The worst for us so far - 100 EZ lessons, Writing Strands, ILL, BSGFAA, Latina Christiana, and Life of Fred. I've purchased and sold LOF 3 times now....

I love book lists:) Thanks for sharing!

Wow! Thanks. This is super helpful:)

We strive for reading and math everyday. When I sense dd getting tired of "school" I try to incorporate more learning games and hands on activities. We do plenty of read alouds daily. This is where I can throw in science and history as well as lots of good literature. All of my kids like to listen to audio books. Jim Weiss is a favorite, including SOTW. She is also very into painting and drawing, so lots of artsy stuff when she feels like it.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look those up. I've got some others on the list- Black Ships Before Troy and Wanderings of Odysseus- Sutcliff D'Aulaire's greek myths Famous Men of Greece Old Greek Stories- James Baldwin Tales from the Odyssey- Mary Pope Osborne - I thought my younger children might like to listen to this. The Golden Fleece- Padraic Colum Bulfinch Age of Fable Which of these have been a hit or miss? Any others I'm missing?

If you had 16 weeks to spend on Ancient Greece, which books would be on your must read list? I feel like we could probably spend an entire year on this, but I'm afraid we don't have that much time:)

I have a $15 Itunes gift card that is burning a hole in my pocket. I'd like to get a couple Jim Weiss Audios. We love Jim Weiss, which is making it really difficult to narrow it down. We have Shakespeare for Children, Best Loved Stories, Just So Stories, King Arthur and Animal Tales. Help me decide which to add to our collection?

I agree with the others who have responded. The readers are really wonderful and are a big part of the program. I wouldn't recommend trying to do the program without them if at all possible.

This is really excellent advice. I LOVE the idea of Buddy math!

Yes, this is already happening so I'm sure it would be something I'd have to continue to look out for. This is what I am worried about. It seems I am constantly keeping him on task and reminding him to get back to work. Oh so frustrating. It would be through a virtual charter. It is so expensive to purchase the curriculum.

For those of you with experience with K12, does it require more or less parent involvment than traditional homeschooling? DH and I are considering enrolling DS12 full time in K12 because what we are currently doing is not working. I have very little time to spend teaching and helping DS with school due to lack of energy (very little sleep w/baby) and time (3 kids ages 4 and under). He just isn't able to be independent enough for me to hand over work and let him go at it. I really feel guilty about not being able to provide the education he deserves and am at a point where I feel I just have make a drastic change. We've been homeschooling for 4 years, and for at least 2 of those years, we've gotten very little done due to various circumstances. So, traditional homeschooling is out the window for now. I'm willing to try K12, but if it requires a lot of instruction and involvement from me, I think it would just be more pressure on my shoulders and not less. It's public school at home, so not doing school isn't an option. Ideally, I want to keep him home until high school, but at this rate I am afraid he'll just fall way behind. I'd love to hear from parents who have used K12, specifically for the middle grades.

This year has been pretty successful. Better than the previous 3 years so we are getting somewhere!! 6th grade hits: MOH vol 2 R&S spelling Teaching Textbooks Mark Kistler's Draw Squad Caesar's English Mind Benders 6th grade misses: Elemental Science biology History Odyssey R&S English Jury is still out on WWE Pre-k hits: AAR pre-level- DD LOVES this and is flying through it Singapore Essentials

DD 2.5 and DD 4.5 have outgrown naptime and I'm not ready to give up the break in my day. I need it for my own sanity! I saw SWB talk about quiet time on youtube and like the idea of having a mandatory quiet time for everyone in the house, even my 12 yo ds. I'm looking for suggestions for quiet time games, toys, books, audio books, etc. for the younger two. Any favorites?

We don't use the dictations the way that WWE explains to do it. We read the passage together. Then I give DS the passage to read and study for 5 or 10 minutes. He makes notes of the punctuation used and practices spelling words he doesn't know how to spell. When he tells me he's ready, I take the passage away and read it 3 times. After all of that, he writes it down. If he gets stuck and doesn't remember, I simply remind him and he keeps going. Much less painful. When we tried to follow it by the book, we were miserable too. I posted about the same thing a while back and was pointed to some videos on youtube of SWB doing dictation with her son. Search youtube for "dictation with dan". That was super helpful to me.

:bigear: I'm curious to hear how others feel about it as well. I've been considering making the switch with my 6th grader.... mostly for the accountability and so as not to be the bad guy anymore... I like the looks of it. I like the format for my audio visual learner. I like the accountability. I have talked to a couple of users who are fond of it as well. Just nervous to take the plunge...

