I nearly made a new persona to answer this, for privacy reasons, but I want to follow board rules. Please don't quote me in case I choose to delete it later. My family is very well acquainted with the Springfield (PA) mall person who caused mayhem (I am trying to make this less searchable). She came from a very loving, stable, caring home. She was had lots of access to mental health services, and accessed them *many* times. There were many warning signs, and they were not ignored, but the system in the 80's in PA was set up to specifically balance the rights of the person to not be hospitalized against their will versus the need for treatment*. Her problems were certainly not being ignored by her family or her doctors or the community. Despite multiple hospitalizations and as much care as a loving family could provide, at the time, yes, she was beyond help. Not everything can be fixed, as much as we would like it to be. Mental illness is an illness, and we all know of other illnesses we sometimes cannot fix, much as we want to and as unfair as it might seem. She came from a proactive, loving family, and no, it was not enough. This is why it makes me sad when people blame the Lanza family for what took place. You can do everything right, and things can still go wrong. We do not know the Lanzas, and I dislike seeing them judged. We are on the outside looking in through the rather imperfect lens of the ever-changing stories in the news media. Even if we see things we think are "wrong" with that family, remember, they could have done everything "right" (sort of-- does any of us really meet that standard???) and had zero guns in the house, and this could still have happened somehow. We just don't know. Because yes, there are some things we just can't fix. *NB This is not my opinion. This was the legal status in PA in the 80's.

I am about the same. Once in a while, I recall that these words are permanent, and that people read the posts in their own tone if voice rather than in mine. and I end up deleting. Also in real life, autocorrect on my iPad does not make so many strange edits.

I have no problem with letting my kids go up when we are alone, but the second another child appears, it is one way traffic only! Otherwise I agree with you completely-- it is a huge safety is AND a rudeness issue, no different from cutting in line. (What is up with parents who say nothing to their kids who just shove my kids to the side as they are climbing the ladder, or even at the top? Yes, my kids are slower than your hyper, out of control kids with apparently no manners. They get a turn anyway). Addressing it later at home does not work with kids that young-- kids are immediate creatures. Your child may be smart. You might have "an amazing conversation" about it later at home. But trust me. Unless it is connected directly to the behavior, they don't get it at that age. That's why they are still shoving my kids at the top of a slide.

We added some cappuccino mix to our chocolate drop cookies yesterday. They were quite popular.

Thanks!

I told my son I would appreciate him not googling more information about the shooting. When he asked why, I said there were two reasons. 1. The information and images, besides being highly disturbing, keeps changing as the picture of what really happened changes. That shifting information itself makes an already horrific situation even worse. (Particularly fr an 11YO struggling to make his world make sense again). 2. Perseverating on the topic will really drain you, mentally, emotionally, and physically. It will prevent you from doing basic daily things you need to do. And it won't make anything better for the victims. A focused time of meditation or prayer, fine. Obsessing for hours, not so fine (for 11YO boy. I think we parents have a tough time letting go. I am trying to take my own advice, but some grieving is necessary, and I need some facts-- see below). I did tell him I would prefer he come to s rather than the Internet for information on this one, so we could help filter fact from fancy until things settle more. I did tell him to talk to us if he found himself sad, upset, or thinking about this a lot, instead of about 11YO boy topics like video games and diagramming sentences and what awesomeness to get his amazing Mom for Chrstmas, because we could help him talk through it-- it is not a forbidden topic. Now I am off to try my own advice. Chamomile tea, a few moments with a book, and cry myself to sleep... Those poor, innocent kids, and I am sorry if I catch flak for this, yes, for the obviously pained and hurting soul who perpetrated this. I do not excuse his actions one bit, but I will never believe that an individual does this outside of a tremendous place of pain himself. No excuse, and no, i do not place him in the same victim category as those poor children; just a reality. The person who did ths was unlikely to have been a happy, adjusted, safe feeling individual. Good night.

