I read Joy of Cooking, just in bits and pieces topically rather than all the way through, as a kid and learned a lot from that. Cook's Illustrated would be a great magazine to subscribe to because they always have long articles that are fun to read about what they tried and what worked and what didn't and why. To help give my kids early independence in the kitchen, I put together a simple guideline type book for them. It has worked for us, so I now sell it on my site as Simplified Dinners for New Cooks. The free sample has my simple tools and skills list: http://www.simplifiedpantry.com/new-cooks

I'm sure the boardies here don't want to miss the Susan Wise Bauer interview on Pam Barnhill's Homeschool Snapshots podcast! The episode is called "It's Mostly About Parenting." http://edsnapshots.com/23/ I love SWB's straight talk and perspective - she's been doing this homeschool thing for a long time and seen a lot of changes in the homeschool scene. Pam is a great interviewer, too. Give it a listen and come back to share your favorite piece of wisdom Susan shared! It'd be fun to talk about it here.

Another factor to consider is the rhythm of your school year. I would totally go insane if I didn't take a break week every six weeks. I need an off week to recoup, to catch up on housework, to sort through the piles that accumulate so quickly - and the kids and I need a break from each other. They want time to work on their own stuff, too. Schooling six weeks on, one week off saves my sanity as much as simplifying the curriculum (morning time, math, and reading/audiobooks is my essential list that I think is more than adequate). I just wrote about our six weeks on and one week off pattern: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/year-round-homeschooling You've gotten some great simplification advice here already! Having the kids listen to an audiobook while I sort out the crazy going on in my own head is another survival strategy that's helped me a lot, too. :)

This is my rule of thumb, also, and I provide audiobooks, but not screen time. We do school with colds, but I'll get them tea with honey while they do their work and acknowledge it might take them longer and let them know that's ok. For older kids with colds that include a headache, I'll give them Tylenol and suggest they put off math until it kicks in.

For the most part, my kids simply read lots of books and I try to stay out of the way of their enjoyment of them. I don't want to turn their reading - that they thought was pleasurable - into "school." I provide scads of books, all good fiction and non-fiction, and make sure they always have at least one book going and plenty of time to read. Discussion and questions are spontaneous and organic rather than planned out. I hate comprehension questions and multiple choice quizzes. Do we use them for adult reading? If you had to fill out paperwork after reading a book, how would that change your relationship with the reading process? I don't think it would make you a better reader. You'd be looking for the answers while you read instead of immersing yourself in the book. My friend does a monthly book group with the elementary kids and they talk about setting and plot with questions inspired by Teaching the Classics, but she keeps it a very natural-feeling discussion. I don't think they need to analyze literature until high school. With my 7th grader now we have 2 books we are reading this year (The Odyssey and The Aeneid) very slowly. I gave him two themes to look for and once a week we discuss what happened in that week's assignment and where he saw the theme pop up (for The Odyssey, it's food/eating/hospitality). If I mention some literary term (I'm an English major, so sometimes I can't help myself), he gets it because his mind is full of stories he's read over the years. He now has a term for something he's experienced a lot already, but the experience should come before the terms, I think. Before analysis, love and familiarity. I was homeschooled also and only read books with no curriculum and very little interference, and we always aced the reading skills of standardized tests (as do my kids) without having to do any of that junk in school time. I don't think those sorts of activities help anyone actually read better. Reading helps you read better. I like how Brandy wrote on that premise: http://afterthoughtsblog.net/2015/11/curriculum-include-hard-books.html I was an English major - I learned all I needed to know about literary analysis in my entry level English classes and was not worse off because I hadn't learned it in elementary school.

My oldest two (now 12 & 10) are intuitive spellers, and I stopped any spelling program with them after first grade. Since then they have simply had to correct any spelling errors made in any work they do - writing, Latin, and even complaints written on their math pages. :) They use strong vocabulary and seem to have a strong visual memory, so the words they read, they pretty much know how to spell, and they read widely and well above grade level. They ace both vocabulary and spelling in their standardized testing. So, I think this works, at least for us. :)

Here are some of my lists: 5-10yo: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2014/best-homeschooling-audio-books 10+: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2014/top-10-audio-books-older-elementary-kids For Me: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2013/reading-time-cop-out-audio-books-in-the-life-of-a-mother Lists of classics I've found free/cheap on Audible: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2013/free-or-cheap-audible-audio-books

Morning Time (circle time, morning basket, etc.) has given us the biggest bang for our buck over the years. http://www.simplyconvivial.com/memory My own engagement and modeling and willingness to stick out a problem instead of letting it be ignored and passed over are also important elements, as is, of course, time - both my time and also their free time so they can process information on their terms and read widely independently.

