I think I am planning too much for next year. I need feedback. The big problem is that I have only 3.5 days a week to school.....if I could homeschool 5 days a week this wouldn't be an issue. I am planning on using the weekly schedule and the readings from AO. The problem is I have everything I need to do RHO Ancients level 1. I don't think I can do both :( For next year: Bible (story every day) Language Arts (every day) Math (every day) Science (2 days a week) History Copywork (2 days a week) Logic (1 day a week) Geography (one day a week) Art and Music (one day a week for each; consists of picture study and listening to music is all) I'd like to throw in a foreign language but..... Geez just looking at that makes me cringe. :001_unsure: Using AO's week 1, ( http://http://www.amblesideonline.org/01sch.shtml)I put together how it would work for us. It looked...intense. Day 1 Bible LA Art Study Math Science History-An Island Story Parables From Nature Poem Day 2 Bible LA Math History-Fifty Famous Stories Copywork Aesop’s Fables Poem Day 3 Bible LA Math Science Music Logic Just So Stories Poem Day 3.5 Bible LA Math Geography-Paddle to the Sea Copywork Poem It does not look like I would have room to do RHO at all, or a foreign language. Please give some ideas and feedback...I'm very open to suggestions.

http://outofafricapark.iarbiz.com/pJZtYCmFcMY= http://www.phoenixzoo.org/ http://www.visitsealife.com/Arizona/ http://www.azscience.org/

I have a 40 hr week job but I work 3.5 days a week, 3 12's and a 6. I use AO with some other elements.

Singapore Earlybird.....ds just wasn't getting it and I threw in the towel. 3 phonics programs bit the dust because they just frustrated my son more and more. Actually 2 were fails...the third would have been ok if I had waited for him to mature before starting it. I am starting a whole different program come August...I can't wait. I so hope it works.

I Think I will try it for my daughter for pre-k next year.....it's too beyond for her right now. It looks really good and the price is nice.

I would suggest a gentle kindergarten year for your ds and you....since he is accelerated in some areas, focus on those areas and let other stuff be play. I notice that something like this helps me with my kids on my down days. Being more play and game based can help on the down days when you feel like you can't do a lot or focus a lot. Especially with a new babe and dealing with PPD, most definitely be gentle and slow.

FYI, shelter charge for several reasons, one being that it is expensive to provide vet care, food, shelters, toys, for hundreds of animals. A fee does help cover those costs. It isn't necessarily ideal, because the flip side is that people can just dump animals and skip the money part. THey aren't all hardcore with fees either, sometimes they will waive them depending on circumstances. Not all shelters charge of course, but there are pros and cons either way....and either way someone ends up losing out.

Burnt out...even though we still do a little school every day. We had many curriculum difficulties over the past few months...mostly due to ds's immaturity levels...but I'm not looking forward to picking up phonics again at all.

:lol:

Literature for sure..living books for all subjects

I am more curious now, the way people carry on about the author and stuff makes me curious to see for myself. Likely I will treat it the same as any other method-take what applies to us and leave the rest. I don't care about people's opinions on the creator's philosophy-anyone can have good ideas and strange ideas. I don't plan to pay for them, but I can find them for free and figure out what is good for my family.

http://www.harmonyfinearts.com/section/logic/ There are three different ways to do the curriculum...the third might be what you are looking for.

no after the deluxe you shouldn't...although we throw in LOF Apples and other math readers for fun but they aren't required.

http://www.queenhomeschool.com/bookpage/bookframe.html

Love this.

