We started on July 21st, so we are starting our 2nd week. I also ease into it a little bit. We did Math, TOG, Latin, a little bit of writing, and piano. I'm adding science, pe and more serious writing this week. I plan to add Rosetta Stone Spanish and Computer class next week. We are going to Disney for a week in September which will coincide with the end of the first quarter. We generally take a week off in November, 2 in December, a week in February and a week in April. We finish up mid to late May. Christine

Nothing, I guess. We all go to bed between 9 and 10 here. (Start at 9) Now if you ask me what I am doing at 4am...that is another story. I'm here, doing financial chores, homeschool planning, etc. I'm a morning person and am not much good past 8. Christine

I have both. My oldest much prefers IEW and my middle one likes it to a certain extent, but he flourishes with the Brave WRiter style. To me, IEW can be a bit formulaic. ON the other hand, BW doesn't have enough structure. So I mix the two. Grin... I'm probably the only one. Christine

Thanks for doing this. I signed up, but I probably won't participate much at first. We are leaving Friday for Ethiopia for a church/medical mission trip. I've got so much to do and I wanted to start school as soon as we got back, but may need to delay a week as I don't think I will quite be ready, but we will see. Christine

has been much more active lately. The group for year 1 was rather dead last year. There were a few good discussions, but it was hit or miss. The year 2 group seems much better. Thanks for the history lesson. Christine

Hi Coleen, My oldest is 13 as well and pretty shy. Pay attention to his interests. My son LOVES computers and electronics. I direct a children's choir and he has to go and so he was my helper. I am electronically challenged and cannot get the DVD player to work:confused: So he runs everything for me, which turned into running the sound board and the power point which turned into making a slide/power point video for a performance, which turned into running sound and making the end of the day videos for VBS which turned into the church secretary asking him to run the power point for the evening service and telling him she would like him to run it in the morning some next year. It has happened naturally and I thought he would be good at this stuff, but when I mention it..:001_huh: However, when another adult asks him to do something like this, he puffs up. He has really liked running the power point during the evening service. When the church secretary calls I hand the phone to him and let him decide. This past fall I was really worried about his leadership/outside involvement, but it has happened naturally. My husband and I are going to Ethiopia as part of a mission trip and he is getting to go as well. AT first he was upset about his brother not getting to go, but now he is really excited about it. I think it will be life changing for all of us. So look at his gifts and what YOU feel naturally drawn to. I just don't have time for scouts, plus I think dads have to be involved and my dh just doesn't have the time bless his heart. He's a great dad, but a surgeon. Christine

GRR.. I have just resigned from this group. Someone posted that they wished it was more one topic and less chatty as they couldn't keep up. Several people replied. (This group will have 300 messages a day sometimes) My reply said that yes I couldn't keep up and a few members chat so much among themselves that it feels cliquy (sp?). There were also so many prayer requests that I coulsn't keep it all straight either, which is great. I suggested she join the specific year plan as they were much more quiet and on topic. That is all I said. i was put on moderated status. When I questioned this, they said they had put a few people on moderated status and now that it had calmed down they would put me back. ????????? I guess my statement about it feeling like a clique made them upset... But it is true, If you are not part of these girls chatting back and forth about silly things, you feel out of it. I understand that this is allowed in this group, but newcomers will still feel like that and they should be told that the other groups might be better. So I responded to the moderator and asked her how in the world it had "calmed" down. I never read anyone being rude or anything... I got a one page response from the list owner about how I made the person feel like she was unappreciated and there was a lot going on behind the scenes and not to question them about things in the future.. ???? No questioning??? So I just left the group and vented here. I don't think asking questions is bad. I don't think having some explain why I was moderated is bad (she didn't know exactly why and couldn't search the hundreds of posts (not mine... I post maybe twice a month..mainly a specific question or a good resource) to find out why I was moderated. She asked me just to accept the discipline when she couldn't explain why I was disciplined. My children would not accept this!!!!!!! Christine

Yes, I have several to do lists and I just keep marking them off. (One page for children's choir, one page for Ethiopia, etc.) I guess I'm just looking for a way for all of this to be done without working. Or at least to feel finished. Christine

Yes, I know but the areas she has I don't have a problem with. For example, the living room. That is not a cluttered place. I have to put up the afghans (sp?) but that is it. We do not live in that room. Bathrooms are not a problem. I cannot remember exactly now, but when I was a member, the assignments didn't match my house and my worst problem areas never got gotten to. Plus, I took pictures once I think it was after a vacation. But in 24 hours my house went from perfect to a tornado had gone through it. IT just depresses me. See that is another thing. Every quarter we take a major trip and so laundry piles up as well as other things. I catch up and we take another trip.

