FWIW- just to go in another direction, and, please, take this with a grain of salt. My 11yo needs to feel more independent. To this end, he has weekly folders. In addition to his weekly folders, we have a monthly calendar where I have listed things like books to be read and science/ social studies topics to study that month. Before I wrote in any school, I wrote in birthdays, holidays, and anything that might take time from our regularly scheduled program. This gives me a clue as to which months might need to be a little lighter. Here is a video showing how to make a monthly calendar. I don't tell him what or how much should be done when or where to be while he works. I just expect the folder to be finished by the end of the week and the monthly stuff to be finished by the end of the month. I expect him to come to me if he needs help. I have a few things that I want to or find that I consistently need to teach, but mostly I just let him get on with it. I have been homeschooling a long time, but this is our second year schooling this way. It is what is working for this particular child in our home under my supervision at this time. I don't schedule meals by time or what we are going to eat. We eat when we are hungry. At some point in the afternoon, I typically ask Doodle what he feels like for dinner unless dh or I have already voiced an opinion. Then, I will just tell him that his dad requested tacos or something like that. HTH- Mandy ETA- HOW TO CREATE FOLDERS: This is pretty much how I do it with two exceptions. First, I hole punch our material and use folders with fasteners. Second, I divide our materials into 32 folders instead of 36. This builds in 10 days each semester toward our annual 180 day requirement for field trips and other stuff. http://www.chaosappreciation.com/blog/2013/07/homeschool-organization-weekly-folders/

Since this is your first year, look for threads on detoxing or de-schooling your kids. Moving from a traditional classroom to homeschooling is a transition for everyone- including you. Your children have spent 5-6 years in a classroom. They know what that looks like. You have spent that long not being their primary school-time teacher. Everyone is redefining their role. Sometimes kids need to see the benefits of homeschooling while the family eases into this new journey. Find a local group, local homeschool activities, and/ or local homeschoolers. I have seen things that say to expect the family transition to take one month for every year the child spent in a traditional classroom. I am sure there are families that don't take as long and have a smooth transition and families that have a rough time finding their groove and take an entire year to transition with a child who only spent kindergarten in a classroom. Anyway, cut yourself and your children some slack during this time. I agree with the previous post about getting enough sleep and add food and exercise to that list. Sleepy children are not at their best. Make sure the get enough to eat. Hungry children are not at their best. Make sure they get enough physical exercise. Children who do not move enough have a hard time sitting still and focusing. If one or all of you haven't had enough sleep, food, or/ and exercise, expect the day to be a little rough around the edges. There are families who do unit studies, families who loop schedule, families who do project-based learning for one content subject, families who do project-based learning for all subjects, families who are very relaxed, families who do out-of-a-box school at home, and families who do it other ways and every single way in-between. You have to figure out a way that is going to work for you and your children in your home. It can be quite a task, so, again, cut yourself some slack during this transition. Realize that however you schedule and whatever you use right now probably isn't how you will end the year. This isn't a failure on your part or your children's. It will be a learning experience where you will be discovering what doesn't work and at the same time learning about new products and new ways of utilizing and scheduling those products. It might take some time to find what works, and, just when you do, your kids will grow, their needs will change, and you will need to alter things! So, don't let anyone try to convince you that the way they homeschool is the only/ best way. There are as many different ways to homeschool as there are homeschool families. HTH- Mandy

Sounds like a lot more than choosing a math book. 1. Little boys engage in imaginative play. That is normal and good. Let go of what you envisioned, and embrace your reality. 2. Your dh will not be using or teaching this math, so it is fine that he has no opinion. If this is something you want to do, own it. I have homeschooled for many years and used many maths. I bet my dh can't name a single one. 3. If you are overwhelmed and want to put your child in school, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that choice. (((Hugs))) Mandy

Oh- and yes- you are supposed to complete a Miquon book each semester. Additionally- feel free to spend way more than ten minutes on math.

