mom2abcd, I have always been curious as to what "just writing" means in the RC. Does it involve the child picking a topic to write about and writing a page? Or does the parent pick the topic? and are they supposed to rewrite it the same day it is marked? is there any more writing instruction than "write a page" in the higher years? thanks

I try and read ahead of the kids. I am on a 2 week holiday and I am trying to read the books they will be reading next term- the books, like Augustus Caesar's World, Story of the Romans, and Walcott's Jo's Boys, are all of a level to suit one or both of my kids, and I find it is a challenge to stay awake when reading them if i try to read them at night, so i am reading them during the day, a few pages each at a time. I have never been someone who looks up words...by reading, I mostly pick up the context and work it out. If I had to stop and pick up a dictionary very often, I would give up! (I don't expect it of my kids either, which may be bad habit, but they both have a good vocabulary). Also, by reading their books, and reading aloud to them, over the years, I am pretty sure my reading ability has grown. A lot of children's classic books have fairly difficult language. Reading Treasure Island out loud was a challenge! Reading Lord of the Rings to them was great fun. I would never have ploughed my way through that book if it weren't for reading it to my kids- it's not a light read! I would never follow a curriculum or a plan or anything. I couldn't even follow The Well Educated Mind. My reading level is growing with my kids', and the occasional adults classic I read....when I am drawn to a particular book. Are you struggling with particular books? I am on some CM lists, and people there sometimes complain the language of the AO year 1 and 2 books are difficult for them! But after a few chapters, they kind of click into the language and its ok. If I was to design a program for myself, I would read all the children's classics....Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, Little Women,Anne of Green Gables, lots more like that. I feel like I am filling in gaps in my education whenever I read one of those books I never got to as a child. Then, slowly work up from there. I just do it alongside my kids, who are of similar age, and I get to grow up with them! hth Peela

I wasn't going to respond to this thread because I am pretty happy with what we are doing, and in many ways I am lucky enough to have had the disposable income to try many things over the years. But, you guys have got me dreaming.... I would like to travel overseas at least once a year to places we are learning about....Paris, Rome, Galapagos Islands, India, Stonehenge etc I would like a CM and classically inspired, with Waldorf crafts and hands on ideas added all the way through highschool, secular program- not necessarily curriculum, but parts could be curriculum- designed specifically for the Australian market. So much so I am thinking of designing one myself, even though it may be too late for it to be much use to my two. The reason I would like it Australian is I guess self evident, ...so may programs use U.S. cultural references, which is fine, but we need a lot of Australian cultural references embedded in our programs too. Our seasons are the opposite so reading about snow when we are sweltering just emphasizes that the program was not "meant" for us. IYKWIM. I am looking for biographies of Australian great men and women, so we can go lighter on George Washington etc and focus on our own cultural heritage. But, I have to do the work myself. And, I would like someone to miraculously and regularly come and pare my program down so that we can finish by lunchtime and go out and play. I honestly think 20 hours a week of focused academics should be plenty most of the way through school, but its so hard to resist the temptation to just keep adding and adding.

Agree, they are more logic stage. Dd read the History of Medicine when she was 11 or so, and it made her want to be a doctor. I think it might be the more accessible of them, although I haven't seen the Planet Earth one. I have the Chemistry and Mathematics ones. They really are very good.

I am familiar with the Waldorf methods as Drew mentioned. They have "Main lessons" which last several weeks of daily application- I think about 3 weeks. I think this covers lots of topics- maths- they might do a main lesson on Geometry and go very in depth with it- then another one on Greek History- another on Zoology. Not simultaneously. And they still have daily lessons in other subjects. I think each block lesson is about 2 hours but it probably varies. At 3 weeks a block, they still cover lots of topics. Waldorf has a classical bent, coming from an era where that was the norm, so its worth looking at. With Waldorf, they have a "head, heart, hands" approach. So they make sure they do hands on stuff, and songs and creative things along with their more academic work. And their "main lesson" books look very beautiful. We have four 10 week terms here in Australia, and I like a 10 week "block" for focusing on a particular topic in History. We did 10 weeks on prehistory, Sumer and the early river civilisations, then 10 weeks on the foundation of the early religions, including Hinduism, Taoism, etc. The next is 10 weeks on Ancient Greece, then a final 10 weeks on Ancient Rome. I would find it hard to "pack" what we do in 10 weeks, though, into a month or so. For example, I have 7 books for history this term for the Greeks- some very light, some more meaty. So although history as a subject may not be done daily, the reading for it will take up maybe an hour or so a day. So, although we are doing "Ancient History" all year, I break it down into sections that feel good to me, now that we aren't using SOTW (which is chronological) any more (our 2nd and last time through the history cycle).

