:iagree: I agree with a previous poster - conferences seem to be exactly what I need to get excited. Last year, I got to hear SWB speak, and it was awesome. My dh also came, thank goodness, because he was SOLD on classical education. I think he's awed by what our kids could become with this amazing education. I'm already planning where I'm going to go this summer. I really want to hear Andrew Pudewa (IEW) or Steve Demme (MUS). We'll see who comes to Northern CA. Danika

First thing - sleepovers - no can do! It's too much work, and totally annoying to my husband. So, we'll wait until they're older (teenager, I'm thinking). MAYBE! As for activities, we have found that too many activities is stressful, too few is boring (my kids' words). So, I try to figure out things that they can do that won't take me too far away, to limit driving. And, things that they can do together (they're 20 months apart, so that's easy - they take Karate together 2 days a week). If I schedule something like swim lessons, which are across town, then I do it 2 or 3 days a week, and we do it for a short period of time (4 or 6 weeks, once a year). We also do soccer, so it gets a little busy in the fall, with both kids playing & husband coaching a team. But, they love it, so it's worth it. We also have options on classes to take at school (we're in a public charter), so we have classes there. That being said, I have a few ironclad rules. #1 - Mondays are pajama day! Yes, we spend most of the day in PJ's. We don't run errands, we don't take classes, we don't do ANYTHING! It's my day to catch up if we had a busy weekend, to do laundry, to straighten up the house, etc. #2 - Fridays are fun days. We do our daily schoolwork in the morning (just the minimum), then in the afternoon, we try to do something fun - park days, museums, whatever comes up. We also meet with friends for an informal co-op 2x a month on Fridays, where we also strive for balance. We have specific things for them to do (science kits, crafts, a game, etc.), but it doesn't take up the entire time, so they have plenty of time to run around and play. #3 - nothing happens in the morning except breakfast & schoolwork. If we have a dentist appointment at 10am, it's a guarantee that NOTHING productive will get done that day! I'm not sure why, but we just can't figure out how to come back home after a morning out and buckle down (my kids are young, so that may be part of it). So, I just don't schedule anything for mornings (classes, appointments, errands, etc.). I also normally don't overschedule our weekends. As a matter of fact, many, many weekends, we have NO PLANS whatsoever! Not that if something comes up, we can't do it. I just refuse to commit to 3 birthday parties in 1 weekend, no matter whose they are. Even family can't make me feel guilty for this! I have many friends who are constantly on the go, but I've found that none of us are happy if we don't spend enough time at home. I've also found that if I can do laundry, run errands, grocery shop, whatever, during our afternoons, then our weekends are just more pleasant for everyone. My husband especially appreciates this. Weekends are strictly for fun, family time. Don't feel guilty for doing what feels right for your family and yourself. Everyone is different, everyone's "homebody quotient" is different, everyone reacts differently to time spent in a car. Danika

Right now, our Barnes & Noble has a bookclub for girls, where they're reading the American Girls series. They get together once a month, discuss the current choice, and then do a craft. I know that Borders has some as well (for adults always, kids sometimes), and the library has quite a few. I think that you would just have to make sure the book in question was appropriate for your kid. A lot of times they do a series, which makes it a little easier to judge if you're interested, plus if your kid is really into that series, they can make friends with others who are also interested in that. I imagine they'll be close in age, but not exactly the same, which is also fine with me! Danika

http://www.mathusee.com/blog/?p=110 He was really great in explaining how one of his kids just needs a LOT more explanation from him than the others did. So, he actually DOES the problem for the kid, with the kid watching, and him explaining, SEVERAL times, before he ever has the kid do it himself. I listed to a CD of Andrew Pudewa (IEW), who also talked about giving a child a LOT of help if needed. It was an interesting take on things. It seems that here in America, we have this thing where we feel like a kid has to figure things out better, and that we shouldn't be "giving them the answer". Some kids just need a lot more from us before we can expect them to do on their own. Unfortunate, I KNOW! :tongue_smilie: Anyway, I highly suggest this blog, and will listen to it myself when I start to get frustrated with a subject that one of my dc needs more help on. I imagine that I will listen to it MANY times!!! Danika