DS loves to talk. LOL He also likes to create videos and edit them. This would be a good way for him to show what he has learned. Ruth- Thank you for your input! You have offered a wealth of information. So very helpful!! I do have a question about the science project. Do you have any requirements for the project or guidelines for your kids to follow? At this point, I think if I were to assign a science project for DS without defining the parameters and holding his hand quite a bit, he would quickly become overwhelmed. How does a non sciencey mom help her child through this process? I've seen some science fair project books at the library, and may even have a couple in the house. Perhaps it would be as simple as picking out a project from one of those books and letting him run with it... I was always intimidated by science as a child. I felt much more comfortable with language classes- English, foreign language, literature, writing, etc. I don't want my children to be weak in science simply because mom is.

I have A TON of science books around here because I am a book junkie...I would love to have ds actually read them. I'm definitely going to try this for science.

Kiddos are 11, 4, 2 and 5 mos. I'm not doing anything formal with the 4 yo yet. Lots of read alouds, art and playing. I like the sounds of this for my oldest though. I think he would do well with this sort of approach. We have done unit studies on and off for the past few years. He enjoys being able to explore a topic of interest. I do as well:) Do you require any written assignments based on the history and science reading, or is the goal just to soak it in and enjoy?

for science and history... what do you do? We've NEVER had luck with history or science curriculums around here and I'm looking for some inspiration. We love to read living books, biographies, and watch documentaries. Unfortunately, with the assignment heavy schedule, there isn't much time left over. I'm daydreaming about ditching the curricula in favor of reading, discussing and watching good films...That thread about a more relaxed homeschool has only encouraged the daydreaming.

We started our new year almost 6 weeks ago and we have changed the schedule a couple of times. We're still working out the bugs. It's tricky to find a schedule that fits because we have a large age difference between the oldest (11 yo) and the youngers (4 yo, 2 yo and 5 mo). We ditched History Odyssey after the first 2 weeks and switched to MOH Vol. 2. I am considering dropping the formal history curriculum completely and doing something more interest led. We'll see...

Yes! Relaxed would be great... This is an interesting thread and is challenging me to think about what we are doing. We are 6 weeks into the school year and the days seem to be getting longer and longer. DS is complaining that he doesn't have any free time... and he's mostly right. He dawdles quite a bit so transitioning from subject to subject takes longer than it needs to. There are certain things that I feel strongly about keeping the same- grammar, math, spelling(for now) and writing. We find vocab enjoyable, so I am not inclined to change anything there. However, Science and History are a different story. He finds these to be torturous and I think these should be the most fun! I would love to go to a more relaxed approach for these subjects, but I'm not visualizing how this would work in a practical way. We have tried the unschooling/relaxed method of schooling and I feel like it just led to the development of bad habits. :001_unsure: That makes me scared to go back... even if in just a couple of areas. After 4 years of homeschooling, you'd think I'd have a better grasp on things.

I watched the youtube videos. That was extremely helpful! That actually is similar to what goes on during our own dictation exercises. I guess we're not far off then.:)

We started the year using WWS1 for 11 DS. He is beginning his 6th grade year. After struggling through the first 2 weeks, I decided to start WWE4 instead. He is doing fine with the summaries in WWE4, but the dictations are a pain. How did/do you all handle dictation? I find that reading the passage 3 times and then asking him to repeat and write is nowhere sufficient for him to memorize it enough to get it onto paper. If I were to follow the directions in WWE4 for the dictation exercises, we would never complete one. Am I missing something or doing this incorrectly?

Wow! Some great responses. Thanks a ton to everyone who replied. I didn't disappear and meant to respond earlier, but I have 3 younger kids (4, 2 and 4 mos) who seem to need something at exactly the time I sit down at the computer. I'm sure you all know how that is. You have all given me a lot of things to consider. In reading your input, I gather that this can be a pretty normal occurrence for kids at this age group. Also, I have realized I need to take responsibility for the ways in which I contributed to the problem... being inconsistent, giving in frequently because of whining and changing things at his request. As a previous poster said, taking the emotion out of it is key. Baby is crying for mom. Gotta run, but I'll be back to check on these posts again soon.

How do you deal with a complaining and grumbling attitude? DS 12 complains about most of the schoolwork he has to do. This is our 4th year homeschooling and over the course of the past 3 years, I've tried teaching differently, different curriculums, etc., in an effort to cater to his specific learning style. I've found that regardless of what curriculum or method we use, he still complains about the work. This year I've determined to choose our curriculum based on what I think is best and just let him know that this is what we're going to use no matter how he feels about it. As I said, changing curriculums or styles hasn't made a difference in the attitude. In fact, I think it's only encouraged him to complain more in the hopes that I'll abandon the work and try something new. What are some ways you deal with complaining? Also, he lacks motivation to give his best effort. Not all of the time... but most of the time. He is always looking for direction from me and I feel like he's just trying to get me to give him answers. He's a very bright kid and is perfectly capable. I feel like I'm being manipulated a bit:sad: