I didn’t add in anything for the Revolutionary War or Civil War. Actually, I didn’t know about the add ons. I will have to look on the website to see what they are. I’m actually using it in two different ways this year...essentially I am using it as our spine for American History. With an older student, we are pushing through all three volumes quickly; with the younger ones I just focus on the highlights. For my 8th grader...we are doing a quick American History year...she reads the chapters independently (it is not at an 8th grade level for sure...but it covers what I want to cover in an interesting narrative.) On Fridays we discuss and she works on her timeline book (adding key events, a paragraph or two or important notes and adds in some timeline figures I found on teachers pay teachers). I also assign historical fiction and a few informational texts/historic speeches around the same time period. Then I try to add in American artists, musicians, movies as we go. I had a great plan that I was very excited about but my dd has been less excited about it, so it hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. I’m also working with another homeschooling family (twin 3rd graders and a 5th grader) and I teach them using America’s Story. I print off coloring pages for the kids to color while I read because it helps them pay attention better. I also check out picture books from the library to go along and they usually read those on their own outside of our history time. We use the same timeline pictures and hang them on the wall. I also have them write a narration, usually it goes with the picture they are coloring. I am not covering every chapter in America’s Story, but can easily find parts from each chapter to read to highlight the main events in history. I also have Hakim’s History of US and we started with that, but it was just a lot (volume wise) and my dd complained it was boring. She did like when I read it aloud to her, but I needed some independent work. I also bought Notgrass’ America the Beautiful (older edition) and felt it was okay...but also kind of boring and a lot of text. I really wanted a Story of the World American History volume actually....

Yes, I understand it would be *one more thing* to add to the list. 😉 I’m toying with the idea myself for my daughter that quite often doesn’t want me to help, but does need instruction. I’ve been having success working with my tutoring students over zoom and realized I could do a similar thing with my daughter...it wouldn’t have to be in real time, but could be viewed later and more than once, if necessary. Anyways, I thought I’d throw it out there as an out of the box possibility.

This is what I’m using this year...actually all three books and kind of condensing a bit as we go. I didn’t buy the teacher’s guide, just the three volumes of America’s Story. I like the way it is woven together as a narrative. We keep a binder and we add a narration or a related activity or coloring page. We are also making a timeline on the wall.

Could your husband make videos of the math lessons that you show to your kids each day? Then you could watch them together and work through the assignment with your kids throughout the week. It could even be audio recordings, actually.

We’ve had success this year with ScienceFusion worktexts that I bought on Amazon. They are more of a public school textbook type of thing...but what I love is how they provide a bit of a scaffold for how to read a textbook. You read a section of text, then it asks a question or two, encouraging you to stop and think about what you just read. (And that is exactly what I wanted, we weren’t needing experiments or labs). My 8th grader enjoys the format and works independently on them. You can get different topics; my dd has done Space Science, Dynamic Earth, the Human Body and Forces & Motion. We add in documentaries from Curiosity Stream. May not be what you are looking for, but also may be worth a look. https://www.amazon.com/ScienceFusion-Module-Interactive-Worktext-Student/dp/0547589409/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=science+fusion+gr8&qid=1611876873&sr=8-6

Sometimes I assign just part of the problems and tell my dd if she gets them all correct, she doesn’t need to do the others. It motivates her to be more careful. Another idea is to give him a few completed problems with intentional errors and have him find the mistakes and correct them. This is kind of an outside the box way to see if they truly understand how to solve the problem but also trains them to correct their work. My dd likes it if I say she’s the teacher and even give her a red pen.

After reading the whole thread, I’d like an update on the original refuse-to-wiper. Did he master the skill? 🤪 To the mama that resurrected the thread, maybe schedule a potty time where she has to sit down?

Or it could be the vaccine itself... I’m not anti-vaccine...but surely this possibility is valid.

An idea I’ve seen on Pinterest is to send a box of “sunshine” with a bunch of unrelated yellow items inside. Or a little card that says, “just a little something out of the blue” and it has blue things. I also think mailing handwritten notes to her every once in awhile would be a meaningful act of kindness. Actually, the more I think of this, I’m going to do this for a few people I know as well. Thanks for the inspiration!

