For food on the National Mall the USDA cafeteria is open to the public for breakfast and lunch. It is a price-per-pound buffet with pretty amazing food that showcases a lot of regional and organic items and they have a great variety. The price is pretty reasonable - like $6 or $7/lb. We live in the DC area and this is our go-to place now for lunch when visiting museums.

I'm not familiar with HOD, but I definitely think combining makes sense for subjects like history and science. It's more convenient for you plus the potential discussion and synergy between them is valuable. I have an only child and often wish I had another close in age so they could discuss and work together on projects. I've borrowed friend's children on occasion for this purpose when we do cool stuff :) I would definitely also try to honor your daughter's interest in more learning together. I know some parents prefer being "principals" who just choose materials, keep everyone on task, and assess, but for me the fun part of homeschooling is direct teaching and learning together. If you are feeling disconnected and she's requesting more time together, combining history with your 9 year-old (and even your younger to their ability) and learning as a family might be an easy way to do that.

If you have an advanced learner there is no way that Intro Number Theory and Intro C&P are going to take a year each. We are doing them alongside Intro Algebra and moving through rather quickly, finding them a nice relief when DS gets bogged down with some of the more complex problems in Algebra. I think either book could be successfully started after pre-algebra and used as a summer or weekend course. I agree they are optional but very worthwhile if you have the time.

I struggle with the same thing sometimes, but schooling year round helps quite a bit. Also we do school most weekends and prefer to take a day off during the week when the museums, bike trail, and other field trips places are less crowded. I don't schedule days off way in advance but instead just take advantage of fun opportunities as they arise. If its a sunny day and we're feeling cooped up we plan on a bike ride, or if a friend calls us for a playdate or event we go. We do boardgames most evenings and he reads for a solid hour every night. DS is technically only a fourth grader and accelerated in the basics so I try not stress too much if we don't get to everything else. I figure middle school is the time to learn to be more on a schedule.

Sounds like you're doing awesome already. Beans make a cheap and filling source of protein, especially if you can cook from dried. A large ham can also be stretched over many meals - a bit for breakfast, sliced thin for sandwiches, or used in fried rice for dinner. If your family likes eggs then omelettes can be a great way to use up a little bit of this or that in a protein rich dinner. If you qualify I wouldn't hesitate to look into food assistance such as WIC, food stamps, or food bank. These programs are exactly for people in your situation who are temporarily going through a rough patch. Also many communities have summer programs that provide free lunch to kids at local libraries or schools - no questions asked.

We did some research on Epsilon Camp and yes, my impression was its for kids who are constantly doing math and incredibly passionate about it. That's definitely my DS - he has a room full of white boards and a shelf full of math books and is always working something out (irrational base number systems, proofs, fractals, etc.) just for fun. Ultimately time and expense put Epsilon out of reach for now and so we're taking advantage of more local opportunities.

This is such great advice! Although I tell everyone I meet that we homeschool for academic reasons, its really just because that's a safe and easy answer that everyone understands. Really, for us its more about lifestyle. We checked out a local math circle recently and while it was a good fit academically, and in some ways really humbling to see so many high performing kids in one room, I felt like it was also a good reminder of why we homeschool. The amount of hours these kids put in with school and activities, the focus on achievement and external validation already in late elementary and middle school would not at all be a good fit for DS or our family. Talking to the parents was so eye-opening about what goes on in some of these high pressure communities. DS is a high performer but he is not a grind. He's the kind of kid who wants to spend a whole day reading snuggled into a bean bag chair, or write his own proof of a math problem, or watch The Great Courses randomly, or study how to solve a 4x4 Rubik's Cube, or spend 3 hours on AOPS instead of 45 minutes. From a family perspective we want to be able to take off in the middle of the day for a long bike ride when the weather is great, go skiing for a week when we find a deal, and not have to worry about missing homework or 3 different swim meets. So while I'm sure we could move a few towns over to get into one of these amazing schools, there's a lot my son would be missing. However, if I didn't love homeschooling, I'd move in a heartbeat and just find a way to make it work.

This kind of thing drives me up the wall. I remember teaching my son to use the FaceTime app last year and I kept saying "It's the icon that looks like a phone." He didn't get it. I was frustrated until I realized that the only phones he's ever really seen are smartphones so the traditional telephone icon had no meaning for him because he's never seen one! This incident was hilarious to us, but on a more serious note when intelligence tests make references to things that require significant cultural context: sports, vacation destinations, etc. (examples I've actually seen) it can really put some students at a disadvantage.

