What would be "priority" and what would be "nice if we can get to it"? What would you add, if anything, that isn't in WTM (that I probably don't know about)? IOW - all practical bits of advice welcome! Thanks, Rhonda

I like keeping each "subject" all together, so I kept our notebooks chronological; but I keep those categories in mind when it comes time to write. For each topic, I put the related map first, any outline second, then any additional written work (be it on a great person, a war, a city, a religion, etc.) after that.

Hmmm....I didn't post yesterday because I knew you wouldn't want to hear this.... But, one thing that makes Apologia harder than the average textbook is that it is so chatty about every single topic - and there is no distinction made in the text whether the topic is majorly important (hey - learn this, it's gonna be on the test!) or if it's merely interesting (read and enjoy - but don't worry about studying this part). What I have resorted to you would probably call "teaching to the test" - however, Apologia's tests are not essay (prove that you learned *something*, *anything* is fine as long as you can write rationally about it). They are very targeted questions, with very precise answers. Answers that are *not* found quoted in the text, but that require a basic concept to be mastered, and then applied to the question at hand. I started breaking up the Study Guide questions so that ds answers the ones that apply to his reading for that day. This is similar to the end-of-lesson review questions in a normal textbook. Then, the following day, we orally review the On Your Own (or discuss his experiment), check the Study Guide questions, and go over the Module Summary paragraphs (I read, he fills in the blank). I quiz him on vocabulary fairly regularly, too. Since I have started beginning each day with an oral quiz time, my ds has had a much easier time majoring on the majors instead of the minors, and that has really helped him both enjoy the course and make good grades. (Especially the first two modules in General Science are especially difficult to wade through.) Best wishes!

I used to put dd in a laundry basket (my MIL's idea). It wasn't as intimidating as a playpen, which she wouldn't use. And, she could be right beside me, and I could reach down and play with her while spending time with one of the others. Don't be afraid of "over-using" siblings. I'm sure I did (according to some), and I did worry about it (LOL), but my fears were completely unfounded. And, my boys are so attentive to others, now. It really helped them to grow in so many ways. hth, Rhonda

I'm glad you mentioned that. My 11yo was just brain-dead today! I even pinned him to the floor and tickled him trying to get him to get with the program. Alas, he decided to dig under the refrigerator, and cut his pointer finger right on the tip (where it touches the pencil, of course!). Needless to say, I am glad he's at football right now~

My 2nd ds is just not intuitive at math, at least not like my oldest. He needs a very concrete program, with no abstractions. He doesn't like manipulatives, he just wants to memorize the way things are, and use it. What I have noticed this year, now that he's in 5th, is he'll interrupt me to say, "Hey, Mom. You know what I just noticed?" And, it's some concept that he was exposed to in BJU, but he just wasn't ready to process it in 4th. And, he just thinks he is the coolest thing in the world cause he figured it out all by himself.

7th grade - BJU Pre-Algebra 8th grade - Jacob's Algebra 9th grade (next year) - Jacob's Geometry After that, I will probably go with Chalk-Dust. Though I'm wondering if I shouldn't have gone ahead and forked over the money for CD starting with Algebra! Best of luck! Rhonda

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R&S-3 concentrates on writing proper sentences for most of the book. You will see assignments such as "Write a sentence using xxx as a subject (or direct object)" Things like that - it's been two years since I've looked at it - LOL! But *those* are important building blocks. Don't skip them! Incorporate those sentence structures into your dictation, history narrations and science narrations. Yes, it seems very easy, but they are only in the 3rd grade. (And, if they can't write a complete sentence....) You will start to touch on paragraphs right at the end of R&S-3. I think that's where you start writing letters and doing oral reports. R&S-4 will briefly review sentence structure, and quickly move into basic paragraph structures. hth!

We are learning our letter sounds now, very slowly. But, we got to /d/, and she can't differentiate between /d/ and /t/. I didn't even realize there *was* a Leapfrog movie. Sounds like a great idea! Thanks, Rhonda

Yes, yes! That really helps. I really needed something objective, especially since she will only talk to you once she *really* likes you -LOL- kind of eliminates the test of "can a stranger understand her"! According to your list, we are more than fine. I do hope your post doesn't get too buried - it will certainly help some other moms I'm sure. BTW - while looking online, I did find this guide to helping teach your child how to pronounce different letters. Maybe it will help someone, too: http://helpforkidspeech.com/articles/detail.cfm?TextID=59 (One day'll I'll learn how to rename my links - maybe.) Thanks, FoS!

