The slide show is a great idea - as is the piñata! Thanks.

Thanks :) I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly.

I just wanted to add that we did NEM and NSM with dd, but I'm doing DM with ds.

My dd preferred a no-nonsense approach as well. We used Singapore from 1A through her grade 10 year. She went to high school for grade 11 and 12. She graduates this June and has been accepted into all four engineering schools that she has applied to. I think Singapore has set her up really well. It provides the conceptual understanding as well as the mastery. My only concern for you would be the transition into Singapore. It's a different way of doing math - there are placement tests online.

Thank you! I deleted the posts and removed the poster from the group.

I'd like to throw a graduation/going away party for dd this summer. Her high school grad doesn't hold as much meaning for us as she was only there for three semesters of her education while she was at home for the rest of it. She was accepted into all four universities that she applied to and decided to pursue her engineering degree in Newfoundland - the exact opposite end of the country from us. We're really proud of her and want to have an evening to celebrate her achievements with those who have been a meaningful part of her journey. This would be family, friends, and mentors. Does anyone have any advice for this kind of an evening? We have a great outdoor space with a pool so there is a lot of room. There would be adults, teens, and kids invited. I was thinking of appies and desserts? Are there any "rules" to doing something like this? Any ideas for wording the invitations? Is anyone else having their own event to celebrate a graduation this year? What are your plans? Thanks.

My daughter is graduating this June. She was homeschooled her entire life except for three semesters in public school. She'll be graduating from public school and go to the ceremony there. I feel like she is graduating from 12 years of learning and I really wish her graduation could reflect that. We're going to throw her a graduation/going away party this summer that, for me, will be more of a celebration of her graduation than her actual graduation.

That must depend on where you live. A friend of mine just got an iPhone free with her phone plan and did not include a data package. She can hook up to the internet over wifi.

I like The Story of Canada by Janet Lunn. http://www.amazon.ca/Story-Canada-New-Revised-Edition/dp/1552631508 Most of Donna Ward's own materials are geared to 6th grade and below.

That's what we do as well. Dh and I as well as all four kids all share the same iTunes account. We each have our own playlists and sync settings so I don't end up with other people's stuff on my iPod, but that also means that when we buy an app or a movie or an audio book for the whole family then we all get to use it.

One of my science teachers had a lab coat with slits in the side but no pockets - he said it made it easy to play "pocket pool". He also introduced us to the beakers by extolling on the virtues of their shape. He would hold a beaker up, name it, and then cup his hand around the bottom of it and describe the shape of it as he caressed it. We thought he was a totally cool teacher. We thought everything he did was hilarious and I don't get the feeling that he was being creepy - I think he thought he was being cool and funny.

I hope this hasn't been shared yet. This was in the paper today. Apparently kilts offer some other advantages: http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/04/18/wearing-a-kilt-boosts-male-sperm-count-study-says/

Me, too. If you had asked me a few years ago I probably would have said I'd homeschool my grandkids, but this is a really long chapter in my life and I am looking forward to a new chapter someday. I really enjoy being with the kids and homeschooling them so I'm not wishing this time away, but I know I will enjoy the silence and solitude of an empty house.

My tv is showing a repeat?? Is it really the Season Finale?

My dh is a lawyer and I know two dr's kids who are homeschooled :) But, I think I know far more teachers who homeschool than any other profession.

Don't they wash their own dishes?

Absolutely! I really think that Singapore teaches thoroughly and that any kid who uses it will come out the end with a thorough understanding of math. I think there are lots of concepts that are typically taught too early, or not taught deeply enough for them to stick. My daughter used Singapore pretty much exclusively from K through grade 10. She went into pre-calculus 11 in high school and was well prepared. She's doing Calculus 12 this semester and will be majoring in engineering in the fall. I'm very happy with how well Singapore prepared her for higher math.

How fun is that! Ds (12) plays in a piano trio and they had a couple of small gigs last year that were unpaid. This year they have a couple of paid gigs - it's pretty exciting for them. I'm amazed at how much ds is learning, musically, through his trio rehearsals and performances. Plus, it's been really cool to watch the friendships grow between the three kids. Last year they made it to provincials and they had so much fun both in the festival and at the campground we stayed at. It's another aspect of music that I had no idea about that is proving to be a really positive thing for ds.

I second this. The highlight of the summer for us is the Suzuki institute we've been attending - this will be our 8th year there. Many of the kids return year after year so it's something the kids look forward to socially as well. We branched out about three years ago and began attending a more traditional strings program as well. They make so much progress with summer programs and they have so much fun doing it.

Eeek! That's crazy! Ds is on a $3000 violin - it's his first full size. Unfortunately, he's still got a 3/4 bow and he's using an old case we had hanging around so it needs to be replaced, too. I just don't want to buy a new bow yet :( I cringe when I watch him walking around with the violin; although he's a lot better now than when he was little. Our 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4 size violins all have various dings and scrapes on them from being well-used by little boys. And don't even get me started on the cello... But, $40,000 worth of instruments? Wow!

