what is it that draws you to a blog? I have my favs and I'm analyzing what I like about them. I'm curious what draws you to a blog over and over. Why would you leave a comment? Do you frequent blogs of people who you don't know? I'd love to do a soc study on the culture of blogs. Other thoughts or comments welcome!

It's probably already been mentioned. As an autodidact, you are free to pick and choose your own material for learning. I'm assuming that you are choosing material for them. When you compare your thirst for knowledge you are comparing your self-chosen materials with their chosen materials. Not a fair comparison. Also, the classical method is for the long haul. While you might think that your students aren't interested in being trained classical keep in mind that they are speaking from thier young and uneducated perspectives. A couple of years ago, when we really began hitting the classical method of educating hard, one of my older dd's said that she regretted that her early ed want' more like her little sibs. This from the dd who fought tooth and nails over academics!

I'd check out the Urban Homemaker and Marmee Dear. Great stuff on homemaking. Also, Carla Emery's Enclyclopedia of Country Living as well as Doris Longacres More with Less cookbook. We make 97% of food from scratch. Can, dry and freeze a LOT. I do have a Bosch mixer. I got it on sale, with a bonus cook-book from Marmee Dear and it's worth the money! I do like making bread from scratch but there's only so much time in the day.

Friday is co-op day and then we do our weekly grocery/gas run.

the powder stuff from Sam's. It's cheap and the only detergent that i've found (besides homemade) that doesn't make my allergies go ballistic.

We've been in a couple of churches that have these groups. The first was in a mega-church in southern CA. We were invovled in a couple of small groups there- all of which were long running, good support, dear friends. The church also had S.S. and I liked that combo. You could get to know people outside of your group on Sunday. The church that we currently go to uses the "free market" concept of small groups. My dh has led a small group for 2 years. It is truly small (about 8 people) but the folks show up every week and we are truly a support group- through exchange of prayer, resources, celebrating birthdays, etc. It is called "Deep Roots" and goes through a book of the Bible "line upon line." My dh has a M.A. in Theology and is a scholar- it is very in-depth with LOTS of participation. That being said, I do think that this model allows folks to be a little lazy. We don't have S.S. on Sundays and because our community is very spread out with families living in the same community for generations it can be very difficlut to meet new people and get to know them.

We aren't invovled in much right now. We live 45 min from town so it's not just the expense of activity, it's the expense of getting there and the time involved. We do a once a week co-op as well as particpate in a drama camp once a year and the older kids particpate in a One Act Play Festival each winter. In the past we've been involved in scouts, Awanas, soccer, softball, etc.

Speed reading and skimming do this (it's a taught skill). They teach the reader to focus on the middle of the page and grab the meaning vs. the individual words. This is how I read. I can read 3-4 x's faster than most people I know, though I haven't been formally taught to speed read... I'm a visual learner :001_smile: When my kids are learning to read and still sounding out. I make them read each and every word. No skipping, subbing, etc. Until they are extremely proficient readers they are either doing phonics are reading aloud to me daily - or both. Once they can read anything (Kingfisher's, Nat'l Geographic, etc.) with ease and understanding I cut them loose. But since we read aloud almost daily I'll have them read aloud every now and then and they will be required to read each word, clearly and articulately

We've done ASL- both older girls are conversant in it, the rest of us know bits and pieces and can converse with lots of explanations. Latin. Yep. My ds wants to do German (my dh is conversant in it). I'd (personally) like to pick up Greek again, esp with ds 14.

It is a great pair! We are playmobile addicts over here! I'm hoping to get my 8 yo the Roman set for Christmas:)

This is our 18th year of homeschooling and my youngest is 5 -so about 12 years to go. Looks like this ended up being my career!

Great ideas so far- Jen is a wealth of experience. My .02 worth. You are asking about "focus" but your question was specifically about completing math worksheets. What I have observed is that many people give their kids too many things at once to do, causing them to feel overwhelmed, hindering their ability to focus. For your son to complete math worksheets he must sit still, concentrate, undestand the mechanics of writing, correct letter formation, etc AND actually do the math exercises. My belief has always been, if it's a math lesson, focus on math. Do it orally, sing chants and songs, do every other problem, etc. Write the work out on a white board as Jen suggested. Most 7 yo's are totally overwhelmed by 2 sheets of WORK that they are responsible for. If he knows that that's his lot in life each and every day he might just emotionally shut down. I'd read the work out loud, take turns writing the answers with him, etc. Be more actively invovled and focus on the math. His ability to focus might improve if he has only one skill to focus on at a time. For more difficult work based on skill and ability (we are learning John 1 in Latin this year and it is HARD work) I give rewards. (for instance, everyone brave enough to even attempt to say the 6 verses in Latin from memory today earned 20 chocolate chips). When each of my kids are done with AlphaPhonics they choose a toy at ToysRUs (which is probably the only time in their lives they do). I want the kids to learn that hard work reaps rewards, not just always harder work, which it frequently does. To answer your question about focus more generally. The way that I teach my children focus is to give them vast amounts of work to listen to orally. We do this by reading aloud, having them listen to books on tape and work on tape. We seriously limit technology in our home in the form of T.V. and gaming equipment becasue you are introducing materials into your home that are training your child's brain to NOT focus- thus they are at cross purposes to what you are trying to accomplish- kwim. The kids can play quietly when they are listening IF and only IF they can narrate to me the information covered. We also give our kids healthy doses of "green therapy" each and every day. In other words, they have to go outside and play. Our boys, especially, get really antsy when they aren't spending time in the great outdoors.

