It would be fun, hands on, self teaching, all inclusive, no busy work, several activity suggestions, complete with experiment kits that are actually interesting, and come with a detailed lesson plan, list of resources/books and spell out word for word what to do. I hate teaching science and it is supposed to be fun. I suck (for lack of better wording) at making it interesting because no one did that for me.

I keep a buttermilk culture, yogurt, and sourdough starter going. It's become a bit annoying trying to keep them separate because once my yogurt picked up something and became very snotty like from the sourdough LOL. I purchase a yogurt culture from either cultures for health .com or .....now I forgot the other place :o I have only had to replace it once, because I accidentally cooked it. I always scald first, which is about 180 degrees, then cool. I don't know if there is anything to this, but the couple times I have added dry milk powder I heard about the taste change. I don't think I mind it, but they said it was good but a little weird tasting. I started making 4-8 quarts at a time. My oven has a plug to keep the door ajar and dehydrate and I set it at 110 degrees. When it is done I strain it and keep the whey for making drinks. I usually save one or two quarts out for making smoothies/baking. I'm considering ending the life of my buttermilk because i have too many things going and drinkable yogurt is yum and just as good for baking applications as buttermilk. If you add half and half or cream to milk is will be thicker, but the only way to get stand up on the spoon yogurt is to strain. And tzatziki is a favorite around here made with thick yogurt!

I am trying to figure this out too.

I just looked this up after Beth in SW WA mentioned this in another post (thank you!) and I'd like an opinion for which level to start with. DD is 5.5 and she needs something more in her day as she gets bored and though we are still working on reading fluency of course, she LOVES to have school work. FFL just does not interest me. As for DS, we are reading MCT grammar Island and most the way done with it. I like the idea of using GWG for the "work" portion for now as we do well with more of a worksheet type. He is 2nd grade, and has a decent background with grammar and is an above grade level reader. Would level 3 be appropriate? I have looked at sample lessons and I am unsure how to place. We are also using WWE just for writing practice/help with summary/composition and it is working well, but we do need a little grammar practice. AT some point MCT might work for us as a full curriculum but for now I think we need some more direction and basic practice.

Wow I think this is perfect. This is the first I have actually googled GWG after hearing about it here a couple of times. We are using MCT as well, however we did not have a good curriculum for grammar in 1st grade and it was dull, boring and frankly we did not get much out of it. We love MCT but right now we need something a little more lesson oriented and instruction/practice too.

we switched over to SM after using MM which was just visually unappealing and somehow we were dreading math. We started in 2A even though we were quite a ways through MM, because there is some overlap and differences in when they teach what. I started going through some of it orally and just plan to somehow condense the rest of it. He gets this stuff really quick, but still doesn't want to do countless number of pages so if something is that easy we do it out loud, and some written. Today her rambled off to me like 3 pages worth, then I had him do one page. I would make sure she knows the material well but if you can get through it quicker it's not going to hurt. Oh BTW, we do not actually do the textbook, but just look it over. DS is JUST like his dad. A smart cookie and wants to do just enough to prove he knows it all LOL

I am trying to think of when it would be necessary to write word for word what someone is saying.....unless you are one of those people in courts...what are they called? I don't think DS would like me standing over his shoulder gently correcting. Writing has been a little slow for him and he is really making progress. We only started with WWE2 this year, we did not do the first book. He really feels proud when he thinks he has written it perfectly after only reading it to him one or two times and not again after he has begun. From the Patchwork passage, he did change the wording a little. He did not want me to repeat it, but rather do it on his own. FOr our purpose correcting would take away from the positive. I know it is supposed to be for getting thoughts from your head to the paper, but rephrasing slightly while still using proper puncuation, for ME is perfectly fine for now. Hopefully I am not ruining him for allowing this LOL.

That expedition Earth looks so nice. I have no desire to use faith based curriculum, and I wish this was minus that part because I would pick it up

We are starting this as well this week! I have not ready it yet either so I am excited!

I wish I had some advice for you, it sounds like you have a great thing going on here homeschooling. I have a new friend with an 8 year old DD and they found out last year has an auditory processing issue. I do not know as much about this , but math was apparently impossible for them. She took a break from it for several months and did nothing formal. Now at 8 they went back to using a combo of Right start and SM and is making progress.

I think the biggest difference is in level 2, YOU are assigned to read to the child, and level 3, the child reads. I have WWE for DS 7. WE are using MCT which i LOVE, but need the simplicity of WWE for writing as of now. I think we will probably be ready for WWE3 pretty soon though I wish I could look through it. Amazon allows you to view a few pages though maybe not enough to help. I can give you an outline of a lesson if you want out of my book or if you have specific ?? I can look through my copy to answer. DS has great reading/comprehension skills, but writing is a bit slow for him though getting much better. This is definitely not a challenge for him, but that' s kind of what I need right now.

music lessons or another language. DD is 5.5 and playing guitar and learning Polish

Ok thanks! We love MCT as it is a full grammar program, however the writing is still a little advanced and I like the lesson plans in WWE.

For some reason I thought WWE was the guide/workbook and FFL was the student version and not necessary. I realize now this is not the case. Does FFL teach more grammar? I'm confused and cannot purchase any more books unless I need them. We are using Island level MCT and I love it. It is slightly over our heads still as far as writing goes, but we just enjoy it anyways. I do like WWE2 for the short scripted lessons. DS definitely needs the narration/dictation practice and we find these lessons very easy to go through. So what exactly would I benefit from FFL? I dont' think I want another tedious worksheety type thing.

