New from the author of "Poop Happened", heard about it on NPR this morning: Bugged: How Insects Changed History

We take special vacation notebooks for recording thoughts, taping in ticket stubs and postcards, drawing sketches of things seen and unseen. Adults too. I don't make using them mandatory. Those, combined with park junior ranger programs and interesting museums, a travel budget for souvenirs, and just books to read and games and stuff, that's plenty educational enough for our vacation purposes. :)

I love my curls since I found Curly Girl! I have pretty long and intense curls. I pineapple every night. On days I wash, I add an alcohol free gel and a leave in conditioner upside down, and just air dry. On days I don't wash, I spray with lavender water, loosely finger-comb, and add more leave in conditioning cream. Works well for me.

For volume 1, DH and I were totally in the "wing it" camp. Read it through, find a few supplies and/or complimentary entries in science encyclopedia or YouTube, have a natural conversation and demo with the kids, find some ways to gently reinforce lessons as it came up in life. We are science types and this was not difficult for us. We are in volume 2 now and finding it requires a little more prep for us now, but not overwhelmingly so. We do complete a lot of additional interest-led science, but no worksheets or anything like that specifically to go with BFSU.

I thought of a few more: Built to Last Phineas Gage Blizzard! and The Great Fire by the same author Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales Toys! Amazing Stories Behind Great Inventions Girls Think of Everything The kids and I are currently reading The Griffin and the Dinosaur, which is another one of these books I'm listing that are kind of about where history and science intersect (my favorite!), and it's by my favorite children's author for that sort of thing, Marc Aronson. I won't list my adult favorites, there's too many and there would be a big overlap with Courtney's post above (great list!). Except that she didn't include Connections, The Poisoner's Handbook, or anything by Simon Winchester, Victoria Finlay, or Mary Roach. No list like that is complete without Mary Roach. ;)

Worth it for DS, who is a language sponge? Yes! Even the oft-maligned writing portion, which we don't do exactly as written (DS just doesn't care as much about ancient Roman leaders and suchlike as MCT might suggest) but the loose format is what he needs, and more structured writing programs turn him into a writing-hating kid. BTDT. This year he did portions of Island and is nearly done with all of Town. I think he just might be almost the exact kind of student MCT had in mind when he designed the program. We will take a break for a little time to let Town sink in, but he will be moving on to Voyage eventually. Worth it for DD, who is fine with language, but just not as language-y as her brother? Ehh, jury is still out. She did portions of Island this year and the grammar has stuck, but I'm not sure she wouldn't have gotten to this same point using a different thing, either. She was not enamored with the program, but didn't hate it, either. Not sure if she'll be ready for Town next year but we'll probably give it a try when she seems ready since I already have it.

Love these types of books! Story of Salt is great, both the child and adult versions. I'll be watching this thread! A few more that we like here (mixed formats and levels): Poop Happened Oh, Yikes! Sugar Changed the World Written in Bone The Amazing Potato A Street Through TIme and the sequels Plus there's of course the Horrible Histories, Around-the-House History, and You Wouldn't Want to Be... series.

Agreeing that some of the value for labs and projects, especially in the early years, is somewhat dependent on learning style. My kids are young still, but we have a science-rich home. I have one child that absorbs the written word like a sponge and generally finds projects busywork, and another that is more of a "do-er", who enjoys projects and I see how projects and hands-on materials cement and crystallize her learning. With the caveat that she in only enthusiastic about them if they interest her. :p For the reader, in some ways reading and discussion *is* his hands-on at this stage, since he inhabits what he's reading so fully. Which isn't to say that there isn't a benefit for the reader to occasionally do a project and for the more project-y one to practice reading skills, but just that the value of projects or labs may be different for different individuals. IME, most science labs down the line are actually largely about learning the skills of scientific disciplines (keeping records, how to accurately titrate a chemical, how to map the strike and dip of a rock face, how to operate a microscope) while reinforcing the concepts learned in classroom portion of the class and the textbook. IMO, in the K-8 years the skills that get kids ready for those types of skill learning experiences can be acquired many different ways. In a few years when it comes time for my kids to have more formal science classes and lab environments, I am sure they will do fine.

