If you don't mind I'm going to throw a slightly different idea out there. Something we did was start the morning outside, so 2yo and 4yo would play in the grass and burn off some energy on whatever toys were out there. That would usually last half an hour or so, during which time you could do the assisted part of reading and LA with 6yo The the kids come in from playing, energy expelled, and sit at the table. 2yo would have an activity of some sort, whether it was a certain toy, or some crayons or blocks or something that would keep 2yo amused. 6yo would work independently on LA/reading, and 4yo can do some K work with you. 2yo would probably run off during this time after 15 minutes, but could find something to safely amuse themselves for the next 15 (I don't know about you but my 16 month old can safely play in the 'toy corner' for up to an hour, supervised. I've always encouraged independent play. Then when finished the K bookwork with the 4yo, send 4yo to play with 2yo again, perhaps another structured activity or perhaps just playroom time, while you do math with the 6yo. About now I'm sure kiddos are ready for a break! After break, get all the kids together for science/history/extras. 6 and 4 yo can be involved together, 2yo can run around, maybe watch, maybe not, just try and keep 2yo quiet and amused. This might be harder if your toddler is needy and not used to self amusement, but this is probably the hardest section to juggle. You can put it during 2yo's naptime if that suits you, some people prefer all the kids to have quiet time during naptime, but if doing science and history during naptime is what you need to do it uninterupted, then so be it, there will be a nice 1 hour-ish block in the afternoon for this part :) And finally, if there's any K activities left for 4yo, tell 6yo they're done for the day and send them to have their turn playing with 2yo while you do them This is some idea of how I've seen it juggled. If you figure each of the 5 'sessions' above (2 6yo assisted, 1 6yo independent 4yo assisted, 1 6yo + 4yo assisted together, and possible 1 4yo assisted) to be 20 or 30 minutes long, it'll give your 6yo a 1.5-2 hour school day, your 4yo a 0.5-1hour school day, and your 2 year old has 20 minutes of table time in there as well, which in a lot of families is about the time needed. If there's more to cover perhaps waiting till dad comes home and doing some evening school is an option? Or involving all the kids in the activity, like art? Of course, life with toddlers rarely happens to plan :) Good luck

Kids don't always need kids books at their own age levels, especially when dealing with subject matter that they have a firm grasp and interest in. Now obviously adult textbooks are a bit beyond them, but what about a decent, laymans terms, herb and natural remedy book? I was given a number of herbalist/natural remedy dictionary type books when I got married, all written in language quite understandable by a middle schooler (so probably understandable with mums help to an 8 year old) complete with pictures and photos in colour. I can't give you any recomendations as this is one area that will be country specific, but if you walk into a big bookstore, or a natural/organic food store and ask for a nice basic natural reference guide that's easy to understand I'm sure they could help you out. From there you could either study it with quizzes, or just let your daughter read and explore. Ask questions (got a cold? Ask her for some remedies, some you might be familiar with, some you may not, check them yourself in the book and if they look legit, try them out! They can't hurt and it helps your daughter see a purpose in the study, to become the family nurse ;) ). Are there any homeopathics or natural nutritionists or other people within those sorts of fields that you know? Ask them if they will offer a one off day of learning for your daughter, or could suggest anything for her, making sure they know she has a high comprehension, and is well beyond 'honey is good for sore throats' type advice Astronomy... I'm sorry, I got nothing except seeing if you have an astronomy club in your area. Even if it's for adult or teenage members they might be willing to make an exception to a truly interested child if you can prove a certain level of capability. There's some interesting computer software for astronomy, I used to have the PC encyclopedia britanica which had a whole range of astronomy interactives. Documentaries?

