Grammar Island and Poetry books, then each do their own R&S grammar. 1st grader does R&S 2, the 4th does R&S 3. I usually have them do even problems only for each lesson. Each day, it takes us about 30 minutes to do those three things. I found a MCT Island schedule on the yahoo group that we are following, so I know about how much to get done in MCT from each book for each week. I can't say enough good things about The Sentence Family though for an intro for the younger one. It really made sense. I have a blog post about it with pics on my blog below. Good luck!

You sound a lot like me, as I am also writing, while homeschooling two children & keeping track of a two year old. Although this is my first HS year, I am familiar with the concept of needing "me" time during the summers, and when they were little. First off, I get up before they do and always head to the treadmill in the garage. I read and walk/jog on there for 30 minutes. Then they are up and dressed & breakfast is being eaten. We start school at 8am and work until 9:30. We break from 9:30-9:45 and that is usually just enough time to throw something together for lunch or start laundry or check emails, etc. We then school until 11:30 and have lunch break for 1/2 hour after that. At noon we start either science or history which takes 1 1/2 hours. At 1:30... (here comes the important ME time part)... EVERYONE goes to their own rooms for 2 hours. Sometimes they have homework to do.. things they didn't finish that day in the allotted time. Other times they read, play, or the little one sleeps. That's a VERY important time of the day for me. I can work out again, work on writing, whatever. After they get up we head outside to play or to piano, gymnastics, sports, chores with dad on the 4 wheeler, etc. The last "me" time would be in the evenings when dad is home with them. He gets their late night snack and everyone bathed, and I head out to the sauna for 30 minutes. I have found that I am fairly strict about the schedule Mon-Thurs, then Frid. is our Fun Math day, Nature Study day, plus all the other things they normally would do like Latin, Spelling, Logic, Cursive, Language Arts, etc. I certainly know how you feel about wanting them to be in PS though. The first week felt like I was drowning in it all. By the second week I had a little bit of a handle on it.. then by the third, it seems to be flowing better. I don't know what our long term plans are, but as they get older I can also see them becoming more independent. I can see our 2 year old growing and starting school as well. I am just keeping my fingers crossed! What I will say about the writing thing, is that I definitely feel like I appreciate those "ME" times more and more these days. Even time in the car going to some sports practice, or grocery shopping (which for us is an hour away)... gives me time to "think" while the kids have their noses stuck in their books. Good luck with your book. From the sounds of it, you will find your way... us MOMS are great multi-taskers!

Yesterday the kids & some of their homeschool CO-OP friends created solar ovens. I did this lesson in conjunction with the Apologia Astronomy "The Sun" chapter. I was thrilled with how well the solar ovens cooked the Solar Smore's, even though it wasn't very warm. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to share the lesson in case there were others out there that would also like to do a solar oven study. It can be found at the blog address below. Have fun!

I would second the Leap Frog Learning Videos for the little one. My 2 year old LOVES them. Just from watching those videos he now knows all of his letter names, sounds, and because of the Math ones.. (Math Adventures to the Moon, Math Circus) he is also counting. I found him writing several letters on a scrap piece of paper the other day... A, C, O, Q . Because I am also teaching a 1st & 4th grader, he isn't getting "much" indiv. learning time, but he is definitely picking up quite a bit. Beyond that... when my older two were each 4 years old, I started with Hooked On Phonics for 15 minutes each day at bedtime and within a couple of months they were reading. Once they are reading, then they are teaching themselves! At least that is what I have found. I just pulled both my kids from PS this year, because they just aren't being challenged and "other" reasons. The fact of the matter is that JUST by doing the Leap Frog Videos, and maybe teaching them to read at a young age you are already miles ahead with them. Trust me... my kids ended up sitting around for several years in PS before I figured out that they could be doing a lot more just by being allowed to learn at their own pace. I second the tv limitations for the older ones unless they are educational. But.. for younger ones you can't find anything better than those Leap Frog videos for reaching them and teaching them.

