No, she doesn't. I was worried about that, but after her break, she's much more receptive to more schooling. Maybe she's just an odd one, lol. It probably wouldn't work for my boys.

I give my daughter breaks. She's not too fond of school yet (she just completed her K year) and she'll complain a lot without breaks. She usually goes in the backyard and plays or up to her room if the weather isn't nice. If she doesn't want to leave the table, she'll draw pictures or color.

Looking through LA 100, I think you would need it for that, as it looks like most of the teaching is in the guide. But, I know when my DS did LA 400 last year, I didn't need the teacher guide. I'm just not sure when they make the switch from needing it to not needing it.

I think curriculum for the logic stage, in general, is lacking (specifically literature, science, and history). Especially, quality secular materials.

Thank you for sharing this! It looks good. I was thinking about using FIAR for my 1st grader next year, but I'm not sure it's going to work out. I think I'm going to use this instead (my older boys are on modern history and will roll back to Ancients the following year, so I'm holding off with DD to roll them together).

I feel your pain. I have a 9 (will be 10 in July) year old who is the same way. His siblings are outside playing right now while he's sitting at the table pretending to work on his math assignment that he's had since 9 am this morning. The child only had a test for LA (really only 2 pages out of 5 since it was a test he started Wed and never managed to finish) and 1 math assignment and he just refuses to do them. He was also told he had to clean his half of the room he shares with his brother. He doesn't ever do anything he's told to do and doesn't care about consequences. If I make him stand in the corner he'll just fidget or say he has to go to the bathroom or wait until I'm not watching and simply walk away. He hardly has any toys because he doesn't care about them. I've taken away video games and outside time. I make him do pushups or run in the backyard, but then he acts like he's dying to try to get out of it (he's not). I think I'll try the back to the basics thing. I'll give him food, but only the basics. He can have a roof over his head, but a pillow and blanket on the floor will work just fine (after all, this is how children all over the world sleep every night). Hopefully, it's something he'll outgrow soon.

I'm using 1 set with 2 students. It's not impossible, but it does take a little more work. I just write the first letter of their name on the back of whatever card they need extra work with. I make sure to keep all of the "J" cards together and all of the "A" cards together and whichever ones they both need to work on in between.

The little bikes without pedals are popular in Europe for little kids. After watching this video, now I know why! I wanted to buy my DD one when we were over there, but I always thought they were for little, little kids (like 2 or 3, lol).

Yes. My kids aren't big on playing outside. They would much rather sit inside and watch tv or play video games (which I am starting to extremely limit). We live in NW Washington where we hardly ever see the sun, lol. This past week we've had some beautiful weather. I was the mean mom and forced them to go outside. You know what? They made friends, had water gun fights, and had an absolute blast. My two middle boys told me on Saturday that it was the best day of their lives, lol (we've had many big adventures so I'm pretty sure they weren't serious; they were just trying to express how much fun they were having). Today it's back to being rainy so they can stay inside.

I was one of 5 kids. I have 4 kids and don't plan on having any more (sometimes I think I'd like more, but we are done :001_unsure:). My older sister has 2 kids and none of my other siblings have any (one is mentally handicapped and can't have any children; my brothers don't have stable jobs and aren't married and as far as the rest of us know, they don't have any kids, lol). DH is one of 3 boys. His older brother is mentally handicapped and won't be having children. His younger brother has 2 biological children. He just got divorced and would like to have more, but do to his previous wife's hard pregnancies, he made it so he can't have any more.

Thanks for the input. I would love to get both, but unfortunately, I can't afford both. All of my kids LOVE science, so I want something that is strong, but at the same time I know they'll love the pizza model of the earth in RSO. They both look like really good programs (I've actually seen and used part of RSO with my middle DS; unfortunately we got rid of it, so we don't have it anymore).

Has anyone tried both of these and can make a recommendation as to which they preferred? They both look like fun. This would be for my 1st and 4th Grader next year.

My daughter likes to run around town and shop, lol. She got a kick out of me driving her around in my motorcycle. She swims too, although last time she did, she swam in Stormwind harbor and was killed by a shark.

I may have to check out Rift. DH and I are HUGE WoW players. Our 3 boys have accounts too and DD likes to run a gnome with pink hair around and pretend to play, lol.

