[Moms with ADD - What Curriculum do you use??]

I have add and I understand the forgetfullness more than anyone. Have some stories to tell but let me not get into that. I loose focuse easily as well.

 

What I found was that I had a hard time with boxed curriculums because not everything seemes to work for us. We lost interest easily on some of the curriculum or kids couldn't sit through the lessons. I have 2 daughters with ADHD and 1 with ADD. Been a rough road but we are getting there. My oldest is currently finishing up her last year on an online school. But my younger two are using textbooks mainly.

 

For about a year, they used time4learning because I was too sidetracked most of the time. We would just print out worksheets and they would supplement lessons with that but I didn't like them sitting in front of a computer for most of the day. So I started my online research and trial and error on books. This is what we have come up with after several years of trial and error.

 

English/Grammar---Easy Grammar:The kids enjoy it and not much for me to do

Spelling--Spelling Power:At the start was hard reading through the teacher portion

but after I had read though it, was easy. Takes about 20 mins a day.

Science--Real Science 4 kids: Has a lot of hands on experiments and comes with list of items needed for each. I just look at the list at the end of the week and add stuff to my shopping list for over the weekend shopping.

History--Story of the USA and hands on activities to enhance the lessons: We incorporate activities from scholastic hands on books and from History pockets. Also gonna try using History of US with Liberty kids episodes.

Math--Teaching Textbooks: Kids are pretty happy with this one. Might add some worksheet practice but haven't gotten around to it.

We also use several Evan Moore workbooks for reading comprehension, paragraph editing, math problem solving, and geography. These are just daily practice books that they work on once a day. They are quick enhancers.

 

That is pretty much where we are at. I work with them throughout the day but as long as we can keep a routine, it really helps. I used to be all over the place and couldn't keep up but once we found something that worked, things have been much better.

 

My advise is to look at each individual subject and read up as much as you can on what is offered for those subjects and see what features you are looking for.

[If you *don't* do chronological history cycles...]

I recently starting obsessing about history as well. I really didn't pay too much attention to it previously and I just had them do the time4learning lessons for it. I wasn't much of a history buff as a a child and I found fact memorization very difficult. However, with that said, my daughters told me they didn't enjoy it every much on time4learning because it was just reading. I started looking into it further and I started using Story of the US for my 5th grader and will be using a History of US for my 7th grader. My 5th grader is enjoying the workbook and I am also including hands on activities as we go along. I got some scholastic books with themes that we are using to make and pinning some of her work up on a bulletin board. Since it starts with the indians, she has done a few indian activites. We are moving to explorers soon and I got some activities for her on that as well. My 7th grader is still on the time4learning history but as soon as I get the books, gonna get her started. I thought of incorporating Liberty Kids episodes with her lessons when we get to that point in history. They are on Netflix. I am not too worried about doing US history during certain year, just hoping to do it in chronological order with a timeline. Will worry about World History next year. Hopefully they will retain enough information this year so when we do the US History all over again in high school, it will be a breeze. I plan on repeating it in high school with them. I really like chronological order with a time line so they can follow along as the time periods go along. Also will incorporate out state history somewhere along the way but will probably only spend half a semester on that.

[If you're between 30-50, do you color your hair?]

I am almost 40 and I have a few white hairs here and there. Honestly, they don't bother me at all. I have colored before but only to try different hair colors but not to cover gray. I don't think that I will color in the future. My husband though, is very bothered by it. He doesn't like his gray hair and if he can visually see a gray hair on my head from a far, he wants to pull it out. I really don't get it though. Gray hair is natural.

[What do you believe happens after death?]

I am not sure. I honestly have no idea, however, if I had to choose something. I would have to say our soul maybe recycled. Seems energy just keeps going, just makes sense to me that something like that would happen to the energy within us.

[For those who have discussed coconut oil here....]

Wow, I love coconut oil. I like it in my oatmeal and use it to stir fry veggies. I keep a big jar in my kitchen and a small one in my bathroom because I love to use it for my hands in place of lotion. I rub a small amount between my hands until it melts than I rub it in. I also have used it for chapped lips. My daughter has eczema on her hands and they prescribed her a medicine that she had been using but wasn't helping much. I ended up trying the coconut oil on her hands daily and the eczema is now under control. You can't even tell she ever had it.

[how often do you eat out?]

We eat out 2-3 times a week. Don't due much fast food but we do have burgers at good burger joints. We also eat at chick-fil-a like others, panda express, Cheddars, and other yummy places. We are going to stop though, starting this week. I bought a bunch of veggies and fruit and will be taking them along with us in an ice chest so we don't eat out so much. Those foods might be yummy, but not all that healthy.