Good question, I am not sure, I just went through a DH Lawrence phase about 10 years ago. It may not be appropriate, but then, I did Tess of the D'Urbavilles in grade 10 and that's all about a rape- I am not too worried about that. I loved Lawrence. I will have to reread. (and there is a rape scene in the first Clan of the Cave Bear book, too, and goodness knows what in the rest- its so long since I read them) before I choose one for dd. There isone set in Australia, but its not his most popular.

Dh and I had a Big Talk to our two a few days ago. They were getting really slack on their chores, and whiny- the younger mainly, but the older, although she is not vocal, would simply "forget" to feed the cat every. single. day. without being told. So we sat them down and had a talk about responsibilities. About them getting older. About what we felt our jobs as parents were, and how we wanted them to grow up to be capable people with confidence in themselves, and a willingness to pitch in and work with a good attitude. We talked about how people who don't have a good attitude toward plain work, have a difficult life. Anyway, they both responded quite well, and we shifted around their chores as well. Instead of alternate kitchen days, each now has a whole week on kitchen duty...that means ALL dishes, packing and unpacking dishwasher, cleaning up after meals. Its a lot, but they aint little kids anymore,and its probably only 30-45 minutes a day on a bad day. And it helps me immensely, and gives me time to do deeper cleaning. Its working well, but I doubt its the last Big Talk we will have with them. They did both "get it" that we were not just their servants, that we wanted to train them, and it was time they got off their butts (or computers) and contributed to the family WITHOUT resentment. But, they are of a certain age, and it was just time for the talk and for added responsibilities. Every family has its own timing.

I do this every year. I usually go to a silent retreat for a week. Where I am fed. Twice though I have been to India for 3 weeks. I feel no guilt about taking care of myself in this way...we are not in debt apart from mortages on investment properties, but we rent, and we are not wealthy by any means. But you know, if people wait till they retire to really do what they want to do, what is good for them....they may be dead or incapacitated. Its not selfish in a bad way, it is taking care of yourself. You have a good dh who want sot take care of you...let him. Dont ruin his present with your guilt.

Yes, I have had this discussion many times. And I think it comes down to some personalities prefer one over the other, and also it is an age thing. Parts to whole learning is classically grammar stage. I learned Latin at highschool with Cambridge (well, for a year) so it was familiar to me. My kids learned with it for quite a while. However, my older had a tutor who would reinforce the grammar. And the younger floundered after a while, and I find that a combination of Latin Prep and Cambridge works well for him. We switch back and forth between the two, as I feel. Latin Prep is a good balance on its own though- it has plenty of translations to read, as well as being intensely grammar focused. But Cambridge is just plain interesting and engaging, and teaches lots of history and culture, and many kids pick up the grammar that way. And the grammar IS taught in Cambridge- just differently, more in context. One of the benefits of whole to parts programs is that while the grammar is taught more slowly, much vocabulary is learned on the way. More than in a traditional grammar based program. However, one of the reasons Classical people learn Latin is for that drill drill drill thing that people have done with Latin for centuries. It's brain training. The goal is not always to read Latin texts in the original. It is often just to learn Latin, for the discipline that entails. A whole to parts program isn't going to meet that goal. I myself tried LfC and without the context, I could not follow this program. I had no idea why we were learning what we were learning. Rote memorisation for the apparent sake of it is not how i want to teach, not what works for me, and after the novelty has worn off, not what works for my kids either. Now if I was already a Latin scholar, I could see the point in designing programs which teach all the declensions etc up front. But, I am in the trenches with my kids, and I cant do it that way. (she says, stamping her foot!). I want context. But both roads DO lead to Rome/ Latin being mastered. And actually, I think a balance between the two approaches is best by the time kids get to Logic stage. The program I feel that balances both aspects the best, that I have come across, is Latin Prep, although I would say it is primarily a parts to whole program- it does gives lots of context, and it has lots of fun in it to alleviate the dryness of the grammar approach. I am no classical scholar or anything. I am just sharing my experience as a homeschooling mum. I have used several different Latin programs, and we enjoy Cambridge because it is interesting. Many people don't care if programs are dull or dry, as long as they are done, because they feel the instrinsic value of teh subject is enough. I am not like that. We have to enjoy the journey if at all possible.