Since there have been some flylady discussions I thought I would ask about this. I agree that the power of 15 minutes works, but how do you choose what gets your 15 minutes? I could 15 (and did) 15 minute myself to death. Here are the things I need to do: Pack for Ethiopia and get things ready and bought School: plan and enter into homeschool tracker my schooling for ages 8th (has Geometry and Biology so advanced), regular 6th and 1st so I can start when we get back from Ethiopia July 20th Children's Choir: Finish recruiting workers, schedule a meeting for early August, have a sketched out plan of when musicals and performances are, but need to flesh out changes, pick out new name like Kids Praise, find t-shirt design Co-op- Helping to teach a music class. I'm in charge of the spring so I have some time. Finances: I really could keep up if I would do this 15 minutes at a time. Enter all 529, IRA, ROTH, SEP, etc. pay bills, enter into money, balance checkbook, etc. I am keeping up but it takes complete diligence in this area and being gone for nearly 2 weeks to Ethiopia will put me behind. Housework- We do work together an if I am home, we do fine. The problems happen when we have camps or activities and run in and out putting things here and there. It takes absolute concentration and me really thinking: come get thing or me putting things up as I use them (really hard for me to do) The living area, kitchen dining and utitlity and guest bathrooms are clean almost all of the time. But these areas need work desperately: My room- ok now, but first to get out of control and currently has suitcases on the floor and piles of Ethiopia stuff in one corner, children's choir in another, good will stuff in a bag waiting to be itemized, etc. My closet: Let us not go there.. AWFUL and drives neat as a pin dh nuts Playroom/Schoolroom- I have been trying to do 15 minutes here and making progress but it is a CONSTANT battle. I still have a bag of papers to go through from last year, but at least next year's books are where they should be. Dining Room- My work area where i pay bills and such. Currently here are the piles: receipts so I can match them and itemize them to various credit cards, Ethiopia notebook, quiet time stuff, Coupon notebook and grocery sales pile. If I spend 15 minutes here a day I can keep it under control. Study- I try and make Friday afternoon to be a filing, put things away in dh's place. I don't use this much as it is his, but do need to file. The mail thing is a problem. Sometime he can't look at it until a couple of days have passes, so I alwys through things away that I KNOW are junk, but does he want to go to this conference? Does he need this medical software or hardware? I don't know so once a week I weed it out. Unfortunately I recently made a mistake in this area. He gets his work credit card bill as well as a financial copy. I accidentally filed both so it didin't get paid. OOPS.. So I have the most recent one on his bulletin board so he won't bury it. OUtside work- did I mention we live on 50 acres. This year the boys are finally old enough to really help. The oldest and I split the riding mowing, younger boy does hand mowing, and all three help me weed the many flower and garden beds. (Just in case you are wondering, dh weedeats, sprays poisen around edges of beds, prunes and sprays fruit trees, takes care of cows as in taking them to market, maintains fence row with boys, maintains mowers and tractor, does all tractor work. He does have jobs in addition to his day job!) Anyway, there is life and taking care of my disabled father, schooling, dentist, doctors, etc. Yes, 15 minutes helps but I could schedule an entire day of 15 minutes!!! Christine OUtside Work:

Well, it can take as long as you want. No one answered you probably because it depends on so many factors: what books you are using, how quickly your children work, etc. Let me just share how I did Core 5 with my boys who were in 4th and 6th grades at the time. I organized the books by country/region. We NEVER went by the schedule. My boys read VERY fast. I also checked out extra books at the library. I had a history I read aloud at snack time in the middle of the morning. They generally had a history text they read on their own as well. I read the actual readaloud during lunch. A few of these I switched around making readalouds readers and readers readalouds. The one that comes to mind is Around the World in Eighty Days. I read that one aloud and we traced the journey on a map and had a blast. They had 30 minutes of reading every day and it was more than enough to get their readers and history readings done. Once again, we didn't worry about the schedule. They just read. This is how I handled EHE. They each had a 30 minute block. They would work on it for 30 minutes at a time until they were done. I ommitted some pages for my 4th grader like the timeline ones. I told them not to worry about finding each answer in order. If they couldn't find it quickly, skip it. Then once they showed me that they were finished, they took a day or two to compare answers with each other. Did their answers agree? It was funny because they often had skipped different questions and could show each other where it was though sometimes neither could find the answers. Then I spent a day or several days depending on the length of going over the answers with them and discussing them while they graded their work. IT worked well. We enjoyed Core 5. Christine

