We live 12 hours from my mom and 7 hours from my mother in law, so other than a phone call that's about all we do for them on Sunday. As for me, it will be just like every other Sunday including me cooking lunch after church and if there are gifts I'll be shocked.

Our light days look like: Reading and discussing the Bible together Math Writing of some kind (either using our actual writing program or a written narration) Read aloud (usually from a history or science topic) Independent reading from literature that I've chosen for them

Great question! I've re-learned that 90% of being successful at homeschool is getting up every day and just doing it. The perfect plan, schedule, and curriculum is great, but nothing can substitute for good, old-fashioned consistency. I've known this already, but had it reinforced multiple times this year through dealing with another homeschool mom. I learned that I need to spend more time every day delighting in my children and being with them. Instead of focusing on how I feel like they weigh me down at times, I need to switch my perspective and focus on how I can build them up. I learned that now that my kids are getting older letting them have a say in what they learn and what curriculum they want to use is a good thing. I need to be willing to relinquish control of their education more. I learned how to keep our house picked up and relatively clean while homeschooling for the first time since we started. I'm 100% certain that it's because the kids are old enough to do pretty much anything I ask of them, but I'll pretend like I've found some magical solution!

There is not a TOC. It does flow chronologically, but there is not a set TOC. It is just set up by lessons that tell you what pages to read out the literature selection for that topic. Sometimes a lesson includes mapping and/or timeline work. Also, discussion questions and/or notebooking suggestions are in almost every lesson as well.

I'm using Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors from SCM as the spine for Egypt and Mesopotamia. I'm using The Story of the Greeks by Guerber as the spine for Greece. I like the spine used for Rome (Augustus Ceasar's World), but I'm using The Story of the Romans by Guerber to fill in the events that occur before and after ACW begins and ends. I'm also coordinating in simple activities, documentaries, and independent reading for both of my girls, but like I said in my op, if we don't get to all the extras, the basic program is enough. I just really, really, REALLY didn't want to use Streams of Civilization as a spine. :ack2:

I switched my oldest from Math in Focus this year to Horizons Math. She just couldn't handle a mastery approach to math any longer, but I love the solid foundation MIF has given her. Horizons has been a breath of fresh air since she feels successful at math for the first time in a long time. I still use the Challenging Word Problems and Intensive Practice books a year behind from Singapore math because Singapore's word problems are the best I've seen.

Switching my oldest to Horizons Math when the mastery approach of Math in Focus became too much for her. We are keeping the CWP and IP books (using them a year behind) because Horizons has pitiful word problems. Beautiful Feet for history. I was very worried about using it since people mentioned its providential history flavor (which I most decidedly do NOT agree with!) plus I hated the spine used during the intermediate ancient history guide. I changed out the spine for the guide and have been able to fold my 2nd grader in with my 5th grader. It is the perfect amount of work because I can easily add in more if we feel like it, but the amount assigned is solid if we choose not to add anything in as well. Our new daily schedule of looping our learning blocks so I make sure we never are missing anything.

I would use Beautiful Feet's new Modern American and World History for grades 5th through 8th. I am using their Ancient History this year with my 5th and 2nd grader. It's been very enjoyable and very CM.

Since the mom works third shift and is usually at home during school hours, I believe they were going to have her bring the drugs to the school but they couldn't reach her.

My friend's lawyer has told her not to post anymore about the incident on Facebook so I'm going to delete my OP since no one quoted it, but you are more than welcome to continue the conversation. I have no idea how reliable my friend is. We reconnected on Facebook after going to high school together. As far as I've been able to tell via Facebook posts she's not a liar or a drama creator. I can honestly see this scenario happening while crazy it does ring true, and I know her dd was in the hospital because she posted a picture later of her dd smiling weakly while hooked up to the IV. If she's lying about the entire event, I guess that will be discovered soon enough, but it seems like it would be pretty easy for the school to say none of that happened.

I thought the same thing. The nine year old might not even know the correct dosage to take of each one (which might be how she overdosed!). It's just so bizarre and stupid. Like I said, I wouldn't have believed any school employee could be this much of an idiot if it hadn't been my friend's own daughter.

It looks like she is going to be fine, but I would be so furious someone would have to hold me down to keep me from going up to that school and punching the counselor in the face. :cursing:

Removed for legal reasons

I wasn't even born when Jenner won his Olympic gold. :blushing: It would be two more years until that historical event. As for his interview. I'm not sure what to think about the issue of transgender. I definitely need to do more research and study. All of that aside though, I wish Bruce and his family all of the best. None of it can be easy for anyone involved especially when the bulk of your life is lived in the paparazzi's cross hairs.

