So glad to hear such awesome news! You're doing so well with them.

Milly Molly Mandy a lot of Enid Blytons younger stories like Amelia Jane and Bimbo and Topsy My Naughty Little Sister Madeline

I say it with the t, like pasture. It's kind of tch-y, but definitely more t than ch for me.

Beautiful Girlhood? It's old fashioned, but, there was stuff in there that impacted me as an adult! ETA: There is a companion guide but I've not actually looked at it myself.

ESV is a better study bible NIV sounds beautiful, it's wording is well done. I chose an ESV because I knew my journalling bible would also be my primary study bible, but if it was just for journalling and I knew I could easily read others I'd definitely go NIV

I do it. I printed my own custom bible as I am visually impaired and the journalling ones all had teeny tiny print (I LOVE the one I designed and had printed, it's on landscape paper, not potrait, and has lots of other little things that makes me adore it. But, I digress...) I use the ESV personally but I don't think it matters much for this sort of thing. Versions come into play during deep studies but art journalling tends to be a little more open

Still praying for the little one pushing on.

Exactly. People slept with the sun, and woke with the sun. Sleeping in until lunchtime and staying up until midnight is no more natural than only sleeping for 6 hours. People don't want to sacrifice their evening hours, which are typically regarded as the leisure hours, for sleep, and would rather begin the day later since the mornings are for 'work' and they are happy to delay them. I agree, teens need more sleep, many teens need 10+ hours. But those hours should be in the evening or during a nap/siesta (I have wished, many times, that our society would adopt a siesta culture! I think it is so much healthier than sleep patterns now!) No one is debating the biological need for sleep, just whether that sleep should occur by sleeping in later or going to bed earlier.

Would someone who's child graduated at 15 and enrolled in college early say that they didn't homeschool through high school? You've done EXACTLY that, she just happened to enrol in college through a more unusual means, through another school You homeschooled through high school You homeschooled all the way through until college Nothing takes that away from you. And nope, it's not petty either

NEVER a dryer, oven or stove Most others are ok to me because they don't inherently produce heat

Nothing even remotely similar But I'd go for it. You can always send them back next year, they aren't happy at school, you have been homeschooled so it's not like this is some giant leap into the unknown, you have some idea of what to expect so it shouldn't be too much stress on you as the teacher/parent while managing a new marriage, and it could be a great way to bond with your new stepsons if they are enthusiastic. If they didn't want to do it it would be a whole other kettle of fish. But, they WANT to try out homeschooling, you are able to try it without it being the huge learning curve many parents face, and you have a backup plan for the following year. As one graduated homeschooler to another, why not?

Yes it's uncommon in the grand scheme of international culture But no, I will not agree it's shame based. For me, it's a matter of being in complete control of who sees my body. I've been a victim of abuse, controlling it is VERY important to me. I turn my back and *I* have decided I am ok with women seeing me from the back. I have not decided I am ok with an almost pubescent boy seeing me. It's not shame, it's my choice not to allow men to see me naked because my body is special and I will only let it be seen on my terms, when I choose and control it. I am not his anatomy lesson, I am not his 'magazines are airbrushed' lesson. I have a right to choose for only women to see me because I want to, end of story. And as far as your cultural norm argument, I am fairly certain that in societies where nudity is culturally normal, 10 year olds having to be in line of sight of their mother at all times is pretty darn abnormal. At 10 he would either be independent (european countries) or with the men (african countries). In countries with acceptable nudity, 10 year olds are not children attached to their mothers by any means, so the whole argument falls apart. This situation wouldn't happen in EITHER place. Exactly Yes it is. Changing rooms have privacy from the opposite gender by design. I have CHOSEN to be ok with women seeing me change with my back turned, and that particular privacy is built into the rooms. I have not chosen for young men to see me change, and 10yo is in a very sticky place right between child and young man. The issue is COMPLETELY privacy, and my ability to choose who, or what categories of people I let see me naked. Also, you cannot say that ALL 10 year olds are non-sexual. I know too many little children of both genders who were abused by older boys to know that is NOT the case. Perhaps most 10 year olds are not going to think sexual thoughts (I would debate this personally, but not here and now, so let's say you're right) there are still some who will think sexually, and look sexually. That's not debate, that is fact, as uncomfortable and taboo as it is there are 10 year olds who have sexually abused younger children. I know them, I went to school with them, IT HAPPENS. Homeschoolers are sometimes a little sheltered because other homeschooling parents are usually involved in their kids lives. But mainstream kids sometimes have issues. It's not their fault, but I'm not going to let them work out their issues with my kids either. I remember being touched sexually by a 9yo boy who I now know was being abused himself. There is no way I would be comfortable with a child like that boy seeing my young girls naked, so I'm not going to let ANY boy (over kindergarten age) see them naked until they're of an age to decide themselves This, completely. And you know what? This is exactly the reason I am one of the people taking up room in the family locker rooms. I have three little girls, so we are all the same gender. But I have seen 8 and 10 year old boys in the womens room, and I am not comfortable either changing or letting my little girls change in front of boys that age. I'm just not. So we line up for the parents room or I take a bathroom stall and change the girls on the grass with towels up. It's not a matter of 'he's too young to go into the mens room', there's many other options to handle the situation, none of which the family wants to take. And for the record, my almost-5yo could go and get changed just fine by herself. I recognize other kids develop differently, and I think a limit of under-6 would be much more reasonable, but there's no way an 8-10yo who is neurotypical should need help, there just isn't.

