That was really helpful. Thanks! I think my kids would enjoy the colorful workbooks and they seem to enjoy watching the science online so I think they’ll like watching the math. I just feel like I need a break next year. I never expected we would like BJU but my kids really do. They enjoy workbooks and even like textbooks. I think doing something like BJU for a few subjects might be what we need with a new baby in the house. I feel stretched reallly thin right now.

Ok, I've posted a few times because I'm trying to figure out the best plan for the next school year. We will be having baby number 7 this summer and I'm already feeling overwhelmed. This year my kids (6th grade and 4th and 3rd grade) are doing BJU science online. The two younger ones are combined in BJU Science 4. They all love it. I'm kind of surprised at how much they enjoy it. They do it daily with zero complaints and are taking notes (taking notes!) and doing great on the tests and quizzes. I am now trying to figure out math for next year. I normally use RS which has been great for all of my kids. However, I'm nervous about balancing so many levels of RS along with all of our other subjects. My 6th grader will be done with RS and will be moving to pre-algebra stuff with Jousting Armadillos so that will be time consuming. I hope I even remember algebra stuff. My 4th and 3rd graders did not do amazing with RS this school year. They seemed to have total brain fog when it came to math. I was planning to repeat the levels of RS that they did this school year because I don't feel they should move on yet. (They are both a little "ahead" in math currently so redoing an entire level will be a good thing). Now I'm considering BJU math online. Is that crazy? I'm wondering if it will be a great change for one year and give me some time with the baby as well as time with my younger ones (who will be in 2nd and K and who are both learning to read). So, has anyone gone from RS to BJU? Is it crazy to consider this for one year to give me a bit of a break? Who has used the BJU math online and what can you tell me? I think I would be using Math 5 and Math 4 for my kiddos but I'd need to look into placement more carefully before I decide. Is there anything else I should consider that will be less time consuming for me? I've tried Math-U-See in the past and it didn't seem to quite work here. I'm not sure TT will be a good fit either. My kids like workbooks and textbooks so programs with those components would work. That's why I thought BJU might be a good compromise of video learning and workbooks.......But I need some thoughts from the Hive!

This is really helpful. I’ve tried a Lit guide in the past and it was terribly boring. But this sounds like it might be what I need for logic and Latin. I want it systematic with lots of drill. So I think I’m definitely going to try Latin. Their logic looks good too. If I were to pick a few subjects from Memoria which ones does everyone recommend? And I wish I could find an upper elementary and a middle school spanish course I liked. Sigh....

I’m making my lists for next school year and the catalogs are arriving. I’m drawn to some Memoria Press stuff because it seems clean, straightforward, easy to use, and reasonably priced. (Plus the covers are pretty!) I’m tempted by Latin and logic and maybe some history and poetry resources. I’ve never tried Memoria in the past because it seemed dry. But I’ve been using some CAP stuff and some of it seems like busy work and I’m not loving Latin for Children. We’re having a baby this summer so I need to plan school stuff now and I’d like stuff that is easy to use and fairly straightforward. So tell me the pros and cons of Memoria stuff. Is this what I’m looking for in a few subjects? I don’t think I want a full grade package because I’m happy with our science (BJU online) and some of our other subjects. Why not use Memoria Press? Tell me what I need to know about their materials please!

Can you go back to the lab and tell them you want the results right away? Why is the dr not being more proactive in tracking down results? That would honestly make me angry that they weren’t helping find out what happened. I’ve had a lab totally botch my lab work but the dr became my advocate and the office manager went to the lab with me to help me sort it out.

Oh I’m following! We can never find anything to watch. It sounds like we enjoy similar movies.

This! Thank him and tell him the kids won’t be continuing. The end. I don’t give my rationale to anyone. Tehy either argue or get offended (or both). I’m all for short and simple - but as polite as possible. The new teacher sounds like a better fit. But I do want to know the errors he made. Now I’m curious!

We have a sienna. It’s been a great van. We’re actually selling it soon because our family is outgrowing it. I’ll miss it! I think leather is so much easier to clean than cloth. So leather is a must for our cars. Our interior is light gray and I didn’t find it too hot when we lived in south Texas. We did have the windows tinted and that did help.

No. That would not work. Both instructor and student books are essential. The student book has all the exercises and diagram frames. I bought the student book as a pdf to print for each child. But it’s a ton of pages!!

I’m not on any meds but I am pregnant and my immune system seems to have taken an extended vacation. I have been sick all winter long. Multiple rounds of the stomach virus, colds, the flu, respiratory infections. Wow. It’s been a terrible winter! I think things are just particularly bad this year. I’m so sorry you’ve been sick too.

My oldest was pretty active. She was never super active as a child but she was very emotionally intense. Baby 2 was very chill. Still super chill. The rest I don’t remember the differences. Lol! I’m not sure they’ve all correlated with activity level. Baby 7 is crazy active so we’ll see once she’s born. Maybe your little one will get all the activity out now and be super laid back!

I used to live in Oklahoma more than 8 years ago. I live farther north now where we get actual snow and not ice :) And we don't really have tornadoes. I like it here... But I have looked at that area and do think I would like it. If a job opened up there I would definitely consider it. I think I'm a fan of the quiet midwest.

Thanks so much for all those thoughts! You all mentioned so many things that I would not have known - especially about the insurance stuff. Really helpful! This is a very hypothetical thing and we’ve only just started talking about it. But I was feeling overwhelmed since I really don’t know much about Florida and I needed some thoughts and opinions as I start researching about it. As far as the homeschool laws go, they sound utterly awful since I’m coming from a state with zero regulations. So I know everyone says it’s easy but it sounds terrible compared to what I do now. I’m thinking the cost of living will be quite a bit higher than what we’re used to. I loathe summer and the beach. The climate sounds like what I thought it would be. Yuck. I’m a mountains and snow person. Oh well, we have lots of time to decide and it’s not a for-sure thing.

Let's play the "What if?" game. So, what if I moved to Florida (more specifically the Lakeland area).......what do I need to know? Keep in mind that the last time I was in Florida was over 20 years ago and I'm not at all familiar with the state or that particular area. Climate, schools, things to do, culture, homeschool community and support.......everything. Can anyone convince me that it's better than the place I live now with 4 distinct seasons, lots of beautiful trees, amazing parks, and a very laid back, family-friendly atmosphere? lol! I'm kind of not thrilled at the prospect.

My hubby is going to sit down and talk with him. And I think he’s going to get more involved in homeschooling our son for a time. I don’t feel I’m making much headway. Unfortunately my hubby is out of state this week. That’s probably why I feel so overwhelmed and discouraged. But I told my hubby he was going to need to take over and help me. I’m hoping that by having some one on one time with dad it will help a lot.

These are really helpful ideas. Thanks! I went through this a little bit with my oldest. Now at 12 she’s usually much more pleasant and homeschooling is much smoother. I’m looking forward to when my son comes out on the other side and we can enjoy homeschooling once again.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I do think he could be a stealth dyslexic. I don’t have a lot of options for testing that don’t cost an arm and a leg. I’ve tried to modify his school, using audiobooks and do things to help him so he doesn’t feel frustrated and overworked. He is extremely engaged in outside activities such as golf and swimming. His coaches find him to be polite and enthusiastic. He tries very hard and is very motivated in those sports. We also joined a new church that had more kids his age and the age of my oldest child. He’s developing friendships and is enjoying those activities as well. He looks forward to church and seeing his friends. I feel like he’s very involved and outgoing. So I feel like his apathy and moodiness is mostly at home. And yes, mostly directed toward me. I have let him choose when during he day he does his school so he does have some say in his schedule. I have tried listening to him and asking him for solutions. And I’ve been trying to try some outsourced classes. He now does BJU science online and Veritas Press self paced history. That’s going well. So I do feel he’s responding better to people other than me right now. My hubby has offered to try to do some of his schooling or maybe grade papers and give him feedback. Basically anything to give the two of us more of a break from each other. I know it is probably a phase as he is known as a friendly kid who is engaged during his other activities. But I’m just trying to figure out how to best handle things as we navigate these years. I just worry that I’m not handling it the best way. And sometimes I feel very discouraged.

Ok wonderful Hive minds. I need some help with my 10-year-old son. A little background: He's my mathy child. He has always had a knack for numbers and does much of his math work in his head (and he gets it correct). We've been using RS math at his pace and he's now near the end of RS E this year. He's been hugely struggling with reading but we've been slowly making progress and he's a mostly fluent reader finally. He and I are both proud of his progress and he's enjoying reading finally! He's rarely thrilled about school time but usually does his work without much complaint or discussion. He'd rather get it done and then go about his day. He really prefers to work on his own (he's a bit of an introvert). He is often on the lazy side and needs some prodding and encouragement to do his best work. But once he turned 10 this past December it's been a whole new ball game. He's very unpleasant and often argumentative. He doesn't put forth any effort into anything that he doesn't want to be doing. This includes school, chores, and even sports. If he's angry at me or a sibling he'll refuse meals and is just a surly unpleasant person. I don't know what to do about our school time. He's turning in very subpar work in every subject. Not to mention how hateful he can be toward me. He often yells at me. And I'm trying to be really patient, but I feel like my patience is just about gone now. Here's an example: I graded his math assignment today. It was a page on probability. Every answer that he gave was 1/2. Every. single. problem. had this answer. Ironically, none of the correct answers were 1/2. So, he got every problem wrong. I was trying to go back through each problem to figure out where he went wrong because I truly couldn't understand how he could get this particular answer. I finally asked him if he just picked a number and wrote it down on every problem as the answer. Yes, he told me that's exactly what he did. He just picked a number, wrote it on every problem, and considered it done. Oh y'all. I'm so discouraged! I've tried positive reinforcement. I've tried negative consequences. I've taken away privileges. He has to redo all assignments that are incorrect so he has no reason to blow through something and think that it's going to be done. Nope, he'll be redoing it. I don't even know why he tries to pull this. I've talked with him, encouraged him, and tried to have him help me come up with solutions. Nothing has helped so far. I believe that he's very lazy and if he has to spend more than 5 seconds actually thinking deeply about something he gives up and would rather move on. How do I address this? I truly don't believe it's a matter of not understanding the problems. He's doing this sort of thing in just about every subject. I cannot sit next to him for hours a day to watch every single problem. I'm pregnant and exhausted and I have a toddler and 4 other children who need me. He's draining all of my time and energy. Here are things I've done to try to help with our really rough school days: adequate exercise - he's a competitive swimmer and swims 3 days a week, jogs on the treadmill every morning, and plays golf (indoors) once or twice a week adequate food/snacks - he's been going through growth spurts lately so I often encourage him to have healthy snacks so that he stays full and is not hangry adequate sleep - we have a certain time that is lights out and I feel he gets a very reasonable amount of sleep for his age short school times - I work with him 1 1/2 hour individually during our day. He has frequent breaks and lots of time to move around as we do work. What do I do if he continues to blow off school work and not try at anything? Even when I work with him one-on-one and try to prompt him through the assignments he often yells, "I DON'T KNOW!" at me and I don't feel like our time together is very productive. Pre-teens are hard. I need some help please. And some encouragement. Today was particularly rough.