Ya'll are great! Thanks for the comments and the help!!

I tried, really tried, to get a 3 column blog template installed today. My techno-head 18 yo helped. All we ended up doing was losing most of my blog! I've spent the afternoon re-creating it sorta. What do you think? I still don't love the colors. Does anyone have any wise words about how to get the 3 column template loaded??

None. We dont' have a trash service. We make 2 trips to the city dump a year with a small trailor full of trash cans (8). Recycleables are transported in the burb and go to the dump. We burn all that we can and compost everything organic.

Great avatar. I enjoyed your blog- your kiddos are cuties!:)

Yep. The 8 & 12 yo lost interest but the 18 and 5 yo were there for the whole thing. All of our kids are pretty invested in the outcome of this election and some local state measures that are up. The middles have and will continue to campaign.

well, since you asked. New septic, re-wired. New windows. Siding. Re-do the woodwork throughout. Build out the attic. Add A.C. Add on about 15 feet to the kitchen with a total layout remodel incl a eat in kitchen, sliding glass doors leading out to a wrap-around porch. Add a 2nd full bath on main floor and turn the 1/2 bath into a butler's pantry. Add an adjacent 2 car garage (replacing the model A size goat barn that was advertised as the 2- car garage!! lol.) Add wind/solar power. Get a heat converter (the in-ground heating thingy- can't remember what it's called). Shore up our beautiful old barn/ add a tin roof. Landscape. Slowly we are working on our list. Slowly.

To answer- we've always homeschooled. This is our 18th year. I used to joke that we were in a rut, but nobody laughed (guess they thought we were!:))! High school with the oldest was hardest. We had 2 babies, moved twice, moved to an acerage, our income halved, we moved from SW to upper north midwest (huge climate as well as cultural change) and had an almost chatostrophic car accident (our oldest was driving, our second had a head injury, esposing her brain- she had a chunk of skull removed but is otherwise fine - i think we all had "near traumatic stress"). I was, to say the least, not on top of her schooling. We don't have outsourcing options, other than co-ops that I've led. And, honestly, there just weren't as many options curriculum wise (that I connected with). Anyway, my 2nd is a Sr. this year and my 3rd a fresh. and I finally feel like I'm on-top of the high school thing. It is a bit overwhelming. It seems that the pressure is greater, the time is shorter. Frankly, my oldest had tons of high school credits but it wasn't very academic, from my pov. However, she was admitted with honors to an awesome university and is now on a full ride, 4 yr. schoolarship at a school that is a perfect fit for her. God worked it all out, despite me :001_smile:. I am really enjoying high school now. Partly becasue I've found resources that I love. But, it is still a LOT of work. Specially with a little. My 5 yo is very social. It's hard to socialize with her and keep kid on task academically- the balance-argh. Still not there on that one most days, as evidenced by a recent post of mine. And the kids are gone so fast. Really, really fast. I truly miss my oldest and my kids are truly a blast to be with. So I want to keep perspective that I am pouring into these dear hearts while they are here, becasue sooner than I know I'll have a clean house, and quiet and they will be off in the great world, living their own lives. Life is seasonal. This is a great season, but very FULL. And chronic pain colors everything. I hope your back heals quickly!

:grouphug: I actually knew Danish dairymen in the SW and they are very much like you describe! One of the wives (a good friend of mine) was American and her mil about gave her a break-down every visit. At 70 she was out washing windows on ladders, cleaning the heating filters, etc each day (on her visit!), cooking, baking, etc. The dh just didn't get the pressure his wife felt. Other than that, I hear ya. I love my life. I love my kids. I love homeschooling. But it's easy to get wrung out doing so much each day. I'll be praying for Peace to find you :001_smile:

"...and when everybody's super, nobody is."

Ours is a 1920's craftsman style farmhouse. We think it might have been a Sears 'build-your-own." Wood floors, 12" floorboards, tons of windows, crown molding, walk-up attic, 10' ceilings (including basement), 2 built-in buffets on 10 acres, facing a river. It's a cool house. Needs some work...plumbing, wiring, new kitchen, etc. etc, etc, etc..:) We LOVE it.

I was so overwhelmed again this morning (and I'm not pmsing!) My dh ordered me to go outside and play with the kids. We played badmitton for an hour and laughed and made fun of each other (if you saw how well/badly we played, you would too!). I just stand in awe of people like SWB who are writing and publishing and teaching and joggin on top of it all! Do they not sleep??? Actually I stand in awe of so many of the peole on these boards. Ya'll rock!

Homeschooling, cleaning, cooking, gardening. It fills the day. And it always feels like I didn't get to something- like today we didn't even get to math- geez. But we were homeschooling all.day.long. cooking.cleaning. laundry. taking care of garden produce. My littlest is feeling left out and I'm tuckered by the end of every day. Anyone else there?

I don't know if she's reliable at this point or not (we haven't actually seen each other for 13 years!). She does say she's paranoid. I have told her she needs to take care of her dd. I just don't have time to listen to her infatuation about another guy when the problem is clearly her marriage. I was going to send her a very pointed email. Council last night, and I agree, suggested a phone call. She is willing to put up with it all beacuse marriage is a convenant (I agree) but there are some yellow (at least) flags)