I don't want to comment on the whole situation, as I don't feel experienced enough to offer any real advice or insight. But I want to comment on one thing (and I am not picking on you swellmomma, others have said the same) Please be very VERY careful before doing something like swellmomma has described, and others have suggested. I'm glad it worked for her, but if you're wrong, it's a big mistake to make. I told my mum I was suicidal. My mother believed I was being manipulative due to other bad behaviours I was showing at the time. She said a similar thing, 'just do it, stop talking about it' etc. She never expected me to do it. As it turns out, I WASN'T being manipulative. I WAS being raped on a daily basis, and I DID try to do it. I suffer long term physical issues due to the attempts, and in fact, developed a condition that could have killed my first child during the third trimester of pregnancy, possibly because of the damage of my attempts. That's all aside from my mental problems (PTSD), and my complete lack of any relationship with my mother from the day she said that onwards. In fact, she doesn't even know I tried to kill myself. I was too scared she would tell me again how it was just attention seeking, and now I have no way to contact her. I am not saying cater to his every whim, or allow yourself to be manipulated, not at all. I am simply saying please, be VERY careful with your words when he is threatening suicide, unless you are absolutely certain he is manipulating you. If he has told his friends a similar thing, I am inclined to believe it may not be, entirely, manipulation. You need to get someone else involved. A therapist, or call 911. But if there is any doubt in your mind that he might be making a serious threat, please do not dismiss him, or egg him on.

I am going to deviate from what seems to be the surprisingly popular opinion and say that I would be fine letting a 6 year old play in the backyard unsupervised. We did it as kids, at 6 I remember exploring the bushland behind the yard and playing in the culdesac (though, I DID have safety sense) and I dislike the idea that children cannot be trusted or independent. I'd rather they learn to use their freedom wisely. I let my 3 year old play out in the backyard without me out there (we have windows that I look out of regularly, and I listen for trouble) Having said that, with my daughter being only 3 my backyard is completely contained except for a big gate because she is not yet responsible to be outside of the yard, and if my daughter opened that big gate without me present, I would make sure she would not 'forget' again. Also, I do not have experience with an ADHD child, so you need to consider how that effects things. But I would try to find a way to contain her to the backyard until she earns the privilege of more freedom, and if she simply will not do as she is told and stay in the yard, she just has to stay inside and watch everyone else playing. Until she can be trusted to move outside the yard, she should be prevented from moving outside the yard. Can you set up makeshift barriers of some sort? Some boards? If she is a climber, I know this sounds terrible, but if you're desperate, could you string some barbed wire (simply as a deterrent from climbing over the fence! Obviously she needs to be smart enough to know not to actually try and touch it) I understand your trouble with a child who NEEDS to be outside, it must be a difficult situation.

I would accept the answer if everything was paused. Fact is, only the women's ministries were paused. I am openly a believer in patriarchy, and even I think that this church sounds concerning, and I would seriously be considering leaving.

We buy from book depository and second hand book stores wherever we can, and have set aside some money in our budget for books. We try really hard to ensure everything we have is good, worthwhile reading, so I don't just pick up lots of books from the thrift store, That helps limit the numbers, and the space needed. We have a dedicated bookshelf for picture books and early chapter books and I have a big list of books I want, or have heard good things about. We will sometimes go to the library, but we can't use it as much as I'd like, so we buy a lot of books.

Just wanted to throw out there, in response to this, that the high school reinforcment books (one lesson every two weeks) cover what I would consider some pretty complex stuff, including a whole year on Shakespeare.

