I am not Canadian, but my family is. I found it interesting when I was visiting that they felt so sorry for us because of our healthcare and we felt so sorry for them because of theirs. I work in healthcare in the US, and find the wait times in Canada to be a bit horrifying. My grandmother had a blood test in Jan (2011) that showed that she had kidney problems. They scheduled the tests to see if she needed dialysis in May. Her appointment to give her the results of her tests and start a treatment plan was set for late October. Sadly she died from kidney failure in the beginning of October. Now she was elderly, and from my experience with her and my grandpas medical issues, the elderly appear to be lower priority.

I am an NT too :). That makes sense

Why do you think you are that way? Is it a good or bad thing for you? Any pitfalls you have noticed that you could pass on to a newer homeschooler? I have always been almost incapable of following a teacher's guide. I have taught Sunday School and things like that for years, and never really follow the curriculum closely. Now I love to teach! But I have always used curriculum as a scope and sequence with some activity suggestions I might use. I would much rather learn information well myself then teach it my own way, or the students way. At first I thought it might be an issue with being undisciplined and a bit "rebellious" ;). But now I wonder if it is because I really enjoy teaching, and have been told I am good at it. I just don't get that teaching joy/high when I am following someone else's directions. Just wondering what others thoughts were. Oh and if you are a non teacher's guide follower. What programs have you found you can work with well? For example, I just discovered that there is a WWE book that gives you the basic concepts, the 4 year scope and sequence and some examples, so you don't have to use the scripted workbooks. Such a relief! It is nice to have some basic structure laid out, but such a relief to be able to pick my own passages and pacing. (Which was a lot harder to adjust with the big workbook)

I just watched the LoE teacher training videos, and am quite excited about finally finding a "system" to English. My oldest is most definitely logical literal and I have been struggling to drag her through different phonics programs. The only one we have had any success with is MCP plaid, but she is not particularly a visual learner so it has only been so effective. She does like workbooks though. 1. I am debating between buying the teacher training guide and just using that to do the program myself, or buying the Essentials program. ? Essentials seems expensive, but considering that it would last 3 to 4 yrs with the advanced lists, and since I would start with a 6 y/o, it really doesn't seem that pricey. I also have a 4 y/o natural reader, who is reading at a mid first grade level, so I could reuse the program with her since a traditional "Jan Ran" program will be pretty useless. I am not a good teachers guide follower. But it looks like essentials can be flexible and having the phonograms and spelling rules to work on laid out would keep me organized. Am I right that the teachers guide could be used flexibly? 2. If I do get the essentials program all I really need is the teachers guide and the workbook right? I have been making my own phonogram & spelling rule cards already. 3. Has anyone not liked LoE, and if you didn't why?

pbs.org has lots of excellent documentaries/educational shows. American Experience is excellent. Secrets of the Dead is a great show too. Lots of Ken Burns documentaries (national parks, and dust bowl are my favorites)

We have been to 2 lego classes recently. The first one we did "mosaics". Basically it is all one brick high art work. Each child did their name and then did some pictures around their name. The second one the kids built animal habitats. They picked a lego animal (blindly) and then had to build a habitat for the animal. If you are just doing a one day thing you could have stations. Mosaics can also be done on a group level, something like a mural. I have also seen a lego car race set up at a discovery museum. Kids build the cars and see whose is fastest and stays together. The track was a slope. Hope this helps stimulate some ideas :)

Reading and building with lego

I am early in my homeschooling career, but I haven't and don't intend to use co-ops at this point. We do have some "extracurriculars" - 4H, Awana, and swim and gym at the Y. We also get together informally with some other homeschool families. A formal coop group doesn't appeal to me. I like being home and I don't see the need for it academically. I am very eclectic and relaxed, but picky about curriculum. Being out of the house another day is the most unappealing part.

It is so interesting to see how people have such different perspectives based on their experience. There are 3 different classical conversations groups in our county, which only has a population of about 170,000. Homeschooling is quite mainstream around here to the point that I pick up a lot of homeschool, classical resources at garage sales. Classical homeschooling is pretty popular, Plenty of WTM resources at the used homeschool materials store. Homeschooling is a very acceptable choice in my area. So, I think the fact that homeschoolers here aren't constantly on guard for attacks, makes it a less defensive environment in general. Discussing curriculum is pretty normal, and curriculum differences are ok, and expected. Granted I don't know a lot of not Christian homeschoolers. So I don't know how it is in a completely secular environment.

