My oldest went through a short lived phase around grade 2 where she wanted to go to school. We talked to her about it and the only thing she was interested in was recess. My youngest also went through a short infatuation with riding the bus. Both were given the option to voice what they wanted and we explained why we chose to homeschool. We told them that if they still wanted to attend the following year, that we would discuss it. Neither one ever brought it up after that. The topic is always open for discussion, and I value their opinion on what they want. We aren't opposed to them going, but we expect their choice to be more solid then "recess sounds fun". LOL

We are in the exact same boat. I could probably count on one hand how many of the homeschoolers I started with still remain. I am suddenly surrounded by 1st and 2nd year homeschoolers, mainly all with littles. Not that it's a bad thing, or there is no value in those relationships, but events with them is more like babysitting for my oldest, which kind of sucks. We also live in a pretty rural location, so joining a bunch of clubs and events just isn't realistic for us. I am currently trying to brainstorm ideas that are more do-able, but it's tough.

Every time this thread resurfaces, I realize I changed something. This can not be a good sign!

We had an old set given to us and the kids have used them quite a bit. But...I wouldn't have purchased them and they take up soooo much space.

For subjects that are already broken in to lessons, we just open and go - like TT and BJU math. For subjects like history, I make up lesson plans, numbered as days 1-5, and list what we are reading/doing in each lesson. I also take the number of lessons in a subject and divide by our expected number of teaching days that year to figure out approximately what pace we need to keep to complete that subject. Last year I planned right down to the date, with the expectation that things could be moved...but the upkeep to change the schedule to reflect the actual lesson we were on was too much and quickly got tossed. It was also a pain when I changed or added curriculum. For day-to-day record keeping, I have a blank planner page that I fill in as we complete work, so that I know what we did on any given day.

Where do you find RAN/RAS drills? Is that like rapidly naming colored dots, etc?

I was going to start a poll, but there were too many options to include, so I thought I'd post like this. :) For those who use/used Barton: What age did you start? What level(s) of Barton did you complete? If you are still using the program, do you plan to complete all levels? When you stopped Barton, what level would you say your child was reading at? Do they enjoy reading? What programs did you try before Barton and for how long? Inquiring, as we are researching programs for youngest at the moment.

INB = Interactive Notebooks. Sorry :)

I find it's similar to Pinterest. You can get sucked in to a black hole if you aren't careful. LOL I have about 20 items in my cart I am considering right now. Mainly science INB pages. I love everything from Lovin Lit. Her INB's are amazing!! :)

*following* I've got some items I've been eyeing. Will have to watch for this sale!

Sent you a message! :) Or maybe not...it keeps telling me the user name isn't correct. I am trying to open the grade 6 Abeka Science lesson plans from the HST yahoo group. Hopefully the link works. :) https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/hst-abeka/files/Grade%206/

I don't use Homeschool Tracker, but am trying to open a Homeschool Tracker lesson plan I found online. Is anyone able to do this and convert it in to something I can open?

I bought a book called "Do It Myself Kids Cookbook." There is nothing in it that requires sharp knives or using the stove. The kids love the treat-type stuff, but it's very limiting. We had the best success with them just helping alongside me. This way they are learning about cooking safety, etc as we go along. I also found that while the "cool treats" appealed to them, what they really wanted to learn to make was the recipes we enjoyed as a family on a regular basis.

We started notebooking with history and have had great success with it, for the exact reasons the previous poster mentioned. The kids had much, much better long-term retention on topics they'd notebooked on. We are adding in science notebooks this year. I intend to make them a mix of lab pages, interactive notebook foldables and notebooking pages.

I wouldn't use a reading or a spelling program with your son. I'd just read, read, read. For your daughter, I wouldn't call her reluctant at this age. I'd just continue with a phonics program and move at her pace. I wouldn't add in spelling at all until she is reading well.

Here's that thread with the links to places to find Mosdos: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/632366-mosdos-discussion-for-fans-and-current-users/?hl=%2Bmosdos&do=findComment&comment=7347216

We have a couple of these and I like them well enough. There is some great info in them and they are pretty easy to use. The poems are decent and it is easier than trying to find my own when I want to touch on a specific element. We used the comprehension questions as discussion points. We have never really used them consistently though, I just kind of toss them in to a unit when it works for me. I think they'd make a great morning activity and will probably use them in that manner at some point.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. There are lots of complete short stories, poems, etc. Coral, for example, has an excerpt from By the Shores of Silver Lake and Black Beauty. I think those are the only two. It's really not a big issue. I am just picky. LOL

We used the Coral level with a 7th grader (dyslexic, hasn't covered much for literary elements), 5th grader and 2nd grader. They all enjoyed the selections and retained the info. We also added in interactive notebooks for the older two and a couple of the writing assignments. I had the kids read parts occasionally, but usually it was me reading aloud to them.

Mosdos can be tough to find used. There was a thread not too terribly long ago and several links were posted for used editions. I posted in it, but can't seem to find it. Will try to locate it and come back and link to it. :)

We fast tracked my oldest (dyslexic) through AAR and it definitely helped. My middle kiddo - non dyslexic - also used AAR and did well with it. She skipped the tiles and a lot of the games and just read. My youngest, I strongly suspect is also dyslexic, and we are working through AAR 1 very, very slowly. We really loved the readers, especially when compared to Bob books and other phonics readers. The AAR stories have a much better flow to them and are more interesting to read than "Sam O.K. Bob O.K" lol AAR is very good at building in the systematic teaching and review that dyslexic students need, without boring them to tears and killing their love of reading. I wouldn't have used it with my non-dyslexic, however, if I didn't already have it. Something like OPGTR would have worked well and cost less.

We have only used Artistic Pursuits and Home Art Studio. We prefer the projects in Home Art Studio, but our family has issues getting DVD lessons done. I have no idea why. I have started going through the lessons on the disc and just printing off the ones we want to do. We found Artistic Pursuits soooo monotonous. I felt like every second project was with chalk pastels and the kids got incredibly frustrated being shown a work of art and then being expected to replicate it.

We have never used the TM or the other books, just the student reader. We read through the story as a read-a-loud and then discuss using the provided questions. There is a lot of meat in the student reader. There are also writing assignments if you want to take it a step further. All my kids have really enjoyed Mosdos. Next year I plan to have the older two do some reading on their own and a bit more of the writing portions. I really like the variety in Mosdos. I am not a 100% fan on the novel excerpts, but I deal with it.

I find BJU to be very time consuming and teacher intensive. It is also a LOT of books and the TG is pretty necessary. We used the BJU Reading Gr. 3 (for part of a year) and we enjoyed the selections, but the book-work got to be too much. We LOVE Mosdos. We only use the student text and have never found the TG or workbook to be necessary, but there are some that like them. I combined all the kids this year and we read the selections as read-a-louds and orally discussed the included comprehension questions. I feel like Mosdos really gets them thinking about what they read and it does a great job at introducing a literary element and then providing a piece that demonstrates that element.

We use TT. My oldest uses it at grade level and my middle kiddo uses it a grade (almost a grade and a half) ahead. For the early grades I like BJU math. Definitely do the placement tests.