My 12 year old son is not ready for the small type and small space between sentences to put the sentence diagrams in. It would be even harder for him to rewrite on another sheet of paper- too hard to coordinate between the two. It's just not a good fit for him yet even though it is meant for his age up. He doesn't handle workbooky things either. I am not sure if I am going to end up using it for him at all. He has mild LDs and dyslexia. Yet it is working brilliantly for my dd14. I agree with Sue, not good for a student who really needs repetition, and I think my ds12 probably needs that, too. And, he could never spend an hour on grammar a day. I should have started him on JAG but its all so expensive over here.

Thanks for reminding me about the Baby Steps, Rich with Kids. I always thought I didn't need to do them because ya know, I have been with Flylady for years and I am beyond needing them. No way. I need them. I am going to start with them this time. I have shined my sink this morning. It felt so good! Then I spent 15 minutes decluttering the bathroom and shining the bathroom sink. Yahoo! It makes the rest of the mess feel less of a burden just to have some shiny spots. I also did three loads of washing. The emails have never bothered me much because I already get many emails a day so i just delete. But you can do the system without the emails, ladies. They seem a bit much to me nowadays....it was easier to find the core of the program a few years ago, before they added all these other things, when it was simpler.

I think this can have so many answers, but for me it comes down to my individual inclinations which are a result of my own education, my genes, my past and present environment.....and I am the filter of all that to provide an education for my kids. Its so subjective. While i am sure there are classical purists who will argue for some sort of objective rigorous education for most able children, I am not of that camp, really, although I like to learn from them. What is a rigorous education for my son is different from for my daughter. What stretches my son to his limits is very different for what stretches my daughter to hers. If she can handle a rigorous education (someone else's standard) fairly easily, then it's not rigorous for her, and ditto for ds if he cant handle the same material at the same age- less is rigorous for him. And they vary subject to subject. A rigorous education for 4 hours a day that really, really pushes a child is different from one they are doing 8-10 hours a day by highschool. I think its about personalizing the education for each child, to some extent, and treating the child as a whole person rather than just a mind to be filled., a being to be educated well from an academic perspective. And a whole person needs balance in their life- they need respect and consideration for their unique personality, they need time for other things than academia, they need space to grow individually. I have been searching for this balance every since I started homeschooling...how to maintain a high academic standard without burning us out, without destroying their love of learning, without taking over their lives with my ambitions for them to really excel. I am sure the tweaking will continue, but I ended up coming back to a Charlotte Mason approach, because it is a very high standard that is very respectful and wholistic.

I don't share the financial side much. I have a separate income just for homeschooling, and I make it work within that, and he doesn't question it. I talk to him about our homeschooling when I need to share something. I don't even ask his permission for anything....its basically all up to me. And I like it that way, really. He hasn't done the research I have. But, I do ask for feedback sometimes. Especially with our son, who has learning challenges...dh often has insight that helps me. Dh has his own "world" with work, that he shares parts of with me...but not every detail. Probably more than I do, really, because he just isnt that interested in the nitty gritty of my homeschooling life but he loves to talk about the people he works with.

My dh has always worked from home but it took some intensive and heavy going training to get him to treat our homeschooling as seriously as his own job. I had to set really clear boundaries and yes I came across as a total control freak, but I couldn't deal with being disturbed all the time. Once I did that- and he got hurt at first so I had to reassure him and keep explaining that this is my job- it has been much easier. Now i sometimes go out to lunch with him, sometimes spend time with him during the day..I at least try to take some time for some conversations, or a morning walk around the block to connect properly with him. Sometimes I ask the kids to read him a writing assignment. Otherwise he definitely feels a bit on the outer of my rich and warm, cosy world with the kids. But he doesn't want to help, just to socialise! He is home every day! Fortunately, he works 3 mornings so has people to play with then. Actually, hes just a big kid :) I have made it work, but I did have to get tough, and now I can relax and enjoy him. If he is disturbing us, I just tell him quite clearly :) He will usually enjoy disturbing us a little longer, then wander off. As for mess....I have a schoolroom which is free of his things. Its actually like a sanctuary for me, as well as the kids. We all have our own corners and desks, and well as sofas. He has his own space for work.