My boys were all thumb suckers, my daughter a pacifier baby. My daughter gave the pacifier up around 18 months with no problems at all. I still catch my boys sucking their thumbs when they get really tired and think noone is watching, lol.

No, I never got into trouble at sleepovers. I am shocked to read about how many people on this board did, lol. I was a good kid and rarely got into trouble. When I went to sleepovers, we just ate snacks, watched appropriate movies, chatted, and had fun.

This was talked about here a couple of weeks ago and everyone was anxiously awaiting samples. I checked out the video and workbook samples. It looks like a good program, but there were a couple of things that bother me (just minor things; I've been meaning to give it a closer look but haven't had time).

I'm not very familiar with a lot of what you are planning to use, but it looks good to me. Are you doing any spelling? I think I'm going to buy McHenry's The Elements and work on it over the summer with the boys. They would all love it and it should be easy enough to complete in that time period. My upcoming 6th grader is very average academically (although he has made HUGE leaps this year in math and science; he's still pretty average though). Many of the things we tried using this year were a flop, combined with the fact that it was just a difficult year (2 moves, 1 from overseas; getting used to a 4 day at home school week; etc.). I feel like most of this year was a complete wash. I really want to ramp up his learning this coming year and challenge him a little more. I have been agonizing over curriculum for weeks now and I think I am finally settled on the following: Reading: Figuratively Speaking with a literature list compiled by me (I like the idea of a lit program, and we tried one this year, but this kid struggles with reading and I really want him to develop a love for it.) Grammar: Giggly Guide to Grammar and a diagramming book (nothing has worked for Grammar with this kid, so I'm hoping by making it goofy it will keep his interest) Writing: Write Source and Wordsmith Apprentice (again, LA is his week area and I want to keep it as fun for him as possible) Spelling: All About Spelling (he's zipping through these for now, but I expect him to slow down; he's a horrible speller like his father) Vocabulary: probably going with Sadlier-Oxford Vocab Workshop (I know vocab isn't necessary, but I don't think we're going to get to Latin and DH and I want the kids prepared for SAT's; his vocab is weak and he's expressed interest in working on it) History: SOTW Volume 4 Science: MPH 5/6 (he loves science so I'm going to start with the grade 5 books and he should be able to work through all 4 by the end of the year) Math: CLE Grade 6 (he hates math, but I am amazed by his progress with this curriculum) Geography: Evan Moor 7 Continents series (*I* LOVE geography and am looking forward to working through these books with the kids and adding in cooking and living books) Logic: Building Thinking Skills Book 2 (this takes no time at all and is something he can do if he's waiting on me to finish with his siblings; he's not ready for serious logic yet)

I don't think it's too much, as it's very similar to what I have planned for my 4th grader. I'm still trying to figure out a schedule though, so I'm liking all of these ideas.

I think we're going to try to learn Italian. We just lived there for 3 years and never had the time to learn the language. We are hoping to go back in a few years, so we're going to get a head start on learning. Even if we don't get to go back, learning the language should still be fun and beneficial.

I updated mine yesterday, although it's subject to change.

I'll join all of you in the tent, lol. I bought Lively Latin the first year we homeschooled. Ended up dropping it after a few weeks because we just couldn't find the time for it. Bought Latin For Children the second year and we dropped that for the same reason. I would LOVE to teach/learn Latin and my boys would really enjoy it, but I just can't seem to find the time for it.

I plan on using both with my DD who will be in 1st next year. CLE doesn't have much writing and what they do have is nothing like WWE.

This is our 3rd year of homeschooling and the 4th house we've lived in since then. For the first time, we don't have a dedicated school room. We do school at the dining room table. Whenever someone needs to read quietly, they move to the living room (which is the same area as the dining room). I have 2 totes where they store their school books (2 kids per tote). Our manipulatives and teacher's books are stored on 2 Expedit bookshelves (the 1x4 size) downstairs in the computer room. All of our other books are stored on bookshelves upstairs.

The main reason we started homeschooling was a bad DoDDs school while we were stationed in Italy. The reason we continue to homeschool is because of how good it feels when they finally figure something out and knowing it was because *I* taught it to them. I love being with my kids! My oldest is returning to PS next year at his request and it makes me sad that he won't be here.