Thanks for your help!

No, I haven't seen this. What do you like about it?

I didn't read all the replies, but wanted to post to encourage you. My dd wasn't reading well at the end of first either. She is now ending 2nd, and while she has improved greatly, she still struggles a lot with reading. I think we have another year of hard work ahead of us. I have focused this year on her improvements instead of being negative about what she CAN'T do, and that has helped tremendously in my attitude and hers. I think as long as you can see movement forward, that's a good thing, and most likely means the child will get there eventually.

I feel like I have totally dropped the ball here and my second dd will be entering high school in the fall. Ds will be in 7th already, and logic just isn't happening. My oldest will be in 11th grade. She and I went through "Thinking Toolbox" when she was in 7th. It was like pulling teeth. She grumbled all the way through it, and I'm not sure she understood some of it. I wanted dh to do Fallacy Detective with her the next year, but he never had the time. One year turned into another, and now three kids need some teaching in this. My oldest two had a class this year that required them to learn to write a thesis--that went pretty well. They also had a class that required them to write lots of papers. One of the papers was analytical--they had a really hard time with that paper. I really feel like my own logical thinking skills are lacking, and I don't know if I quite understand everything that logic entails in the first place! Oldest dd's thinking is still illogical at times. Just today, I had an argument with her, and she couldn't see why her argument was illogical. Or, maybe she just didn't want to admit her illogical thinking when pointed out because she wanted to win the argument? Anyway, has anyone else struggled with teaching logic? What did you do? Does anyone have any suggestions for something to teach us logic? I did a little research on the K-8 board's past posts. Angela from Walls of books had a great post that was helpful, but left me thinking I need more help.

We have done art in our homeschool off and on as time allows. Some years we have more time to fit it in than others. How to Teach Art to Children has been my all time favorite book for helping me to teach some art concepts as well as to teach about some famous artists. Another book we have enjoyed is Discovering Great Artists. This book is great when we want to study an artist and do an art project based on that artist's style. We have learned a great deal from Harmony Art Mom's blog. Art is one of Barb's passions, and she lists some great ideas of things to do with your children to discover and enjoy art. She includes all ages on her blog, so there really is something for everyone here. As far as philosophy goes, I guess I just think it is important to teach your children the basics of art and allow the room to be creative and develop that creativity especially if they have a knack for it. I also think picture study is a wonderful method to use to teach your children about beauty in art. What makes a painting or drawing beautiful? We've always had a cabinet full of art supplies, and I let my children create with them whenever they want. My girls have always loved illustrating their school work and making books. Right now, my youngest loves doing art related to her science studies. My son on the other hand, hates most things to do with "art" supplies. For him, picture study is important as it is the only thing art related that he will tolerate. :) One more book that we love is Mark Kistler's Draw Squad.

Mine's up. Funny cat picture.

Thanks for these links and suggestions everyone. Off to check them out.

I think that's fabulous!

Dd needs to take Chemistry next year, and I had been reading threads this last year about programs more suited to those students who aren't math and science oriented. I thought I'd remember the names of those programs, but I don't. Would you all mind reiterating those chem programs? Dd HATES science and finds it very difficult to understand.

This looks great! Thanks for posting.

Thanks! We like funny. I'll try to find this title.

Anything quiet. They like to weave, color, draw, make bracelets, build with blocks and Legos, etc. The Legos and blocks sometimes get too loud--I hate reading over the sifting through the blocks for just the right one. My older girls will sometimes straighten or curl their hair while I read. :001_smile: My youngest plays with her dolls and dress -up clothes while I read. Since she's the only one who does this, I allow it. I think if more of the kids were coming in and out with weird outfits on, it would be distracting. Ha! She comes in and out of her room and can tell me everything about the story we are reading. That always amazes me. I usually keep one read aloud going at a time. I don't like reading from several books at one sitting. I have an additional read aloud for my youngest at bedtime.