Perhaps your husband's shifting routine is throwing out the whole family from having a consistent routine over the long haul. I had a discussion only today with some women who want their kids in bed earlier so they can have some me time. I think it comes down to....you cant let them sleep in, if you want them tired for bed. My kids have to be up by 7am for schooldays...that's how our routine functions. When daddy goes to bed is irrelevent for us. However, we see a lot of him so I can imagine if we didn't we might adapt more to his schedule. But he knows how important it is for us to have our routine so school runs efficiently, so he supports it and just sees us when he does. I am a stickler really for getting up time...if I let it slide, and I did recently because our mornings are so dark now with the winter equinox on Sunday or so....it throws out our whole day. I would start from getting up time, and see if you can click everyone back into a better routine. Last night my two had a good wrestle and giggle festival for some reason, and I was going to stop them, but I was in bed reading by then (they were supposed to be cleaning their teeth) and I was about to yell when I just decided to let it go and let them fight it out and have the time together. Sometimes i think that kind of play is a pressure release. There is a time and place for it, and often its bedtime! They did stop after a while. And they still got up at 7am and we had a good day.

This is probably long after you are in bed, but I am up because I just spent 4 hours taking my kids to a jolly (:glare:) Scout Camp an hour away. Why does it have to take so long? We meet at the local Scout Hall at 5 pm, Great. I volunteer to be a driver. At 5.40 the last person we are waiting for turns up. Why do people do that? No explanation, no apology- then the mum asks me to drop off and get their child some food on the way because they haven't eaten yet....hellooooo, we have been standing around since 5pm, we haven't eaten either, we could be almost up there by now.....it's another 15 minutes before we are all off. An hours drive. We get there. Its freezing- bitterly cold. But forecast to be clear for the weekend- thats a change, the last few camps have been wet. So thats good. My daughter then slams her finger in the car door, and now cant move it. I run over a Scout leader's foot ..he wouldnt stop trying to give me directions and I already knew the way, so i was trying to give him the hint and back slowly off, smiling and nodding...darn it, his foot was in the way. He reckons its ok though. I need to learn patience, I tell you. But Scouts has taken over our lives! Another hour in the freezing cold up there while we unpack and start putting up tents in the dark-I made excuses and left at the same time as another parent. Starving. And another hour home. So here I am. A little grumpy. Full tummy now though, and blobbing out on the computer, having been away from it all day, before going to bed.

OK, I'm in. I have been a flybaby for many years now, more on than off, and I unsubbed a couple of months ago because I felt I wasnt 'seeing' the reminders anyway, or doing them. But as usual when I unsub from Flylady, my house has deteriorated and I feel a little overwhelmed and I kind of scratch my head wondering why its not cleaning itself. It seems that even though I kind of go numb to the emails, on some unconscious level they still get my butt moving more than when I don't have them. I think just little things like being aware of what zone we are in for the week actually makes my mind go there and my body follows at some point :) Anyway, I need it again. I can't seem to function as well without Flylady.

I wouldn't say AO or Tanglewood pay no attention to associating history and literature. I am using AO/HEO and although some of the literature doesn't line up historically, it does in other ways- for example, we study Watership Down in Year 7, which doesn't correspond with the Medieval Theme, but it does correspond with other underlying and significant themes of the year which are connected to the morality of leadership, government etc. And, I would say the other literature- Chaucer, Once and Future King- are pretty medieval :001_smile:. The kids are meant to have a timeline/Book of Centuries to help keep it together and make the chronological connections- CM has said she feels kids are quite capable of making those connections themselves. So, check them out again before you write them off as not being connected. AO encourages the use of all the Apologia books as the closest thing to living books. I dont use them though...my kids are older so they have a teacher and use textbooks. But they are also reading the living Science books that AO recommends. I don't know what they are like yet, but if you check out AO, they do have living Science books which cover physics at least, and I think chemistry too. They are older books of course. I can recommend the Tiner books myself, such as the World of Chemistry,World of Medicine, for ages around 12, as very interesting Living Books, that are modern. For your kids ages? Not sure. But then, I wouldn't bother at their ages.

