Sorry if I was unclear. I meant that you are covering the three Rs at home, but need cc to flush out "extra" subjects to ADD to your three Rs.

Well, I would consider James and the Giant Peach as including magic, because it was magic that caused the peach and the insects to grow... And I agree with others that Roald Dahls books are always a bit dark and scary. But I'm just going to guess based on what you've said that you'd find... Matilda a no, because she has magical powers. The Girrafe the Pelly and Me as fine, because while it includes talking animals you were fine with talking insects. The BFG as fine. Unless you are offended by Giants, of course. But you didn't mind Oompa Loompas, which I see as a similar near-human creature. The Witches and the Twits as no's. Because witches, and very mean people. The Fantastic Mr Fox as fine. Again, talking animals.

A base 10 set. Really...you could do without the rest.

I think CC can be an amazing resource for those that can afford it (it IS very expensive) and A. Need confidence, B. Need a community, and/or C. Need support flushing out their "3 Rs" home learning The communities in my area vary greatly in attitude, but most are tight knit, welcoming, and very supportive. For me, in part because I had to tutor to cover the expense, the work I had to put into it far exceeded the benefits. But I also have free options for homeschooling community, some areas do not. And I have the confidence to forge ahead alone. Ymmv.

My 7yo is extremely independent and works best alone. We have 30-45 minutes together each morning in which I go over any mistakes in the work done the day before, teach any new concepts (we rotate in a way that I only have one or two subjects per day with new stuff, so Monday is new spelling words, Tuesday new Latin material, ect), and explain the days checklist. Then he's released with the list of expectations for the day. Some of those things, like read this and then come to me for a narration/discussion, require me, but most are just finished then turned into me by 5pm. It works really well. If only DS6 was so easy. He won't be ready for that level of responsibility until he's a teen :)

I've used both. Singapore's big plus for me was the HIG. I am NOT mathy and Asian style math is NOT intuitive for me. When I took the trouble to spend an hour every weekend going over the next week's math lessons and doing all the manipulative work by myself our math lessons were 100% awesome. When I DIDNT have the time to go over the next weeks lesson and I tried to wing it, however, our lessons were an unorganized pitiful mess. I often did not have the time. MIF, on the other hand, was just plain DO-able. Everything was very clearly explained, right there in the text book, manipulative work and all. I could open it and go, no pre-planning or pre-studying, and our lessons were a steady 85% awesome. My son found it more enjoyable than PM, I did not find it less rigorous. I did miss certain aspects of the HIG, as represented in the loss of awesomeness ;), but the reality was that for better or worse I wasn't really benifiting from it because I didn't have the time to prestudy it! Basically, for me, it came down to reality > the ideal. Hope that helps at all.

Night, meet day, lol. It's hard for me to invision two more different math programs which makes it hard yo compare them in any meaningful way. I've used and enjoyed both. Singapore is a complete math program. Very mastery-based. It relies on taking concepts from physical models to abstract concepts. It comes with a textbook, a not necessary but highly suggested home educators guide, and a variety of workbooks they can be mixed and matched to fit your child's need. Life of Fred is a popular math supplement. I have very rarely heard it described as a complete math program by unschoolers, and I know people who use it as a jumping off point to create their own complete math program (adding extra practice, re-reading books, ect)... But it's a supplement. It relies on showing real-life applications with 4-6 practice questions per chapter.

I started homeschooling because my oldest son suffer from fairly severe social anxiety and sensory processing issues. It was obvious to me, to his dad, to his therapist, and to basically everyone that had ever met him that he would not thrive in a classroom setting. He is, on the other hand, an ideal homeschooler. I've continued to homeschool his brother(s) because...well, I fell in love with it. I'm a teacher at heart, and I love the family culture that being together all day provides. We have an excellent public Montessori school that I would reccomend to anyone. Maybe someday one of my younger kids will even attend it. But right now we are just having way too much fun.

This is one of those situations where I'm thankful that I suffer from a serious case of Resting Bitch Face. I'm the first in my family and a lot of my social circle to homeschool but I've NEVER had a comment like that. Then again, I've co slept and breastfed all my toddlers and no one said anything about THAT either. Scary face for the win. Im so sorry! I can't imagine.

