I love my Keens, I'd wear them year round if weather permitted. They are the only shoe I feel 100% comfortable in. But shoes are so personal, you'd need to try them on. I love that they are closed-toe also. I recommend getting a model that has a heel strap, shoes that do not cause a small clenching movement in the toes as you lift the foot, and over time, this is bad for your toes.

Agreeing to be careful on defining terms here. My riser 3rd grader can: - read a chapter of Life of Fred, then answer the questions as I read out loud. - Complete her math worksheet from singapore math while I am sitting at the table, but not fully concentrated on her (possibly doing math with little brother, possibly also coaching older siblings in math) - read a chapter of a book slightly below her current reading level - listen to an audiobook I am actively involved in her math lesson, all language arts, reading lessons, and content subjects.

Finally made a forward step. My little guy has been wanting a sticker chart, so I finally made him one. 😂 I figured his weekly checklist was the easiest to do, so I started with him. One down, 3 to go... - Finished history planning and book orders for Modern history! - Finished middle school Philosophy, Geography, and Science cursuses (yes, that is an accepted plural of cursus...) and most book orders - Rough sketch for literature, but still needs work - Rough sketch for weekly rhythm, but still needs work. Going to try a new direction, with Fridays being our literary days with heavy reading, poetry, research, and writing concentrated on that day, along with most book discussions from their reading lists. Planning to use quick and deadly sentence-level writing work throughout the week. Lots of printing/photocopying left to do, plus more thoughts to think before launching my Literary Fridays.

Some info on heart rate: - Your max HR very likely does not correspond to the age formula. The age formula can be used to discuss populations, but definitely not individuals, as the spread is huge around this population average. The only real way to know your max HR is to run a max HR test- you can find info about this online. My max HR is about 205. Formula gives 182. If I tried to create zones based on the formula, I probably could not even break into a jog without approaching the red zone. So definitely DO NOT rely on formulas, and don't be freaked out if your HR runs high, as long as your perceived effort is on target for the zone you are looking for. https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20820170/do-your-own-fast-or-slow-thing/ This has a pretty good description of perceived effort scales, but I was hoping to find the one in Jack Daniel's Running book, which has an excellent one, IIRC. -------- I'm still running! Still working on portions. The weather is beautiful but hot.

I have my kids read through that series during middle school. Oldest just finished it (rising 8th grade) and second just began it (rising 6th grade). I have them read 2 chapters a week, and watch two youtube videos on topics from those chapters that they find interesting. I count it as a cross between history and science, but would not have it stand a lone as science- we do other stuff as well in middle school, like Ellen McHenry's stuff.

This exactly. Both can be playing at a water table while your son is ALSO counting out how many stones he's washed. Both can be playing sand while son is drawing letters in the sand with a stick. Both can be taking a walk in the park with you while son is listening more closely to a story you are telling him, or pointing out green things or square things or whatever. Both can be playing blocks with an audiobook on in the background. There is no miracle to making a child who is not developmentally ready hold still and stay calm. The best you can do is to lay the groundwork with daily structure. If she is developmentally an 18 month old, then that is how you need to threat her, and where you need to put your expectations. I have homeschooled 3 children simultaneously while my fourth was literally climbing on the table at 18 months. One of my favorite memories is my oldest son simply holding out his hand to block younger brother while he continued to do math problems. 18 months is a tough developmental stage. There is no secret to surviving it. I doubt you are going to find a quiet 10 minutes during your babysitting day. I would do phonics at bed time if you really want to do phonics. It sounds like you are in a really tough situation. Personally, if I did not need the money to survive, I would ask the parents to make other arrangements. I would only be willing to give special needs level care to my own child or my nieces/nephews because I am a selfish person and selfishly guard my family time. So I admire that you are trying to make this work. If you plan on this being a long term gig, you really will get more benefit by focusing on her if possible, looking into special needs resources, and possibly a special needs daycare that she can attend already- many places offer early intervention for children with diagnosed SN.

