I was homeschooled 1-12, from 1988-2000. All of my siblings as well. My brother decided to return to public school in 10th grade but the rest of us stuck it out. We loved it. We were done by noon and mom always facilitated our interests. We all have done well, my brother is a computer engineer and my sister and I both have a degree in music. My little brother is almost finished with pharmacy school. Mom went through a short of fundamentalist stage primarily due to the influence of the few other home schoolers in the eighties. It didn't last long and my little brother never experienced it. Our local ps was horrible and that's why they decided to home school.

I second that Piano Adventures moves quickly. I tried the accelerated version with an older student once and found that we had to do a lot of supplementation to slow it down. It really moves quickly. I'd stick with Bastien if I were you unless you really can't stand it. I feel like you always sort of loose ground whenever you switch things up. If you do switch, I'd start at a lower level and call it review just because they all cover things in different ways.

Ohio requires either an approved standardized test or a portfolio evaluation. I was homeschooled and we always did the testing. It was no big deal, and we got plenty of practice for the ACT, which we all did well on. I intend to do standardized testing with my girls, I would do it even if it wasn't required, because it is good practice for the ACT, SAT, and any other tests they have to take eventually. We never did any test prep whatsoever, it was truly just evaluation. Personally, I think it would be much more of a pain to do a portfolio evaluation. You have to get representative samples together of everything you have done, and (I believe) get interviewed. It all seems more subjective also, based on the evaluator.

Here here! I was so stressed out in those days. At one point I had my days scheduled down to the minute, even including bathroom breaks, in order to fit everything in. Hours and hours, and it was never enough. I can honestly say that from a practical standpoint, it was not worth it. Job scarcity, intense competition, and a general waning interest in classical music training made it very difficult to make a living teaching afterward with my piano performance degree. My music ed friends hardly fared better. Sadly, the arts programs are often the first to face budget cuts in public schools. I don't regret it, because I met my husband at school, but sometimes I think about going back to school for a more practical degree.

It just depends on if they already have a good ear. If the OP's son is learning music at least partially from recordings he likely has a good ear for music. Sight singing was by far the easiest music class I took just because I had a naturally good ear. Atonal music theory...now THAT was hard, lol. And piano literature, because my crazy professor made the piano lit students memorize thousands of pieces by sight, by audio, and by library call number. Ridiculous. :-) The thing with piano is that, if you want to major in it, you have to prepare very early. He can always prepare and then change his mind and still have benefited in other ways from the training. But if he doesn't put the work in early, he can't decide later on that he'd rather do music. It just doesn't work with piano. My piano prof said they get lots of students auditioning who just decided to take up piano in high school, not realizing how much training you have to have even to be accepted.

I wasn't quite sure where to post this. I am learning Spanish myself, having never taken Spanish before now. I would like to help my daughters learn it as well when the time comes. I understand that speaking a language is one of the best ways to learn, but I am also doing Duolingo, which I like very much. I'm progressing rather slowly and I still freeze up when I try to speak Spanish. There is a website called "my language exchange" http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/Default.asp that puts you in contact with speakers of other languages from around the world. One of the things they facilitate is finding a partner for Sype video chats. You can just chat in both languages equally, or follow a lesson plan if you can't find things to discuss. Has anybody used this? If so, did you find it helpful, were you able to be fairly comfortable with your partner, etc? Are people on it legitimately interested in learning a language? Thanks in advance for any information you can provide!

We'll be doing k this year, we've already started some things. RLtL level 2 Magic School Bus Science Club Lots of Reading math??? We might wait till next year on that My own handwriting practice I was thinking about MP's enrichment program but haven't decided. Maybe I should get going on my planning. :-)

I'm not interested in anything too expensive for what you get. -Sonlight -All About Spelling -Anything Bob Jones or Abeka (This just brings back bad memories from when I was home schooled. These curricula both make me think one word: Legalism. Because of the people I knew who used them back in the day, not necessarily the content. Although I remember it being very subjective on the faiths of the Founding Fathers...and something about God favors the USA because it is a Christian nation, and if we stop being a Christian nation, God will stop favoring us, which I feel is hogwash. For the record, I haven't looked at them recently and probably won't.) -Any packaged curriculum that can't be tailored to the ability of the student in different areas -Saxon (hated it when I was home schooled) Most of the curricula I wouldn't consider would be on the basis of one or more of the following: A. too expensive B. too worldview oriented C. too scripted D. too much work to implement.

"Typically, if I'm totally honest, it sounds braggish to me when you start your post with things like "my three year old has been reading since she was eighteen months old." See now I feel like I bragged because that is exactly what I did. Ah, sometimes you can't win. :-) And I wasn't even asking for book recommendations. We're doing the Mensa list. ;) (See what I did there?) Joking, don't hate me.

I hear you. That happens to me, too. Most of my conversations on what we are doing include some sort of disclaimer about how I am not making her work, what we do does not take very long, she would be doing it on her own and teaching herself wrong (letter formation, etc) if I didn't help her...she is just not content without a challenge. It is who she is. And one of the things I love about her. It isn't better or worse than anybody else, just different.

