Thanks everyone! I'll try got explain what we're doing. I was looking at the schedule in TWTM book that's how I calculated about 9 hours of work a day. The writing class he goes to once a week is all day and it's mainly geared towards getting kids to think and observe and put their thoughts into words. It is complements the nature school, in the sense that they do a lot of nature walks and observation and go back and write about it. They also do poetry, history of language etc. It's just one teacher with about 10 kids having fun day together talking and writing. The Nature school is not scientific, it is more nature awareness and survival skills. So he's learning about nature in general but not specifically, I hope that makes sense. Really they go out in the woods, and if the day is windy their teacher will talks about how to stay safe, they learn to build fires, use knives for cutting and carving, observe animals, build shelters, but all this is more fun and games than academic. So I'm trying to follow TWMT's suggestions. I'm going back and forth on it because Susan still says they should do formal grammar for 40 minutes and have a writing curriculum and I'm worried that the class he goes to may not be enough. At first I was hoping that I would do a weekly review of grammatical rules, and only do either simple scientific observations based on TWTM's suggested books (i.e.: Creepie Crawlies, then science kits), and the chapter summaries for STOW/Usborne for history. So based on what you guys have said, I think I should just relax and try just simple chapter summaries for history and simple observations of experiments. I think history is really bogging me down because he's not very good at writing facts in all the categories that TWTM suggests. Maybe I'm just trying to do this too perfectly. I will check out History Odyssey. I've been researching all morning trying to watch videos etc. It seems like a lot of people doing STOW is not doing so much writing of facts as TWTM suggests and more of a compilation of whatever the student feels like putting in the notebook, like drawings, pictures, some mapping etc. I think I'd like a bit of both.

I'm sure I'm making the Logic stage into a huge monster, but when I add up almost 9 hours of work daily I sure feel like it is a big monster. So I have my son in a writing program once a week and a nature school another day a week. That leaves me 3 days plus maybe a few hours to do all this stuff. He hasn't even started piano back up yet. I think my biggest concern is of course the spine. I wish I could see someone's history notebook, so I can get an idea for how he should be organizing all of his information and then do the outline. And the topic writing assignments, how long are they supposed to be? Essay type: 5 paragraphs including intro and conclusion? I'm also not sure about science: I'm not a science/math gal. Luckily my hubby is, but he has no patience nor time to be trying to figure out what our son needs to do for scientific writing. I need some hold handing until I can get my head wrapped around 9 hours of school work. Can someone point me in the right direction? Ren.

Those are great ideas! We've decided to let them bring their iPads since they would need them to listen to audiobooks. I'll see what I can find in our library's audio collection. Thanks so much, I love all those ideas!

Hello Brainiac moms, I'm taking my 8YO and 6YO on a Percy Jackson inspired trip to Greece and Italy. We pretty much know where and what we are doing, but I'd love to hear from you guys. I especially need to help coming up with things the kids can do while we're in transit. They know there will be no "electronics" on this trip. So between train and car rides, what type of cultural activities could we have the kids do to keep them entertained? Any suggestions?

Thank you! You're right and I needed to hear all that! :)

Thanks Wapiti! Maybe I'm just frustrated because my plan was always to homeschool him. I just don't have the time now, I'd love to supplement it but still not time. I can barely feed the kids right now. We both love the Montessori, he's really excited to be the big kid in class next year and help the younger kids. I love the way they are teaching him, I love the accountability aspect of having a daily/weekly contract that he chooses what to study and when. It's just that they do some really fun things, and he misses out because he is too lazy to take his homework out of his bag. He hardly has anything he needs to do at home, it's mainly stuff he should have finished in class but got too distracted. He has novel study which he's supposed to read with us twice a week. He does it and then it takes him 2 weeks to turn in the paper and he has 3 strikes then he has to do novel study alone. He just doesn't take his assignments out of his backpack. His teacher asks for it and he says he forgot it. I hate bugging his teacher to bug him because it's his responsibility to take it out and hand it in. But I'm paying a lot of money for him to go there so I guess I need to bug her. She's awesome and they get along great, so I should work/talk to her more about it.