My kids are older so we do "Science" (they go to a class run by a Science teacher, which covers physics and chemistry, and my older also works her way slowly through Singapore Biology Matters) and now we do Nature Study as well. We read books for nature study- I assign books to them from AO- and we do a nature walk each week, and a sketch each week. If I was starting from the beginning again, I would only do nature study, and use it to cover all the sciences to some degree, but mainly biology and the habit of attention and focus and the love of nature. I wouldn't bother to cover physics and chemistry formally until the kids were around 10 or so, even 12, unless they showed an interest. I honestly don't think they remembered much from the work I did do with them around that age and I wish I had instead spent the time out in nature with them developing the curiosity and interest and knowledge of their immediate environment, and also things like the Magic School Bus and nature documentaries. Its more than enough, IMO.

Oh man, no wonder he wants to move to Margaret River....it's a woodworker's paradise! There are probably several good woodworkers down there already..I know of one who is now in Perth but he was there for years. A woodworker from Switzerland? He should do well! There is a big tourist industry down there. Since you are coming from a colder climate, you may not appreciate landing in the middle of summer here, although it is the most wonderful time for the beach of course- probably spring or autumn are the most moderate times. Margarets is milder than Perth though in summer, and much colder in winter. Log fire weather. The wildflower season is September to November ish. If you want to swim etc, maybe December...beginning of summer. The heat doesn't usually come until January, then through February and March. April is nice again. Warm and sunny, not stinking hot. Actually I havn't been to Margarets for several years, but my kids are going down there in two weeks with a Scout group, to go abseiling in the caves down there...there is a great caving system. What a nice thought that you could end up here!

Oh cool, Colleen! You will LOVE Margaret River. And it's dairy country! In September it's soooo green down there. Best surf and beaches in the world, lots of wilderness and forests. Veeery beautiful. Got to be one of the top spots on the planet. (although where you are looks pretty good too!). It would be amazing if you got all the way to this little corner of the planet! What is your BIL planning to do here?

Yes, my son has been a leaner and yes its annoying. However he has been learning kinesiology/brain gym with a woman who picked it up immediately...and the fact that he doesn't like to hold his own head up either.....and she has been working with it and I hadn't thought about it much, but the issue hasnt bothered me for a while now so I think its getting better.

