Oh, also: Take the Lead George Washington How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning We are studying the revolution right now ;)

I never said they should never be reserved for particular ages. What I said is that most people will assume families are ok UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED. Saying that a field trip is aimed for 8-12 is not the same as saying "no younger children, please." That's swell that you figured out a way to make that work for you. You're right that not everyone can get what they want, but there are lots of homeschool parents who don't WANT to put their young children in childcare. That line in your post was just plain nasty.

The Betsy Maestro series is good. http://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/history-and-geography/u-s-history-supplements/maestro-history-series-american-story-series Picture Book of (Patrick Henry, George Washington, etc). Johnny Tremain

Most of the group a things are common sense decent behavior, but I was taken aback by the first thing on your list. It would never have occurred to me that other homeschoolers might expect me to get a babysitter for my children who might be outside the target range. There's so much multi-level learning and tagging-along learning in homeschooling families that it is probably assumed for many people that families are ok unless otherwise stated. You probably should include that in an invite next time if you don't want people bringing their other kids.

Do you leave him to do math mammoth on his own but work with him on the others? If so, consider the possibility that the thing he hates about mm is the lack of interaction. I would try doing mm with him, crossing out at least 1/3 of the standard practice problems (do all the word problems and puzzle corners) and working through two chapters at once rather than straight from cover to cover. You could replace some of the xtra math sessions with game-style apps; I like math evolve and sushi monster. Fan math and balance benders look from the samples to be largely redundant with mm. If you want to add extra challenge, you might pull from borac, ba, or cwp once per week, but only after you let go of any notion that you must do all of a supplement before you can move on.

Maybe centerforlit?

This is my second year juggling two levels of bfsu. To make this work, I broke down each lesson like this for volume 1: Day 1 Review of prerequisite lessons (ask the discussion questions from those; start with earliest lessons) Then I schedule 1 day for each "part" of the lesson Next day is reading one of the suggested books The last day we do discussion questions and review prerequisites for the next lesson. For volume 2 I do it the same, but after the lesson parts I schedule 2 days for discussion/notebook entries. In that level I also schedule more living books for independent reading. Occasionally there will be more than one day of reading or a documentary, so this is just my general plan. It's not rigid. In terms of teaching, I schedule for my older to have science M, w, f, and my younger to do science t, r. Whenever my older has independent reading scheduled for his science time, I do a lesson with the younger instead. This keeps it so I only need to teach one child per day and I only need to keep one "part" of a given lesson in my head. I read that part the evening before, which is a small, manageable amount to do each day. Like you, I looked at a lot of other things and tried to figure out a way to combine, etc. I strongly prefer to stay away from YE and screen-based, so that gave me limited options. The first month or so of both levels I was on my toes, but I have settled into a routine now. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm not seeking something else at this point.

I'm planning on world geography for next year, so I'm just in the starting-to-mull-things-over stage. A couple things on my radar are the trail guide to world geography (super cheap used) and the creek edge press geography task cards. http://www.creekedgepress.com/Products.html#Task_Card_Series If your kids are into paper-based hands-on, homeschoolshare has country lap books that could be used with whatever you are reading. http://www.homeschoolshare.com/connections__geography.php There is also good, 'old fashioned narration to provide output. Guest hollow has printables available to correspond with the various countries. http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/geography/geography.html

If it was an email, I might write back, " Thank you for the offer, but we don't need any asssistance at this time." If it was paper mail, I would ignore it. He is basically counting on you to reach out to Dr. Smith. Just don't. Dr. Smith will probably inform him of the law.

I make custom-colored manipulatives by printing onto card stock and glueing to craft foam. The foam makes them more durable and easier to pick up off of a flat surface.

There was a thread on the accelerated board from a few years ago. You could try posting there for updates. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/344094-wws-how-young/

Do you use the T.M? Where do you purchase it?

We all get the vaccination every year. This year we are between insurance plans since dh just changed jobs. He got one at work; the rest of us will get them when the new insurance starts in 6 weeks. I took my younger two kids to get vaccinated, planning to pay out of pocket, but we were rejected by two pharmacies. One didn't vax kids under 9, the other didn't do kids under 6. At that point I decided to just wait for the doctor's office $100 shot when the insurance starts. The last time we got the flu was back when h1n1 came through. We all got it a week or two before the vaccine was released. We were a double income, daycare family at the time. We were all out for a full week. It was awful. None of us have ever had problems with the vaccines.

