Yes, I'm still in Japan. I don't know how much longer we'll be here....it could be 2 years or 10. We're actively seeking other positions in the U.S. but as my Dh is high-ranking, it could take awhile to find the right fit. We can stay here for 7 years total before things get hairy so we have plenty of time (6 years) to find something in the States. Anyway! I'm seeing now that I'll need to pay more $$ to get someone who knows their stuff. I've been shocked at how hard it has been to find a serious Japanese tutor here for children. Plenty for adults, but not for children! It seems as though many people's solution to the problem here is to just put their kids in the local Japanese schools. Seeing as how we don't currently plan on living here forever, Dh and I are hesitant to do that. I think keeping it short and sweet is the best method for letting her go. I think I'll try to continue our learning at home until I can find a better tutor. This has taught me to search high and low and think quite a bit about what I'm looking for and to communicate that in writing. I think I leapt into this situation with a bit of naivety.

Yes, definitely in the past. I have experienced a complete attitude shift in doctors once they discover the kids are homeschooled. Sometimes even open hostility which has been super-fun. I was worried about CPS for a time as my kids were severely underweight (both of them) and coupling that with homeschooling could look really bad. Thankfully, I had a close friend who happened to work at our ped office attest to the fact that my kids ate me out of house and home. I also brought in med records from my childhood so ped could see that I was very thin as a child. Probably very paranoid and defensive, but all those news stories about neglectful homeschoolers using home as a way to hide abuse do nothing to help the perception professionals have of us, sadly. Ways to help: I think projecting positivity and confidence has been the best offensive thing I could do. Also, having canned responses to professionals who just.won't.let.it.go. Your family may never come around to accepting your homeschooling, btw. I've had to lay down some pretty firm boundaries in the past surrounding discussion of it. Those people are no longer in our lives now b/c they wouldn't respect those boundaries.

No, I suppose she can't really teach. Not really at all, apparently. I've provided her with curriculum (2 in fact) but she said it would be boring for the kids and she thought games would be more fun. I said, fine, bring some Japanese games to play and speak Japanese while playing them. She said OK. Next session, she shows up empty handed asking me where my games are. :confused1: I get out puzzles, she says the Japanese don't play puzzles (???) so I get out Headbands (kind of a guessing game with pictures) and they use English the whole time guessing the words in the game. :huh: I feel like this process has been way more difficult than it should be for a situation in which I'm paying someone. Frankly, if I'm paying you, you use a curriculum if that's what I want, whether you like it or not!! Maybe I just have different ideas of what a tutoring relationship is, so please set me straight if I'm just supposed to go along with the tutors plan (or lack of plan, in this case).

Hmmm...that's good advice. I've never heard that advice : a person should know that they're about to be fired before you fire them. I think I can give her another shot after being more explicit about my expectations. Hmm...lots of food for thought here. I'll talk to Dh and see if this sounds reasonable to him. Thanks!

Hi! My kids have been meeting privately with a native Japanese speaker for about a few weeks now with really nothing to show for it. The tutor speaks a fair amount of English, has visited the U.S. and is going to be living in CO in a couple years. I think b/c she can lean on English she isn't really speaking Japanese to the girls. B/c my kids have a harder time with Japanese, they are more than happy to speak their native language to her for the entire hourly session. :glare: So far, they've played some games that we own (asked her to bring games but she didn't) but only in English and made some origami while speaking English. She's taught them a few words for shapes while doing origami and the girls practiced writing a little bit more in hiragana/katakana. I'm paying her the equivalent of $25 US for each weekly session and Dh is starting to get annoyed that we're basically paying to help *her* learn English! I've asked my girls to try to speak Japanese during the lesson but their tutor will answer in English so not sure much learning is happening. I've tried to ask the tutor to bring books to teach from, picked up some Japanese books from the library, etc. At some point though, for $25 a pop, I'd kind of like the tutor to get her stuff together and get a curriculum plan or toys/games/something going. I thought I communicated this clearly before hiring but it's not actually happening! Pretty much everything my kids have learned has been from my teaching them, but I was feeling like my lack of native fluency was holding them back. Getting the tutor was supposed to help push them into greater fluency so they can talk more easily with the Japanese friends/kids we hang with. I'm dismayed that the girls aren't progressing as much as I'd have liked by now (1 yr here) and I don't have the time or energy to speed up my learning any more than I already am so I can move them along (spending at least 2 hrs day learning Japanese speaking/reading/writing it all). OK, so how do I break off this situation?? I hate confrontation but am getting to the end of my rope here. Please give me some tactful, kind but firm words to say to convey that this just isn't working for me anymore. :sad:

I'm still adding to the Renaissance one. Right now I'm working on finishing up some science planning and then it's back to history. :)