First- calm down. It doesn't need to be this stressful. My second son used Singapore and Saxon simultaneously. I felt like they worked together well. Singapore is more conceptual. It is a basal text with concepts lumped into chapters. Although Saxon does cover concepts, it really covers algorithms. Saxon is an incremental spiral that bounces from one topic to the next each day with the problem sets containing continual review. I felt that they meshed well. My youngest used Miquon and then Singapore 1 and 2 before starting Saxon 54. I tend to think of Miquon and Singapore as both being conceptual. He used these alongside MUS alpha and then Kumon- both of which I tend to think of as being more concrete. Whether the program is conceptual/ concrete, mastery/ basal/ spiral probably will not matter as far as manipulatives. Most early learning programs use manipulatives. One two three- these are words that represent numbers. 1 2 3- these are symbols that represent numbers. . .. ... - these are actual things for which those words and symbols stand. A child may be able to count from one to ten aloud, but not be able to count 6 beans. he lacks one to one correspondence. He may be able to count to one hundred and be unable to tell the difference between 12 and 21, or, when he gets to one hundred one, he writes 1001. He doesn't understand place value. He may be able to tell me that 2 + 2 = 4, but like a child who has memorized a song that doesn't mean he understands what he is saying. They are just words. There are developmental reasons why early math programs use manipulatives. It isn't a crutch. It is a stepping stone. HTH- Mandy

FWIW- Singapore uses rod diagrams. You don't need c-rods to do Singapore, but it uses rod diagrams drawn on the page. Also- Miquon definitely teaches the why behind the computation. With little people, I am all about having a math bucket. I really don't see the issue here. Are you saying that you don't want your child to play with measuring cups and spoons? That you don't want to make rulers available? I think you need to look at all the manipulatives suggested for Singapore math. HTH- Mandy

My 11yo ds is using a bunch of consumable workbook type stuff. Math- Use It Don't Loose It! Daily Math Practice Math- Hands-On Geometry: Constructions with a Straightedge and Compass Logic- Orbiting with Logic Science- Focus on Science Grammar- Grammar, Usage and Mechanics Practice that coordinates with Holt's Elements of Language First Course GUM- Didax Skills Series: Editing Vocabulary- Vocabulary from Classical Roots Reading Comp- Reading Comprehension in Varied Subject Matter Poetry- The Art of Poetry Geography- World Geography and You History- a bunch of Milliken workbooks I had the binding cut off of everything. Then, I hole-punch them and put them in folders with fasteners. We do a bunch of other things. Science Kits- we have several kits for this year. I think the rest of it is non-consumable. HTH- Mandy

My big boys went to a Veritas Press model school for a couple of years before we started homeschooling, and a lot of reading aloud happened there! :)

I know that we had reading groups where the students read aloud at least through grade 3. I switched schools after that. My mom and grandmother always read to me. Anyway, if the teachers read at school, I guess it wasn't as interesting as what my mom chose! :-D My dh remembers his teachers reading Andersen's fairy tales and children's versions of Shakespeare. :-o Mandy

I read it as saying that she thinks the entire day should take 5.5 hours and that she feels like 3 hours of that should be spent in direct instruction with her while 2.5 hours should be independent learning. The whole day is taking 10 hours, but I assume that time includes lunch and breaks in addition to whatever dawdling, tantrums, silliness, etc. is making the day run so long. It also sounds like she pulls the plug at 7, but that even at that point the school work isn't finished. Is that correct?