I usually respond with, "Well actually you probably could. I think most people could homeschool, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should. " Said with a friendly smile. Sometimes the conversation moves on, but a lot of time we get to have a pretty positive discussion about homeschooling. I find that a lot of people truly don't understand how homeschooling works, and don't comprehend the possibility for themselves because it sounds so overwhelming.

This is what is says for our current school district: teachers examine a series of criteria including gifted characteristic profile, standardized testing, past school performance, student portfolio samples, and teacher narratives. Parents are also given the opportunity to nominate their child for the gifted program Of course our gifted program is a "differentiated gifted activities program". What it entails is very vague according to the website. I assume that is on purpose since there is little funding. From what I understand it is a pullout program that involves a cluster grouping during computer/library time. Plus you may have some type of plan for regular classroom time, but you still have to be with a regular class for the majority of your instructional day. From what I understand my brother's district in a different state is similar. In both selection process and program. My nephew was in a similar type program for a year and then they pulled him out, because it was really just giving him extra work, not meetings his needs. Both districts are a mix of income levels. My brother's skews a bit lower. Ours is very mixed from poverty level to multi-millionaires, but it is heavily middle income. FWIW. Years ago when I was involved in gifted programs: my upstate NY program used a combo of Otis Lenon scores and teacher observation, plus additional testing. Those of us with the highest scores were accepted without additional testing, others had to take a one on one IQ style test, don't know what it was just remember what the other kids described. This district was middle to lower income. The gifted class I was in in California, Silicon Valley, required a 132 or higher on the Stanford Binet. I moved there mid-year and had to take the SB with very short notice. Several of the school placement staff were telling me not to feel bad if I didn't do well enough, since I didn't have any time to prepare. I remember being quite confused as to how or why you should prepare for an IQ test. This was a middle to upper income school. Retrospectively I now realize that many of the kids in that gifted class were prepped for the test, which explains a lot.

This question isn't quite as cut and dried as "yes & no". Yes I have philosophical problems with much of the current educational system. But that is not why I don't currently utilize it. My parents had philosophical issues with the public education system, but we went to public schools and received a good education. My parents did not force us to buy into the philosophy of the system. We were taught to be respectful to people as people, but not that teachers were authority beyond basic classroom order. We learned early on that teachers could be wrong. We were encouraged to stand up for our beliefs even it meant a lower grade. Busy work homework was optional in our home. My parents cared more about learning than grades. My parents did not allow school to get in the way of our education. I feel we could successfully utilize our local public schools similarly. And we may someday. But they aren't terribly efficient, and our current family schedule and lifestyle just doesn't mesh well with public schooling. Besides I really like homeschooling :)

this is going to sound terribly "religious" lol. But I want my kids to be equipped for whatever God wants them to do with their lives. In that light I try to follow God's prompting when it comes to schooling. For now that means I want my kids to love to learn, to know how to learn, and to be equipped to learn. So at this young age my emphasis is on reading, and early conceptual, critical, and creative thinking skills. If my children should discover a bent before they are grown, I may place more emphasis on that bent. Right now my goal is to keep lots of doors open, and teach them how special and important to God they are and that He has a plan for them. I don't necessarily expect my children to homeschool. I have no wish that I had been homeschooled as a child. Overall I had a good public school experience, partly because of my wonderful parents who put much more emphasis on my actual learning than worrying about what the school wanted from me. Of course I do have my own personal preferences. I would love it if both my girls are voracious readers, deep thinkers, and academically inclined like I am. But I also realize those things are not keys to a successful life, so I wouldn't define that as success.

I actually had integrated math in high school, in NY state. At the time I believe the entire public school system in the state used the same curriculum for regents (college prep) level. This was early 90's. We had Course 1, Course 2, Course 3, Advanced Math ( pre calc), then AP Calculus. The norm was to start course 1 in 9th grade. The advanced track started course 1 in 8th (that was the most advanced you could go in our school district). In addition to algebra, geometry, and trig the "courses" also included logic. I now live I a different state, so I have no idea if NY still has this progression.

I would love to get a masters degree in geriatrics someday. (I am a physical therapist who works in geriatrics) But if we are just talking what would you like to study purely for enrichment: ASL, British history, and I'd like to read all of SWB's History of ... books.

