Thanks so much! I am sometimes amazed by what is available for homeschoolers today!

Hi. A friend in my homeschool group has asked me to help her come up with something for science for her youngest for next year. This year she planned to use ABeka 3rd grade and her daughter was not able to read it on her own (found it too technical and confusing), even though she was able to read the 3rd grade ABeka History and readers. So, not much got done. She is wondering about whether she should just try the book again next year or if there is a more interesting option available. She wants something her daughter can read independently, with some questions to answer and a few activities but nothing that needs to be done outdoors or that uses too many supplies/is too complicated. And - not boring! She does not anticipate having much time to spend with her daughter on Science (several children, husband works at home a lot and she helps him quite a bit) as she prioritizes working on LA (mostly ABeka) and Math (Math-u-see) with her daughter, which does take some time. Since I have not taught elementary science for several years,I thought that I would ask here. Any suggestions? tia eta - her daughter is going in to the 4th grade and has just turned 9

Me too!

We are taking next week and the week after completely off. Then I am planning about 6 weeks work through the end of July. All his friends take the summer off - they either are in school or using online classes that don't go over the summer - and I wanted to give him several hours daily to go to the park/mall/beach. Math - He will have 2 weeks left of Geometry at about an hour a day - he dragged his heels this year. Then he is doing a summer Algebra Bootcamp to prepare for an online Algebra 2 class. Looks like the lessons are very short so probably 2-3 hours per week. Biology - he is finishing DIVE bio this week but still has some labs left. So maybe 2 hours per week for 4 weeks? History/Literature - He will be reading ahead for next year. Probably about 3-4 hours per week. Spanish - I am making up some review sheets, so 15m a day for one. He would be fine with this amount - about 2 hours a day so far. BUT! Writing - This will be a lot, as I am making him take a Summer Bravewriter class. I am at my wits end - the email from BW compared it to Waterloo, lol - and I just do not care if he has to write instead of swim. I have no idea how long it will take him. Hopefully the pressure of knowing that as soon as he is done he can go do something fun will motivate him to write more and moan less. Then he will have 2 more weeks off in August. His Physics class begins mid-August and I am planning to have him start one more class at the same time - probably Spanish. So the last few weeks of the summer will have 1-2 hours per day. The way I see it, he will have 2 full week off in June and another 2 in August. And the rest of the summer he should only be doing 3-4 hours a day at most. That is not too bad.

Exactly. I probably average 3 hours per day and most of that is discussing their reading and writing. I am learning Spanish with my son, so that takes about 30-45m a day. Research and planning take up a lot of my free time in the Spring/Summer, but I would still have time to work...just not to watch TV/go online/read for pleasure.

Today I have two graduating! At 10:00 my 23yo is getting her BA in German Language and International business. At 5:00 my 25yo is getting her MA in Educational Psychology - though she says it should really be called Educational Research. I am already tired...and thankful that they are both graduating in the same city. ETA: My younger daughter graduated magna cum laude - woohoo!!!

I thought about another reason we are helping our children as much as we do. We live in a very high-rent area (we're in Brooklyn and they live in Queens now) and we would like them to stay in the area. We would hate to see them have to move far away from family because they couldn't afford to stay, as housing is more than income here...for the average person, that is. And family money? My husband and were both poor-ish as children and we are now solidly middle -class. Neither of us went to college and we are so happy that we have been able to help our children! We do hope that our children will all be in a better position than we are, just like we have done better than our parents did.

We would not co-sign, but we might help with a down-payment if we were able. Since we have four and the youngest is just 16, we are reluctant to give too much to any one child. While we are not exactly even-steven about money, we wouldn't want to help one child and then tell a younger one "sorry - no money left!", kwim? We currently help our two oldest daughters (25 and 23) by paying for their cell phones and Metrocards every month, as well as covering some of their groceries. It is a lot to give them...but the truth is that we pushed them to move out. We had always planned to let them stay home until they could support themselves. But having our three girls, the oldest and the youngest with moderate to severe sensory/anxiety issues, and two of them adults, sharing a bedroom was just more than the family could handle. When our oldest moved out about 2 years ago, the stress level in our home really dropped. When the next moved out last summer, the peace that descended upon our home was...well, there are really no words to describe the difference in our youngest, since she has had her own room. We live in a 3-br apartment, so it is not like we could just send someone to the basement or remodel a den or something. But, since we had originally intended to have them live at home till we all felt they were ready to move out, helping them financially works for us. We did help the oldest two with college tuition. They both went to school locally and lived home for all/most of college. We have a similar amount aside for the next two. Our oldest is engaged and my husband has offered her a certain amount towards the wedding - not enough to cover a big wedding, but he feels like helping them out. She has loans from grad school (we don't help with that) and her fiance is paying off law school loans. She knows that we intend to cut her off this year, as she is getting her masters in June, but we will probably do it gradually over the year. Our second is graduating from college in June and we are comfortable helping her for a few more years. She is a real worker and saver and would manage if we did not help her out (our oldest would starve...or, rather, be deeper in debt) but we do still feel responsible to help, even though she doesn't strictly need it. So she travels a lot and we are happy to contribute to her having a blast during college!