Easy switch. Google Docs will also work, but office is available for Mac, and you can run any PC only things in BootCamp if you need to, but pretty much anything on the Internet will run on a Mac. Also, if you mention homeschooling, you get an educator discount. One gripe: no delete key, only backspace. I get truly annoyed by that at least once per day. Oh, and Olly Homeschool Planner for Mac rocks!

If enough states adopt them, then kids who move are less likely o experience large gaps, because the sequences should be roughly the same no matter where you live, though implementation is still eft up to the teacher to decide (or district). Like prior iterations of school standards, they use a jittery history sequence that jumps about churningly in time and space-- bit of this, little o' that each year. There is a standard getting much press right now encouraging schools to include primary sources across the curriculum, which is being incorrectly spun as replacing literature in English classes with tech manuals, though this is not what the standard remotely says. Literature courses are still supposed to teach the full body of classics and poetry under the common core. I'm not a fan-- I think it has good theory but poor implementation in most respects (the non-fiction reading requirement a happy exception). As homeschoolers, we will make zero changes to our current plans. Our current plans are solid enough to take on any test without worrying about it or prepping particularly, other than maybe making sure when the time comes that the kids knw the Basic format of the SAT questions. Changing what we do to react to someone else's standards would not improve education, so we will ignore.

Wow, thanks for all the links! We, in fact, use K12's History Odyssey as an adjunct to Level 2 History Odyssey for logic stage kiddo.

In 2nd grade, I started with a timer. That had a down-side, in that some days he decided that he could just stare at his paper and do nothing for xx minutes and call it a day. (He can be kind of . . . stubborn). Now we do a lesson per day. I watch for signs-- some days a guy is just tired enough to make forging ahead useless. Some day I just intuit that he didn't finish grasping it and we repeat it or do more work on it in some fashion before moving on. (I love LoF: Honey, where it flat out tells him after one chapter, "You have to EARN the right to move on here, by showing that you have mastered your times tables. Here are a few strategies to help you learn them. Now go, and don't come back until you have earned the right to move on." (I paraphrased somewhat, but that is the essence of it). It was nice to see someone else telling him what I tell him, in very direct language!

We jump around, because we do History Odyssey, and we move at double speed, but we also add in extra things (such as the Hands of a Child early America note pack and do plenty of reading, not so many projects). We started in August, and will finish just before Christmas, working at it every other week. He gets a lot of extra repetition, because he enjoys listening to the audio in the car as well. We'll cover modern history from Jan--July. (Sorry, just realized you asked about 2, and I am talking about 3...but we did 1&2 on the same schedule last year, though we did more projects). This will allow us to start logic stage ancients at ~10 years old. One nice thing about SOTW is the ease of pacing it however you need to in order to fit your situation. My son has had great retention at this pace because he was older when we started, and we include so much literature, fun stuff like Horrible Histories, movies like 1776 that make the characters memorable, act things out, etc. we have memorized a few things to help put world events in order and relate them to one another... English Kings, Roman, Greek, and Norse gods, geography, and the like, without going nuts with memory work. However, I can see, with the wealth of literature and fun books available, not to mention field trips, how you could head the other direction and stretch SOTW out through ten years old even if you started in first or kindergarten, quite easily. I care more about my kids enjoying history and seeing why we care (and finding history in their books and movies, "in disguise" and feeling happy about being in on the joke) than I do about them being walking historians at this age. With one in logic stage (moving more slowly) and one finishing grammar stage, we are now at the point where they read to seek answers to good questions... Why did this king do this, why did the colonists act like that? Logic stage is, for us, a great time to slow down and dive on into individual questions! Sorry for rambling... I really digressed!