At their ages a formal science curriculum isn't exactly nececary, persuing interests and hands on learning will get them a lot further right now. They seem like they would benefit a lot from it with their strong interests! For your techie, visit a PROPER electrical component store (I've been told the american radioshack dosen't have much of that kind of thing anymore). They have all sorts of educational kits. A popular one here in Australia actually has these project bags of components. You buy the original board, then the project bags and build them yourself, mini circuits and stuff. They have varying levels, so I'm sure you could find something. They also have mini robots and component boards and remote control cars and all sorts of things, just be sure to get the decent kits, even if they seem a little beyond her skills, as opposed to the gimicky play kits that teach very little. You'd be much better sitting and doing a kit aimed at 10 year olds with her, than giving her a toy kit at her age level which is more crafty than sciency. Perhaps go to a thrift store and see if you can find some old electrical items for cheap for her to pull apart. My husband wasn't much older than her when his dad dumped a computer on his desk one day, said 'if you can make it work, you can have it. I don't want to have anything to do with it, if you break it, you fix it'. So he did. He learnt all about the inner workings of computer hardware through reading and experimenting. You can supplement this by looking at her current project, finding some kids 'how does it work' pages online, and going through them with her, learning and teaching at the same time. You'd be suprised though how quickly she will learn if she's truly interested. My brother understood the inner workings of cars and their brands and the different performance measurments and stuff to an amazing level when he was only 8. Where did he get this stuff? Grand Turismo and Need for Speed computer games, which have all sorts of articles about the cars, plus access to wikipedia to look up what he didn't know. It's harder if she isn't reading yet, but it won't be long before she can. Also, if anyone you know is tech minded, ask if they will 'tutor' her, say once a week. She is too young to be trusted pulling apart a lot of stuff, but yesterday my grandad was over trying to help me fix the washing machine, and we spent hours figuring out how the door locking mechanism worked based on trial and error, and from there found out why it wasn't locking. I was suprised how mechanical the whole thing was, and the thought occured to me that day that it would have made an awesome homeschool lesson. My husband has given a few lessons in computer components to homeschool kids, including building a computer from scratch (nowhere near as expensive as it used to be) As for your plant lover, sounds like a great time to plan and plant a veggie garden! You get free veggies, she learns why some things grow in summer and others in winter, the difference between plants that die after a year and plants that keep living on, the delicate balance of allowing helpful 'pests' ad their purposes, the details of soils and the breakdown of fertilizers (Actually, a REALLY good way to learn about that is to try out some hydroponics, it needn't be an expensive setup, you can easily put together a small hydroponic garden in a tub without a pump). Give her a project, and set her to it! Read with her, research all the different plants, complementary planting and sequential planting and help her find what info she needs, and supplement with some bushwalking or visit a national park, etc. Unfortunately this method of not using a curriculum, while very good for the kids, will mean you learning at least some of the content alongside them. So if you decided to do this, you'd have to be up for learning yourself. If you can manage that, then take their interests and run with it! That's what I'd do with them anyway :)