Thanks Derek!!! Yes. My son will be taking Alg 2 with Jann of http://myhomeschoolmathclass.com/index.html He will also be taking Physics with Jetta of http://www.clovercreekscience.com/ I am sure that once we start the classes I will be able to tell them apart :lol:

I planned fairly far ahead with my children and I actually used the high school plan I developed while my oldest were 2nd/K. But my plan was more like - 8th grade - finish grammar. 10th grade - add government as a 1-semester elective to wherever we are in the WTM. But few of the curriculum/programs/books I actually used were published when I was first planning. Analytical Grammar, Spectrum Chemistry, and SWB's History of the Ancient World were not things I could have chosen in advance but they worked very well for our family. So. I recommend that you get to know how your children learn and refine your homeschool philosophy while researching and reading reviews. Like someone upthread mentioned, the time we spend researching is very valuable!

ITA with everything Momto5inIN said!!

We are going to use Lials Alg 2 with Jetta's Myhomeschoolmathclass. My son really wanted to go back to Lial, which he used for Alg 1.

I want to second Notgrass America the Beautiful. I had my son use it for the 8th grade when we were having a lot of issues with one of our daughters and my mother was very ill. It worked very well for us.

Take a look at Bethlehem Books

My favorites right now are: Bigelow Constant Comment and Ginger Snappish Twinings Lady Grey Yogi Blueberry Slim Life Green Tea These are all easy to find in the supermarket. If you have some friends who drink tea, ask them to bring you a bag of their favorites. This way you can try a variety without buying a bunch that you may never drink.

When my daughter did a summer in Germany, she brought a set of four mugs with a lovely William Morris design from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Shop. I liked them so much that she bought a set for me that Christmas!

True. I have met people who are genuinely surprised that my Dad's physical disability did not stop him from working. And my aunt's alcoholism and....life choices, like having 8 children with many different men and then being dependent on the government, the church, and her family to care for them and her, were more debilitating than my Dad's artificial legs and crutches.

I don't know what I think about this. Part of me feels that a civilized society should look out for the poor and sick, especially children and the elderly. Realistically, not all families are willing or able to take care of their own. But I don't see how this sort of plan is sustainable in the long run. given human nature. ETA: This sort of plan meaning a minimum income, not a safety net.

Ravin, are you talking about a guaranteed minimum income or a stronger safety net so no one is starving in the street?

I have another thought about disability and being entitled. My Dad is a double-amputee (train accident when I was little). Except for when he was in the hospital for the first year, he has always worked. He spent 8 years getting a degree in accounting at night so he could have a better job. He has never felt entitled to anything...and was surprised when he qualified for Social Security disability because he had always been able to work. I am not saying that all disabled persons are able to work. But...my experience shows me that hard work, personal responsibility, frugality, etc. go a very long way.

I find this tricky. My husband is a cop. His contract entitles him to a certain salary and certain benefits. When he retires, he will be entitled to a certain pension. These things are all spelled out in the contract. He'll be retiring soon and we feel no shame in planning how we should manage his pension. When I was a kid, we were on food stamps for a few years. This is an "entitlement program" that made a difference in our lives. Eventually, my Dad got another job and we were no longer eligible. I am an urban minority - a Puerto Rican in Brooklyn. Most of my relatives work hard and only one branch of our family is on any kind of public assistance. These cousins, however, absolutely have an attitude that the government owes them everything they get - project apartments, food stamps, Medicaid, etc. And they also have the attitude that my Dad and his siblings should be willing to supply extras because my Dad is "lucky", at 78, to still have a part-time job and a pension and SS. This attitude, over the years, drove my mother CRAZY. Even when things were tight for us, my Dad would share our extra with his sister and her kids. I would say that my husband and my parents did not have a sense of entitlement. My aunt is old now and she has had a hard life and I feel for her. But her children and grandchildren are still bitter that "we" have more than "they" do. I think they do have a sense of entitlement.