He is using level 2, not level 1, so is not using the Hillyer book; he using vanLoon, which is only one book and not used every day. (vanLoon also has some "interesting" way of putting things, which K12 balances out, along with the Kingfisher encyclopedia, which is more balanced). We do not attempt to read every single suggested book; it is more like a menu, so that you can pick and choose as you are moving through the program-- you can read the ones that look most interesting, that you have time to read, that are available in your local library or on sale secondhand on Amazon, or whatever your criteria are. There are only four literature books that are really "required" as you move through each level, as I recall. One of the great strengths of HistoryOdyssey is that it is flexible enough that you can eliminate something that you find is in conflict with your schedule or that you find a better resource for without any real difficulty, or you can use it as written to leave it open-and-go. For example, I believe the Hillyer book is assigned for Level 1 (I could be wrong about this), the grammar stage/elementary level. I didn't like the looks of it so much, so we just left it out-- it was listed as optional anyway, and we have not missed it. I felt the Hands of Child unit on Early America looked really good, so we are swapping that in for the sections on North American early modern history in level one for my younger son. Nothing will be messed up in the program as a result. Hope that helps.

I asked my 11YO what he felt about the poll; he is doing History Odyssey and reading K12 Human Odyssey on the side. His response: Human Odyssey is really fun to read, and that can help you to remember stuff. However, the assignments of History Odyssey that make you write things down, think about the timeline, and compare things really help you nail it down into your head. Could he do both like I do? Do History Odyssey for the assignments and to organize it, and just read the relevant chapters in Human Odyssey as he goes?

We do a combination-- I have more details in my blog (a set up and a follow up on how it's been going, for Bio this year). On Monday, I teach them an overview of the week's topic together. On Wednesday, we do the main labs together, though there is the possibility for individual projects (although when I tried that in chemistry, they always worked on each other's labs out of interest-- older would help younger with his labs, and younger would watch older with his labs; they would both watch any demos, and I would just ask them different kinds of questions-- older got questions about what drove the reaction, whereas younger got more questions about what he saw and what he thought happened). Through the rest of the week, they have separate reading assignments, different expectations for notebooking and presentations, though they are working on similar themes. As we work each week up the chain from bacteria through cnidarians to molluscs to arthropoda, younger might focus more upon finding out about habitats, individual animals, body plans, and so on; older reads about adaptations and compares how different body plans and different modes of locomotion and sense organs and feeding and reproduction systems change as we move across the different phyla and increase in complexity. Older DS incorporates more information about early biochemistry-- photosynthesis, ATP, oxygen/CO2 cycling, nutrient cycles, etc into his readings and notes in any given week. It has not been difficult to teach to two different levels in this manner.

I agree with this-- and my kids have some fantastic people in their lives, and are involved in many activities-- all of which we have had substantial influence in helping them choose. But how do they find the oddball opportunities that we, their parents aren't finding for them, the ones that they find on their own? As I said above, I may "get" this better as my kids become older and gain more independence. I also know that the vast menu of clubs, intramurals/noncompetitive sports, etc and other opportunities that were available when I was in school are no longer as available in today's schools, thanks to budget cuts, testing worries, and so forth, and the advent of helicopter parenting and parents trying to craft the Harvard application starting in preschool, so kids don't necessarily all have the freedom to choose things that interest them that they once did. I, however, am still a big believer in such opportunities. I think kids need to have a chance to choose surprising things for themselves, apart from activities set up exclusively by their parents. I don't know the basic message I am wrestling with is getting through here or not . . . and it has evolved some from my initial responses to Ms. Schmidt's loss.