In elementary school, first through sixth, anything more than an hour of seatwork per age grade may be pushing them beyond what they are developmentally capable of doing. So, a 9yo with more than 4 hours of seatwork may simply be reaching a point where he can no longer perform well while sitting still. Now, if you tell me that 45 minutes of that time is gardening and 30 minutes is physical exercise or that a chunk of that time is project-based or hands-on experiential learning, I might scratch my head, but, if you are expecting a 9yo to sit in a chair for 5.5 hours, I will just assume that, since the children are consistently unable to complete the work within time expectations, the seatwork requirement is simply developmentally too long for these particular children at this particular time. HTH- Mandy

I was also so excited to see this yesterday. It made me smile. :D Mandy

My 11yo is currently reading the Nye version. when he was younger, he read the Rumford picture book. For a 9/10yo, if this is a first introduction to Beowulf, I may would choose Rumford. The pictures are fabulous and it uses words from the original. If this is a second pass, I would go with Nye. Save Heaney for later. HTH- Mandy

Will they pay to diagnose dyslexia? It is considered medical.

I promoted the little man last week, so now he is a sixth grader instead of a rising sixth grader. :D We also started fall schoolwork, but German and orchestra won't start until after Labor Day. Although we did some math on Khan, in a review workbook, and some geometric drawings, I still do not have a math textbook or even any idea what I want to buy. I guess I need to make a decision. Mandy

Rather than specific times or amounts of time, can you do file folders? When everything in the file folder is complete, then you have completed five days of school? Or- you could just have a laminated sheet that is filled with a grid where each cell equals one lesson. Type the number of lessons for number times you feel that subject should be taught in a week. So, perhaps you have four cells that say spelling, two cells that say history, two that say science, etc. Use a dry erase maker to check off things as you go. When all the cells are checked off, you have completed five days of work. HTH- Mandy

In TN, if you are registered with the local board of education, your child is supposed to participate in testing in grades 5, 7, and 9. There are legal consequences outlined, but I have never heard of anyone being required to put their child in ps based solely on the testing required due to being registered this way. I don't know if homeschoolers can administer their own tests when enrolled this way. This one year I did this I took ds to the ps for which we were zoned, and he sat in the classroom and tested with the rest of the fifth graders. The loophole here, of course, is that you can promote the child to grade six and then keep him there for two years. I do not pay much attention to no child left behind or common core or whatever the latest greatest education overhaul happens to be. I have never tested my own elementary age children and they have always tested fine. (Even the year my middle ds Christmas Tree-d the test, the scores were above 13%.) However, I tested because I wanted to and not because I was made to do so. Required high-stakes testing begs for civil disobedience at best and corruption at worst. I don't believe for one second that a ps's test scores say much if anything about the effort the teachers have put forth to educate their classroom. My county in TN consistently has very high scores. It is also one of the wealthiest counties in TN. Is the curriculum here that much better than the one presented in inner city Memphis or Nashville? No, technically, the scope and sequence should be the same. So, what is different? The socio-economic group that attends the school. The majority of the families in my county have parents with college degrees, and there are a large percentage of two parent households. If a child isn't doing well, a large percentage of families can afford outside tutoring and are proactive in providing educational support if their child starts to struggle. Saying that my county's schools are better because their students test better is not exactly accurate. However, saying that the kids who attend those schools have more socio-economic advantages would be accurate. I don't have a problem with better late than early. I do have a problem with a nanny state that demands earlier and earlier testing of developmentally inappropriate learning that then uses those scores to bully parents. If I were to take a better late than early approach and lived in a state that required testing, I would definitely be looking for a loophole. That said- it would infuriate me to learn that a homeschool family altered a test in order for their child to participate in a gifted program. That is just awful on so many levels! It is one thing to not want a first or third grader to participate in testing of any kind and quite another to misuse testing to participate in programs/ services for which your child doesn't actually qualify thus taking a spot that a truly qualified student might really desire. :( Mandy

Yeah, I must say I keep tossing history at my youngest in hopes that some of it sticks, but he has absolutely no interest whatsoever and retains very little. :( However, in all fairness, don't we all remember what we find interesting more readily than what we do not?