I took Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook recs and put them into grade level lists. They are linked in my signature below. I have Preschool through 4th grade up so far. We read aloud at lunch. While they eat, I read. I have one read aloud going that they all listen to, then I have an individual read aloud for my 2nd grader and my 5th grader. They are only required to listen to the family read aloud and their individual one, but 90% of the time they stay for all of it. I read aloud at other times of the day as well as part of our homeschool, but lunch time is specifically set aside for good quality fiction books that aren't specifically tied to anything we're studying.

I just did this last night as a matter of fact. We've loved Math in Focus from 1-3, but in only the 2nd chapter of the 4th grade book (we were already a year behind her grade because of struggles with fractions in the 3rd grade book), Grace fell apart. It just moves too fast for her now since math is not her strong subject. She needed more review than that. We gave CLE a quick trial run last year during our struggles in the 3rd grade book, but we both agreed CLE was not a good fit. After another frustrated, crying session during math yesterday, I made a mad dash to the homeschool store and purchased Horizons 4th grade math. We did the first lesson today and she looked up at me at the end, grinned, and said, "This is perfect, Mom, colorful pages, a little bit of all kinds of math in one lesson, and lots of puzzles." It's the first time she's smiled about math in 6 months. I'm still going to use the Math in Focus way of teaching things since I have all the books, but Horizons is going to be a good fit for her.

A recent conversation among homeschoolers on Facebook has me thinking about the coming years and what I should expect/require as far as independence goes. So I have some questions for those of you who have traveled this path before. 1) When did you begin giving your child indpendent work to do? 2) What independent work did you initially give them? 3) When did you turn over entire subjects for your child to complete on their own? 4) What subjects were the first ones you had them complete independently? 5) What format was the subject (workbook based, literature based, etc.)? 6) If literature based (our homeschool style), how did you make sure they understood what they read? I think that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll come up with more! Thanks!

I've got a video blog post coming up soon showing how i use BSGFAA with kids using three different levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) at one time because your concern is one I hear ALL the time. It's hard to explain how it all works when I'm writing it out so I decided to do a video instead.

Based on your wants i would get the student pages. The sheets in the unit guides are stick figure drawings in the back for each lesson. There are no cute instructions to circle this or color that. The unit guides are recommended for people using Bible Study Guide in a Bible class setting not for home use. I generally break down the student pages into the following grade levels: Beginner pages pre-K through 1st (depends on reading level when I bump them up), Intermediate 1st-3rd, Advanced 4th-6th I believe they now have a primary level, but i don't use it at all. It's a rather new level and the teacher's manual is required for those student pages so I just use the old progression they used to have that goes from Beginner to Intermediate. HTH

Our boxer died at the age of 9 this past summer. She was the sweetest, most wonderful dog. She adored our children and was good around other dogs. She barely ever barked (only if someone came to the house she didn't know) and she never nipped even if the kids pounced on her while she was sleeping or messed with her while she was eating. People were frightened of her looks however because they look scary since they are large and have a bulldog-ish face. i know of one time in particular where the sight of her ran off some guys who were up to no good. If I had the chance to grab a full blood boxer pup or even a mix breed boxer pup, I'd jump all over it.

We school year round especially since the summers here in Houston are crazy hot and humid. none of us want to be outside and we don't have access to a pool on a consistent basis. We are taking lots of time off during April before the heat hits in May and we'll take lots of time off in the fall as well. However our summer stays about as busy with extracurriculars as it is during the school year. Vacation to visit family in Arkansas (late May-early June) Vacation Bible School (2nd week in June) Swimming lessons for Sophia (end of June) Four hours of ballet for Grace each week (3 weeks in June and 3 weeks in July) Children's theater production of Charlotte's Web (June) We'll keep our regular academic schedule as much as possible as well.

Bible Study Guide is meant to be worked through many times at different levels. So your oldest would do it for four years and you would add kids whenever they are ready to join the rotation. In the fifth year you would just start over and use the appropriate student pages for each child. As an example, my oldest just started the rotation over this year using the advanced pages. My second grader has done year 3 and 4 and is now beginning year 1 using the intermediate pages. My son just started with his sisters and he's doing the beginner pages. Hopefully that makes sense!

For K I used a combo of MEP Reception (1st half of the year), Education Unboxed (all year to introduce concepts and for games), and Miquon Orange (2nd half of the year). We also practiced writing numbers, but I did that on my own without a curriculum. The three programs above worked really, really well together. I was not impressed by Singapore Essentials or Earlybird either.

I thought this was perfect:

Movers, Shakers, and Stargazers Movers for physics, shakers for chemistry (like shaking a beaker), and stargazers for astronomy.