Okay. Thanks so much for all your time and consideration, everyone. You've given me a *lot* to think about!!

Phew. Thanks guys. I'm okay with this just being "that season". I just want to be aware other possibilities, if they're out there :)

Last year I prioritized reading. I really felt like we did. We did no writing in other areas - I read everything, their in put was all oral. I was thinking "NEXT year. NEXT year we'll diversify." The older two made a year's progress in a year. Youngest made years in a year. I guess I was thinking this year we could branch out a bit. And too, isn't the reason you do history and sciene with littles is so they have a reason to read? So they see what great things are out there to read about? To open their eyes to all the options so they might go look for a book on volcanoes or Bucephalus or The Milky Way? Is it doing a disservice to reluctant readers to read about all this stuff for them, is it so distracting as to take away from their own reading progress? I'm not saying these aren't good ideas. I'm just surprised at how drastic it seems. Just to be very clear: I have a fourth grader at a beginning third grade level - and possible LDs in that area. I have a third grader reading at a third grade level and I'd call him reluctant and his reading hard-won, I wouldn't necessarily say struggling. I ahve a first grader for whom reading has come astonishingly easy, who picks up phonics with seemingly no teaching or effort. I've scanned my posts to make sure I haven't given the wrong idea - my kids can read. Just not independently. Is this very out of the ordinary? Again, I'm not hacking on your suggestions. I think in many ways, I'd like this kind of simplified program. But it still seems like a "in a crisis" sounding kind of plan and I'm not sure that's where I'm at? Also, if they only did 20 minutes of math a day, they wouldn't get very far in a year. . . Interested in your thoughts on all this ETA: Love the idea of working outside while others play with the toddler. For us, certain times of the year, this could work well. But we live in Canada (northern BC) so six months of the year - or more - this isn't all that feasible. And we have a lot of wind in our area. But still. If the stars align and we're desperate for a change (hello May and June!!) I'll definitely take advantage. Thanks for the reminder.

We have a week off. Again. I feel like we just started - probably cause we did lol. But this was in the plan. All three older kids are away visiting family. I'm tweaking the schedule. Friday was such a disaster and I'm not sure why. It could be that I'm asking too much of them. It could be that after a long free summer, they're in shock. It could be some character issues. It could be some personality conflicts. It could have just been a bad day, cause the other three days went really well for the most part. It's probably all of the above. So I have this week to mull it over. I have our daily routine in post its on my desk, I'm rearranging, dropping, adding, seeing what might work. The hardest part is that I have four little bodies and only one me. So by moving one post it note in one kid's column, all three others in that time block may need to be changed. One kid prefers to break one-to-one work up, another likes to get it all done in one fell swoop, another has no concept of one-on-one lol. At least the first grader doesn't seem to care! Trying to balance all their active/restive and demanding/easy needs (plus food and water and chores!) is no easy feat! Right now (like seriously, this moment, cause I change my mind a lot), I think I'm going to give it another week and just see. If it also comes unravelled, I'll have a Plan B (and C and maybe even D) in my pocket.

Soror - We've done the first two levels of WWE. It was good, but the dictations seemed like too much of a jump in 3 and I thought Fable would be a nice change, slightly more creative. So people who have kids reading at a beginning grade 3 level aren't doing writing? I was sort of under the impression that this was a good time to start, and that it could be beneficial for their reading. With Fable (and it's only been 1 week lol) I read aloud the fable, then we read it aloud together. Same the next day, then they read it alone on the third. So I look at it as fluency practice as well. I guess we could drop writing . . . that wasn't really on my radar at all. The two foreign languages. . . well, I reluctantly admit, you all might have a point. I love having them as part of our day. Dh and I speak French well (not really bilingual household though) and it's important our kids learn it since Canada has it as an official language. But maybe it's worth putting off another year. Latin is something I enjoy immensely and I'm eager to share it with my kids. But that doesn't mean I have to do it this year, I suppose. As for ETC, yes, probably that could be dropped. I started the series with them before there was really any kind of sign of reading challenges and just sort of kept plugging away at it. Now I have them do it independently for some review but it's not necessary as some things. FLL too. Honestly, the third level (so far) has been redundant and kind of boring. If we took a break, this would be easy to pick back up. Although I love the poetry memorization. I suppose I could manage to find a few neat poems on my own lol Haha. I feel like I'm over here spluttering, "But. . . but . . ." I'm listening. I'm not denying you guys could be right! Thank you for all your suggestions! I just may need a moment or two to recover :P ETA: Whitehawk, I'm sorry, I didn't comment on the combined Spelling. They're about 10 steps apart in AAS 2, with the fourth grader only JUST passing her brother at the end of last June. She's very proud of it. When you say combine them, do you mean each do their own level at the same time or each do the same thing at the same time? I'm never sure what people mean, I'm sorry if that's dumb. The idea (either way) has appeal and I'll mull that over.