I have three kids who began on violin. Two still play, one switched to cello after 3 years on violin. Instrument sizing is important. It's better to have an instrument that is too small than it is to have one that is slightly too big. I've had violins last us one year and violins last us three years - it just depends on how fast the kids grow. Know that at six, in order to have good progress, you should probably count on attending lessons and taking notes, and then being the practice partner at home. There are many picky little posture details that will result in a beautiful sound, ease of playing, and lack of injuries later on that seem inconsequential in the early years. It's hard for a six year old to learn how to hold a violin, hold a bow, have good feet, relaxed shoulders, soft bowing hand, a bowing arm that opens and closes (instead of one that does the chicken dance), violin hand that doesn't look like a pancake, etc., etc., etc. In Suzuki, the kids begin playing real pieces as soon as they're ready for a real violin. All of my kids began on box violins and we were able to learn a lot about posture, caring for the instrument, rhythms, etc. before beginning on a real violin. Mine sounded musical in the first few songs - but mine were a lot younger when yours started so it took us a lot longer to actually get past Twinkle. At six, you'll likely have much quicker progress, but you'll have to really watch the posture and positioning. Replacing the strings and hair really depend on how much you're practicing and how serious you are. We replace strings a couple times a year and we buy fairly expensive strings. Good strings are important for good sound - even for a new beginner. Dominant strings are a good standard string for younger beginners. Even for young kids, I change the strings at least once a year. You want to give them the best chance possible to sound great :) We've only ever replaced the bow hair on one of our bows. It was $50. I'm told it should be done more regularly - especially for how much the violin is being played but there never seems like a good time to go a few days without practicing (we don't have a back-up bow). Community has been really important to my kids. Since they were brand-new to the instrument they've played in groups and some of their best friends are fellow strings players.

We spent two years living in the UK and one thing that really struck me was how important the university you went to seemed to be for people. The firm where my dh worked seemed to only have lawyers from Oxford or Cambridge. "Where did you go to school?" seemed to be a question that was asked often. If you were here, in Canada, I'd say go to whichever university has the better program. But, if I were over there, I'd be pushing my kids for Oxford or Cambridge.

My ds plays in a piano trio and they have a couple of Brahms Hungarian Dances in their repertoire - everyone loves them. Thanks for posting all of these links; especially the more modern ones. Ds is not a big fan of modern classical music (though he likes playing contemporary rock and pop on his violin) - he's a big fan of Baroque. I'll apply the two bites rule and see if we can make some progress.

My seventh grader spends between 20 and 25 hours per week on academics. He spends nearly 20 hours on music. Taekwon-do is 2-5 hours a week, depending.

I love writing and teaching writing, so my "prep" looks a lot like yours. I taught my eldest using mostly Classical Writing - what I loved best about it was the focus on author's emphasis and how small changes in word choice, grammar, or structure can alter the emphasis. We spent most of our time playing with sentences - it was fabulous. If I was a better homeschooler, I'd implement CW (to a degree) with my boys at home and in co-op. I do carry over a lot of the ideas from CW, but I should go back to it more often (maybe now I will). I love IEW's The Elegant Essay and Windows on the World and adapted lessons from both of those when I taught grade 8 writing last year, and when dd was still at home. I read at least a couple of adult books on writing each year and that's where a lot of my frustration stems from. The advice to adult writers is a lot different than the advice to children and I honestly don't think it has a lot to do with development or an inability on the child's part to write clearly. I've seen what kids are capable of. I've done my own lessons this year with some references to Writing Aids (from TOG). I'm working with kids from grade 3 to 5 but they all came into the class needing to review paragraphs. We spent some time working on sentences, then moved on to different genres of paragraphs. I emphasize the writing process so we worked with a number of different graphic organizers and did a lot of discussing and brainstorming during the planning stages of writing. We moved on to rough drafts, peer editing, and sharing our works aloud. I wanted them to really understand that writing is rewriting so we did a lot of edits and we realized that even if we had done something pretty amazing the first time, it was possible to make it even more amazing. I taught them how to do formal outlines and how to research and take notes. They each did a three paragraph report before Christmas. During the nine weeks after Christmas we did some literary analysis - discussions and story charts. Then we moved into writing our own stories. We discussed characterization and how to show character traits, plot development, the importance of setting, and planning. The kids wrote their stories, did peer editing, shared their stories aloud, had them edited by me, and then wrote the good copies on iPads in the BookCreator app where they were able to also integrate the illustrations and cover pages they made. A few of the students recorded themselves dramatically reading the story in the app - this was pretty cool because their books can be shared in iBooks to family and friends (or sent in PDF to family who don't have iPads). Anyway, we had a great year and I loved seeing how much improvement took place from the beginning of the year to the end - and even from the beginning of a writing project to the end of it. I'm looking at plans for next year (I'll have a grade 7 class next year) and I was just wishing for the "perfect" curriculum :) And, of course, it doesn't exist so I am likely back to pulling ideas from a variety of places. Time to drag out CW, Lost Tools of Writing, my favourite books on writing, the Creative Writer and WWS and see what I can cook up.