Disclaimer, I have no completed experience. My girls are 6 and 4 and both reading at an early first grade level. But I haven't found the progression to be following nice neat linear steps like the phonics books teach. We tried OPGTR, but my older daughter didn't like it, cried when I got the book out . So we switched to a combo of progressive phonics and phonics pathways. Still my daughter can often figure out more complicated words like "friend" and "raisins", because she has lots of consonant information. But struggles with a word like "lid" since she still occasionally mixes up b/d, the sound of short e/i, and says "el" instead of a clipped "l"; and it just isn't a word we use as frequently. My girls also often ask about words. They have learned double o, and igh before they have mastered blends or silent e. But they were interested in words with these sounds so they know them. They also easily recognize words with similar patterns to their names, so they know what the "y" or "er" at the end of words say. I do question how critical the order of learning is. I mean obviously some things need to be learned first. But I also found my girls had to unlearn a lot because of the oddities of the English language. I am not a phonics purist, though I think it is very important. I am finding that my girls do better by just reading a lot, and discussing the phonics rules as we go. I have noticed both of their reading stamina increasing. I will have to say my 6 y/o has not learned to read nearly as fast as I thought she would. But now I am seeing lots of progress. My 4 y/o has learned to read by just hanging out with us, much quicker than I anticipated. My point being that I think advancement is hard to predict and quantify. We have been using this site for readers recently http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets.html It has some great readers, both sight word and phonics style. Someone on here recommended it. I think. When we read If we get to a word she doesn't "know" I often have her try it. If there are irregular vowels sound that she hasn't been exposed to much I tell her, these letters say ... I remind her on the "rules" she struggles with, like silent e, if it is a word I am sure she won't know or she is getting fatigued I just tell her the word. In "easy readers" I often will pick some sentences she can pretty much read and have her read those, or we will read several pages together with lots of help. We stop if she starts to get frustrated.

Your blog has some great ideas!!

I thought as you did originally. I tried to use lego to mimic the rods, (because I am cheap that way and we have lots of lego). But she always counted them, even though I color coded them like the rods. Finally i picked up a used set of c-rods. They are great. My daughter is very mathy, but has trouble w/ knowing math facts as she is a young 6. Counting just doesn't work with higher numbers, and we have been a bit stuck. so today i gave her the rods as she worked on math. I was amazed! first of all, she had such a great grasp on the values of the rods. she has mostly played with them herself prior to this, but she knew how long each was without comparing. Most importantly, I was amazed at how she seemed to instantly know her math facts when she could look at the rods. She wasn't counting or comparing, she could just see it. They also are colorful and fun. :). Highly highly recommend the real thing.

I find it amusing to read that according to some not only am I not homeschooling, I might never get to homeschool, lol. State laws vary so greatly. I live in what is essentially a zero reg state. We do have a compulsory age, but it is 7-17. I never have to actually do anything about that though, there is no official declaration of homeschooling of any sort. I may never need to inform the state of my children's educational existence. I am not sure I quite see the need to for "homeschooling" to have an across the board cut and dried definition. Surely it is a term that can be used differently in different contextual situations. For example, I did not say I was "officially homeschooling" until my oldest did K last year. (Even though in the state I live there is nothing official about it). But when we did not send my 4 y/o to preschool and people asked if she started preschool yet, or where she went to preschool, I would often reply that I was homeschooling for preschool, or we were doing preschool at home. Since around here going out to preschool tends to be a standard thing, unless you are homeschooling (which is also quite popular). In that context I think homeschooling is a a perfectly appropriate term. I could not say, no we are just "living" instead of preschool, or I am just "parenting" instead of preschool, that would come across as obnoxious. Where I live "Homeschooling preschool" is the clearest way to communicate the concept of choosing to keep your child home in the preschool years, as opposed to just never having thought about your child's education. Now I do not think that that somehow gives you permission to insist on a right to join a homeschool group or call yourself an expert, or to be unclear when speaking to others later in life. Similarly it would be poor communication for me to say "nowhere, I am parenting" when someone asks me where my 6 y/o goes to school. In order to be clear I say "we homeschool", even though she isn't compulsory school age. (Very few people other than homeschoolers actually know the compulsory school age in my state anyway ;) Seems to me the most legitimate use of the term is the way it is understood in the context of the conversation. And then of course to clarify if it is ambiguous. So, if someone asks me how long we have have homeschooled I might say " well, she is in first grade so officially this our 2nd year". Or I might say "well, really for 3 years because we started when my oldest was 4". Or I might just say "we've always homeschooled" and let them do the math. I think all three are legitimate answers as long as the communication is clear. So someone could legitimately say "we have been homeschooling for 14 years, since we believe the homeschooling lifestyle begins at birth." But yes, for them to walk around saying "I am a 14 yr veteran of homeschooling," with no further explanation is either deceitful, silly, or clueless. As far as homeschool groups, I think it is perfectly appropriate for groups to have age guidelines. It makes sense. Although I sure it is a bit tough for those who live in areas where homeschooling is unpopular. But I don't think groups need to declare who qualifies in the broader context as a homeschooler. Just make an age guideline. Or provide clarity of context. In the broad context there is no official legal or copyrighted definition of homeschooling. (Yes I understand some localities have legal definitions, but in my state we are considered private schools.) So all we can really ask is for people to clarify what they mean by "homeschooling".