Mine are also 20 months apart. I used to combine them more than I do now, reading the same lit books and doing similar activities, just at different levels. It worked well for a few years. This year it's really become obvious that DS wants LA substance at a very drastically different level from DD, so they aren't combined much at all for our morning "table time" anymore, other than that some stuff looks superficially similar in format. They've never been combined in math, but DD is gaining on DS there so we'll see. I suspect that even if she catches up to him they will need different materials for math. For history and science content--I still have them largely combined, and it continues to work well. The way we do it is largely read-alouds, videos, experiences, and discussion, and they are close enough that it works.

I'm no longer using MBtP for our main "core" but I did combine my two kids for 5-7, 6-8, and portions of 7-9. We tweaked a lot and tried it a lot of different ways but in the end I found it much easier to bump up the discussion and some of the supplemental reading for the older one, than to run both levels together or try to simplify the higher level for the younger. So I voted for option #2. That said, both of them still often found the physical writing too hard or too much, so we did a lot of that orally, and I scribed for them a lot.

8, I don't disagree regarding the COVD recommendation, and I thank you for the clarification. And I should have pointed out that at no point have we suspected ASD for either of our kids, so I have no experience with that. My main point was just that evaluations are not always necessary, and that it is a highly individual thing.

My daughter did well with Reading Pathways.

From the other side, and what sometimes seems an unpopular stance around here: My son at that age also had some similar issues to what you are describing. The PS people had all kinds of crazy ideas about what was "wrong" with him, but that I knew were totally off. We have batted around ideas of getting different evaluations, but have thus far always come down on the "we don't need it yet" side of the fence, because many of the issues disappeared when he was removed from a PS environment and allowed to learn/operate in his own best way and at his pace. DH and I recognize most of DS's issues from our own childhoods, and as DS ages, we are definitely seeing him grow out of some things, and with maturity he is becoming much better able to handle certain situations that were formerly meltdown-inducing. For us, I think if he does have any ADD or other diagnose-able conditions, they are on the mild end of the range and with parental reading and research and support, they are for us nothing that needs outside intervention yet. DD also has some issues, the most significant being speech. She's been evaluated for just that and is recieving therapy, because that's something that needed an expert's help. Her other attention/possible 2E traits? Like her brother, this is something that DH and I see as mild in her case and not requiring outside help, because DH and I already feel like experts on this type of child. I think that on these boards there are a high concentration of people for whom evaluations have been essential. And that's fine and great for those families, and I hope no one will claim I am saying otherwise! But sometimes it is easy to forget when reading evaluation advice that a parent's instincts can be keen...if mommy-gut says get evaluations, get more evaluations. If mommy-gut says otherwise and wait, or pick and choose among the possible additional evaluations, or do some more research on your own before deciding, that very well might be the right choice too. IMO.

I get this one. And my boy and girl aren't even the same age. What the heck?

I usually don't answer these threads because....it is a lot probably compared to some. I don't keep an exact budget, but it is at least $300/month, not including extracurriculars and activities and other things they would still be doing if they were in public school. Every month I think I must finally have everything we need, but then things come up, books get finished, new interests need feeding, replacements are required, whatever. I am sure it could be done more cheaply but here we are, and it is ok for us. I don't actually feel bad about it. If we were spending beyond our means, or the materials weren't being used, then we would cut back, but as it is the kids are thriving and it is going well.

Me too. I work in the field I aimed for, answered ads and was originally hired in a traditional way. Worked into my current position by being in the right place at the right time, seeing opportunities and taking them. "Glamorous" probably isn't the word for it, though. DH, on the other hand, has educational background completely different from what he's doing now. His college programs were in the sciences, and now he builds boats. He lucked into this awesome job of 13+ years by becoming involved with me. My dad is big on hiring capable family members. Nepotism powers, activate! (Family joke. It is true that our relationship did get him in the door, but he wouldn't have stayed this long if he wasn't actually pretty good at it.)

