I don't tend to edit anything. The truth is that people and animals die, and we have rituals and ways of dealing with that. Our family has lost a lot of people and is in the process of losing more, so maybe my 3 grew up a little faster to that reality, but it did not bother them in the least to talk about burial rites or mummification. My ydd did ask me once if all of history revolved around people arguing and then going to war and killing people. "Pretty much. It reflects on us as humans that in all this time we still haven't figured out how to solve arguments without war." I then started talking to her about her and her sister sharing a room and the "wars" that come from that. It was a pretty amazing conversation to have with a 5 yo, and if I hadn't trusted her enough to not shield her from the reality of history I would have never known just how deeply she contemplates the things she hears and reads. I think you could edit it out, but would it be editing for her sake or for you not to have to deal with questions and what ifs regarding your DH? I would have to think about that long and hard in your shoes because as much as we want to protect them they need a space to ask questions and express their feelings. My oldest is very sensitive to just about everything, but I haven't found anything we couldn't sit and talk about for a few minutes and her be OK with. Most of the time she's worrying and turning it around in her mind and is relieved to express it. It took me a while to understand that she is extremely anxious internally and doesn't need protecting so much as a venue to express these things and get support.

Latin reinforces English grammar, but it doesn't teach enough. What little I knew of grammar before I started homeschooling is from my 2 years of high school Latin. Therefore, I really think English grammar instruction is necessary. We don't do formal vocabulary study here. We will next year with the oldest because we are going to do MCT, but in general we do dictionary work with words in lessons and independent readings that we don't know. Latin stems are important, but there is a lot of vocabulary that will be missed that is one's only method.

My DD is 7 and I feel that the way things are going she needs to know how to touch type more than write cursive. I will still teach it, but in a very relaxed manner. I don't think it is truly that important. I'd rather she be a proficient typist and able to get her thoughts down that way as the world is getting more and more centered around technology. I still see college students unable to touch type trying to type up 8-page research papers, and it is just painful to watch.

Believe it or not I do have a problem with it. If I were paying taxes for a voucher system where every child in the U.S. gets an equal amount of funding for educational purposes, I would not complain. However, my area ps spends $10,500 a student to stay just above being taken over. People routinely graduate functionally illiterate. There is kid on kid violence even in elementary school. I think it's time to face the fact that public schools in many places are complete failures. If they had to compete for tuition with other private schools and homeschool situations, they would either get better quickly or go broke. Right now our area ps is a giant free daycare center. Give me a voucher system and I won't use what I am not paying for. :) My homeschool budget is $2,500 for 3 kids. Oh the things we would do with 10.5k each…school trips to Europe, computers that aren't on their last legs, more projects and documentary films, more reading material, etc. I was at the school board meeting where they were discussing raising property taxes for the schools again, and when I stood up to ask about funding per student, it made me really mad that they were failing with that sort of budget, and I told them so. Thanks in large part to my story of my homeschooling and my budget along with our experience in ps, the measure was a failure as the room turned against them.

I didn't know I was going to homeschool from the beginning. We have public schools here that celebrate every year that they are not taken over due to failing standards by a large margin. They fail at educating my child, and I pay through property taxes for that school regardless and put in through my federal taxes as well. If I wanted my child to take part in extracurriculars, why should they be turned away? Most activities here have the parent pay for uniforms, hazard insurance, trips, etc. It's pretty much ps in name only aside from the building where the activity is held. Personally, I have no interest in this. There is a very negative attitude towards education in this area, and I would rather my children not pick up on it. My now 3yo son was really excited when he learned his letters, numbers, and colors from just watching us do homeschool that he was calling them out in a quiet voice in WM and he gets dirty looks and parents asking me why I push him so hard. I don't. The boy is just a sponge and picks up on everything around him. I am trying very hard to put off his formal learning and only do OPGTR with him because he saw me doing it with the girls and understood from conversations that it is used to learn to read. He came up to me, pointed to the binder, and asked to learn to read. He even said please. How could I say no? You'd think from their reaction I beat knowledge into him. Around here, fun is king and no one has any idea learning can be fun. I think it's tragic. :(

Just to give another view…he might like the background noise. I remember in high school I would do everything from Calculus to writing term papers on the living room floor because alone in my room was too quiet and my mind would wander. I concentrated best with the TV going, my siblings playing, and the phone ringing. I kept a 4.0 average and scored 31 on the ACT. Two hours alone in a quiet room to do academic work would drive me bonkers.

I don't think a 4-year college education can be the default much longer. My husband works in the oilfield in a position that doesn't require a degree of any sort. We will clear 6 figures for the first time this year. A few years ago he had decided he wanted to pursue a business degree in order to get into the managerial side of his industry. He completed his associates but stopped after that because his friends on the managerial side were topping out at less that 65k and worked nearly around the clock. At the time he was making that and had 6 months of the year off (not at the same time as he was on a 2 week rotation). Some of these people had Master's degrees and massive student loans. We have been told on quite a few occasions that DH doesn't deserve that pay as it isn't a job that requires education. He is a production operator in the oilfield and has worked in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently in North Dakota. His job requires a huge knowledge base, but it isn't something that translates easily into a 4-year degree. The most successful people in these positions have mechanical and computer skills and are strong in math and were trained hands on in the field in a very sink or swim manner. DH and I both come from lower income families. He scored a 20 on his ACT the same year I took it in 7th grade and got the same score. I am a SAHM dedicated to educating my children for the sake of them being educated and informed and able to think for themselves. Whether that leads to a prestigious job and lots of money or just a career they love that makes ends meet makes no difference to me. I want them to have a happy, successful life by whatever means they judge that by.

I have 3 kids. All of my kids are going to use the WTM stuff, so everything I've bought from Peace Hill Press is reusable. I don't have to worry about buying new consumables. I have a super cheap laser printer that prints on both sides of the page, so I am saving money running my kids through this way. It's not efficient for single child homes unless shipping costs are high or space is cramped, but it works very well for us. I simply don't have room to save all of these books for future use, and I don't have anyone to resell to in this area so PDFs are a lifesaver for me. I understand why PDFs are only a small discount from print because more than likely it will be used several times when if a print consumable is bought you have to come back every year or write answers on separate pages. I am having issues with MCT because their stuff is all dead tree books and I'd really like to have it on PDF. :( I'll deal, though.

It depends. For FLL, WWE, and SOTW I print the activity pages for each child at the beginning of the year and put them in their binder. We use a monochrome laser for this that prints on both sides to save on printing costs. When we used the R.E.A.L. Science and History Odyssey I printed those entire books because printing assignment pages would have been a pain. All teacher books, the actual story part of SOTW, etc., live on my iPad and I teach from that. I use the GoodReader app ($5?) and it remembers where I was the last time I accessed the file and so every morning there we are. It also backs up PDFs to iCloud so I'm covered in the case of hardware trouble. My husband likes to joke about my high-tech slate, but it frees us from the computer and saves printing costs.

Adobe has stopped developing Flash for all mobile environments. I'd hate to see someone buy a specific tablet for Flash in web browsers when it is being abandoned after 11.1 except for critical bug fixes. No new hardware will be Flash compatible, etc.

I use SOTW secularly and teach the Christian/Jewish parts as mythology/culture just like any other religion or civilization we studied. It's not a huge deal, and they really are presented as stories in a very secular manner as equals to the other reviewers. I only have experience with SOTW 1 so far. I tried History Odyssey last year but it didn't really fit us and offered SOTW as a spine, so this year we ended up going completely classical and just grabbed SOTW activity books since the girls liked the stories in SOTW before things got crazy and we gave up on HO.