Hi :) I also have never been able to relate to families who take it super slow. I've heard the theories about letting them learn to read when they show signs of readiness, even if that comes at age 10. And I've seen in practice it works, my brother in law learnt to read at 10 and moved to reading harry potter within 6 months or so. But do I intend to follow that pattern with my kids? No way. I know the kids will catch up, but we could be spending that time so much more constructivly! By the time we hit grade 3 I don't want to be wasting time on learning to read, I want to be delving into great books! In my little K-12 long term 'plan' (i.e. collection of ideas) I see my kids being a couple of grades ahead quite naturally, but the foundations of that come in those early years. When I was being homeschooled, among the families we knew it was NORMAL for kids to be a grade or two ahead on their better subjects, or even every subject except their poorest one. It was an expected part of homeschooling because the one-on-one attention allowed for it, and the idea of *only* having an hour of school for a first grader was pretty 'out there' and 'unschooly', and in some ways a child working at grade level raised eyebrows. Things have changed so much in the past 10 years. Now a parent whos children are all working above grade level is sometimes frowned upon as pushing them too hard and not letting them be kids! As someone who did 5th grade math in grade 3, and 4th grade everything else, I still had PLENTY of time to be a kid. The old pressures to be ahead of state schools were not always handled well, some kids did get pushed when they shouldn't have been, but that dosen't mean they were all wrong either. When I see families who insist kids under 8 or 9 shouldn't even do science or history, I find myself wondering how much of a missed opportunity that is, the time when kids are most curious about the world around them and they don't learn any of it? Looking at your timetable, it all looks pretty good to me except for LA, that seems to be very intensive, which is great if your child likes LA, but could lead to burnout if they don't, so maybe consider how much of it is nececary. Outside of that, 3 hours a day for a first grader including science and 'fun' subjects used to be considered very normal, at least among the homeschoolers I grew up with here in Australia. A few things to consider though. Is the time spent working through at a good pace and progressing well, or is it spent in busywork and desk time. While 3 hours total was very normal, only about half of that would be spent at the table on books, the rest would be read alouds, or activities and science experiments and other hands on stuff. The attention span of a 1st grader would be pushed for 3 hours of bookwork. You won't regret progressing, but you might regret spending hours doing worksheets of the same thing over and over, for the sake of doing it. There's a key difference between having a lot of learning, and having a lot of paperwork. Also, are you keeping it interesting with those added extras like science etc? I know school becomes very interesting once the basics are mastered, but if your child spends those first couple of years thinking that 'school' is math drills and handwriting practice, by the time you get o the fun side of school you may have lost their interest and excitment.And finally, to those who think that 3 hours is so much time that the kids will miss out on being kids, we need a little perspective. Remember 1st graders usually go to school for some 6 hours, plus a half hour or more of homework! How much time is wasted there? Your child is still spending half as much time on school as most their peers! I think they have plenty of 'being a kid' time. The other thing you talk about, which dosen't seem to have gotten much of a reply, is balancing it with enough play, which is also vitally important in the early years, I have two suggestions in that regards. Firstly, when I was a kid a very common homeschool schedule was an early start after breakfast, finishing before lunch, and then the afternoon was for play and fun. That has gone out of fashion, with kids who don't have good attention spans and seem to need (want) constant breaks. Homeschoolers seem to need their children to enjoy every aspect of homeschooling these days, which I disagree with personally. Sure, the kids will find it a little harder to work in big blocks instead of small blocks, but what workplace allows you to spread 3 hours of work over the course of a whole day? As the parent it's up to you to decide what's best for your children whether they like it or not. Tailoring an education to your child, which is a great benefit to homeschooling, has recently become tailoring life to your childs comfort and preferences, which is ill preperation for later life. They can still enjoy education without enjoying the challenging parts of getting it done in a timely manner that fits in with the family. You don't want to be a homeschooling family, you want to be a family that homeschools, and while that's no longer popular it is perfectly ok and do-able. Doing homeschool in a chunk then having it 'finished' for the day is a good way to seperate them, but again has fallen out of fashion in favour of 'a lifestyle of learning', which I absolutely believe happens, but is taken terribly out of context sometimes. I'm not saying it works for everyone, but it sounds like it's what you need. Don't be afraid to homeschool in a way that your kids don't always love, don't feel like you must always make things easier for them. You matter here too, and sometimes kids don't like what's good for them. I don't assume that my child needs special things because she dosen't like vegetables, and proceed to tailor her diet so she only takes in what children her age are comfortable with, I assume she dosen't know what's good for her, and teach her that she has to eat them whether she likes it or not, but do my best to make them fun and palatable in the process! Sometimes homeschooling is the same way, and it's not a bad thing. Having said that, for a first grader you will want to break the morning up by mixing fun and book activities. Maybe start with reading together, then do some english books, then do some fun science together, then do math, then do art/music, then lunch happens and they have the rest of the day to play to their hearts content. And finally, you say that your afraid giving them time to play will just be wasted, that you want a plan in mind to see where you're going and work towards. Well what about semi-structured play? Kids do need time to discover on their own, but what if you planned one activity each afternoon. Maybe fill a jar with activity ideas. Bake cookies, play with the hose, play 'shop', pull out the legos, climb a tree, go to the park, take a walk, listen to some nursery rhymes, Build with boxes and tubes, play in the sandpit, all these differemt things are great learning experiences through play, and if it makes you feel better to plan and structure them just like any other subject, then do it! Call it 'life skills' and plan it into your day like your schoolwork, then you know that extra time is being spent in worthwhile persuits, and again, it still leaves plenty of time for free play. I know I've stated some unpopular opinions here, so if you have any questions about what I've said, feel free to PM me. :)

What's she like with living math? My sister could not grasp any on-paper concept of less than whole numbers, but she could bake, including doubling and halving measurments, she could do math in relation to money, knew how to make change and add prices together in the store, etc. Some kids find all the numbers on paper just confuse and lose them, but when those numbers are tied to real life ideas and concepts they make a lot more sense. It sounds like it could be as simple as that. I don't want to sound biased, but this sounds like exactly the situation Life of Fred was made for, bringing math into real life concepts and giving it a reason and a reference point. It's much easier to understand and visualise 5 apples, and dad eating one apple, how many are left than it is to work with 5 - 1 = x. Perhaps leave the drills for awhile and find ways to practice the concepts in real life, allowing your child to make the connections in her mind, so that when she sees 5 - 1 = x she can begin to see those apples and let it make sense.

