Too many? This year we're going from Ancients to the middle ages/early renaissance. Our plans are: Florence Pompeii Rome Duke's palace in Venice Ravenna (for Byzantine art) an amusement park (physics :lol:) olive oil factory Bolzano (for Otzi the ice man) And probably a few with our co-op, though not directly related to our studies.

It depends on where you live and time of year, I think. We've gotten expired passports renewed in 3 weeks, but have new passports take up to 8. You can expedite them for an extra fee.

Up until today I loved it. My kid sat down this morning to do his lessons and was met with "database error", saying that the database was outdated and could not run the program and to go to their website support for a fix. So I did. And downloaded the fix only to have it wipe the program off my system. Reinstalling it won't let me use any of the features because it's already been activated on here. It's a great program for immersion-style learning. However, the bugs in the software are making me want to scream.

I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but there's a set of picture books for older children called Born With a Bang, Life From Lava, and Mammals That Morph. They are amazingly well done when it comes to presenting the idea of evolution to youngsters, but because they're also written as long letters from the point of view of the universe, it leaves it open as to who/what started it in the beginning and who is guiding it along. Each book has, in the back, a book list for adults and one for children if you want to read further, a few discussion points, and other various odds and ends. The woman who wrote them, Jennifer Morgan, has a degree in theology but has also done much research in science. The only part I have trouble with is in the last book, Mammals That Morph, it dumbs down the ape/man link to almost incorrect. But that's the only issue I have. The rest is absolutely amazing with its pictures and simple telling of a complex subject.

I think some Americans don't take enough time to adapt themselves to their own country, let alone experience anyone else's. There are so many opportunities right in the U.S. that are falling away - culturally rich neighborhoods, an acceptance of different languages...the U.S. is a global melting pot and that is something that should be celebrated, not whitewashed. We've been very lucky to have raised The Kid as a global child. He's been to more than half the U.S. and lived in about a quarter of it, lived in 2 other countries and visited even more. While I marvel at the experiences we've been able to give him, I do not think it has made his character much different than his dad's or my own at that age, and we didn't leave our home states until we were adults. I look at the disadvantages, too, and I'm sometimes a bit sad that he has to give up one for the other: friends that grow up with you, large family celebrations, the ability to keep "stuff" without worrying about shipping weights.. So very true. The people I have met who have been miserable are the ones who didn't get out to explore the new area. They were always bored and wanting to go home, wherever home was. One of our favorite places to live was an island in the middle of the ocean. Before we went we were told how horrible it was and how lonely we'd be by people who had been there before. EVERYTHING was terrible according to them! But we loved it. :lol: We didn't stay on the postage stamp of American soil but got off into the community and learned what we could of the language. Here my son runs off and plays soccer with the local kids and is picking up bits of the language when it's useful for him. (Learning to order gelato? Yes. Learning to read museum signs? Nope!) Ultimately I'd like to take him farther from our community and sign up with a WWOOF program so that he's fully immersed for a while, but that may not happen until the baby is older.

This is like us, except it's 5pm here and we have the caveat of allowing educational shows on before that. We're watching an episode of Engineering An Empire tomorrow and I'm good with having the tv on in the middle of the afternoon for it. When we made the rule The Kid balked but now he's heard my pat answer so many times he's actually following it: "We want you to have the time to explore different interests and you can't do that if you're vegging out". TBH, the tv rarely comes on in the evening, either, now. It's the custom here to take a rest period in the afternoon so we follow suit most days and then build up our activity again in the early evening.

I absolutely ADORE the You Wouldn't Want To Be... series. They are some of the most engaging history books I've seen for youngsters. You also might like Egypt Revealed - it has plastic overlays to show different parts of the mummy, pyramids, etc. Pharoah's Boat - a story of the Nile and boatbuilding If you can find some of Jim Weiss' cds those would be wonderful for going in the car. I know he has one on Egyptian stories and one of Greek myths and I *think* one or two for Rome. He's an amazing storyteller that we still enjoy here.

Do they have to like math? No. But I do think it helps the student when a math program matches up to their needs. What about having them sit down with you and looking at demos/samples of different programs? Maybe if they feel they have a choice in it, they'll be more interested in the subject. FWIW, my son hated Saxon and told himself he was bad at math and that he hated the entire subject. Less than a year with Math U See and he was bright and beaming again. It turned out to be the curriculum he needed at that age.

It teaches grammar through context, not isolation. There's also no translation so there's no rules list given.

I love it! We always have to remember to turn down the heat when we have company over for dinner because it seems we've deadened our taste buds. :lol:

There are some old workbooks by Scott, Foresman and Company that we used to teach D'nealian. No teacher manuals, but they're pretty self explanatory with everything from how to sit to how to make the strokes. They're also non-consumable except for the exercise books. Awesome, awesome resource. I think we used the same ones in school when I was growing up.

I work a week ahead in my planner. On Sunday nights I take the week's worth of work and transfer it to my son's binders. The rest of the week is spent refilling mine, one subject a day.

