I'm only working with 2, so this may not work for you, but.. My eldest often got the left overs too & while he never complained he often would say, "Hey when are we going to discuss.." This year, because he's up early anyway, we've changed our pattern. We get up early, work out together, & then take our smoothies to the home library. He discusses his lit with me from the day prior, we read his read aloud together, & a few other things we have going on. All up it takes us about 90 minutes without feeling rushed, sometimes a little longer. The younger is a late riser so his alarm goes off around 930 & then he hits the shower, grabs his smoothie, grabs pets & finds us. We switch to our family read aloud, Bible, poetry, vocabulary {Marie's Words} & then I have the youngest toddle off to read his reader where ever he pleases while my eldest & I do a Bible Study together {his choice to do it together..} At that point I leave my eldest on his own to accomplish all his notebooking, math, science, writing, electives, etc. My youngest & I grab his books & go off into the kitchen to read. I've found that by getting my most independent child up & running first it means that he can go on with his day without feeling like I'm holding him up. He's very meticulous in his work, but wants to be sure things are done right before moving forward. It also means he doesn't come in & hover when I'm trying to get my "clingy" one to work more independently. ;) Last year we worked in the opposite pattern, I started with the youngest & my eldest did his own thing, which worked fine except, as you pointed out.. the eldest got the dregs, & if I was out of steam it meant he'd end up feeling like he wasn't sure if he should move on with things because it hadn't been looked over.

Before I purchase anything {small chunk or large chunk} I look extensively at: The samples. Most companies {these days} provide enough sample to actually use the curriculum for a 2 week period or so. If they don't, I'm often one to close the box & move on. I look at the items required & if it comes as part of the package price. I look at shipping. International shipping can either be "okay" or horrific. If this is a curriculum that has a guide & lots of lit that goes with it I pull up those books on Amazon {or from my library} & read as much of the sample as provided in order to get a feel for things. often the literature choices can tell you if the curriculum will fit your tastes or not. There are still times when, after the purchase, small components don't mesh well for us. This happened recently with one item/subject out of a "boxed curriculum" we purchased for our 10th grader. That didn't bother me, because I could lay that one item aside & still use the rest. Funny thing is, it's the ONLY portion I did not follow my own rules about!

It's called: Homeschool, Buy, Sell, Swap Australia :) There is no longer an AU seller. They closed up shop, but in fairness their prices were DOUBLE or more of the USA prices which actually made it CHEAPER to import from the USA. I hate that because you want to buy it local, but really It was just a lot to swallow. I kinda wish that curriculum companies understood that while our children NEED writing they also NEED math and they also NEED history, etc. If they didn't all think their curriculum should be worth hundreds each.. ahh, a pet peeve of mine. ;)

Non-traditional medicine tends to be a sticky topic around here, but here's our experience. I seem to get a chesty cough every winter for the past 3 years now. The first year I went to the Dr for help & he said that since I hadn't the cough for 3 months yet it wasn't a problem & prescribed a medication that my file clearly states I can't take without allergic reaction. When I handed it back to him he refused to help me further. The second year I decided I wouldnt' get help because it wasn't worth it, but I kept getting worse & worse. We'd moved to a different Dr {we have an incredibly poor medical system where I live} by then, but she was on maternity leave. I saw a temp who was appalled I'd waited so long to come in. He told me had I put it off any further I'd likely have wound up with pneumonia. I took the medication he gave me {lasted all of 5 days} & slept most of that time, but once the medication was gone the chesty cough came right back. I pulled out essential oils & decided to start using a mixture of lemon & oregano. For me & the problem I was dealing with it worked. The cold weather rolled in again this past winter & that darn chesty cough came back! I have heard that if you get bronchitis you can get reoccurring episodes of it. The problem for me is not that I am anti-traditional medicine. Not at all. I use to have a great GP & was happy to see him if needed, to take my kids in for well-checks, or if needed. But I don't have that luxury where I live. It took 12 years to find someone who actually remembers I have a child deathly allergic to penicillin & doesn't roll their eyes about it. She went to bat for us against an ER Dr who accused me of child abuse because our Celiac is on, well a celiac diet. It's hard to put your health or your kids health in the hands of medical staff you can't trust, kwim? Especially when it costs $80+ for the visit followed by the same for medication afterwards. So for me, opening up the cupboard & using the EO's was what I opted to try before navigating the medical trail. For me, it works. So long as I use them daily I'm fine, I don't take them for 2 days & I can feel it slowly creeping back in. As soon as the weather warms up I know I'll be fine to put them away. :)

