I choose to afterschool to fill in some gaps and to provide my son with some one-on-one instruction. But I am not unhappy with my son's school. So I got to wondering...what do you LOVE about your child's school? I'll start! Context: My 5th grader attends a private, international school in Denmark. He is new there this year. Classes are conducted in English. Lots of cross-curriculum activities. I like this. Minimal homework. I like this, too. Regularly scheduled, interesting field trips. Parental involvement is welcome, but parents are not dumped on. Multiculturalism at its finest. The kids come from all over the world, and my son is learning SO much about other cultures and comparative religion...and he is learning it from his peers. Excellent foreign language instruction. He is studying two languages. And actually learning both of them! Small class size. Awesome playground.

I am going to have my 5th grader read Story of The World Volume 1 independently this year. It won't be difficult for him to read, but I think that he will find it interesting.

Emily, Gosh, I don't mind your question one bit. I appreciate your interest. I decided to make up my own history / religion curriculum. It is probably overly ambitious...oh, well! I'm going with the guess that we will be in Denmark until my son starts high school. I'm using the school that my oldest boys attended as my benchmark just because it offers a quality education and I know what ready-for-high-school-success looks like there. The need to cover US history and geography is kind of obvious. He goes to an international school, not an American school. Many of the kids study their own language, history and religion (if they have one) outside of the school. I want religion (and comparative religion) to be within the context of history, and while I am still working it out in my head (and on paper), my ideas are influenced by: St. Jerome School's Classical Curriculum Connecting with History Mater Amabilis We didn't do as much history as I had hoped the first six months, but we are more settled in a routine now. We have done quite a bit of traveling/field trips, so that counts. By the way, the school days are shorter but the kids have approximately four more school weeks per year.

So very true. My strategy has been to help the child figure out when he needs to start so that he is finished by X o'clock. Of course, there were occasional nights that didn't fit the model, but not many. And I really only do this through 10th grade or so. By 11th and 12th grade, they set their own homework schedules.

Six months ago, we moved our 5th grader to a country that uses the metric system. He had previously had only minimal exposure to it. We are working through Math Mammoth's Metric Measuring worktext, and he is picking it up very quickly. Now my concern is helping him to remember the US/Imperial system. That and US money!

I don't know if this will help you or not, but Ending the Homework Hassle by John Rosemond COMPLETELY changed my life On of the tenets of the book is that the rule that homework is DONE by a certain time...finished or not. Close your books and go to bed.

I am updating my old thread about afterschooling an American 5th grade boy in Denmark. We have lived here for 6 months now and I have a much better feel for what we need to do. I have grown children so I have a very, very good idea of where my son needs to be by the beginning of high school. My goal is to ensure that he would be well-prepared to enter the private high school that my older children attended. Danish school days are short compared to the U.S., and homework is minimal (thank you!). So we can do a lot. Math: I am using Math Mammoth. Love it. Besides working on fractions and decimals and normal 5th grade math stuff, my son is working his way through the Metric System worktext. I'm also planning to do more Living Math and I am excited about the prospect. Goal: Algebra 1 in 8th grade. Grammar: I had not planned to afterschool grammar, but he is not getting enough grammar. There are children in his class who only speak basic English and there are native speakers. I think it is just really hard for the teacher to service all of those levels. But my older children had very rigorous grammar during 5th through 8th grade and it SO paid off for them in high school. Rod & Staff Grammar, here we come!! I think I have figured out a long-range plan for History from now until HS. We will weave history, religion/church history and reading together. Using Mater Amabilis as a guide, I've decided to do two tracks of History at once, and I am contemplating a block schedule. 2012 (2nd semester of 5th through 1st semester of 6th) U.S. - up to the Civil War *Ancients through Greece 2013 (2nd semester of 6th through 1st semester of 7th) U.S. - Civil War to present *Romans through 1066 2014 (2nd semester of 7th through 1st semester of 8th) * 1066 through 1700 2015 (2nd semester of 8th plus a summer) World History from 1700 to present & filling in the gaps of American History. *These correspond to Volumes 1,2 and 3 of the Catholic Connecting with History program. I would love your comments!

faiths13: Ah, well of course I didn't know that your children had already read the condensed version. Often my son and I sit together, each reading our own book. If he asks me what a word means, I don't tell him to go look it up. I tell him what the word means and we both go back to reading. If this is a workable method for you, it does keep the child in the flow of the story. And I agree with sewpeaceful. Rod & Staff Grammar totally rocks :).

Maybe you could, for the time being, dial back to an abridged or rewritten version of the classics. I will be using Classic Starts (Sterling Publishing) this year for my 11 year old son. It does not appear that The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of their titles, but there are oodles of others. We have also used Great Illustrated Classics and Sleepy Hollow is one of their titles.