Thanks for clarifying, sunnyday. I would LOVE if it could be the way you describe in the end. That's what I keep trying for. :-)

Thanks for your calm and considered response. :001_smile: I guess I am feeling a little pissy today. I'm not really bursting to tell anybody about my daughter's accomplishments, but I do get questions a lot about what she is doing in school as I am very open about the fact that I intend to homeschool her. The reason I mentioned what she was reading was that, in the other post, one of the people talking about bragging said something about maybe they can barely sound out c-a-t and the parents call it reading. We do want to all believe our children are bright, but I personally believe that all children are bright in their own ways. There is no way my younger daughter will be reading early, but she has her own gifts. You know? In a perfect world we could celebrate our children's successes in a neutral way without feeling like we are bragging, without other people feeling they aren't measuring up, and without a spirit of competition that causes us to focus more on their weaknesses in order to compensate in other people's eyes for their strengths.

I don't post very often on here, but I do read things quite a lot. I have a daughter who is three who has been reading since she was 18 mos. And by reading, I mean sounding out words that she has never seen. Just the other day at church, her Sunday school teacher told me she read the word "preparation." I was just reading a thread here on academics in k where two separate people mentioned people "bragging" about their early readers. I find that very frustrating, as I'm sure does anybody who has a child reading early. Why is it bragging to talk about what they are doing? If somebody says their child plays outside all day long, nobody accuses them of bragging. If somebody says their kid loves legos and plays with them all day long, and builds buildings and things, is that bragging? No, it is just what they love. That's how parents with early readers feel. We don't do anything to push them, usually. I certainly don't, anyway. We just facilitate what they already love to do. It just makes it harder to facilitate that love when we go on a message board, say asking for book recommendations, and we get this attitude about bragging. Or, "just play outside," which is another issue. Not all the time, but often enough for me that I frequently feel awkward mentioning it in real life. I'm usually too shy to post much on here. I was raised not to brag, and I don't do it. It isn't bragging to accurately portray where your children are developmentally. Can we just show a little support, and not automatically throw out words like bragging that have such negative connotations? Sorry to rant.

I wouldn't purchase from someone with a bad reputation. Even if it was a great product. What if something goes wrong? I would be worried that if something went wrong I wouldn't get the support I needed. Plus I don't like to reward poor customer service.

Stub here in Ohio.

My younger daughter is a car screamer. Anything over thirty minutes and it sets her off. She has been getting gradually better. It's awful but what can you do? She doesn't need anything other than to get out of her car seat but we have to get there. I end up driving because my husband can't tune it out and I worry he won't be concentrating on the road.

Have you seen the website http://www.classicsforkids.com? It has free music and lesson plans and games and things, sponsored by our local public classical radio station. I haven't looked at it, but we listen to the program all the time and they always mention it.

I have an identical twin, and we both pumped breast milk for my second daughter when I adopted her. I had previously had a biological daughter and my sister had a boy. When the milk settled, hers had a good inch of fat at the top, and mine had less than half that. We thought it was interesting and strange.

I had a friend who kept posting selfies...sometimes several per day, and often very inappropriate (naked in the bathtub, etc.), then she would comment on the photos things like, "I know, bad hair day lol." When she had clearly just gone full hair and makeup. I think she was fishing for complements...? And this is a married woman in her mid-thirties, not a teenager (at least they have the "immature" excuse.) Am I crazy for thinking that is weird? I blocked her because I didn't feel like looking at five new pictures of her making kissy faces every day.

Whiskey. My favorite recipe comes from Emeril Lagasse. I don't have the link but it would be easy enough to Google. I hated egg nog until this recipe converted me. :-)

The Little Mermaid. My grandma took my sister and I. :-)

Thought I'd chime in. I don't think it is necessary to join an academy. Teachers at music academies usually have to pay rent for the facilities they use or they are paid a salary and the academy takes a percentage of the tuition. Therefore they often must charge more for lessons than an independent teacher can. Look for qualifications such as a degree in the instrument. Oftentimes you will find somebody teaching piano who has a degree focus in trumpet, for example. In the USA to get a degree in music education regardless of your instrument you are required to pass a certain level in piano. So those four years of piano may be all they have ever taken even though they have a music degree. Just make sure they have experience in the desired instrument. People often disagree on whether an electric keyboard is okay. I am of the opinion that it is preferable as long as the keys are weighted and the keyboard is full sized. the old free uprights that people get from relatives often have difficulty staying in tune and have a tinny unattractive sound that can't compete with the sound of electric keyboards which are recorded from nine foot concert grands. Plus the added benefit of being able to record yourself and practice with headphones... Just some thoughts from a piano teacher with a degree in piano performance.

After my second was born and right in the sleepless nights newborn stage, my neighbor with teenagers told me that she misses getting up with babies in the middle of the night. I just rolled my eyes and laughed. Sure you miss it. You don't have to do it any more.

If I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me I could pay a babysitter to give me a break once in awhile, :-). I agree with you it's an obnoxious thing to say. People who say that only remember the good which is great. My mom is the worst. "You never did that, you slept great, you didn't yell in restaurants or scream in the car, etc." I'm glad people can look back so fondly on what has been for me a very difficult time in life. I'm looking forward to that selective amnesia. :-) What I will tell people and what I have noticed is that it gets easier. I'm not a baby person though.

I'd say among my adult friends, the ones who were devastated when they found out the truth about Santa are about equal to the ones who didn't really care. I find that the ones who were devastated are the ones who don't do Santa in their households. My husband had a traumatic experience finding out, and I grew up not doing Santa, so we will not teach our kids that he is real. If they want to pretend, it is fine, but we won't have any gifts labeled "From Santa" or anything like that. Like I said, I didn't grow up believing in Santa, so there is no sense of fun or nostalgia with him for me. I'd rather put my efforts elsewhere. Plus, you just never know how your children will respond (upset or fine with it) to discovering the truth. I wouldn't want to risk it. Christmas is a ton of fun even without Santa.