If you're talking about high schoolers, I would say they just need to do evening school/early morning school. When I was a HS highschooler my daily schedule was 6:30-8am, then 9am-12pm, then 8:30pm-10:30pm. If we were out all day I could easily tack my middle session onto my evening session, 5:00-8:30pm, with a half hour break somewhere for dinner. Sometimes we forget that school can happen outside the hours of 9am and 3pm. I also, personally, found that I had better retention and focus if I did one or two subjects a day, and did 2, 3 or even 5 lessons of it. That is not the case for every child, but for me it helped, and that also cut down on time because I didn't spend time trying to remember where it was all going and getting back into that math mindset, or writing mindset etc, and the other things involved in picking up where I left off. I could just continue through, and since I was already 'in the groove' I would accomplish more, faster. This does not work for foreign language and any subject that required practice more than knowledge. But if it might work for your daughter, I'd consider switching things up.

I am another vote for starting with a full load, because everyone is so excited about it all. If they aren't excited, a gradual increase might be better. You'll do great!

For my mum, school was an option, and so she did tell my sister she would have to go to school if she didn't shape up. Almost sent her once. But knowing that was the consequence did help motivate my sister. It also involved her in the decision making process, to a point. She understood the actions had consequences. Mum needed to have time for the other students. I don't think it was a threat so much as explaining the facts, that's what was going to happen. For my family, school is completely off the table, so I would not 'threaten' it because it wouldn't be communicating the facts, it would indeed be a threat and that's wrong. As for whether or not it damages their view of school, it depends how you talk about it. Do you tell them how horrid it is and how much better off they are at home? Or do you just explain that we only have two options, and this one requires their cooperation. If they won't cooperate, there is no choice and they will have to go. If it is simply a statement of how it is, I don't think it damages anything.

Computers... they might be a little young yet, but KidCoder is good for kids ready for that. http://www.homeschoolprogramming.com/ Honestly, when my husband and I were that age we were both just given an older computer and told that if we broke it, we would have to fix it, and then let go. I taught myself some pretty advanced art in paint, and how to make nice powerpoints, and my husband figured out command prompt and got into MUDs. But we are both computery people. Your title also mentions critical thinking programs. The first place that comes to mind is the critical thinking company and their various workbooks. They are a bit pricey, but that's because they are reproducible, so you aren't paying for single use.

Indeed. I personally HATED saxon when I was homeschooled. We became a MUS family (less choices back then, especially in Australia, you were either a saxon family, a mus family, or a state curriculum family) But my husband, also homeschooled, LOVED it. He used it right through, and simply assumed we would be using it with our own kids (we won't be :P I guess I need to be comfortable with the resources I'm using to teach) Having said that, if a child wasn't understanding the curriculum I was using, and needed something a bit more simple and traditional, saxon would be my first option. It definitely has it's uses for a certain type of child.

Brother in law had the same problem. So many cheap, great quality books he wanted to buy!

prayers from me too

I'd reheat it first, but yeah, it's fine, so long as there's no meat.

It seems there is usually things on backorder this time of year. I had 4 items on backorder when I ordered two weeks ago Good news is, all of the items came in within a week, and it was sent like 5 days later

As a child i got to go to the first two days of the sydney paralymics through my distance school. I had free time to study everything that interested me, from food science to psychology, to programming and really learn who i was and what i wanted to do I met my husband, does that count? :) My sister was able to volunteer at a local stable, moving onto a traineeship, and now, at 20, she is on her way to actually driving horses in the trot races.

How do you handle math with two supplements? How much BA and LOF do you expect to finish? And in language arts, are you spreading the curriculums over 2 years, skipping through it not doing everything, or will you finish all four in one? How long is your school day? Thank you all for the insight, theres just so much good stuff out there its hard to choose!

