:iagree: I honestly thank God that I found these forums. I have met no one IRL who homeschools as rigorously as the people on these boards. As am I. In response to the OP - I don't think there is statistical evidence, but I can offer up quite a bit of anecdotal evidence based on what goes on locally. I face a constant battle because of what other homeschoolers in the area are doing to their kids. People are constantly coming to me and asking details about homeschooling and "sharing their concerns" based on others they've seen. Some of the kids around here from one particular family are well into their 20s and "haven't quite finished" high school yet. In another family is a boy who is 17 and his mom is scrambling to get him into a school because she hasn't figured out how to do high school. He's a 9th grader, and he should be graduating this year. I don't mind those who homeschool for solely "religious" regions, but I think many of them do a disservice to all of us by choosing not to do their work with excellence and grace. I also hope I don't drop the ball, and can continue having the support I need to homeschool rigorously. My DS wants to go to college. I'm working hard NOW to get him there.

I'm very similar. I'm using Daily Language Review as a kick-off point. I use spelling words from the Progressive Phonics books, as well as common words (like colors, months, days of the week). DS reads a ton of books, does copywork I've prepared, reads a lot of the Brian P. Cleary books to get used to types of words, and also does narration for science and history four days a week. I'm not sure how to answer the rest of the OP's questions based on that. I like it. If I didn't, I'd have to change it. :lol: I suppose the one drawback is that it doesn't offer a sense of "We've done it, let's move on to the next level now." It's a constant and ongoing process, and it's interconnected with every other subject, so I often forget we are doing Language Arts at all.

My husband teaches art. He was an art major in college, and has been talking about wanting to get back into art for himself, so I asked him if he would take over art this year. He put together a full curriculum (starting with cave painting, which was great fun) and he teaches on his day off. He guides the kids through their lessons if I'm sick - he knows where the files are and what's expected. He also helps me a TON when I'm planning by listening to me think out loud about which curriculum or book to use - none of which he cares about beyond how well I will teach the kids. :D I also want to mention how encouraging he is. I have friends who would like to homeschool, but their husbands don't believe in it or belittle them by telling them they are not smart enough, so their kids are in school. I realize that just having a husband who *gets* it is a rare and generous gift.

For a second, I thought you were in my town - we had a gathering of many of our churches tonight too. :) I completely agree that what your DD was planning was a performance rather than a way of drawing people in to corporate worship, and I think that's the difference. She could worship God however she chooses to on her own time - however, when you are bringing the entire church body together for a worship event, then it ought to draw *everyone* in to worship together. If she planned to lead everyone in Irish dancing as a way to glorify God, then maybe that was different. :lol: Although my logic tends to fall apart with regards to the cheer/chant. Perhaps in her mind, that would be a way to draw people together. Unfortunately, you have a generation gap and most adults would probably see it as a way of grabbing attention instead of bringing people together. Which might get me started on music styles in corporate worship and why they can be so divisive for a church, and I think I'll just stop there! :auto:

I love that one. I use it all the time. Only in my head it's spelled "teh internets" and I don't mind that people think I'm strange for using a meme IRL. Chillax is the top of my current most-hated list. Sadly, it's entered my vernacular via our youth group. I despise myself when I use it! "For the win!" shouted out about any old thing. "Blackberries for the win!" DH overuses this one. :glare:

This is my recommendation. It is a beautiful translation/rewriting. If your son is at all sensitive to violence, you might want to pre-read it first. I read it with my boy last year (at age 6), and he was especially traumatized by Achilles dragging Hector's body behind his chariot for days. However, it led to some *fantastic* discussion about the nature of anger and the worth of forgiveness. Just an FYI.

Ours is like this too. The beginning readers are all together, but with enough room on the shelf so they're not packed in. About half the shelf is left open (they don't expect kids to put books back in order - just to set them on the shelf so the librarians can reshelve them). They also group beginning board books on a separate shelf for toddler browsers. I think they are generally categorized by character or by author - so Amelia Bedelia and Mr. Putter and Tabby and Clifford are together in groups.

I love it. I use it more as an inspiration/creativity vacation. I pin things that catch my eye or inspire me or make me laugh. I don't use it to bookmark, really. And I'm pretty picky about what type of boards I follow. I stopped following most food boards (since I have food intolerances), and I mostly follow art, quotes, crafts, and homeschool. I spent a lot more time there when I first started out, but now I treat it like most of my other social networks - check in once a day and see what's new. :)

:lol: Amazing, isn't it? We've had almost a week of summer so far!

