I ended up giving him a notebook (wide-ruled) and he did great! He numbered it clearly and although the first assignment was writing, in words, numbers up to 1,000,000, he was able to write small and neatly enough. Now I'll have to figure out whether my 2nd grader's ready for that or not. He writes tiny when he wants to. Maybe I'll do it but number the problems in it for awhile.

We're starting in 8 hours. I'm a month behind where I'd like to be as far as organization, but we'll manage. 3 day week now, 4 day week next week, and by then we should be ready for the first full week. I'm doing all the every-day work this week and adding in the once-or-twice-a-week stuff next week. It's been 90+ degrees all week so I'm hoping we finish soon enough to spend most of the afternoon at a pool. I haven't put anything into HST yet but I've been copying, scanning, and laminating all week so I think I've got all the physical stuff I need. I just won't have pretty printouts of work to do right away tomorrow.

Last year, I gave my kids graph paper to answer their Singapore textbook practice questions. I would split the page into boxes and number the boxes for each question. I think I fell into this after starting the year with Saxon - I had a lot of leftover copies of the Saxon 30 question graph paper pages and then continued similarly once those ran out. This year, my oldest son is doing Singapore 4A and is in 4th grade. I'm debating whether to give him a wide ruled notebook or plain white paper or some other option. I don't think I should need to carefully give him boxes to write in anymore. A notebook would be nice because they'd be contained, but I'm not sure if he's ready to fit numbers onto those lines. What do you use? We do a lot of the textbook orally, but usually not the practice pages.

Both my 7 and 9 year olds have barreled through the Sideways Stories books in the past week, so my vote's for those.

Is anyone signed up for the Scripps' Word Club? I want my 4th grade natural speller to do spelling bee prep this year in lieu of a standard spelling program but I haven't been sure how to go about doing that. I was looking at the Spell-It lists and I could probably read them to him and make a list of the ones that challenge him. Then I saw that they offer Word Club for $20 annually and he could study the same lists online. I'm sure he'd love any excuse to use the computer. Our homeschool co-op has had a bee study group in the past but the person in charge quit because her daughter aged out and it isn't clear what's going to happen this year. It's the first time I've had a child old enough to participate. I'm pretty tempted to sign him up for Word Club but are there reviews out there? Any reasons I should skip it?

My state doesn't require a portfolio, but before we start the new school year, I'm trying to figure out what to save from last year and what to toss (last year was our first year homeschooling). If I only had 1 child, I think it would be a little easier to pare down, but I'm trying to both keep a small sample of work to give examples of what the kids did and how they improved AND I'm trying to remember what I did for the older boys so I don't reinvent the wheel when younger brothers reach the same age. I do keep a record book of books we've read and whatnot. So far, I've determined that I should probably photograph all art projects, maybe keeping 2-3 of the most interesting ones. We spent a month making a lapbook about the history of the Papacy when the new Pope was elected and it'll be easy to keep those. But what about Singapore workbooks/IP books? My binder of filled in FLL 3 sheets? My middle son started the year in Saxon 2 and I held onto the weekly tests but even those might be more than I need, especially since I don't plan to use Saxon with future children. Should I photograph son #1's IEW papers and then save the outline, rough draft, and final drafts of a couple? Ugh, I've put this off all summer because I'm just not sure what's important enough and I neither want to regret tossing something nor hold onto giant stacks of workbooks for little reason.

I used Phonetic Zoo with my third grader last year and loved the way that he went off, listened to the CD, and did what it said. Much less conflict between us that way. But it is meant to start after AAS 3, so that might not work for you.

We follow my teacher husband's schedule for the most part, which starts here Aug 28th and continues through June 6th or so. He actually returns for workshops next Monday (8/19) and I'd prefer to ramp up starting then, but the only 1-week option for our boys' YMCA camp is Aug 18-23, so I can't start until they get back. And I want to give them a few days to adjust to being home, so I don't want to start on Monday the 26th. I'll end up starting on the 28th when my husband starts but since it's a 3 day week followed by Labor Day's 4 day week, I cut back at the beginning and then call the combined two short weeks my first full week. (We do 5 days' work over those 7 school days.) Next year, they'll probably go to 2 week camp earlier in August and I'll get to rethink it.