I score somewhere at HG/EG range with testing, and have struggled with light sleeping and insomnia for most of my life. I would describe it as my brain not being able to shut off. As for my girls. My older daughter has been a decent sleeper, gave up naps at 3ish, sleeps about 10 hours a night. Was a good napper and sleeper as a baby. However she does take a while to fall asleep and wakes in the night quite often, but doesn't intentionally wake us (I hear her get up to the bathroom though). Neither of my girls have been tested, but I would guess she is moderately to highly gifted. My 4 y/o gave up naps at 27 months. She couldn't fall asleep, and if she did she was up until 10 at night. As a baby she slept through the night at 3 weeks, but would only sleep on her tummy. She appears to be more globally gifted and probably somewhere in the HG? to EG? range. She sleeps 10 to 11 hours at night, but we have had some issues with night terrors and waking w/ "pictures in her head."

That is fantastic! She much be so excited :)

I live in central IL and would have no problem letting my kids do what you describe if they were as old as your kids. However, homeschooling is common in our area. I think it very much depends on where you live. I would stress to my kids that they need to exhibit exemplary behavior when they are out during school hours. They should be involved in purposeful activity, not just loitering at McDonald's or something. I don't forsee our local authorities intervening unless kids are being a nuisance, though they may ask why they aren't at school. Since the homeschooling regulations are so vague in IL, I doubt they would investigate you unless your kids are causing trouble or something. But it does probably depend on what suburb you live in.

I am not sure what everything is you listed. And I am not speaking from a voice of experience, just someone else who is trying to ferret out similar plans. So some thoughts, maybe a bit disjointed. Just an opinion D you need additional documentaries? Can you work them into the interest driven topics? Same for Art and poetry. Surely there is plenty of art and poetry about ships and animals, and for WW2 you could look at the 30's to 40's years for artists and poems. Copy work and dictation can also be related to interest. Even science can be tied to the interest studies. (Oceanography and physics for ships, aeronautics etc...for WW2). Living books can also be project related. I would probably just keep math, basic language arts (grammar and phonics/spelling), and reading through and discussing SOTW (the chronology pegs are important to me). Everything else can be attached to their area of interest. However I would be careful about burning them out on their interest area. If one is deeply studying aeronautics, then I wouldn't force him to concurrently look at 1940's poetry, just save that until the interest wanes a little. Of course exposing them to their sibling's projects should round things out a little as well. I think your kids would learn a lot that way. Sounds like they have some great interests :)

Thanks for providing information about the actual study!. So even if you don't consider all the issues with it involving head start etc... At "best" you can say: 1 group of 2000+ children will likely have similar average scores as another group of 2000+, by 3rd grade. Certainly not a case for non-acceleration if an individual.:)

For me it is the pressure to keep dh happy with homeschooling. He is just ok w/ homeschooling. His first choice would be our nice little public school in the district he grew up in. So I feel a lot of pressure to keep the house clean, make good meals, get enough hours at me work, and educate the girls well. I also don't feel like I can express frustration etc. w/ schooling, or he may say well we will enroll them in school them. I can't say well schooling is my full time job so the house etc might slide a little. I have to keep all the balls in the air, because homeschooling is top on my priority list, but last on dh's