Dictation and narration would work for those who don't write well yet (my son is in this group). I had him narrate back to me and I wrote down what he stated. She has a FAQ where this is brought up specifically.

my vote for AAR or PP....both of those I may use for my daughter when she gets to be that age

I am a curriculum junkie of sorts, and I think it's because we are almost at the end of my first homeschooling year. I look at many different things and think "well maybe that would be better for my son. Well maybe that would fit him better." etc etc. I've looked at AO, Memoria Press, Veritas, Calvert, K12, Connections...good lord you name it I'm sure I've at least looked at it. I'll start thinking "well maybe I should be more relaxed" or "maybe I should be more rigourous in case he has to go to public school." It didn't help that 3 phonics programs and one math program completely were a bust with my son. I think part of it was his maturity level (the phonics) and a poor program for his learning style (math). I am always thinking there will be a program that my son just latches on to and enjoy. As others have posted, that isn't the case, that there will be a perfect magic program. I don't know if there is a program in the world that will help my son with math...I don't think he is a mathy kiddo...he's like his mom. I want my son to love and enjoy school and learning, but I know that curriculum is only part of it. I also don't have endless funds...I use tax return money for curriculum so I need to be very careful with what I buy....I can't just drop stuff at the first sign of trouble. It's hard to be balanced.

The books for one...no public school at home feel. I like it better then what Calvert, k12, or Connections offers. The pricing, especially in high school...why I'm looking ahead that far is beyond me but for some reaosn I am. It's not a huge price for a full year curriculum. It has kind of a Memoria Press meets...something else feel. The one thing I don't like, looking at their book list, is using Christian Liberty science or Apologia....we tried to use their kindergarten book The World God Made. It was more religion disguised as science to me. I liked the rest of the selections for the years though....but thte science selection really disappoints me.

http://http://www.fpeusa.org/ It looks interesting and a lot better than many of the online private schools I've seen. Has anyone looked into this?

I'm not talking about listening to his views. You don't have to buy into his philosophy. You'll notice he hasn't written any curricula. He used these resources and put an idea together, but what you get when you order is pretty much resources. In other words, it's not a curriculum. No lesson plans written by him, nada, just an overview of how he thinks it should work. So, you can easily throw out his ideas of how it should work and use these resources how you see fit. That is the big big difference here. He didn't write ANYTHING. You aren't using his ideas by having the CD's. That's my point. The materials are still credible and valuable and can be used without his philosophy of how they should be used. So I could honestly care less what his views are as long as what he offers is solid and workable with different types of philosophies. I use some actual written curriculum from a small company that has beliefs I definitely don't agree with and I think are somewhat nutty in a lot of ways, but they have some good stuff and I buy from them anyway even if I don't agree with the beliefs of the publishers. Why? The pieces I use are easily adaptable and the stuff I don't agree with does not come through into the specific books I buy. Again, just because you don't agree with someone's philosophy and views does not mean that they don't have anything valid to offer.

:iagree: None of this has to do with the materials, it's all about the man himself and how he chooses to use the resources he put on DVD's (not what I call a curriculum per se but that's just me). That wasn't the OP's question, she wanted to know about the materials and how people use them. Period. Instead it turns into an attack on the guy and his beliefs and character and what have you-which have no bearing on the original question. This wasn't the opinion she was asking for at all.

My daughter is. She will eat an entire 6 pack of yogurts in one day if I let her, an entire box of waffles....she loves food. She will try to mooch food off people...perfect strangers! She loves food and I have to keep a big eye on her for sure.

This is so heartbreaking....so very heartbreaking. An adoption can be more complex to me than birthing a child. Just...wow. The agency I used to work for did, IMO, a fairly good job about informing parents about the different things that can happen in adoptions. I don't know if it was necessarily enough though, for every situation. Some parents came in with the idea that once an adoption happened that everything would be pretty smooth sailing, especially with babies. The reality is that isn't always how it was, especially if a child came from a country where their care was substandard. I do think some agencies may gloss over this or try to downplay situations but that that is no help at all to those who end up going through this. There's also the other side where you can come completely prepared for the possibility of RAD and still be totally blindsided....its hard to completely prepare unless it actually happens. Learning all you can beforehand can be small peanuts compared to actually going through it.

Yeah it's pretty much a mess all the time. It does not help that I am also a student and I work 12 hour shifts and get off late at night. I too try to set a timer and only do stuff for that time and when the timer goes off, I'm done (except if something happens like juice spills on something, etc). I was the only child of an OCD father...oddly his tendencies did not continue with me.