That's so cool!

I keep going back and forth about what to do with my dd this year. She's very mathy and very language oriented (she wants to be an engineer who writes children's books while being a linguist where there isn't a written language:). Up until now we've been pretty informal and I've been very happy with our homeschool life, but I have 5 kids and want to outsource a little to free up my time to work more with the kids coming up. She's technically in 6th grade. For math, I'm trying to decide if she should finish the beast academy series or go into aops pre-algebra. She passed the aops pre-algebra placement easily, but is only in 4c of beast academy since it's just been our supplemental curriculum. We have always had our primary curriculum be just me explaining how to do things and practicing using real life situations as they come along, and on the days we don't do that, she'll do some beast academy. She knows how to do all the arithmetic it teaches, but the types of problems definitely makes her think (she'll sit her going back and forth between "arrrrgh it's so hard, I'll never figure this out" to crazy laughter, "that was actually so easy" to humming cheerfully as she works...I mostly ignore and enjoy the commentary:) I know she can do it BA independantly, but if she did pre-alg I'd want to sign her up for a class. I don't want to hold her back just because pre-a will be challenging, but maybe another year to mature might be good for her? For writing, she's always been a great creative writer, but we haven't spent much time on essays, mostly because she strongly prefers fiction over nonfiction in her reading (I don't blame her, lol:). I signed her up for WTMA expo1, but I don't know if that's going to progress too slowly for her. She picks up everything very easily, so when she's taken in person co-op classes, nobody had anything but good things to say about her writing, so it wasn't very helpful. I don't want it to be a situation where she does everything correctly so she doesn't get much helpful feedback. That's not to say she won't learn stuff, but I'm not sure how much repetition she actually needs. I just need to have a class that gives her feedback and she can do mostly independently.

I just started spelling zoo with my 8yo and it's the first time I've seen real progress for her in spelling. She's a great reader, has read all the Lord of the Rings, Little Women, etc, but for example when asked to write the wh question words down recently she still misspelled every one. She has hated all forms of copywork or spelling instruction, but she seems to really enjoy spelling zoo because it's low pressure (she repeats the lesson until she gets all the words right) and then feels a real sense of accomplishment because she got all the words right and seems to really understand the rule:)

Kay Arthur also has a kids' series...I've been doing this John one with my 1 and 3rd graders and they like it: http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Spotlight-Discover-Yourself%C2%AE-Inductive-ebook/dp/B005MJ8OZC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409469232&sr=8-3&keywords=kay+arthur+kids

From a changing things perspective, it might help if your daughter ends up in the gifted program. At least if you make a sort of fuss, people won't be thinking that's it's because your daughter couldn't make it and you're discontent. It could just makes things clearer in the end.

I wouldn't translate it into another language, but it is my absolute favorite homeschooling purchase so far. It has transformed my math- skilled but math-dreading daughter into a serious math maniac...she literally does a huge round of diabolical laughter with every difficult problem she figures out. The textbooks are so engaging that she read through them over and over this summer, and started applying stuff to everyday situations. The workbooks are still more challenging, but we do them together and they're fun. And as far as "Is it just another way to make math fun?" I'd say it's not...it's more like it makes challenging yourself with math fun:)

While I do think phonics IS the best way for kids to learn to read, it really is just pointing out the patterns we use to decode our written language. Some kids just figure out those patterns naturally;) Dd was similar to your dd, and I found it helpful to just get her to read aloud to me every once in a while and when she stumbled on a word I'd help her with it and tell her the rule. Non-painful to her and to me:)

When dd asks me how to spell things, I just help her say it slowly to sound it out, not just telling her the letters (unless she tries first and it's an irregular spelling, but even then I ask her if she thinks it looks right). She hates spelling things wrong, so over the last year she's become so much more independent because she feels more confident sounding things out and spelling them herself. But fwiw, I would seriously avoid using the letter names and only use the letter sounds as it helps avoid confusion and helps them associate spelling with sounds:)

I got one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Weekly-Planner-Inches-Sheets-730-CAL-BB/dp/B002EDKMZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348807184&sr=8-1&keywords=post+it+planner It's working well for me because I can plan out a couple weeks roughly, and just move the post-its if I need to:)

We're thinking of downsizing to a house half the size of our current (1200 sq ft) and getting 4 more kids (total of 6 kids). Part of me is excited about being in closer quarters, and part of me is scared that I won't have anywhere to put clothes, homeschooling stuff, toys, etc. and the place will be a complete disaster. I am trying to purge even now, but it's just completely uncharted territory for me, so it's hard to know if I'm imagining the worst or imagining the best. Would you do it? How do you make it work? Thanks:)

Has anybody put these all into a list? Instead of having to copy down the suggestions each week before I go to the library, I'd rather have a list I can just keep in the car...anybody made one? Don't want to reinvent the wheel...;)

I would jump at that! Sounds so cool!

Last year we went from 2 kids to 7 overnight, and the youngest were ages 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 (plus a teen with a bad attitude:) I think getting into a good sleep schedule was the biggest help. Just being able to feel more rested really helped set the tone for a better day. Making double use of the time really helped too...we'd always read or do oral math during meals, so that helped me feel less crazy than the kids just going wild and me telling them to quiet down all the time...having occupied kids usually paid off with happier kids:) The more I could do ahead of time (meal planning, clothes laid out, fruit/veg washed right away), the more relaxed I also felt. The kids each had their own color cup that they reused thoughout the days, so that cut down on dishes somewhat too. We want to do it again and I'm scared again though...it wasn't easy, and I definitely was super tired at times. But now that they're gone, I miss them fiercely and know the craziness and work was more than worth it:grouphug:

I'd also highly recommend a cheap kindle...we've been in mexico the last 2 months and I've downloaded tons of books for free or cheap for dd, and we've saved tons of money over buying the hard copies of books, plus it's so nice being able to an almost unlimited supply of books when I wouldn't be able to otherwise. The amount of books really depends on the kid...when we're home, dd usually reads a chapter book every day or two plus about 10-20 picture books a week. Having the kindle means we don't run out of chapter books so easily;) For the 2nd grader there's a 12 book set of the boxcar children that's about $25.

I have one of these too! I'm so glad she loves to read, but I get concerned that it will effect her eyes, and I also think she needs to play. Maybe not allowing them to read at breakfast will help your problem..if breakfast time is somewhat flexible they can finish their chapter or whatever and then eat. Dd is always hungry in the morning, so she's glad to stop when it's time to eat, then getting out the math isn't so hard because she's not being asked to stop reading to do it. Otherwise, she's only allowed to read during rest time (about 2 hours) and before bed (it was starting to be all day). She still gets 3-4 hours a day, and I think that's plenty. I also try to give her lots of history and science books (that's the bulk of what we do for those subjects), so I'm not stressed about fitting in a bunch of other stuff. I also was a huge reader as a child, and while I remember a ton of stuff I learned from books, I remember very little from school, so I'm hoping it will actually serve her well:)