We had a successful first day for our 2nd year of homeschooling. The kids were excited and everything went smoothly. We took a fun afternoon trip to the museum to celebrate. :001_smile:

I just gave the school a letter stating I was withdrawing my son and intended to homeschool. I'm not sure if it was required but I didn't want anyone calling me to ask why he wasn't in school the next year.

We did a fruit mummy instead of a chicken mummy. Much less mess and the kids still really loved it. They also enjoyed using hieroglyph stamps, making a sugar cube pyramid, and dressing up as Egyptians, Romans, Greeks.

http://www.abdopub.com/shop/pc/configureprd.asp?idproduct=16225 I stumbled across these books at the library. There isn't one for each state yet but they are very cute and informative. Great supplement to whatever state you are studying!

:iagree: Sounds like my son. We only review as much as he needs. If he gets it, we move on.

It looks really great. I'm going to look into some of their other units too!

I got the Intellego Astronomy unit study. I've been wanting to try one so perfect timing!

If I wanted to use the program at home for Foundations (mainly memory work), what would I need to buy?

The first series he loved was Magic Tree House. Now it's Percy Jackson, Andrew Lost, Geronimo Stilton and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He will read pretty much anything he can get his hands on now. :)

This is one of the reasons I started looking into homeschool. My son had to do so much creative writing in 1st grade and it was overwhelming to him. He wasn't ready so he just shut down and wouldn't write anything. I don't know how many days he cried over that stupid journal he was supposed to write in every day. Plus, the teacher had no idea how to help him. Then I read The Well Trained Mind and was so relieved to learn that if he wasn't ready to write in 1st grade, that was OK!! Now we are working through IEW in 3rd grade in he's doing great. They also encouraged the inventive spelling which seems to have ingrained the wrong spelling in his brain. It was no easy task to correct that!

I have been looking at it too. Would love to hear more opinions!

Thank you for all the encouragement! She does seem to be happy with homeschooling overall but those occasional comments still hurt. I really believe in our decision to homeschool so I will try not to let it get to me.

We started homeschooling this year. My 3rd grade son attended public school through second but was really excited to start homeschooling. He still loves it and says he doesn't want to go back to public school. My daughter is in kindergarten and has never attended public school. She did go to 4 years of mother's day out where I worked as a teacher. A few times she has said school is boring and asked when she gets to see her new class and meet her new teacher. I try to do a lot of fun experiments, field trips, park days, etc. but some subjects are just going to be boring. We are involved with a homeschool group so she gets to socialize with other kids and we have holiday parties together. I don't think she's missing anything the public school can offer but she doesn't know that because she's never been. I have often worried that she would ask to go to public school because she never had that experience, unlike her brother. He knows what it's like and sees the benefits of homeschooling. I'm unsure what to do. Should I let her try public for 1st grade and hope she'll want to come back home? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I agree about the placement tests. They will give you a good idea where she needs to start. My son started homeschooling for 3rd grade and the placement test showed he had some gaps so we started in 2A. We went quickly through units he already knew and spent more time on things he'd missed in public school. He is in 3A now and I expect him to be caught up to grade level by the fall. He hasn't had any trouble with the mental math. We just talk about the techniques and practice as we go.

Awesome! We love Bill Nye and luckily our library has a great selection of the dvds.

:iagree:My daughter loves his books!

Nice! I think my husband and son will love this!

I never learned it in school (1994 grad). I've learned a lot this year while teaching my 3rd grader.

Cool! We are studying Egypt this week so we will check this out!

Thank you for sharing! I'm sure my daughter will enjoy something different from starfall ever now and then.

We loved City of Ember too! I couldn't help myself and read ahead. One chapter each night wasn't fast enough. We are enjoying the next book, The People of Sparks, now.

Continually spelling a word incorrectly makes a imprint into a child's mind, they'll have to work harder to overcome that picture of the misspelled word. :iagree:My son was in PS through 2nd grade. He spelled words wrong so many times that now the wrong way looks correct to him. We started from the beginning in AAS and his spelling is gradually getting better but it's been a struggle.

Love it! Thanks!

My 5 year old loves it. It's great for giving her something independent to do while I work with her older brother.

I was feeling the exact same way when public school started on Monday. My daughter is 5 and would have started K in ps this year. As I heard all the excitement from other moms about their K'ers, I really started to doubt our decision to homeschool. Monday morning everyone on Facebook was sharing pics of the first day of school and was excited. Then a few hours later, they were all missing their kids. Then Tuesday morning, everyone was complaining about having to get up early for school. The excitement of back to school had worn off fast. My confidence in our decision is back and I know it's what's best for us.