We have an outdoor spa, and we use it most of the year, twice a day- no kids allowed. Currently, the spa is off because its mid winter and the cost of running it at this time of year is very high. So we agree to have at least a walk around the block together, otherwise we do tend to disconnect. Ds works from home but the issue is still there. So I invited him into the schoolroom to do jigsaw puzzles- which he loves to do- while we do our schoolwork. It can be annoying at times when he makes comments or disagrees with me, but it does keep him in contact with us. its very easy for me to get into my little world with th kids, and for dh to feel on the outer, and this way he feels more involved. It has also brought up some issues that he can help with- for example self worth in our son, who still thinks he is stupid from the 2.5 years he spent at school. Having dh talk to him helps so much- he just doesnt believe me that he is a smart kid who has some learning difficulties. We don't do date nights because dh works evenings. We do go out together at times, like for motorbike rides when the weather is nice. Our kids have been left alone for a while, for years now.

My kids are more likely to remember the long historical fiction than the shorter SOTW lessons, so I choose the best quality historical fiction I can, and just start with the one I want to cover the most. We rarely get through everything I want to do, so I just prioritise. Would it help if you considered the literature that you read that coordinates to your history year, literature- and therefore part of English, instead of history? Then you can just enjoy it and not worry about aligning it so carefully.

I almost bought TTAlgebra 1 2nd hand last week, so I am fresh from doing some research on it. My dd14 is finding her other maths a bit of a struggle at times, and I am reaching the edge of my ability to help her in some areas. I ended up deciding against buying TT, because U.S. programs follow a different Maths sequence than Aussie programs- we study various maths subjects each year rather than all algebra one year, all geometry the next etc- and each year builds on the past. I decided that jumping ship at this point from our Australian program would mean there would probably be gaps. I feel sticking with our current program is the best thing, and getting help if needed. For all her difficulties, she prefers to learn from a book than from a computer program, although she did enjoy some time with Aleks. If I was starting with a younger child, and was happy to use a U.S. program, and the child was ok with learning from the computer, I would seriously consider TT.

:iagree: This has been my approach in the last year, too. The textbook subjects we still use- mainly maths and grammar- are still my kids least favourite subjects. Living books- some read aloud and some independent reading- and lots of discussions bring things alive here. A weekly nature walk and study- this term we are studying the local birds- is another hit. Keeping the day relatively short. Having time for their interests. And yes, my attitude makes all the difference. Humour is important. I do not enjoy pushing my kids, and nowadays I seem not to have to- I encourage them to keep focused, but don't push them. Its a relief.

The Beans and Corn unit was the only one we ended up doing, and I do really recommend it. We did it all, including make our own little balances. It was one of the few hands on science things that actually was a success around here :)

My boy is now 12 and I have homeschooled him since he was 7. Yes, he is very different from his sister- stereotypically so, in terms of schoolwork. He has the sterotypical delayed academic development, and is a reluctant writer. He was recently diagnosed dyslexic. I don't find breaks as useful as the others have said. I find they distract too much and getting back to focus on work is more difficult after a break. SO I have never used the run-around-the-house or jump on the trampoline thing as much as others seem to. But my son is not "hyper" at all, or overly physical, so maybe thats a difference. He has always had chores before school, and he does have an exercise ball to sit onl, and I allow him to move around a certain amount. I have always done a lot orally with my son, and a lot of one on one. Short lessons, very small amounts of writing, but consistent, predictable writing every day. I remember a few years ago now, he had to do one line of copywork a day- that was a lot for him, but his hand hurt. He has always hated me springing more work on him- he likes to know what he needs to do each day, predictably, and so that he can get in and do it- or not. So a schedule is good- originally it had pictures on it. He has always tried to wheedle his way out of work and he has always been one to tell me I give him too much work. :) I have learned to be deaf to those complaints, because no matter how much I cut back, it was too much :) We have covered a lot with reading aloud. At times I have covered a fair bit with documentaries too, since my son is extremely visual. Lots and lots of physical affection, cuddles, snacks, seem to help him feel its not just one long chore. And keeping the school day short, so that he can have plenty of time for what he wants to do. He loves to have something to look forward to each day- nowadays it is the neighbourhood kids on the street after school. Restricted electronics time- very, very addictive, so none during the schoolweek, so that he doesn't think about it all day. All in all, consistency has been helpful, and now he can handle a lot more. My daughter has never had to be handled like this, but she is soooooo different.