Combining everything but language and some maths in the early years is completely achievable and reasonable provided one of your children is not gifted or learning disabled or something else that would seperate them further. Simply do some one off and supplemental stuff with your school age child this year, then next year start them both from the same book. No need for the elder child to be one book ahead, just delay his beginning of the first book, or accelerate the second childs beginning of the first book, depending on their maturity. Combining during highschool is actually harder, not easier. Kids develop different strengths and weaknesses, they have different interests and different learning styles, and they want some independence as well. Some kids will combine well for high school, but I know my sister and I simply could not combine, it would never have worked. On the other hand our two younger siblings did combine quite successfully, as a slightly behind 3rd grade boy and a bright 1st grade girl they were right on the same level, 2nd grade books fit them perfectly.

My mum went through exactly the same thing with my sister, also dyslexic, when we left school for the final time. My sister had just finished 5th grade at a private school with average and above average marks. Mum did a few placement tests (might have included MUS) and was shocked to find my sister working at the same level as our math-savvy, just finished first grade brother. She couldn't understand it, and made a lot of angry and confused phone calls. Ultimately, what it came down to was tests that were written to never be failed (lest it look bad for the teacher) low expectations which resulted in a much lower idea of what 'average' actually was by the school, and being pushed through, skipping onto the next concept before learning the previous one, but in such a way that my sister knew the 'formula' to be able to answer the questions on tests, so long as she never needed to think about what she was actually answering. All of this makes the school look like it's excelling, while putting it's students on a conveyor belt. The biggest hurdle to cope with was not the math, in fact the math wasn't really an issue at all in the grand scheme of things. The hurdle was my sisters self confidence and self worth. The idea that she couldn't do second grade math was one she could not get past, even though mum understood those grades were meaningless and 'grade 2' in homeschooling was vastly different to 'grade 2' at the private school. I think in many ways my sister felt betrayed and like everyone else was judging her, because she was judging herself. She was very hurt and bitter. (as a side note, I went through a very similar thing with writing assignments. At school the teachers would read and correct our rough drafts, then we would go rewrite it to the teachers specifications. I basically had a complete meltdown as a 12 year old when my mum refused to mark my rough draft, how could I possibly produce a final copy without knowing what I needed to fix! It was so foreign...) Your child is probably feeling many of the same emotions of anger and frustration, it's a huge blow to his self confidence. You can see the issues logically, but chances are all he can see is 'little kids are smarter than me, I'll never do anything worthwhile'. This is the absolute most important thing to work on right now. Believe it or not, the math dosen't matter, a few more months delay wont change anything in the long term, and if you try to work through it the way he is right now it'll take longer because he is telling himself he can't do it, and he will come to hate it. He needs to see that he can do things (perhaps some fun hands on math, or is he any good in the kitchen? If so you could show him how much math is involved in cooking. Play Yahtzee and other math games, maybe look into LOF as a fun mathy thing) Find areas where he excells and focus in on them, let him know it's alright, that the school system failed him and it's not his fault, and now you're going to fix it together. Get his trust back (I know when I had the writing assignment, although I couldn't put it in as many words at the time, I felt betrayed, and almost scared to learn a new method because I felt convinced I would be led on and betrayed again. Better to believe I can't do it and not even try than to be tricked into thinking I can do it, then laughed at when I can't. While no one laughed at me, I felt like they were in my mind.). Help him get past this blow to his concept of education and reality, his self image was very different to what it is now. When school and grades are such a defining point in your life, discovering you're actually not very good at something you took pride in being good at is hard. Then, when he's ready, maybe in a few months, begin introducing math back in, perhaps as I've said below, or perhaps in another way entirely. You know your child, just don't push him too hard too quickly. As for the practical side of him actually catching up on math, maturity means a lot of concepts will come quicker to him now. He also only has gaps, which means there will be plenty of things he DOES know. For my sister, who was the age of a beginning 6th grader but still stuck on 2nd grade multipication, my mum pulled out some second grade books. At the very beginning this made my sister upset, but mum had made sure she understood no one was judging her and she was going to catch up, and she agreed to try. My sister went through the second grade book. Many sections she skimmed over, like addition and shapes, doing one or two problems per lesson to prove she knew the concept and finishing a week or two of work pages in a single day. This boosted her confidence wonderfully as she saw herself racing through things that she knew how to do. Then she would hit sections that she struggled with and slow right down, doing one lesson each day until it clicked (usually much quicker than it would have for a child the age of a 2nd grader, because she was more mature with more life experiences to call on). She finished the second grade book in a couple of months, and moved on to the third and fourth grade books with the same approach (skipping the first third of the book which was basically review of the last book), We discovered through this method that her biggest issue was that she had been very ill and missed a couple of months of school during the time in which her class learnt about the very fundamentals of fractions and less-than-whole numbers. Mum had tried to get work to bring home for her but the teachers reassured her that she wasn't missing much and would catch up. As a result, she simply couldn't wrap her head around numbers that were not whole. Well once that gap was filled she raced through the books. I believe by the end of her first catchup year, grade 6, she finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th and was halfway through the 5th grade book. She spent grade 7 doing the other half of grade 5 and then her grade 6 book. Grade 8 was spent doing grade 7. I don't think she ever caught up on that final year, she progressed at a normal rate a grade level behind after that and when she left school at the end of grade 10 for an apprenticship she had finished her grade 9 workbook. But you know, it didn't matter. She no longer hated math, in fact she felt confident with it. She had a good grasp of any math relevent to her adult life. Some kids run a level behind, others run a level or two ahead, the numbers don't really matter, it's the understanding and ability to use what's learnt that's important. My sister may never become a rocket scientist, but she has her dream job. She handles money daily and is better at it than most of the teenage cashiers at the supermarket, she lives on her own and balances a budget perfectly, and uses math in every area she needs to. It's ok to not excel at math, so long as you are progressing. I'm sure your child will find his strong subjects, and who knows, maybe once he fills in the gaps you'll find he continues to race ahead and actually learns to love math. It's ok to be behind, it's even ok if he never fully catches up, and don't feel like you have to push him into 6th grade math right now because his age dictates it. All pushing will do is make hm hate and resent math more. This is where we need to remember what our ultimate goals for our kids are. In most cases they will not be 'score top of the class in calculus and graduate at 14'. For many of us it is 'prepare my child for adult life, and give them understanding of the world around them, not formulas and lists'. You can give him those things, whether he does grade 5 math or grade 6 math this year. Just don't stress about the numbers, in 10 years time no one will care about this period of his education, except in as much as it prepares him for the next. Good luck!

