I have my last little one who is going to be Kinder in September. I'm trying to decide which math I want to use for him. I'm not a do 3 curriculms at once person. I've done so many different math curriculums over the past 11 years of homeschooling, that I can't decide what to do with him! So if you were only doing *1* math curriculum which would it be?

We are using Notgrass America the Beautiful with my 5th and 8th graders. It's has been fantastic. The kids have loved it and it's beeen super easy for me. We don't do one lesson per day. I usually do 2 lessons at a time, twice a week. They do all the map work and timeline for both lessons. We have the extra book of questions and I have them pick one section to do (when we do 2 lessons per day). They have learned a ton of geography with all the map work. I haven't done their reading books, and have them reading books that are from the same time period, but age appropriate for each of them.

It's funny how many of us saw these movies as younger kids, then rent them for our own kids, and think :huh: what the heck were my parents thinking? LOL! A few years ago DH bought Back to the Future to show our boys and boy oh boy there was so much language I was shocked! I did not remember so many bad words, LOL!

We are in California too.

I didn't start teaching my oldest son any letters or numbers until we started homeschooling Kindergarten, the September that he was 5. We were busy playing and exploring our city, no time for workbooks LOL. He's now a very well adjusted 16 year old dual enrolled in high school and college classes. :001_smile: She's young, give her time.

Bob Jones English 5 Bob Jones Spelling 5, spelling city and weekly journal writing Critical and Creative Thinking 5 Horizons math 5 and Your Business Math Pet Shop (haven't started it yet, LOL) Apologia Human Anatomy Notgrass America the Beautiful Veritas Press Literature Guides- Box Car Children and Baby Island book basket- stocked with books I wanted her to read there may be a few more things, I just can't think of them...LOL

I used a lot of their suggestions last year and was very very happy. I like how they include puzzles, and games to the curriculum, it was a big help to this tired homeschooler. They also have a schedule which I found helpful.

My 16 year old took the SAT yesterday too. He has ACT next month. :hurray:

I have 2 summer birthday kids and we did Kinder the September when they turned 5. I think most 5 year olds, (whether wiggily or not) would be terribly bored waiting another full year to start Kindergarten. It's only March. Your ds has 6 months before September. That's such a long way away. It would be much much easier to start Kinder and decide after 3-4 months that it's too much for him, and slow down and have him do 2 years of K, than make him wait 1.5 years from now to start K.

Oh absolutely! I didn't even do the handwriting part with my kids, because we did handwriting without tears instead. It's usually just a writing worksheet, which you can totally skip.

I'm not currently using it, but I have used it with 2 of my kids and I'll be using it in September with my 5 year old. Its a great program. The books are awesome, although I think they are a little harder than most readers. We just move through them a little slower. There are lots of little card games, puzzle pieces to make words etc.. The alphabet cards are beautiful, I wish I could hang them up somewhere. It's very open and go. Does that help?

I've used Phonics Museum with 2 kids. It's an awesome program. The books are great, although a little harder than most books for that age. We just read through them slowly. The cd songs are fun and helped my kids remember the rules. I'm getting ready to use it with another kiddo next September.

I have had my kids doing a few BJU classes before. I've never done all of the classes though, that would be too much screen time for us. The classes are really well done. They are much better than Abeka's classes. Abeka is a video camera in the back of a regular classroom. BJU classes are filmed directly for the homeschool student. In elementary school, Spelling, English, and Handwriting are 15 minute classes. History, Math and Science are 30 minutes. This does not include doing the worksheet or homework. In Jr high and high school, I think all of the classes are 30 min each. You can watch samples of classes on their website.

Any other suggestions?

That's kind of what I was thinking. Hmmm interesting idea to combine their topics, but not curriculums. 9th grader will likely be doing Biology and or World History. It would be nice for the 2 olders to at least be studying similar topics. I usually do a weekly calendar for them with all their assignments clearly laid out, but I was thinking about how I could incorporate a planner for my 9th grader to keep track of things himself.

I don't know how I missed this, (could be the crazyness of 4 kids), but I'm going to be homeschooling 1 kid in elementary (K), 1 in middle school(6th) and 1 in high school(9th) in September! Oh my gosh, how on earth am I going to do this? I can't think of even 1 subject that I'm going to be able to combine for them. Someone hold my hand, LOL! Anyone done this kind of an age gap before? Is there anything I can do to make things a little easier for me?

My pre-K kiddo has memorized, First Snow by Mary Louise Allen Little Boy Blue Johnny Appleseed 3 LIttle Kittens I was suprised at how fast he picked them all up. Now he rattles them off at random times, LOL!

We get quite a large sum of money from our charter school each year per child. It's so much fun to shop with someone elses money LOL. Our school has tightened up the reigns abit int he past few years about what we can buy. But I still try to get all thebasics from them, then buy the fun stuff myself. I just found out I have $400 for my 5 year old Transitional K kiddo this semester. I have to spend it or loose it by March 15th!

I'm in college and have filled out the FAFSA a few times for myself. It's the same FAFSA no matter if you are a high school student going to college or an adult. The only difference is that I don't have to fill out the "if you are someones dependent?" parts. Your FAFSA wouldn't mess with your kids FAFSA.

Lots of hugs to you!!! :grouphug:

We were using workbook based vocab for my 8th grader. It wasn't working very well, he wasn't retaining anything. A few weeks ago I switched him to Vocabulary Cartoons. It's working so well! He has been able to memorize so many more definitions than with a regular workbook.

Today is my IEP meeting for my 13 year old ds. I finally got the 27 page report on his testing, on Tuesday. I pretty much spent the entire day crying. It's one thing to be 99% sure that there's some odd stuff going on with your kiddo, but it's another thing entirely to have someone give a huge report listing everything "wrong" with them. The report wasn't a suprise, they said he has an auditory processing disorder with his areas of struggle being working memory and rote memory. Then they also listed "attension", which I think must be their polite way of saying he has ADHD. I'm a little nervous about the meeting today. My dh wasn't able to take the day off work, so I have to do this one alone. I'm not really even sure what our homeschool charter program's IEP team will offer us, for help with these areas, but I figured I should see what they can do for him (if anything) I had a bit of an epiphany on Tuesday during my on and off crying. Way back when my 16 year old was in 4th grade, he was a struggling mess. We used a Neurodevelopmentalist to write a personalized program for him. It was took several hours a day to implement, was expensive, but it worked. He is successful in school, with no sign of the trouble he used to have with school. I've been completely avoiding going this route with my 13 year old due to the expense and really because it's so ridiculously time consuming. As I prayed for my sweet boy thoughout the day I really felt like it was time to persue neurodevelopmental therapy for him. So after our metting today, I'm going to call the neuro lady, and get on her schedule for an appointment (gulp). Thanks if you read my ramblings. I'll update after the IEP meeting...

That's so exciting! I remember when my daughter started reading "for fun", about 6 weeks into VT. I was so happy. She still walks around with her nose in a book. VT was a Godsend for her.

I'm struggling with my kids chores. They have to do the usual, make bed, keep your room clean, brush teeth stuff...The only other "assigned" chores they have is dinner dishes (16yo), set table (11yo), and clear table (13yo). They usually help me for about 20 min per day clean up whatever I ask them to clean. The hard part is my 16 year old is in school, and I don't feel like he does his fair share, since by the time he gets home from school everything is usually done. How does everyone else handle chores?

I have a friend who is uing it. It's definitely more work for mom, but for them, so far so good. I'm using a few Dianne Craft things this year with great sucess!