Thank you all for your encouraging words. Kay Schmidt's loss just struck me unusually hard. I do also think that we must not take these things for granted when we make choices for our children. Like many of you, I too have my children enrolled in several external activities such as swimming, karate, fencing, gymnastics, etc. Hopefully a few of those relationships/mentorships will last long enough to become meaningful. There is a difference, though maybe I will feel it changing more as my kids, who are still pretty young, being to grow older. In school I had choices that I know my parents would never have even considered as options for me on their own, opportunities that were fantastic chances to learn and grow as a person-- theater lighting craft, creating a Students Against Drunk Driving group from scratch with a group of my friends, dissecting club, canoeing and camping field trips without my parents present, traveling Europe with American Music Abroad to give concerts, marching band, exposure to several instruments, and so forth. I have to figure out how to either let them find these "found" opportunities to try things that THEY get a chance to discover that I might never have thought of for them, as I had the chance to do, or accept that maybe this is one of the trade-offs of homeschooling. Perhaps 4-H and other groups will provide enough exposure to provide access to these kinds of activities? Time will tell. It goes beyond the no-brainer of listing each activity above and how a homeschooler can participate in it or an alternative; the point was that I had the chance through my teens to discover for myself, separate from what my parents thought I should do or might do, what I wanted to try; I feel sincerely that that is an important part of growing up. I'm not entirely certain how that is going to work its way into our homeschooling lifestyle-- but maybe my kids will show me. Thanks again for the support over a rough couple of days.

Here is DS11's current plan, but it is subject to change-- when they are ahead so young, a "slow down" can happen at any point, without having to cause any stress. Sometimes he gets stuck for a day or two, and I have to remind him to not beat himself up. I tell him, "You're 11. In PS you'd be doing 6th grade arithmetic right now, probably practicing multiplication and learning fractions again. Instead you are nearly done with algebra I. YOU ARE FINE! You are doing really well, and it's okay to take your time and learn this carefully right now." We are in no rush. ~5th-6th grade- LOF Algebra, self-exploring trig on Khan Academy, start algebra II ~6th-7th grade finish LOF Algebra II, (whatever he wants on Khan Academy), probably finish most of geometry ~8th finish LOF geometry, AoPS Number theory, LOF Trig, AoPS Probability ~9th LoF Calc (at least start it-- that one is a tome) 10th University Calc I & II possibly III 11th Will see from there-- we can do Calc III, LOF or University Stats, Linear Algebra, or a world of other math 12th see 11th. We'll know more where his interests lie by the time he gets this far. Math is a really big field :). My husband is a professor of mathematics, and there are branches at his university that he has never even studied.

Through my entire public school career, K-12, I can count 7 truly outstanding teachers I had, who had a major influence on me (and I went to what is considered by many to be one of the top districts in PA, or at least it was at the time, back in the day). So today, I have two issues, one of which can't actually be resolved, just dealt with. The other, maybe my fellow homeschoolers can help me put back into perspective once the shock of the first has resolved a bit. So the first is sad: One of "my seven" has passed away. A truly influential teacher, though she taught in my middle school years (6th--8th here) she had a significant impact on my later school and career choices and success. Dealing with an interesting and challenging age group in a school setting, she was quick with a smile, had a memorable (and frequent) laugh that could be heard all down the hallway, and was one of the first to reach out to and encourage new students migrating into the school during their middle school years and help them find a way to become involved in some type of group or find a group of friends in a pretty clique-ish school. Improbably, this very short, rotund, never classically beautiful (but gorgeous inside) individual was the cheerleading squad coach-- and was, according to my friends who were on that team, much beloved by the squad, who won many a competition under her tutelage. She had the energy and stamina to take this age group camping, hiking, to the beach, to NYC, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Gettysburg, and other locales that would terrify many a teacher of the newly adolescent set, and we had a great balance of supervision and freedom-- I have no memories of "line up and shut up." She co-ran a dissecting club, placing scalpels in our hands every week with cheery aplomb. She dealt with messy girl issues, boy-girl issues, hormonal issues, and educational issues all with professionalism and kindness. I don't believe I ever took a multiple choice exam in her classroom. Her funeral is today, and unfortunately, with a sick kid at home, it is just a tad too far away for me to make it there to pay my last respects to her and her family for all her years of tremendously hard work and dedication. I know at least two of my other "seven" will be in attendance, and it would have been wonderful to see them. That is my first issue-- I'm really sad about the loss of a wonderful human being. That brings up the second issue. My overall feeling about homeschooling is pretty unequivocal-- our only regret 99% of the time is, "Why didn't we do this sooner?" I giggle when I come to this forum and see the thread title about someone worrying about "all the drawbacks" about homeschooling, and I reflexively, though I am not anti-school at all, think, "What drawbacks about homeschooling?" However. Though I know it seems like an argument in itself to say, "Well . . . out of 40+ teachers in your K12 career, only 7 were good . . . what does that say about the rest of your time???" The reality is that my life would absolutely have been poorer had it not been for these 7 people. So, on this day, I worry just a bit about what my kids may miss out on by homeschooling. Who might their "7" have been? What influence in their lives are they missing that I am not replacing, necessarily? Am I robbing them of some type of transformative experience they might have had, had I chucked them at the local public school? When interviewed about one of the books he has published, my husband noted that our high school English teacher was absolutely a key influence on his ability to write (she is also one of my "7"). Help me out here, hive. I am probably not in a good place to ponder these questions on this particular day, as I grieve for Miss Schmidt. And as I write this, I am thinking it is probably also a good blog post-- food for thought for those who don't necessarily read TWTM-- so I hope you don't mind if I c/p this into my blog (I will not copy any responses though, nor will I create a link, so your responses here are safe with me). Sadly,

