Or noobs, choose your spelling of choice. My oldest is entering 8th, and I still feel like a noob. I recognize that I do have some experience under my belt, but I don't feel "stable" as a homeschooler- every year is tweaked and (hopefully) improved upon (sometimes significantly, it feels like!). When did you stop feeling like a newbie, and do you have an objective grade level or number of years experience after which you consider another home educator to be seasoned?

I'm so amused and depressed after reading this. Lots of uncharitable laughter over here...

We loved Black Ships Before Troy and The Wanderings of Odysseus.

We live abroad, and we all have kindles (readers, not fire) connected to amazon.com. I am unable to download kindle content from amazon.de (the one Swiss people are directed to by default), amazon.co.uk, etc, even though I have accounts at all those stores and routinely buy physical books from them. So my impression is that a kindle device is linked to an amazon STORE, not to the device's physical location. If you bought it in the US, I would guess she just needs to open an account at the .com version of amazon, and I doubt that they care where the credit card is registered (is one even needed to open an account?), but I can't guarantee that. On maybe two occasions, I have been unable to buy an ebook on amazon.com because I was located in Switzerland. Both times, I think it was a super brand new release, and I was able to purchase it a week or so later, probably corresponding to the Swiss release date, even though I was purchasing from the .com store. 🤷‍♀️ One thing that does NOT work abroad is amazon prime. I cannot have an amazon.com prime account, only amazon.de. Video release seems to be very tightly tied to physical location of a device.

I've found that combining in elementary worked well for my oldest two, but my ds13 really made a leap this year that dd11 can't keep up with, so we're going back to spereate content for the two of them. My youngest two are combined for content.

I agree with OP that this is complicated home economics! The fact is, if we were in true lockdown, we would not be eating the same things we eat in normal life. So a 3 month supply of rice and beans for lockdown might look more like a full year's supply during normal times. Flour usage would grow exponentially, as I only rarely make homemade bread, but would make it as a staple in lockdown. Same situation for tuna, tomato sauce, spices, quinoa, canned fruits, peanut butter, dried fruits and nuts, etc. Save most of your freezer space for high nutrient items: frozen berries, frozen veggies, and meat. You need to square root all of that, then multiply it by expiration dates. Divide that by the volume of your irregularly shaped storage areas. If you have a pet, add 12. If your DH or DS has a food allergy, they should move to the top of the list for getting kicked off the island. Whatever number you get, add a zero to the end, and that's the amount of toilet paper you need per person.

If he could do it at a younger age, I'd let it go, sounds like puberty/attitude/boredom, maybe a bit of teen self-consciousness sneaking in. It'll come back to him when it's important to him.

I remembered another bad one- The Island (2005). A group of people live in an underground bunker, being told they are survivors of some apocalypse and might someday win a lotto to go to the last "clean" island on Earth. But they are actually clones of famous people and used for organ harvesting... Blair Witch Project was terrible. Being John Malcovich put me to sleep in high school, but I know it got good reviews.

Only some recent kids movies come to mind: - We were all so, so, so disappointed with Netflix's The Willoughbys. We love the book, and the movie was just horrible. - Lego Movie 2 and Trolls. I spent the whole of both movies wondering if my kids would become opium addicts after exposure to these movies.

Count me in the yawning crowd. I yawn continuously from the time I put one on until I can take it off. I had to take the train 2.5 hours last week, and masks are mandatory here on PT. I just yawned for 2.5 hours. My kids thought it was HILARIOUS. 😑

I believe her timeline figures should work fine. There might be one or two minor discrepancies for something like the length of the Old Egypt kingdom or something, but just place the figure where it belongs and if they come with dates, just cut those off (can't remember off the top of my head, but I do have the CD around here somewhere). There's only a chapter or two of SOTW1 that cover pre-history, so you shouldn't really find any date discrepancies between the various Old/New Earthers. If you want to go further back to the dawn of homo sapiens, you'll have to just google and find your own images, which can be fun in and of itself.

Yeah, there is not nearly as strong of a children's lit tradition in French as there is in English... hard to find kid books that are originally French rather than translations.

I also love Joyce. And Felicity. Girls nature names I love: Daphne, Hazel, Linnea, Ivy, Camilla Boys lesser-used classics: Phillip, John (don't seem to see as many of these anymore, even though it was once ultra common), Theodore, Ian, Peter, Jerome, Julian. I knew a boy growing up named Justice, and I've always thought that was cool.

My kids love doing Instant Challenges http://www.cre8iowa.org/resources/instant-challenge-library/ For MacGyver theme, you'll want the task-based ones. They use common objects to build all sorts of stuff. I love love loved MacGyver growing up!!!

I like Teddy, or on that same theme, Paddington. Other famous bears: Winnie, Smokey

We had it, but always homemade. I had no idea it could be bought pre-mixed.

Lots of places were colonized almost uniquely for raw materials exportation back to the mother land. South America was mined for precious metals, America for timber, fish, skins, etc, the Caribbeans for sugar cane IIRC, etc. Australia was somewhat exceptional, as were some of the colonies to the US who had goals of creating new societies. But as far as English, Spanish, French, etc governments were concerned, colonies were about making money and providing resources to the mother country, not about building new societies. That came later. Given the word constraint, I might build off a topic sentence like: The establishment of a mining colony on Pandora to strip the planet of its rare Unobtanium is similar to the Spanish colonization of South America in order to strip the land of precious metals. In both cases, the sovereignty and welfare of the native population were ignored in the pursuit of monetary gain. You could conclude with something pulling from what you are saying, "Although not all colonies were founded for the stripping of natural resources, many historical colonizations were similar to the situation portrayed in Avatar."

