We do workboxes. I put each subject for each child in a box, and I stack the boxes at each child's workspace. They can look at their boxes and choose one to start on; they know which things they can do on their own and which things need me. As they finish a subject, they put the box for that subject back in the stack on my desk, and anything I need to check in a box that is separate from the big stack. Then I check things off on the checklist -- which I hold.

This is so so so much like my daughter. I don't get it. I always want to find out how a book ends -- why doesn't she? I think one, she gets bored. This child is very much a thrill-seeker, always wanting something new and different. She does get bored easily. Two, I think she guesses how books are going to end, and so they lose their appeal. Three, I think her mind wanders, so she loses her place, even in a good book. If she gets distracted by a noise, a curtain blowing, anything, she loses her place -- and often her interest. Four, she's sensitive to too many words on a page and small print. Those turn her off quickly. And then she does totally odd things sometimes that surprise me. Like, at 7, she plowed through Anne of Green Gables in a long weekend. And then she read the entire Fellowship of the Ring to herself in a short amount of time. So I know she *can* read and comprehend very well. For problem one above, I make her read a certain amount every day until the book is finished. I think this is a bit of a character issue -- learning to finish something you've started, even if part of it is uninteresting -- so I do enforce this. For problem two, I can't always do anything about that. Sometimes that's just the way it is. For problem three and four, we choose books based on their print, whether it looks okay to her or not. She also sometimes puts an index card under the line she's reading, and that helps her keep from becoming distracted. I've also recently started letting her listen to classical music with earbuds while reading; I think that lets part of her mind be occupied with the music, so that it's not wandering and distracting her. She really does seem to read much faster when she's listening to music. (Works for math too.) I also let her use audio books a lot, though I do make her read print books too. Mostly, I just have stopped worrying about it. Other than the assigned amount for schoolwork, what she does or does not read on her own time is up to her. Oh, we're going to try reading a book together, just her and me -- each of us read a chapter and then discuss it. I'm hoping it will be a bonding time between mom and her only daughter, and I hope it will encourage her to finish a book.

I have, at times, done a few minutes of flash cards with a child, in addition to the regular conceptual lesson. My daughter learned her multiplication tables by simply looking them up on a chart as needed; at first, she looked up a lot, and over time, she needed the chart less and less. We also use the Saxon timed facts practice tests to build speed with memorizing the basic facts. My son does the mental math exercises in the HIG for Singapore. I think games could also be useful for learning facts. If the child understands what 6 x 4 means, I'm fine with moving to the next concept even if the child doesn't always come up with 24 quickly when encountering 6 x 4.

My second grader (will be 8 in Feb.): -WWE2 -Singapore Math (currently 2A, hoping to finish 2B this year) -Miquon Math (we move back and forth between Singapore and Miquon.) -SOTW1 history, plus supplemental picture books and longer read-alouds -BrainQuest workbook for practicing spelling rules and other basic skills -daily reading in a chapter book -Artistic Pursuits occasionally; drawing on his own often. -lots of audio books and classical music in the car -picture study at co-op -science -- haven't really done much of this so far, sigh

Anyone have a link to a free or cheap printable map of Europe at the time of the Renaissance, around 1500? I'd just use the ones in the SOTW 2 activity guide, but it's for a co-op class, and SWB specifically prohibits that. :)

I made friends here by joining a babywearing group and a homeschool support group and then just jumped right in. It's hard, but it helps if you get to know one person and talk to them at events; then you get to know more people bit by bit.

Yep, when I was a nanny, part of my job was to arrange playdates for the kids. Often, only the nannies knew each other, and none of the parents had ever even met, but that was perfectly normal for the area. Yes to all of this! It could be perfectly reasonable, but I think the dad ought to be the one to make the decision, not the sitter.

Ooooh, I didn't know The Office and Parks and Rec started up this week! We always watch them online over the weekend, since we don't get NBC or anything else, and I thought they didn't start for another week. Thanks for starting this thread! Now, if it could just be November, please, and then Rizzoli & Isles would be back!

Something with significant protein -- eggs, oatmeal with milk/butter/nuts. A proper weekend breakfast is a big omelet with sausage or bacon.

Yes; you said it better than I did! I've noticed that the comments and silent counting of children increased a lot when we had the fourth child, so I think most people must consider four to be a lot.

Four children, because it's out of the norm for most areas. I have four, and I'm the oldest of four, so it seems normal to me, but I also know that four is not all that common. I think of one child as a small family, two or three children as average, four or five as large, and six or more as very large.

A lot of that gets covered naturally in daily life discussions, but my kids have liked the BrainQuest workbooks. A couple of pages a day, and it's a nice reinforcement that hits any holes. This year, I also instituted a subject called "General Skills." Every day, each child's GS box has something in it -- the workbooks, a logic problem, stationery if they need to write a letter, fire safety and health worksheets (we cover those topics naturally, but I have them do a quick worksheet or two to throw in the portfolio as proof that we did them), civics/election book and worksheet, etc. It's a good place to throw small stuff like that that we need to prove we covered.

