thank you very much for your input, all of you. yes, I can see that my first post was tooooo much!! ha. my state is very positive for homeschoolers best I can tell, so that is a blessing. yes, its time to pray. thank you all for the time you put in your post!! it is appreciated greatly.

Hello I have three children - one in college at a major university on Navy ROTC scholarship who finished high school at a math/science boarding school cause our local school was too weak for his goals. One graduating senior who is almost done at local public school and headed to a private Christian university. she's valedictorian but i just figured out she doesn't even know how to do percents, ACT is 23. and then we have our baby.... 11 year old girl finishing fifth grade. I have dealt with this maddening local public school so long, I am at my wits end. I do not see any benefit at this school for my 5th grader. Standards are low, expectations are low, sports are king, teacher experience, worldview and education is pitiful. I'm just disgusted when I think of sacrificing another one of my children to their program. cause that's what i think i did with child #2. children #1 and #2 beg me to get this last one into something better. no private school options anywhere near here. I have a master's degree, I know what quality education is and how its needed to build up into a successful university experience and it isn't here. I found this forum back when this youngest child was a first grader and I realized she wasn't learning to read. Bought some afterschooling material, played around with some curriculum and got her back on track by afterschooling. But now, I'm considering homeschooling her the rest of the way through. I want to be permanently done with this public school!!! But here are my concerns and I welcome your input as you all have much more collective wisdom and experience than I do: 1. how to jump into the well trained mind sequence as a sixth grader this fall? 2. how to help her socialize? she is very social and we live in a very rural area on a ranch. and she'll be the only kid at home next year. only things to do around here are with public school functions. I'm talking 100 miles away before there are towns big enough to have activities for homeschoolers. BUT i am very willing to drive to stuff if I can find it. I work about 5 days a month as a consultant, so I have lots of time and flexibility. 3. how do i figure out how to document credits for junior high and high school? 4. how do I find leadership opportunities for her? what are some non-public school based leadership programs for kids? 5. how do I make a decision when it feels insurmountable and so scary?!! 6. how do I deal with the social rejection we are likely to feel? and help her deal with it? thank you for your time. please help.

thank you, this was most helpful :)

my ds is 17 and is in his junior year at a math and science boarding school that teaches with college textbooks. he is taking "pre-calc III" next semester which is essentially trigonometry, then he will take both Calc I and Calc II next year. he is not an extremely strong math student. I wondered if Life of Fred Trig and Calculus might help him "get" the whole jist of these math classes better - kind of reading on the side to help him understand the concepts better, if you will. he has been public schooled his whole life, so his only exposure to Life of fred is reading a chapter or two in the elementary books to his little 7 yo sister. please tell me your opinion, would these books be helpful or a waste of money?

you sound like me :) I am at a 12 minute mile. I started "shuffling" in June. not even sure it would count as jogging. I think I'm now going fast enough to call jogging? idk. the furthest I've gone is 4 miles. it takes me about 47 minutes. all outside, I don't have a treadmill. it is getting a little less fatiguing all the time. and I still have several pounds to lose, like maybe 15 or so. do you ever do any other type of exercise? are you running outside? what is your plan when the weather is bad? asking for ideas for myself.

host a German foreign exchange student each year?

I feel the same way! wish I had a personal shopper! there isn't any costco's anywhere near me

this sounds like what I've read in there too - I have a 7 yo dd. but, I'm sure there are many others on this board with more lengthy experience with WTM than me!

He got accepted!!!! wow, we are so very excited and pleased. ds is very pumped and ready for this great opportunity! thanks for letting us share!

unfortunately, no, I have not. I think there are plenty of incompetent teachers who NEED fired, but the system doesn't allow this. I'm afraid its just too easy to get by with fair to poor performance. we live in Oklahoma. we have a new state superintendant - it remains to be seen if she can improve this or not. wish I had more choices in schooling for my kids, but....meanwhile, I am trying to afterschool!

my ds had a heard of about 30 Boers a couple of years ago as a 4-H project. We decided that if our fence would hold water, it would hold our goats!! no joke. don't underestimate your fencing needs.

This is well written and describes very well how I feel about my alma mater and college experience. The other thoughts I'd add to this are with regards to the faculty in the departments where your children will be studying. I went to one of the two state research university's in my state. The faculty I had access to there were TOP NOTCH. I am still in AWE of their influence on me professionally and personally. I majored in dietetics. I had at least 10 faculty members in the Nutritional Sciences department, all PhD's and all very accomplished researchers and dietitians. The education I received in nutrition was very good, I believe. The education others received from my hometown in their basic nutrition class for a nursing major or an education major at a smaller regional university paled miserably in comparison to what I had for my basic nutrition class. When you have a multitude of high achieving educators influencing you in your department, your educational experience is so much more rich and deep, developing a better educated student. I am so totally sure of this and unfortunately very few others in my town have a clue of this - we cannot visit well about colleges. I know I'm seen as a snob on this issue locally, but I've been there and seen what quality lies at the larger research universities.

I would be praying for a cold front at that time of the year! wonderful place to see/visit, but gets so incredibly hot in the summer. plan carefully how to stay cool and hydrated.

so I need someone to HOLD MY HAND. I have an Ipad. I have notability downloaded on Ipad. I have math mammoth pdf files downloaded on my computer. how do I get the pdf file in use on the Ipad??? I gotta have it step by step. my techiness has planed out at the ripe age of 38. thank you!!!

