For music and podcast.

I only use my ipad to to post on the Hive, but I can't figure out how to link, change txt size, color or font or use smilies. There used to be a bar that had all these thing above the text box. Now the bar is gone. How do I do all these things now? Please, please tell me I didn't loose these feature in the upgrade.

Post your question on the special need board. You might get more help there.

Hmmmm.... She likes coffee:tongue_smilie: I wonder if giving her a cup of coffee on Monday mornings will help? I really never thought about there being memory loss over the weekend. We only school 4 days a week, so she has a 3 day weekend. I don't think I could get her to do work on our days off without having to give my other 2 work also. Unfortunately, she needs to work more, but can't handle more work. YKWIM?

My dyslexic dd just turned nine. She normally starts Monday with a glazed over look in her eyes and is unable to focus or concentrate. Normally, the rest of the week she is fine. Do your dc do this? Is this normal? In the past, I have tried things like running, taking breaks, jumping jacks, snacks, ect... But nothing seems to work. I have also tried not doing reading or phonics work on Mondays, but then it makes Tuesdays the "glazed" over days. Unfortunately, when she gets like this it makes me angry and I push really hard to get her to complete her work, which takes way longer than other days and normally ends up with lots of yelling and tears. What do you do when a dc is glazed over?

We got iPod touches for all our littles last year. They were 4, 6 and 7 years old. Best purchase we have ever made for them. We also got otter boxes for each iPod. I would really suggest otter boxes.

It may sound silly, but I would get a recorder and a recorder book. It will be easier to learn the basics of music if you are only playing one note at a time instead of trying to learn how to play the piano. Once you learned the recorder, all music theory you learned would transfer over to to start a basic piano book.

I'm looking for grammar that is only done 3x a week for 2nd and 3rd grade. I really love R&S, but I don't like skipping so many lessons to make it what I want. I would prefer a workbook type format. I don't want it to have a lot of writing (I have a writing program). Any suggestions?

The school district, where I just moved from, had a schedule that was similar. It was done on purpose. The district wanted very badly to move to all the schools to year-round, but the parents kept voting it down. So...to get what the district wanted, they decided to extend the school year buy two weeks and start a week early and add long breaks after every nine week period. Between holidays and breaks, students rarely went to school 5 days in a row and had very short summers. The schedule has made summer camps and VBS very hard to schedule. Basically, the district decided to schedule year-round school and call it traditional.:glare:

Awh, I just read that her kids went to school. Meaning she has way more time to fix herself up than a homeschooling mom. I wish a homeschooling mom would do a blog like this!

I am going to have to disagree. I don't believe the creation story is about the creation of the world, but rather the creation of the first covenant with man. You can read more about what I mean here Beyond Creation Science. I do believe the Bible is the ultimate authority, but I also understand symbolism.

I still use MFW even though they use some of his book. I just leave them out:D. I will probably start using RS4K middle school books as a replacement for the Apologia books.

The reason why there are not any Theistic Evolution curriculums is mainly because of Ken Ham (founder of Answers in Genesis). He wrote a book called Already Gone where he tries to equate that if one believes in anything but a literal 6 day creation, you are not a Christian. His faulty logic tries to prove that children who are not absolutely grounded in a literal 6 day creation, will loose their faith when faced with all the teaching of evolution they receive in school. Ham has caused many problems amongst other Christian curriculums including Peace Hill Press and Sonlight. Honestly, I don't know anyone who lost their faith because of evolution. I know they are out there, but being a person who personally believes in ID and thinks the earth is very, very old, I still have my faith in Christ! I plan on using Real Science 4 Kids when my dc are middle school aged. I plan on teaching all the theories of how the earth was created when they are old enought to have a logical conversation. For now, using secular science discovery books is enough. “The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.†― Galileo Galilei

It would be interesting to see how much work a fifth grader actually does in school. Many, many, many kids can't work in that environment. Maybe because it is too distracting to have friends around or maybe they need more of a one on one tutoring situation. They take all their work home and are able do the the work since their friends aren't around to goof with or mom is at arms length to give the "tutoring" they need to actually do the work. My oldest dd was in ps in 5th grade. She was very distracted and also needed me to help way more than could be done in a classroom. There is a huge push in education for group work and projects. This kind of work doesn't leave time to get individual work completed. I really don't think that ps has a heavier workload, I think it is a time management issue where most of the actual individual work is sent home. When my dd was in 2nd grade, I saw what they did in the classroom and what they sent home. I was piping mad! They did fun projects, was read aloud to, crafts, watched educational videos, ect.... all educational, but things I would have loved to have done as "homework". Then they sent the real work to be done at home. It was sooo hard because she had after school activities and by the time we got to the homework she was brain fried and ready to relax. But I was stuck to 'teach' school in the evenings to a tired child. It was not why I put her in ps. It was more like school was enrichment and home was where your did your work.