Those sound great -- thanks! LOL, thanks for the heads-up! I'll preview it; it might not be a big deal, but I do appreciate knowing about it ahead of time.

We just replaced our 5-year-old Mr. Coffee machine (4 cups) with a new, nearly identical one, and we're very happy with it. The machine itself was working just fine; we just needed to replace it because we have extremely hard well water, and it was so clogged up with scale that it was talking half an hour to brew a tiny amount of coffee. (We're trying to keep the new one working longer by running lemon juice or vinegar through it once a month, but seriously, for the price, 5 years is more than reasonable.)

Oh, cool, those sound good -- thanks! Yes, I love Shakespeare in Love as well, but it's definitely too mature for the kids. We've not seen Gnomeo and Juliet, though -- thanks for the recommendation!

Yes, good point; she has reread some of the read alouds and has enjoyed that. Thanks for that list -- she's not read all of them, so I'm adding them to the list to check out. :)

Oh, good, that one she would probably like. She started Little Women but hit some boring parts and didn't finish it. I didn't push that one, because I had thought she was a little young to appreciate it anyway -- she could read it and understand it, but I think she's a little young to appreciate the themes of young adulthood. I haven't read Eight Cousins (or if I have, it's been decades), but maybe that would appeal to her. Oh, and I want to read Five Little Peppers too, to see if maybe that would be good for her.

Not a fan of the idea, in general. Now, if it was older students helping younger students, that's a little different. As a high school student, I tutored younger kids (elementary and middle school level), and that was a good thing. I also helped out in the high school's ESL classroom, which let those students get a bit more one-on-one attention so that they could learn English faster. Those students seemed appreciative, rather than resentful. I think having kids tutor other kids in the same classroom could backfire very easily, with the tutor and the tutee feeling resentful. Plus it does not teach the tutor anything new. I remember being made to work with the slower readers in my first grade classroom, and it was annoying. At the same time, if done well, maybe it can be a good thing. Maybe for a bored, disruptive child, having a productive task to do could channel the energy in a good way (still, though, I think I'd find something other than tutoring kids in the same class for the bored advanced child to do). And if it's a friend voluntarily doing the helping -- "My friend Emily's having trouble with math, so I'm going to help her learn her multiplication tables" -- maybe that's different. But as a matter of course, as the teacher's plan, for kids to tutor each other, I vote no.

Okay, except for Nancy Drew, she's read all of those (well, she's read at least the first Pippi book and some of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books), plus The Secret Garden. I know her brothers listened to the first Nancy Drew book on CD and liked it; I'm not sure if DD did or not. She doesn't seem inclined to read mysteries (the horror! I love mysteries!), but I figure she probably ought to at least know who Nancy Drew is. I'm looking for the "you should know these from a cultural literacy standpoint" books. Caddie Woodlawn is going on the to-read list. :)

Honestly, we switched to Saxon for DD, who hated math, and it's a winner. She still doesn't love math, but Saxon is great for confidence, because there are always some problems that are super easy, and it's letting her build her skills in small increments. She complained that 30 problems are too many, so we're currently trying out doing just 15 at a time. If she continues to score 90% or better on the tests, we'll stick with 15 (usually alternating odds and evens). She likes that it doesn't try to dress itself up to be cute or fun; it's factual, gets the job done, and that's it. She does appreciate the subtle humor, though, like where a word problem uses names that are obviously from a classic book. Also, for facts, for DD, it really helped her to look them up on a chart. Flash cards didn't really cement them for her, but I had her look them up as needed, and after a while, she didn't need the chart any more. ETA: She does not like LoF -- it's too silly for her, she says.

I did not, but that's interesting and cool -- thanks for sharing that! It's been years since I saw Lion King, and I don't think the kids have ever seen it (and none of us have seen LK2), so they should go on our list.

When this comes from people with young kids, I always wonder what it says about their faith in their kids' schools! I had an older gentleman say something like, "you must get high marks being homeschooled" the other day. I just smiled and said, "they do pretty well." (Usually people are too busy counting kids and saying something like "all those boys," though. As if four kids/three boys is just soooo many! :001_huh: :lol:) We're in a very homeschool-friendly area, though; it seems everyone knows someone who homeschools/homeschooled, and people seem very accepting of it in general, so I've not really had any rude comments. (My own family and ILs are super pro-homeschooling, but if ever anyone is skeptical, I'm happy to share with them what we're using.)

What movie adaptations of Shakespeare's plays have you enjoyed, particularly ones that are suitable for young children (under 11)? We read the Lambs' version of "A Comedy of Errors," and the children thought it was funny, but I think they'd get more out of seeing some version, even a modern version, on a screen. Is there one that would be okay for them? How about other Shakespeare plays?

What book(s) do you feel a girl absolutely should have read/listened to by the end of fifth grade? Just looking to see where there might be holes in DD's reading/listening to of the classics.

My kids laughed and laughed at the Wayside School books when we listened to them (some read by me, some recorded).