My dd5 is definitely NOT a fast memorizer. It takes her AGES to get ANYTHING memorized. Frustrating for those of us who are good memorizers ("how in the world can she NOT know this, we've done it 1000 times already!" has gone through my head more than a few times!). I've tried everything to help her (flashcards, drills, games, songs), but finally backed off when I realized that she DID memorize things, it just took TIME! I realize now that we're trying to learn our addition facts that she did finally learn her skip counting (2's, 5's and 10's). She did it 100% by repetition. She had it in MUS Primer, and now she has it again in Alpha. And, when we did it recently, she whipped right through her 10's. But, I will tell you that it seemed to take FOREVER to get to that point. The only thing that helped me to get through that was to realize that I don't have to do anything special to help her. I just have to give her a little bit of it every single day. I've also found the same thing with sight words. I introduce them, we read stories with them, we have a list on the wall, I repeat "that's the sight word 'the' " about a million times as we read. But, I don't quiz her on them, we don't focus on that, and over the last 7 months, she's learned 20 out of 25 - without my doing ANYTHING except having her see them on a regular basis in her reading. I guess it just takes time for things to "click" with her. She needs to see/hear it 1000 times, as opposed to some kids who only need to see/hear it 100 times (or my ds4, who only needs to see it 3 times!). Oh yeah - and once she learns something, I go back and review it periodically to make sure it's still "there" somewhere in her brain. So far, it has been!:thumbup: Good luck! Danika

I have to say, we are only in Alpha (dd is 5, ds is 4), so I'm no expert! But because of MUS's layout, we finished Primer in about 3 months, and will be done with Alpha and on to Beta by the end of summer. I like how he says in the video to not beat a dead horse. If you know the info, move on. Spend more time on what you don't know, learn it, print out additional worksheets from their website if need be, etc. But, you can really get through these books more quickly than most other programs, so you could get your dc back up to where he was in a decent amount of time. I also think you're never doing wrong by going back and learning (or re-learning) something that wasn't mastered the first time around. Imagine how frustrating it would be on a daily basis if you don't have the right skills to do the work. I love how Steve Demme teaches things. I loved math, went all the way to calculus in college, and still, I find new ways of looking at things even in Primer (kindergarten level book)! This is a great program in that way! All of that being said, I will say that in Alpha, he does start to talk about memorization, and has a worksheet where you need to memorize your addition facts, but he doesn't really get into exactly HOW you're supposed to accomplish this. So, my ds4, who is a great memorizer, has just "picked up" on this and can whip through his addition facts right after we learn them. He doesn't do the workbook much, we mostly do things orally, but it's really just extraordinarily EASY for him (I think he's learning to read in the same way, he's just FAST at remembering those phonics rules). But my dd5 doesn't have such an easy time of it, so while she does do the workbook, and likes the math, she is having a much harder time remembering the addition facts that she needs to know. Now, I just need to figure out HOW to get those into her head. We did purchase the CD to listen to, but it's a little beyond where she is right now except skip-counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. But, she did eventually learn these, and it was just by a LOT of repetition. I mean a LOT of repetition. A LOT!!!!!! Luckily, she got it in Primer and again in Alpha. But it took a lot longer than I would have thought.:banghead: (this is me banging my head against a brick wall, not her...luckily I think I hid my frustration fairly well!). So, I would say that you need to spend time going through the drills and creating extra worksheets on an almost daily basis. But, I think that you only want to do just a TINY bit every day (that dead horse thing again). For some kids, I think it just takes longer to "click". Once it does, it's all good, but until then....:banghead: (brick wall again, I think you may feel my pain!). Good luck, and much patience to you! Danika