Because they can't diagnose dyslexia, I certainly wouldn't take their diagnosis that they don't feel she is very seriously. OTOH- all you can do is meet her where she is. I know it is frustrating, but even if you had received a diagnosis of a specific LD, a lot of what you decided to use at home would be trial and error. Think of homeschool products as being like her ADHD meds. You try something to see if it might work. If it doesn't, you try something else. If it does, you go with it knowing that it will need to be tweaked and maybe even changed down the road. HTH- Mandy

You have said a lot about her timeline and not very much about her learning style, her academic strengths, or the things she enjoys that could also be used in her academics. There is no doubt that she has been jerked around, and yet, despite this, she has continued to make progress. She is a sharp child. She obviously has perfectionist tendencies, as she doesn't want to be in a situation or perform in a situation where she isn't the best or feels that her performance or score will be less than she wants. This is what I get from your posts. Meet her where she is and move her forward as she is able. I would look at products designed for gifted students. Products that require her to go further than repetition and memorization. Look at programs like MCT LA and Shelagh Gallagher's Problem Solving for One. At the same time, maybe go in a different direction with spelling. Look at something like Sequential Spelling that will look at patterns in English rather than straight phonics or sight words just in case there is some underlying language processing issue. Is there anything to do with science or history that interests her? If so, I would be inclined to let those be interest led, and y'all discuss out of the box output like posters, flyers, oral narrations, journal entries, presentations to the family, teaching a sibling, etc. While AOPS is often the go to suggestion for gifted kiddos, its discovery method may frustrate your perfectionist. You may want to try some sort of combo of Life of Fred and Zacarro books, look at TabletClass, or maybe Jousting with Armadillos. HTH- Mandy

I would be highly suspicious of an evalution at the ps where the evaluator gave a diagnosis with very limited services, but then suggested that the child take some classes at the public school. If they can get her in there, do they receive funding and then not have to offer much in the way of assistance? Likewise, at the private school last year, if they said XYZ was wrong, could they slap her in lower level work and then not have to mess with her? I just question the motives of evaluations tied to a school. In TN, a ps evaluator will not give a diagnosis of dyslexia. Dyslexia is considered a medical condition, so the diagnosis from the school may say something about processing or attention. Also, I will reiterate what others have said. 2e children are difficult to test, and perfectionist tendencies are common. If you can't do testing right now with someone who works with 2e kids and who is not attached to a school, then, right now, use products that address, work with, or work around those issues you see. HTH- Mandy

I have boys, so what my middle ds went through probably doesn't apply. ;-) However, there were a couple of years that were rough, and then it leveled off.Mandy

The flashcards are fabulous. They are large for classroom use, so, if you sit in a chair in the yard a wiggly child can read them while jumping on the trampoline. If I were to just purchase one set of flash cards, it would be the phrase cards. My youngest was never a choppy reader, and I totally attribute that to CLE LTR but especially to the phrase cards. All the cards are integral to the program, but I guess, with the sounds and words, you could just make them or some of them. With the phrase cards, I feel like they were the star of the show. The flashcards really take the child from sounds, to words, then to phrases. The phrase cards demonstrate how to see a group of words rather than individual words. As a fluid reader reading with understanding and correct inflection, reading requires that you see more than just one word. CLE and its phrase cards were wonderful for moving my son from sounds to fluid reading. If I had another little person, I would definitely use CLE LTR again. Mandy

Can't you go into print and in the print box click fit to width or resize the whole document? HTH- Mandy (who has never used OneNote)

While I agree with others who have suggested that having herpetology take a more central role may produce more interest in working diligently on academics, I also wonder if this just isn't hormonal. How emotional do you remember being at twelve? How emotional does your mother remember you being? How emotional were you dh's sisters/ mother? When did hormonal/ emotional changes begin? How intense were they? How long did they last? Also, yes, if she has recently gone through a big growth spurt, that could have effected both her energy levels and her ability to focus. My middle ds went through periods of brain fog that coincided with periods of growth. HTH- Mandy