I think you will get a large variety of answers. This will really depend on the child and on your approach and goals to writing. As Ellie said, all writing counts, so if your 5th grader writes a summary of her reading for science, I wouldn't have her do an additional story. We aim to write every single day, but it looks very different for each child. My grade 1 kiddo writes a few letters. My 4th grader loves to write, so she has a chapter story she works on daily in her free time - this is not a school project. For assigned writing, she has Fix It! grammar - which is a sentence of copywork, some type of writing in science or history and we aim to do a Bravewriter activity or an EiW lesson daily. If there is a high amount of writing in other subjects on any particular day, we will skip Bravewriter/EiW. The same goes for my 6th grader. Last year we also used a "letter to mom" journals and the kids loved these. Whenever they wished they could write me a little letter or note and I would respond. They have been asking to start these again, so we will probably add them in.

:grouphug:

You can download it from the publishers website after purchase.

How does she do on her review words? If she's still able to correctly spell previous words, I'd stick with AAS, but split the teaching between both kids and back up to the last point your daughter is able to master. Could you teach one in the 12:30 slot and one in the 3:00 slot? Because she's only 7, you could also consider setting spelling aside for a season and then picking it up next year. This way it gives you some time to sort through the schedule and find a slot to put in a second spelling lesson. Your son will probably be able to handle a little extra solo work by next year too, so hopefully you won't feel the press of two lessons quite as badly. You could continue to give your daughter copywork and other sources of review with the words she's already mastered so that nothing is forgotten.

I can't answer those questions for you. Your breaking point may or may not be the same as mine. Your goals may or may not be the same as mine. I can tell you that we've been doing this since my oldest was 5 and this year is probably the first year that I am fully and truly excited and encouraged to be homeschooling. And there are still occasional doubts that seep in, but I can push them away now. And as I type this my kids just finished having a meltdown over mini-wheats and I secretly wished there was a bus coming to pick them all up in 15 minutes. :lol: I can't say if you should keep homeschooling or not, because I don't know what your day-to-day struggles are. I think the complaints are normal though. My kids are all happy to homeschool and think the idea of public school is rather appalling...and yet my oldest two have definitely realized that school means work and interrupts their play time, so yes, they complain. The transition from summer to school in the fall is a bit of a stretch for us all. We've dabbled with schooling year round, but prefer summers off. After a couple weeks, things get back to normal. If you send them to school, you will still have that adjustment period. They will probably be cranky in the morning and cranky when they come home. It will level out. There are definitely going to be highs and lows. Sometimes it means it's time to change things up, sometimes it means you just need to buckle in and ride it out. Take some time and really look over your reasons for homeschooling and decide if it's meeting your needs. If not, why? Is it something you can fix or is it time to make a change?

We tried it as a remedial program with my oldest, year before last, I believe it was. She begged not to do it anymore. It's the only program she's every been opposed to using. We ended up fast tracking through AAR, as I had it already and really like it. When we started, I gave her a highlighter and had her highlight across the word as she read it. It kept her focus on each letter and worked much better for her. FWIW, all my kids have now used AAR and none have done the crafts. There is only cutting/pasting in the pre-1 level, after that there are some activities and word flipper things that have to be assembled, but that is all. We only did the activities if they needed help with the concept being taught and we never spent time coloring them or anything.

I debated between the two as well and ended up going with EiW. This will be our second year using it. I like that you just pop the DVD in and go. I do watch the lesson with the kids usually, as I find it easier to know what is expected for that lesson. I feel like we had very good success with it last year. We didn't use the grammar and I am undecided about using it this year. We are using Fix It! so we'll see how that goes. I started both of my kids with the level 3 DVD. My oldest was grade 5 at the time. It was a good fit for her. She is not a natural writer, so the time spent building paragraphs was good for her. They will both use level 4 this year.

I don't consider it unusual, but certain things are non-negotiable, like personal finance, basic mechanics, cooking, cleaning, laundry. I consider those life skills though. Not unusual either, but swimming is a must here too. The kids have to take lessons until they know, with confidence, how to swim. After that, it's open to discussion. I would like them to all take some sort of basic dance lessons - waltz, two step, etc. I don't know if I'll force it if they are strongly opposed...but I do plan to offer up some strong arguments for it! ;)

We don't write in the workbook. I want to be able to reuse it and I also want her to have practice transferring a question to a separate piece of paper.

