I'm THE MOST disorganized person alive - I'm sure of it... I failed at flylady, I just buy more stuff when we purge, I have at some point bought every organizational "tool" known to man... Nothing helped until I started to really understand 1. why I am disorganized and 2. how to organize things so that they WORK for me... Buying a box/bin/storage thing isn't an organized person going to make. Check out http://www.simplify101.com/ Aby is a truly gifted person in the area of organization - AND the best part is that she makes it FUN and pretty and she is SO helpful... You can follow her on her blog where she gives out lots of free tips and tricks - but in all honestly, THE BEST money I've ever spent has been on the workshops I've done with her. She has a new one coming up that might be helpful for you - organizing your kids bedroom. I'm signed up and can't wait!!! But really, check her website out... She's worth her weight in gold. Christall

I was looking for the 2-workbook set by Frank Schaffer Publications that was recommended in WTM. The price on Amazon was $450.00+ (seriously?) for 1 of the books. I'll check out your recommendation though - more affordable anyway! Thanks for the help. Christall

Does anyone know of a place that might have these 2 workbook resources for a reasonable price? Or know if there is another option that covers this topic equally as well? This was the text recommended in WTM but it's out of publication and the prices on amazon and ebay are :ack2: CRAZY!!! Thanks, Christall

My daughter has been home from Ethiopia for a short while now (3.5 months) she has been eager to get into school and she enjoys what we do. We are working through OPGTTR and she knows all of the letters/sounds thus far. She can read the short little bob books and enjoys doing so. However, she can't tell me one single thing she's read. If she reads a page that says, "Mit sat on his cat" - she can't tell me who or what mit is, can't even say what a cat is even though we have 4 and she certainly knows what they are. My question is - should we just keep working through this book and NOT worry about comprehension for a while? Then when her grasp of English is better we can worry about it? If I ask her to read a word that I know she knows the meaning of (cat, for example). She can sound it out, put the sounds together, say the word - but when I ask her what it is, she has no idea. I'm just not sure how to best help her right now. I think it's more frustrating to me than it is to her... fyi - she is 9 years old. thanks, christall

My daughter will be in 3rd grade next year and we are adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. I want to continue with SOTW and Singapore Math - but am open to other options with the remaining subjects. I've heard wonderful things about the Sonlight program but truthfully it seems rather confusing to me. I am hoping it will make more sense when I have the catalog and can see how things are put together. Is is possible to combine SOTW w/ the Sonlight curriculum? Does anyone here do that? Can you share your thoughts about how it works? Thanks, Christall

Spot-on... It is just she and I (she's obviously an only child) so being with other people is an important part of our day. And honestly I think it makes a huge difference - one that is difficult to speak to when you have more than one child at home. I've found that homeschooling one child is a very different scenario from homeschooling 5 children... very, very different. Thank you for bringing to light a fact that I forgot to include.

What would you consider basics? She addresses math, writing/grammar, and penmanship daily. We do history 3x/week. What other basics would you suggest? And if I dropped co-op classes I'm not sure I would add anything at home (if that makes sense). Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I was feeling unsure because, well, I'm not sure why... She LOVES each and every activity she does. If she didn't - we wouldn't do them (the exception is piano... she doesn't always love that one - but she has to stick it out!) I feel like *I* am at the upper end of my limit but she seems *for the most part* like she is quite content with the level of work we do... I guess I was trying to work out for myself whether we were missing something vital - but I think I've found that we're doing ok with what we've got going. I really appreciate your thoughts.

If she didn't have that level of physical activity (including the team sports) she's go out of her mind... (and likely I would too). She is a very physical little girl and *needs* that physical outlet. Most people are quick to judge - if she were a boy, I think people would be more tolerant or understanding of the amount of physical activity lumped into her day - but it seems with a girl, people see things differently. Thanks for your thoughts.

Close to 1.5 hours a day (not all at once - and not including soccer practice where she is running around with friends) Also all day saturday/sunday are play with dad outside days - with 1/2 of one of those days taken up by swim meets. She's getting more outside play/kid time now than she did while in school.

My daughter attends a local homeschool co-op and takes the following classes: 1. Art with heart (a GREAT art class that explores many different mediums) 2. Contraptions and experiments (science) 3. Book Club (reads great books and discusses them in a literary circle format) 4. fun with books (teacher reads caldecott medal winning books and the children do fun extension activities relating to the books) 5. Body Science (AMAZING science class - right now they are diving into the nervous system - and ending the semester with a sheep brain dissection) 6. Spanish 1 7. Jump 2 be fit (a fun jump-rope class) 8. Recess games (playing the recess games of yesterday - dodge ball, 4-square, etc) 9. Lego Creations (an engineering type class using legos) 10. T-ball (a fun t-ball workshop) 11. American girl History (learning about the history through reading the Kaya books and the Felicity books (reading the entire series, book 1-6, for each girl) Most of those classes are held on Wednesday and Thursday - so we typically do only math at home on those days... At home we do: Singapore Math 3a (text and workbook, topical problems and challenging problems) WWE (we're at the end of level1 and transitioning into level2) FLL (2nd half of the book) SOTW (Ancients) Sequential Spelling A reason for Handwriting C (cursive) Unit study on elections right now - and I pretty much have a new one every 2 months or so. Some days it feels like SO much - other days it is just fine... But I worry that I'm not covering all of my (her) bases - like something is missing. I also don't want to push her too hard. She also takes piano lessons once per week, swim team (practice) 3x per week, and soccer (during the fall and spring seasons) has 2 practices per week. She doesn't normally complain - but I often feel like we're not getting it all done when we should be. Does that make sense? Thanks - Christall