We still use an exercise ball on occasion. In fact, that's the only seat in our quiet room. :) Playdoh was a bust here for quiet time, but a knitting spool was a hit during read alouds. It's mindless enough work to keep the brain focused.

We waited on high allergens, but went sort of haphazard with the rest. I did follow the 4 day rule - waiting that long between new foods - but we didn't do baby food or purees. Just table food that we were already eating. Dairy is high on my family's list of sensitivities so we started with the least likely forms to cause a problem, like yogurt and goat cheese, and then worked our way up to milk in foods. At 18 months he still doesn't like plain milk to drink and I don't push it. The rest of us drink mainly water, anyway.

No, level 2 is written as a checklist for the student, not the parent.

I go subject by subject, too, but I've found some things invaluable to us: -gel glue. It seems to work better for us than glue sticks or white glue. -good quality colored pencils, crayons, and pencil sharpeners. We use Crayola for play time; Lyra, Prismacolor, and Stockmar for school time. -sharp children's scissors. Not the blunt edged ones, but ones that will actually cut a piece of paper without frustrating them. -cheap scrapbooking and origami paper. For presentations it helps things to pop out. The rest depends on what we need for each subject but these go across the board.

That's the thing, though. It does get complicated. We're U.S. citizens living outside the U.S. Our common knowledge requirements (metric system, Celsius temps, languages, country neighbors) are different than what they would be growing up in middle America. Different needs, different exposures. I do think every American should -be able to have a working understanding of the constitution and functions of the government. They should know general background history of their country and immediate local area. They should look at the difference between a Mercator map and Peters map and have an idea of the relative sizes of countries. They should be able to write an essay and understand the limited use of chat speak. They should have a frame of reference for major historical events. Not necessarily know the dates, but about when things occurred. I can't get any more detailed than that, really. Different lives, different needs.

I'm not naturally organized. I end up picking one subject a day to plan out for the following week- I make all the copies, write down the goals for each day, and get any and all supplies together. We use a really cheap planner from Rainbow Resource that I pencil everything in so I can erase if necessary. I find that most curricula do come with some sort of guide and it takes us about a week or two to find our groove with the open ended ones, hence the penciling everything. I break it down into monthly goals that I mark in the teacher's guide and just use that as my weekly check-in.

It says Ancients level 1 is a teacher/parent guide already. :) I really wanted to try their R.E.A.L Science, but I just couldn't commit to a program that only had the first level available. I wish they had been quicker with coming out with an upper level. We went with Noeo instead and while I'm glad we did, the great stuff I heard about REAL Science made me wonder if we were missing out.

Homeschoolshare has a free one, too - http://www.homeschoolshare.com/chemistry.php

Your schedule will shift as you get a feel of what they can accomplish during those times. And when in doubt, KISS. Get rid of one or two extras to make room for better teaching/learning of the subjects you have left. It's better to go deeper than to skim across the top, kwim? Science is one area I struggle with, too. This year I stumbled on physics kits meant for the classroom and by golly, I'll pay the extra to have everything ready to go in one tub with the experiments on laminated cards he can write on. I'm like you, I don't want to waste my time on something he won't get much out of - we don't build a lot of paper projects or put together diagram models if he's not going to get more information out of it. When we touched on the solar system we grabbed a bunch of balls and fruit from the house and went out into the neighborhood. The sun sat in our front yard and we got up to two blocks away before putting Neptune down. THAT, he got something out of! And it was quick, we got exercise doing it, and it cemented the concept of planet size and distance in his head in a way that made sense to him.

Kid's hair = kid decides when and how it will be cut. A few reasons for this: 1. freedom of choice. 2. a bad decision isn't permanent. 3. Better to be stupid now than when he's an adult. I make offers or suggestions and he considers them, but ultimately makes the choice himself.

I agree wholeheartedly. Resisting the work at this age might indicate any number of things, one being that he's just not ready for it yet. I also think that putting off work until a child is ready maturity-wise can be better for academics and lead to less frustration in the long run. I look at preschool activities and toys that start "teaching" colors, numbers, and sounds before even age 1 now! Yet when a child is ready, there is such a difference in how quickly they get the concepts. We can "teach" them for 3 years what their colors are, or quickly go over them in 15 minutes when they have the life experience behind them to make the connection. Kindergarten is a time to explore social settings, concrete ideas, and their communities. There's no need to push the sit down work if they are not asking for it.

After a year of public school we're redoing 6th at home. Math: MUS Zeta Science: Noeo Physics II Reading: a list of books w/ various lit guides Language Arts: Classical Writing's Aesop & Homer for Older Students/Word Roots Grammar: Harvey's Grammar (goes with A&H) Spelling: Sequential Spelling History: HO Ancients level 2 Italian: Rosetta Stone + immersion We're still solidifying the co-op schedule for next year but he'll have his "extras" there.

QFT. I think it's a sad state of christianity when it is used to discriminate and exclude others. I highly doubt Jesus said love others if you must, but do it from a distance.