You know, being right dosen't mean we have to be standoffish about it. It's these sorts of 'fine, your problem' attitudes that make people think homeschoolers are stuck up. There seems to be no understanding here at all. I'm amazed at the amount of people not even willing to give this person a second chance. You know, maybe she acted out because she was emotional about the topic, she was asking questions because she felt trapped with a bad situation for her child, and she got defensive because she thought the OP was giving false hope, or she couldn't cope with being told that it was an option again after she thought she had already confirmed it was not. Maybe she's angry at the system and took that out on the OP. Note, I am not saying she was right in her behaviour. She reacted badly and inappropriately. The OP did nothing wrong. As such, the OP has no reason to apologize for what she said. But the OP may choose to see that the mother is in a hard time emotionally, and would like to continue to extend her hand as a support, despite what happened. She would like to let the mother know that she understands, that she holds no grudge (the mother may well be feeling bad for her reaction, especially if she looked into it later to find OP was right) and that things are ok. So with this in mind it would be completely reasonable for the OP to choose to go up to the mother and say 'I'm sorry about what happened last week'. No more pushing info about ages etc, no apologies for what the OP said, which does not need apologising for since it was right. Just a simple 'I feel sad that you were sad', an expression of wanting to make things ok and agree to disagree perhaps. Is that so much to ask? And perhaps this will help the mother to feel more comfortable, and perhaps open up to the OP. Should the OP have to make the first move? No. But it's called being the bigger person, and if the mother will not approach the OP, the only chance the OP has of making the relationship ok again is to make the step herself, or otherwise allow a wedge to drive itself between the two of them for the long term. I sure wish more people would have understanding in relationships, and not be so stuck up in pride and 'well I didn't do anything wrong'. If people could put that kind of thing aside, they might actually be able to help someone. When I first came into the church I was a VERY angry young woman. I was defensive and standoffish, and people here who say they wouldn't bother with this mother again also wouldn't bother with me. I would bite someones head off for saying I was wrong, because I couldn't bear to be corrected or discredited after an abusive background telling me I could never be right. It was only because of the few people who were willing to keep coming back, apologise for upsetting me even when they didn't need to, showing grace and compassion, and agreeing to disagree instead of standing with pride, and basically just trying to reach me and help me that I was able to change and get to the stage I am at now. My behaviour was wrong, and everyone knew that, but it was besides the point. I'm a very different person today because of the grace those few people showed, and I strive to show the same understanding that I recieved.