Does the child have an actual diagnosis? Everything you are describing sounds like perfectly normal 3yo behavior, especially a 3yo who is maybe coming from a home with less structure than yours. It will take her a while to adapt and mature. If she has an actual diagnosis, you may need to consider whether or not babysitting a high-needs child is compatible with what you are trying to do with your own child. My two early readers got to chapter books by age 6 on under 10 minutes of phonics/reading lessons a day. Similar for math acceleration. My "normal speed" kid is now 8 and reading chapter books - the same ones my accelerated readers did at 8. She got to skip a lot of poorly written fluff (aka Magic Treehouse and genre): not a great loss. But to answer your OP, why not flip the question on its head? What sorts of learning activities can your ds do independently, while you concentrate on her? (Even though we all agree this is totally unnecessary?): Can he sort buttons by color, number of holes, or size? Can he collect 5 items around the house that being with the /r/ sound? That end with the /t/ sound? Can he place the correct number of buttons or beans on cards that have numbers written on them? Can he arrange his stuffed animals from smallest to largest? Herbivores vs carnivores? It sounds as if your son is capable of doing independent tasks, so give him assignments and you can continue to work with the little girl. When you take out playdrough, have him form the letters he knows while she makes what she'd like. Grab some old magazines form a garage sale or library sale and set the kids loose with scissors and glue sticks. Let her make whatever she wants, encourage your son to create a scene of his choice, or collect bird pictures or whatever. You get the idea. Many people here are homeschooling with babies and toddlers underfoot, and still managing to teach elementary, middle, and high school despite constantly supervising a younger child. It's a matter of being creative and establishing BEHAVIOR routines for the little people.

Part of the trick here will be establishing and enforcing your home routine/rules/culture. This is true whether it is your 3yo or another 3yo. Things like: Clean up between activities (or before meals, I could never manage constant clean up) Sit at table to eat/drink Sit quietly during picture book time After that, pre-school is really unnecessary within a home where language is being used in a learning rich space. That is, no 3 year old should be learning colors or shapes or really anything else by drill. Simply comment constantly, "Your shirt is blue today! That's like my table cloth! The table cloth is a little bit darker blue, your shirt is blue like the sky." and "This plate is a circle. What else is a circle today? You're right, the pizza is a circle!" If you want to go beyond that at age 3, do a letter of the week and count things out loud constantly. "We each get ten grapes, let's count them..." 3 year olds are still learning to be civilized humans, and that means using language well- not adding or sounding out words. If your son is ready for more advanced work (two of mine could blend letters at 3), it should take less than 10 minutes and can be done before she arrives in the AM or after she leaves in the PM. If this is a long-term job, invest in this early time on establishing your house rules, so that next year, you can tell her she needs to do play-dough quietly for 15 minutes while you work with ds, and she will know what that means and have the skills to comply.

To answer OP, the book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is very good. We love graphic novel Shakespeare books with the original text as well. Your best bet is to spend a lot of time reading out loud or having your child read older children's literature- from Beatrix Potter to Howard Pyle, etc. The complexity of language and vocab is shocking compared to modern books, but kids can take it in just like anything else. For those interested in Old English, I did an exercise in my History of English class in college that I found very helpful. We memorized the first few lines of Beowulf (Old English), Canterbury Tales (Middle English) and of course Shakespeare for Early Modern. I still know them to this day, and it give a handy reference for how language evolves and just how far we've come.

I can remember telling a friend that vacationing with small children was not a vacation, just the same work as at home but in a less adapted space, aka more work. The only vacation I get is when my mom comes here or we go there, as she is capable of swooping in and basically taking over everything. 😂 Now that my kids are getting older, (and probably me getting stronger in my vacation muscles, lol), I can enjoy being out and about with the kids away from our routine areas. But relaxation never enters the picture when the kids are with me. It sounds like you are arranging and facilitating an awesome vacation for your kids and their friends and your mom. What an amazing gift. And you'll deserve your own weekend away when it's over!!!

This is spot-on, as the reason I do like Brave Learner is because I tend to be too uptight and controlling, and so her opposite style really forces me to grow as a person! 😀 You are completely right that sometimes the right book is the one that challenges, rather than only affirms you.

Brave Learner, by Bogart The Well-Trained Mind by Bauer (obviously!) Why Don't Students Like School? by Willingham - Don't let the sort of lame title throw you off, this is a cog sci look at effective teaching strategies. The Knowledge Deficit, by ED Hirsch. I see he has a newer title out: Why Knowledge Matters, I imagine they cover the same ground. Any couple of titles by John Holt. I'm not an unschooled, but I appreciate his message of taking a child's work seriously. How to talk so kids will listen, and listen so kids will talk These are the main books that have influenced our schooling style. Many of them propose non-traditional methods for education, though if I had to choose just one, I'd choose Brave Learner for that.

