I can so relate to this topic as I have a very emotional, sensitive, dramatic dd myself. And I am also much more toward the non-emotional end of the spectrum so it is really frustrating. What has been most effective for me is when I use the Love and Logic approach on a consistent basis. When things start to spiral I have a set of responses and I use them. ("I love you, too much to argue", "I will be happy to talk to you when your voice is as calm as mine", etc.) Aside from the practiced response, I go brain dead and do not engage. If I engage I feed it and it just gets worse. I have never had an experience when she was emoting in that dramatic fashion and conversation turned the tide. Later, we can discuss and reason, but in the moment it is silly to try. And, FWIW, I think that a lot of the behavior is very manipulative for mine. She knows I love her and worry about her and how good a job I am doing. If she says that I must hate her, or think she's stupid, etc. it is because she is banking on that having an effect on me. That doesn't mean I don't think she is still feeling strong emotions, I do, but I also think there is manipulation going on.

Oak Meadow is American History in grade 5, and it is what we have used this year. My dd11 LOVES it.

We use Beast Academy as a supplement behind my dd's grade level. Math is not a good subject for her, but her love of comic books makes BA very appealing. The problems in the workbook are challenging, especially the starred problems, and it is so different from her main program (CLE) that I think it adds a lot. I got it because I knew she would love the comic book style and because she needed more challenging problem solving. We use it topically, out of order. It has made a tremendous difference in the depth of her understanding.

My daughter and I both have Nook Simple Touch and we LOVE them! We also have an iPad but neither of us like reading on it.

I have ordered from them twice and everything came quickly, no problems.

Hmmmm....homeschooling year round was definitely one of the best things I have done. The most important thing though was letting go of what everyone elsewhere had to say about curriculum and dropping things that didn't work for us regardless of how excellent they were purported to be. I made both of us miserable sticking with certain curriculum (Singapore) long after I should have let it go. Now, I still read the reviews and look for guidance, but with a better understanding of dd's learning style so that we don't necessarily pick what is considered the "best" but we pick what is best for her.

I just found this thread and I am going to go ahead and join in, albeit a little late to the party! Here is what I am currently reading: Revolutionary Mothers - Carol Berkin Year Zero - Rob Reid Palace of Stone - Shannon Hale (listening in the car with dd11) I am optimistic that I will finish all three this week and start something new. I am going to look for something food related since that sounds fun, and I have a book about Betsy Ross in my pile.

This is amazing....I have been struggling to figure out a similar outline for middle school years as we are entering 6th grade next year and science is dd11s focus.

I purchased this: http://www.teachersp...ve-Math-Journal And we started using it as a jumping off point for me. We LOVE it! I feel like the math lessons are being internalized so much more and this is the style of learning that works best with my dd.

Mine is an only by circumstance. I would love to have more and still hold out some hope for that. I was 8 months pregnant when I found out my husband of 8 years was having an affair. He told me that he didn't want me to leave but that he wouldn't stop cheating. I left, which was absolutely the right choice. I have been single 11 years now and on my own with my dd. I hope to eventually remarry and either have or adopt more but if not I am grateful for the one I have.

Dig and Odyssey are well loved here.

I purchased mine here on the boards, but I have been watching e-bay too. I think there is a sale from Oak Meadow in the spring too.

We are using OM5 this year and really loving it. We did not use the younger years, and whenever anyone describes them they sound very different from what we have, so I think there is a change. I do not use the language arts portion because we were already really happy with what we were doing. My dd11 loves the history and science which is what we use. The history could be supplemented by extra reading, we are big readers so we do that here. As an example, yesterday we were reading about colonial children. We have been watching "Liberty Kids", reading books about daily life from the library, and Oak Meadow had her make a doll or whittle a figure, play a colonial game, make butter and sourdough bread. This particular lesson has a lot of activities, they aren't all like that. Sometimes she writes an essay, sometimes she needs to go do research, there are art options. She loves that often she has choices of assignments. Now for science, it is similar. There is reading, questions, and a variety of activities to choose from. I choose to add to the science, following the same topics, because we really love it. It is not necessary though, the reading in the lessons, along with the research they assign is pretty complete. I can't answer the math questions because we don't use it. Math is a struggle here and I was afraid that switching to yet another curriculum would set us back. Sorry if this isn't very coherent, I am typing on the iPad after taking some Dayquil so feeling a bit foggy.

Me too.

We didn't like it. We tried the Chemistry and got about 1/2 way through. A lot of the work felt like busywork, it was really boring and my daughter was retaining nothing from it. I was really disappointed because I wanted to love it and was excited to try it.

Mathdoodles, Marble Math, Operation Math are favorites here.

I have used R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey and Elemental. We preferred R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, but I wasn't truly satisfied with either. We used Elemental's Chemistry and my dd hated it. There was too much jumping around and too much that felt like busywork. I did add on to R.E.A.L. science, but it was much more enjoyable and dd learned more from it. We dropped Elemental halfway through.

I have used Moving Beyond the Page Lit Units this year for 5th grade and my dd11 loves them.

I forgot to say that I have ordered from WP three times, and I have had no difficulties any of those times. I have not ever ordered in August though.

I am a single mom, homeschooling my one and only. It is an intense relationship for sure!

We are using it and my daughter really enjoys it. We have a horse and she rides so it is a good fit. We do it twice a week, it takes 30-45 minutes. She does it fairly independently some days, but I enjoy doing it with her. For us, it isn't our only science, I wouldn't feel like it was enough. We do OM Science 2 days a week and it works out perfectly.

You would just get it in the app store, but here is a review with pictures that I found: http://educationalappsforall.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/math-doodles/

I don'y know if this has been posted before, but since it is such a huge success at my house right now I wanted to share, the math app "Math Doodle". My math phobic VSL is loving it. I love that it allows you to play different games where you add up numbers to equal a certain total and you can choose dice, dominos, Roman numerals, dollars, cents, and more. It is an answer to a prayer here this week as we now have almost all the addition facts memorized in just a few days.

I have mostly stopped all Disney sitcom viewing for the reasons already mentioned. The gender stereotypes and the bratty behaviors are what pushed me over the edge. I think the little girl on Jessie is especially horrible. We do love Phineas and Ferb although I wish for once that a girl character could be shown as smart, talented, focused, etc. (and I know Isabella is a smart, badge achieving leader, but she is a sidenote and mostly just has a crush on Phineas). Ultimately my biggest issue with Disney sitcoms is that all the girls seem to be disrespectful, dumb, and/or obsessed with boys. I want my daughter to shoot higher.

I have the Epson Workforce 845 and I LOVE it! The ink is reasonable and lasts forever. I got it on sale for about $100 at Best Buy.