I'm so tired and discouraged. I have literally been debating public school for the whole summer. But I cannot get my husband to "decide" either way. We are just both confused. He is concerned that I can't "handle" homeschooling right now. I want him to make an educated decision and pray about it with me, but he hasn't. It's literally last minute. Public school starts on Monday. I feel like public school is like sending my daughter to the wolves. Even though I am not totally against public schooling. Also my husband works evenings and would never see his kid, except Saturday AM and Sunday. I feel like I want my daughter with me and I don't know if this is just a shelfish desire or what. Tonight she told me that she wants to "try" public school. She likes lunch time, recess, making more friends and the fact that the teachers "make it fun". She says that she doesn't want to do homeschool because we fought about too many things last year. We did fight about math and writing and her general lack of ability to concentrate on ANYTHING. UGGG.... I was such a bad teacher last year. I never handled my frustration well and she always got upset because of it. That is why I wanted the planned curriculum and to be much more conscious about making things more fun and being better organized. I even went to a homeschool convention in May to get some encouragement. But has still been wishy washy about it all summer. It's like I dread it, but don't like the alternatives. I even have my parents living close now and they both are educators and want to help with the schooling at least once or twice a week. I feel like I don't want to give up after only one year, but If I make the wrong decision for Annabelle that all the consequences are on MY shoulders. And I really am worried about her. She seems depressed and wants more friends. We live in the country and have a very unformal homeschool group fairly close, but they don't have anyone real close to her age and they don't do a coop or regular activities. Everything else is SO far away. I have her signed up for one enrichment art class that meets every other week. We have a very small group of friends that have been very busy this summer with there own lives and vacaitons ects... and my kids have had very little interaction with other kids this summer. We just moved to the area about 9 months ago and its been hard for me and the kids. We moved 3000 miles from "home".

I do need to say I'm not have serious complications, so maybe I was a little dramatic. But I am constantly fatigued, have severe back/hip pain and I have an irritable uterus, so I can't really do much in the way of exercising or activity otherwise it sends me into contractions that are painful (not starting labor). The back pain is the worst and has me in bed a lot. I'm going to try yoga. The reason I wanted a teacher guide (MFW) is because I am so unorganized and unable to come up with ideas. Thank you for the encouragement and advice. Just what I need.

I don't have ours yet. I have been blaming it on finances, things have been tight for a few months and I have been holding off on buying anything. I think I also am just not sure about our homeschool decision. (we defaulted to it last year and this year I don't feel like there is a better option and than I shouldn't give it up after only one year). We had a tough first year with me winging it and just pulling stuff together on my own. I am very bad at planning. Not very organized and a perfectionist. My daughter is also a perfectionist and I would say she is highly distractable. So the thought of "trying" to start schooling again soon is daunting. We basically stopped doing school in May and have had a summer with mostly activities and her doing independent reading. She is ahead with reading, but behind in math and starting math again scares me. I have been planning on buying MFW adventures for 2nd grade. My little one is going to do a church preschool two days a week and I am pregnant with my 3rd and having complications, so I feel overwhelmed, and just haven't made the decision to dive in.

Thanks I think this might be just what I want to do.

I'm having them at 15 weeks.

drink a ton of water, take a stool softener (colace). and start to move a bit. I can't remember what happened with my c-section, but I know I was drugged up and I have trouble with my bowels anyway. Do an enema or a suppository sooner than later if you need to.

any other thoughts

I have a small set of the cuisinare rods. I can't figure out how to use them from the instructions they came with. I checked out Miquon math and I was so incredibly confused by it that I didn't buy it. I do have the HIG for singapore 1b. I didn't have it for 1a. We haven't done much with manipulatives because I just feel like I have no idea what to do. I know my anxiety and frustration about math has been transferred to her and I am so sad about that.

