I know several INTP homeschool moms and they are all using Ambleside Online. :) In fact, the group of ladies who wrote it are predominantly INTPs - exhaustive research, not the most organized website. :)

There are certainly differences based on the number and ages of kids, too, or the number of other things going on. Even for me, I find myself outsourcing more or starting with someone else's plan more than I would normally as I add more students. "Who is this telling me what to do" is how I feel every time I look at my plans. :)

Just like everyone should. :)

Awesome! Thanks for that feedback, okbud. The INFJs I know are not ones that make up their own plan, so perhaps I let my experience with individuals color my generalization about the type. I will be looking back over my books and editing that section. I wonder if the self-doubt I have seen (I've talked several INFJs through homeschool choices) is because they have multiple children and want to do what's absolutely best for each one and feels pulled in multiple directions. INFJs hate conflict though; refuting people on the internet is more an INTJ thing to do. ;)

Any other Myers-Briggs nerds here? I know there are. :) I just posted a LONG post about the style of each Myers-Briggs type, along with their strengths and weaknesses. I think it helps so much to know your own type and to lose the guilt of not "measuring up" to the ideal of some other type. We can't be it all and do it all. If you play to your type you'll feel more energized, less guilty, and less angsty. Pair that with knowing your kids' types suddenly you have mind-blowing clarity. :) More posts are going to follow, including the right book on classical education for your personality type. :D Because it's just too much fun to pour over my books and condense it all into a system - I am an INTJ. This is what I do for fun. :) http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2016/homeschool-personality Does it ring true for your type? How do you express your own personality in your homeschool?

Aww, thank you for the references! I do have a short free guide on how to start small with a Circle Time habit. I think it's a great way to kick off the day together. It's hard to be grumpy with each other when singing. :) http://www.simplyconvivial.com/memory

No school room here: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/homeschooling-without-school-room-shelves

1. More coffee, yes. 2. Take a break week, every year. www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/year-round-homeschooling 3. Laugh. http://www.scholesisters.com/ss1/ and http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2016/homeschool-sanity

I teach grammar and writing without a curriculum. I wrote about how I do writing here http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2016/teach-writing-without-curriculum and I have a grammar post coming up. :) For science and history I don't use a curriculum, either. We just read good books (I'm fond of the M.B. Synge titles and Apologia Explore Creation series) and narrate. :) Even though Apologia is a curriculum, we treat it like a normal book. I don't do the notebooking, we don't do the activities, we just read and narrate. The kids color a related Dover Coloring Book page while I read.

Any recommendations? We'll be reading The Tempest after we're done with Julius Caesar (here's the plan I'm using: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2016/shakespeare-kids-julius-caesar)and I haven't yet seen a movie version of The Tempest that sounds like it will be appropriate, but I haven't previewed anything yet - I'm just going on reviews. Does anyone have first-hand knowledge of The Tempest movies? I'd appreciate recommendations! I'm in the "Shakespeare was meant to be seen" camp, so I think seeing it performed should come before reading the text (we read a children's adaption first). Thanks!

I love the Pathway Readers. We used TATRAS phonics, which teaches most words as phonetic and not sight words. We started with Bob Books set 1, sounding out even the "sight words" and then did Pathway Readers and my kids were able to sound out the words in First Steps. I just tell them, "ai says eh in this word" to get them through words like said.

Outsource it without guilt. :)

I think there is a "natural bent" aspect to it, as you stated in your first post, but I have noticed a strong correlation between the two. I don't know if we can manufacture or guarantee varied interests or avid reading (though I've also see a strong correlation with screen time, too), but I think writing expectations should follow the language bent we see overall - and I think we can address the bigger picture then and not just the mechanics of writing. Finding ways to broaden interests or encourage reading (or maybe even story analysis of movies) will indirectly but certainly help with writing ability down the road. They're linked and related, even when the topics they're writing about aren't. I'm also big into Myers-Briggs personality typing, and I think there are some personality types definitely wired more toward the doing and present-moment living than the thinking and writing. Writing is much more about thinking skills than mechanics. If they're doers rather than idea people, writing is going to be much more difficult and may not come easily. That doesn't mean it's something to give up on (just like head-in-the-clouds idea people need social skills), but it's a natural tendency to acknowledge and work with rather than fight and ignore.

Before I started out, I had multiple homeschool moms who were nearing the end of their road say they wished they hadn't been curriculum hoppers. They wished they'd done their research before they jumped in and stuck things out through the hard times, because learning can be hard and sometimes you have to stick it out and pull through. Mostly they regretted jumping math curriculums so often. I think we should change if there's a real problem or need, but also be discerning in knowing whether jumping ship is the answer or just tweaking the routine or the expectations or whatever. The older the students get, the more changing things is difficult and costly. Not simply costly in monetary terms, but costly in the kids learning to expect that they can demand a change whenever something gets hard and they don't want to do it anymore.