What about looking at Craftsy? We ended up picking up our Artsy kid a course from YouthDigital for Animation 1. I figured it might slow him down a little & it's an area he's interested in taking his art.. :)

AusMum, are you in the Buy/Sell/Swap AU FB Group? It comes in there often at a MUCH cheaper rate. I'll say this about the parent DVDs.. they are lengthy to watch & the idea is that a parent watches a Unit before teaching it. So far I wouldn't say I've gained a lot more from it than from the student lessons {yet, I'm behind on a few units}.. I'd honestly suggest considering picking up IEW SWI at whatever level you need. That also comes up at a GREATly discounted price in the group I mentioned above. I picked up our copy for $60 I think it was. I'm a little worried about the Continuation price because those are harder to source second hand.

I believe outlining is covered in the Continuation Courses.. I don't know what level you are doing, but I'm certain I saw it there. I can't say "positive" because we aren't on a continuation course at this stage. :)

Here's what we do: We combine where we can & pick curriculum that encourages independence. Our day is kicked off with people curled up under quilts drinking smoothies while we do our Bible, Poetry, Memorization, Vocabulary, & family read aloud. All up we aim for an hour, but to be honest we go over often. I chose to use IEW Fix-It because it's easy to combine kids of all grade levels. We go over the new lesson on Mondays & each person who can goes their own way to do the actual work, turning it in when they are done. To "turn in" simply means they leave it on our learning table where I would sit down when I come to that table. I will quickly look it over, mark anything that needs correcting & move on. Children do not rewrite IEW sentences in our home, they type them. My kids use to do the same spelling too despite the age/grade gap. There was a reason for it & it worked for us, we're no longer doing spelling, but we used Sequential Spelling when we did. We set a timer & the objective was to be done by the time it went off. The use of the timer kept kids from doing flips, crazy stories, & other insanity at the table. It did not stop Mom from attempting to use every spelling word in one long story as we worked through our list though. ;) After "seat work" this is where we divide & conquer as we call it. Before having any fully independent children I went through the list of what needed to be done & worked from there by selecting one child to work with me, while the other went off to work solo. I have one who loves to discuss everything he reads, but he can still work independently & discuss with me at a later time. It does work. You can still select curriculum that allows your student to independently conquer things & then come back to discuss his favourite parts with you. To encourage my "clinger" to go listen to his science lectures on his own I often use to say, "I've read this book, I've learned this subject, while you listen to today's reading you need to come back to me with 3 facts from your reading you think I won't know/remember." This often meant he'd select more "scientific sounding things" in order to "get mom" My eldest, on the other hand just takes extensive notes, always has. These aren't outlines, but notes. His are comprised of phrases, sketches, & key words to trigger his memory about what he was interested in. I find his notes fascinating because of the incredibly detail he can snatch up these days while listening. Even at a young age he'd write down a word {hen scratching, never spelled write, etc} or draw pictures & then when he was done he'd come back & tell me what he could based on his "notes". ;) Think of it like this, schools have show & tell, you have learn & tell. Once your children have done lessons you can throw a lovely spread on the table {for us that means a snack & drinks} & everyone shares about what they learned. Once you let go of the idea that you don't HAVE to be involved in every lesson for your children to learn the less stress YOU will have. It's HARD, because this is what we've always done, but it's also FREEING to let go & watch how they excel. I currently have one who is clinging really hard. It reminds me of SWB's chat about independence & how sometimes you have to take a child "kicking & screaming" into the next level. Yep, that sums up my boy. So much so that I've intentionally made a few curriculum changes this year to take him, 'kicking & screaming' into the next level. He hasn't dissapointed either with a firm, "Why on earth did you change my math! I thought things were going along just fine & now you've bought THIS one? You know I HATE this one." :lol: I've refrained from pointing out that if he hates it so much you'd really think he'd be doing far worse in it. ;)