This is not a four most important books to read in high school list, right? I have a few lined up for summer reading, but they are specific to us - where we are in history, his reading level and preferences, what he has read before, etc. Carrying the Fire (Collins), Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Huckleberry Finn, The Chosen

All of the programs you mentioned are strong. I think that you should consider these things - Do you want a detailed schedule? Will it keep you on track or frustrate you? How do you feel about being given many, many options and then choosing the best ones each week? Are you planning on reading everything aloud or are you looking for a lot of books that your children can read on their own? Do you want maps/worksheets/tests or would you prefer to focus on reading and discussion? Do you want to use the WTM 4 year history plan or do you want to focus more on American History? My favorite when my children were younger was SOTW, hands down. It wasn't yet published when my older children were little so I did use other things (mostly Veritas, but also Beautiful Feet and Greenleaf Press). When the first SOTW book was published I was all YESYESYES!!! and excited to use it! Over the years, I have had close friends using TOG, Sonlight, Winter Promise, My Father's World, and Mystery of History, I have spent a lot of time looking at those programs, but I always chose to stay with SOTW. I recently gave the following advice to a young woman in my homeschool group. You can substitute Sonlight etc. every time I mention Tapestry of Grace. Maybe it will help you! ************************************* Here are some specific reasons why I preferred SOTW to TOG. 1. Schedule. TOG is set up with weekly schedules and it is way more than I need. I also find it stressful to have a schedule that I know I will never keep - it would be week 13, day 3 and I know I would only be up to week 11, day 1 and I would feel behind. SOTW has 42 "lessons" and I could do 1-2 per week, get it done by the end of the year, and never feel behind. I chose to add extra reading and writing and crafts to some lessons but not others so I could get more or less done based on what was going on in lives and how interesting we found the topics. Of course, I could have done the same with TOG, but it seemed like I would be spending way too much $$ on a schedule I would not really use. 2. Book selections - TOG is very specific and SOTW is very general. TOG has discussion questions for lots of books while SOTW has discussion questions for the SOTW chapters and then a list of additional books. TOG offers more, but would I really use it? Year 2 of TOG has lots of fun books for the younger grades, but they don't use A Lion to Guard Us or George Washington's Breakfast. I really want my kids to read those, so I would have to modify the schedule and come up with my own discussion questions. I want more control over which books I use and I am fine with discussing them without a list of questions, so TOG is more than I need. TOG has a Christian perspective, which is valuable, but I haven't found that I really need it. When I first started homeschooling I read a lot on "Christian Worldview" and I guess I just informally apply that as we read and discuss. 3. Worksheets - I am not sure what TOG offers, but I found the worksheets, maps, and tests that SOTW offers to be just the right amount of written work for 4th-8th grades. I did not use tests in the younger grades as I thought the discussion/narration questions in the TM were plenty. We did use the coloring pages and many of the maps. 4. Textbook/spine - I prefer to use textbooks (I would classify SOTW as a textbook, just a really good one!) as the foundation of our history studies. Programs like TOG or Sonlight or My Father's World are too...unfocused for me. Bottom line - TOG wouldn't work for me because I like to choose my own books, set my own pace, and emphasize what I find important. SOTW is more flexible. I want to be in charge, not the curriculum. However, if I was given TOG for free I am sure that I would use parts of it as there are a lot of great books and ideas in the curriculum. ******************************************* I want to add that I rarely did the crafts in the SOTW guide because we were just too busy. It was easier to do other things not tied to History, but that was just our life.

Well. This is a conversation, not just a "here is my terrible story" vent. I am ashamed that I often think that my situation is worse than everyone else's and I get very "woe is me, nobody knows the troubles I've seen". I am working on being more aware that many, many terrible things happen in life and I do better when I focus less on myself. kwim?

Oh my. I should have read all the responses before I posted! Hugs to everyone who has suffered loss.