We had a terrible time trying to find a typing program that actually interested us as kids. But we did finally find one we had a lot of success with, called TTAPS. Only thing is it is Australian, which is fine for me because I am too! But I don't know how you would go about obtaining it outside Australia.

The thing about LOF is that it is intended as a full curriculum, and as such the cost is quite reasonable. But a lot of parents, especially those who run textbook heavy homeschools, simply can't feel comfortable with the approach LOF offers (no drilling, making math relevent also makes it easy to learn and understand, making 'drill and kill' unnececary.). They like it as a supplement, which is great, but not what it was written for. I personally am in the group of people who feel comfortable with LOF as a full curriculum with some supplements (games, multiplication flash cards, puzzles and extra online resources for any trouble spots) so the cost is quite ok It's just a very different approach to math to the one we are used to from our school days, and too different for many families. So yeah, I guess that gives some perspective on it.

4 day school weeks were very popular when I was a kid homeschooling, and the families that did them still had time to do normal school holidays a lot of the time, with a little planning. When I was a kid homeschooling most friends went to school because there were simply so few HSers, so being available during holidays and after school was important. One thing is incoporating a little extra school each day, for example, if there is independent reading to do for science/history, instead of taking up 'schooltime', when we did 4 day schooling we did our independent reading in bed before going to sleep (of course, we loved to read, so it didn't seem like school). It meant we could fit another half hour or so of curriculum into our school day. Another thing was leaving big projects like building a volcano, or 'fun topics' like arts and crafts, or things that didn't seem school-like, eg home ec, for weekends or school holidays. I remember we did an entire year of home ec one year, only doing it on non-school days! And art/craft instruction was a half hour of mum teaching on sunday afternoon, then her sending us outside with the supplies needed while she took a nap or cleaned up or did other sunday afternoon stuff. If there is a particularly fun or hands on sci/history unit coming up they can make great casual school holiday or summer projects. If you can take the fun stuff and do it during the times your daughter gets upset about doing school, it might give a happy medium. Then again, you're the parent, and you homeschool for a reason. There are plenty of advantages for homeschooling, but everything is a trade off and your daughter wanting the best of both worlds is impractical all around. As the parent you might decide to just put your foot down and tell her this is the way it is. It's your responsibility to do what's best for her, whether she likes it or not.

He could miss out on a little math and english, but stocking up on educational games like yahtzee, scrabble, boggle, and gently encouraging some activities like food maths or writing a story would ensure he is still learning and active in those subject areas. As for the other subjects, make sure there's plenty of educational books and documentaries and games, give him resources to DO things, enable him to build a fort or bake some cookies. As a kid I had a book of fun science experiments that I used to do on my own, I especially liked the ones like making your own sherbert and soda, or making practical items like soaps. Perhaps he would like one of those kids electrical kits where you connect all the components. Maybe he'd be interested in cars or trains. Who knows? I personally believe any unschooling needs a certain amount of direction and gentle prodding to 'useful' endeavours. But if he has that, then it sounds like exactly what your family needs.