Hmmm. To clarify, *I'm* busy from 7 till 4. They are not. At least not all at once. I estimate that my third and fourth graders are seriously working and concentrating for about 4 hours, broken up over the day. That includes roughly a half hour of independent work. The first grader is expected to be in the room during our writing and grammar, french and latin, but he was no written work, just participates orally while playing with unifix cubes. His serious, concentrated work is about an hour. With anotherhalf hour of read alouds added on for everyone over breakfast (Right now that means "How to Behave and Why", Burgess Birds and "What the World Eats") I don't know that that is wildly innappropriate, I was mostly wondering if other homeschooling parents are actively teaching for that long during their day? If not, how?

I have three school aged kids (and a toddler demanding "math" all the time ;) ). All of them read at about late grade two, early grade three. The older two are not very confident reading independently and I don't expect the younger to work on his own. He's able, but appropriately (for his age) distractable. I combine everything except math, reading instruction, spelling or printing, and 10-15 minutes of a child reading out loud to me. I'm busy teaching from 700 (breakfast read alouds) to 400. Although, I guess, upon reflection, there are two one-hour breaks and one 15 minute break (for me, the kids get a bit more down time while I'm working one-on-one with someone in the afternoons). Five days a week. The youngest has some requirements during our group lessons, but generally has more free time. The two days we don't have school (Thursdays and Saturdays) they have things like swimming lessons and archery and we do our errands and grocery shopping. Does that seem right for these ages and stages? I guess I'm tring to decide if I should pare down our day. I LOVE the idea of lots of time for passions and play and daydreaming for the kids. heck for me too lol! I feel like our day (and week) is too packed for them to really get into anything - even with the hour of "quiet time" I'm determined to carve into their day. An hour doesn't seem like enough to really get into something but it's the best we can do. I just don't know what to pare down given that the two oldest have to work REALLY hard to make progress in reading (the oldest is getting tested for LDs). I feel like I need to get them writing. Math is a given. And everything else we do, we enjoy so much! I've read somewhere that these were the years that took the most time for homeschooling moms . . . I'm not entirely unhappy with our days, just unsure. I suppose it will all shake out in the wash, given a bit more time. We'll either flourish or wither. Any thoughts?

Brother. So we tried the modified schedule with dd8(nearly9) and it started okay. 15 minutes of spelling first thing, followed by chores and group work (writing, grammar, read aloud and latin), then another break. Then we started what would have been our 45 minute block to do math. We got 2 1/2 problems done. Not because she didn't understand them. I mean, we started figuring out how many hours there were in 115 minutes. It's tricky. She said two. I asked her how she figured it out and it went down hill from there - lots of whining and complaining about how she didn't know, but getting mad at me when I tried to help. I was feeling frustrated, and so was she so I gave her two review problems I thought she could do and told her I needed a few minutes to collect my wits and we try again later, then left the room. When I come back there hadn't been a lot of progress. Attempted again to guide her through it after she did some more whining. No dice, really. Ended up sending her to her room to have a nap (cause she was "so tired" she couldn't get off the floor) and did grade 1 with younger ds. Now she's mad cause I told her we'd work on the math during the first grader's regular school time. Blah. Nine year olds can be such a pain - this one more than some! Soooooooooo dramatic. I *get* why she's doing it, but she needs to learn a few new ways of expressing her emotions and stop feeling so sorry for herself all the time. Sometimes I wish I could send her to school. Her other parent, very anti homeschool and therefor adding a lot of pressure to the mix - would be happy. I know she wouldn't be this awful with a teacher. It's not that she can't do it, she just doesn't want to work for it. Even considering moving to something like Teaching Textbooks Anyhow, trying to brace myself with all my patience and tricks for this afternoon since we also have to do reading on top of math.