My 7yo is getting very into comic books/graphic novels. He loves to tell me, "I hate reading for nothing." IE, he will read his assigned reading without much complain, and even enjoy it, but as soon as that timer dings he's done. :/. He will read a comic for HOURS, though. Hours. So...any not-terrible comic/graphic novel suggestions? I'd really love for him to move into enjoyment reading and I'm willing to lower standards a bit to get there ;) His reading is magic treehouse/droon series level. Very early chapter books. But he's willing to struggle for something he enjoys. The Black Belt Club comic he's reading right now says 3-6th grade on Scholastic...which seems high to me but what do I know?

I have index cards in a recipe box. We practice new work daily, then once it's memorized it goes behind the weekly tab, then when we have 7 things behind the weekly tab, I move the most solid one behind a monthly tab. I'll be honest, we haven't filled the monthly tab up yet :). It'll be soon and I'll probably just start doing two monthly reviews a day. We memorize a pretty unique mix of stuff- prayers and recitations specific to our faith, personal info like our address or birthdays, general knowledge like months or continents, poems we have enjoyed, skip counting and multiplication facts, the parts of speech, a dozen bones and a dozen muscles (we were studying anatomy at the time), identifying a dozen trees (botany), ect and so on. I want to start folding in history memory work this year as well.

We get Prismacolor Scholars off Amazon. I heard that the scholars were a bit heartier than the regular prismacolors I use myself. I haven't noticed a quality difference and they haven't broken a single one- we end up tossing them as nibs. And that's saying something as I've never seen a crayon live a week in this house :/

We've hopped around more than I like to admit. He did a year of Singapore 1, a year of Math in Focus 2, and now he'll be using Beast Academy starting in September.

I've switched back and forth extensively depending on our current family make-up (we are foster parents so it's very fluid). When my oldest was in Kinder I had a three yo, a one yo, and an infant. We did all our schooling between 1-3 while the others napped or had quite time. It worked just fine, I never noticed him less able to concentrate than he was in the mornings. Right now I like to finish early. My toddler does not nap, and he's extremely, extremely, cranky in that 3-5 zone. I have another that will be coming home at 3:30 after public school. We do about a half hour to an hour together after breakfast (8-9 ish). Then kid 1 gets an hour of one on one (9-10 ish), then kid 2 gets an hour of one on one (10-11 ish) then I'm dealing with the littles, scrambling to get housework done, making lunch ect while they play and we do another half hour to an hour together after eating (1-2 ish). Pros to the afternoon- napping littles, sleeping in, time to prep lessons day-of, time to run morning errands. Pros to morning- getting er done and out of the way, potentially fresher students, time to run afternoon errands. I really think it's unique to families. Some people are morning people in general, some aren't. Some are working around babies or toddlers or publicly educated siblings. Some have work schedules, co-op schedules, park groups to consider. Ect and so on. Try it out. It's the only way to know if it works.

Have you watched the educationunboxed videos? Highly, highly reccomended. It will give you the clearest idea of what cuisinare rods can do and how you use them. I think as a teacher, there's a learning curve. Miquon is just unlike anything else out there. As a student...my type A, perfectionist, linear thinker HATED Miquon. I mean, really hated every aspect of it. He's very much a physical/tactile learner so I thought it would be great. But here's the thing- he wants to be led a to b, therefor c. He likes the baby steps. Miquon doesn't Do that, it's more, "huh, a...and b....what do you think about that? Let's play with this." He also hated the aesthetic, he appreciates a full-color layout with cartoons and such. He found Miquon visually underwhelming. My creative, visual, chaotic thinker (really my only accurate discriptor) absolutely thrives on Miquon. He's a kid that laughed in delight when he realized 2+3=5 and 5-3=2 and then sat for an hour testing it on other facts. This is exactly what Miquon is going for. That making your own connections and puzzling things out. Hope that helped at all.

As for the minecraft question. I don't see minecraft as school, but I do see a somewhat educational angle. In much the same way as I see Legos or snap circuits as somewhat educationally angled- my sons have built both block Lego-style buildings and electric circuits in minecraft. They have designed farms, historically accurate castles, working elevators, roller coasters, lighting systems with switches for their houses, and laberynths complete with puzzles and boobytraps to challenge their dad with. Granted, they've also spent quite a bit of time fighting zombies and fishing and endlessly endlessly mining. Is it a better use of time than reading Peter Pan or climbing trees outside? No. Is it a better use of time than reading my little pony books (gag) or watching cartoons? Yes. I'm not going to let if replace lessons. I'm not going to push it hard and sign them up for a minecraft club. I'm not going to let them play for hours on end until they've lost interest in all other things. But I think it's a bit short sided to think Legos and snap circuits are going to create our next STEM generation and minecraft isn't.

