DH is going to be taking over the homeschooling for the next 6 months. He has not done much of it before at all, and I'm thinking I'm going to have to make things as easy as possible for him. The kids are 11, 9, 7 and 3. The 7 year old is still learning how to read, and I've covered the bases with her. For the 9 and 11 year old ... I'm trying to think of English/Maths programs that they can do more or less independently. We'll be in a remote area, full of history (The Kimberley region in far north-west Australia), so they'll be doing a lot of exploring for the other subjects. DH's great at supervising them and getting them to do the work, and answering the questions. Not so great at the instruction. There is also a bit of resistance from the 9 and 11 year old at accepting Dad as teacher. So I really want something rather independent for the 9 and 11 year olds. At the moment, I use Math U See for the 11 year old, and Right Start for the 9 year old. I'm worried Right Start will be too dad-intensive though. Any other computer/video based maths programs? For English, they currently do SWR and Classical Writing. I'm going to get them to continue to work as a pair alternating teacher/student role for SWR. Classical Writing I'm concerned about if it's too Dad-intensive, too. Any suggestions?

We love it!

My 10yo son is an advanced reader, and loves reading, but hates to write. Actually, he acts like he has a pencil allergy. He does really well with Classical Writing, and he does better if I let him type it sometimes rather than always handwriting it.

I'll keep both kids in my thoughts, that's so sad that the other kid might not get the help he needs. My nearly 60 year old mother in law broke her arm just before Christmas playing that. It was a bad break, too. Not always a fun game :(

My entire family tends to correct every grammar mistake. Even Peter and Susan correct every grammar mistake they notice. If it ends up sounding formal, it sounds formal. Better to sound too formal than too informal.

No advice because I'm terrible at it. My two kids took ages to choose their blog names. They ended up going with adventurouschildhood.com and life-and-views.com

I'd recommend going and getting it checked by your doctor if it's severe itching. It could be anything from a side effect of a medication, an allergy, or liver disease. It's too hard too tell online, and if it is severe then you need it checked out.

I let Peter and Susan read the books at that age. My dad read me the books when I was about five. I had nightmares from them for years and years. So, my advice is probably to wait, but that's only because I still can't bring myself to read the books or watch the movie.

It's so heart warming how friendly and helpful people can be sometimes! I don't have any stories that amazing, but there have been so many times that I've had a day when I've just been struggling, and it's been entirely turned around by the random kindness of a stranger.

We have ipods and only have audiobooks on them. I had an iRiver before, which did well but was a lot simpler.

Oh, and I take a statin (crestor) each day now because I have such a strong family history of cardiovascular disease.

This is the advice that our professional association emailed out to all Aussie pharmacists two days ago (I've just cut and pasted - so if it's too technical, please ask me to put it into plain English): Recent media reports have linked statins with an increased risk of diabetes and dementia. Consumers may present to the pharmacy with concerns about the safety of statins and ask pharmacists whether they should continue their statin therapy. The reports are based on an announcement by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about safety label changes to statins after a review of post-marketing research. Diabetes The FDA recommendations are based on a number of studies which reported that patients who took statins had a slightly increased risk of developing diabetes. The risk was highest in older participants. The findings of a meta-analysis found that treating 255 patients with statins for four years resulted in one extra case of diabetes (95% CI 150–852). The risk of diabetes is low compared to the potential benefits of statins in preventing coronary events. People with diabetes have an increased risk of coronary events and the small increase in risk for worsening glycaemic control with the use of statins is outweighed by the cardiovascular benefits of these medicines. Dementia The evidence presented by the FDA in the drug safety communication did not link statin use to clinically significant cognitive decline (dementia, Alzheimer’s disease). Case reports and observational studies have recorded ill-defined memory loss or impairment which was reversible when statins were discontinued. This has not been suggested to be a common adverse effect of statins. Consumers should be informed to continue taking their statin as the cardiovascular benefits outweigh the small increase in risk that has been reported. If they have any specific concerns about the adverse effects of statin therapy they should speak to their doctor.

I have a ten year old that is quite math-y and really enjoys it. He prefers something that he can self-pace and technology based. Mathletics does reasonably well, but I need something that doesn't rely on the internet as our internet access is haphazard. He did well with MUS, and I'm thinking something similar at the upper levels might be suitable. Not sure if I want to continue with MUS though. Any suggestions of other curriculum to look at?

DS10 and DD9 just read the Hobbit and loved it. DD9 has continued on to read Lord of the Rings. They've read all the Harry Potter, Narnia, Septimus Heap etc books, and love the fantasy genre.

For a friend: 10yo boy is finishing off a project on energy sources and wants to talk about the conversions of different types of energy. He's beyond the basics of kinetic versus potential and baby stuff like "light energy" and "sound energy" and basically familiar with electromagnetism and some of the electro physics ideas (photons, quarks etc., fission/fusion/isotopes blah blah). I don't know enough physics to help him out and all the resources I'm finding are either too easy (geothermal - thermal energy, wave - kinetic energy) or too advanced (loads of formulae). What I want is something that's comprehensible and accessible BUT not over-simplified so that it will gel with his understanding. Does anyone know a secular science curriculum that would suit?