When we were pulled out of school for the final time, my sister, a 6th grader, tested at a very similar level in math to our 2nd grade brother. She started the second grade books at an extremely fast pace, trying to find the stumbling blocks and bits she missed. By the end of grade 6 she was halfway through the grade 5 book. She never came to excel at math, and I believe she remained a grade 'under' for the rest of school, before beginning her traineeship after year 10 (so she only did up to grade 9 math). But she did catch up when she was given the time and freedom to work at her pace, and to take the time she needed on topics she was stuck on (she could rush through telling the time and taking measurments, finishing a month of lessons in a couple of days just filling in a few questions per chapter, but when she hit 4th grade percentages she slowed right down, doing one lesson per day for weeks, despite it being 2 years below her 'grade') Some kids just aren't academics, and that's ok. Some kids need a bit more maturity before certain concepts, such as less than whole numbers, finally 'click'. Some kids have missed an important fundamental somewhere, and struggle until they fill in the gap. It's all normal and ok. It's hard when you see the homeschoolers who are racing ahead (my sister had those struggles, while I was the opposite, doing 6th grade math in grade 3 and above my level in other subjects throughout). That sister may not have excelled at school, some would even say she did badly, only completing year 9 math. But she has held steady full time jobs doing exactly what she loves (working with horses) since she was 15 (now turning 20 this year). She may not be book smart but she knows how to learn, she is living in her own home, and managing better than most people her age. She learns what she needs to and still holds an interest in learning when it's relevent to her. She might not know which triangle is which and she might have no idea how to work out a hypotenuse, but she balances a budget, and manages money in her job. All her bills are paid and she has no debt. As far as I'm concerned she's a homeschooling sucess story. I guess the reason I'm recounting this is to reassure you that, yes, it's ok to work a grade below, not every child will race through academics even with one-on-one attention. Even if he never catches up (and I'm not saying he wont) even a non-academic child can be a success. What is your ultimate aim in homeschooling your children? To have them graduate with honours? Or do have them finish their schooling years equipped for the life they want to lead based on their skills and interests and confident in themselves and their abilities? I think you're doing great, and you know exactly what your son needs, which is the best thing anyone can ask for.

Second Gen homeschooler here. We used many different systems as kids, but one of my favourites, and the one I intend to use with some tweaking with my little ones, is below. When we did science and history, we found the most effective method for our family was intensive blocks. Lets say a topical 'unit' lasts 4 weeks, which was pretty common with our workbooks. We would complete it in one week (so one 'week' each day.). We seemed to retain it best that way, being able to focus in on it for the week. Another thing to remember is that, while it might seem work intensive to do a 'week' in a day, by doing it all at once you have less revision and revisiting, less time spent getting 'into it', less time finding workbooks etc. So while you might spend 40 mins on history, 5 times a week right now, you might find doing it all in one day each day in the week only takes a two hour block because you've cut out 15 minutes of wasted time at the beginning and end of the session. (if there's a movie to be watched, watching it while eating lunch can be a great use of time!) If I had the subjects you've listed, this is how I'd look at doing things. (of course I have no knowlege of your curriculum structure, this is just an idea). I'm actually going to include two different schedules, just to give some ideas and help you think outside the box with it all. Subjects - English, Math, History, Science, Geography, Our country, Home ec, Piano, Latin, Bible, Art & Craft. ----------------------------- Routine Suggestion 1 Morning session, done every day, perhaps between 8am and 11am - Bible, English, Math, Latin, Piano. (I've included latin, bible and piano because, in my mind, they're things that should be practiced daily.) Lunch with movie/audio/read aloud Afternoon session, perhaps from 1pm to 3pm Week 1 - History Week 2 - Science Week 3 - Geography Week 4 - Home Ec Week 5 - History Week 6 - Science Week 7 - Our Country Week 8 - Art and Craft (Insert school holidays here perhaps, or catch up or whatever you want to tack on the end of the term) It's important to note that if you aim to do a workbook week (or two weeks for the less intensive subjects like home ec) per day in your focus subject, and your subjects cater for 4 week units (or 8 week 'terms' for things like home ec) then you have a built in catch up day on the 5th day of the week, a great buffer for any family! --------------------------------- Routine Suggestion 2 Morning Session, done between say 8am and 9:30am - Math and English Midday Session, done between 10am and 1pm - (again, allowing time for a movie/audio/readaloud component during lunchtime, hence the longer session time) Week 1 - History Week 2 - Science Week 3 - Geography Week 4 - Our Country (Again, this allows for an automatic catch up day at the rate of 1 workbook week per day) Afternoon session, done between 2pm and 3pm Monday - Home Ec Tuesday - Piano Wednesday - Latin Thursday - Bible Friday - Art and Craft ----------------------------------------- Hope these suggestions get you thinking :). It's hard to get out of the mindset of 30 minute subject blocks like a schoolroom, but as a graduated homeschooler, the majority of other homeschoolers I know agree that we all fared much better when we were allowed time to focus, whether it was an art and craft project we wanted to finish that afternoon, or a science course that we simply lost track of and forgot if we only visited it once a week or in small doses, but stayed in our minds if we did it in an intensive manner. Find what works for your family, and don't worry about what's 'expected'. Every family has a different routine and pattern to it.