Have you looked at the Science Wiz kits? They have kits on Color, Inventions, Electricity, and a few others. The kits I have used so far (color, Chem, Chem+, DNA) have all been very high quality and a great value for the money. We are planning physics for next year, and regardless of what we do, we will include Science Wiz kits as part of our plan. They are fun, they work, they include what you need, they have great, clear instructions, and you can't beat the price.

Life of Fred just put out three books to be used between the elementary series and the Pre-Algebra books-- he is calling these the "Intermediate Series." You might want to take a peek at those, as well. I have not seen them yet personally, but he does have a great return policy.

We started out as public schoolers and became homeschoolers. As a data point (not that it realllllly matters that much) DS would have been 8 in third grade and is now 9 in what would have been his 4th grade year in school-- he barely made the cutoff for Kindergarten, and was the youngest in his class, but he was legit-- 5 in Kindy, 6 in 1st, 7 in 2nd and 8 in 3rd. As a home schooler, you can promote your kids any time of year you like-- if my kids ask what grade they're in these days, I "knight" them into the next "grade" on their birthdays, so you can do the same if you like, and 8 years old makes a just fine third grader if you like, according to the PS's. (I don't track grades at all- for planning purposes, I look at "year of homeschooling;" the final four years will be their frosh, soph, junior, and senior years in terms of transcript generation).

I used both (R&S 3rd and GWG 5th) at the same time with different kids before switching to MCT. R&S is much more comprehensive and the answers it solicits are far more thoughtful, less formulaic than GWG. DS10 at the time could score 100% on a GWG test or worksheet without grasping a thing on the topic, because he had tuned into the 'pattern' quite inadvertently (he is actually a very good student, but easily bored and will work quickly through anything not challenging). We generally school from a secular POV and avoid non-secular materials, but I had no problem with R&S grammar, because the instructional quality was so high. DS9 knew his stuff by the end of the book, and we enjoyed discussing introductions, telephone manners, and the other included topics such as letter writing. Because he learned his grammar so well, I could not stomach a second year of the same, so we switched to MCT (in case anybody was wondering why we switched if I liked it so much)

It's fun. If you get another nearby or internet family interested, the kids might have fun prepping together, tossing questions back and forth.

Look over the Prentice Hall Science Explorer series. There are a handful of books in the earth/space sequence, but they can be had for $1-2 used on Amazon. Logic stage level, they are quite good, and are one option you could consider. They include labs built into the texts. We are using the biology series right now (books A--E or so) and have been pleased to use them as a spine, though we do add in extra books from the library, the web, etc; each family can do as they please depending on how much science emphasis they like. The books have suggested websites and things for further explorations. Easy to use, inexpensive, solidly reliable information-- not a bad option if you are struggling to get science kick-started once again.

some, some some?? Late night posting phrasing post of the day award!! Woohoo! :D