This is typically talking about free condoms and lube in with the free stuff on the sink. Also, interesting settings on the shower nozzle (not a biggie if you can't read the kana or kanji), maybe dildos. The name sounds love hotel-ish. I can look around and see if it is one. OK, Reading the Japanese on a couple websites..it reads that it's "adults only" and mentions the phrase love hotel in Japanese and that they have s3x toys in a vending machine, "outfits" you can buy in the room, we can "cover the numbers on your license plate" and call girls options. It also has the typical front desk situation of privacy shade/screen and hidden, very secluded entrance in the pictures. My advice: This is a love hotel. Sounds like a particularly..interesting...one too from the description. You know when Japanese are leaving these details in the reviews that it's a good time. ;)

There's a discussion guide book you can buy used on amazon but we haven't had the need. I add books from our tiny library and home library and some audiobooks if I can. I also make a huge Youtube playlist of songs/videos/documentaries that go along with the text every year. (If you search Human Odyssey you may find it!) We discuss a lot...every day we review what we were last talking about and go through the progression of history, what do you think of this ruler, historical figure, Renaissance painting? The texts also have a chapter devoted to reviewing what you've gone over so far every once in a while. They do a very good job of treating this as a journey through history, look how this event shaped this future event. This last chapter we've discussed went into Dante's Inferno and how his work alluded to his own personal experiences at the time, how Dante's writing was revolutionary for the time as it was written in Italian, not Latin, used individual people for characters, chastised real people from history and his time, Giotto and how his artwork and other early Renaissance painters' works differed from the earlier works during the Middle Ages, etc. It just does a really great job of tying everything together that the text often lends to great discussions. If you want more written output, the instructor's guide book could help with that, though.

Heaventureland aligns very closely with the LfC book material. I'm not sure that it'd work as a supplement to something else.

Maybe a card game like Professor Noggin or the Classical Historian to mix it up and make it fun? They both have Ancient Civ, Medieval History, and U.S. History.

Congrats!! Well, I personally would love to see you expand and add to your website as I love the way it's organized and planned. I think we plan or think about planning in the same way so it's easy for me to implement your stuff. I also always appreciate veteran hsers' voices here on the forums. You all have so much wisdom to share with all of us still in the thick of it. :)

Thank you so much!

All the this. :iagree: Also, speaking Japanese isn't too big of a deal in Tokyo itself. I often have to be careful about speaking English in Tokyo and what I say as I've had an eavesdropping Japanese person giggle at a self-deprecating joke one too many times. :/

Yes, we have. I did the lessons orally (even the written practice) and then any diagramming was done on the white board (similar to what we did in FLL) for a couple weeks. Trying to keep the routine of the lesson vaguely familiar was helpful but it really wasn't too bad. Now, a lot of R&S was review in the beginning but I liked that b/c Dd was able to focus on the transition instead of the material *and* new book. I recall that the religious sentences really jarred her (I told her it wasn't secular beforehand but she was still shocked) and I even tried to switch to Hake b/c Dd hated the religious bent so much. We went back to R&S b/c the instruction can't be beat, IMO. She's adjusted now and appreciates familiarity with the Biblical names/stories. All this to say, I'm the kind of hser who likes to find a series and run with it forever. I hate switching. Dd is a creature of habit too so it probably wouldn't be a blip on the radar for most kids.

For me, I've found that Girl Scouts has helped my kids develop age-appropriate leadership opportunities. My oldest is currently working on her Bronze Award, which her troop planned, organized and are now working through the appropriate channels to implement (with a language barrier to boot!). Now, some troops don't give the girls this much independence and try to helicopter too much, but it's easy as a homeschooler to shop around for one that will let her truly lead. I found leadership opportunities as a kid through sports teams, volunteer clubs, volunteering at a summer camp as a Teen Counselor, etc. :)

:laugh: Same here with using products from the U.S. I chalked up the beautiful women around me to amazing genes but maybe I should try their skin care! Please share details of what you buy!! I'd love to try it!

:iagree: I've been through FLL 1-4 and now in R&S 5 with my eldest and I would go with FLL first, personally. I found FLL to be just enough..very gentle but still had a depth to it with its poetry memorization, preposition list, definitions and verb chants. At Level 3 of FLL, the student has a work text which my little DD just *loves*. They are both very different kids and this sequence is working really well for both! R&S is very dry, but thorough in its presentation. I feel like my Dd wouldn't have had the maturity to deal with the dry grammar instruction any younger than when we started it. No regrets here. :) Your son sounds a lot like my oldest who was an early fluent reader although her writing lagged with her slower fine motor skill development. Anyway, I also had the same fears of picking up bad habits as she was *so* eager to learn and kept pushing me to do more schoolwork with her. FLL is so gentle and fun you could definitely start it now, but don't be afraid to slow down or speed up as he needs to.