Cant believe I never noticed this thread! I just decided, for something to do, to search the boards using my name in the search box. Sometimes I wonder if someone asks me a question or something in a thread that I never go back to. So there you go, I came upon this poor neglected thread! Yes, I live in Perth, the most isolated city on the planet. Whaddya wanna know? We have the most beeeeautiful, clean, unpopulated beaches (even the city beaches don't get busy very often, and they are just beautiful). Clean white sand, clean clear cold blue water. And fresh air. We have ( I say we..I have lived here since I was 18, but I was born and raised in Sydney), a most amazing wildflower season, with a huge range of spectacular wildflowers in winter and spring. We have a Mediterranean climate- short, wet, cold winter (not freezing cold though, no snow, only occasional frost, but it's cold to us) and a long hot dry summer. We are on the edge of a desert, but we have reasonable rainfall here...north and inland it gets drier and drier, south are some amazing forests, wilderness and Very Tall Trees, and farmland, and fantastic surf. We have a great lifestyle here....when I go back east to visit my family, I am happy that I live in Perth, people seem stressed out over there...somehow Perth is pretty cruisy for a city. Lots of sidewalk cafes. It's not a flashy city, apparently (I don't care) the night life is not brilliant. It is a great place to bring up kids....and to homeschool. It has all the conveniences of a city, without all the stress. Unlike the east coast, we don't even have 24 hour or 7 day shopping, and we are resisiting daylight savings too, although it is being forced on us. I live a block back from the Swan River foreshore and we have awesome walks, lots of nature and a birdlife sanctuary...pretty cool for living in a city. We can see the city across the river---a few kms away, since the river is very wide here..very pretty at night time. There are dolphins in the river, and it's swimmable. Its only a 20 minute drive to the city, even though we live in very quiet suburbia. We are having an economic boom due to selling off the very ground beneath us (mining minerals) to China. Sad, but proving a boon to many people. There is almost zero unemployment at the moment. Young people are flocking north to the mines to make a fortune in a couple of years. Very rough lifestlye though- so hot and dry up there. Anyway, maybe that gives you a feel for Perth. I like it here. We havent sold off our roads to private companies yet who would toll us- no toll roads at all- unlike the east coast. I am a bit bitter when i go back east and see how corrupt the government is in NSW. Being a bit "behind" in Perth, is a good thing.

I put my daughter in school for the reasons your Mum is concerned about. She was a social kid, loved preschool...I wanted to homeschool but didn't feel justified, and her younger brother was very demanding so I figured I couldn't give her what she needed. And I had no support from dh at that stage- he was not familiar with homeschooling and had the usual prejudices against it. A few years later, ds, her younger brother, was in school. He never liked it much, and by grade 2 was suffering badly with learning difficulties. I took him out to homeschool him with dh's very tentative approval, for a trial of 6 months of homeschooling. Within weeks, dh told me we HAD to take dd out of school too, because homeschooling was the most awesome thing in the world and we needed her HOME. She was 9 by then. By then she was completely peer dependent, had friends we didn't like much, she did NOT want to come now, and it was hard for her because she loved her friends, her teacher, her school. She HAD thrived in the school environment, and she still would. We have been homeschooling since then though, and we are every day grateful that we do, and my only regret is that we didn't start from the beginning. I do think kids need social time...but at 5, not a lot. My 12 an 14yos see other kids most days for something or other. They are happy, well adjusted kids WITH AN AMAZING SOCIAL LIFE EACH. Between Scouts, homeschool activities, music and art classes, and just friends, they have great social lives. And, they are not in a negative social environment- their friends are great, and as parents we have had a lot of influence in who their friends are. We still have a strong influence, while they still have a lot of freedom. And this is all before you even consider the academic side of things. I think girls who are social butterflies can probably benefit from homeschooling more than many, as long as you are prepared to do the work of letting them socialise, because the negative special aspects of school socialising (and I dont mean its all negative, but you know there is plenty of negative stuff there- my then 9 year old wanted a laptop and mobile phone because her friends had them, she thought she was fat when she wasnt,etc) affect them more than more introverted kids. They love to be loved, to be popular, to be in the "in" crowd. if you put your 5yo in school, you may find it hard to get her out again with her cooperation, or you may find she wants to come out for one reason or another. Different parents handle it differently. We had to do it without our daughter's consent, and she is now very glad to be homeschooling. its kind of a long haul thing, I think. Do you think your dd would be better homeschooling in the long run? Then let that play a part on your decision of what to do with her now. Most grandparents wont understand homeschooling anyway....until later they still have beautiful grandkids who communicate and love them, and are smart.

