"Many parents home school for religious reasons, because they still hold outdated views on race or ethnicity, or for what they consider to be moral reasons." First, I don't know any homeschoolers who do so because they don't want their kids around black/asian/hispanic/whatever kids. Second, are religious or moral reasons wrong? Don't I have the right to have a moral objection? Third, he states that CA is giving kids a quality education. Um.... could I see some evidence please? I'd really like to see him back up his opinion with facts.

We limit extracurriculars during the school year but during the summer we seriously load up. Classes, trips, camps, playdates, you name it. So my question is, are you done with academics for the year? If that's true, why not? Especially at that price. You might find they like it better than baseball/gymnastics and just do that come fall.

Yes! Where do the pencils go?! My dd8 loses her assignment sheet everyday. I mean, it has to be in the school room!

It's amazing what a little venting can do. :) Glad to know I'm not alone in all this! Thanks!!

I never got my wisdom teeth out. When I was a teenager I had braces and my ortho told me as soon as they came off I'd need to get the wisdom teeth out. They never broke through, but they're there on my jaw. Is that impacted? Anyhow, the braces came off, but not until I'd turned 18 and was no longer covered by mom and dad's insurance. Without insurance of my own I couldn't afford to have the teeth out, so I left them. I'll be 30 soon and they're still there. I mentioned it to the dentist a few years ago and he said as long as they don't bother me they should be fine. But hearing all of you say the older you get when they're removed the worse it is, should I have them out? Does it hurt anything to just leave them there?

I agree with the poster who said take a break! It's hard to get basic work done with incentives, but I find they work great for going above and beyond. We have a jar full of marbles. Any time someone does something with a good attitude or exemplary behavior they get to put a marble in a second jar. When all the marbles are moved over we go on a field trip. Good luck!

It sounds like I'm in the minority here, but I love having clear rules and consequences posted. I am the parent, so I can always give grace when I feel it's appropriate. For example, we have a rule (or call it a principle) about attitude. You don't talk back, you're respectful and you don't whine. My kids (8 and under) have a chart with five spaces. They start on the 'smiley face' space. If they throw an attitude, they move their marker to the 'less smiling but still happy face'. A second offense gets them moved another space and so on. The consequences are different based on the ages of the child, but it's much easier for me to say "you chose to have an attitude knowing that the consequence would be no TV tonight" than to deal with each instance as it arises. It helps keep things fair and predictable for our family. Maybe this works for me because we have a large family - I have 5 and babysit 4 more, so we need consistency. One great resource I've found is The Well-Behaved Child by John Rosemond. I think he's unneccessarily harsh at times, but that's probably because the book is written for parents whose children exhibit discipline problems. For the rest of us it still have good ideas.

Nature stays in nature. That's for my horde of children who love to collect pine cones, sticks and bugs. :) Also, "A little laundry every day keeps the naked bums away." I think that was my grandmother.

Another plug for Volvo... my first car was a 1974 Volvo. Can't remember the mileage, but it was 22 years old when I got it and it ran great. The only reason I got rid of it was a part broke that was no longer available. I was really sad to see it go.

My kids are younger (8, 6, 4, 1) but we play a lot of 'alphabet' games... either looking for the letters in order on signs or coming up with lists. We might do animals, for example, first person has to come up with an animal starting with 'a', next person has 'b' and so on. Can do this with states, cities, countries, people we know, foods (specific or broad categories), and on and on. We also go around the circle with math facts (first person 1+1, next 2+1, etc.) I Spy books are fun for hours. Books on tape or CD's from the library so they're new. And dollar store toys!! Who cares if they break or lose their pieces? :) They get a new one at each stop.

You know, the kind in which all schoolwork, housework, mommying and wife-ing seem unbelievably frustrating and pointless? We can't even quit early this year since I'm the lead teacher in my coop. What do you do when burnout strikes? Anyone with me?

The best book on homeschooling ever. Try the library, though, so you can read before you buy. I think it's worth buying, though. I read the first few chapters about twice a year just to remind myself why it's worth it when I'm getting discouraged!

Amazing! If I lived in that school district I might not homeschool! Lucky you!

I have several questions about specific curriculums I'm looking at... I just found out that Saxon math has Teaching CDs, but there is very little info about them on the website. Does anyone know if these are for the student to view as a lesson or for the teacher to view? Has anyone used Switched on Schoolhouse Bible, LA or Math? They sound great for convenience but I'm worried they're not rigorous enough. Does anyone use a Bible curriculum that is NOT KJV? I'm looking for something that uses NLT or NIV. Thanks for your help!

We bought a board game called 'Money Bags' that uses coins and paper money. You earn it in small increments as you go around the board, make change and exchanges and at the end add it all up. After a week or two of playing every day my kids knew all the coin values and could add and subract them pretty well. Then get a money workbook (try Target or the dollar store) and have them work through that. They should be well prepared for the curriculum by then.

We use Latin American Spanish RS with decent results. The benefits are that it's pretty easy and fun for the kids and they pick up vocabulary rather quickly. You can pick your program to focus on listening and speaking or to include reading and writing. The downfall is that there isn't much grammar instruction (at least in the first two levels). That said I think it's a great intro for elementary grades students who could then take something more intense in the upper grades.

Finally got my almost 5 year old to start making "r" sounds after 2 years of gentle correction. Keep up with it, she'll get it! On a side note, a friend of mine put her son in speech therapy for a similar problem and the therapist told her the child will often self correct when he/she hits 1st grade age.

No time or day requirement here in Nevada. As for doing a shorter year, the one subject I found it hard to shorten is math, because all the curriculums have 170-180 lessons, but Saxon only has 140, so that's an option.