It may not be what you're looking for, but I think They Say/I Say is pretty much an invaluable book for anybody preparing to do college writing. I was really, really skeptical about this book at first, because the template format seemed so artificial and limiting, but after reading through it I decided to give it a try in my classes, and I now use it in every writing class I teach, from the remedial to the intermediate level. For beginning/remedial students it provides them with a starting point for entering an academic conversation, and for more advanced students it provides handy formats they can fall back on if stuck and good review in the basics. Anyway, it's not enough to be a curriculum on its own, but I think it's worth reading for any incoming college student, particularly those interested in the humanities and social sciences. I'd say it would be a good supplement to nearly any argumentative/persuasive writing curriculum. More than any other writing book I've seen, it very clearly lays out for students both the kids of thinking that college instructors want to see in their students' writing and provides explicit instructions on exactly how to demonstrate that kind of thinking.

Great question. Mine are little yet but I can see my DS being one to push. I think I'd be open-minded and accepting of most things, and try not to make too big of a deal out of it, because I know that a lot of what I believed when I was a teenager, I grew out of. Assuming it wasn't something that I actually thought was downright dangerous/evil--like Neo-Nazism or Christian Identity or an ideology like that--I don't see what you can do other than accept that they, at least for a time, have very different ideas than you do. God will have to give me a lot of strength if he starts flirting with Objectivism, though. "And keep them from Ayn Rand" is one of the things I pray for my children. ;)

This. And, I wouldn't worry too much about what your kids learn about history right now. Honestly, I expect my son to forget most of what we cover in elementary history and science. I know that I learned about history and science at that age, but I don't recall any specifics. But I ended up getting a great history education in high school and college, and the background must have been there, because I was able to make sense of what I was learning. I think it's also important to remember that homeschooling on paper--like any curriculum on paper--probably looks a lot more impressive than it actually is in practice. At the very least, I know that's the case at my house. And if it's any consolation, I wonder all the time if my son would be getting a better education in a traditional classroom, and see the things some of his friends are doing in school, and wonder if he's behind. It's just the nature of parenting to question yourself, I think, and to often (if not always) feel like you're falling short.

Seriously, that brings me comfort. My DS cannot tie his shoes, at 7. We try it every few months, but he gets frustrated, and he doesn't actually need to do it, so we decide to wait a while longer. I figure he'll learn one day.

Congrats! My DD is such a joy. And I'm sure your DD will be very spoiled. We only had one DS before our DD, but between him and my husband, DD is most definitely the little princess of the house. I was pretty glad that we're having a boy this time, because I wasn't quite ready to have DD share being our best girl with anybody else. I was measuring big at my 20 week ultrasound, as well, but my OB didn't think we needed to change my due date. But my other two babies were pretty big (9 lbs. and 8-1/2 lbs.), so I think she just figures it'll be another big baby.

This probably isn't helpful, because I'm more of a liberal Christian, but if you're interested in prayer from a more liberal/process perspective, I would highly, highly recommend Marjorie Suchocki's In God's Presence. I read it years and years ago, but it was the first time that prayer ever really made sense to me. Before that, I prayed, but mainly because it just seemed natural. (I think I've heard both Anne Lamott and Marcus Borg make that argument, that we pray in large part because it is simply natural to cry out. I think it was Lamott who said that all prayers are pretty much just crying out either "Thank you, thank you, thank you" or "Help me, help me, help me," and that really resonates with my experience.) Suchocki's book was the first time prayer ever made sense on an intellectual level to me.

Aww, you're doing great. My DS loves to do the dishes. And, he thinks he's doing me such a huge favor when he does then. He doesn't realize that it takes me probably twice as long to clean up the kitchen when he's done as it would have for me to just wash the dishes myself. It's really hard for me, but when he offers, I just nod and thank him for being so kind and helpful, and then prepare myself for the clean-up.

My son got Blink for his birthday. We really enjoy playing it. It's fast, and it's easy, but it requires a short period of very focused concentration, which is good for him. I think a 5yo could probably pick it up after a few practice rounds. It's a two-player game, but each round is so fast that you could easily just have 3-4 people rotate turns and everybody would get plenty of play time.

From what I've seen of Horizons, they teach a lot of concepts in first grade that other programs save for second grade, like addition with carrying. And, people generally seem to feel that Singapore is about half a grade level ahead. So if your son has done most of Horizons 1 and gotten through more than half of Singapore 1A, he's already doing what would be second-grade work in many other curricula. In other words, I wouldn't stress about his needing to finish up Singapore 1B to be ready for second grade math, at all.