I LOVED TWTM, and it is what solidified in my brain how I was going to homeschool my kids. It is also what finally convinced my husband that I was actually going to give my kids a great education (I think he pictured us unschooling because that's what he saw with me for baby/toddlerhood/preschool, as it should be!). When we first started last fall, I had a plan for what we'd be doing. We had tons of curriculum, and I was ready to start. But, my dd5 couldn't really do 3 hours a day of sitting-down, book-work type stuff. And, she's really good about sitting down and doing her work. So, I had to rethink the timetables in the book, and change the plan. I decided to use the book as a guide. I know where we are (at the beginning), I know where we want to be when we're at the 12th grade, and I just have to have a reasonable plan for how to get there. It will be a work in progress over the next 12 years, but if you have a plan, and refer back to TWTM to make sure you're on the right path, I don't think you can go wrong. That being said, I don't plan on using all of their recommendations for curriculum, just because I have to do what works for my kids. Like, we started with Saxon Math, and HAD to switch after a month. My daughter actually said "I'm not learning anything, am I?" during a lesson. That day, I went and got Math-U-See, and have never looked back. If I had continued with Saxon just because TWTM recommended it, I think I would have lost it a long time ago (it is very tedious, in my opinion). So, you have to find the balance there. And remember, she doesn't even really address kindergarten in TWTM. So, I figured we'd get a head start on the 1st grade plan, and we really focus on phonics and math. My dd wasn't ready to listen to SOTW, so we've put it off until next year. And, she really didn't like FLL at all, so we've had to put that aside as well. We just do really informal grammar with our books that we read. Next year, we'll kick it up a notch for everything, and each year thereafter, adding new things, adding more time, etc. There's nothing wrong with easing into it, especially if you're starting at the beginning. Good luck! Danika

I am with a public charter school, and we have a certain amount of "work samples" we have to turn in each period (I guess to "prove" that we're actually working :)). And, my dd5 is only in kindergarten, so please don't think that I'm an expert! But, I just have a general plan for what we need to accomplish for the year. I know that we need to do phonics and math every day, which we do first. I then leave it up to her to choose from the many other things we can do each day. Right now, she loves doing ETC, so we've put HWT on the back burner (her hand gets "too tired to do more writing" she whines). We kind of do things like that. If we get a science kit, that's all she wants to do for a week. If we get books at the library, it's a reading-fest for 2 days. So, I try to be flexible and allow her to make choices, and everything seems to go in spurts. But, we still seem to cover everything - just not in any logical order, if you know what I mean. Now, as she gets older, we'll incorporate more things that have to be done daily, but she'll still be able to pick and choose what she likes to do each day somewhat. I also take her with me to the homeschool store, and she always finds something new and interesting that she wants to do. I find this to be a good balance between "child-led" learning and more rigorous classical-type learning. I feel like I never got to run with anything that was really fun or interesting in school, never developed a "passion" for anything, and want to give my kids a chance to see if one develops. We also plan on schooling year-round - I can't imagine taking the summer off! So, we'll continue on with our phonics and math, but I will give them even more chances to find new exciting things to do! More field trips, more trips to the library, more trips to the homeschool stores, etc. But, this gives us extra time to finish anything we haven't yet when the school year ends, and we still have plenty of time each day to do the "fun" stuff because whatever we've finished we don't have to incorporate in (like, if we finish our grammar book, I won't feel the need to do grammar each week, same with writing, history, etc.). Just my way of doing things. I write almost nothing down ahead of time, then write in what we've accomplished for the last 2 weeks (because I have to turn it in), and it always seems to be what I would have planned out for us IF I planned it! Good luck with whatever way you choose to do things. We all have to do what fits with our personalities, what's working for our families, etc.