I recognize that from our brief forray into Phonics Pathways and I've since had Reading pathways recommended to me to increase fluency for dd but I haven't actually used it . . . I'm really just on here to say: BIG NEWS!!! FOUND THE MISSING iPAD MINI! Thank goodness! I was pretty sure it would turn up but I had nightmare visions of the 2 year old coming across it and wandering outside with it to be abandonned (and we're on our second day of steady rain). It was on a shelf in a cardboard box full of photos and papers near where ds6 was using it. I'm sure I looked there (similar to the kindle and couch cushion story upthread) but it was there. THANK GOODNESS!! We use the minis on and off all day for school (Ecoutez Parlez, Song School Latin, RAZkids, audiobooks, Meet the Orchestra, and then evening Screen Time (Netflix and Youtube) ). I'm instituting a new rule that no kid gets to eat until his or her iPad is on the rack on the dining room school table (they fit nicely in a table top vertical file holder). That means I would know exactly where they are at 1030, 1230, 230 and 600. We've been getting a little lazy with them, as was clearly demonstrated.

Do you mean Reading Pathways Critter? The sequel to Phonics Pathways? I also have a couple of reluctant and/or struggling readers. I was starting to freak out thinking it was something I was doing, but then when my younger ds was in kindergarten he practically taught himself to read and has no caught up to his 8 and nearly 9 yo siblings. My 8 yo I'm not as concerned with since he is technically just on grade level and is make steady progress each year. Similiarily, my nearly-9 yo is also making slow, steady progress each year, but she is a year behind-ish in grade level and there's just something wonky with her. We're waiting for a call from the pediatrician we were referred to by our family doc. I also bought her REWARDS Intermediate. We've only done one lesson but I think it's going to be a great fit. But for her, it wasn't phonics (she tested on grade level for phonics, but waaaay below for comprehension - for her it was all about fluency and accuracy in full sentences that was messing with her ability to understand what the heck is going on). But REWARDS is so far from free it's not even funny. Saving grace is that I think I'm going to use it with her younger brother just for kicks once she's done. And I have a few more little readers coming up so it may pay off in the long run. Right now, just trying to keep them interested in reading while they master the hard (for them) work of the english langauge. Not much point in being able to read if reading sucks, right? Lots of Dr Seuss Bright and Early readers, Jedi Academy graphic novels and anything remotely related to horses :P Joke books, Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield (mostly looking at pictures, but still trying) and they ADORE Mo Willems Gerald and Piggie books. And audio books and read alouds are BIG Fun for them :)

Town day for us :) No school - except dsd8, we'll do a page of math and a few pages of phonics in the library.

Critter, I have to admire his honesty. Way to go! He may be fuming, but I'm sure he knows it's fair. Too bad YOU don't get a complete break off though . . . Aurelia, I'm full admiration for the fact that you take your excercise so seriously. I was taking a walk every morning earlier this summer but I"ve had foot and back problems for more than a month so I've gotten out of the habit. I can *see* how important it is to do something every day. My Oma is 86 and still lives a pretty darn independent life (she goes for a walk every day) and my gramma passed away nearly two years ago after years of supported living (never went for a walk as long as I knew her). They were only a few years apart in age. I know those aren't the only factors, but I really do believe they make a big difference! So. Back to early morning walks, darn it. Onegirl, my kids are also at their best before noon. So am I. I kind of wish I had one night owl so I didn't have to try and get everyone's best work in before noon!! Which leads me to my next htought . . . I'm not sure that my current day is going to work best for dsd8. Right now, we do all of our group work before noon, Then I work one on one with the first grader while others do independent work (toddler has room time), followed by a lunch/play break. Then I work one on one with the second grader while the the other three nap or have quiet time. We all meet up again for snack and lounge/read in the living room for a bit. Then the two littlest play in the play room, third grader gets his own quiet time and I work with dsd8. We're doing fourth grade work (although she's definitely behind in reading) and often we aren't starting until 3 pm or even later if we're enjoying our books. The house begins to get busier and noisier around 330 and she's fairly easily distracted by noise (and has a hard time maintaining her thought processes) and I think she's worn out from her day in general. She's a gal that gives 100% to everything and it just might be too late. Granted this only day three but I suspect this isn't going to change. . . . I may need to break up what I thought would be "just over an hour" to two forty five minute sessions. We still haven't even cracked open her "fun reading" book (Ivy and Bean) and we're already a page or two behind in math (oh the HORRORS lol). Maybe I can squeeze one into the morning? Or maybe I can try my first grader in the afternoon instead (he always seems as fresh as a daisy lol) Need to think on this. She's going to visit her other parent in a few days for a week, so I have lots of time to ponder and tweak.

