What if said child responds with a half-hearted "effort", then spends the next forever screaming about how hard it is, how tired he is, and how unfair I am? I love the idea and I've tried it before and i WANT it to work, but it never seems to get any farther than tons and tons of screaming. I think I'm being less strict than I should be with him (letting him get away with too much) because the reaction to my consequences is so extreme and it honestly just wears me out. I find myself thinking twice before I ask him to do anything because I'm weighing his potential reaction to the request. :( Emily

K, it probably sounds silly for me to complain about being overwhelmed and overworked while reading and writing on a message board, but I honestly do feel overwhelmed and need some encouragement. Here is what is going on: *I'm homeschooling my sons (7, 5, and 4) this year. *I'm a doula with an average of one client each month; I've been working to build this business for the past three years. *We're in the process of buying a fixer house, which takes WAY more time than I was expecting (and will continue to do so probably until the new year, even though we're having a contractor do the actual work). *Due to a long, complicated church situation, I just took on the role of liturgist/music directress. DH and I both feel that it is the right thing to do, even though it feels crazy to add anything more. *DH and I are in marriage counseling (for about 15 months now) to work on some fairly serious problems. It is getting better, I think, but oh-my-the-stress. So with all of that I'm just finding that I am ALWAYS dropping balls. If we have a great school morning and dinner is on the table, the chores didn't get done. If I have a client meeting and clean the bathroom, I can't seem to get dinner on the table. If the kids decide to be ornery for some reason, good luck getting ANYTHING done!! (That's how it feels, anyway!) DH isn't mean about it, but he does notice the lack of food on the table, or a dirty bathroom, or STUFF all over the house, and wishes it were different. He has even suggested getting a house cleaner to come in, and while I totally appreciate his thought, I also look at the budget and feel like we should put that money elsewhere. Besides, I SHOULD be able to do all this, right? If I just worked harder? And yet somehow I just keep running out of hours. I've taken to staying up far too late because that is the only time I feel like I can actually just sit in the silence, and I covet that space. But then it is SO hard to get out of bed in the morning... I guess I'm just feeling like I have too many hats, feeling run down, and wondering why I'm homeschooling because that is the straw that seems to have broken this camel's back. Off to bed now. Thanks for listening. Emily

LOVE this! I need to remember it in a few years when my sons start working... Emily

I totally could have written this post two years ago when my oldest son was 5. It was our first year homeschooling (kinder) and I just kept wondering when the nightmare would end. Tantrums upon tantrums! We switched to unschooling around November, but with NO TV and only 30 minutes of a dvd of my choice each day. It helped. We still had tantrums, but since they were about family expectations (rather than family PLUS school expectations!) there weren't so many. Looking back I think that he just wasn't emotionally ready for the new and expanded set of expectations. He was certainly bright enough to handle the material, but still not ready, if that makes sense. If I were you, I'd drop schooling for now and focus on good quality play. Legos, lots of easily accessible art supplies, games like UNO or Sorry or checkers to teach math and logic without the child realizing it. :) Nature walks to explore (but just EXPLORE, don't try to "teach"). My guess is that your son will settle down in a couple of weeks, and will end up learning more than you'd expect anyway! And Mama, my heart goes out to you, because I remember IT IS SO HARD when you're in the midst of it! Hang in there! Emily

My oldest son is in 2nd grade. This year we're homeschooling; last year he was in a private school. I'd like to start WWE with him, but I'm not sure whether to start him mid-way through WWE1 or jump into WWE2 even though he's never done anything quite like it before? Emily

I appreciate all the input and experience you've shared. :) Emily

I'm using First Language Lessons with my second grader and really liking it. My question is: should I also be doing Writing With Ease? It seems to me that the narration parts overlap, and we would end up doing an awful lot of it (especially since we also narrate SOTW history!) That said, I like the dictation aspect and I do want to make sure that he is writing! Thoughts? What have you found works best? Thank you, Emily

Depending on your area (big cities usually being more expensive) private tutors tend to charge between $25 and $40 per hour. This also varies based on experience, but if your friend is fluent then her "experience" is obviously high. Emily

Wow, you can find EVERYTHING here. Thank you!