For those of you who have used this series, do you have any tips for helping the child complete the maps? We are going to begin the Beautiful Feet Geography Through Literature series soon. The maps are so beautiful and I know my son will want to make them look nice. I am thinking that it might be a good idea to do a bit of practice or make some sort of rough draft before actually marking on the big maps. I bought him a set of Prismacolor pencils for the project. PS: We are starting with Paddle to the Sea.

I am afterschooling my rising 5th grade boy. We just moved to Denmark from the US and we expect to be here three years. This summer, we are concentrating on European Geography. I had hoped to do a thorough study of the Vikings and a country study of Denmark but it hasn't happened. Instead, we ended up taking a trip to the Netherlands and I prepared him for the trip with resources about the Anne Frank House, Vermeer, Rembrandt and Van Gough. He is also learning how to figure out city maps, trains, buses and trams LOL. When school begins, we will concentrate on U.S. History/Geography but I think that we do need to study Denmark, too. My approach is to use living books, map work and projects. He will also receive his religious instruction at home. School days are for elementary students are shorter in Denmark than in the U.S. so I don't think it will be TOO hard to find the time. I shipped plenty (too many?!) books over.

An very cool resource. Thank you so much.

For me, afterschooling has mostly meant filling in the gaps. I have been the parent of at least one school-aged child since 1995 and we have moved a lot. Every school had its strengths and weaknesses. A lot of my afterschooling has actually been done in the summer.

Some updates: We had the opportunity to visit Denmark over spring break. I went to a few bookstores and the library. The bookstores had very few (if any) English language books. The library has a very small selection of English language books. Perhaps it is different in Copenhagen... I don't know. But now all of the cartons of books that I have packed to go to Denmark will indeed go to Denmark. As I was packing, I was hesitating. Do I really need to bring all of these books? Yes, in fact... I do!! And the little buying spree that I have been on seems kind of justified, LOL. However, I did discover that Amazon.uk offers free shipping to Denmark if you spend 25 British pounds, so that WILL be an option! And we were able to purchase some children's books that will jump-start his Danish. I had been unable to find Danish language instruction materials for children in the US. I have decided to cover US history with DS10 over a two-year span. We will aim to reach the Civil War by the end of the first year. But I want to capture the excitement of living in Denmark right away, so I am planning for him (us!) to do spend time learning about Scandinavia & European geography over the summer. We will ease into the US history as we get closer to the start of the school year. I love the concept of Genevieve Foster's "Horizontal Histories" and these will help him correlate US history with the rest of the world's history.

rubilynne4, It sounds like you have really thought through the transition. Change is always hard. We have moved a lot and our children are spread far apart in age so we have had to get used to new school environments many times. Every school has its pros and cons. Good luck!

@Emily, I love the image of you reading those books that came from home. I can imagine how important those connections to home might be for a 16 yr old away on an exchange program. My DS10's international school is not a US-based curriculum so I do expect that I will have to fill in some gaps. But I certainly don't have to do the whole spectrum of US History in one year, which is how 5th grade social studies is taught in our current system. @regentrude, thanks for the thoughts on Amazon UK. @stripe, you made me giggle. Of course they have libraries in Denmark but I have no idea how many books we will find in English :) A great list you gave me - thanks. We have always been traveling fools, so DS10 is already a good little traveler. We have older children, too but they are old enough now to be beyond the scope of this forum. But they are the reason that I own a first-edition copy of the WTM :) I never homeschooled but I sure did draw plenty of benefits from the book and its educational philosophy anyway. I've been afterschooling in one way or another for a VERY long time!

We are about to move to Denmark for a few years and our DS10 will attend an international school there. He has been in a wonderful Catholic school up until this point. Now I am eagerly putting together my afterschooling plans. Here is what I have figured out so far: I will make sure that he continues to learn US history. I purchased Seton's Grade 5 history book, "America's Catholic Heritage." The 23 chapters cover the span of US history from the Articles of Confederation through the Reagan era. This will be our spine and I think it will be very cool to overlay this book with all the European history that will surround us. To supplement, I also bought : Seton's Maps/Charts/Graphs workbooks that focus on North America. He will enjoy doing these workbooks. Some relevant biographies (DS10 enjoys reading biographies). Two Genevieve Foster Books. I'd love to have all of them! Paddle to the Sea & Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling. It is tempting to buy, buy, buy. I am so excited about this adventure as long as I don't think about having library-withdrawal :) But I have to exercise some restraint!! And I do have a Kindle, so that can come into play as well. I've also made some plans and preparations for his religious education and art appreciation but this post is probably long enough already so I will save those details for another time :) We will travel as much as our budget allows and we will be a bit unschooling-y. I will insist that he keep a travel journal but I won't dictate what has to go in it. And I will keep my own travel journal, too. Any ideas are appreciated.