I make lunch for about 15 people twice a week- these are three of my regular desserts. BAKED YOGURT PUDDING 1 cup yogurt 1 cup of tinned sweet condensed milk 1/4 cup raisins 1 teasp. vanilla essence Method: 1. Beat together all ingredients. 2. Pour batter into a 6-inch, greased baking dish. 3. Bake 45 minutes in a moderate oven until firm. 4. Serve when cool. * Yields 2 cups Kheer 1/2 cup Rice (basmati) 4 cups Milk 1/4 cup Raisins 1 cup Sugar 1 tsp Cardamom (or nutmeg) 1/4 cup Almonds (shredded, blanched) A few strands of saffron Methods: Wash rice well. Boil milk and add rice. Simmer on low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. When the rice is cooked and the mixture gets a semi-thick creamy consistency, add sugar and stir well. Remove from heat and add cardamom, saffron,shredded almonds, and raisins. Serve warm or chilled. Halva 6-8 serves 2 ¾ cups water 1 ¼ cup sugar 140gms unsalted butter 1 ¼ cups course semolina (fine is fine) 1/3 cup slivered almonds 1/3 cup sultanas 1 tsp ground cardamom (1/2 tsp saffron strands soaked in 1tbs hot milk is optional) 1.Combine water, sugar, (saffron) in saucepan- stir, dissolve on medium heat 2.Meanwhile, melt butter in large saucepan. Add semolina, stir fry gently for 10-20 mins until golden/tan. Add flaked almonds 3.Raise heat under syrup, add sultanas and cardamom. Pour syrup into semolina, stirring steadily. 4.Stir for a few minutes untit it thickens. Put on a tight fitting lid and let sit on low heat for 5 minutes, and turn off- or just turn off and sit another 5 minutes. 5.Serve alone, with cream/custard/icecream.

No, I don't think that is the best way to do dictation. My understanding is (and I have been doing dictation for years and I was brought up on dictation myself) that while it is good to read the whole dictation first, the child should not be expected to remember several sentences. I break dictations down into phrases- phrases that the child will be able to remember while also being stretched to hold them in his mind. The child shouldn't make many mistakes or they are not yet able to hold that many words at a time in their mind. They should be gently challenged and if they make mistakes they should be gently corrected so that they are not writing something incorrect down (for example a spelling error). Although, my kids are older and I don't generally do this unless I see a blatant error. I would say that if a child can remember three sentences, the sentences may be too easy. Instead, the difficulty of the dictation could be upped, and then the dictation read out phrase by phrase- a sentence if it's not too long. This should still be a gentle challenge, so the difficulty of the language can be quite high. My kids do studied dictations. They look at the dictation first and go over and write out any difficult words. Then I read it out phrase by phrase- as much as they can remember if the room is quiet and they are not distracted- it is a way of training the mind to hold thoughts in it, to focus, to hold a visual image of words. I tell the punctuation because I think it is generally too difficult to work out, but maybe we will get to the point where the kids work out their own punctuation. That is not a priority for me- I don't want dictation to be stressful. I will repeat a phrase if they forget. When I was a highschool student and we did dictation, the teacher would read each phrase twice, so I don't think there is a problem with doing that. Then when we are finished, I read the whole passage through to them without saying the punctuation, and they check their work- this is where we often catch small word errors. Then I mark it.

The book itself says for ages 13 up. My own experience with my two kids is that at ages 11 and 12 they were perfectly capable of understanding these two books, and we did them orally together.....BUT, they would have got more out of them if they were older and I intend to go through them again when they are 13/14 or even older. The content, and the discussions evoked, will have another whole depth entirely if the kids are more aware of the world and engaged with more mature issues, I think.

I sit in the room and encourage and prompt and sometimes nag. That seems to help somewhat. I don't leave the homeschooling room for much. Does he respond to stickers, stars, praise, choc chips, money? I have used all these at times to enourage some motivation. I also had to learn to not expect the same standard from both my children. I often felt my son didn't try hard, was sure he must be able to write more neatly, couldn't relate to his inability to remember things we only just did the day before. My other child is a natural good student. But forcing and nagging and bullying him just didnt work, he was doing HIS best. And he was eventually diagnosed with dyslexia. Now, at 12, he suddenly has the sweetest, neatest handwriting. I never thought it would happen- I had resigned myself to him just being someone with band handwriting for life. He takes a looooooong time to write, but I am patient, because it is change in the right direction. He has suddenly become proud of his writing, and he wants to do well, he tries hard. He is actually a terrible perfectionist who would rather do really badly, as in, not try at all, that try and not do well. I give him so much encouragement, daily, to keep trying. I don't know if that's at all relevent to your situation, just thought I would share.