If anything, I'd say that my ed courses were much more heavily focused on assessment and evaluation, certainly much moreso than on classroom management. I don't know, I'm just bugged by the anti-teacher attitude. Public school teachers are NOT the enemy. They are doing a really hard job, and in return they get scorn. Most of them like kids, like learning, and are doing a pretty darn good job educating children. Just because it's not the right or best choice for every family--it isn't for mine--doesn't mean that public schools or public school teachers need to be turned into villains.

I have honestly never heard of such a thing in my life. I have heard many, many people--including older people--mispronounce names in the Bible. Do you honestly think that not being able to properly pronounce a biblical name indicates that somebody doesn't know how to read well? Do you honestly think that anybody who was taught phonics could just easily read off every name in the Bible? I was taught to read by a really old-school phonics approach, and I still stumble over some biblical names. I live in Detroit. At my church, the young people do the readings all the time. These are DPS students and, quite frankly, not really the most academically-inclined people I've never met; most will not go to college. But they can read. There's just so many issues with this perspective. The U.S. routinely ranks behind European nations when it comes to literacy even though those nations tend to use the exact same "progressive" educational approaches that are so maligned. As has been pointed out over and over, phonics IS taught in the United States. It's taught all over. You would be hard-pressed to find a single classroom that didn't include formal phonics instruction. Heck, turn on PBS one morning or afternoon. There are three shows that are dedicated to teaching children phonetic awareness and phonics. Phonics IS how reading is being taught in the United States right now. So if people really and truly are that illiterate, it's not because phonics isn't being taught; it's because phonics is failing them. Which is exactly why phonics was replaced in the first place. But, that hasn't been my experience, and from what I can tell, the balanced approach happening in most classrooms is producing appropriately literate citizens, certainly no less literate than previous generations.

I can't get going today, either. And we take Fridays off from school, so that just makes it all that much easier for me to do nothing. I've found myself playing the "But I'm seven months pregnant!" card all day today, even though in all honesty I feel just fine and there's no real reason for me not to be doing what I need to do.

DS really enjoyed the Loyola Book of Heroes, and I liked it, too. We're Episcopalian.

I am so glad you posted this. My DS just turned 7. He's a really smart, academically advanced kid, but (or maybe "and so") my expectations of him tend to be really, really off. I am constantly needing to step back and reevaluate. It's been an issue since he was very small. He was an incredibly verbal child, and I think that's been part of the issue for me. Since he's been 3 or so, he'd sit there and talk to you like a little adult, and it's been so hard for me to get it through my head that, no, he's not a miniature adult, he's a little kid. Anyway, I was just starting to realize that maybe DS's recent aversion to math has less to do with him, and more to do with my attitude (I also feel like he should be getting everything right, and not just that, but get it right fast), when yesterday, when I gave him a choice between doing copywork or a narration, he chose copywork because "You get annoyed when I don't get the right answers" when he's doing a narration. Wow, that really got me. And, he's right. I don't mean to. I don't intend to. I don't want to. But, yeah, if he doesn't know the answer to something, I get annoyed. I assume he wasn't paying attention, and that that's a serious problem. I forget that he's a just-turned-7-year-old boy and it is okay if his mind wanders during part of a read-aloud. I forget that we've got, what?, 11 more years of schooling left, and he does not need to master everything right now. So I know I really need to work on scaling back my expectations and being more supportive and less demanding when I'm teaching him.

Never. But, I have an M.A. and teach college writing courses, and my husband has a doctorate and has taught college psych courses, so we really haven't had to deal with people questioning either our ability to teach our kids at home or our educational credentials. I can't say I've had anybody challenge or question our decision to homeschool. We live in Detroit, and it's well-known that the public schools here are terrible, so nearly everybody has been incredibly supportive. If we lived in an area with good public schools, though, I have a feeling the reaction would be different, particularly from my family.

It's funny, because I think the whole idea of believing that once we achieve X, everything else will fall into place, is common in so many areas of our life. I sometimes think I have the Fantasy of the Perfect Curriculum. Once I find THE perfect curriculum, THEN I'll be an awesome homeschooler, and then I'll be a fantastic mom, and then I'll just be a wonderful person. And it's a lot easier some days to put my effort into searching for a better math program or finding the perfect history sequence than into doing the things I need to do to be an effective, successful homeschooler and mom right now, as things are.