Phew! Another morning's work finished! I was positively surprised today when instead of a whole bunch of moaning and groaning regarding re-writing the tale of the Lion and the Mouse in W&R Fable, they were enthusiastic and excited! Of course, once DSD realized that meant she'd actually have to write down her actual ideas (she was copying the original word for word except for substituting her own characters, which I was fine iwth at that point) she began paraphrasing big time. In the end I wrote out the endings on both their stories, however, it was a very pleasant surprise. Tomorrow is town day but on Friday, we'll polish them up a teensy bit, then read them out loud. First week of writing went well! What a relief! (hopefully that's not premature) And no. No mini. Jeez louise. wracking my brains and trying not to clobber his trying to figure out where on earth he put it. He's my absent minded professor. but he's never lost anything so valuable before!

When I started the worries thread, once I saw how many worries we have collectively, I figured I should try and balance those worries with excitement. I just never got the chance - so glad you took the initiative soror! :) I'm excited for: DSD9: REWARDS Intermediate. We've only done two days worth but I think it's going to be a great fit for her. Really hoping it makes a difference. Having said that, we're waiting for a referral from our small town's pediatrician to go through so we can figure out what the next best thing to do is, with regards to her reading woes. DS8: Science and nature study I have planned for this year. We're doing RSO Chem 1 and it's got a ton of demonstrations and activities, which he adores. Plus he LOVES to be outside and LOVES to draw, so the Nature Connections modeled nature study should be right up his alley. DS6: I'm excited to see what the heck this kid comes up with next. He's already reading books both his older siblings balk at reading. I thought we would work through Mr. Putter and Tabby together but he blew through the first few chapters while I was helping a sibling. This was how I was as a first grader too and I'm so relieved that at least one of my kids is reading well. Maybe I'm not doing something wrong after all? DS2 1/2: No, I'm NOT doing formal academics with her lol! But she is a HUGE part of our school day so I wanted to through in that I'm excited about the fact that her room time is going way better than I imagined it would. I have a 5 big bins of toys (one for each day of the week) and I lay them out for her while they're all having a snack. She stayed in her room with no problems at all for 30 minutes the first day and 45 the second. Hope that keeps up! Me: I listened to Sarah Mackenzie's loop scheduling and block scheduling webinars and came away with the idea of doing only history for one week, then only science for another week in our one-hour block right before lunch. I've always gone back and forth history on Monday and Wednesday, Science on Tuesday and Friday for example. This way, I think, we'll be able to dig in a little more, focus a little more and the prep for the week will be a little easier. Also, I've started a loop schedule for morning time around the breakfast table. These are all extra little things I don't worry about "getting done". Things like Burgess Bird Book, What the World Eats, How to Behave and Why, and The Story of the Orchestra.

aw maize, being overbooked is no fun. Can your friend hold off on the violin lessons once you're done? Is there a comittee you can head that doesn't really get going until January? Can your chinese tutor come to your house? Can your olders listen to your youngers read - or can you get a subscription to RAZkids or similar for a while? And when you can, watch the movie Multiplicity (save it for later :P). I always wish I could photocopy myself, except the photocopy of a photocopy makes me laugh :)

May Day. We have lost an iPad mini. I'm not terrified at this point, but definitely concerned. ds6 had it at quiet time to listen to audio books. I saw it with him in the playroom. He came upstairs at 230 for a snack, then went outside to play. What happened to it at that point . . . I'm really not sure. Good news: We did all our "extra" reading (not reading lessons) except for dsd8. But she did a placement test and 1/2 a lesson in Rewards and I'm pleased so far. Everyone's been working really hard and it's been awesome (two days in lol!)!