If you're thinking of continuing with the same curriculum, I think you need to realise that they are very, very different, and the difference will grow the longer you use them. Rod and Staff is a very rigorous and thorough LA program. I never used Grade 2 but I remember R&S basically covering grammar and writing- not copywork and dictation. It is the recommended LA program in TWTM for good reasons- it is an excellent, thorough program (although I dont think TWTM recommends starting R&S with grade 2). Language Lessons (I presume you mean the Queens books?) are a light, supposedly Charlotte Mason styled program although I think it's far lighter than CM herself would have used (people think she was 'light' but she was still Classical and rigorous by modern standards). It is based on copywork, dictation, very light grammar, some art appreciation and writing exercises- although I havent used the one you mention which I think may be mainly copywork. I have LL books for older kids- and I like them for this particular season, and I add to them. They are too light for me. For 2nd grade, I am not sure it matters, but if you want to continue with the same program, I would check out the later years and see where the programs are coming from, and where they are heading, because they are very different.

Another point is, it actually isn't necessary to use a book, particularly when opening the subject or answering casual questions. A book can be a great reference when wanting to get more into the nitty gritty, or when you feel the child is ready for a visual- but I don't think i would have wanted to use a book as a way of introducing the subject. I learned about s*x and puberty in a personal development class at my progressive gir's school when I was 11. It was well done. However, I can distinctly remember feeling betrayed by my parents that they had let me get to the ripe age of 11 before I found out,and then copped out by letting school tell me! I mean, what other secrets had they kept from me? It if anything undermined my trust in my parents. I did afterwards ask my mum and got some straight answers, but I can also remember asking her beforehand questions like "well, can you get pregnant from sitting on a public toilet seat then?" because I knew about the egg and the sperm but not the method their getting close enough to meet! She very much avoided my questions. In fact, I think it was a little crazy making, because when I did find out, well- I thought about it a lot!

I think to some extent it may not be personality, but the culture in which they are growing up. My kids don't choose to do their school, either, and my teenager would much rather be socialising. Is it possible that your children have a fair amount of access to popular culture? We are not an overly conservative family, our kids watch movies that are rated for older kids and adults, they play computer games- but these things are still quite severely restricted. Neopets was banned several years ago now- I see nothing redeeming in it. Pokemon came and went- we never encouraged it but it also didnt seem too bad, and it seemed to teach some good values, so we let that one ride. We ended up banning all online games and only allowing ones on CDRom, because the attitude that came with the online participation was positively scarily addictive, along with massive tantrums at restriction. Your kids are young enough that you can take control. My son is very computer oriented and would really like to play computer games after school every day but we restrict it to weekends and holidays, and usually only 2 hours a day then. The effect of these things, and TV, on children's brains, on their ability to truly play freely, on their ability to entertain themselves, is well documented, and its something dh and I discuss regularly. Ds12 was recently quite disturbed during the holidays when, after a day of going way over his 2 hours of daily computer time, he was told he was to have a computer free day- he was very upset and couldn't conceive what he would do with his time, and tried to make us responsible for his misery. He ended up going for a long bike ride, spending some time with me out and about, and reading, and returning to his sweet personality. Do you still read aloud to the kids? I stil do, and mine are much older than yours. You are in control, and you will bear your children's fury if you restrict the activities they indulge in that you don't feel are good for them. It's hard being the bad guy, but it's worth it. Also, your children are quite young. My older always read, but my younger wouldn't have been a reader had I not worked at it really hard (well, i do take credit, I did work very hard at it !). He was almost 10 before he suddenly realised reading was ok, and then he was off like a rocket and hasn't looked back. If your oldest is only 10, take heart and don't give up. I compromised when enticing my kids into reading, and really looked hard for books that would appeal to them, twaddle or not (but not much twaddle). It is disheartening when kids don't love to learn- but they probably do love to learn something. It may be that Calvert doesnt suit them? I still learn "with" my kids for some of our schoolwork, rather than have them work too independently- they much prefer it and it keeps it human. I was like you. My husband wasn't- he hates school and didn't do well due to undiagnosed dyslexia (not to mention the ADHD!)- so he has a LOT of compassion for our kids when their mother pushes them too hard. My dyslexic son has made me soooooo patient! Your kids are probably very normal, healthy kids who just want to play instead of do their work. I dont think its very unusual!