I would not approach race at this age from a "racism" perspective, but rather from a diversity perspective. My very first step would be to request permission to use some of the funds saved by not purchasing curriculum to buy multicultural crayons/markers. This may feel like a baby step, but I think it's an important one. I really like how skin tone is discussed in the book "The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever". The author takes the taboo away from discussing skin color by talking through her thought process as she draws out a book illustration in front of her classroom. "Let's see, Sally's skin was about this color... no wait, I think this crayon is closer. And Tammy's skin was a darker brown tone, I think I'll use this crayon. And Joey's was in between, and I'll use this one to add his freckles..." It made it "safe" for the kids to use the crayons and discuss skin color. I think sometimes lack of multi-racial representation in children's art is due to a lack of tools to create it, and a fear of discussing it.

This exactly. Independently, my rising 6th and 8th graders do: - typing lessons - readings for history, art history, science, literature. We then discuss these readings. The spine books we read together out loud so that we can pause for discussion frequently and I can clarify, provide context, etc. - Vocab study for foreign language. The language itself they study with DH, then he assigns them workbook pages and vocab review pages to do independently. - Some parts of research or writing assignments. These assignments are multi-day and involve lots of work with me, but I can certainly assign tasks and then work with siblings in the mean time. - AOPS math. I serve in a coaching role here, but for the most part, our math time in now quiet as opposed to when I used to give lessons and then pages to complete. I don't define any of those as "self-teaching," because even though they are obviously learning independently from me, I am still setting out the program, choosing and modifying resources to fit needs, setting the schedule, checking for undersatnding, etc. This is a much higher level skill than simply completing reading assignments with some degree of attention to the material. The only things my kids have truly learned independently are skills related to their own hobbies. My son built a functional RC model airplane using Youtube videos and discussion with a local model shop owner. The only help I provided was to sometimes aid in narrowing down search terms to help him find exactly what he was looking for. He is now teaching himself how to play Dungeons and Dragons from youtube videos. My dd uses youtube tutorials for polymer clay sculptures, art/drawing, lettering, journaling, cooking... Both have used youtube to learn dance moves.

I'm about halfway through, and so, so grateful I didn't live in Russia in the 1700s. 😱

I'm agreeing with the others- bacon has pretty much every hallmark of an addictive processed food: intense flavor, salt, sugar, fat, texture (chewy-crunchy). It's cool that you were able to identify the culprit!

We watched Shakespeare The Animated Tales version, which is abridged. My kids weren't totally thrilled with it, but it was ok. Then we watched a Kevin Kline semi-modern adaptation, which was silly and ok, but has a bit of nudity and suggestion. It's hard to figure out where to draw the line exactly, as Shakespeare WAS bawdy. I also let my older kid (12 at the time) watch Shakespeare in Love, which also has nudity.

Hi everyone! I've been keeping up with reading, but not posting, on the thread! For my own progress: - For two weeks now, I've been consistently seeing 58.Xkg instead of 59.X on the scale, so slow downward progress continues. My main strategy is mostly skipping dinner (aka fasting from 1pm-7am), which I do 4-5x a week. - I ran a sub 9 minute mile as part of a 5k run. Not a lot sub 9, but 8:55 still counts! I run a fast 5k about once every week or two to see if I'm making any speed progression. I'd been stuck at a 9:15 for a couple months, mainly due to not having a legit training plan. Still don't, but lots of long, easy miles are making it psychologically easier to push for a fast 5k through the whole distance.

In answer to the title question, yes, me!!! I've actually gotten SO MUCH done. But I don't have a clear mental picture of our daily routine and how I want to track assignments for the big kids and little kids. We have done planners, charts, clipboards... in the past, and I'm just not quite sure how I want to do it this year. I'd like planners for the bigger kids, but those were the hardest to keep up with, unlike their checklists on clipboards. But clipboards take up space, and space is at a bit of a premium here. Sigh.