I try to plan, but life always gets in the way. I will also be doing year 2, but we still have the last 4 weeks of year 1 to do first.:001_smile: We will start July 20th, though. I am actually taking it all apart and doing my own thing. My boys have never studied King Arthur or Robin Hood. So I am doing mini-units on those. Anyway, just look at the natural breaks and make it longer or shorten up to get those breaks in. It doesn't really matter. Take 2 weeks on Vikings if it will help before you start the next section, or shorten up Knights and Castles. And to be honest, your kids will either take things more quickly or more slowly than you thought. Christine

You might ask eye doctors. My son did Dynamic Reader in addition to his other vision therapy. Sometimes it showed only a single text, sometimes it showed sentences at a time, sometimes the whole page. Here is a link, but I'm guessing you would have to do it through an eye doctor. http://www.bernell.com/product/1524/37 My son's reading score went to the 99 percentile and his IQ test went up 15 points this year. (I didn't think your IQ test was supposed to change and it had been steady for the years before, so I'm not sure what was going on with that other than maybe he could process the questions better. His teacher and then I as homeschooling mom thought he was very bright and his test scores never showed it, but now I realize maybe his visual processing was interfering and he just compensates VERY well.) I'm guessing that the vision therapy/ dynamic reading had something to do with his score improvement. He already loved to read and was good at it. The only thing about the dynamic reader is that he raced through all of the stories. Oh..and it has comprehension questions you have to answer at the end of each story. Our doctor said there was a way to scan things into the program, but he hadn't ever had a child need that. He is still doing his vision therapy, so I haven't followed up yet. Christine

What year will you be doing? I am doing year 2 somewhere is a fabulous one to print and put into a notebook. I found it: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TapestryofGraceYear2/files/Timeline/ In the Loose Threads yahoo files there are some for other years. I printed the one above out and am putting it into a notebook for them to work on. Christine

Well,...my pastor's and his wife almost lost their child to chicken pox. A completely healthy child before that and it went inside his body (I think that is what she said..she is very for the vaccine. ) My dh saw some nasty cases in medical school. Although it is a fairly innocuous virus most of the time, it isn't always!!! so that is the big deal. Christine

Yes, that is my point. If she tells son b to rake the leaves and son b to weed and son c to mow and then daughter to sweep and then just leaves them it is unlikely to be done correctly. I would show them how to do it. Example, they can't do the leaves, then I show them how to do a section, where to put the bag, then I dump it back out, WATCH them do it. Give them pointers and then have them report to me when they think they are finished. I bet they haven't done it completely (mine still don't.) You point out the areas they need to finish and then have them report to you. Yes, it takes longer this way but eventually they see how it should be done and then after a time or two of supervising them this way you give penalities. If I come and inspect it and it is not done correctly, you lose computer for a week. If you whine, you lose computer for a week, etc. I can't imagine how hard it is with your health problems and i'm surprised they haven't pitched in before this. My elderly father lived with us for 9 months and my great grandmother off and on and plus my fil was in intensive care and the boys had to take a lot of responsibility because I made them because I refuse to be a matryr and put it all on myself. I'm glad you see what they need to do, now it is just a matter of making them. Christine