We have tested only twice, specifically to get into programs (district magnet school and CTY summer camp). He did extremely well with no prep, so its enough for me to know his abilities are not in my imagination. I'm not a huge fan of testing. Although I'm incredibly curious to see how DS would do on a true IQ test, I figure the testing is not likely to tell me anything new - if he did poorly I'd probably dismiss the results as a bad day and if he did well I's say "duh" and not change a thing. I also remember reading about an experiment where they told teachers that they were assigned to gifted classes, when in reality the classes were completely random average kids. Unsurprisingly, the classes wheres the teachers assumed all the students were gifted learned more than the control classrooms. While I have no idea how scientific this study was, it seemed like common sense that I was best off just assuming my child was gifted and educate accordingly.

I think the need for childcare is part of the reason the school day is so long, but I think it would be much better to have intensive learning in the morning, and then activities in the afternoon for elementary school students. Things like sports, music lessons, gym games, field trips, etc. could all be from 1-5 pm and parents could take advantage of this as much or as little as they wanted.

Most of the time I just wing it. Saute some onion and garlic first then toss in coconut milk, chicken broth, Penzy's Now Curry seasoning plus a few chunks of ginger. I use sturdier veggies like potato and carrot. If you separate the cod pieces then 2-3 minutes on high pressure usually does the trick. Mine is loosely based on this recipe, which is fabulous: https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/pressure-cooker-thai-green-chicken-curry/

For those of you that want to do a small amount of rice, try the pot-in-pot method. I put 1 cup of brown rice with 1.25 cups of water in a pyrex and place it on a trivet in the IP with 1 cup of water on the bottom - 22 minutes High Pressure. Perfection! Black beans cook in about the same time so I will often cook my beans in water and use a pot-in-pot on a tall trivet to cook the rice at the same time. The pot-in-pot method also works great for oatmeal.

I use mine almost everyday! Basic things like rice, beans, oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, etc. take a fraction of the time, turn out perfectly, and as someone mentioned you don't have to babysit the food (no stirring and it goes to warm mode as soon as time is up). Being able to do meat from frozen is also a huge advantage. Frozen Italian Sausages are my go-to fast food if I forget to thaw because they take 12 minutes and are more juicy and less messy than pan-cooked. I can also do a simple fish curry with frozen cod pieces from Trader Joe's in about 10 minutes. The pressure helps the flavors to blend more quickly and thoroughly. Shredded chicken or pork cooked in the IP for tacos and sandwiches has replaced lunchmeat for our family because its so easy.

I don't understand the problem with teaching history as narrative! Elementary school students are not doing what historians do anyway - examining original documents, synthesizing new information, etc. Personally I've found it useful to teach history chronologically, though maybe not strictly necessary. On the other hand we have friends with a child in public school and their social studies are all over the map - one month the ancient world Greek mythology, next month civil rights movement, and right now they're studying the Manhattan Project (in fourth grade!). Some of these things just don't make sense without a whole lot of context and background information and only get more confusing when studied out of order. We use Story of the World and love playing the game Timeline. I could care less about names and dates, but I want my son to have a good understanding of things like the Black Death came after the Fall of Rome and before the Renaissance. I don't think this is strictly narrative, as we also spend a lot of time discussing connections and cause-and-effect (how the invention of the printing press helped the Reformation for instance) and doing map work. But there's nothing wrong with pure narrative at this stage and lots of kids connect with the fascinating world of the ancients.

I use my Instant Pot. Cut in half, place on trivet with a cup of water, and then 8 minutes high pressure. Always perfect!

Any great recommendations for a perspective drawing book or course? DS has been doing Mark Kistler but wants something a little more technical and less cartoony that focuses on buildings.

I think it works fine as a stand-alone for an accelerated learner. My DS finished RightStart C in first grade and we jumped right into Beast Academy. I gave Singapore a quick try but we both found it pretty tedious and repetitive. I did supplement with Singapore CWP which I do love and lots of math enrichment so it wasn't strictly a stand-alone for us, but we definitely didn't need any other kind of workbook or formal program.