My daughter is using Singapore 3A (textbook, workbook, challenging word problems, topical problems). We have reached a concept that she needs a bit more practice with... I'd love to have something that I can just print out (rather than making them up myself). Does anyone have any sites that would have problems presented similiarly to the way Singapore does? Thanks, Christall

My daughter has been begging to have a blog for her mosaic work - she wants to put up pictures of what she's done - write about it - just a place for her own self-expression... but I've been too nervous about the public aspect of it all... She's 7 and I'm not willing to just put her out there. I honestly didn't know there was a way to have an invite-only blog. Would you mind sharing where you set it up... I think it's a good idea - and a way to get those reluctant writers to write in a way that is fun for them. Christall

This is brilliant... I just sat my 7yo dd down to "play" this game and she LOVED it... It makes my day when I come upon things that make math fun... Thank you so much

Sheryl, My daughter is a year older than yours - but reading much ahead of her age and we've run into the same problem :( Our librarian basically told us it is a double edged sword - you want young children to read well but when they do, we have nothing appropriate to offer them. My daughter likes the Ralph S. Mouse books - a little easy for her, but the content is good. Boxcar children, Nancy Drew (I read these first), the American girl books - she enjoys the mini-mysteries (or 2-minute mysteries - not sure of the exact title), we have found many abridged versions of the classics that she's enjoyed - Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family. I am looking forward to seeing the other responses you get since our situation is similiar - and if I think of anything else I'll let you know. Christall

Using those books is a GREAT idea. I already have 3 here at home (even better!). I appreciate the tip. Christall

I should know this... Is there a workbook for this level? Or will there be in the (near) future? Thanks for your help, Christall

Julia - I used this book with my 1st grade dd and she did beautifully. The language is probably close to 4th-ish grade level so your son should do fine. I really enjoyed listening to her read this version - quite a lovely one. Christall

American girl - sweet books, I love when she reads them to me The Littles Pony Pals The Saddle Club Boxcar Children Ralph S. Mouse & the rest of the series Most of the B. Cleary books Hope that helps Christall

in acting as a mentor to someone (me) who is relatively new? I'm thinking this is actually something that many people could benefit from and I've searched the boards trying to find out if it is something that is already done - but came up empty-handed. I did homeschool my daughter for the 2nd-half of last school year and we have committed to continuing her education at home. I feel much more confident now than I did 8 months ago but it sure would be nice to have another mom to talk to when I have a question or things aren't going the way I thought they would. I wasn't thinking anything formal - just emails back and forth - but I would love to have access to the wealth of information that so many of the veteran hs moms have. Anyone interested? Christall

I appreciate your help. Christall

where this was at? Someone published a link to it last year and I printed it out - but I didn't save it, and of course I need it again. It was a companion of sorts to SOTW/AG - a place for narration, a photo, resources used/books read. Any ideas where I could find this? Christall

Has anyone used this? Opinions? It seems interesting but I'd like some thoughts from others who have used it or researched it a bit more than I've had a chance to do. Christall

Ok - so I'll admit to being pretty proud of making through the first 5 months of homeschooling with my daughter. That being said, I'm finally coming up for air - rather than just pushing through just to get finished...(if that makes sense)... In "coming up for air," I'm realizing that I've been struggling with some things and the math books are on of them. How do you use Singapore? We have 3 (or maybe 4) different workbooks that she works out of - the workbook, the extra problems, the topical/word problems, and then the textbook. How do you move between all of these books? Do you use each of them daily, switch between them? I know there is probably an easy answer to this - but right now it's just overwhelming to try to manage these 4 books, and make sure that the right work gets done at the right time. Does this make sense? So, for any of you that use Singapore and would like to shed some light ono how you implement using all of the books, I would really, REALLY appreciate it! Christall

We withdrew my daughter from the private school she attended (since preschool) in January of this year. Since then we've both been trying to figure out this homeschool thing. I think we're (kind of) getting it - but now it's time to think about next year and I'm not sure what to do. When we took her out of school she was approx. 1 grade level ahead of those in her class in most subjects. In math and reading she was 2-3 grade levels ahead. We began our homeschool journey with the following: SOTW1 Spelling Workout Singapore 3a FLL K12 science K12 art Prima Latina Next year I've decided to change to Horizons Spelling Saxon Math. My question is with SOTW in particular. Do we stop SOTW1 when we finish the year - and pick up SOTW2 at the beginning of our year? Am I missing something? I don't want to continue with any of the K12 curriculum - so can you recommend a good science and art curriculum? Thanks for your thoughts, Christall