I would definitely look for adult lessons. Or private lessons if you’re self conscious. I know the coach who worked with my kids this past summer often taught adult lessons. She was really wonderful. If it were me I’d probably want private lessons. 😬 I think I’d be embarrassed in a group setting. And as an aside, Swimming has been wonderful for my asthmatic hubby and daughter. It is the only sport that does not affect their asthma (as long as they swim regularly). And asthma does not slow them down. My daughter is one of the top swimmers in her age group in our area. Asthma does not slow her down at all. I’m thrilled that we found a sport that works well for her. If anything, it’s helped improve her asthma. She’s had fewer issues since she joined a swim team a couple years ago. So maybe doing some lap swimming will prove helpful for you too. 😀

Yes. We splurged on that very thing this year because I’m oregnsnt and exhausted and can’t keep up. It has been wonderful to have a cleaning crew come clean my house twice a month. Such a huge stress relief!

Ok. I find this kid of confusing. First I do get why the OP feels let down. She had an expectation of the trip going a certain way and plans were changed at the last minute. This is frustrating. I totally get that. However, not wanting to go on an outing with another family because they won’t ride with you? That’s what I don’t understand. If they won’t ride with you, you’d rather invite someone else. ? I don’t ever ride with someone else because I rarely feel comfortable with them driving. Because my daughter has severe food allergies I like having my own car in case she were to need medical attention. And finally I have 6 kids and can’t fit into a car with any of my friends and their kids. There’s no room. So, you would miss out on the experience of meeting me somewhere and spending time with me and my kids at the location because I won’t carpool? That’s what confuses me. I typically meet up with friends at parks and museums all the time. Even ones that are a 45 min to an hour drive. It never occurred to me that it’s offensive not to ride together. And goodness, after realizing this I am slightly worried that I offend and upset people. Maybe I’m totally misinterpreting the post...

So UPS didn’t come by yesterday or today. I placed the box on my porch and it’s still there. Should I just place it on my porch every day? I’m kind of annoyed.

Oh ok. Thanks. I didn’t know this. And what if I’m not home? Do they just try each day? I know in the past when I’ve done returns with other companies I’ve received an email with a label.

Thanks everyone. I’ll put the box aside for a week. If I hear nothing else from them I might just give the things to my kids. I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.

So I ordered a few books from Rainbow Resource. My order came yesterday with all my books. However, there were 3 things in the box that I did not order: Scented gel pens Metallic markers A word search game (WordQuest) Anyway, I called them that afternoon to let them know what happened. The lady on the phone could not even find those specific products in their inventory. I provided brand names and descriptions. Finally she said she would have to send a call tag and arrange a UPS pickup so I could send those items back. I have yet to receive an email with a return shipping label. So my question is, do I seal up the box and place it on my porch with no label? Will UPS have the label? I thought I would receive a return label to place on the box. What do I do? I’m really not going to spend the time to call them back and figure it all out. I spent a long time on the phone with her yesterday trying to describe the products to her. And I have family visiting. I don’t want to worry about the box. Am I doing the right thing? Shouldn’t I receive a label? Or will the driver have it? Help me out please. I’m tired and pregnant and the box is stressing me out! Lol! Update: So apparently a call tag means UPS will get the label. Well, in two days they haven’t come by to get the package off my porch. This is weird and annoying. I guess I’ll just put the package on my porch every morning this week. Sigh. Shouldn’t they have picked it up the next day (as in Friday)? Now I’m paranoid it will be stolen off my porch and I’ll be blamed for not returning the stuff.