You might want to take a look at how the Waldorf method uses block scheduling; it's similar to what you describe and can be very effective.

Apologies if someone has already thrown this out there, but my internet is lagging and I can't read previous posts today! You might want to consider a year of www.allinonehomeschooling.com It's free and written for a child to work on independently. It's all done online with links, so your 5th grader could do her schoolwork wherever you are.

I hope it's ok to share here, but I thought that some fellow Hive members might find it useful! I just finished reviewing CTC Math online with my 9 year old and he hates math but loved this! They're offering a 4 week free trial, no credit card required, and if you like it they'll upgrade you at 60%off. Otherwise, your trial just ends and that's it. Anyway, here's my post about it if you'd like an overview: http://www.theusualmayhem.com/2017/06/stop-summer-slide-online-math/ I'm happy to answer any questions. (P.S. No, not an affiliate! Just got a free membership for a few months to test it and my son was raving about it to his grandparents the next day!)

You might take a look at Wee Folk Art's seasonal Preschool plans. With hands-on manipulatives for math and AAR PK level, you'd have a wonderful year with a lot of learning and tons of time to be a kid still :)

Not exactly what you describe, but possibly a great option for you: www.happyhedgehogpost.com mails out monthly kits with crafts/instructions, tutorial video links, recipes and stories. We've been using them for a couple of years and been very happy with the quality. She offers discounts for siblings, too.

I agree with other posters that there's nothing wrong with Lifepacs. However, there are a few other curricula you might want to check out with your daughter that may interest her outside of the basics: Beautiful Feet Books' History of the Horse literature based curricula Farmschooling (I wrote this one with another blogger, and it's learning based around farms and farm animals but can be done anywhere) Horsing Around unit from Homeschool Legacy Not farm animal related, but we have used and really enjoyed a lot of units from Intellego unit studies, with internet links for the users to explore. HTH! I know how difficult it is to find the right curricula for a 13 yo girl with a strong mind of her own :)

For years we had a world map shower curtain, and I was amazed how much geography my kids picked up from it. People would call for a "bathroom break" in the middle of a movie to go and look up a place that was mentioned! They'd also come out of the shower with questions or comments and it often led to further exploration on a wall map. We also own and love Bright Ideas Press's WonderMaps and use them regularly for explorations, especially because we can print topographical data or not as desired. I can also print historical maps so we can compare with current maps.

We were lucky enough to review Mr D's math (in our case Algebra II) on my blog last year for the iHomeschool Network, and my daughter really liked it. His explanations are clear, the videos don't use up all of your bandwidth, and you get enough to learn it well but not a lot of busywork. It might be a really good fit for your independent learner.

Just a thought: When we first moved to our current home, we had no internet available in our home for almost 2 years and the nearest library was 30 mins away. I bought Intellego's science and history courses on currclick.com (about $15 each), and once a week we hit the library and used a free YouTube downloader to download and save all the videos for the upcoming week. They incorporate writing assignments, so you could knock off 2 subjects in one. They're made to fit all learning styles. Also, for inexpensive science labs you might consider talking to a butcher or abbatoir about obtaining hearts, lungs etc for dissection. Ours were amazing once we explained what we wanted them for and they charged us only pennies apiece. The labs we did that year were incredibly interesting and remains one of our favorites. HTH

Sigh. Sorry. The internet is messing with me and posting multiple times. It won't let me delete them.

Schoolhouseteachers.com has an online class called the Tinker's Club. I think the subscription is under $10 per month.

The two that I find I come back to with each kid are Vol 1 and then Vol 4 after we run out of books for Volume 1 (which takes a couple of years for us anyway). But as a PP said, they are all excellent - you can't go wrong with any of them, I don't think.

No help but lots of sympathy....my daughter was the same way. I can tell you that she seems to have outgrown the math issues now, if that helps. I did a LOT of head banging a few years ago, though!

