[What do you do when a curriculum is unfinished?]

Skills I think kid needs to learn and the curriculum is an enjoyable way of learning those skills? Keep going with it. Or find another way to teach it.

Hate the curriculum? Bored of it? Move on, teach something else, but make sure you get to those skills you had been meaning to teach. 

We school year round, so we just keep going through the summer, taking breaks as desired. 

Sounds like in your case, you should just leave the curriculum. Don't worry about finishing it, and call it done. 

 

[Mystery Science Subscription - cost?]

43 minutes ago, xahm said:

If you have the free trial, after that school year it runs out. Then you will be able to access a small number of mysteries (the first lesson of each of the older ones, I think.) 

That's really helpful to know too. Right now we have the first 4 or so lessons out of 5 or 6 available. So I guess we'll be needing to pay for it. Might as well do it before the price increases, I guess. 

[Mystery Science Subscription - cost?]

52 minutes ago, silver said:

The $49 price is not always the price. The website shows that because it's a sale price and you don't need any "coupon code" to get it. I want to say they offer it to homeschoolers each spring (I paid that much last spring and my subscription will run out in June this year). New content seems to be added very frequently, and you don't have access to that without the paid subscription. I'm also not sure if you can do the free version for two years or if it's only a one time thing.

 

Thanks, I wasn't sure since I'd only been considering purchasing for the past 2-3 months. 

[Mystery Science Subscription - cost?]

It's free unless I want the unlocked content, right? It's not like a 1-yr trial? 

I've been getting emails to purchase a subscription, and I'm getting so many emails that I'm getting confused. 

And an email saying that if I buy before a certain date, I only pay $49? And that the regular cost is $69? But on the website, the cost is listed as $49?

I'm thinking about subscribing, since DS really enjoys the lessons and is interested in many of the locked ones. But I'm wondering if the emails advertising $49 is just a marketing ploy to get me to "buy now!" Do they offer discounts at other times? $49 is still kinda steep, since I only have one kid using it ?

[Gas lighting - response?]

1 hour ago, Garga said:

Ok, after reading the excerpt, nope.  My in-laws are picky and never pleased with what I do, but they don’t actively attack in letters or say SHAME on me.  For crying out loud.  They’re still treating you like you’re 5. 

Strong boundaries.  Unapologetic boundaries.  What they’re doing isn’t normal.  It isn’t a quirk.  It’s stepping way out of line.

 

Thanks for the validation. 

 

[Gas lighting - response?]

9 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

you're not crazy. 

read up on personality disorders. they are extremely manipulative, the guilt trips (I joked my grandmother's would send postcards), it's all about "them".   you are just an extension of "them" that is only useful if you comply with "them".

the only way to deal with "them" - is boundaries.  townsand and cloud  have a good book on the subject.

absolutely dont' trust them with your children.  my grandmother did a heck of a lot of damage.

 

I strongly identify with the bolded. 

 

[Gas lighting - response?]

Tell me I'm not crazy, and shouldn't ever trust these people to be alone with my kids.

An excerpt (will be deleted later):

deleted

[Gas lighting - response?]

The reason for having not talked in so long? We were waiting for them to make an appointment for group therapy, as they suggested it. Because, as they claimed, their insurance will cover it (and I told them that ours would not cover it.)

First sentence in a response email reminding that we were waiting for them to schedule something? "I don't know what you're talking about."

That, plus all of the craziness in the body of the email probably means I shouldn't touch this with a 100 foot pole. 

[Gas lighting - response?]

They want to talk it out. We "talked it out" (my words) a few months ago (that's when contact stopped because, no, they did not want a discussion, they wanted to lecture and throw blame at us).

 

[Gas lighting - response?]

2 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

it is very disheartening to me,  there are people who use the commandment to "honor your parents"- to manipulate their adult children into continuing to allow themselves to be abused.  (this is not the first time I've seen similar on this forum.  it makes me sad.) 

 

 

so now imagine your hindu parents telling you that the 10 commandments say "honor your parents" and using that to justify their manipulation

[Gas lighting - response?]

2 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

 

Then your religion is requiring you to submit to abuse and to call it "good relations."

 

 

Ok, when I say "requires" I don't mean when it's unreasonable. It doesn't mean put up with abuse.  

Of course, the trouble is figuring out what abuse is when you're on the receiving side.

 

 

[Gas lighting - response?]

They know that our religion (not the same as theirs) requires us to treat our relatives well and to have good relations with them. And that the specific manner in which we are related means that they are owed extra respect.

So they take full advantage of this, treat us poorly, and then send articles from religious websites and verses from scripture in an attempt to shame us and make us act good towards them, when we are honestly trying our darndest to be good to them, but they refuse to see anything good we do, focusing only on whatever mistakes we have made, and using apologies that we have given as evidence of wrongdoing to fuel their anger, as desired. 

I'm not sure that the above specifically counts as gas-lighting, but yes, there is gas-lighting.

[Gas lighting - response?]

In my case it's relatives who we used to see many times per week, thinking it would make our relationship with them improve, and that it would be good for the kids if the relatives could see them frequently. 

I don't know why we thought that. [head banging on wall emoji]

 

[Gas lighting - response?]

There's not even any point in responding to it, is there?

But I want to have a good relationship with this relative, but it's been a few months since we've seen them, and we don't have to see them unless and until we choose to. 