An acquaintance and I were talking - we have kids the same age - and she mentioned her 3yo was starting speech therapy. And, she really encouraged me to have my 3yo tested, saying that if we didn't catch things soon enough, it would just be paramount to neglect. OK - if you didn't catch the sarcasm - I frankly think she was over-reacting a bit. My dd speaks much better than my 10yods did at her age, and he's fine. But, in another thread someone indicated that different speech problems are considered "critical" at different times. Is there a list of what should be mastered when somewhere? Thanks, Rhonda

How sweet!

I would agree with you that real heart-to-heart conversation is our usual modus operandi. (And, I don't mean just during correction, but just as a matter of daily life.) However, our conversations rarely focus on rules or commandments. They focus on love. Is a certain action loving? How would you feel if someone treated you that way - would you feel loved? How can we show God's love to a particular someone? Rather than a list of do's and don'ts, we try to inculcate an attitude of consideration for others - keeping in mind that *every* biblical command is simply of way of showing God's love to others. eta: We also take the time to reflect on God's love for us, and to thank Him for it. Not ever as a scheduled "family bible time" or anything, but just in normal conversation - or while reading out loud (this happens alot!). I also very early taught my boys the mechanics of saying, "I'm sorry. Please forgive me." And, "I forgive you." When there is/was a "disturbance in the force" so to speak, I always ask if they've gone to other person and said, "You did (this) and it hurt me," and if they've given that person the opportunity to apologize. When true forgiveness occurs, that is God's love in action; and there is no need for "punishment". We *always* offer unconditional forgiveness for confessed sin. I think this, more than almost any other thing, has taught them to live transparent, honest lives. More than once one of them has come to wake us up in the middle of the night to confess something he was burdened with. Beyond that, we just pray for wisdom. Every situation is so different - we hardly ever do the same thing twice (and, yes, sometimes we do spank). The only constant is trying never to break the open, loving, trusting relationship we have (they are 13, 11 and 3). We know our kids will be ok - as long as they feel loved by us. :001_smile: Rhonda

Try it by placing the needle on a tissue paper "boat". The tissue paper will sink, leaving the needle floating on the water. It took us about 5 times to do it right with the strings. The next year, my younger ds did the tissue paper version, and we did it over and over, because it worked every time. (That so rarely happens around here, we revel in it when it does!) hth, Rhonda

My younger ds is especially bad. He writes with his fingers almost on the lead, unless he's doing math, when he holds the pencil halfway between the lead and the eraser. :glare: *and* although he's a right-y, he hooks his hand like a left-y. If I am on the ball, and in continual looking-over-his-shoulder mode, I've noticed that reminding him to turn slant his paper correctly helps him naturally correct his grip (and the hooking), and the handwriting improves immensely. But, I just can't always be there! I have seen the triangle grips, but I don't remember seeing a different kind. Can you give me a bit more description? If it works even a little bit, I would be very grateful! :001_smile: Rhondabee

I did Ruth Beechik's rhythm method (that doesn't sound right, but the purpose is to write the letters to a rhythm). My boys are 13 and 11, btw. Her method works with any style of handwriting, which I thought was good because the purpose was to have legible handwriting, rather than specific strokes. It is very teacher-intensive, and we didn't continue all the way through the alphabet. The little bit we did do really helped my older ds. I think really though, that simply having a timed "handwriting session" daily would have accomplished the same thing. IOW, it *wasn't* the method that helped, but simply directing them to practice certain letters and nonsense words for 10 minutes daily. (Unlike copywork, we focused on just a few letters each day.) I should probably pick that back up, myself! Rhonda

Hey, Colleen! I took Momof7's advice a few years ago, and started schooling 6 weeks on/1 week off. I also only planned for 34 weeks of history/literature. But, I also kept going in Math and Grammar/Writing until those books were done - maybe two or three weeks into the summer. We do usually skip the very last chapter of Math, which is mostly either Review or group activities. And, I've started saving the last chapter of R&S-English to do at the beginning of the next year, because it seems silly (to me) to study how to look things up in reference books the last week of school. But, I don't *plan* to have skills subjects done in 34 or 36 weeks, as I do history & lit. That way I don't freak out when ds just really needs some extra time with something. Even though technically 6 weeks on/1 week off gives you 36 weeks, we are the family who picks up every sickness that gets within earshot! With allergies as well, I can tell you that I really appreciate knowing that I have some wiggle room in the schedule for sickness. I'm not sure that was Momof7's original intent, but that's how it works here. =) Rhonda