What do you think of the ads, or did you get the premium service? DH is on it, but he says the ads are constant and annoying. I've been looking for a decent (and free, if possible) service for composer studies too. I'll have to look into it!

I expect my kids to be obedient. For me, it means establishing their trust - that I do what I say I will do every time, whether for rewards or punishments, so they know that they can TRUST me. I'm not going to teach them to be blindly obedient to just anyone. You can't obey someone you don't trust. My kids are more obedient if I spend more than 15 minutes with them, actually listening and understanding what they want from me. For my 5-year old, if I play Littlest Pet Shops with her, the whole life struggle goes away after that. She loves me, and she knows I love her, and she wants to obey. I think part of establishing the love/trust relationship means you also have to be open to hearing from them. My kids are allowed to tell me to "snap out of it" if I'm being too harsh or yelling constantly (and they do it, too - more often than I'd like!). When I take a step back and better understand both sides, all of us benefit. Sometimes the crime wasn't a crime at all if you can get past all the inherent miscommunications. I think consistency is the key. If you say you will punish, do you, or are you simply making idle threats? If you offer a reward for good behavior, do you make sure you give it right away, or do you find excuses to take it away again? I have found that if my kids have any doubt about whatever reward or punishment I've offered, all hope of obedience is lost. I should add that I spanked (almost daily) in the past, but have not for over a year. Focusing on trust and consistency has been a big part of that, imo.

I had the "I feel like we're roommates" talk with DH back in March, and it had been a long time coming. We came up with an idea which has really brought some life back into our relationship in the last few months. We have a designated date night (every Wednesday night). Since we can't afford babysitters, it's almost always at home. The trick is, we alternate who plans it, and the rule is that it has to be different from week to week. Besides listening to music or watching movies, we have also done art/sketches, played video games, played board games, drank sake, read books, played guitars. Whatever goes. It's been really good for us, and even if it's just watching a movie, we know it's special time just for us.

You have gotten some excellent advice (which I am saving up for later!). I just wanted to alert you to one *free* resource that can be a lot of fun. Every November is National Novel Writing Month, and NaNoWriMo also puts on the Young Writer's Program. They have a TON of great resources on their website that help with crafting creative fiction. It might be a fun way to get started in one kind of writing, at least. FWIW, I've done it the last two years with my son, and he's already planning a character for this year's story. If you choose to participate during November, you can set your own goals for kids (the goal is 50,000 words for the regular contest).

We named ours, because the boy wanted a name after reading about school names in a grammar curriculum. We're Seedling Academy, so named because we were doing quite a bit of gardening at the time. We even have a poster hanging in the kitchen. I imagine it will change in a few years, but both kids like it for now.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

This. (Only I choose Jif because I'm choosy. ;)) Peanut butter jars and the cute little metal pails that go on sale at Target and Wal-Mart around this time are other great containers of choice. We have several different marker sets (Crayola washables, Sharpies in all colors, Flairs) and multiple sets of colored pencils (cheapies and not-so-cheapies). Each set has its own little pail or jar, and the kids know how to sort them. Also, I kind of like the look of bouquets of color pouring out the top of our homeschool shelves. Crayons are the only things we have in a shoe box, although we each also have our own special boxes of crayons that are kept separate too. We're a little crazy about our coloring supplies.

Aw, I was really hoping this thread would be one of those where you get to tell the person above you what you think of them and how great they are. And then someone could tell me that I always exude awesomeness and inspiration whereever I go (although in real life, I'm the misunderstood nerd in the corner who only talks when it has something to do with math, nutrition, or special needs kids. Wait - I do that here, too. :glare:) This is a huge board. I can never keep up. I recognize many of your faces and names, and have enjoyed your posts. I've been a heavy poster in other forums and I think it's rather nice to have the option to stay out of the drama here. ;)

Shoot. No. The link I had redirects to a shop of some sort! I think I only grabbed that a month or so ago too. The McGraw-Hill Language Arts is still accessible though. They might be comparable.