Fix-It, because we all ready use it. It's quick, to the point, & works. It covers many grade levels so everyone can gather at the table, the lesson can be taught & depending on age/grade people can go work on their own with it through the rest of the week turning it in for correcting each day. Seriously simple. My other reason would be because we use IEW for writing. I appreciate that the same company writes both our Writing & our Grammar programme. Why? Because there is no more preconceived notion that our kids don't know grammar & thus wasted weeks spent being taught what various parts of speech are before we get to the crux of the writing curriculum. It also means terms we hear in our writing are carried over into our grammar or vice versa. They really do compliment each other nicely. :) Finally, Fix-It is cheap in the grand realm of things. You buy the TM you get a download link for the student books, which means with multiple students you still only pay the one price for the teacher book. This is especially useful for our home as my kids needs their books on special coloured paper {& it's different for each kid} so this saves me gobs of time unbinding books, running off copies, & then being stuck with an origional no one will use. :)

In our home each student has 3 cubes in one of those nifty cube shelves that seem to be all the rage. One cube has magazine holders in it where they slip workbooks, spiral notebooks, & clipboards. The rest of the space in that cube holds binders & a pencil box. The second cube holds a plastic shoebox in it which holds their current books: Reading book, history books, science book, etc. The third box holds a basket that fits the space of the cube, within it are the rest of the books they will need during the year. That way I don't have to hunt the book down through the home, I just look through the basket. As books are finished in the Plastic Box they return to the basket so at the end of the year everything is in one place & we can decide to shelf it or sell it. The rest of the cubes are devoted to topics of books: Teacher's Manuals, History, Science, Geography. Aside from TM's the other categories fill more than one cube. I also have 2 cubes for myself which hold school planners, TM's we are using that year, my personal planner, etc. The rest of our books are kept on shelves in other areas of the home, & haven help the person who thinks of rearranging it. ;) I have one small whicker file box kept near our fire place in the library. Within it is completed work. I keep that for 2 years because that's how often we're checked in on. During that time the moderator who comes to our home verifies we've done the work we said. That would be things like grammar & math. Writing is often kept on a computer hard drive & printed out as needed. Grades are stored online. :)

We used it for 9th, & felt it accomplished the job in adequately enough. :)