I think a lot depends on what you envision for high school. If you think you will use Apologia in high school, then I would choose Apologia for 7th grade. (And, since the new edition just came out this year, I'd imagine the old edition would be pretty cheap used.) But, if you *aren't* going to use Apologia for high school, I would probably choose a more traditional textbook. hth, Rhonda

I was influenced against coloring books when my boys were little. "They will take away all their creative instinct to draw on their own," is quick paraphrase of what I was told. But, oh, my! I have quite a gap between my boys (13 and 11yo) and dd (3yo). She LOVES coloring books. ***And she holds her crayons correctly.*** Without the first lesson on me on how to hold them! My boys stand in awe - the boys who *still* do not hold their pencils correctly - who seemingly *cannot* hold their pencils correctly even when they think about it. And, now she even draws her own creative drawings as well as coloring in coloring books. I know - she's a girl. And, they're boys; and so it's comparing apples to oranges. But I wonder....what if *they* had had access to a coloring book? :001_smile: Rhonda

I was really hoping to delay the surgury til next summer, but things have rapidly gone downhill. I am just so thankful that I live when & where I do, and that surgury is an option! Thanks for your kind thoughts! Rhondabee

Thanks for posting! I'm really surprised how many women have had hysterectomies. It's nice to know I'm not the only one. :001_smile: Rhondabee

My parents are great people. Not "abusive", but they are both very guarded emotionally, and do not realize the effect that their extremely high standards have on ordinary people. I already posted about this somewhat in a response above ~ but you sound like you understand exactly what my main concern re: my 5th grader is. Thanks for posting! Rhondabee

Mine is also going to be laproscopic - and the doctor has said it's normal to be back at a "desk job" in two weeks. Just no lifting, etc. for six. I'm hoping we'll be able to start back right after Thanksgiving, anyway. Maybe I'll send the Geography Coloring Book that only has six pages colored after almost 8 weeks of school - LOL! :001_smile: Rhonda

Frankly, because so much of what we do isn't just "open up the book, read the next lesson, and answer the questions." You know, if we were doing all Abeka, and it was a no-brainer to know if dc got it "right" or not, then sure - anybody could take my place. But, *so much* of what we do is discussion and written responses. And, given that I do not have written-in-stone plans (due to the fact that I often can't get to a full day's work this year), how will my parents know when to assign an outline, and on what material, versus assigning a narration. And, how will they have the background knowledge to know whether or not the work is being done to the best of my kids' abilities? How will they discuss reading material that doesn't come with a study guide? Basically, how will two people who have no knowledge of classical education methods teach my kids via those methods? And, while admittedly, I am learning (and re-learning) Latin and Grammar and Writing and Logic and Algebra alongside my oldest, I have been learning it ahead of him as we go. They would simply be thrown into the middle of something, lost, and unable to catch-up without weeks of prep work. You know, it's easy when your kids are in K-4th or 5th to have someone else come in for a bit, but these are high school level classes. And, I don't want my ds to waste his time trying to get the work done basically on his own; have an undiscovered misunderstanding of the material that isn't caught right away, and then have to re-do the material. Nothing is more devastating to this child than *thinking* he understands it, only to have to re-do all that work (and especially once patterns of thinking are engraved - that makes it just that much harder to learn correctly). Add to that my concern that my younger ds needs lots of hand-holding right now. (That's the nice way of saying, "This kid just doesn't understand anything right now unless I spoon-feed it to him." - which is a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.) This just isn't my parents' strong suit, and I worry that they will undermine his self-esteem in their efforts to "grow him up" for me. (For the record, my oldest ds needed this same hand-holding in 5th and 6th grades, and I *did* worry about him. Thanks to Ellie, I backed off and gave him the dependence he needed until he was ready to take off. I'm so thankful I didn't crush him by holding him to someone else's standards. And, I don't want my youngest child to come home crushed by the grandparents that he both loves and fears.) eta: actually, he's not the youngest - just the youngest doing school. They would also have my 3yo dd "helping" them. Maybe that clarifies a few concerns. I know typing it out helped me think through how much my parents just really don't know what they're asking for. If you made it this far, thanks for listening~ Rhonda