We were at a gathering once and one of the guests found out we homeschool and proceeded to become quite vocal about how much her daughter loved school and she would never dream of "depriving" her of the experience, etc, etc...and not even fifteen minutes later said daughter is talking with my oldest and loudly declares "Oh man! I wish I could homeschool! I hate school!!" I love when situations like that just take care of themselves. ;)

I don't mind these convo's if someone is seriously interested in homeschooling. I had a time where a lady led me to believe she was interested in homeschooling and so I spent an afternoon going over registration, records, curriculum, etc...and at the end of the day she told me "Yeah, I definitely couldn't do that. What would you recommend to get my kid ahead of his grade though?" Ummm...thanks for wasting my time. :(

Yes, oldest is in 6th this year, so that could definitely be why there is a recurrence of nay-sayers.

We used to get the Socialization question too when the kids were younger, but they are social little butterflies that talk to absolutely everyone, so now I usually get comments like "do they have friends??" *sigh* Some people will never understand. They will always be of the opinion that if the kids struggle with something it will be because of homeschooling and if they excel at something it will be in spite of homeschooling. And then they'll graduate and life will move on and people will forget I ever homeschooled at all.

I used to respond, and sometimes my tongue still gets away on me, but usually I just shrug it off and disengage. I find that the minute I respond it opens it up for more opinions. I was reading through another thread after I posted and got a laugh out of someone's suggestion to turn the remark around, and would like to try that. "Wow, your kids are really normal, considering they are in public school." ;) I would never say it, of course, as my Mother taught me better - but it's ok to think it and privately smile, right??

LOL When we were house shopping I mentioned that I liked a particular room that had wall-to-wall shelving because it was a homeschoolers dream come true and the immediate response? "Oh! You're a Christian."

When we first started homeschooling we received a ton - and I mean a ton - of not-so-kind remarks. Over the years the remarks have dwindled, but it feels like they've peaked again this past week. I'm the only one of our friends/family that homeschools, I get that, it's new for them, but I am so sick of it. This week alone I've heard: "You homeschool, but your kids are still normal. That's cool." ??!! "Did you know that you are in the district to attend such and such school? It's a really good school. Did you want the number?" (like clearly I homeschool because I am too stupid to look up the phone number of my local public school) "You should meet so-and-so. She's a real teacher and would probably have some good advice." In response to being told we homeschool "Oh, it must be nice to play all day!" *eye roll* "When do you think you'll put the kids in real school?" Normally I can just let things roll off my back, but today I am just tired of it.

Oh, yesterday was one of those days! It took longer than necessary to sort out where the PDF's were and then when I found them I kept going through them and thinking the last lesson was missing on every level. Then it clicked...the lesson number is wrote at the bottom of the page, not the top like I was thinking. No amount of coffee could have saved me. LOL

NM...my brain fog lifted. Oi!

We are using Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry this year. We did their physics last year and all really enjoyed it. I add outside reading for my oldest two.

I used this http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Projects-Grd-Steve-Butz/dp/1420623931/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1439670157&sr=8-2&keywords=computer+projects as a jumping off point for teaching Word. It was ok. It got me started on a few things they/I might have missed if we were just winging it. The reviews complain about it being outdated, but I had one kiddo on a windows 7 and one on Windows 8 and they both did fine. So long as you know where everything is, you can help them find it quickly. I didn't have the kids do it solo. I gave them the directions verbally and then walked them through it if they had trouble finding it. If you left them to do it solo, it may be tougher. For PowerPoint we will wing it. I'm going to give the kids a project ... not sure what that will be...and have certain requirements and see how much they sort out on their own. :bigear: for suggestions on Excel.

These are fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing!

Awesome! Thank you!

Love the coupon book idea! We have a "treasure box" that the kids get to pick prizes from periodically, but I've been looking for something to replace it with. The coupon book sounds perfect.

We usually go shopping on the first day that public school starts back. We enjoy the quiet malls and have lunch out. :) Our first day back to school, we typically just jump right in. We usually leave the first week for a bit of review and only focus on LA & math elements, so it's kind of a light week. I spend the month of August getting ready and the kids love watching their new books roll in. I have always let them flip through the new curriculum at their leisure. They get really excited to start. :) They are with me when I buy supplies, so there is no surprise there. I do refuse to let them use the new things until school starts though, so they are usually itching to get into the new pencils, crayons, etc. Oh - and I usually take a picture of them on the first day back to mark the event. :)