One of my children is less independent than he should be, both would be classified as special needs due to Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. I tend to work the opposite of you, though, & refused to box myself into a teacher heavy programme. Instead, I pick programmes I know my kids can successfully do on their own. Due to the SSS I tend to pick programmes that can be done with audio/video lectures & the kids can do the "hand written" portions via the computer either using Dragon Speak or just typing. This has meant, at times, that while *I* am not a fan of a particular programme I've purchased it anyway because it serves my child well, further he hasn't minded them & has had great success with it. I've also made programmes that video/audio work by creating my own audio/video file for it. For instance, when my eldest was in Grade 8 we used WWS. He really loved Mrs Bauer's no nonsense approach, the specific guidelines he had to work in, & the lessons themselves. The reality for him was, though, that if he read the lesson himself he often ended up dehydrated & headachey amongst other symptoms. So, during summer break I recorded the lessons for him in audio format, saved them to the family desktop & he located them as needed. I went hoarse doing that because I aimed for something like 10 lessons a day, but it worked & my child was able to succeed with the work. :) These days my child on the severe end of the SSS spectrum tends to rely on programmes Mamma doesn't have to pre-record: Teaching Textbooks, Apologia {you can get these in audio & he does the quizzes online for free via Virtual Homeschool Group {.org} where he can have Siri read the question if he needs to}, IEW {writing, they come in video format, all though I understand EIW does as well..}, IEW for Grammar {this only requires meeting with the teacher for the initial lesson & can be done across many grade levels so everyone meets up for that first lesson of the week..}, history is done with lots & lots of audio books, etc. He's completed several SL & BkSk cores in that manner & is opting to try out HOD for 10th. We'll see how it goes as there are less available in audio format this way. Should be interesting. Instead of considering teacher intensive programmes, change your thinking to, "What can provide my son with the ability to work on his own.." By changing that way of thinking it opened up a whole world of curriculum to us we might not have looked at otherwise. Another thought is to consider online courses, this is not an option for us due to being overseas. There's just no way getting up at 4 or 6 am is going to work for my child to be alert enough to work on classes. ;) However, there are some very inexpensive options out there from CurrClick {nominal depending on the course} VirtualHomeschoolGroup {.org which is free}. VHSG is one my son can participate in because there are both live & At Your Own Pace courses. Math, Grammar, Writing, Second Languages, Electives, Logic, Science, etc are all offered over there. Sadly we can only participate in a few of the offered courses as only some are AYOP where the rest are live. :) ETA: We get our audio books through Audible, we've been members for over 12 years so we have, quite literally, hundreds of audio books through that. Our membership has more than paid for itself to be honest. If you have proof of a learning disability you can also apply for a membership over at Learning Ally. If you don't have an account there sign up through Homeschool Buyer's Co-op because you'll get a hefty discount on that first year. LA's quality is NOT as wonderful as Audible, which is a shame based on what LA is attempting to do. Having said that it has served our family well & allowed my SSS boy to complete several Literature Based programmes independently which he loved. LA will also have many books that use to be on tape, but aren't available on CD which opens up the range of books you can access.

I second Ingpen's books. We own all but a few & they are just delightful, all though I'd flip through A Secret Garden before purchasing. We just felt he made Mary's eyes.. creepy. Usborne has also illustrated classics without abridging the titles. We picked up The Railway Children like that without realising it was an Usborne title. :) There's also a copy of Anne Of Green Gables which is illustrated by Laura Fernandez & Rick Jacobsen that we own & love. There aren't nearly as many illustrations in it as there are in the beautiful HP books, but it's still a lovely edition. John Burningham has done a 50th Anniversary Edition of Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang that's also nice. LOTS of illustrations in that one, & there were a few instances to practice our French with it. :) If you can find the OOP Special Read Aloud Editions of The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe it's also beautifully illustrated. We picked that one up a few years ago second hand & I so wish I could obtain the entire series that way. Never mind we have the whole series in the new sleek pages that are also with colour illustrations. The SRAE is still amazing all though the illustrations are in B&W. We also own an Illustrated {colour} version of A Bear Called Paddington illustrated by Peggy Fortnum. She captured P. Bear wonderfully. No full page illustrations, but lots of small ones throughout the whole book. We have the hardback 50th Anniversary Edition. There's an oversized edition of Charlotte's Web as well which is illustrated, in colour, by Garth Williams. Due to the size of the book the illustrations are really large & beautiful. You can also find an illustrated edition of The Hobbit, again not as many illustrations as HP, but they are beautifully done & full page. I believe the book says 48 in total. It's illustrated by Michael Hague. I'm certain, somewhere on the shelf we have an illustrated version of Moby Dick, A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth {all though I think this one only had one in it despite being listed as fully illustrated}, several Aussie Classics, Black Ships Before Troy {the illustrated version of this is just amazing..}, Greek Myths, etc. :)

Yep, we use the ME for school too, but the spots are subjects vs kids names. ;) Works a charm for us. We use the monthly calendar for attendance purposes & the YAG page for mapping out our school year.