Personally I wouldn't skip the Pre-Algebra book if you have an accelerated learner who has the time. Some of it a student will fly through but others (and I'm thinking particularly the chapter on ratios and rates) are extremely meaty and won't be seen again for a while unless the student does math contest prep. I also love the fact that there is quite a bit of geometry in it, something which is neglected in Beast Academy and most elementary curriculums.

Yes. Thanks! I had a lot of friends asking me about math stuff so decided to start blogging about it and have an Instagram that shows some of the fun things we do regularly.

Right now we usually do math for 1.5-2 hours a day, 6 days a week. My DS is 10 and technically a 4th grader. We are taking a break from AOPS Intro to Algebra (Chapter 11) to do Counting and Probability because of his interest. We also do the Intro Number Theory book a few times a week and he watches math lectures on the Great Courses. In addition I plan special unit topics on fun things like taxicab geometry, rational tangles, graph theory, digital logic, or other cool puzzles I find. I have a CS background so its pretty easy for me to feed his interest with discrete math topics. In addition he reads math books and works on his own problems for fun beyond this time.

I absolutely agree that output does not necessarily equal learning or retention. Like a PP, I also use a lot of the recommendations from Willingham's book "Why Students Don't Like School?" We do mostly read and discuss but I try to incorporate some of the cognitive science tricks from his book. For instance in history we read Story of the World out loud but I stop in strategic places and will ask DS to do mini-summaries of previous things that are relevant or make predictions. Then I will do a mini-quiz at the end of the chapter focusing on cause-and-effect big ideas instead of names and dates. Once a week or so we do written short answers to these big questions like "How did the Black Death transform Europe?", "How did the invention of printing impact the Reformation?" or "How did the fall of Constantinople contribute to the Age of Exploration?" So there is not a ton of output, and way less than public school, but I'm pretty confidant that DS has a much better understanding of history than your average 4th grader. This kind of one-on-one discussion is the main advantage of homeschooling, particularly homeschooling an only child.

Agreed. I don't know if the IP is more precise or it's what I cook, but I have never had mushy food. I don't use it for fancy meals but I use it a lot for dried beans, rice, Italian sausage (12 minutes from frozen so its my go-to fast food when I forget to thaw), cheesecake, curry, etc. and never once had anything turn out mushy.

This is such brilliant advice! I don't think expecting tons of gratitude at this age is realistic, whether its for a nice home, great schooling, amount of free time, or other opportunities. This is the only life they know, so of course when they're not happy with something they are going to complain about it, whether it seems reasonable to us or not. I have had a similar problem at times and have been focusing entirely on expressing unhappiness in a polite way rather than expecting DS to really get that he has it pretty good. It's ok to not like something, but there's no excuse for rude or whiny behavior.

The other thing we do that you might want to try is to split up math into two tracks - regular math and math laboratory. Our regular math is just working from the book (currently AOPS Intro to Algebra with some work from the Number Theory and Counting and Probability books). Math laboratory is where I introduce fun topics that are outside of the norm with no agenda or goal. For instance right now in math laboratory we're doing a unit on taxicab geometry and in the past we've done units on Knight and Knave puzzles, tessellations, sets, digital logic design, graph and map coloring, cryptography, writing Scratch and Python math games, etc. I pull from a variety of resources including Martin Gardner, books like Time Travel Math, Dover books on Mathematics, etc. The main advantage of math lab, aside from fun, is that DS can explore different and advanced math topics at his own pace without worrying about achievement. If he hates something we drop it, if he loves it we keep going. It also easily doubles the amount of math time we do in an absolutely painless way. And when he encounters the topics in a more formal setting he already has the intro background so can move at a faster pace. I'm pretty informal about it but math lab is something that lends itself to some planning as you could have a "topic of the week." Once your son gets into higher level math such as AOPS (including Beast Academy), you may have no choice but to become more of a "do the next thing" homeschool planner. There are days where we've spent 45 minutes on a single challenge problem and other days where we blaze through half a chapter. AOPS just doesn't lend itself to scheduling out X problems/day. We get our structure from just working for 45 min-1 hour every day after breakfast on math rain or shine.

I also wouldn't worry about reliance on manipulatives. Students will naturally stop using them when it becomes faster in their head. There's a natural transition where they will still use them for hard problems but do the easy ones without. I think the visualization involved with something like C-rods is invaluable. My son is way past the manipulative stage but I'm convinced he can still to fast mental 2 digit calculations because of his time with the rods.