THis thread came at the right time. I know my kids both would like a microscope. They are 5.5 and 7. I am thinking of getting a very nice one that will take us through our schooling rather than a couple of cheaper ones just for playing around with. Do I need two? I'm trying to remember my bio days from school and how many were in a classroom. It seems we always did things in smaller groups with one microscope. I certainly cannot afford to buy two that are $2-300

Some when hiding?! DD LOVES this. She is 5.5 and just started to be able to translate this on paper in a math sentence. But she can play this backwards and forwards with any number through 15 it's pretty amazing! She works out of SM book 1 also and can now make that connection between the game with objects and numbers on paper.

This is SUCH a great point and something I have not been practicing properly. My sister's boyfriend speaks this way in his regular conversation and I love to hear him talk LOL!

I can give you an example of our week say, when we used week 1. We are using MCT grammar island series as well, but we need this for the structure and easy scripted lessons. IT is really helping DS get his thoughts on paper in clear sentences. So week 1, is the owl and grasshopper fable. The plan as written out says: Day 1-parent writes the narration day2 - child writes a dictation sentnce day 3 - child writes the same dictation sentence except parent says it out loud and child writes from memory. day 4 - read the next passage, help child summarize, parent writes his narration, then you pick one sentence for child to write as dictation. Here's is what we did: day 1 - I write narration and since he has no writing, we do day 2 and he writes that sentence. day 2 - we read that next passage about I the stork, talk about it and summarize, then I write it down. I would then either have him dictate the sentence from the day before as assigned, or one of the sentences we just talked about. OR, if you are doing dictation/summary somewhere else then you can skip for now. As time goes on he will be able to write more, but for now I like to keep it short and sweet. My DS tries his best but writing is slow for him still at 7, but WWE2 sure is helping. I sense it would get boring at some point doing kind of the same thing week to week but the lessons are so short for now it's going great. I use this same outline for other subjects however I DO like using this book as a guide and for short scripted lessons. I don't have to really think and be creative as it is written out for me :o

this made me laugh and I feel exactly the same!

I don't want to further derail this thread, as I know the OP is looking for options. However, I want to make it clear I did not tell anyone they are abusing their child. I think certain punishments weather physical or not can be very damaging in more ways than you may realize. There is a always another way. It takes alot of work, and I don't really need anyone justifying what they do to ME, but I have a hard time believing a loving parent doesn't feel something is wrong with some of the "consequences" that have been stated here and other threads about this subject. It can be very easy to misinterpret a post without any details. I only made an assumption based on the information given. If I felt like there was some kind of behavior that I could pin on anything, and didn't know how to deal with, I would seek a professional opinion. You really have nothing to lose getting a different perspective.

Maybe look into a couple different approaches. It seems he has more curvy lines than straight rigid for things lilke w, y, etc. I am really enjoying the Getty Dubay italic course. My kids 5 and 7 have books b and c respectively. My 7 year old DS struggles with writing. It is very slow and as if he is "drawing." I prefer it to HWOT which we did stick through for a while but it was not the style I prefer.

no i was not speaking of your post. i was responding to a poster than responded to me

Maybe I did a little, but for MY kids, 5 and 7 I dont' know what kind of effect that would have. I think my 7 year old would become paranoid about it. I may have taken your text in a more serious manner after reading some of the other punishing acts so I'm sorry, my mistake. ETA: you DID say you didn't give her breakfast. but then again this has to do with giving kids a little say in when they do something. I would JUMP at my kids waking up to read. Forget routine! Our morning routine is convenient for ME, because it helps the day run smoothly, but if they find something productive that interests them, i will help them figure out how to work it in. Help with something else? a quicker meal that doesn't leave crumbs and can snack on while reading? I just think bending a little sometimes can be of value. I don't know the exact scenario, just seems like helping a kid figure out how to do what needs to be done in a day is more beneficial than demanding when you do what. I'm not talking about just carrying on all day however they want, but I would see the desire to read as something I'd be willing to work around.

OH my. Demoralizing punishments, witholding food? Possibly these children would have a gentler time in a school. I am so just completely saddened by the harsh discipline talked about around here. It sometimes makes me feel ill and I think I would rather not visit this board and read any threads at all. FOr some reason I thought this board would be a bigger promoter of GENTLE PARENTING. I guess I thought HSers all fell in that category, I guess not :( I would really worry about scaring a child into fearing authoritative figures at this age. Sure when they are older they can understand the dark side of the law and what it is for but don't you think this poses a risk at this age? A child will end up afraid of school authority, police officers, anyone that can haul me and/or mommy away for not being good and doing "school." Oy. I should not be responding to this because it is offensive but I am such an advocate for gentle parenting and have such a hard time with this. I think there is some good gentle advice in this thread, and I'm sure the OP is grateful for some positive options.

DD is loving SM 1A. It has the same concepts as MM but frankly she wants NOTHING to do with the blank and boring repetition of MM. She needs the format of SM. Even though DS is not about counting butterflies etc, I wish I had known about SM when HE was in K/1st because it's just the lack of visual appeal at that age, for us at least.