My son got an acceptance letter today for University of Wyoming. It is the only school he wanted to go to. I am so happy that he got the school he has been dreaming and talking about for two years. They have everything he wants. Zoology dept, museum studies with two on campus museums, Russian and a study abroad in Russia program. It is a big sigh of relief for me. I know there are family members that have been waiting to say, "I told you so." and now they won't get the chance. Gotta love all those know it all folks who claim homeschoolers can't get in to college.

I am a workbook queen, in the sense that I buy them buy the dozen at used book sales etc. I pay anywhere from .50 - $4.00 for them and sometimes only use one or two pages out of them. I then re-sell them. I don't know what it is about "dittos" but I like them. Probably because I enjoyed them in elementary school.

Would this apply to media and government?

Ours is up.

For once it would be nice if their online order system worked for me, however, I just got my order free via the phone as an apology for the hassle.

We have been doing the invention timeline as well. It has been very interesting!

Does anyone use this series of poetry books? If so, how do you use them? Has anyone created lesson plans for them? Other than reading, enjoying, copy work and memorizing some of the poems, what else can we do with these books?

Okay, thanks for the feedback. I agree in print, it is insane, but let me clarify that we don't do all of these in one day or even in one week. It is kind of a rotation, with the exception of spelling - that is every day. We may do R&S English two days in a row, then the next two days CLE (which was at the request of ds who used it previously and wanted to go back to it). The WWE like I said, happens rarely. I basically want to just stop keeping track, admit my kid does well with grammar and give myself permission to dump stuff and cut back until such a time comes that he needs more (if ever). I have decided to dump WWE and CAP. We will stick with R&S and FLL and do those both on the same day but only two days a week. I will save CLE for when he requests it, and if he never does I will just sell what is left. We'll continue with spelling daily. For writing we will do just Writing Aids and beginning outlining. Any writing assignments in R&S will just be skipped. I have been trying to convince myself for a while that it isn't overkill, but I suppose it really is even if it isn't all done everyday. Thanks for helping me process this.

I am not sure what kind of feedback I am looking for. I mainly just want to put my thoughts out there. We rarely get everything on the "plan" done. I know I over plan, but I really struggle with cutting things out. For Language Arts, my 10 yo ds does: FLL, CLE, R&S English, R&S Spelling, Wordly Wise 3, TOG Writing Aids, WWE and CAP: Rhetoric Fable. I know, I know. I have "really good" reasons for what we are doing. DS gets bored with the same old, same old. Some days I give him the CLE workbook because he would "rather do workbooks" and other days we do R&S English - and that is mostly done verbally except for diagramming sentences. Spelling is everyday - Monday Pre-test, Tuesday Part A, Wednesday Part B, Thursday Part C and Friday is the test. I don't need to change spelling. FLL we are using Level 3. Except for a snag here and there he breezes through this when we do it. I am wondering if we should double or even triple up on these lessons on the days we do them or should we just move to Level 4? The thought of not finishing L3 and moving on to L4 bugs me, but I could get over it. WWE we are using Level 2. We have been "using" this since 2nd grade. We complete lessons few and far between because honestly, slitting my wrists would be more fun. DS is fine with dictation and copy work - but the comprehension and narration or rather lack thereof, makes my brain hurt and my blood pressure rise. He is not an auditory alone guy - he needs to read it himself or he can watch and hear something together, but listening only he can't seem to do. Therefore when I read him passages he tunes out/has no focus. If I gave him the passage to read and then asked him the questions, he would rattle off the answers. If he is not built to learn the auditory only way, do I keep slogging painfully through this with him, or do I let him read the passage and then ask him the questions? How important is WWE in light of the other things we are using? We just recently began the CAP: Rhetoric Fable and the experience with this is very much like our WWE experience. I honestly want to drop both and use TOG Writing Aids as our sole writing program, except for the writing assignments that CLE and R&S sprinkle in. I don't mind skipping those if we need to. The Wordly Wise Vocabulary is pretty easy for him and he is almost finished with the workbook. I'd like to move to Vocabulary From Classical Roots next, but then I have also been considering doing a lot more literature units and doing vocabulary in a non-workbook way. That brings me to the literature part of our LA - we read TOG literature and do the assignments. They are not a problem. We also read non TOG books and use a variety of lit units (like Progeny Press or Teacher Created Resources). Those are typically fun, but we don't do as much as I'd like because all of the basics take so much time. I guess I am asking - what should I drop? He doesn't struggle with grammar so I am thinking we could cut back to just 2-3 days a week but double up the lessons so it doesn't take longer to get through. I would like to drop WWE and CAP, but feel guilty about that. Mainly, I want to spend more time doing real writing, science, history/geography, health, Latin, art and music. Those things get shoved to the back burner because of the time it takes to do LA and Math. While he isn't struggling with LA now, I worry that if we cut back he will "lose" knowledge or something. Is that an irrational fear? I just don't want to cut back and then later see that he has forgotten everything. He shows an interest in writing stories and reports and often will write on his own time. Should I just run with that and correct his structure, spelling and punctuation errors as we go? Here is what I am considering after dumping all the above thoughts: Daily- Bible, math, spelling, reading One day- art and music Two days- FLL, CLE, R&S English Three other days- Latin, Writing Aids, history/geography, science, and health After seeing this all in print, I feel crazy. Throw your thoughts at me - am I doing too much? What could I reasonably dump? Also, let me just say that I don't compare what we do to public schools, ie: "Doing half of what you are doing is still way more than the public schools do." or "It is okay not to finish a book, the public schools/private schools don't finish books." I strive to do better than that, but I don't want to be a crazy tiger mom pushing for overachievement either. I want a happy medium.