My youngest just wrote his name for the first time right after his 3rd birthday. He doesn't understand that they should be left to right - he'll write T, then i, then m, but they might be high to low or curling in a circle or whatever. My older boys didn't write their names with lower case until 4.5 when their pre-k teacher forced them to learn it that way. I suspect they were 4 before they wrote them at all, but I can't remember exactly.

That's good to hear. I didn't homeschool my older boys until they were already reading and writing and they were also slow to write/draw while Tim has been holding markers and pens since he was 1.5 and it's throwing me off. Anyway, AAR has a section for each letter that suggests doing handwriting activities so I'll probably do AAR in the HWT letter order and if it takes us all year to go through the capital letters rather than doing each letter 3 times, that's fine, he's 3. I like the idea of having Montessori practical life stuff for him to do while I'm actively teaching his brothers.

I'm going to start my 3 year old with AAR's pre-reading program combined with HWT's pre-k book. AAR pre-reading goes through all the letters, in alphabetical order, 3 times (upper case, lower case, sounds). HWT goes through the letters once, with extra activities interspersed throughout, in easiest-to-spell-first order. I'm not too concerned with whether this takes a year or two - he just turned 3 but knows all his letters and can write a lot of them and really wants to have school like his brothers. I'll probably work with him for 10 minutes a day, once or twice a day, depending on what he wants. I read the suggestion somewhere that AAR can be done in the HWT letter order, with the rhyming/language exploration section done in the written order. But knowing that HWT only goes through the letters once while AAR does three times, I'm not exactly sure how to pull this off. Should I do AAR in the HWT order even though AAR will move through the letters faster than HWT? I'm sure someone else has figured this out - what did you do?

My just-turned-3yo is at the same place - he wants to make letters, knows all the basics, and wants to have school like his big brothers. My HWT stuff finally came in the mail today. I bought the pre-k teacher manual and My First School Book (they revamped them this spring so I bought new when I usually get used). My mom wanted birthday ideas so I had her buy the playdoh kit and he's been loving that. I also spent under $10 making craft foam versions of the wood letter-making pieces, both upper and lower cases, and laminated printouts of the letters to put the pieces onto. I used this:http://tiredneedsleep.blogspot.com/2010/05/updated-build-letter-templates.html and http://tiredneedsleep.blogspot.com/2010/07/build-letter-lowercase-templates.html and it was really easy. I also got AAR's pre-reading and plan to do MEP reception level with him. We might take 2 years to do it all - I'll see how much he enjoys it and not push it. We won't start our school year for another 2 weeks.

I started homeschooling last year with 3rd and 1st graders who covered Egypt extensively in private school kindy. I used Connecting with History's volume 2 (which starts at Jesus' birth) and added in SOTW vol 2 once we reached the end of Roman times. I'm going to continue to use them in tandem, expecting to get through the history cycle by the end of 7th grade for my oldest. Sounds like volume 2 would be a good choice for your family, too.

I've spent the past couple weeks convinced that the slight varicose veins I just noticed are about to turn horrible and bother me for the rest of my life, which must be coming quickly because I'll be 35 next month. I acknowledge the crazy but I can't seem to convince myself.

My rising first grader could read almost anything when we started homeschooling last fall. He got through AAS levels 1, 2, and most of 3 that year and that felt like enough phonics/spelling for him. He'll move to Phonetic Zoo after he finishes AAS 3 in Sept.

My first grader started at a similar pace - I don't think he misspelled any words until late in level 2. I focused on learning the rules and writing the sentences/phrases and less on the spelling words. We used the sentences to teach grammar. The rules seemed like they'd be useful with more difficult words so he could still apply those ideas for words he did find difficult. That said, once he gets through level 3 in late September, we're dropping AAS and moving to Phonetic Zoo for him. It doesn't seem worth all the effort when spelling clearly isn't problematic for him. I'll go back to AAS with my 3rd child and start in kindergarten when the words are more of a challenge. My third grader (first year homeschooler) went through most of PZ level B this past year and I'm just going to do spelling bee prep with him in 4th grade.

We went with my parents last year when our boys were 8, 6, and 1.5 and stayed in a condo really close to the entrance, but off-site. We had a 2 story place with 2 bedrooms (one for the kids, one for us, and my parents were on a pull-out couch in the living room.) and 2 bathrooms. It didn't feel like we were on top of each other and we had a kitchen. We typically ate breakfast in the condo, brought snacks we'd bought at the grocery store, then ate lunch and supper at Disney. We had 3 fancy-place dinners and everything else was quick-service. Getting in and out of the Magic Kingdom took awhile but everywhere else was really fast. We'd go for the morning, come back after lunch and nap/swim/watch tv, then return around 5pm and have dinner and check out a few last things. With a toddler, it was a good pace for us. I'd probably still do that without a toddler unless we were only going for 2 or 3 days and trying to cram everything in. Even with afternoon rests, by the 6th day, my husband, 8, and 1 year olds stayed home the day my parents and 6 year old and I returned to the Magic Kingdom because they were worn out. And on the 7th day, by lunch we were pooped.

My older sons will be in 4th and 2nd grade in the fall. Peter finished Singapore 3B and Leo will have one more unit left of 2B. I did the first 2 sections of Beast Academy 3A with Peter after I dropped Saxon 5/4 in October while we waited for all the Singapore books to arrive. Both boys read the 3A guidebook and enjoyed it. I meant to do Beast occasionally with Peter during the school year but I ended up prioritizing Singapore since he started late and I realized I could only finish the book if we put Singapore aside. Peter was able to do all the non-starred problems easily. I had him try the starred ones but often ended up working with him to find the correct answer. In general, math concepts come easily to him but I like the idea of Beast really working his problem solving skills. Although skip-counting and such will be easy for him at this point, I think the starred problems would still provide a good challenge. That said, I'm hoping that Fridays can be Beast Academy math days for both boys. I'm debating whether I should start Peter right away on the last section of book A while Leo starts at the beginning, or if Leo should work on the early chapters and then have them work together for the rest of the year. I think I'd have them try the problems independently, then talk to each other while attempting the hard ones. So, instead of coming to me for help, they'd bounce ideas off each other. Leo is 2 years younger, but he's great at thinking through tricky stuff (Singapore has been so much better for him than Saxon - he always wanted to do problems mentally). Has anyone tried this?

double post

My 7 and 9 year old boys are allowed 30 min screen time on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (summer and school year). Generally, that screen time can't come before 1:30 (we originally did that so it would line up with naptime). They have one chore a day and they can't have their screen time before they do that chore. On non-school days, they can usually do an extra chore to earn early screen time. They take their screen time (usually they choose to play on the laptop) consecutively, so really, it's an hour. There are other times when they'll watch a TV show with my husband in the evening, but they don't get to choose what to watch or when it's done. This happens more often in the winter when going outside is miserable in MN. I'd guess that they end up with 5 hrs screen time on average in a week. They would gladly spend hours and hours at the computer if we let them.

My kids haven't been into organized group sports. We bike a lot as a family and we encourage them to bike around the neighborhood, so that helps in the spring-fall. Mine are still young enough for the indoor playgrounds in the winter (although they're too pricey to go often) but I think I'll have to get my oldest to hang out in the pool at the Y while I exercise once he ages out of the daycare with its play area. I've thought about karate for my clutzy middle son but it's such a time commitment. I almost signed my 9 year old up for the homeschool indoor rockclimbing team until he put up a fuss. That was 2 hrs on Friday afternoons and I would have brought the younger kids to the Y while he was there.

Has anyone said Little House on the Prairie and its series? My early readers went through books 1-7 when they were that age. Farmer Boy was a big hit - if books about girls aren't favorites, that one is great for boys. The Narnia books would be good either now or soon. The Hobbit For a girl, I'd suggest the Betsy, Tacy, Tib books. I don't think my boys would read those, though. Roald Dahl books

I'd use MEP and probably KISS for math and grammar. I've always been sort of scared of doing this, but using the McGuffey books for most language arts is what they did in the 19th century, right? BFSU for science. SotW with the activity book, mostly for the book list to hunt down library books unless the crafty stuff appealed to me.

Piano lessons In the unlimited version, a cleaning lady once a week home renovation including a bigger kitchen, fun reading nooks, a mud room, and more sunlight

Having a mother's helper for the 3 year old and baby would be my vote. I used to pay a middle schooler $10 to come over from 2:30-5 and play with my toddler and it was great. It was before I was homeschooling and I tried to get paid work done then, but even if I just paid bills or made phone calls, it was stuff I couldn't count on him napping through. I'd love a cleaning lady, but the money goes a lot farther when it's a 13 year old tossing balls to a little guy in the backyard.