My dd is almost 14, and I am glad we have already covered: Lord of the Rings (with Literary lessons form Lord of the Rings) Narnia Series Treasure island Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart The Hobbit Ann of Green Gables She is on the last book of the Clan of the Cave Bear series- these have really spoken to her Harry Potter Lots and lots of others. I am glad we have covered lots of children's classics. She is now ready for more adult books, but at the same time, she is not ready for many of the "classic" adult books, or even highschool books, like 1984. She needs a bit more maturity. She will be reading Mists of Avalon, Tess of the D'Urbavilles, Walden, Austen and Dickens, Galileo's daughter, maybe some Dostoyevsky, some classic science fiction like Farenheit 451, maybe a DHLawrence, before I have finished with her, but we have a few years to go, I hope.

I use short division too. My ds12 has never been really quick or accurate or good at maths. He wasn't too bad with Singapore for quite a while, but then he hit a point where he just struggled a lot. How much maths is your daughter doing? I have found after a period of time, my kids' brains shut down. Doing a smaller amount of maths, with patience and care, is better than doing a larger amount "for the practice", I have found. When my kids look at a page or two full of sums to get through, my son in particular is likely to start rushing to get them done. I recently found out that in schools, teachers often only assign and get through about 50% of a maths text- this was in reference to a particular Australian maths text I use with my kids now. That gave me a reality check, as I have made my kids do all of it, and both have been taking a lot longer this year than last. So I am going to just time them again and keep maths within reasonable limits, rather than letting it take as long as it takes, which sometimes can be 2.5 hours for my older. It's just too much. I guess I a just saying that while daily consistency is important, and practice, a large amount of maths can be self defeating. Don't know if thats relevant to you.

Agree with Angelina. I had my dd try it almost a year ago at 13, and although she could technically do the work, it was dry and going over her head. I fail to see the point when she wasn't really engaging, and was just going through the motions of doing it. I am not sure she will get to do it at all, now. However, a friend of mine had her dd13 and a couple of other girls, one barely 13 and one 15, do it together, after doing Art of Argument the previous year. They seemed to do ok, but her 13yo is very analytically minded, wheras my dd13 (and they are best friends) is not. She is more creative. I intend to do Art of Argument next year when my son is 13 and my daughter 14. I am waiting for his maturity rather than hers, because it seems more efficient to have them do it together. Then if all goes well, the following year they will do the sequel, I think it is called Dance of Deception. It is worth having a look at Trad Logic 1 and seeing what you think. I dry up just thinking about it, personally, so maybe I am not the best person to be commenting! However, you never know, in a group situation your daughter may well get something out of it, particularly if they are going at such a slow pace. It is very abstract.

Naturopath, and part time job with intellectually handicapped. However, I also used to go to a lot more movies during the day :lurk5: usually at least once a week. I don't remember the last time I went to the movies.

I am pretty sure my family thought i was nuts too, but the trick is not to ask for or expect approval or acceptance....just be matter of fact and do what you want to do. I have a highly academic family, career minded, two grandparents are teachers, father is a scientist.....I am sure they had a conversation or two behind my back! But I have lived very independent of their opinions for a long time, so i just carried on. Even my husband wasnt sure in the very beginning. When I took the kids to visit their relatives.....the relatives could see that the kids were bright, thriving, happy. After a while, they were so proud of me, of them, and told all their friends etc. It was a complete turnaround. My grandmother, an ex teacher, has Alzheimers though and did go through a phase for a year of asking me when Genevieve was going to highschool. She had obviously thought homeschooling was good for primary only. And even though i told her the truth, she wasn't going to highschool, she still kept asking because it didn't compute. Have confidence in what you do, and don't put yourself out there for their disapproval. It hurts, but its also a part of growing up. I sometimes sent articles to my parents that were pro homeschooling. I think it helped them understand. There are far less homeschoolers, % wise, in Australia, than there are in the U.S. where it is huge....so many people here haven't even heard of it. It was like long term breastfeeding for me. I want to have no regrets as a parent, so I do what I feel to do, enthusiastically and with passion. My mother thought I was nuts to tandem breastfeed two young children. But I have no regrets. And her opinion is just that, her opinion, nothing to do with me. I love her anyway, but I am an adult.