I'm so sorry to hear about your family's loss. Even though the funeral home does not have an outdoor venue, is there a park nearby? You, DH, and MIL could be around the corner at the park. people who wanted to go to a viewing could swing by the funeral home for 10 minutes, then come to the park to offer condolences. It would keep people from congregating indoors if the indoor part was strictly for viewing and the socializing was moved outdoors, even a few blocks away. Whatever you decide, just know you are doing your best in a very difficult situation. If you must be indoors, open any and all windows and doors, and run the AC if there is one. Remove half the chairs (or more) in the room and space out the remainder. Consider reducing the viewing time from 2 hours to 1. Even with no available outside option, you can still be standing at the doorway to the building (outside) and have people go in without you guys. I hope you find a solution that helps you feel more comfortable. Your safety is not something to push aside for appearances, but I do realize that's easier said than done.

I'm not sure where the official list is. We use: - cuisinaire rods (not strictly necessary, you can just use base ten blocks) - base ten blocks - place value cards. The link is to the very nice, sturdy Rightstart product, but you can find them for free online and print/laminate them. - base ten cards. Not strictly necessary, but you can go to higher numbers without needing to buy lots of base ten blocks sets or extra thousands cubes. - 3D solids. Also not strictly necessary, but very handy when doing lessons on numbers of sides and vertices. Things that came in handy: some various-sided dice, some plastic circle counters, some actual money coins. I never used the SM base ten disk things; I always used the much more correct base ten blocks.

The older (1st) edition of RS B can be done without A very easily. In fact, it is set up so that you can skip the first 20 lessons if you've done RS A (1st edition), otherwise, those first 20 lessons bring you up to speed on the RS method. The newer edition, however, is harder to jump into at level B. I'd suggest buying the older version if you want to start right in at B. Having said that, SM standards really puts a huge emphasis on mental math and place value. You need to read and understand the home instructor's guide in order to implement it correctly, you can't just open the book up and teach unless you are already very familiar with Asian math methods. The program will work just as well as RS if used correctly. If your kid has a habit of counting down or counting up for - and +, I would use a manipulative like cuisinaire rods, which discourages counting methods in favor of subitizing. K-3rd grade math should definitely be taught in a manipulative heavy manner, so don't feel any rush to move away from them.

I've now transitioned my second child from SM to AOPS PA. Here is what we did: - First, we went straight from SM 5B to AOPS PA. This has not been a problem with either of my two kids who have switched. You will need to do some spontaneous teaching/review/reinforcement of negative numbers and powers if you choose to do it this way. If you are not comfortable with that, doing 6A and B might be a better option. - Starting in 5A, I had my kids switch to using a spiral bound notebook and copying the problems from the SM workbooks into the spiral and then doing them there. That gave us a full math year to get good at copying problems carefully, formatting a page, boxing answers, etc. - We have not done any of the extra SM books, but we did all workbook problems and all practice and review pages from the textbooks. - I still sit with them for AOPS. My oldest in now in AOPS geometry and my second is in AOPS PA. My oldest needs to ask me 1-2 questions per lesson, max. My younger asks me questions more often, but unlike SM, I am no longer teaching a lesson, just coaching the more difficult problems. We've chosen not to do the Challenging problems at the end of the chapters. I have mixed feelings about this, but ultimately I decided I didn't want to spend a full extra week per chapter, which I think it what it would have taken for many of the chapters. I may still have my oldest go through and do the challenging algebra problems because geometry is really going fast, but I'm waiting to get AOPS Advanced Algebra first to see how much review is in it already. Transition to AOPS from SM has gone really smoothly here. It's interesting to see how my two different kids have approached it, and where the stumbling blocks are for each. The AOPS books are truly amazing. Let me know if you have more specific questions.

I agree with @Random, Atomic Habits is a great one!

This is a genuine concern. I haven't quite figured out if we're going to use them or not.... sign.

I'm ok with pretty much all outdoor play dates where adults maintain social distance and kids may have some incidental contact but are not sharing drinks, licking eyeballs, etc. I would not mind someone running in to use the restroom, especially one at a time, and although I would expect and insist that they wash hands after obviously, i would also disinfect them as they came back to the yard. After they left, I'd clean the bathroom and knobs/handles. I really feel quite safe outdoors, in small groups (2-3 adults plus their kids) with social distancing in place for adults. For pre-pubescent kids, we are just careful not to share food or drinks, and the kids have learned to keep their hands out of their mouths and cover their coughs/sneezes. For me, this feels sustainable long-term, though we'll have to reconsider when the weather turns cold again. We'll probably go back to semi-isolation when we can't meet up outside.

Spark! by Ratey is a great book. I just did a search to see if Medina had anything for teens, and he has Attack of the Teenage Brain. I haven't read it, but I've read his Brain Rules and Brain Rules for Aging Well, both of which were very good. He also has a Great Courses on audible- Your Best Brain - that looks really good.