critter, your poor family is really having a rough go. I'm sorry about chickie. What's the plan for the cats? Love that your son is as into weather as his great grandpa :) mama25 - well . . . science "experiment" may have been pushing it. Perhaps I should have said "lab"? Really all they needed to do was find chemicals around the house - so looking at ingredient lists, naming favorite foods and drinks etc. The point was, chemicals are everywhere ;) They did enjoy it, though, stampeding all over the house looking (laundry room, bathrooms, garage, kitchen). I *know* they're gonna love it when we get into actual demonstrations where cool things happen. When I told them we were going to do science today, ds8 was like "Cool! Lets turn people into toads!" Huh? It's science! Not magic class lol! well. Most of the day is done. Got to our read aloud (yahoo). Just the two olders individual work to do as well as silent reading together (and it's not actually all that silent in our house. At this point, silence is just a theory!) They're outside playing, toddler is supposed to be napping (also theoretical in this house), I just finished lunch, gonna grab a cup of tea and read a chapter in my book before I call them back in.

Stephanie, sounds like a big jump indeed! If it's worth it, it's worth it :). And I wish we lived somewhere near a zoo. . . Not that living on a ranch is so bad, we've got our own menagerie that's for sure! Critter? How's chickie? We all got on swimmingly so far. Morning time, breakfast and chores complete (not in that order lol). Kids are playing outside while I have some coffee, then we'll get on to group time stuff. Today we try our first science experiment. Yikes! Really want to get to all the extra reading today. . .

Ermagad. I'm alive. Barely. School is hard work! Did well, for the first day. There's no easing in here, just full bore. Having said that, due to explanations and first time kinks and shenanigans, we didn't get to read-aloud during group time, nor silent reading for the lot of us in the afternoon, nor read-to-me for the two eldest during their LA time. Or afternoon tidy up, but dsd had her riding lesson at an odd time this week, so we had to do some scrambling. But every thing else got done! I'm happy about that. Even got outside for a bit to look at stuff with magnifying glasses, and ds drew a nifty pic of a grasshopper lol. But it was BUSY. Man, those 2 1/2 year olds. Some days you don't know whether to laugh or cry! Maybe both at once? I have most of her toys tucked into five bins and I plan on pulling them out, one for each day of the week. She occupied herself for 45 minutes in her room (with a baby gate up) while I did grade 1 with ds. It was wonderful. There's a toy lending library in town that lends out themed boxes so I'm planning on getting one of those each week as well. I let my younger ds pick between Little Bear and Mr. Putter & Tabby for his read-to-me thinking it would be something that would be right on his challenge level and he would need some help. I got distracted helping older two log in to RAZ kids for the first time and ended up missing it - he read the whole chapter all on his own lol. Maybe I'll look into Magic Tree House? My two older kids are not even reading magic tree house independently, so this is amazing to me! Okay. Off to go do something relaxing (NOT facebook lol). I attempted to get on this thread at lunch, but only got as far as the sign in page before I had to go :P ETA: Critter, I forgot. I'm so sorry to hear of your granfather :( I hope the chicky is just enjoying the extra love and is delaying her full recovery and I hope the kitties settle in quickly. Stay cool and take care of yourselves!

Morning critter :) I'm also not a drama kind of girl, *at all*, so I feel for ya. Hope things smooth out a bit and you can just ride the waves by the end of the week (dog paddling feels so awkward after a bit). You can do it! I'm watching! (that's me, trying to keep you accountable) I think today we'll try a lesson from Home Art Studio . . . at least, if the kids are interested. We start full on school tomorrow! Good bye summer :( I guess it's not as bad as that, considering we have a week off after this one (dsd is going to visit other parent) but it still means a big change for us all! I got All About Reading coil bound and 3 hole punched (student) in town yesterday, then got the pages filed last night. Nothing like a bit of last minute filing to start the school year.

Isn't that just the truth? Homeschooling worries in a nutshell, really.