This was our first year of homeschooling. My daughter did kindergarten at an abeka private school. She did very well in all subjects, although her biggest problem was being distracted and taking a long time to get things done. For 1st grade I pieced together our curriculum. For the first 6 months we did Horizons 1 math. I liked it, she didn't like it much. It eventually became a fight/struggle to get her to do a daily math lesson. She always did a good job though and didn't have trouble understanding concepts. We also practiced memorizing addition facts. By the end of the first workbook, I promised her that we would change to a different curriculum (she wanted one that didn't have so much practice). I thought singapore would work. I bought 1b, it was too hard, so I got 1a. We started working through it and figuring out a new way of learning/doing math. Over the 1a workbook, which took several months. She seemed to have less and less confidence in her abilities to do math. She started fighting me about it more and more. She forgot all her math facts that we already memorized (addition only). We are at the end of the book and I asked her to finish the review at the end and we would be done with it. she agreed. She did the first page. She got to the subtraction problems on the second page and she flipped out. started growning, crying and freeking out. I tried to get her to talk to me with words and tell me what the problem is. I tried to help her and refresh her memory on how to do subtraction problems. (its been a couple weeks since we did math lessons, been travelling ect...) Finally she refused and I sent her to her room. This is a dramatic example of what it has been like all year. In her year end testing, she skipped many math problems all together. She got placed at about 1st grade half way through for math. Her reading is excellent and she placed at 2nd to 3rd grade. She never does anything quickly and now refused to do any math additional fact practice either orally or written drills. This is a subject that we have fought about so much, I see it as my fault since I have been anxious about it and have made her anxious as well. I feel like I cannot teach her any math at all now. I honestly feel like we are at the same place now when we started 1st grade. I am so discouraged and feel terrible that my daughter has so much anxiety about math and that she cannot talk to me about it. what do I do. PS we also tried Life of fred math, which she likes better, but she stills freaks about doing the practice problems. PPS this is a very capable child, that I feel is having obedience problems as well as some time of mental block about learning/doing math. HELP!

I received Sonlight cores a, b, c (a few years old, but think this is what they are called now) free from a friend. She used them for first, second and third grade for her girls. I think the core a would be fun for my younger daughter, who is 4, starting next year. My older daughter is 7 and will be second grade. For first grade we did a hodgepodge of stuff I put together, I was very unorganized and I want something more planned out for me for next year. My question is this: I had my heart set on used MFW adventures for her for next year. I like that is a US history study and that music, art and science are included. I already have an idea for math and LA. The sonlight cores b and c have so many great books, but its two years of world history as an overview. It feels like a lot of reading and not so much help with hands on stuff. Also I wonder if I could use them for grade 3-4? Just wondering what to do, because I feel like if I get MFW, that I will really like it and want to stay with it. I would like to keep the sonlight and use it eventually, but she asked me to keep the cores intact and give them to someone else if I wasn't going to use them. I feel like that means If I am not going to us them as our core curriculum, that I should give them to someone else. I could use the money savings, of course, but we could afford the MFW adventures package. What would you do?

could I ask what OM stands for?

no, I would consider moving my whole family though.

I need help with this too. My daughter is first grade. We did Horizons 1st grade, there first half. She was going crazy with all the drill and review and she asked to change, so I told her we could. BUT.... I got Singapore 1b and it's SO different. I don't have the teachers manual either and I am struggling. It has MUCH less practice than horizons and I almost wish we could go back to horizons BECAUSE my daughter doesn't have the basic addition facts memorized, much less the subtraction (we have practiced a lot with flash cards, but I don't know what games or other things to do). If I give her a drill worksheet she will sit there forever. She hates being under a timed drill. I tried a computer fact drill which is timed and she freaked out big time. She shuts down with timed things or trying to do things fast. She is very SLOW with all of her work. Its hard to go forward, when she doesn't have the facts memorized. Should I get the Singapore TM or do a different curriculum all together?

thanks for all your suggestions and encouragement. I needed it. I think MFW adventures will be great for us. I am excited.

This is my first year teaching my 1st grade daughter. She is 7 years old now and she had kinder in a private school. I am just pieced things together this year and it has been very stressful for both of us. Half of it is just off the cuff and unorganized. She is reading well and enjoys it. We did Horizon 1 for the first half, she has been hating it, so I switched to singapore 1b. Now I'm not sure what I'm doing since I don't have the teachers manual. Just the text and workbook. It is SO different than Horizon. We are working through ETC workbooks for phonics reinforcement. She doesn't like them (not fond of writing). We are almost done with workbook #3. For history we did the first half of the year reading about colonial american, and now was are doing ancient civilizations. Just reading through A childs history of the world and the usborn world history book. For science all we have done is read about whatever topic sounds interesting (library books) but we haven't done any experiences or hands on (I know she would like this). She is taking piano lessons. For art she does drawing with draw write now book. She does AWANA as well for bible study/memory. What would you recommend for 2nd grade? I would like something that is more planned out and has a teachers manual. I have been thinking about MFW Adventures. What do you think?