:iagree: My dh works from home and contributes in many ways, and also loves his work, so there's no resentment there, and no guilt on my part. He has absolutely no desire to homeschool and says the kids would be in school if it weren't for me. But he does appreciate what I do, and tells me. He probably "works" similar hours to me, but he doesn't tend to do all the running about I do. Or rather, I choose to do. He wouldn't do it. So it often feels to me that I do more because I take the kids places whereas he rarely does that. But in the end, he does a lot, and if I let the house fall to pieces or we have cereal too many nights in a row :) I do feel guilty that I am not pulling my weight- even though sometimes I tell myself, well, he is home, watching TV, why cant he cook? It definitely works better when I do keep it all going, and he keeps his roles all going. You know, that saying that goes something like in order to have a healthy marriage, both partners need to give 100% (not the 50% that we tend to think).

Chucky Chook (that's Aussie, well my family's brand of Aussie, for KFC- I grew up on the stuff- that and McDonald's were the only junk food I knew as a child :) ) McDonald's Fries I am a corn chip lover- best not to have them in the house.

I chose nourishing Traditions AND the two vegetarian options! Thats because we are a strange mixture. I like the Nourishing Traditions way of eating, yet my husband and I have been mostly vegetarian or strictly vegetarian for years. For me, personally, a vegetarian diet makes me really run down, even though it is my ideal for ethical reasons. I have super low blood pressure and difficulty absorbing iron- I get so I can barely get out of bed on what is a healthy diet for my husband (although he eats too much vegetarian junk food and dairy and is overweight). So thats why Nourishing Traditions suits me better, and the kids and I tend that way, while dh is strict vego. I don't see organic as a relevent option on its own- there is SO much highly processed and downright junky organic food on the market nowadays, so by itself, its not viable as an option, although ideally, sure, an all organic diet would be great. I think you would be far better off eating carefully washed conventional fresh food, and little processed food- than eating a lot of processed organic food. My overall diet aim is to eat as much LIVING food as possible, but I am not a raw foodist- I think freshly cooked fresh food is fine, like stirfries or steamed vegies. And the other thing is, I think its wrong to live to eat, that is, to be obsessive about your food/diet. Some people are forced into having to be hyper vigilant due to allergies in the family, but common sense is enough for most people. And I say that after a lot of study (naturopathy training and lifelong interest in health) and experience being a food extremist. However, I realise many people may need to do a lot of self education before they can just get on with eating in a basically healthy way without being trippy about it.

Lol, well I would count the Harry Potter books.

Flylady has always helped me to prioritise my cleaning efforts in an efficient and effective way. I am still not really good with consistency, but I know where to put my energy for most effect, when the energy suddenly arrives. I am still fairly sporadic..but I am more frequently sporadic because I nowadays just do something instead of being paralysed by overwhelm. If I am completely overwhelmed....I start either at my desk, the kitchen sink, or my bedroom, and I use the timer for 15 minutes and get to it. Just cleaning one, doable area lifts my spirits. Then I will likely spread out from there. Instead of thinking of everything you need to do, write it down, to get it out of your head. Then, pick one thing and do it. Thats all you ever have to do, ever. Pick one thing and do it. Later, pick one thing and do it. I use the timer if I need to find my sense of humour and a sense of fun to motivate me. 10 or 15 minutes is plenty to get a lot more than you realise done. I think the other thing I have done is consciously develop a passion for decluttering, for getting rid of things, for loving spacious shelves, clear surfaces and half empty drawers that actually don't jam because they are too full of stuff! I never realised how wonderful these small things are, before Flylady came into my life!

Well I might just spread my mother's weaving blog across the planet! My mum has chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and I don't know what else, but years ago now she took up weaving and has become very good at it. You can see some of her work here (she has had a couple of exhibitions with her photographer partner, and also I have several of the items pictured here, including the one at the top :) ) It does make it easy to buy her birthday and Christmas presents though- I get to go into lovely wool shops and find unique unspun wool (she spins too!) and obscure threads for her- camel thread, rabbit hair, raw silk- its fun! One day, I will have more time to follow in her footsteps.... http://banksiarose.blogspot.com/

I agree. It really is a good book, even for us more "schoolish" inclined people to read. It certainly is liberating. I intend to have my kids read parts of it in their mid teens, and if they really want to take hold of their own schooling with a passion and vision for themselves, i will happily let go of the reigns much more than i do now- I think the book is great for kids to be inspired as to their own potential, and confirms how school is not a healthy environment, for most kids, to really get inspired and excited about their life .