PDFs I have on the computer right now: Math Mammoth (grades 1-6) Evan-Moor Daily Language Review The Core Knowledge Sequence Scott-Foresman's Grammar & Writing Workbooks SALSA Spanish teacher materials (the videos are free on Georgia Public Broadcasting) If you do a search in the forums for "free curriculum" you'll see a few recent threads that have highlighted some of the better finds out there. :)

I made it through week 36. Loved it so much that I have 36 weeks for both K and 2nd grade all filed away. I think a big part of it is that I also made a chart for the fridge that the kids put a sticker on when they finish a week. Having those files ready to go makes it easy for the kids to know they are done, and easy for my DH to pick up and go if I'm out for a day. My history, science, spelling and Daily Language Review are all filed. Math is not. I pulled it this year to put in a binder and let the boy go at his own pace. I found that he was able to do a week's worth in a day, and then switching around weeks was a pain (and he thought it was cheating, of course, if I'd add more math). I'd rather have him looking at math every single day instead of crushing it all at the beginning (or end) of the week. It also helps me to see what supplies I need to buy. I'm generally 2 weeks ahead because I have to request library books and get chemistry experiment supplies and make sure they're here on Monday. Having those folders all made up has been a total lifesaver. :) ETA: It took me about a week to set up, both last year and this one. That's a few hours of work a day, but a lot of that is also deciding on all the library books since I do history and science via TWTM. I'm an INTJ, so once I've made a decision, I pretty much stick with it. :P I haven't changed much (if any) of my curriculum since last year.

I'd take a long, hot bath, make a cup of hot cocoa, and then play my piano as obnoxiously as I wanted to for at least a full hour. Movie-wise, My go-to chick flick faves are: Confessions of a Shopaholic, Penelope, and pretty much all the BBC stuff. North & South is on streaming, and it's one of my favorites ever, but you need at least 6 hours if you're going to watch all of it. :D

I've read two books this week: The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant At a Moment's Notice by Todd Henry. It's almost an organization book for creatives - how to organize your time and energy to avoid burn-out. I enjoyed it. Plastic: A Toxic Love Story I still have a chapter to go, but this one has been very interesting. It's very balanced. At one moment you think plastic is of the devil, and the next moment, it's the thing to save the world. Quite fascinating, and highly recommended! Tonight, I'll start in on my first Alice Hoffman book: The River King. She came highly recommended from a friend (who stuffed the book in my library bag and told me I didn't have a choice in the matter!). It's been weeks since I've read fiction, so I'm looking forward to it.

:iagree: This sums up my schooling philosophy as well. My 2nd grader is doing less than 2 hours of seat work a day (although I thought it was closer to 4 when I was scheduling it - he's just gotten better at focusing on his work these days). Would you define your interpretation of play? What types of play are acceptable and which types are not? Right now, I disagree with this statement, but it may be that your definition of play is not as broad as mine. I think play can stand alone in the early years.

Oh Smurf! What a smurfy poll. I smurfed my vote. But I'm not a smurf of the smurfs, so I don't smurf. I'm not sure if the adjective is right, but I think I've heard it used that way. I vote no on adverbs and conjunctions. Nouns and verbs are definitely it. And interjections. Obviously.

My DD sounds a lot like yours. My DD won't be 6 until December, so she's technically in K. She is a very kinesthetic/hands-on learner. If I try to teach her something by telling it to her, she gets frustrated. I don't really push her. This week for school, she did some handwriting and lots of play. She read a book to me last night. If I had asked her to do it as part of school, it would not have happened, but it was a nice little game invented by her brother so she did it happily. Here are the some of the things I do with her. I haven't lowered my expectations, I have only changed them. For math, we use manipulatives. I don't try to "teach" her anything. I might put foam numbers in an equation, or put two weights on her math balance, but I do it for fun and not to expect her to give me the right answer (she's doing basic arithmetic perfectly, and writes equations for fun now). For reading, I've actually found that the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems are brilliant. We act them out. She plays one part, I play another. She has to decipher words to read them, at least until she has the book memorized. And she *loves* them, so she thinks it's a game. For handwriting, I have practice sheets that have little pictures to color. She will do the writing so she can color the picture, and since she's so artistic I tend to compliment her on how cute or beautiful the letters are, which drives her to do better. She writes us notes all the time, so we write notes back and forth to practice writing. Again, it's a game, but I know she's learning. For me, I had to rethink what my priorities are. Is it to "get the work done" or is it to facilitate learning? I would recommend you spend at least 15 minutes a day just playing with her on her terms. You'll earn her respect, and she might be a little more willing to do what you ask of her later. But for now, she's only 5! I wouldn't demand that she sit down and work. I'd figure out where her talents are (especially if she is more of a hands-on learner) and teach her within those. Spoken from experience. I'd prefer another logic-based visual learner like my DS, who is just like me. DD has been a challenge, but I think we're doing well.