You can't do all the things. Look at your homeschool and your kids. Comparisons kill our attitude and motivation. We don't do sports. We don't do field trips. We don't do art study. Honestly, we don't do that much reading aloud (but I count audio books). Composer study is only playing classical music during chores a couple times a week. Sometimes there are things we do (like playing a CD in the car) that we don't "count" because it isn't in school hours, but it counts as the environment our kids are growing up in. Vacations count as field trips and nature study. Lots of things that are just normal life "count" toward a full life and education. A year and a half ago we had a really difficult few months with one of my children. He was very resistant and everything was a fight. From that I learned how to interact with him better, he learned how to do something he didn't want to do, he learned that starting is the hardest part and if he gets over that hump, it's not as bad as he thought it was going to be.....basically, we all learned SO MUCH from that hard spot. The hard spot was a learning phase, not a problem itself. He would not be handling his schoolwork as well as he is this year and as independently, if we had not gone through those struggles. So, sometimes we're in a hard spot and we just need to hold onto that hope that the light at the end of the tunnel will come -- as a result of the dark tunnel.

Hey, I just wanted to share a free online workshop Brandy Vencel (of Afterthoughtsblog.net) and I are putting together for next Friday called Work Your Homeschool Plan. She recently wrote an awesome blog post called Do the Work of Homeschooling http://afterthoughtsblog.net/2015/08/homeschooling_do_the_work.html She's been homeschooling for 9 years and I have been for 8 (plus I was homeschooled all the way through) and we know how often the difficulty in difficult days is our own selves getting in the way, either by fighting the plan or by being worried about our plan not being right for whatever reason. Homeschooling is work, it does take effort, there will be bad days, but it's worth it and that doesn't mean it has to be miserable. So we're going to talk about that and there'll be a chat box where we'll take questions, too. If you're interested, you can find out more and sign up here: http://www.simplifiedorganization.com/homeschool-plan It's a little October shot in the arm. :)

Yes. This. This is science for elementary students in our family, too.

John Donne!

We use small lined dry-erase boards, so they can quickly correct their mistakes.

We school for 36 weeks, 5 days a week. I break up the year into six week terms and we take a break week in between each six week set. We take off 3 weeks (between term 3 & 4, halfway through) for Christmas and we take off 6ish weeks in May/June. We begin in July the week after the 4th. I'm sure you'll be able to get creative and come to a compromise agreement!

I don't worry about finishing skill-level work in a school year. We move through math, spelling, etc. at the rate they are learning and mastering, and that means we break when our break is planned and we pick up where we left off when we're back. This year my son began his 7th grade year with the 10th (out of 30) lesson in pre-algebra, my 10yo started with the 24th (out of 30) lesson in the 5th book (Epsilon - MUS) and then I quickly moved him back to lesson 12 because he'd totally forgotten how to work fractions. No big deal. We work where they are. That's the whole point. The 2nd grader began with the 19th lesson out of the 1st book and the 5yo started with the 17th lesson of the Kindergarten book - that's where they left off at the end of our year in May. Same with Latin. When our school year is over, we stop. When our school year begins again, we resume where we left off, with a week of review first. As far as finishing books, we usually do, with some squeezing in extra readings here or there if we have to. But I don't do tests or activities or program work for knowledge subjects. We read, we talk about it. Last year I looked at the book list I had left and the school weeks I had left and only read a few chapters out of the final history selection and skipped more than I would have skipped if we'd had another month. Doesn't matter. They'll be reading books for many more years to come and we had a solid year. Our handwriting is copywork, so we do it if it's a school day and we don't if it isn't and there's no such thing as "behind." Our writing is assigned and I give them (10+) hard deadlines to finish, but there's no book to finish before I say our year is over. I have deliberately chosen this approach so that I'm in charge of our calendar and not a curriculum or program. As long as we are working diligently when we can, making progress consistent with abilities and circumstances, then I'm happy. I'm teaching MY kids in MY home in MY circumstances, and the program can flex. We are accomplishing so much in the big picture that I don't care that it takes us 2 years to do the 1 year Latin program - we're really learning it and not just checking off workbook pages so we can wrap it up. My oldest was still in the 1st MUS book at the beginning of third grade. I was concerned he was hopelessly behind, but trusted Mr. Demme's philosophy. In 6th grade, he spent the last 6 weeks working pre-algebra (the 7th book). It's ok. We're working, we're not pushing ourselves when we're under stress (situational or physical), and we're making healthy progress all around. That's my 2-cents. When my kids were younger and I was pregnant and exhausted, I was worried I'd be inconsistent and my approach would be license to never do anything. But 7 years in, and I'm very pleased with where my kids are, with our work ethic (even though we don't finish 1 book per year and even though we don't track much of anything at all, and how this has worked out in real life. I was afraid of being a slacker, but we aren't, even if we take off several extra days per term and never "make them up."