I love mind mapping. Mindmeister is the program I am currently using, but there are many. For me and my non-linear brain it works great, I like to be able to see all the connections between our different subjects and materials. Some programs also let you put in due and completion dates, links, have capability to export to a spreadsheet, etc. I haven't ever met anyone else that uses mind mapping for homeschool planning but I love it. :)

We have this situation in our family. DH's parents speak German and heavily accented English. They are slightly sad that DH and I are yet to get our act together to teach German to the kids. They get it, though. My grandmother, however, holds a grudge that my father never taught my sister or me any of the *5* other languages she speaks. (Neglecting the fact she never taught my dad anything other than English either.) So much of a grudge that she has put a condition in her will that my kids only get money for college if they learn another living language to fluency. I suppose this is a good problem for my kids and I to have, but still. Priorities different from where I would put them.

Are you not in the USA? The four volumes do cover the whole country. I do have and like the Roadside Geology books for myself, but I think they are usually a little much for kids. Good reference, though!

OP, I like all the books you mention. An addition: the Cynthia Light Brown geology books in the "Build it Yourself" series have a book for each region of the US, the appropriate one for your area could be something to consider. I consider them a little light as a complete curriculum, but as an 8 week study that you'll supplement with other materials, they could work.

DS is in the middle of his very first bubble-type standardized test at home this week, grade-level ITBS/CogAT. I can already tell he's going to hit the ceiling for a lot of it, as expected, but it is also removing his anxiety about this kind of thing and turning it into a more fun "see, you got this" kind of experience, which I was hoping for. He's finding much of it pretty easy from a content standpoint, but the experience itself is enough of a challenge for him right now. I chose the at-grade level test because in addition to just getting used to the format, at this point and for a few reasons I do want to have some test results that compare directly with his age-mates at PS, and I'm not so much looking to have test results that show me where his weaker areas lie--I know that already from the homeschooling. I don't know what we'll do next year yet, we'll see how this test and the next year goes and re-evaluate at that point. DD isn't old enough to need testing or assessment per our state yet, so I'm milking that for all it's worth. ;)

IMO technical writing as a career can be a bit of a hard go because it often ends up short-term employment. Many companies that are using specific "technical writers" are using them for reasons that are not central to their purpose and they can shift those duties to other jobs within the company when times get tight, since technical writing is a skill that goes along with many educational backgrounds and job titles, and technical writing is not a large industry unto itself. What I do is very writing heavy and in my day-to-day duties I am basically a technical writer in many ways, however, there's so much research and interpretation involved that it's not something a "technical writer" can or should do. The companies I've worked for (engineering and earth science consulting) mostly hire people with engineering and science degrees that are also strong writers. These companies sometimes also employ one or two individuals with a specific Technical Writer job purpose/title to provide writing and editing support to the rest of the staff. My BIL was a technical writer for a few years, 10+ years back. From what I understand what he mostly did was rewrite instruction manuals.

We mostly wing it. I do use BFSU to feel like I'm not missing anything, but we are largely interest-led with science.

I have all three volumes in paper, and 2 and 3 also in ebook. I very rarely use the ebooks. The way I prefer use BFSU involves a lot of margin notes and flipping around from the flowchart and referring to different lessons and I can really only do that with the paper. I do like that I can keep it on my kindle just in case an impromptu physics lesson breaks out when we're out and about. It happens. :)

I have a refurbished Fire and a refurbished Kindle touch. They work perfectly. Also have a refurbished Samsung tablet purchased through Amazon and a couple other refurbished devices. No problems with any of them, though one or two came with a couple minor cosmetic scratches in the casing. Nothing worse than I put in them in the first day of use anyway, though. :D