My 13yo dd is love, joy and happiness incarnate. She has her moments, but they are brief. She is a cheerful,bright, confident kid. I have friends who fight with their kids and they tell me the bad times will come, but I think this kid just doesn't have much to fight about, or sulk about. She was a happy baby, a happy toddler, a happy child, and now a happy teen. The other day I asked her to vacuum the whole top floor of the home- it's a big home- and while her 12yo brother was throwing a wild, angry tantrum about having to do far less, she gave me a dark look for a split second, then went and did it, and that was it. Dh and I were talking today...her two "dark issues" or however you would say it, are that she is easily influenced by her peers, and she is lazy. Her brother is very different, but he has one of those tempers that flares up and then dies down fairly quickly as well. I have one kid who I wonder what I did to deserve, because she is so easy to parent, and another who has made me grow so much in patience and ...patience....I know I am a better person for being his mother, and I love him to bits too of course, theres no preference at all. :001_wub: When my dd was a baby, people used to tell me I must be a really good mum, since she was my first, and she was just so easy and sweet with everyone, especially me....then came her brother....there went that theory.:001_smile: But if I had only had my dd, I would never have had any empathy for other parents. I just wouldn't have understood how hard it can be, and how helpless you can feel, and how much you can love a difficult kid. Not that he is sulky in that teenage way, but he has just been a highly emotional kid from the start. They are all so unique, arent they?

I live in Australia, where we have extremely high skin cancer rates, and a huge hole in the ozone. We have just been through an incredibly hot summer. (many many days over 40degrees celsius). I don't use normal sunscreen at all. I consider it toxic. We don't go out in the middle of the day. We wear hats always. We wear long sleeved cotton shirts, or at least t-shirts with the larger sleeves. The kids wear big baggy board shorts which come at least to their knees. In the water, they always wear sun shirts. Or at least a t shirt. Occasionally, I will wear, or put on them, clear zinc cream. I will often use it on my nose if I am swimming or out on the motorbike. My daughter left this morning for Broome and the desert inland from there. Very, very hot. So she is dong all of the above,with a big wide rimmed hat, and she has clear zinc for any exposed areas.

I don't know the answer, but what occurs to me is that if I cut into my essentials- sleep, decent food, some recreation, some exercise- basics- I will burn out in a short time. I couldn't homeschool for long if I was not getting enough sleep, not able to take care of myself. I know people do it, but rarely very well for very long. So, I guess what i am thinking is, make sure the priorities are there, and the truth is, whatever supports you, makes things easier for you, is what you need to do, so that you can function fairly well. What that means for you, I dont know. I would have my kids work as independently as possible but spend only mornings with them- set them up independently after lunch. I would use some daycare for any underschool aged kids. I would have an afternoon nap in order to be able to work ok in the evening. I don't know what your needs are but in situations like yours I think sometimes you need to think way out of the box and see what works. Good luck. I emphathise with anyone who has to work that much while homeschooling. I work from home too, but it is cooking and serving food, it's stuff I can do while the kids work.

I have talked to my kids about the choking game (kids choke themselves/each other till they pass out, there have been fatalities). With the ages of my kids, and the fact they spend many hours at Scouts with other kids, who I don't know well enough to know for sure they wouldn't be silly enough to do such things, I feel they are better off forewarned. If my kids were little, I wouldn't, but they mix in the world a fair bit nowadays, mainly with Scouts, and I feel it is better they hear things like that from their dad and I , than see it first and think it's safe, then hear our warnings too late, or dismiss us as being fuddy duddies or overprotective. We read about things like that in the newspaper, which we have delivered daily, and we often read snippets from the paper aloud to the other members of the family if they seem relevent or interesting. So, that conversation came up after one of us read an article about the choking game, and shared it. We cover lots of other issues like that in the same way.

I don't feel I am particularly a curriculum junkie any more, however I still tend to buy curriculum through the year rather than all at one time. It's usually only our math program that we start at the beginning of each year, and may be one or two other things. The rest kind of flow on.

I think narration is a valuable skill but I try to prevent it from becoming a heavy thing. And, I don't expect an oral narration then a written narration for every history chapter. I never really used SOTW that way. We answered the questions orally, discussing as we went. We rarely did writing for both sections. We sometimes did a project/ research assignment instead of narration. I tried to vary it. And i only expected a very short few sentences at that age. I would do what you need to do to make it more fun and interesting. I myself do not like things to get too repetitive or heavy going, so I improvise a lot. i rarely follow books the way they set things out, and I don't do things the WTM way week after week, because for us it's very repetitive. If you decided to change the way you do SOTW, I would keep up the oral narration skills in other areas, but it doesnt have to be too serious...just ask them whats going on in the literature book they are reading, or ask them to tell you 5 things they have learned about volcanoes. Of course, narrations are not necessary, but it is a good foundation for other writing skills, so I wouldn't drop them altogether.