When facts were slowing mine down, I gave them review single-digit fact sheets to do instead of their current lesson and required xtramath.org every day. Until they passed xtramath multiplication & division, they couldn't move on in their book. We posted their scores every day on our white board. It took two months, but then they started clipping along in their math again because the grunt work wasn't slowing them down. It was totally worth it!

My kids listen to Mystery, Melody, Mayhem - it's a new Christian kids' podcast: http://truthbeautygoodness.net/mayhem-podcast/

Checklists for my kids - http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/teach-kids-to-use-checklists Also, simple cleaning routines - http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2012/securing-a-reasonably-clean-house-an-introduction But the best thing for my sanity is taking a week off of school to catch up on errands/cleaning/projects every six weeks - http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/year-round-homeschooling

I was influenced by Brandy's article: http://afterthoughtsblog.net/2015/03/slow-reading-matters.html My oldest is a reader, so I'm not worried about him being exposed to a broad range of literature, but I am concerned about him breezing through everything he reads without really noticing what's going on. This year we're doing only The Odyssey and The Aeneid, one book per week, and I have him looking for 2 themes (eating/hospitality and piety) and we talk about what that tells us about the characters. We share our favorite part, too. But it's not deep literary analysis - I just want him to slow down and notice details on these ones. I don't expect this to be his only time reading these books, just his first - so I want him to be left with the impression that he'd enjoy reading it again and again.

We're reading one Lord's Day a week, looking up the references (sword drill!), and reading the corresponding chapter in Kevin DeYoung's book and the next time (we do it twice a week) in the Williamson study guide.

Having thoughts and ideas comes before being able to write, so I try to make sure I fill my kids up with read-alouds and audio books and beautiful memory work. I've taught writing classes to homeschool kids for a decade and the ones that couldn't get a cohesive paragraph onto paper after some coaching and demonstrating and practice were the ones who didn't read for pleasure and who were interested in very few areas (as long as we're talking ages 10+ - younger than that and it's probably a developmental leap they haven't made yet). Your kids are old enough to be writing, but might be burnt out on trying before they were ready or on approaches that didn't work for them. Maybe don't do any writing for the rest of the year and come back at it fresh next school year? I don't start teaching composition until 4th or 5th grade. Before that, they need lots of language exposure, idea exposure, oral narration, and interest cultivation. Then, in middle school, they can learn to write. I see no need to start before age 10 or 11. Here's how I teach writing without a curriculum: www.simplyconvivial.com/2016/teach-writing-without-curriculum

I use and love MUS, and I have average/bright children. I love how I can tailor the pace for what each child needs at the specific time. I'd use xtramath.org to get the basic facts down, then start with Beta.

I'm still thinking about it, but 7th grade this year is going really well, so it will be some variation of this year's plan, I think: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/seventh-grade-homeschool-plans - Eighth grade - Morning Time Math: see how far we get in MUS. He's in Algebra now, we'll see how far we get in 8th grade and I'll probably move on to something else in high school. History: AO's Birth of Britain history reading plan Science: combine reading Apologia textbooks with illustrating/drawing with written narrations + AO's science reading books Lit: Dante & Faerie Queene (discussion & writing with this) Bible: finish The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study & Heidelberg catechism study Latin: finish LFC Primer C, move into Henle Logic: a formal logic program with DVDs piano - Sixth Grade - Morning Time Math: MUS History: medieval cycle Science: undecided writing tied to history & science Lit: maybe Faerie Queene, too? Bible: finish Heidelberg Study Latin: Latin for Children B, moving into C piano

I'm in my 4th time through first grade with this plan: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/kindergarten-homeschool-plans

Loop scheduling is great if your schedule doesn't always happen consistently for whatever reason. It's sort of a way to make a plan for "do the next thing" rather than tie certain tasks to certain days or times. So, for example, I plan to do Morning Time 5 days a week, but it usually only happens 4 days a week, and which day we miss varies. So, instead of "making up" for the day we made or skipping whatever was on the plan, I can just pick up where we left off. I think it makes planning easier because I can just make a list instead of tying everything to a schedule. Pam Barnhill & Sarah Mackenzie did a really helpful free video workshop on how to set them up and what they do and don't work well for: http://amongstlovelythings.com/looping-webinar-signup/

We've been doing Scripture memory for 8 years now and I have kept a record of what we've added to our binders here: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/memory The page includes other memory work we've done, too, like poetry and mottos.