I used Mutu and closed the gap considerably, but did not "heal" it. I ended up needing abdominal hernia surgery and the doc explained certain tissues do not shrink back. I can't remember which ones, bu I think it was the linea alba in particular. So in other words, maintaining a closed gap takes daily maintenance for life because the LA is going to remain lax. The linea alba can't take the strain anymore because it is loosened, so the abdominal muscles need to assist. I really like this article- https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/08/07/541204499/flattening-the-mummy-tummy-with-1-exercise-10-minutes-a-day

f anyone is curious if these books work, here is my son's Europe map, drawn from memory.I

For foreign language, my kids have: - a non-consumable textbook - a consumable workbook designed for the textbook - A vocab notebook which also includes conjugations. This notebook is very simple, just pages split into 2 columns with vocab in one and the translation in the other. The vocab is just thrown in as they lean it, and DH assigns them pages of their vocab book to review on a rotation. My only suggestion as a French speaker is to have gendered nouns written in two different colors, for example blue for masculine and pink for feminine. To this day I regret not memorizing gender with greater attention from day one. You can carry this a step further and put verbs in green, but the nouns are the real trouble-makers where colors would be very helpful.

This subject is not my hill to die on, but my opinion, with caveats is to let the statues stand as a memorial to our country's history. My caveat is that the comedy news show Last Week Tonight did a great episode (strong language/content warning) on this topic, and I agree with many points made. When confederate statues have gone up in the last 50-75 years... yeah, those can certainly come right back down. But statues that have been around "forever"? To me, they are similar to books written in other times, where reading the book allows us to look through another lens and viewpoint, and are often as effective a lesson in worldview as the story plot itself. Aren't things like the Colosseum, Pyramids, etc also essentially the glorification of slave labor? But we recognize that these also bear significant historical importance, so we are not razing them to the ground (yet). Our history is younger, but no less valid for preservation. I agree upthread with the idea that OTHER things are more important to preserve- the blocks on which slaves were auctioned, battle fields of the Rev and Civ wars, etc. I also agree upthread that these statues would be better voted out (and ideally into a museum or similar) than destroyed by mobs. I wold also love to see some more creative solutions to this problem. I'm not sure if anyone remembers the "scandal" surrounding the charging bull statue and the Fearless Girl statue in NY, but why not attempt to reimagine these statues or their settings?

If you're not familiar with Dry Bar Comedy on youtube, it's a really fun channel. It's stand-up comedy, but based in Salt Lake City and so relatively clean. Not everything is necessarily child applicable, but I haven't come across anything sufficiently risqué to care if my kids listen in.

I've been contemplating this thread for a while, torn between writing a response and actually planning courses for 8th and 6th grades. Here is the basic plan of how I set up our courses for the year we just finished (7th and 5th in particular, I do something different for lower elementary): Figure out the big picture. At this point, I start from my oldest's "graduating year" from homeschool, and work backwards to see what we need to do to get done so that I'm sending him to gymnase with the skills/knowledge I hope for him to have. Draw out a rough outline getting from point A to B. Create a booklist or resource list for each content area I want to cover. This is where the major work lies. I research here, amazon, various study guides and book lists... I try to aim for 1-2 spine books and supplementary materials for the spine(s). Arrange this in a spreadsheet, broken down by chapter or topic, listing supplementary materials alongside the appropriate chapter/topic. Consider what type of regular (daily or weekly) output might be part of the subject, if any. Consider what sorts of capstone projects or assignments I want (monthly, every 6 weeks, etc.) and what form those should take, and list those. Check between subjects that I'm not going to end up with 10 large assignments all at once. Print out my spreadsheets (when they become too marked up and modified, I go into the spreadsheet, modify, and reprint), put them in my binder, and just check items off as we go through. We tend to work through content on something closer to a loop than a schedule, so this method give me a good homemade "Do the next thing" type structure. I tweak these spreadsheets as I go. I can't preview the entire year's history books, so sometimes I go to pull a listed resource and see it's just not what we need, or perhaps another would be a better fit. This refinement continues all year. To aid with the points 4 and 5, I have a list of output types to choose from: Writing of all kinds (note taking of all kinds, letters, paragraphs, essay, reports, stories) Models of all kinds (ex. polymer clay model of cell organelles, biome diorama) Plot diagram (from Teaching the Classics) Sketches (maps, battle layouts, scientific concepts, art) Power point presentations, speeches, skits, stop-motion film Lab reports, charts, graphs Discussion Memorization/recitation I find it handy just to have this list available (feel free to add suggestions!) so that I can choose form a variety of output types. I've really enjoyed seeing other people's workflows for this process! Thanks for starting the thread.