I seperate composition from the physical act of writing. Writing a paragraph is putting it all together, handwriting, spelling, grammar, composition, everything. I prefer to work on each skill separately and at it's own pace until it's ready to come together. To me, 'composition' is my 1st grader telling me two sentences in response to a discussion question, verbally. I might ask her to write that composition on paper next year when her handwriting is good enough, at which point I'll probably be looking for verbal paragraphs. For a child delayed in writing or grammar, verbal composition is much simpler because it is ONE skill (maybe one and a half, when you consider grammatical correctness of the sentences, but spoken grammar is more natural than written grammar) By 3rd grade I would think paragraph verbal composition is an almost vital skill, but moving that onto a written form might take longer for some kids.

As someone with disabilities both mental and physical, I have developed far more as a person rising to challenges than breezing through low expectations. The real world situations prepared me for adult life, and how to cope in it the way I am. My worry sending the child to a group of children worse off than him would be that he would have no preparation, confidence or motivation for the job that he IS capable of having and the independence he CAN work towards. Don't get me wrong, where intervention is necessary I'd do it. If he was obviously of an impaired intelligence and unlikely to live independently the lower program would be great for him to meet peers and such. But at the borderline, I'd want him to aim high rather than settle for low. I'd want him to be used to socializing with general populations than solely others like him. I'd want him to learn to accept failure in the 'safe' environment of school before he hits the world. I would not want to set up an unrealistic ideal of what the world is like based on the normal he sees in a class for disabled students. But, as someone with Aspergers and a visual impairment, I am strongly, strongly against any form of coddling or catering to disabilities beyond the necessities. Some kids NEED that class, he doesn't, it would be coddling and making him succeed in an artificial system. I'm sorry if I come across as harsh, I have very strong opinions on this topic after growing up with other kids who have Aspergers. The huge, massive difference between those who were catered to and those who were treated like typical kids who needed a little extra support is MASSIVE and depressing. Generally, a child is better off long-term learning to manage among the general population as best as they are capable.

100 Easy Lessons Explode the Code Kumon Workbooks Building Thinking Skills Undecided on math right now

My DH and I share the homeschooling, but I do intentionally plan some extra 'fun' projects for DH Lego Education kits and Snap Circuits Life of Fred and fun supplements (I anticipate giving him the Beast Academy days in the future) Read Alouds Art lessons

My kids are young so I'm just speaking from my experiences (and DHs experiences) of two eldests from large families She melts down because a. teens melt down and b. she knows you will give in. If you push through the meltdown you might be surprised what she can do on the other side of it. DH and I both woke up at 6am as teenagers. I don't feel that I was somehow chronically sleep deprived. The amount of sleep someone needs and the amount of sleep someone desires are different things. In our houses growing up, wake-up-time was set. If we were sleepy at 8pm then we would go to bed early, and the teens would take naps with the toddlers sometimes when they were having growth spurts. I'd do all I could to accomodate that. But breakfast happened at 7am, and if you hadn't opened your books by 8am there was a problem. Not all families need to be as early as ours of course, but figure out your familys wake up time, and set it. Sleeps ins are for weekends, nothing is stopping her from having a nap or early night if she's drowsy at the end of the day from an early wakeup time. I'd set a wake up time, set a breakfast time, and set an 'at your desk ready to start the day' time. Be reasonable, but be consistent, and ride out the initial meltdown. Otherwise the other kids schoolwork is being controlled by their sister, and that breeds resentment, trust me. My mother allowed my difficult sibling to sleep in for awhile, and she just got worse and worse and took it further and further until she wasn't beginning school until 3pm which meant the rest of us couldn't go out or do anything. That's when mum put her foot down. And it wasn't a matter of 'oh she just wasn't a 'morning person'. She now wakes up at 4am for a 5am start at her job, she is just fine in the mornings, she just needed a reason to get up and to get her body used to the habit. Give her a reason. I dunno what your kids are doing/eating, but no one ever required morning showers in my house or my husbands house growing up. In fact, DH and his two similar age brothers often showered once every two days as teenagers because there was one shower to divide between 8 kids. There was no BO issues. In fact I still don't understand the fuss about BO. I know I've never had to deal with it and neither has DH and some families do, I'm sorry for them, but don't assume it's a consistent problem across the board, it definitely isn't.

This is fate, that free ticket you get is totally going to be the $5000 winner!!!! Ok maybe not. But you SO have to try anyway, for the fun of it.

The elementary is NOT stand-alone, at all. Fractions and up can be stand alone for the right type of student with some supplementing if they struggle. LOF in tandem with Khan Academy is actually a great mix, my husband used it to re-learn Trig. But, for some students it wont be enough.

Singapre is my personal pick atm, I am moving away from my current curric to it right now. Beast Academy can be good at forcing him to apply math outside the box IF he has the patience for it For free, I think Khan Academy videos are great with explanations.

I can't even imagine.... I have truly begun thanking the Lord weekly for our healthcare system here. Contacting them directly looks promising. I hope it's sorted really soon.

If he's doing Saxon 6/5 then Kidneys Only reason to go back to Edgewood is if he wants the story. In fact at 6/5 he's nearly ready to jump right into the fractions and decimals sets imo

They're in my thoughts tonight :grouphug:

I actually think workbooks REMOVE a lot of busywork in certain topics. I'd much rather a workbook for the skill subjects, where the child just has to write the answer rather than copying whole passages out But I do find workbooks in the content subjects can, at times, just be busywork. But they vary greatly in quality. You can't just paint them all with one brush

By your own curriculum do you mean selecting your own programs for each subject, or do you mean actually planning the curriculum without any formal resources? I only use pre-bought curriculum for Math and Language Arts, and even that is VERY pieced together from multiple sources. The rest I might use bought resources but I put together myself. I'm an organizer and I haven't been 100% happy with anything I've looked at. You can totally do it!