I do history 4 days per week with my older two, who are elementary students. Our main science is 3 days per week per child, but some of those slots are just reading. The end result is that I teach science to one child each day. On a day when one has independent science reading, I am teaching the other. I plan to combine them for science next year, doing 3 days each week. Ods has MP astronomy once per week, but it is open and go so I don't really feel like I'm teaching it.

Why didn't it work? I've been eyeing it.

Nooms app is excellent for starting out on math facts. After that, you can work methodically on the others. Teach evens and odds forward and backward. That takes care of the 2s. Then you can do doubles, near doubles, and ten bonds. I like the birthday party for ten from education unboxed. http://www.educationunboxed.com/having-a-party/ Once the facts can be figured out that way, we start trying to speed things up. For that we have done math evolve (app) and xtra math (app). For dd, I also will sometimes write them in water and have her try to write the answers before the problem dries up and disappears. She enjoys that immensely.

I don't think so. I've never seen one that I can recall.

Ask away. I'd be happy to help if I can :)

Science and social studies are supportive of reading as you move up the grades. I'm not sure what you mean by "read a story." If they are getting lots of science and social studies via stories you're reading out loud, that is probably fine. If you're reading a 5 minute story, and they aren't reading a lot on their own, it would not be enough in my book. If there is some sort of short term life event that's preventing you from getting to science and social studies, it is probably ok for a short time in survival mode. If this is your regular lifestyle, you might consider using audiobooks (sotw would be a good choice) while the kids eat lunch or while you are driving. Once they are independent readers, you can add those things to their independent work. You also might be in violation of your state law (in my state it would be) if you're providing neither formal nor informal science and social studies. FWIW I wouldn't even consider adding a foreign language until you get in a groove with the other things. Unless of course there is some sort of extraordinary circumstance such as an imminent international relocation.

I am willing to pay more for things that can be used with multiple children, save me a ton of time, and are multi-sensory and therefore likely to work for a variety of learning styles. I pay a lot for mbtp la because my son loves it, and I don't spend a lot in other areas for him. WRT Shiller, I had an inkling over a year ago that it would be perfect for dd. However, I reworked math mammoth instead, trying to stick with what I had. This summer I finally took the plunge with Shiller. She loves it, and math is now enjoyable. I probably would not have spent the $200 plus for the kit from RR, but I thought the virtual kit was reasonable enough to be worth it. It is $85 at CBD. http://www.christianbook.com/shiller-math-virtual-kit-i/pd/10408AC?product_redirect=1&Ntt=10408AC&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP. I do try to use inexpensive or free when they are as good or nearly as good as whatever I would buy if price were no object: Hoffman Academy compared to lessons, $5 bfsu ebook vs formal curricula or starting from scratch diy, math mammoth vs Singapore or MIF. That allows me to splurge on the other things without feeling guilty.

I think that is the idea behind the discovering nature series. https://www.queenshomeschooling.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=71_72&zenid=70685fccab31a5cca57bedc9a2f1488b I haven't used it or heard much about it on twtm, but you could try searching scm boards. Rr carries it in print.

The IEW method might work well. The key word outline eases the load on the working memory. The model method is very much like doing a narration, but the child gets to put the ideas in order before turning the ideas into proper sentences. If the child forgets what he was writing mid-sentence, he can look back at the kWO. Most of the IEW products are secular. Those with religious content are clearly marked as such.

You can separate decks in anki. Or rather, you can create a new deck and move cards between them. Just tag them appropriately. You can also copy a deck if you have them reciting together right now. I keep a separate deck for each kid because I found my older didn't need as much practice.

The child craft book is my favorite too. I checked out a bunch from the library, thinking there must have been other fabulous books published since my childhood, but I returned the all in favor of my childcraft.

I have never used supercharged, but I'll offer some feedback on the bfsu "could do without" lists. The purpose is mastery, not a particular set of activities. If your daughter has met all the lesson objectives, you are doing great! It's ok if it doesn't take the same amount of time that the book recommends. For my oldest, I have found that he grasps the concepts and can answer all the discussion questions very quickly, but if I don't review it a week or two later, the information falls out of his head. Every time we start a new lesson, I go to the discussion questions for all the prerequisite lessons to review. This has made a huge difference in terms of feeling like I'm doing it right. I'm sure the info is really stuck in there now. For presentation, you could use videos and books. The read and find out books correlate really well with volume 1.