If this was the first time you asked it of them and they are already 14 and 12, then the patterns are pretty much already set. They are not used to it.. Is it REALLY a priority for you?? BTW, who mows your lawn?? Also, sending them out to do it without your supervising and telling them they cannot come in to eat until it is done is a recipe for disaster. My 13yo is very small and has been doing our hand mowing for the last couple of years. He did a small amount of the riding lawn mowing last year, but the mower kept dying because he was so small. So this year he mows most things except the backyard ( sloping and lots of holes from digging dogs, so I do it.) He is getting better at it, but still doesn't get around trees very well. He ran over a rope and we had to get it off of it. He ran over something else and so we had to talk about walking around the area and picking things up. It has taken lots of hands-on instruction from me. So for you to never require your children to do any of this and then be surprised and dismayed at their wimpiness was a little unlrealistic. You have trained them that way!!! My 6 year old is out with me pulling weeds and she loves to water. Make it fun (well as fun as possible) by enjoying conversation while you do these things. My 11yo just got the hand mowing job and is thrilled because only his older brother used to do it, so he sees it as a rite of passage (now the newness will wear off by the end of the summer, but he thinks it is fun and cool now). So...is is a priority? If it is then make a list of things to do then they are old enough I would sit down and have a family meeting. Say I can really use your help with some of the things that need to be done around here. Plus, then you will know how to do it when you get homes of your own. Show them your list and possibly ask for volunteers for the various jobs. Yes even mine whine sometimes about it being hot, but I just ignore them with a smile and go on. It would have been better if you had started them as toddlers, but since you didn't you will need to expect some resistance. You might also plan a fun family activity after a full morning of work. If they only do this once a month or so, then it will not ever get better. If you require this of them daily and it becomes a habit and you never give in and try to make it as fun as possible, then maybe...maybe they will quit whining and just get used to it in 6 months or so. When I started homeschooling my boys were starting 2nd and 4th grade. If you asked them at the end of the year what they liked least about homeschooling, they said in a loud voice CHORES. Now, why?? Because when they were in ps we were not able to do chores in a regular manner. If you leave at 7:15 and get back at 4 and then have afternoon activities and sports and piano practice there isn't much time. An occasional weekend around soccer or being out of town. They just weren't home to do chores. It was a very long year in that department. They had to do various chores EVERY day and they were not used to it. Now that they are 6th and 8th, they no long whine about doing their own laundry, the dishes, cleaning bathrooms, cooking dinner, etc. Now their rooms are a constant battle.:D But it is an expected part of our routine. You will have A LOT more retraining to do at 14 and 12. It was horrible for me at 8 and 10 and I would imagine this would be worse. You just cannot take it personally. This is how you have trained them to act. You haven't expected anything from them (at least of the outside variety), so you cannot be surprised that they balk now. They aren't used to it!!! So put a smile on your face and your training tools on and get busy, if you REALLY want it. Christine

I have always been pretty good at this, but this next year's age spread and amount of stuff is overwhelming me. My bookshelves are all organized according to subject( science, history) and then individual shelves by time period or subject (Oregon Trail, animals, astronomy, etc.) I got these wire shelves for their individual books and they were a disaster. I have bags separated into crayons, colored pencils, glue and glue sticks, etc. I think I should get individual bins for each, I guess. It is their day to day school work and mine I can't figure out how to organize. This is what I have: 8th grader Chalkdust Geometry: textbook, solutions, and videotapes. He will have a binder to do his work in. That worked well last year, no loose papers. Apologia Biology textbook and solutions, a notebook to keep all of his work in and a small binder for lab work at co-op. TOG- a timeline book, a binder with all of his maps, student activity pages, discussion questions, writing assignments, etc. Latin Road to English Grammar- don't know because I don't have it in my hand yet Rosetta Stone Spanish- The CD will be up by the computer. Notebook for computer Class He will generally need highlighters, map colors and pencils as his general supplies. 6th grader: Math U SEE or TT7 (haven't decided) Latin Road to English Grammar TOG- same as above- same as above Science: 6th grade lifepacks as well as ZOO 1 books/notebook for co-op Rosetta Stone Wordly Wise 1st Grader Saxon Phonics simple readers Singapore and Math U See Alpha Explode the Code TOG notebook - very simple compared to brothers, but simple maps, one worksheet and grammar work Powerglide Spanish Junior All of their stuff takes up 4 big boxes. Then I have all of the actual TOG materials: 4 big fat binders (one for each quarter), a binder for each child with their stuff run off for the year (gets transfered to their TOG binder above then when through for the week into their final binder) Plus I have all of the dialectic books for first two units as well as a few upper and lower grammar. Most lower grammar books I will be checking out from the library. The books I have currently fill 3 big boxes and then all of those binders. I do not know how to keep all of this in an organized fashion. Those wire shelves couldn't stand the weight and had to be put back together. But I need something that is big enough for binders as well as textbooks. HELP. Christine