I think you were more asking if it's still seen as a valid choice societally?? I think this is one of those things that is going to really vary regionally. My experiences have varied. When we were military, it was pretty common and was widely accepted to be a SAHM. We were seen in a positive light among each other (IME) b/c we were there to keep things running and smooth during, before, and after transitions. It was hard to gain employment too as a mil spouse which I think makes acceptance easier to come by as the assumption is that you would work if you could (whether that's accurate or not). When I lived in a very wealthy area, non-military wife, it was seen as surprising but generally accepted. It was more a status thing to even have the means to do so, frankly. Which can be really sad when it's really so you can be with your kids and not to keep up with the Joneses. Now, on a mil base in Japan, it's back to being normal and the Japanese tend to value it and seem nicer to me once they know I'm a SAHM (homeschooling, on the other hand, tends to isolate here but that's not your question ;) . I think it's still accepted overall. I have heard some judgmental stuff from other hsers stateside about why a mom would even need to stay home if her kids are in school. :001_rolleyes: And I know I catch flak from my Mom for not taking part in the opportunity to work *and* mother that she feels was so hard- fought in the 70s and 80s. Like, akin to not voting as a woman or something. :001_huh: But, I digress. I hope no one is making you feel less than for being a SAHM.

Well, we're not technically military anymore (DoD Civ) but I see that living in Belgium would obviously not work as the SOFA is with the country we're working in...not others (duh, me!!). Yea, being overseas is definitely a struggle and I feel as though many people who would otherwise homeschool will put their kids in school because we hsers lack community. Here it's pretty rough as a lot of extras are tied into the school system and the schools are not working on helping us join at all.The school liaison is a joke. All talk, no action, lots of misinformation. If you're military, you probably know the deal. ;) And you don't sound negative!! I'd much prefer people be upfront with me!! Thanks so much for responding.

Hmm..thanks for detailing the situation a bit more for me. It's funny, but as an expat in Japan we deal with much of the same thing in terms of the language expectations and subsequent people speaking English to us so we can't practice. It's maddening! Probably would be more of an issue over here with the entire culture focused on going above and beyond to be considerate of others' feelings. They take that reputation seriously, to the detriment of my Japanese language learning. I would have no problem with the expectation of learning Dutch and would start on it pronto if Dh got the job, along with the kids. Thankfully, there's a Duolingo for it so we could camp on that 'til other resources came in the mail. I don't homeschool for any kind of religious reason so I'm not opposed to the right kind of school environment. I've just never encountered one that seemed 'worth it' to me, but NL seems like they have a more diverse range of school models. As this is a permanent position it would probably make sense to consider other options, at least. We'll see if it becomes a more definite thing what our options really are and go from there I guess. I appreciate the honesty.

Their illustrated books, their sticker books (Egyptian, Shakespeare, Renaissance, Famous Artists), their see-inside books.. I've often had more Usborne books in my own collection than the Usborne sales-person. My kids *love* them all.

Thanks everyone! I'm definitely familiar with being cut out of many social things as a homeschooler, unfortunately. We basically have no community here as non-religious homeschoolers. But homeschoolers are few and far between here anyway. Maybe 10-12 families between our base and the one nearest to us? All of my kids' friends aren't homeschoolers as all but a few are much younger than my kids. The job post mentions the Hague and Rotterdam areas. From my research, it does seem as though the Dutch are very blunt. I'm OK with people telling me their opinions on homeschooling and it being seen negatively. I've had a lot of practice with dealing with that. I just didn't want people to be openly hostile towards us...basically taking it up a notch from disdain ;) I never considered living in Belgium and Dh commuting into the Netherlands. I'll have to check out the geography/logistics of it to see if that'd be feasible. Of course, this is all speculative and he may not get the job at all!! Thanks everyone for all your thoughts and help!!

Hi all! As we're set to be here for only a couple more years this April :(, Dh has been trolling the various job sites looking for a new position. He found a very interesting job prospect in the Netherlands that he really wants to apply for, but I'm apprehensive due to the country's views on homeschooling. We should be covered under our SOFA status but just wanted others' experiences here. Is the area hostile towards homeschoolers? Life as an expat info? Will fitting it to the area be difficult as expat homeschoolers or will Dutch homeschoolers be kind? Thanks!!

We've done well buying used on Amazon (Prime takes about 3-5 weeks to get here from the U.S. fwiw) the Holt Science and Technology books with Review worksheets. It covers Life, Earth and Space, and Physical Science (includes Chem chapters). An independent minded kid could definitely complete the chapter review and section review questions. The book could be re-used as well with younger kids too. :) If you google Holt science and technology, there are websites with free worksheet links as well to get an idea of what it covers. You can also view the table of contents pages on Rainbow Resource.

Joy Hakim History of US audiobooks while everyone eats lunch/breakfast? The docents at Mount Vernon are fantastic, btw. The museum there also provides quite a bit of information. My kid's loved the children's room and the figures of Washington during different periods of his life. The sheep were also a big hit :)