I only plug things into my planner 4-6 weeks at a time. I can usually foresee that far ahead as far as pacing, days off, ect. And I tend to see things in weeks not days, so a sick day or a double day doesn't matter too much...until Friday that is, lol.

Screens in our house are open for business from 3-5, Monday-Friday, AS LONG AS you've completed your checklist. Checklists are a hodgepodge of things like: finish a math sheet we started together, practice the piano, read for a half hour, copy out some copywork, pull some weeds, Ect. I fill it in every day and it changes. The 7yo has 5 items, the 6yo has 3. Sometimes they make sure they have checklists complete well before 3, sometimes they go "oh man it's 3, better finish my checklist", and sometimes they neither finish their checklist nor get any screen time that day. The 3yo doesn't have a checklist but he also waits until 3 o clock to watch his beloved Daniel Tiger. "Screens" include the computer (aka minecraft machine), the TV (netflix and a wii), and an iPad. IMO screen time is screen time so an animal documentary doesn't get more leeway than Magic School Bus which doesn't get more than He-Man. The only exceptions are if I actually ASSIGNED said documentary. As in, we are actively studying this subject and will all be discussing it. Same with educational games. Unless I assigned it, it waits for screen time. Ive used Kahn and Dreambox but I have yet to ever assign Minecraft, much to my 7yos dismay. Sunday's are a screen free haven. Saturday's depend. If we are home they get the 3-5 without any checklist requirement, but often we are out of the house. We do occasionally have a family movie night.

I have three big threads I started in June- A. Listen to all of Shakespeare's major works on audio B. Brushing up my math skills via Kahn Academy C. Taking several courses on trauma/drug exposure and brain development (foster parents) I really hit a point this summer where I wanted to stop reading/learning ABOUT learning and just...learn. Ya know? So I'm on a "books/blogs/audios about homeschooling" break. In fact, my first visit to the hive this summer, hi everyone!

I'm dressed, every day, except shoes, I only wear shoes if I'm leaving. I brush my hair everyday, but I don't go all curling iron and hairspray. I wear mascara and lip stain every day, no more no less. I don't like to wear work-out clothes around the house because I work out in them. They are either sweaty-icky or need to be saved for the next time I'll get sweaty-icky. I don't like to wear pajamas around the house because I prefer girly slip style stuff and umm...the mailman might knock. Wearing a robe all day makes me feel like I must be ill, because that's what I do when I'm ill. Anyways, I like my clothes. They are comfortable.

That makes sense now. Yes, LOE is a great program but it's expensive, and what you are paying for is the loads (and loads) of practice and exercises. If you don't need the,, don't bother. RLTL or WRTR would be much more down your alley.

Not really, sorry. Can you elaborate? I don't think I've used any programs that hold your hand more than LOE. It gives you word for word prompts as to what you say to your child next and directions for each activity in the order that you do them (no thumbing through pages). I keep a bookmark on the lesson we are on and just open and go. Are you saying that your kids just don't need that much practice? If that's the case, good for them! RLTL might be a better option.

I have seen both, though only actively used LOE. They are very different programs, even if they are both OG. I highly recommend either, they are both easy to use an s will get your kid reading. to it just depends what you want. LOE is expensive, colorful, game based, and physically active, with lots of "bells and whistles" (game cards, game boards, physical games like hopscotch and catch and relay racing, flash cards, little books, workbook pages, ect and so on). It's ideal for resistant kids, very active kids, very young kids. RLTL is affordable, simple, and straight to the point. It's ideal for older kids that want to blow through the program at top speed, kids that are excited to learn to read and don't need all those bless and whistles, and busy mommas that don't want to play all those rounds of "go fish".

I'm with Farrar. Why would this even be a choice? Why would you ever have to commit to one or the other for an entire 6 or 7 years? Why wouldnt the obvious answer be to teach both of these hugely important subjects? My family plan has been to focus on geography for a year (basic continents and oceans, with lots of cultural context). Then start the history cycle, which as you admit overlaps quite a bit with geography. Then take another year "off" history to do another geography year (with govmt as well, most likely, I'm not actually there yet) and so on.

I use Audiobooks for ELTL selections. So it is completely independent of our read-aloud. This is my favorite answer to this problem :) Block scheduling would work though. I'm considering doing this in later grades, and filling the holes with writing projects. Or you could just read ahead. The quotes you use for the grammar and copywork would be "old" but plenty of programs use cold quotes pulled out of the air. It would personally bug me, but I'm OCD like that. YMMV.