I can't say anything about Singapore, but we are using MM with our 1st grader this year (1A).. he is beyond it, but I decided to let him blow through the beginning levels as fast as he liked. He is averaging something like 10-12 pages per day right now and we are almost through with chapter 1 the first week. I suspect he will be well into 2nd grade by the end of the year, and I am thinking it will get harder as he goes along. The first level though is quite easy. I enjoy the program. My 4th grader is also doing it at 4A and it's MUCH harder at that level... loads of mental math. I like that everything is on one page and they do work through it very independently. On a side note, during the summer I was also using the free MEP math and liked it a lot as well, and am trying to incorporate that on Fridays. Good luck deciding!

My 4th grader doesn't 'enjoy' math all that much either. We do it first thing every morning, and it's basically non negotiable. If she doesn't get done with the assigned problems for the day (which changes depending on content & whether or not she is spending the Math hour actually DOING math or maybe staring off and getting distracted repeatedly), then the remainder of the work is assigned as homework during her free time. Her free time is important to her, so I will often find her blowing through the remaining problems during a morning break, or if she finishes other work early. We also try to be very consistent Mon-Thur, then have Fun Math Fridays if all has went well during the week. She enjoys that, and so does my younger 1st grader. They get to do math games on the computer, math hopscotch outside or math board games.

It's not my "sole" math, but we are supplementing it with MM. I do 4 days of MM and one day of MEP.

I found it at http://www.stmichaelschool.us/sentencefamily.html ... if that doesn't work, there is a link on my blog post about it as well that I know goes right to it. ;-)

I love The Sentence Family. It helps the kids grasp it by making the 4 types of sentences & 9 parts of a sentence into an actual family that you can draw. We've been doing it for several weeks just to start off the year, and tomorrow we are starting on sentence diagramming (also part of the book).. they have a very interesting way of explaining things that help the kids REALLY get it! *I did post one picture on my blog showing my drawing of Mr. Declarative, so you can get some idea of what I am talking about.

From what I know so far of my very short homeschooling experience, I just tend to use two different methods of learning when it comes to Language Arts. Anytime I can make it literally "come alive" to them (ie.. The Sentence Family, MCT Grammar Island) I think I have them hooked. They just enjoy it, and don't even realize they are actually learning something. The Rod & Staff is a rigorous curriculum though from what I can tell so far (certainly not saying MCT isn't). I don't think that one HAS to use both, I just like to know that I have covered all the bases by doing something creative alongside something more methodical. The R&S doesn't really take my oldest that long to do, maybe 15 minutes tops, and right now we are finishing up The Sentence Family and that takes the other 15-20 minutes I have scheduled for grammar. We will then incorporate MCT into the mix... so you are really asking someone that has NOT used MCT, but is just basing it on what I have seen & read, along with listening to MCT talk online. Plus I kind of know my kids pretty well, so hopefully I have chosen things that will interest them. ;-) But, time will tell. I will say that R&S has English Sets that start in 2nd grade, in case you are interested in starting earlier. I happen to choose R&S for my youngest over FLL only because with a 2 year old in tow I knew there would be times that I wouldn't be able to read aloud to him every lesson. That's another reason why I have both MCT & R&S. I just needed R&S there to assign them to do WHILE I was getting the little one settled, that way they were continually learning and then I could jump in with The Sentence Family or MCT when the little one was settled. Sorry I don't know more, hopefully that helps. ;-)

I am doing MCT with a 1st & 4th grader, but also have them doing Rod & Staff English at their levels. I think that is a very rigorous program.

Although I am new this year, my AT (Loren Finley) is there and I have been able to discuss all of this with him. I have a 1st & 4th grader that will be doing SOTW 1 together (does not meet either's EALRs for SS) and Loren approved it, and my understanding is he is just planning on adding that information to what is already there. He really didn't seem to concerned with the fact that not all of what I was teaching (ie.. science, history) followed with what the state had down in the SLPs. I was pretty adamant that I wanted to start at the beginning of recorded history with SOTW 1 rather than in the middle with US for our 4th grader. Although I don't have everything here yet to start tomorrow, I am making do with other things we are finishing up. I am hopeful that it will all work out for the best though, and am definitely excited. Loren has been very easy to work with, and we are looking forward to the year. ;-)

I have been seriously considering science excursion for this very reason. Lessons ready to go, kit all bagged up by experiment. I've already chosen for this year, but it's on my list for the future.