A friend told me about this curriculum, but just as a "check this out". My kids are young, so we're just going to start SOTW next year. But, after 4 years, I would like to switch to something else, and TQ looks interesting. I like the classical approach, and the thoroughness that it seems to have (being a 7-year plan for older kids). Can anyone tell me what they think of this program? How does it fit with SOTW? Thanks, Danika

You can have someone test your kids, or test them yourself if you'd like, depending on the test. BJU Press has the Stanford Achievement test available for purchase - if you know someone with a bachelor's degree, they can watch a DVD and then fill out an application, and they can test your kids for you. A non-relative is the best fit for this test, as they have rules for relatives. BJU Press also has the ITBS, which can be administered by a teacher (credentialed), former teacher (also credentialed), or anyone with a bachelor's degree. You can also be related to the student. I know there are other tests out there, and they may have similar requirements. I know that if I was going to test my kids with one of these type tests, I would just have my mom do the ITBS, as she has a degree and I don't. But, if I had one (or my husband did), we would just do it ourselves. Hope this helps. :) Danika

My ds is almost 4, and starting on math at the same level as my dd who is 5.5. He is also doing OPG, and just started, but may catch up at some point. I worry about her feeling like everything just comes easily to him and that he's smarter than her, but I also feel like I can't hold him back because of her feelings! UGH, being a parent should come with some sort of manual!!:eek: So far, she doesn't seem to mind, but I don't know if she has even noticed yet. In the meantime, we try not to make too much fuss over either of them, except to say "great job" when they do something well. We don't compare them to each other, or their friends, who are all in public school and far behind them at this point. She will be a year ahead by the end of the school year, and if he's right there with her, he'll be 3 years ahead. And I am completely relaxed in my homeschooling approach with them at this point - imagine what would happen if I actually pushed them! So, what DO I do if he passes her by in math, reading, or both??? It stinks that she's ahead of her peers, but might still be behind her little brother! Danika

My 5yo is learning to read with OPG. But, she likes to take things slowly, and she also likes to have some "fun" with her reading. So, a while ago, while we were apparently flush with money, I purchased Hooked on Phonics K and HOP 1st grade. So, what we did was go through the section on short-vowel words in OPG. Then, we did all the stories and books in HOP-K. Then we read the 1st & 2nd set of Bob Books. Now, we're back to OPG, and we're done with the 2-consonant blends and working on the digraphs. Once we're done with this, we'll switch to HOP-1st grade. It gives her plenty of time to take things in on OPG, then even more practice time with HOP (I think there were 41 stories she read). She also learned a bunch of sight words from Bob & HOP that OPG doesn't teach. I haven't had to push much (except to insist that we read first each day, so that she can't put it off because she'd rather do math or something else), and she's really feeling confident in what she's learning. OPG goes really fast, and my kid just got overwhelmed with the amount of material she was learning, and then not getting enough practice with it. Now, my 3yo boy is trying to sound out words. So, we started on OPG today (short-vowel words, because we already know all of our letter sounds). I'll do the same with him as with my daughter, because I am not in any rush and don't want to push them in any way. They'll let me know if it's too repetitive or too slow, and we'll do it more quickly if we need to. As for math, my daughter worked her way through MUS-Primer and we're now on Alpha. My son is not a "workbook" kind of guy at this time, so we just work alongside her, with me writing in his book for him unless he wants to write. He uses the manipulatives, does all of the work orally, and I just don't worry about writing yet. It seems to work, because he sits with us and does his "work" without complaint every day. But, he's definitely done long before she is, and then he's off and running, but still kind of paying attention to whatever else it is we're doing. Just let them guide you - they'll let you know what to do. If they become bored, you're going too slow. If they become frustrated, you're going too fast. I think the younger siblings just come to see homeschooling as something natural, and want to join in whatever their older siblings are doing, and I don't see how this is a problem! Danika

I don't think there's been a court case in CA where homeschooling was ruled illegal - in fact, the opposite has been the case. It has consistently been ruled as legal, and the lower court ruled it legal in this case as well. Surprisingly, this was NOT the San Francisco court, which has it's cases overturned by the CA supreme court about 90% of the time - it's the Los Angeles court, of which I have no knowledge. Also, this effectively makes homeschooling illegal in ALL ways in CA, be it public charter school, private umbrella school, or R4. So even those of us using a charter school are worried. Danika