My leftie has always used HWOT & had no issues. Keep in mind that the kid has always loved to write & draw. :) I will say this though, it's easier for a leftie if you bind across the top of the book {like a steno pad} or on the right hand side of the book instead. I often just unbind, run a copy & bind it the other way. :)

Well, if it was me I wouldn't buy either. ;) I'd buy the Plum Paper Homeschool Planner instead. Merely because it's got the months followed by the weeks. The EC has the months in one section than the weeks in another & that drives me batty. The Ultimate Homeschool Planner did the same thing which really made me grind my teeth. I know I have issues, please don't point that out to me! :P The only thing to keep in mind with the PPP is that each planner is made to your specifications. You can have pages added in or taken out. We've used one for the last few years for homeschooling & we get the large ME. You can add in a homeschool section if you want, but I don't think I'd bother with it. Instead I have note pages added on to the school planner, & sometimes check list pages. They are currently 20% off with the Labor Day code available.. but keep in mind because the insides are made to your specifications {colour or not, added pages or not, order of pages, etc} they can take longer to be printed, bound & shipped. You can even tell them not to bind it if you want.

It's not a book, but I'm really enjoying Homeschool Minder. I didn't think I'd love a digital programme for this, but in the end I've been happily mistaken. The best part is that I can not only track his attendance, grades, book lists, etc. it's all printable. So I can print out some pretty spiffy looking papers when I'm done, & as an Expat who moves way too much the company will keep track of my son's records for us so no losing them in a move! :D

I haven't either, but did you know that the apologia courses {including advanced} are available through VirtualHomeschoolGroup.org You can do the LIVE or AtYourOwnPace courses. My son has done his previous Apologia courses with the AYOP, mostly for taking the quizzes online {both module quizzes & study quizzes}, he uses their blueprints for labs, & has conversed with the lady who runs the sight to point out a few errors in one of the courses he took. All up he really enjoys it he's aiming for a third one this year. The only Apologia Course I didn't spot over there was the Marine Biology {bummer}, & I so wish they had the new Dr Wile Chemistry there, but alas..

If you don't hear back quickly you could join a FB group based on the science you are using & you might get quick replies there. I'll be curious to hear how it goes. Her sciences do look pretty amazing, but we've never tried them.

I believe YouthDigital has a Gaming Design course. So does Open2study.com.au My son took the later & passed it. Keep in mind that O2S is geared for kids who are in grade 12 or higher & are looking for future options. Even still, my son was not in Grade 12 when he took that course. :) He felt a little dissapointed because he was after the programming side & felt that the course was geared more towards building your story up & the smaller details that make the games come alive: Story, Background story, etc.

We used BkSk & my child was 100% independent with it. We used Levels 6 & 7. :)

Writing Through ... History Also IEW has themed writings that are based on various time periods in history. :)

That stinks, & I'm sorry you got treated poorly. We left SL due to poor Customer Service & Mr H coming out & saying some nasty things about people who buy SL second hand. To be honest, we loved our years with them & the move was well needed anyway & already coming even if those things hadn't been said. It did, however set me free from thinking, "But this has worked previously.." I think they are completely out of touch with their customer base & they are really shunning the idea of purchasing their curriculum used. I find it disappointing because I don't think they understand just how much their Expat customers are actually paying. Not all of us living overseas get allowance for housing, education, & so forth. I am not military & I am not missionary so I get $0 discount. When I say we can save, literally, hundreds of dollars buying used I'm not joking around. The shipping alone costs more than the products & when I have two kids & need double the stuff.. Ahh, anyway I can totally relate & I am sorry you got treated poorly. I agree, check the forums or join a FB Group {all though be aware that some SL Staff are in some of the large FB Groups} & you'll get your answers pretty quickly. Chances are you're looking for either the B or C timeline figures. ;)

My Freshman used a nifty Plum Paper ME 7x9 planner. All his work, chores, & extra curricular went in there. He noted birthdays & events that he needed to be reminded & prepared for. He also used it in Middle School too. :)

In my day, we looked through an x-ray to watch eclipses. No joke. My sight is fine. :)