[Gas lighting - response?]

I need a "pulling out my hair" emoji.

[Gas lighting - response?]

If someone thinks someone else is gas lighting them, it's not appropriate or productive to point it out, right? 

[Beast Academy for dyslexic child?]

Are you able to get BA books from your library or through interlibrary loan? I was able to borrow a textbook and workbook through interlibrary loan. I found out that while my non-dyslexic, but ADD, DS loves the textbooks, the workbooks were difficult even for me to understand what they were asking for in some cases. 

I've found singapore to be pretty self explanatory. The font is clear and clean (again, I don't have dyslexia or a dyslexic kid, so ymmv). For the most part, I'm able to teach the lesson in the textbook, and let DS do the workbook pages on his own. 

What about teaching textbooks? I'm looking into that one for next year, and like that the lecture portion, and the I believe even the questions, are read aloud. That may be helpful for you. 

[Reasonable Expectations for Visiting]

45 minute drive one way is far for us. 

My inlaws live close (within a 10 min drive) to us, and kids are there many times per week (every weekend + 3-5 weekdays.) They babysit for us a lot too. They like the kids and the kids like them. Kids spend the night there every once in a while. It's easy for us when we go there. We have a good relationship with them, and for the most part, they listen when we tell them to not to let the kids x. If they lived 45 min away, we would still go there every weekend. 

My parents also live close to us. But they don't listen when we say the kids can't have x. The kids know where to find the treats at their house, and they don't do anything to try to stop them. They sugar the kids up/give them a bag of treats when it's time to leave their house. This even when we were going there 3-4x per week. They make things difficult when we go over there. If they lived 45 min away, we would go once a month, or once every other month at the most. 

[In desperate need of printer recommendations]

We have a brother laser printer/copier/scanner (MFC7860DW to be precise) and I couldn't be happier with it. It's lasted 4-5 years so far, and I do a LOT of printing. I only buy toner 1-2x per year, but like I said, I print A LOT, including for community things outside of just for homeschooler. 

 

Ok, I lied, I'd be happier with it if I could figure out how to permanently set it to print double sided and make "toner saving mode/printing lighter" a default setting. Oh, and maybe if I could figure out how to make it print on the side of the page that I want it to without having to run a test page every time (for when I'm trying to print on a paper that already has something printed on one side). But I'm really glad that I bought it. Pages only take about 2 seconds to print out and it has only ever jammed as a result of me trying to print 100 pages without removing printed pages from the tray. 

[Jumping from no routine to routine?]

1 hour ago, EverLearningMom said:

we all go out but someone gets mad, sad, cold, hot, bored within 30 seconds

Try to think of things that may happen in advance:

how can you combat the mad? depends on the cause, but maybe taking a moment to take a deep breath? one-on-one chat with mom while the other one plays?

what about the sad? would preparing the kids (mentally) for the trip out of the house help? "we are going to go outside for half an hour. Nobody goes in the house. If you're bored, find an interesting piece of grass or something."

cold? bring an extra jacket

hot? let them take off layers or tell them to lay in the shade and not move. or play in some water?

bored? lots of options, but it's ok to be bored too.

 

[Jumping from no routine to routine?]

I used a velcro-picture schedule that I could arrange based on the day's planned activities. 

I printed up picture schedules for routines like bedtime and morning.

In 2nd grade, I actually made a timetable and tried to follow it (did a pretty good job some days, too, but the overall effect was that it solidified our routine)

When introducing a new time-based schedule I've found it works best for me to announce that "on monday we will begin our new schedule," post it somewhere visible, and run through it with DS so he knows what will be expected. 

 

[Is this normal? Short short days, toddler helping constantly]

Oh, did you mean that the school day for the kindergartener is only an hour? Yeah, I agree that that's normal. I misunderstood and thought she meant that school for ALL of the kids only takes 1 hour. 

My younger is only 2.5, but I made sure she had toys that she can spend a long time with, stickers, color wonder paper, and playdough for using while DS does his school. And some days, she gets the computer and gets to play on poissonrouge or starfall.

[Is this normal? Short short days, toddler helping constantly]

So you have been homeschooling the older kids for a while, while the youngers were in school, and now everyone is home to homeschool. Am I understanding correctly?

I think it's going to take a while for the younger kids to get a hang of the new schedule. It does usually take us longer than an hour to finish our school day. Maybe you need to increase the difficulty? Or add a few more subjects?

We have a handful of local homeschool facebook groups. Moms independently arrange field trips, and collect the payment for said trips. We attend a lot of those and they don't require having been enrolled for the year. 

Some of our local forest/park exploration programs are just starting up now that warm weather is back.

 

 

[Microscope - necessary?]

I bought the carson pocket microscope that Holly mentioned. It arrived today and it's awesome!!!! SO worth the $10, even it it breaks tomorrow (doesn't seem like it will though, so that's good.) 

[Microscope - necessary?]

This was my "urgent" question that came up during the forum blackout. I got bored and decided I should finally buy that microscope I've been meaning to buy, but I can't make a purchase like that without all of the advice here!

I recently found a local museum that has a real microscope that visitors are allowed to use, and decided buying our own, $$$ microscope doesn't seem like something I can really justify with all of the great images available on the internet. 

So I decided that if I had to post about whether I need one or not, then I don't need one :D Oh, how I wish DH could appreciate my thought process :D