I love Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones. http://www.amazon.com/Twig-Elizabeth-Orton-Jones/dp/1930900058/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272941818&sr=8-2

:iagree: My son seems to have some sort of (undiagnosed) generalized tic disorder. The "tics" come and go having to do with stress. Based on my research on tics (not OCD) your son may or may not have an ongoing problem. Five and six year old boys often exhibit tics and obsessive behaviors not because of illness but because their brains are changing so quickly. :grouphug:

I like this a lot. :001_wub:

I am working my way through HOAW and loving it. However it doesn't seem to be forming a concrete picture in my head of the basics of what happened when and to whom. :glare: So, is there a study guide type resource that would fit nicely with HOAW? A text of some sort??? I am hesitant to add in anything which is going to make me more confused! For those who are using HOAW for self education, how much of the text are you seeking to retain?

This isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it is pretty darn close, and fairly cool. http://www.timemaps.com/

Thanks. This is helping a lot. :bigear:

Did the schedules give them times that things started and stopped? (Math @ 10 am) Or the number of minutes? (30 min of math) Or did it just say to do it, and when it was done to your satisfaction it could be crossed off? (Math)

I would say that education is about freedom. We never know what is coming next, what we will want to do, what we will have to do... The things that will happen in your life (good and bad) cannot be predicted. Being educated and able means that you have the best chance of surviving anything, and the best chance of getting to do what YOU want.

I am reaching the end of my rope with my 6 yo son. We have basically been starting school whenever the kids start bickering instead of playing quietly. I have things that I want to cover every day, but not a set timed schedule. I think this approach is coming around to bite me in the rear. The amount of complaining, whining, and crying around here is unreal. No matter what the topic or what the curriculum, I am dealing with "I hate this, you never do what I want, you are always making me do things I don't want to do." I have tried adding a timer, doing something he wants first, doing what he wants last, sending him to the couch, adding work for bad behavior. I have tried making things fun. I have tried making things short and to the point. Harder. Easier. Nothing is helping, and I am becoming very.... angry. Let me be clear that we are doing a minimum amount of work, this is not because I am working him to the bone. Not everything in life is what we want, you do need to know how to add, and I cannot stand that my entire life is listening to two children claim that I am ruining their lives because I am making them do work. :glare: I do not know what to do. He does not seem to understand that if he would just get it done we could move on already. His attitude is BAD about almost everything, almost all the time. I am thinking about doing a school-like schedule tomorrow to attempt to impress upon him how good he has it. I think that this means that we will all sit at the kitchen table and weep until some time after noon. Suggestions????

:smilielol5:

I am looking for a resource that shows a world map with simultaneous and changing historical facts. For example it would show the pyramid building in Egypt along with whatever was happening at the same time in other regions. I am imagining an online thing showing ancient history - where you hit a play button and watched cultures and rulers crop up and then fade off. Does anything like this exist??? If not, is there an equivalent resource in a book???

My son loved it, my daughter put up with it, and my husband felt the need to do a loud sigh and a giant eye roll with every "humans are bad, oceans are good, save the environment" pitch. The footage was amazing and beautiful. I loved the part about humpback whales. However it seemed to lack variety. There were a lot of dolphins, a lot of sardines, humpbacks, and sharks. There weren't any gray whales, no deep sea stuff, etc... It seemed very similar to the IMAX ocean movies that I have seen - although this was longer and somewhat broader in scope. So... I guess I liked it, and there was value in it, but I didn't LOVE it.

This has to be one of my favorite things ever: (same site) http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/02/boyfriend-doesnt-have-ebola-probably.html

Anybody?

Sitting outside and drawing what they see is great! It is really hard to just sit and draw. You have to think of what to draw, how to draw it, and then the actual drawing. It is sort of like SWB's explanation about why you shouldn't ask little kids to do creative writing. Let them draw for 15 min, run around for 15 min exploring, then draw again - perhaps something cool they found while running around. There is a difference between doing art and learning about art. So I think that first you have to decide which it is that you want to do, or both. There is a lot more to art than drawing. I am very artistic, but it would never occur to me to just sit and draw, it's not my thing. There is also watercolors, pastels, ink, oil painting, printmaking, photography, etc... If you extend to "craft" you get even more options - weaving, knitting, embroidery, carpentry, pottery, sculpture, mixed media. I think that art is good - learning about it AND doing it. But I don't think that means forcing an uninterested boy to sit an draw for an hour. ;)

:iagree: It happens over here a LOT. Multiple times per day. Every day. And every time it happens I think that perhaps I should send Susan a dollar for server space.

I would go directly to the pastor, so that you are not attacking a person's parenting directly. I understand not wanting the confrontation. However you could be saving a child's life. Do not back down, this IS important.

Where does the student stand at the end of Latin Alive? What text would you go to next? I've read that there will be a LA2, but if there weren't what would you do next? Everything I have read refers to LA as an "accelerated review". Does this mean it is all a repeat of the LFC series. If you had gone through LFC and really knew the material, would you still progress to LA? :bigear:

Looks like you can also purchase it from itunes.

I don't know how old or sick your mom is now. If she is at the end of her life I think that you are good to try to let it go and just be with her to help as you can. However if she has another 10 - 20 years that would be active years for someone else her age, I would consider making my help dependent on her receiving medical help or counseling. I think that as a loving child who was cared for you owe it to your parents to try to help them in their old age. However I don't think that this means that they do whatever they want and you constantly pick up the pieces. Either way, lots of hugs. (FWIW, I think that we are going to be dealing with this a lot more as a society if we are moving toward socialized medicine. )

Would you be willing to list some of these resources, or point me towards a thread?

I wonder how much this varies by region. Some first houses are MUCH more expensive than others. :glare:

:smilielol5: This could be my tag for most of this forum!

I have totally abandoned GF flour mixes in favor of almond flour. I use the recipes from The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam. I substitute butter (she uses oil) and honey (she use agave). The recipes are simple and REALLY good.

Any feedback on this?