It's never been an issue really, but I am naturally quite self contained. 1. I am in a band, we meet and practice once a week and have a performance every couple of months or so...it makes me feel like I have a life, even though the amount of drama that can occur between 5 people in a band is really quite astounding and sometimes it doesn't feel worth it...it has been worth it. 2. My dh has people around a lot with his work, so I have incidental type socialising frequently. 3.My part time job involves cooking for about 15 people twice a week, so I get to be with other humans for part of that time. 4. I socialise with the parents of my childrens' homeschooling friends. I make a big effort to connect with people that I like, for my kids' sake. I foster those connections I feel to, and don't make much effort for the others. I see other mums in a friendly social way for several hours once a week while the kids do classes. Its enough to fill that need for conversation about homeschooling and kids etc, which my other avenues of socialising don't necessarily fullfil. (apart from here, of course). 5. I have a spiritual community, who I don't see regularly, but usually several times a year we will see each other for several weeks at a time, and those bonds are quite deep. 6. Once a year I usually do some sort of spiritual retreat, usually a silent one, but its amazing how close you can get to people in silence. So, socialising for me is more of a problem when it gets too much...I love to be alone a lot.

Yes, both versions, and it has been incredibly influential...even if much of what we do now is not using WTM recommendations....it has been something I have integrated and digested, and then gone on to create my own program that is more personal for me...using other influences as well. I see no benefit in being "loyal" to any program just for the sake of it, however, I am very grateful for TWTM, and it is the first book I recommend to new homeschoolers who are floundering around looking for some solid ground in the homeschool world. That, along with the Story of the World series, and Ambleside, are the 3 things I encourage new homeschoolers to check out. I remember it took me ages to get past the unschoolers to the stuff I could really resonate with.

My son is like this too, in some areas. But not in history- not anything that's like a story- but anything logical? Its like he's never seen a fraction before, or a decimal, sometimes. Those easy Mind Bender logic puzzles? Impossible without my help. I had him tested only a few month ago for learning problems,and both people who tested him reckoned he had a lot of issues, (mainly dyslexia) but that I had dealt with them well. Better than any school could have. Developing a visual memory is really hard for some kids, but we have spent years doing that with copywork, dictation and narration. He is doing Brain Gym now, and having kinesiology sessions, and I was a bit skeptical myself at first, but it seems to be really making a difference.....literally, there seem to be issues with connecting parts of the brain, and parts of the body to the brain. These kinesiology sessions are surprising me....he came home and wrote a 2 page story the other day, after his session. He hates writing! half a page is the most I usually get out of him. His handwriting is actually improving after years of working at it and it still looking like chicken scrawl. It could be coincidence, but he went into his last session with a headache, and resenting going because he wanted to be doing something else- he came out bright, happy, headache free- switched on, rather than down and dark. It was quite interesting to see. Not saying other kids who have these learning issues have "problems" as such. I think we are all unique and our kids all have their different quirks. But I got to the point I felt something much be wrong, and I felt relieved to find out it wasn't me, or anything he could help, and that there are things we can do about it.

We use it. I just bought the book- its all you need, unless you are people who really like listening to CDs a lot. I can see some families could use the CD. But for me, its too much trouble to get the CD out, put it on, find the correct part, play it, repeat it etc. And I didn't like his poetry reading anyway! (too slow for me). But i use the book and we have had a lot of fun with the poems, it will last me another couple of years probably (already a year). My kids are older, but this is the only way poetry memorisation happens around here. We don't have memory books or anything anymore. I just pick up the book, we go over a few old poems randomly, then read the new one once or twice together.

Well I am secular, my kids are positively allergic to too many Christian references, and they both felt they were fine. My daughter in particular loved the History of Medicine book, but we have also read the Chemistry one, and i have bought the Mathematics one ready to go. I also bought the Science course that Tiner co-authored and I found the amount of Christian stuff in it to be minimal and very manageable. It could be that a Christian and a non Christian would "see" different things in these Christian books, but it hasn't been a problem here, and I can recommend all his books highly.