Just a thought, but have you looked at project-based learning for the non-math subjects? Take a look at Lori Pickert's Camp Creek Blog for inspiration.......if you could discuss with him and let him choose an aspect of a subject that catches his interest, help him to get library books and find videos on Netfilx or something, and let him loose, he might amaze you. That's not to say to move away from the cycles of classical learning, but you could let him choose what parts of the subjects really engage him and see if it gets him excited about learning again.

We're trying to sell here and buy/move 12 hours away at the moment. We are down to the bare-bones schoolwork, only because I have a 12 year old who needs to keep plugging along. Your kids are so young that even a few months off wouldn't damage anything. I vote for take a break.

I use the scrapbooking glue dots to adhere - less glue overall, it doesn't wrinkle the paper, and they stick like concrete. I typically do use cardstock for the pieces and paper if I'm going to laminate it; otherwise I stick to cardstock for all so that it's sturdier. There's a great site called File Folder Fun which has TONS of great games http://www.filefolderfun.com/, and it's a super straightforward site to navigate. I would also recommend doing a search on Pinterest http://pinterest.com...le folder games because there are a lot of resources out there. HTH

I answered "yes, but with reservations". I did not allow it until this year when she turned 12 and it became very hard to find one-piece swimsuits to fit her new curves. Even so, she is only allowed to wear it with a tshirt or wetsuit top over it in public, although at the cottage it's just us so no problem then. I have issues with little kids in string bikinis especially, which seems to be the social norm where we live. I don't understand why anyone would want to sexualize a 2 year old in that way.

No suggestions but full sympathy! We're in the middle of prepping our house for sale and I have NO IDEA how we're going to keep it show-ready with 5 people and 2 shedding retrievers in residence at all times. I'm mostly trying not to hyperventilate at the thought of all the things that have to be done in the 2.5 weeks before it goes on the market.

Queen homeschool's copywork books are beautiful. My daughter loves Pictures in Cursive.

I just need somewhere safe to whine. Someone please tell me it'll all come together! We have been waiting for, literally, years for a particular house to come up for sale 12 hours away in our dream location. We have just been notified it's going up for sale in 3 months when the current owner moves to a seniors residence. We can't make an offer on the new one until our house here is sold because we need the sale money for the down payment on the next house. That's assuming that the political situation in QC won't mess up house sales this year and we get back at least what we paid for it. We are partway through repainting 1/3 of the house, we have flooring to install in the hallway upstairs, I have run out of boxes to pack with, and I've already take a full van load to the Salvation Army but now I can't do a bleeping thing until a) we buy more paint B) we get more packing boxes c) we do more decluttering, which I need to do as I pack in some cases. Then once we get all that stuff done I have to try to maintain the cleanliness level for house showings around 3 boisterous kids and two large dogs, try to arrange buying the other house long-distance, arrange moving vans, change utilities, get medical insurance moved to a different province's system, forward mail, and get the aforementioned kids and dogs all to the new place. Did I mention we are trying to do all this on one teeny tiny budget? I am feeling pulled every which way and like nothing is coming together since we found out about the house Thursday. I feel like Housezilla, I am so stressed about getting it all done! Anyone been there, done that, and lived to tell about it? Comforting stories and advice desperately needed!

I agree that the house was frightening, but am I the only one wondering why the landlord hadn't fixed the bathroom toilet and tub?

www.Sparklebox.co.uk and www.twinkl.co.uk have tons of free printables by subject, up to about grade 4. Most of my supplementary worksheets come ffrom them. On Twinkl, if you look under the parents section, there are a bunch of pencil line worksheets that I found particularly helpful at your son's age.

I don't know if this is any help, but this is their website page that gives a link: http://www.elementalscience.com/lapbook-index.html

I send them along with my sister in law to her homeschool support meetings. We've helped a few new homeschooling families like that. If there's something I feel strongly about, I let her know and put a post-it with the price I'd like; otherwise I'm happy to pass them on.

I'm hyperventilating just thinking about this. Hope you find it very soon....on the occasions where we've had vanishing spiders, I have spent days screaming hysterically at moving dog-fur tumbleweeds and freaking out at night if my hair falls down and touches my face or neck.