I love the 'homework' question and am amused at what a hot button the word itself can be. In our house we use it interchangeably with independent work, but have homeschool friends who would rather cut their tongues out than call assigned on-your-own work to be completed later 'homework'. Smartalec remark aside, I think the question is one of when does one-on-one instruction stop for the day and independent work begin and how do you transition. Up until the beginning of 7th grade we aimed to have all work done during school time. I started working nights at the end of our 6th grade year, and that required ds to do more homework/independent work when we started 7th. So for us it works like this: (simplified, of course) The first part of our homeschool day begins with a complete review of the work he did on his own the day before. Once this review is complete, we go through each of our subjects, I teach, do a couple of problems with him, and/or outline what he is expected to do on his own and move on. We go through it pretty fast, and I make a list as we go through of what he will be doing on his own. All the subjects that will have a fair amount of 'homework' are done first. Then we do the stuff that requires me to teach/supervise the material start to finish, like a science experiment. We fit in a morning break and break for lunch. Sometimes I'm able to cut out after lunch, other times, we have lunch, do more work then he gets a break before he moves on to the on your own work. If he's finished before lunch, after lunch we'll toss a Frisbee, play keep away with hockey sticks (he plays roller hockey), play ball with the dogs or some other physical activity before he sits down to complete the 'homework' I made a list of during the day. If we're not done before lunch, we finish our one on one stuff and for our break we do the physical something and he sits down to complete his 'homework' after. So I guess for us the 'start your homework' trigger is to get up and run around for about 15-20 minutes. I could have just said that, geesh! Hope that helps. ~M

My message disappeared so fast I forgot I posted it. Geesh! OK, when we did Latin Prep, we went through the lesson together. I'd go over the first few problems from the exercises with him, then leave him to it. The next day, we'd check his answers, and they were almost always all correct. A couple of errors here and there every few days, mostly due to carelessness. But it seemed like all he ever did, every exercise, was nothing more than translate forward and backward. That seemed like busy work. As in, aren't you ever going to do anything other than translate? I don't know why I didn't think I could give him more to do, duh! I probably left him alone too much with it - and that was clearly my mistake. I knew if I put it down for a while when I picked it back up it might make more sense. I think we'll go back to it. I still just can't wrap my head around First Form and don't have the time or inclination to try when implementing LP would be much simpler. I'm going to add in the extras we weren't doing before. It is a tool after all, and anytime you use a tool incorrectly, the tool might appear ineffective. But I knew all along this was a likely case of operator error.

The history: We used Latina Christiana I in 3rd grade & 4th grade. My son wasn't thrilled with it, and because I needed one less battle we dropped Latin. Then last year, 7th grade, we started back at it with Latin Prep. I wanted to like it, there are so many great reviews here about it. But I just didn't get it. It seemed like alot of busywork and the son retained nothing. I am willing to admit it's probably my fault, but I just couldn't figure out how to teach it. Present: Wanting something with a meatier teachers manual, and because I liked the way the lessons were done in Latina Christiana, I decided to give First Form a try. I ordered the beta version, I've had it a couple of weeks and guess what? I can't figure it out either. I even looked at the lesson plans posted on the First Form Yahoo! Group and they didn't help. I know if I shelve it, in a couple of months I'll look at it again and it will all make sense. I'll be left wondering why it seemed so hard before. But time is is short supply. I don't want to delay Latin any longer. I think I need is someone to explain how they do it. To start at the beginning of the Latin lesson and explain step step how to proceed. I'm even thinking we might go back to Latin Prep and 'teach it right.' Does anyone want to explain how they teach a Latin Prep lesson? I swear don't need this much hand holding with any other subject. I just can't make it make sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

I too ordered from the website and didn't have any trouble. ~M (just throwing in my .02)

I'm So. Cal. but North OC, right on the NE OC/LA border.

And I was just thinking...out of us that can drive a stick, how many can drive three on the tree? ~M

My ds will learn, I hope. Well, at least we'll try to teach him. The truck my dh drives is a stick, and were planning on keeping it at least long enough for ds to learn on in 4 years. It's a '92 Toyota, it should make it.:D I too can't believe how many people can't drive a stick. I suppose I shouldn't be, this is southern California. Not many people want to drive a stick in our traffic. A funny story though...My sister, when she was 17, was sitting in the car waiting for dad to teach her to drive a stick. I have no idea what she did. I wasn't born yet and no one will tell me. But, she came in the house holding the clutch pedal in her hand and asked, "Is this supposed to come off?" She broke the clutch off! The metal post that holds the pedal snapped right off! She never learned to drive a stick. ~M

We have 1552 sq ft for a family of three. We have an attic and a garage and absolutely no space. The house was poorly designed to begin with, then redesigned by Rube Goldberg. Two of the four bedrooms have closets that were cut down to half their original size. The kitchen was remodeled and enclosed. WHY???? The cook top and ovens turned into a range so now I have a gas line stub sticking up from the floor. It's plenty of space, more than enough. I know it is. We just have to purge a bunch of stuff we don't love, use or need. My dad was a pack rat, and my husband is too. The garage is packed to the rafters with stuff my dad shoved in there while he was still alive. Then we packed it even more when we cleaned out his room after he passed away. Now my husband has packed the room back up with his garbage. A family of three DOES NOT need a garage, attic and two 12 x 10 bedrooms for storage! I be prefectly happy to clear them out and seal them up until I could figure out what to with them other than store junk. ~M ~M

We have used Rod & Staff since 3rd grade, DS in in 7th now. At the end of 6th, I'd had enough of R&S. DS had aquired a really sucky attitude toward Grammar. No other way to explain it. It was to the point I hated to pull out the Grammar book because I knew I'd have to listen to him huff, puff and sigh. BUT he was learning it, and it was solid. The kid has consistantly scored 7 grades above level for Language Arts on his standardized tests since 3rd grade. I figured, he had a sold enough grasp that if he wanted to change, it couldnt hurt much. AG had such good review here I took the leap. We struggled the first half of the year. Our first day back to school after Christmas Break he begged to switch back to Rod & Staff. He's a strange boy, loves brussels sprouts too. We're back in R&S now and no more dramatics. The kid is HAPPY with Grammar. If I had to hazard a guess as to why it didnt work for us, I'd probably say it was too vague. He wasnt 'getting' their instructions and the concepts moved on too quickly. I'm having a hard time recalling exactally why right now. I wish I had more to give you, all I know is...it didnt work for us. But, I still love the concept and recommend it to people who get an eye twitch at the mention of Rod & Staff. ~M PS: PollyOR: I'm beginning to think that there is just something life sucking about R&S 6.

My ds is 12 (March b-day) and at the end of 6th grade. He has been hsed since 3rd grade. Part of the reason we pulled him out was because he was so far behind in math. So now, I have a situation. I don't know how to explain it, but basically, he knows HOW, but he can't DO. He can explain how to get the answer six ways from Sunday, but he can't tell you what the answer is. For example, this was something we ran into today. (We're using LoF Fractions) The problem was: Express a million feet in miles and feet. (1 mile = 5,280 feet) So he sets up the problem 1,000,000 / 5280. He gets to 5280 goes into 10,000 1 time, puts the 5280 down below (long division) then he CAN'T REMEMBER HOW TO SUBTRACT! I asked him what the problem was, and he explained he knew what he was supposed to do, subtract then bring down, but he was stuck. He knew the answer would be the difference between the two numbers, but he couldn't tell you what that number was. It would have been pretty darn fascinating if it wasn't so totally frustrating. If he knows how to answer, then why can't he do it? Is any of this making any sense? Help please! ~M