Rainefox - Thanks for the info on how you're using it! Glad to see I'm not the only person who feels like ordering 'one of everything' on the website :) For math, I planned to use life of fred as a core, with supplemental extra problems etc, so maybe some of their math books will help with that! Redsquirrel - Thanks so much for a balancing opinion! I did get the impression they were in it for the cash, some of the books just seemed absurdly priced for what they were. None of the books looks thick or anything, so paying $20 for an 80 page paperback puzzle book is just unreasonable. I'm hoping to pick most of the books up secondhand for that reason. As for their poor layout and ease of use, could it be a result of the company seeming to focus more on classroom supplementing than the homeschool crowd, and catering their layout etc to a class situation? Or is it just poor all around? You're right, it does seem odd to think that logical layout would be an issue in a logic based book.

Hi So I've only recently found the Critical Thinking Co when looking at their core CT curriculum. Upon exploring the website further though I've realised they have a HUGE range of books, everything from puzzles to science experiments to english curriculums! It's actually quite overwhelming trying to wade through hundreds of books... I don't subscribe to any particular homeschool philosophy, but for my husband and I (both second gen homeschoolers) we believe knowing HOW to think and learn and analyze is the most important thing we can teach our kids, and so many of their resources seem to fit that perfectly. I LOVE the idea of incoporating critical thinking into science and history, teaching kids to truly look at what they're learning and not just accept everything told to them. I love the emphasis on understanding instead of simple memorising. And frankly, it just looks like fun! My husband and I both were the kinds of kids to spend hours pouring over brain teasers and puzzle books, so I love the idea of taking that fun and directing it just a little bit. But there is just so much there. So I have a number of questions about it. Firstly, it looks to me like almost all the books are supplementary, would that be correct? If I were to use, say, sciencewise, would I be correct in saying it's the sort of thing where you would do one chapter/experiment a week for educational fun, as opposed to an indepth, textbooky, 3 times a week science course? Secondly, can anyone tell me why there are so many serieses?!?! I'm looking at science for example, and there is sciencewise, science detectives, red herring science and developing CT through science, plus a mapping booklet and some other bits and pieces, and they each have different, but heavily overlapping, age recomendations (3 of them are suitable for grade 4 for example). Each of these series' have two or three books. Why on earth do they have 4 sets of 2-3 books each and not one set of 10 books lol. Is it because, since they are of a supplemental nature, each series has a different focus? sciencewise is focused on experiments, red herring science is about using reasoning to understand science theory, etc? Still using the science example, should I be selecting one or two of these sets, or, as supplements, are they supposed to last less than a year/more than a year and just be used as some extra activities? So you might do an activity from sciencewise one week alongside your other science, then the next week you might combine a couple of related red herring chapters with a couple of sciencewise experiments all around the same topic, etc, making those books last 3 years, while taking another book, for example balance benders, and doing it as an intensive over a few months for an 'extra'? One of the things that greatly appeals to me are the things like the balance benders and other 'puzzle' type books they have. There's such a broad array that I could see myself assigning, say, one puzzle book per term to be completed, first term balance benders, second term mind puzzles, third term one of the word puzzle books, etc. Does that sound like an appropriate approach? I'm yet to actually see any of the books in person, which makes it harder to figure them out, the online samples only give so much infomation. Finally, is there anything I should know about this range of books? Good, bad? How others have used them, how I should not use them, whatever. They don't seem terribly popular among people I know, so I am struggling to find good info about them. Thanks for any help you can offer!