My oldest, ds who is 16 and is a junior in PS here, has applied to the Oklahoma School of Science and Math in OKC. He was selected for an interview which is this coming Saturday! We are so excited and hopeful that he might be able to attend this school! Our current PS is so rural and frankly much more interested in sports than academics. If ds gets to be in this school, he will get the best math and science H.S. education in our state, which will greatly help him prepare for college. Without this opportunity, he will be so much more limited in his opportunities in the next year or two :( Thanks for any prayers you might be able to send his way as he prepares for his interview! I have really enjoyed learning more about education on this board. I call myself an afterschooler - which I am currently doing with our youngest dd in the 1st grade. Wishing I had been aware of all this great info when my ds was in 1st grade!!! I'd do a lot of things differently if I had only known what I know now....and if he doesn't get in, we will be scrambling...:001_unsure:

Thank you Heigh Ho for your thoughts!!! I really appreciate them. that's the kind of insight I was hoping to get with this thread:)

I am really new to all this homeschooling stuff and am actually just afterschooling my youngest dd. but, I am a Registered Dietitian, so your thread caught my eye. I would encourage you to find resources/books written by an "RD" or Registered Dietitian. This person is the nutrition expert in the United States. similar to how a PT is the physical therapy expert in the U.S. I think you could start with quite a bit of science at the high school level, perhaps even using the basic nutrition chapter out of a biology text you already have, explaining the chemical makeup of carbohydrates, amino acids and lipids, since these three make up the kilocalorie content of all our foods (other than alcohol). You could touch on basics of metabolism and digestion, where each of these components are digested and by which enzymes, etc. then, you could discuss what the vitamins and minerals and water are chemically and how they are metabolized and used in the body. then, you could use the myplate.gov websites to translate carb, protein and fat/ vits and mins into foods: which foods fit in each of those categories and how much of each we need each day for the type of person we are (age, gender, activity). then help them work up a menu for a week. this is much harder then most people realize - to get all the servings in, but also to make sure you get the right number of vitamin A servings and vit. C servings, etc. you need to discuss exercise/fitness/weight management. gosh, there is a lot you could mention. pm me if you have more questions I guess! I'm not sure how long of a unit you'd be teaching.

I have SOTW 1 books. but now I've heard about the heavier Bible content of MOH and I'd like to intertwine them. I'm wondering about the audio to either of these. not sure I should have audio to both or not, what do you all think? and have books to MOH also? just need some advice. this is for a 7 yo daughter.

I too have seen much improvement in my 7 yo dd lately since jumping into the afterschooling chair, and it it such a relief! I can share your feeling!!!

I am just now becoming aware of the wealth of knowledge and activities to use as an afterschooling parent... My dd is in her 1st grade year in PS. so, she has had Preschool, K, and 1st grade in PS. I don't think her handwriting is very good or very accurately done. what I mean is, that as long as the PS kid traces the letters "well", the teachers here are happy. I don't think she has learned the correct or best sequence of strokes to form printed letters. she just gets it done, so to speak. she can write simple sentences, with the usual spelling errors for her age, now. so, now that I am wanting to afterschool, do I start a handwriting program to re-teach printing? or just start on the correct way to write cursive and forget her incorrect printing? and I am becoming aware that there are several if not many ways to write cursive. I'd assume that if I can help her learn the same one that she'll be taught in 2nd grade next year at PS that that would be best, but maybe not? my older two children (16 yo and 13 yo) both never took to cursive writing (taught by the same teacher dd will have next year) and they still print:001_unsure: and not very neatly at that, BTW. so, I am really wanting this last kid of mine to benefit from good handwriting instruction now that I am an enlightened afterschooling mom and know better!!! please tell me your thoughts on teaching cursive writing to your children who also go to PS and will learn it some there too.

I just wanted to say, BLESS HER HEART to OP. I can totally relate and I am so sorry for every female that is hairier than the norm, like me and my dd's will be when they mature.

Very good point to make. My family worships with the church of Christ. We have a German foreign exchange student living with us this year. She is very social and likes to go to church with us every time we go, three times/week. when we went on vacation last fall break to Nebraska, we searched out a coC to attend on Sunday. She seemed nervous before we went in. We found out later that she didn't think we would be welcome and couldn't figure out why we would go there. She was then shocked that the people at this "unknown" church would be so accepting and friendly to us! She still mentions this from time to time. I've enjoyed reading all the posts and identifying with so many of the thoughts expressed. Striving to worship and live as the New Testament teaches would sum up our congregation best, I believe.

not sure of your route, but Mesa Verde in far SW Colorado is great and very educational. we enjoyed the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, a little more mountain-like, cooler, etc. I believe its less visited, so not as busy. if you are going to Yellowstone, take the time to enjoy Cody, WY. dh and I would move there permanently if we could!!! lots of fun stuff in that area.

we have had our purple, ball dyson for about a year now. I am really impressed with it on carpet. but, on my tile and hardwoods, I think it doesn't pick up very well. my last vacuum, I used the "wand" to vacuum the hard flooring. with the dyson, I can't do that, the hose is too short. so I have to stop the brush and just push it like normal over the hard flooring. we live on a ranch, so we have bits of dried manure around. these pieces are very lightweight and the dyson won't pick them up! don't ask me why, I don't know, but it seems to blow things around on the hard floor instead of picking them up. just my two cents

I haven't decided whether to buy Susan Wise Bauer's book, the Well Trained Mind or not. I will be afterschooling, so not sure whether to spend the money??? but, I'm curious about her thoughts on how to teach a child to read. anyone care to share a bit so I can decide to spend the $$ or not?