FWIW, I don't do spelling or vocab and only diagramming once a week for grammar. We also don't do any reading comprehension or study guides or followup until 7th grade, and history/science/etc are only twice a week (not counting their own reading time) and I don't do any activities related to history/science/etc. In 7th we're doing a semester-length logic program on fallacies, but math (especially if they have to show their work) + Latin (especially translation) has clearly been a solid path to logical thinking. The core of our school day is Morning Time, math, and Latin, with the assumption that they're also reading books (because that's a safe assumption at our house).

My oldest just started 7th grade. Here are my thoughts when I was planning it (6th grade was mostly more of what we'd been doing): * Be able to write 1-3 coherent paragraphs about a reading assignment (factual or descriptive, without first or second person pronouns) * Keep track of assignments, papers, books, and supplies * Be given a bigger assignment to work on over the course of the week, break it into manageable chunks, and finish it by Friday * Finish LFC Primer C * Practice math facts to keep them speedy and accurate while progressing in math (he's in pre-algebra right now) * Learn to have a conversation about an interesting book * Read through the Bible and also know & be able to articulate basic doctrine * Be able to diagram sentences he's written or from books (not canned sentences from a grammar workbook, but ones met out in the "wild"). * Get enough sleep, social time, physical activity, and mental challenge to work through hormone & growth changes healthily He already has been through a history cycle, reads widely, has touched on all branches of science in his reading, and can write a 5 paragraph paper.

I know that fear intimately! Been there, still there, working really hard at making sure it doesn't happen. It helps to have a couple people who can tell you if your expectations are reasonable, and then to hold the line that the work be done. Be a brick wall to the arguing, tears, whatever. After they do the work, I point out, "Was that as bad as you thought it would be?" "Which took more time, doing the work or trying to get out of the work?" Myself and my oldest two definitely fall into that category of being lazy and not wanting to put out the effort. We're all growing out of it, slowly and surely. 10 was the hardest phase (so far) with my oldest, but I drew lines (check out the current thread "Another Loop Schedule Thread" for more about that) and I'm now starting to see fruit. My oldest is almost 12, and he is quite self-directed. I always check everything, daily, so he knows he's not going to slip shoddy work past me (that's what I did as a homeschooled kid - my mom never looked at my stuff, so I wasn't really trying).

Yes. This is what you do, over and over again, for years. By the time he's 12ish and you've been there, alongside him, insisting he do the work that's appropriate, you'll start to see it becoming internalized, slowly and still with setbacks. At least, that's where we are now. :)