http://www.winecupchristianacademy.com/2014/01/back-from-break-week-18-2013-2014.html

The problem with this is the boy's parents have told him not to fight - ever - even in self defense.

We mostly do our own thing, but we do participate in dual enrollment. The community college rule here is only two dual enrollment classes are allowed each semester. My ds only does one per semester. The price range is free to $75 per class depending on the location the class is taken. I don't feel the need for all the outside classes, but I wanted my son to get a small taste of college before going full time.

Do you tell your children they have a right to defend themselves? If a bully at a park punches, pushes or in any way assaults your child, are they allowed to fight back? Do they stand there and take it? Do they walk away? What if walking away doesn't solve the issue? DH and I have always told our children they can strike back if they are assaulted and feel threatened. They also know walking away is an option, but that it might not always work. Just curious how others handle this because we have some friends who tell their kids under no circumstances are they to hit anyone. One of their children is small for his age and regularly gets picked on, pushed etc., and he cries a lot. My son wants to defend him and often does verbally, but it is really bothering my son that the boy won't defend himself. My son keeps bringing it up to me and I think it is really weighing on him.

Yes, and more so with the TE. We do most everything verbally, except for the occasional exercise and all the tests.

I wouldn't report "educational neglect" because I don't live in anyone else's home and therefore can't see enough that would allow me to make that judgment. It falls in the category of "none of my business."

We use WWE, FLL, Rod and Staff Spelling, CAP's Rhetoric: Fable and select exercises and lessons from CLP LA and Rod and Staff English.

My good friend has her kids in a Challenger school. They use IEW, they teach Latin, use Saxon math, and read the classics. It is rigorous and expensive. They are in the California bay area.

Project storage used to be an issue for me, but seriously, an APP helped me realize I didn't need to save them. It seems silly. I use the APP called Artkive, but really, I could just use my camera and an old fashion album. Basically, I take pictures of the projects and then just throw the projects away. I do save sketchbooks and special things like home made cards and notes, but all the art type projects go to the trash.

Is anyone using the Memoria Press Timeline program? If so, what do you think? Currently, we use the Veritas Press Timeline Cards for memorizing the timeline, but the MP program looks to have structure to it. We use TOG and next year will be starting a timeline with our studies of the Ancients - I thought perhaps it might be a good time to start the timeline program.

If you live in Illinois - in a nutshell can you tell me state requirements? I understand Illinois homeschools are private schools. What is required for notification when starting to homeschool?

I don't get Dr. Who and I don't want to. Elf on a Shelf is creepy.

Thanks.

Does anyone know where I can find a GPA scale that includes + - A+ = 4.0 but what would A and A- be?

I favor the classical method, but I call our style Classical Eclectic. I am passionate about my children learning, so honestly, I will do whatever to make that happen. I let them pursue things they like, but I also have a "must learn" list as well. Learning has become a lifestyle for us, not something we do during "school time."

I typically plan out the whole year in advance. We school year round, so it is okay if it takes more than 36 weeks to finish the 36 weeks of work. Keeping my book shelves organized by subject helps to keep the lesson planning running smoothly. I also strike when an idea hits - meaning even if I am working on planning week 10, if I come across something that will work in week 15, I immediately go to week 15 and plug it in. If I don't do that, I will forget by the time I get to week 15. Since I use TOG and branch out from that plan each week, it is simple for me to do that. If I was planning from scratch I would probably make rows of piles of like topics and go from there. When I buy books etc. I will put flags on pages, or put sticky notes to myself to remind me to use it in the future. Right now we are doing Modern Times, but I am already on the lookout for Ancients stuff for next school year. When I peruse my shelves I put the flags and notes on the pages so I don't miss them when I finally sit down to plan.