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When my dd was at home, 11pm (age 13-15). But she went off to a boarding arts school school at 16 and her school had quiet time from 9-10pm. Sometimes they had hall meetings at 10pm. I think they had to be in their rooms at 11pm on school nights. Her classes there started at 8am. There is a big difference between pre-teen and teen when it comes to bedtime. When she was 10-12 she went to bed around 9:30-10pm and got up at 8:30.

Other. Parents were divorced and my mom was the one who left. So, there wouldn't have been anyone to homeschool me.

I agree. My dc would not understand the sermons. I don't think they would truely understand the sermons at our church until about 11 or 12. I don't want my children to view church as a learning tool on how to sit still and be bored. I want them to love church! I want them to be excited to go every week! I would rather they learn the Bible on their level. I also have very active dc. I would never be able to keep my dc in the service and actually get anything out of it myself. I would be so..soo...soooo focused on trying to keep them still and quiet as to not disturb anyone. If there wasn't children's church, I might as well stay home.;)

I'm starting the day after Labor Day.:D I normally start way earlier, but we are trying to remodel a house and the homeschool room won't be ready till then.

I voted other. I think high school should go through 10th grade then you graduate. At that age you are old enough to drive and would be able to transport yourself to work. The first two years of junior college/tech school should take the place of the last two years of high school for those wishing to to go college and should be provided free, just like 11th and 12th grades in high school. This way it would only take two years to earn your bachelors and the cost for the degree would be significantly less. Anyone who did not go to junior college immediately after high school should still be allowed to attend two years of junior college/tech school free to earn an associates degree. Maybe this wouldn't be cost effective for the states? I don't know, but if they are spending 8k a year for public school, couldn't that 8k go to junior college or tech school for those two years? Just wishfully thinking.:glare:

Voted other. I want them to do both. I did both. I have a degree in music and have used it by teaching school, part-time music director and solo singer. Why must it be one or the other? I would like to lead my girls in a career path that allows both to be done. Oldest dd is getting a degree in music like me. Maybe my younger dd can start a home business or such. Don't settle. Help them find something flexible and fulfilling.;)

Do not use olive oil in sweets. I cooked a cake once with olive oil and it tasted like olive oil.:glare: It works great for regular bread. Use coconut oil. It is sweet by nature and will give a nice flavor. But with chocolate, butter would be really good.

The Biltmore House in Ashville is very historic. Carl Sandburg's houses is in Hendersonville. You could go hiking in the Pisgah National Forest. But I like going to the Dixie Stampeed and Dollywood:D.

I forgot to add how I make my curriculum work with only 4 days a week. ~ I don't do unit or chapter test in the curriculum. I feel that test are for p-school teachers to access how a dc is doing. I know how my dc is doing and can adjust accordingly. I don't need that type of assessment, so to me it is a waste. ~Sometimes the first chapter in a curriculum is a review and may not be necessary.(CLE's first LU is all review) ~Many times the last chapter in a curriculum is "extra" in case you finish early. (R&S's last chapters are "extras") ~Many curriculums written directly to homeschoolers only have 34 weeks of instruction and lite Fridays. MFW is like this and I can easily work the Friday work in to the 4 days of instruction. I look through the curriculums with these things in mind and select which pages to do then schedule away!

I do 4 days a week, but I do not always take the same day off each week. I have found that naturally there is always something to take up one day a week that prevents us from doing school. Holidays, trips, sickness, fieldtrips, ect... If I need to make up for missing more than too days in a week, I will school 5 days the next week. I used to teach public school and having 5 solid days a week of instruction was very rare. There were always assemblies, parties, fire drills, field trips, kids out sick, teacher workdays, half-days; there may be 180 days of public school scheduled, but that doesn't mean that all the days were instructional or that dc were there the entire 180 days. At my former job, grades had to be turned in a week before school was out, so the entire last week of school was non-instructional. Where I live, kids can miss 10 days of school (mainly for being sick) before action is taken. Take all the non-instructional days a dc has at public school and add them up and you easily get 4 days a week of real instructional time.:D So, I don't worry about it.