Yes! I have made that same mistake before (telling the student there's a quitting time). What you have in your paragraph above is what I ended up doing and it did work after several weeks of tears and arguing and losing privileges and my having to hold the line through thick and thin. :) It was exhausting, but it finally clicked (seriously, I think it took 2-3 months) and now (a year later) this morning he started his work before breakfast so he could make sure to get the free time he wants. I'm glad my blog posts were helpful! Thanks! It helps me to have to put all my thoughts together coherently before I tackle the plan, too. :) The clubs for accountability is a great tactic! Yeah, I think independent work takes quite a bit of time to get used to - they have to make all the mistakes about time and task management and learn from them and that takes both time and consistency. The good news is that it's better to learn these lessons at his age now (how old is he?) than when he's 20! It's life skill practice. :) Having to go back and finish his work after school is "supposed to" be over will probably rattle him into figuring it out. My son went through a fighting it phase, then a despair phase about how unfair life is, and he did emerge from it so now I am only with him about 10% of his school work time. He's almost 12. SWB's audio talk on independent work was really helpful for me. So, our school day flow goes everyone all together for a Morning Time, then the older two start on their checklists, I work with the 7 & 5 yo together for 30-45 minutes, then they are done. The programs I've picked are conducive to very short, very concentrated work, so we do phonics (about 5 minutes), reading & narrating (about 15-20 minutes), spelling (about 10 minutes), and handwriting (about 2-3 minutes). Right now neither of them has been needing math help. I give them their page and they're able to do it. When I have to sit with them for their math (either helping or just being a presence to make sure it happens), that's another 10ish minutes - my 7yo is in MUS Alpha - just basic, simple addition and subtraction. After I'm done with them, my 10yo has had enough time to get some work done and I tell him it's time for his tutoring time. He shows me what he did and he gets to ask for help with whatever was giving him trouble. So, he's supposed to have tried to start his math and actually have a question for me rather than "I don't know what this means at all." If he doesn't know what it means at all, he can go watch the video again; that's one of the reasons I picked MUS in the first place. When I sit with him, I'll walk him past any bump in math, do 3-5 minutes handwriting, listen to a narration, and that's it. At some point soon after I pull him and my oldest to the table and we all work on Latin together. They're in different books and doing different things, but one is on either side of me so I can make sure they're on track and I'm available if they have questions. Then after that I check my oldest's work. We also have a discussion time and writing workshop time reserved weekly. Both my older two are natural visual spellers, so I don't do spelling with them. We don't have any learning disabilities or difficulties, which does change the scene significantly. During that time, my two year old is wandering around the house making messes. Or she's on my lap, interrupting. Or she's getting herself hurt and requiring attention. Such is life with a toddler. Snacks are a good tactic, but all the other toddler tricks I've seen and tried over the years seem to depend upon the personality of the toddler. My #3 was easy to occupy, my #4 was impossible, and now #5 I've just given up trying (but she's not as loud & energetic as my #4 was, so by comparison it seems fine). :) My #4 is 5 now and he's still the harder one to manage, but putting him in charge of playing with the 2yo works often enough to be useful. HTH

Ah, yes, pencils. I moved to mechanical pencils last year to rid my boys of that excuse. I get it. :) Yours sounds extra creative. :) I guess I'm just not picturing what you're trying to do during the loop time. Are you doing different things with different kids and that's how your attention is in different places and you're losing track of him for lengths of time? When we do our afternoon lesson time where I loop subjects, mine are doing the same thing and we're all together and I'm reading aloud or asking questions the whole time. If they're writing or filling out a map or something, I'm sitting there, supervising, watching. I'm being the teacher in the class - no phone, no email, no laundry. If someone gets up, I stop, look at them, get their explanation, and I wait for them to return ASAP because they're holding us up. It would drive me nuts if that's how the whole day was, but we do that for 2 hours twice a week and we get a lot done. When we did "math" all in the same chunk of time but each person doing different work and I was hopping from student to student THAT'S when my kids got distracted and dawdled and wasted time. When I changed it to one-on-one at-elbow attention time, it eliminated dawdle time - and that helps lend itself to intense, focused work, too, which is a lot more effective.

Maybe if you removed the loop information from his checklist and replaced it with "Lessons"? If you're hands-on teaching during the loop, then you're there to keep him on track, right? How can he be wandering aimlessly around the room? Maybe you need a "stay at the table" rule? I would probably institute some consequences for not paying attention and doing the work. For us, "no screen or friends if you x" has worked pretty well after a week or two of testing to make sure I mean it. I've used that for the morning things: If you play or read or wander aimlessly between breakfast & chores & pulling out your checklist, you lose screen & friend privileges for the day. I did the same thing for a phase with my son and "If you cry over having to do work, you need more sleep and will go to bed early rather than play computer." (He wasn't crying when he hit a difficulty, he was crying before he began simply about the hardship of having to do school at all). This worked pretty well for us - gave them a motivation for self-regulation. It does require I be tough enough to calmly hold a hard and unpopular line and not budge - but having a posted (I wrote it out on the board) consequence also helped me not lose my own cool.

I only loop items that take MY teaching time, not items on the kids' checklist.

My 11 year old is in pre-algebra; he got about 1/3 through Pre-Algebra in 6th grade. I plan to stick with it through 9th grade - I think we should get through Geometry at least by then. After that my preference will be outsourcing to the community college, but he'll need to complete Algebra 2 before he'd be ready for the test that allows high schoolers in. :) At his current rate through the books with a mastery approach, he'll probably be there. He's been doing at least 1 1/2 books a year for 2 years now, after taking 2 1/2 to get through Alpha & 1 1/2 to get through Beta. I'm glad I stuck with it and made him really practice those facts and not move on until he had mastered the foundations because when he was 10 it's like it all clicked and now he's trucking on through, and knowing his facts down cold makes learning the concepts later simple.

I have a post on how to keep track of looping with Evernote: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/evernote-for-loop-schedules