Well, I definitely think a lecture tour in Australia is called for!

I did it for just over a year with a boy 6 months older than my oldest, a girl- they were 12 at the time. This was a troubled boy, connected to my family (my husband's ex's son, therefore this boy and my kids share a half sister who is 19). The pros- someone else to play with in breaks. I wanted to give more, felt I could take on another child, etc. So it felt good to do that. I did get paid $50 a week to cover costs and food. Discussions are good with an extra child. The problems I ended up having were: This boy is not an 'open' lad like my own kids- he would be well behaved and polite to my face, then undermine me behind my face. I never felt I had a genuine, warm connection with him. I did end up resenting the extra marking, I must admit. Even though he worked at the same grade level as my older, he was strong in maths, she was strong in English, so they ended up doing different things anyway. Socialising became an issue- his mum worked full time, so this kid's whole social life in the homeschooling world ended up depending on me. Which was ok, but since I only had him during the day weekdays, he ended up not getting to really make solid connections with other kids, have sleepovers or weekend playtimes. So he never felt as included as my kids. One thing that ended up bugging me was that I used our evening read aloud time to read books that were in some way connected with our schooling, even though to the kids they were just fun read alouds- they were carefully chosen. And this other boy didnt have a mum who read aloud to him. So I did extra during schooltime, but I couldn't really compensate for the lack of it at home. It did affect my own kids and our relationship- I felt this kid kind of got in the way of our previous close relationship, because he wasn't used to that kind of closeness with his own parents- he was used to some level of separateness, and also antagonism. In the end, the crunch came when for some reason the mum refused to follow up on my asking this boy to finish the last 50 pages of Treasure Island at home over the summer school holidays. He was a reluctant reader, he had read the rest of the book during our schooltime, seemed to enjoy it, and I asked that he finish it at home. We had been through several books that he said he didn't enjoy so I didn't make him finish them, and I wasn't willing to keep doing that- he needed to read whether he really enjoyed it or not (and I could tell he didn't mind it too much, he was just not used to reading). He told his mum that he just didn't like it and didn't want to finish it, and she supported him and told ME she thought I was being too hard on him making him finish it. I explained my case to her, that he kept not finishing books and this time we needed to follow through, and she just stated hers more strongly. That was very much the final straw for me, because it's hard enough, but without the other parent's involvement, it's harder, and without their SUPPORT, its actually impossible. So I said I wasnt willing to homeschool him any more. She went into massive regret, and during the next year, this kid's first year in highschool (year 8 where I am ) he would refuse to go to school, he made bad friends, he got into trouble, he became fairly delinquent, and the mother was very, very sorry at how she had handled things with me and realised she had missed a great opportunity for her son. But i wasn't prepared to try again. Nowadays he is coming through his bad patch, with some mentoring from my husband and some tough love from his mum. But I am glad I didn't take him on any further- it was much more work than I expected it would be. In a way I think it would be easier to take on a younger child than an older one. But maybe it was just my unique situation.

OK, rewording- how long does a TT Algebra lesson take YOUR child? thanks

I find trying to make school fun the most exhausting thing in the world and I usually get very irritable when i am exhausted :) Basically, we just do the work. However, we keep it short, we do some stuff together, and we try to keep our sense of humour intact! Just a joke here and there and a cuddle and snack and some sympathetic pats when the going gets tough- it feels like that all happens pretty naturally and it keeps things from getting too serious.

We have done spelling as a formal subject only sporadically, which seems to have been plenty. I suspect mine are both fairly natural spellers- even my dyslexic kid can spell- which I think is because he is is a good reader now, although I cant say for sure why he can spell. Anyway, you can always do spelling part of the year. Spelling Power is good for that- no feeling you need to get through a workbook. We use dictation and, the kids both say they learn spelling using wordcheck on the computer. Once they get to the point that they want to spell correctly, its easier- they start noticing. However, if I had a kid who seemed to be having trouble- I would work at it.