Ds had long hair for most of his 12 years- he had it cut short last year, his own choice. But when he was about 7, his father cut his hair with clippers himself, and ds was literally traumatised by the experience, which he felt he had no say in. His hair had been shoulder length, and now he felt "naked". I think it was that more than anything that made him grow his hair over the next few years, and I was happy that he did, and I allowed it, and told dh not to dare touch his boy's hair again. Dh ended up growing his too for a couple of years, so it was ok. Basically, my choice would be to allow the kids right from the beginning to have their hair how they chose, within reason. If I was to force the issue, I would rather my son had long hair than short, anyway, but I think he went through a maturity spurt and wanted to look more boyish (he has very fine features) so he wanted it cut. Then a few month later, he wanted his blonde hair dyed black. I said no way for ages, then I talked to dh about it because ds kept hassling me and I wanted dh's support- dh thought it was a great idea! So I surrendered, bought the black dye from a health food store, and we did it. It looked great! It has taken 5 months to finally have it all be cut off. He looked strange for a while with blonde roots- made him look like an elderly person in a way, with grey coming through. But overall, it wasn't a bad experience.

I don't mind long posts when I am interested in the topic, and I will in particular read them if I previously liked the writer's posts. (like Nan's highschool posts :) ). However, it does really bug me if people choose not to use paragraphs, spacing, or any type of punctuation, and just write a long solid block of their stream of thoughts. People often do that when they are emotional, (or ranting I guess), but I usually do not bother reading them because its just too difficult for me to do the hard work of deciphering what they mean, when a little use of the enter key and the shift key could save me all that trouble. There is a good reason punctuation was invented. However, grammatical/spelling errors and such do not bother me usually...I make plenty, and I dont feel they usually interfere with the meaning or flow. So for me, the length of the post is not so important as how it is presented, and if its easy for me to read. I guess the fact that I often skim read also means if the text is in one block, it is harder to skim.

I don't want to have expectations of my kids in that way...I would never want them to feel they should or need to visit me for my sake. I want them to be independent of me and following their hearts, doing what they feel drawn to do....and if that's go live in Japan or something, then they absolutely have my blessing, even though my heart will ache for missing them. I hope however (different from "expect"), that they would want me to be a part of their lives, and I would ideally like to see them regularly- I voted weekly.

I would, but then, I don't have to count attendance or anything. Also, i will do what I need to do to tick boxes to get the officials to leave me alone.

We call it Autumn here. Its my favourite season because we have a long, very hot and very dry summer here...which is fine, great for the beach and very predictable weather for planning outdoor events....but when autumn comes, we get rain, we get storms, we get a reprieve from the relentless heat. It is heaven.

LC is very dry. (So is Henle, IMO, but people learn Latin for different reasons). I would have a look at Latin Prep by Galore Park for your daughter, if you are committed to doing Latin. It gives interesting and fun, often gory and really humorous sentences, is far from dry, and it gives context, so she will be understanding why she is learning what she is learning, rather than just memorising. But in the end, it is up to you. I have two kids who would quit Latin if given a choice. They would also quit Maths, Grammar, one child would do no writing. In fact, if left to themselves, they would read, watch movies, and play computer games all day :). Oh, and one would do lots of art, too. You are the teacher. :)

You could just pop over to Perth, Australia and see the Da Vinci Flying Machines exhibition :)

I ended up outsourcing for Physics and Chemistry, and it has been wonderful to have an enthusiastic, passionate teacher teach my kids these subjects. I don't think they missed anything for not having covered anything much before now. They are ages 12 and 14 and he teaches them the important stuff they need to know before doing higher level science....I just could not have done it, and I am so glad I didn't try, although I did feel guilty for not trying for a long time!

Lol, I often tell my dh about things that come up here, and he often tells me what to respond to them! lets just say, I would not respond like he does....he actually enjoys stirring big time. So, if he did come onto these boards, I wouldn't mind, because I am not so attached to this board as an exclusive outlet for myself, but it probably would change my responses to things. I might word things differently, not respond to posts I now respond to (hey, like the 'conversation post') , or then again, maybe it wouldn't change me. I am not sure. But overall, no, it wouldn't bother me, but it's not really an issue thats likely to come up.

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