VP Bible & VP History can both be done in 30 minutes. Monday: Fill in the worksheets after using the card Tuesday: Review the card & read a story about the card Wednesday: Do a short craft about the card & review Thursday: Add the medalian to the map & Review the card Friday: Take a test on the card. It's the same for Bible but start Day 1 on Wednesday instead of Monday (so the kids don't have 2 tests on the same day). We like it because it provides a lot of information in easily digestible cards. But it does not take any longer than 15 minutes to do. ETA: Just so you know, we also are doing Sonlight preschool, VP Literature, Shurley English Grammar, Song School Latin, Phonetic Zoo spelling and our own brand of science using the WTM 4 days a week. There are lots of subjects I feel take time to fit in, the Bible/History portion just isn't part of that.

100% yes! A trip to Europe? That is an amazing opportunity for anyone! I went to Europe for 16 days at 15 and am still so thankful for that chance. It's easy to say at 15 "Oh, I can travel whenever I want when I'm an adult" but 3 kids, homeschooling & 1 income later and that chance doesn't present itself too often.

I would opt for the VP activities. I have found they aren't as complicated as some of the SOTW activities (no mummifying chickens!). Also, the SOTW had a lot of coloring pages which my kids don't enjoy doing, but if your kids enjoy coloring, that might be the way to go.

I would have a serious conversation with hubby. There is no reason why you have to shoulder all the responsibilities. He doesn't share your determination to home educate? Fine. But he has to share your determination to eat, so he could do the grocery shopping. Living like a single mom when you are married (gently) is only going to lead to huge resentment. Is there a counselor you could both go to to work through some of these issues? You are doing a lot and while I totally understand the temptation to will yourself to get it all done (if only we didn't need so much sleep) I don't think the mentality that you could do it all if only you had the perfect schedule and the perfect kids is exactly healthy.

I agree with what others have said, but would also encourage you to check out the laws in your state. My state requires the primary teacher to have a high school diploma or GED or it's not legal homeschooling. But if you state doesn't have that requirement, I see no problems with you teaching your children.

Since you are doing OT/AE I'd hold off on the Bible until next year. There is *so* much repetition between OT/AE & Genesis - Joshua that you only have about 7 unique bible cards. Everything else is covered in history. The subsequent history/bible programs don't have much overlap, so that would be a better time to start.

Since you feel there are many signals that point to something be 'off' with your dd, I would talk to your pediatrician. They can guide you on what to do next. And, just because ADD seems to be over-diagnosed, does not mean that it is never needing to be diagnosed. And juvenile diabetes also didn't exist 30+ years ago, but no one says that doesn't exist, scoff at those who take insulin or blames bad parenting for that (nor should they, just pointing out that mental disorders are still given a bad stigma). Aside from medication, there are other treatments you can try. I know many have had success with a gluten free or Feingold diet.

put all your lesson plans in a 3-ring binder and divide them into 9 week sessions. We are completing the first 9 week binder tomorrow, and I have to say I have never felt more accomplished at homeschooling!

Phonetic Zoo is really good. You get a 15 word list every week that all follow a similar rule. We only do it 3 times a week and it takes about 10 minutes each time. The first day, we review the new words & the rule. The 2nd day I have my son verbally spell each word and if he misses a letter he goes back to the beginning of the word until he can spell it correctly. The third day we do the "test" where he writes each word down as I say it. Any missed words get added to the next week until he shows proficiency.

ios oshio the coenpse owend nowe to sant owh ie do e st See, the computer doesn't always know what you are wanting to say if you do not have spelling instruction. It cannot read minds. Spell-check only works if you are close enough that it can make an educated guess of words you might have meant. This won't work if spelling is abandoned all together. It's similar to saying "We don't need to teach math anymore. The calculator will do it for us". Again, only it you know what formulas to use.

Here's a one too.

We like P is for Pilgrim. CurrClick has a sticker book that goes along with it that we've also enjoyed for the past 3 years.

I think practicing the correct responses might work. I read in a magazine somewhere (I forget which one or when), that the mother wrapped up a bunch of junk (rubber bands, paper clips, trash bags) and then they took turns opening them and finding something grateful to say about each. By making it a game, it's not as intense as a long lecture. And it would be good practice for the party in expressing thankfulness.

I checked out the crisis flylady suggestion and I love it! While I'm not exactly in crisis mode, I love the idea of taking a 15 minute break every hour. I may have to implement that into our school day too!

We called our parents when my water broke for my first. My parents, in-laws, siblings & in-law siblings all waited at the hospital until my first was born. I loved having them there. They all went out for dinner together after they were done visiting (they took DH too) and DH brought me back Dairy Queen after. My 2nd & 3rd were both induced and our entire families were present for those as well. They all also visited a lot after the births and offered to take the older kids on day long field trips while I got used to being home. But, our families are very close and non-dysfunctional. Probably wouldn't have worked so well if that were not the case.

I still need to use my fingers if doing multiple digit math in my head, so if that's what is going on, the child might just be kinistetic (I need to "feel" my fingers to keep track of the digits). If they are needing their fingers to add math facts (1 - 20) then there might be a problem with memorizing the facts.

I agree with Chucki. There seem to be some bigger issues here (maybe you already mentioned them, I haven't researched your profile name). But dad seems to have manufactured quite the fib himself by not holding her accountable in your absence, yet marking her in attendance anyway.

The cost will probably be determined by how many orders of each thing people want. So, they'll have to wait until everyone has placed their orders before letting you know how much...so I would assume you are getting the prints at cost (?)

I didn't see Khan Academy mentioned, so I will throw that into the ring as well. It's free and it allows students to be exposed to the higher level math with video tutorials and the chance to try without it being the "official" curriculum.

I use the scripted lesson plans. I am always astonished when people say VP is boring. They only spend 1 week on each card and each day is a different activity to drive in the information. I guess if you don't do any of the activities and only read the card it would be boring, but I think that would be true of anything you do.

We take off one week per month. That week is when I schedule dr's appointments, field trips, and anything else fun that we don't necessarily get to do during the morning when we are schooling. I also use these weeks to look over my lesson plans & curricula and make any changes if needed.

I searched through the blog and the blog 2 behind this one is about her daughter's first week of pre-school (the daughter is 3) and how successfully they detached from each other. And how that's a good thing. I think she may have some issues with detaching from her 3-year-old child and is unable to research homeschooling at this juncture because it might make her want to do it, and keep her 3 year old attached instead of detached. That might have more to do with her blog post than us (as the general homeschooler).

You can absolutely combine children for History & Bible with VP. I have used both Sonlight & Veritas Press and I prefer VP by a mile. First, Sonlight jumps all over the place with their books. For all the work of pulling out the books, it's almost not worth it for the 5 sentences you read out of 5 different books. VP just seems to be much more cohesive in their lesson planning. IMO, VP also does much better in giving you (the teacher) the objective of the lesson. Sonlight doesn't bother with giving objectives, just the order to read the books in and some additional activities. At the end of each VP lesson I know what we covered, why we did the additional activities and what I can now expect of my child. Lastly, Long-term, I can see the vision VP has and what it is hoping to accomplish with their program, and I can really get behind it. When I see the books that we will read through the years, I get excited for my kids. Many of the books are ones that I enjoyed as a child or enjoyed as an adult. With Sonlight, the books are fantastic, but don't have the emotional connection for me, since for many of them I had never heard of them before using the program. Hopefully some of the things I have noticed will help you in your decision.

If SSL 2 isn't out in time, we found that Logos Latin was a very good next step for children coming from SSL 1.

Mine's in my sig.