Beside the web address is a blank page for me, and the icon on the tab is a weird blue triangle with little triangles below it... like it's supposed to be a V on top of a blue square. That's on both chrome and firefox

I am not a card person, I never send cards. But I put a LOT of effort into presents so I think that makes up for it! But I don't think that's the issue, so much as those family members not caring I don't have any answers... I dread the day my daughters figure out what a mess their extended family is... I simply don't know how to explain it to a child. How do I explain that their grandma doesn't even know that my second child exists, and doesn't even know my first child's name, and that they have an Aunt and Uncle that we pray for and love but cannot contact (my oldest one will be 7 before my youngest sibling is 18 and contactable). It's complicated by the fact that her grandma and grandad on my side are actually MY grandma and grandad, her great-grandparents, and that Aunty Nardia is actually my fathers, her Grandad's, partner, and her kids are not cousins but are actually my generation, i.e. aunt and uncle, despite being children themselves. My husbands side of things is a whole lot easier thankfully. I guess this hits home because it's been almost 4 years now since I heard my mothers voice... I'm sorry I have no advice, but know that you're not alone. When I was a child we had my immediate family and one set of grandparents and that was IT, so I know what it's like growing up as a kid without extended family... It can be lonely sometimes. But I grew up with a strong value of family and I will try my hardest to ensure my kids have aunts and uncles and all the rest. What helped me most was people around our family who filled the void. My parents best friend is like an uncle to me, my grandmas friends like aunts. Children I grew up with at church became like cousins, and I learnt that family isn't just about blood.

I see a lot of people here using more than one curriculum covering a subject, they use a core curriculum, and then one, or even two, supplement curricula. This is especially evident in math, where many people have a spine like saxon, and then use miquon, life of fred, Beast Academy or any number of other supplements on top. Many of the supplements, like the two listed, have enough work to be used as a sole curriculum (not nececarily enough scope or understanding etc, but they are both marketed as stand-alone, so they won't be 10 minute, once a week exercises) My question is, how do you make it work without multiplying your time considerably. Do you do everything in your supplement, or just pick and choose activities? Do you find the supplements take a lot less time than they would as cores because they are, in many ways, review? Or do you simply do double the math of most people each day? Do you line the supplements up in topics with the cores, or do you just do each one sequentially, and allow it to spiral? This applies to more than just math, do you supplement any other subjects and how do you make it work without your hours doubling?

I haven't read the other replies, but just wanted to say, you need to remember this isn't a general homeschooling forum, this is a classical education forum, which is based around concepts which bring high level history to young students. If you went to a forum of unschoolers, or unit studiers, on the other hand, you'd probably find more social studies and less history. I don't know many people on my aussie homeschool forum who cover full history in elementary school. I intend to cover history in a single 4 year cycle from grades 7-10 (the way our system works in Australia, we don't think we will be homeschooling 11 and 12) and doing a more standard social studies and discovery/interest led history before that. So there are definitely other perspectives.

At those ages I would have hated to work all afternoon. I suppose it's a matter of priority, there's only so many hours in the day. Are the languages a priority? If not, drop them.

Hehehehe... i simply cannot relate I ordered from them two weeks ago, but, because i live in australia, ill be lucky to see the package before october. Le sigh...

I think this poll is missing an important option, child labour! Lol. Seriously though, by the time i, as the eldest, was 10, my mother did very little daily cleaning, i did laundry, sister did bathroom and vaccuming, little ones did regular pickup and we had an alternating chart for dishes. It only took each of us a max of an hour a day including cleaning bedrooms etc, and was spread throughout the day I cant wait till my daughter can at least pick up her toys properly each night, that is one of my biggest chores ETA: lest you think she did nothing, we did the chores but she cooked and schooled 4 kids. We all know how long those tasks take. If she cleaned too she would have very little time to be mum, interacting and talking etc

Being australian, our school year begins after our summer, i.e. late jan/early feb. Dd turns 3 feb 1st, so i am doing preschool/prek, whatever you like to call it, starting in jan. You can see our plans in my signature. My husband and I both loved workbooks as kids, and my dd has liked the tracing sheets ive pulled out on sick days, so Im feeling hopeful.

I am liking mathematical reasoning beginning 1 and 2 from all my research, but they arent here yet so i cant say much more. However the first book is labeled 'toddler-prek' so i assume it starts nice and slow