That is hilariously cute. :D

We do follow the WTM cycles. We focused on colonial America in the early years because there is so much good literature on the subject. We all loved it, but after talking with all of my dc about it, it seems as though ds isn't the only one wanting to branch out. I mentioned the French Revolution and everyone thought that sounded great. So, now how to put this together. I don't like buying prepackaged curriculum for history--I tweak too much.

You've gotten some great ideas already. I do this once a month for the moms at my church. One thing that has helped us is to have the meetings at a scheduled time each month throughout the school year. Each month, I ask the ladies to e-mail me something they are currently struggling with. Many times, only one mom will respond, but I go with the suggested topic, and inevitably, everyone else benefits from the discussion. Another thing we've done is a "getting started" meeting. The problem we had with it was that the amount of information needing to be presented was too much and many went home overwhelmed and confused. So, my suggestion would be to narrow your focus and keep everyone on topic. Questions can get out of hand and send you down bunny trails which then confuses many. Our most successful meeting are probably those where we choose one subject or topic and talk it out thoroughly. A meeting on science one month, grammar the next, math the next, Charlotte mason the next and so on. It's a very rewarding undertaking. I wish you all the best!

1. Nature journals 2. What is it Don't live anywhere near Penn., but those are topics I would enjoy hearing about.

Wow! What great responses. Thank you to everyone. No, he doesn't have to be doing the same thing that my girls are doing, and that's mostly why I needed some help--what to do? You all have given me some great ideas for how to flesh out the time period for him. And, I totally agree that he doesn't know everything about that time. Yes, I think helping him see that we can go deeper will help. I have looked at the Winter Promise curriculum and from what I remember, as good as it looked, it was costly. Time Travelers--I haven't seen that, but will check that out. Would love to visit VA! Again, costly. We live too far away. I'll spend some time going back over everyone's replies. But, really, everyone has been so helpful with ideas. Thanks again! :D

He might enjoy something like this... Thanks for the ideas.

He has been through it only once, but being the third child, I suspect he picked up quite a lot of it when I went through it the first time with his older sisters. Thanks for the ideas.

No, he definitely could go a different direction. I just need to think outside the box a little. History of science....Mmmm...I'll have to think more on that. Thanks.

He's having a real hard time identifying exactly what it is he doesn't like, but the gist of it seems to be this: He doesn't like studying what the people did meaning the colonists. He thinks it is already stuff that everyone knows--pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower, Squanto, Indian wars and kidnappings, and the gold rush, etc---boring, boring, boring. He wants more action, and something different. We usually try to end this time period around 1849. So, I'd rather save the World Wars for the next year. :confused:

which we are slated to study for the 2012-13 school year. He says he doesn't want to study the American Revolution or colonists and pioneers again. He's not a complaining sort of kid and usually does whatever is asked of him without expressing an opinion. This, however, he has an opinion about! My girls, however, LOVE this time period. Any suggestions for how I could make this study enjoyable for a boy who will be almost 12 when we start the new school year?

which we are slated to study for the 2012-13 school year. He says he doesn't want to study the American Revolution or colonists and pioneers again. He's not a complaining sort of kid and usually does whatever is asked of him without expressing an opinion. This, however, he has an opinion about! My girls, however, LOVE this time period. Any suggestions for how I could make this study enjoyable for a boy who will be almost 12 when we start the new school year? I just realized I posted this to the high school board. Any suggestions are welcome--I'll have 2 high school girls next year, but I'll post over at the K-8 board too.

Math U See. My kids are NOT math oriented and this curriculum has saved us over and over. IEW -I love Andrew Pudewa. He teaches writing when I could not, and he's funny and entertaining when I am not. :001_smile:

I'm doing an ocean unit with my 2nd grader right now. We've checked out lots of books on oceans and fish/ocean mammals and are enjoying the reading. I also found numerous ocean crafts online. She is mostly making all different kinds of fish and putting them up on a piece of blue butcher paper (that I hung in our hallway) for an ocean mural. My blog has a picture of her first fish that she made for her mural last week.