I used Tog Redesigned year 1 with my 7th, 5th and K children. Next year we will do Tog Redesigned year 2 with my 8th, 6th and 1st. I REALLY like it. I really like how flexible it is. I took a lot of time over the summer to get organized and it really helped so that I spent maybe an hour a week and that was just relooking over the teacher's notes. I had everything printed off ahead of time in their individual notebooks. Now I really just did phonics, math and handwriting with my youngest and tried to read one lower grammar book to her and she did a few coloring pages or projects. My middle child loves reading to my younger one and I had him do that a few times. An upper grammar child, to me, is the perfect age to work with the lower grammar children. They normally read well and don't have the amount of work the older ones do. I don't have one in rhetoric, but I have looked it over and WOW...it is a TON of work and I wouldn't have them work with the younger children. I also like this program because they learn to plan out their own work. So I just hand the materials to my older one and he plans everything on his own. I just tell him when our discussions will take place and/or when something is due. I did not add any Bible last year because with TOG they read through almost the entire Bible as part of the program and the questions were deep and thought-provoking and even the non-Bible weeks linked back to the Bible with the thinking questions. This year the older two will have a devotion time and I will work on AWANA verses with my youngest. Here is my schedule for my older two: Brian 8th grade 8-8:15 devotion 8:15-8:45 Piano 8:45-9:45 Geometry 9:45- history readaloud 10-10:30 Latin Road to English Grammar 10:30-11:30 TOG work 11:30-12 Writing (part of TOG.. early in the week reading may take the place here) 12-12:30 Lunch Break 12:30-1:30 Apologia Biology 1:30-2 Rosetta Stone 2-2:30 Computer Course 2:30-3:00 Piano 3- 3:30 Break 3:30-4 30 minute clean up Homework : To finish math, TOG or whatever else would not finish in the block. Jonathan 6th grade 8-8:15 devotion 8:15-9 Math 9-9:30 Piano 9:45-10 Readaloud 10-10:30 Latin Road to English Grammar 10:30-12 TOG and writing 12-12:30 lunch break 12:30-1 Science – lifepacks or Zoo 1 co-op work 1-1:30 Rosetta Stone 1:30-2 Piano Practice 2-2:30 Typing 2:30-3:00 Hands on TOG stuff with Megan?? 3-3:30 BREAK 3:30-4 30 minute clean-up I hope that helps. Christine

I am a very fast reader. Plus I discovered that I like to read a whole book for enjoyment first. So I do. Then if it is a worthwhile book or one I was doing for a class, then I go back and read it slowly and underline what I think are important passages or quotes that speak to me. I read a lot of Christian non-fiction...books like Margin or Phillip Keller or C.S. Lewis. I have a reading journal where I right down quotes that speak to me from them. Then many times I will journal my response to those quotes. If studying for a class then after I have read the book the 2nd time and underlined the important portions and/or character quotes, then I get out my legal pad and write these things down in whatever order/style I need for mastery in that class. If I know the professor wants characterization, then I organize my quotes. If it is themes then I write down the various thems and then put examples and quotes under each. It really depends on what the purpose is for what I am doing. My senior English teach taught us that you cannot really read a book without writing in it and I have never forgotten that or stopped. Christine

I do at least 3 loads every day and many days 4 or 5. The only day don't do laundry is Sunday. How do all of you get by with less?? I guess part of it is we live in the country and people get filthy working outside and then we change to go to town and that gets dirty and then we have animals and people visiting so their are always sheets and towels to be done. Christine

I just had him take the pretest for MUS and he aced alpha, beta and gamma. He got all of delta correct up until the division by 2 numbers and he has completely forgotten how to do it. Then he couldn't remember how to even add fractions with unlike denominators...even though he finished all of the Key to Fractions series a week ago??? How can he forget in a week. Now I'm sure I could remind him how to do it and he would say, OH yeah!!! But I am so tired of him forgetting all of his math if we don't do it for more than a week. I want him to learn it and remember it forever. We looked at the videos from Chalkdust and from MUS and he likes the MUS instructor better. I'm just wondering if TT 7 would have enough review and/or fix the REALLY understanding and not forgetting his math.. I'm so frustrated.

Many, many days he and I get REALLY frustrated with each other. I do not talk his language as far as math goes. I think he should see it like I do, but he doesn't. I can look at math like my oldest and I just get it. I don't know how to explain it... Does that make sense??? My girl seems to talk my math shorthand so far just like my oldest. Christine

Let me say this about Horizon 4. One day it teaches the concept of division..simple like 8 divided by 2. In a couple of days it teaches long division by single digit. In another day it introduces division by 10 and then it introduces 12654 divided by 26 on another day. It was WAY to fast for my 4th graders. And most 4th graders do not do that complicated division by 2 numbers in ps. Mine just wasn't ready for it. Now he can do it in 5th grade, though very slowly. Could your 3rd grader handle that???? Christine

Here is the link to Baylor's admission for homeschoolers: http://www.baylor.edu/admissions/index.php?id=28616 Here is a link to their sample transcript that they would accept. http://www.baylor.edu/admissions/pdf/completehstrans.pdf The previous problems were in 2003 when they admitted people younger than 17. They needed to have them take the GED to keep their federal funding. Now they clearly state that. Since our child will not be attending until he is at least 18 that shouldn't be a problem. Christine