The nice thing about clickers, too, is that they would allow a student to give a wrong answer or admit they don't know something without the entire class knowing. Being afraid to appear stupid in front of their peers is a huge issue for many students. I can ask a classroom of students if they were following what I said, and I'll NEVER get anybody shaking their head or admitting they didn't. I have to try to rely on body language. It's very rare for me to have a student who will admit, when the whole class is present, that they don't understand something. I'll occasionally have a student who will come up to me after class or e-mail a question, and I always think how beneficial it would have been for th entire class if they'd asked it in class. I can see a big benefit of the clickers being that an instructor can get immediate, honest feedback, and clear up understanding issues right there. Because if I get a great question asked after class, addressing it in class the next meeting doesn't have the same impact, I don't think, as if I'd been able to answer the question right when I was covering that material. The anonymity of the clicker would free students up to give wrong answers and admit misunderstandings without worrying about what their classmates and instructor will think of them.

This. I also wouldn't go out of the way to cause trouble for the neighbors, but this sounds like it could be a pretty serious issue that could end up causing trouble for the students and the school, who may not know what's going on and what the regulations are.

I think that's a good example of The Fantasy of Being Thin.

In this case, they've been here about a year, and I'm assuming they rented it independently. I don't think the landlord has any intention of making it a permanent residence for football players. That's really kind of an odd situation. Is it the coach of the basketball team who is renting it? Why would the landlord assume that the girls' basketball team would want to keep living there? If it is some sort of permanent home for the basketball team, is the college in any way involved? If they aren't, that seems very strange, and if they are, then there are probably various regulations they'll need to abide by.

I'd be frustrated, too, and would look into zoning laws in the area. But, if it's any consolation, the house next door to us was rented out to 6 members of the local university's football team. We were VERY concerned about this. My DH is a really, really light sleeper, and we were worried about them having loud parties at night, about finding beer cans and other party residue in our shared yard, about them having friends coming over at all hours. The only issue we've had with them is that they have a pit bull they let loose into the shared yard, and once they were made aware that it was an issue and against their lease agreement, they stopped. Outside of that, they have been ideal neighbors. If they have parties at the house, we don't hear them. They have fewer people coming over than any previous neighbors we've had. They also must carpool in, or walk to campus, because we haven't noticed any parking issues. Many times student athletes have pretty stringent rules regarding grades and behavior, and so I'm guessing that members of the girls' basketball team will be less likely to have wild parties than a traditional fraternity/sorority.

We've got a baby coming in August. We don't want to disrupt DS's school year too much--that already happened when DD was born last year, and he's just now getting back into the swing of things--so the plan is that we'll have a two-week school break after the baby is born, so that everybody can have a little time to adjust, then I'll take a six-week "maternity leave." The plan is that I'll come up with some very basic stuff for DS to do each day (a page of math, a few lines of handwriting, some reading assignments, etc.) and DH will spend maybe 30-45 minutes doing school with DS in the morning before he leaves for work. I'm wondering if anybody has tried a set-up like this, and how it worked for you. I don't want to overwhelm either DS or DH, but I also don't want to be back to square one once I'm ready to get back to regular school, especially in terms of DS's attitude toward schoolwork. Any input/suggestions?

It really depends on the grad student. Some love teaching, and dive in with enthusiasm. Others absolutely loathe teaching, and since they both loathe it and have no experience or training, end up teaching really terrible classes. IME, students tend to have much better experiences with graduate instructors in the humanities (most of whom are in grad school because they want to teach at the university level) than with graduate instructors in math and science.

I just wanted to highlight that. I learned a lot in my education courses, as well. I can understand why homeschooling parents are made to feel defensive, but it's a bit unfair to characterize teacher education as simply being about "crowd control" or "classroom management." A lot more than that is taught. The issue is that much of what's learned is simply not needed in a one-on-one setting, not because you don't have to deal with "crowd control"--honestly I sometimes feel like I spend more time doing "classroom management" at home with DS and DD than I did when I was a substitute teacher!--and that's all teacher ed training is good for, but because you have the freedom to tailor everything you do to your specific child/ren, to work at their pace, and to use whatever methods of evaluation/assessment work for your family. But I don't think the training that teachers receive needs to be denigrated in order to somehow justify homeschooling parents not needing that training.

We do. Video game and computer time are privileges, and he earns them by good behavior. Behavior during school time counts.