I'm here! I've all of a sudden decided we need to stock up on snacks and frozen foods for the start of school. So instead of relaxing and basking in the sun before our abrupt start to school next week, I'm slaving away in the kitchen. Gad. So silly of me, I just know it, but it *should* pay off in the end. I've got all kinds of healthy (and healthy-ish) muffins, frozen "oatmeal pucks" with fancy toppings (nuts, pb, berries, cream, maple syrup etc), quinoa energy bars, pizza buns, enchiladas, frozen crockpot meals, pickles, breakfast sandwiches, jam, on the shelves and in the freezer. I picture just throwing snacks at the kids all day so I don't have stop and make something. Really interrupts with our flow. But they'll need play breaks, so I may be over doing it. . . still. Nice to have options! As far as the CLE debate goes I like MM for some kids and CLE for others. . . MM is better for conceptual work, but CLE is fantastic for a mostly-independent program (even for young kids - like grade 2+) for those that need a more spiral-like approach. I think I have the best of both worlds in that I teach my oldest with MM so when a new concept comes up later in CLE with my second, I can introduce it the MM way. :) Oh! And Ds's reading program FINALLY ARRIVED. Will get it hole-punched (student pages) and coil bound (my pages) on Saturday. I'll file his pages on Sunday. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute!

Wow, busy thread for a Monday! We're still not starting until next week - and even that's a week earlier than the province's public schools. You know, I love that we don't have to do back-to-school-shopping. No "first day outfits" that need to be just right or indoor shoes that need to be as expensive as everyone else's. We just get to savour the last week of sunshine :) Having said that, we had the tiniest touch of frost two nights ago and it killed most of my sweet potatoes :( I baby those things in the house from mid-February and I'm still not sure they're going to produce anything. Southerners? If a sweet potato plant doesn't bloom, will there be potatoes? Or is that a separate function? It was chilly again last night, need to go check on the melons. . . There was so much news up thread, I know I'm going to miss a few things, but I'll take a stab at what stuck out the most! Critter, I need to google your CW Maxim because the image that flashes in my brain is the men's magazine lol. Also, do you enjoy The Artist's Way? It's been on my to-read list for months. Looking forward to it! I purchased the "no excuses art journaling book" and it got me doing something creative in a small way nearly every day, for which I am grateful :) Maize, that is a crazy Thursday! Hopefully that means you get most of your extra curriculars over and done with on one day! OneGirl - Happy Birthday to your dd! The teen years are both awesome and terrifying :D Soror - Writing is always on my mind lately. Havent' done much of it at all as my kids are still pretty young. Still, dd needs to write a standardized test this February, better get her able to write a few sentences :P (Luckily there are no requirements for certain results lol She's a smart enough kid, we've just been focusing on reading until now) Aurelia, some of my kids adore hand me downs too. Easily content is lovely :) MeaganS enjoy preschool! It has always amazed me what my youngers knew already - osmosis is such a great thing! mama25, keep your chin up! This is *not* an indication of the year!

Wow! Green with envy - what a fantastic idea :)

lol mama, i *always* have to go back and edit. For whatever reason, I simply cannot pick out errors until I've hit "post". As soon as the message flashes up on the screen, all those errors are absolutely glaring! Soror, dreading the day my kids get all grumping on me! The drama we've got is more than enough already lol. Busy morning here, been awhile since we had a full house + spares (in-laws :P )! Ds and I sat down and did a bit of math together. We're about 1/2 way through grade two in CLE and he still hasn't got a few of the less-than-ten facts mastered. We're both tired of them!! But I got a walk-on number line from a dear friend who's deceased wife used to teach primary grades and he loved it! Usually he complains when he has to do those flash cards but this time he was begging to do more lol. Wonder if the whole-body movement will help? I listened to the whole-body learning seminar through the WTM conference and I thought it had a lot of really great ideas for my fidgety kids. I'm inspired enough to use them after our extended break - I definitely wasn't last June although they were sorely needed! Well, older kids are fishing at the river with their grandparents, baby is *supposed* to be napping so I have the house to myself! Just wish I could figure out what to eat! I've been picking at this and that since I woke up and nothing is hitting the spot. Maybe another cup of coffee . . . Have a great day!