You said this so well!! I consider myself a "lifetime learner" and I know what you mean about feeling gaps in your education thanks to ps. I'd love to read SWB's "grown up" ancient history book, but I'll probably just be picking up what I can from learning with Rebecca. I actually never liked history very much, but now I'm seeing that maybe I just never had the opportunity to learn it in an interesting way.

You're absolutely right - and I have no problem teaching the Bible, in fact I do intend to. This is a learning experience for me too - someone upthread suggested One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne, and I look forward to reading it for myself too! I really appreciate your point, and it's well-made. :) Thank you! Everyone has had such great ideas and suggestions in this thread. I am learning more every day, and it's great to see so much diversity. It's a pleasant surprise.

I've got one high on the bridge of my nose, right between my eyes. My mom says I had it when I was too young to know not to scratch, so I have a few scars left over.

My husband has one, but I don't. Guess you can tell who's older, huh?

Kelli, do we have an update on yesterday? I can't seem to find any news from today about it. I don't have a degree either, and this is really making me angry.

What is the difference between the textbooks and workbooks? Do you use both for level 1A/1B? I know I shouldn't be balking at $8 per book, but I did just make a $$$ mistake with Saxon. :banghead:

Terro is awesome - the traps are much better than the little drops. But it gets worse before it gets better. I can't believe I was actually considering getting an ant farm for science studies! :001_huh:

My girls love horses, so I'm trying to pull together a fun little 2-week horse study for science. I'm thinking of something in the same style as the Living Learning life science - I just bought the teacher & student pack from a member here, but I'm surprised that LL didn't include horses! So I'd love any suggestions for simple, fun horse crafts or activities. I'd also like to find a good coloring book or some printable sheets - I don't want anatomy, but I need more than a line drawing. Anything you all can recommend would be a great help!

I am so glad to hear this. I was just fretting over the same question the other day, so I feel a lot more comfortable with my decision too.

Fantastic! I was just trying to find some video resources for life science!

Hello there! She sounds a lot like my oldest DD too. Becca has that same determination to plug through something that seems "too hard." I started her out in Saxon 1, but we lasted only a few lessons before I figured out that the approach was too slow for her and just made her bored. I'm taking Cadam's recommendation of Singapore math too. I'm also going to check out Miquon - I've seen several people use it in tandem with Singapore. I know just how you feel, so maybe we can pick things up together along the way while we try to keep up with our DDs! I just try to keep it at a challenging enough level for her without pushing her too hard at this age. I'm loosely planning a first grade curriculum for her, but I know that it also doesn't matter if she wants to meander and go slowly or move faster. I'm declaring her a kindergartener, so there's no pressure and no problem if she doesn't "do" all of first grade by the end of the school year. For writing, I just have her do one or two sentence copywork, or even just writing answers in Spelling Workout. She's focusing on neatness and spacing but she just doesn't have the attention span to drag it out. I have started FLL with her, but watch out - Becca's mind is like a little steel trap and she had "The Caterpillar" memorized in a day! :001_huh: I'm thinking of getting out some Shel Silverstein's short silly poems for her to learn. BTW, Becca just turned 5 too. When is your daughter's birthday?

:iagree: I have never liked history very much and got a very mangled and truncated history education in school. I think I covered American History to Reconstruction four different times, but barely skimmed over WWII. I am looking forward to the fun way that SOTW has history set up - this is an education for me too. It is the first time I've ever been excited about history. I don't expect Becca to come out knowing tons of info about the ancients, but I hope she'll never forget mummifying that chicken!

I hope this isn't too far off, but I have to say that this is another reason I chose homeschooling. I haven't actually dealt with public schools either, but I know that there are a lot of projects and demands placed on after-school time as well. That can really crunch a family and make education unpleasant and intrusive. :confused: Anyway... I never wanted to be the parent who did their kids' projects for them. My parents weren't like that either, so as a kid, it was frustrating to come up against the parent-completed projects. Even though my girls are so young, I'm having to make myself allow them to do whatever they can on their own. And I have to fight myself back from correcting, straightening, tweaking, etc. If Becca can cut some pictures out, then she wants to, and I have to accept that, jagged edges and all! :001_smile:

Becca's real name is Rebecca. Somewhere along the way, in trying to keep up with a fast-moving little girl, we just started calling her Becca. She's really embodied that name and goes by it 99% of the time. She's used it at preschool almost exclusively, that's what she writes when she writes her name, and I don't think Sylvia has ever once called her Rebecca. She'll answer to Rebecca without blinking an eye, but hardly anyone really calls her that. Sylvia goes by Sylvie a lot - it doesn't change the number of letters I have to type, but it does cut one syllable out when I have to yell it on the playground. :001_smile: When asked her name, she usually says, "Sylvie," but adults always translate it to "Sophie." I'll probably have her stay closer to her given name though.

We bought Becca a Leapster for her fourth birthday, and just a few months later we bought Sylvia one. They are worth their weight in GOLD for me - it's amazing what the girls have learned from them and they provide a nice little sanity break for me. Also excellent for Dr. office visits; anytime you need them to truly be in one place and be (relatively) quiet. I do keep them up on a shelf so I can monitor the playing time - they do very well with it.

:iagree: I was just thinking the same thing!

Thank you for this!

I hope you get some good answers, because I'm already wondering almost the same thing! I don't know if I should "consume" pages in things like SOTW AG or not. Will Sylvia do the same thing? Will something better come out in another 2 years? So I can kind of relate. Hopefully some experienced HSers will help us out!

How much would you use ETC for a fairly fluent (but still young) reader? Becca can decode words up to a fourth grade level, which includes a lot of things that can't be sounded out. But I don't want to bypass things like consonant blends, diagraphs, etc if she really needs the instruction. She's just picked up on the reading at an amazing level and I don't know if she needs a certain level of actual instruction in it or if I should just do a spelling workbook and focus on reading books. :confused:

If you've had placenta previa before, you have a significantly higher risk of reoccurrence. Was yours just marginal, or do you know? I had complete placenta previa with my youngest. It never moved and I had a serious bleed at 32 weeks. Obviously it worked out in the end, but it was very scary. So I'd definitely say rest up as much as you can - and keep us updated! :001_smile:

I'll be your friend if you'll be mine! :) I basically have no IRL mommy friends, never mind homeschool IRL mommy friends!

My mom had mine pierced when I was 3 or so... I'm not sure what my dad thought at the time.

:glare: Surely this won't affect option #3, will it?

Well, Rebecca isn't highly/profoundly gifted, but she is accelerated and extremely intelligent. She's my first child, so all of this is new to me. There's no way she could go to kindergarten when she's surpassed almost every grade level guideline across the board already, and is a few grade levels ahead in language arts. So I've set up a WTM first grade curriculum for this school year. One great thing is that I have the freedom to let her go as fast or as slow as she wants. This is quite a learning process for me. I was advanced and accelerated in school, but how do I keep up with a five year old who keeps astounding me? :001_huh:

There's nothing wrong with enjoying a piece of something you've brought to a group meal! Especially when it's sweet. :D