I'm in desperate need of help. We did WTM for almost 2 years, then moved and life is totally different. So we opted for schools instead of home ed. My 7 yo hated PS, loves Montessori. He's missed out on some very cool projects and learning activities because he doesn't remember he has homework and/or doesn't turn the done homework in. His teachers have tried different motivating activities but he's just happy no matter if he misses a fun activity or if he's part of it. I think the only way to get anything done is to homeschool him. Sorry for the rant here's my question: He will be in 3rd next year. How do I get him back into WTM? Do I start where I left off, in the beginning of 1st grade or do I just start everything around 3rd grade?

I'm in desperate need of help. We did WTM for almost 2 years, then moved and life is totally different. So we opted for schools instead of home ed. My 7 yo hated PS, loves Montessori. He's missed out I some very cool projects and learning activities because he doesn't remember he has homework and/or doesn't turn the done homework in. His teachers have tried different motivating activities but he's just happy no latter if he misses a fun activity or if he does it. I think the only way to get anything done is to homeschool him. Sorry for the rant here's my question: He will be in 3rd next year. How do I get him back into WTM? Do I start where I left off, in the beginning of 1st grade or do I just start everything around 3rd grade?

Brazil: Public schools are horrible in Brazil. You pretty much don't have a choice, private school is the way to go. No choice on homeschooling either, all have to go to school. However school is part time: morning or afternoon. In 5th grade you start taking world history, English, chemistry, geography starts in 3-4th grade. There's no 9th grade. So one goes straight to "high school" after 8th which is can be in the same school as middle school. It's been 20 years since I went to school there so things may have changed, but there is no choice of subjects and by the time you are in high school you have a dozen subjects like: literature, calculus, physics, English, history, geography etc. Grades vary between schools but generally if you don't have a C or above in each subject, you have to repeat the entire grade. College entrance is an state exam which one takes depending on what you want to major in. Ie: medicine, law etc. there's no bachelors degrees per se. You take the test for medicine and get into medical school. It's hard and competitive and given once a year. Only way to change your mind is to retake the exam for the discipline you want to study.

Brazil: Public schools are horrible in Brazil. You pretty much don't have a choice, private school is the way to go. No choice on homeschooling either, all have to go to school. However school is part time: morning or afternoon. In 5th grade you start taking world history, chemistry and physics as well as English. There no 9th grade. So one goes straight to "high school" after 8th which is can be in the same school as middle school. It's been 20 years since I went to school there so things may have changed, but there are no choice of subjects and by the time you are in high school you have I've a dozen subjects. Grades vary between schools but if you don't have a C or ab

Thanks everyone! Les Mis is a great novel and even to an adult the details on the French Revolution can be a little boring. We figured since he's really interested, we may as well motivate him to read the book this summer. I'm glad I can count on you guys!

Hi Everyone, I haven't been here forever. My 6YO watched Les Mis with my DH(who of course forwarded inappropriate parts) and he is in love. He has watched it at least 5 times in the last 2 weeks, sings all the songs, and is starting to learn them on the piano. DH told him, that if he reads the book we'll take him to watch the Broadway show. I need to find a kid's version that he can read. Anyone has any opinions? I was looking at one of these two, but I wanted one that wasn't going to be too hard. He does have the vocabulary and reading level of a 3rd/4th grader, but I'm concerned that even the "kid's version" is more for teenagers. Please advise: http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/24288.Les_Miserables http://www.amazon.com/Miserables-Enriched-Classics-Victor-Hugo/dp/141650026X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372541710&sr=1-2&keywords=les+miserables+for+children

We just moved to Redmond. Is there a good co-op. I agree with 425lisamarie, some groups are very unfriendly. If you guys can let me know more, I'm happy to connect I don't mind a weekly trip to Seattle or anywhere within 45 min of here. :)

Look me up: Renivee I drool over my kids, trash public school and government, and post pics of my travels. ps: send me an email so I remember who you are. :)

I'm a Yoga and Taebo girl. I'd do Taebo first, you can punch and kick til you're purple without air. Yoga makes me feel peaceful and replenished. Great Yoga DVD I found at Target Aim True Yoga. Good luck!