Oh, it helps to hear this! Thank you for taking the time to reply! I keep asking myself where the warm fuzzy times are? The ones I was hoping for....🤪. The ones that make this all worth it, right? I keep telling myself that as long as she is ready for HS math and can write an essay, then everything else will work out okay. So we do Jacob’s Algebra, WWS and Grammar everyday. I work part-time, so she is on her own in the mornings M-Th (sometimes she has another Covid homeschooling friend come over; she does online schooling so they are basically just in the same room together) and will usually get through some reading assignments and her viola practice. The plan is for us to eat lunch and then spend an hour together on the essential 3. For the afternoon, I had visions of doing US History with a timeline and historical fiction and art history and music history and it could be so awesome...but. It. Is. So. Not. Anyways, I struggle to know if it’s just the age, if it’s part of adjusting to homeschool, if it’s that she’s dealing with the emotional toll of Covid (she is a huge extrovert and I am not), or if I just need to be more insistent and make her do what’s on the list. Given the situation is most likely temporary (if this was going better, I would continue in a heartbeat), I just don’t know how much of a battle to create. Ultimately, my goal is to have a good relationship with my daughter and this doesn’t feel like we are accomplishing such a thing!

As I read it, I assumed they were looking to hire someone to do this. Maybe you could message and find out how much they are paying. 😉

My vision of how this year was supposed to go is not matching up with reality! Background here: I’m homeschooling my 8th grader due to Covid, most likely only for this school year. I am a teacher and for years I have wanted to homeschool but I needed to teach full time (and my husband has not been on board with homeschooling; although a few years back, I did keep my older son home for a semester and we have always ‘after-schooled,’ kind of always a literacy-focused home, etc). I have followed these boards for years and I love so much about it here....I’ve always said I’m a homeschooler-at-heart. I have learned a lot over the years by reading of the dedication and efforts from all of you. I have great respect and admiration for what I read about here. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t just jump into this year thinking I could grab a workbook and call it good. I know so much more goes into homeschooling than that. I’ve researched curriculum (one of my hobbies, apparently) and feel really good about the plans I have set in place for the year. My dd is highly capable and at grade level in all of her subjects. She is a good kid and typically pleasant to be with. But she is making this all so difficult! She complains about everything, tries to get out of every assignment. Sometimes she’s in a great mood and I feel this glimmer of hope...and then the next minute she is grumbling and complaining. I’ve tried switching things up (even buying different curriculum trying to find something she will like better), I’ve tried giving her more ownership. She does work well with a checklist and doing things on her own, but if I have to actually teach her, there is bound to be some conflict. (And I should actually be teaching her, right?!?) If we are working together on something (say a timeline project or even doing art), she asks Can we be done yet? Is that all? Is this normal? Is it just because she’s 13? I’d appreciate any suggestions!

I do love the photo after delivery though. It helped me when my Walmart delivery was left next door. Luckily I recognized the porch! But my daughter and I felt like porch pirates trudging back and forth to steal back all of our groceries!

I agree with the suggestions to pare things down. Keep up with math. Make sure they are reading at grade level. If either of these subjects are at grade level, concentrate your efforts there. If they are on level, carry on and just do a bit of both each day. I think many of us crisis homeschoolers (doing so due to COVID and planning to return to public school) will be facing this all together whenever things go back to normal. If they ever do. I think public education is going to have a hard time figuring it all out...I can’t even imagine how things will go....

The reviews I read on Amazon mention that they break easily so I was a bit worried to purchase them, as they are on the pricey side. I decided to just give it a chance and I’m so glad I did! I will say that all of the kids and my husband love to watch the show, so that may have contributed to the excitement level. Also, they have some sets that you can get to build your own bot, which would be very fun, too!

The big hit here was Battle Bots. I ordered them last minute to add in some fun. It’s hard when everyone grows up and there aren’t any toys. But these were just the thing!

I’m actually kind of excited about an idea I have for New Year’s Eve. I’m going to do a PowerPoint with all (many...some...) of the Corona Memes I have saved throughout the year. We will click through them and eliminate/vote for the Top Ten. Maybe come up with a few categories or awards. Not exactly sure...but I think it will make for a fun evening of laughter! It actually will probably be more than Top Ten. Way back in April, I decided to start saving the memes in a file and print them out in a photo book for Christmas gifts this year. But it didn’t take long to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume! I have close to 800. I knew it was going to end up costing too much to print, but I wanted a fun way to share them. If we could whittle it down to a reasonable number, I still plan to make a photo book of our favorites. Perfect memory of 2020 in my opinion. The memes have been my therapy...

One idea is to set up “stations” that the kids rotate through for a set amount of time. This is what I do so I can work with each one on one without distractions, but the others are engaged in something educational. For me, it just helps to have them separated and structured enough that I know we are getting some learning in. I think the key is rotating things and also training them to stick with that one thing until time is up...it’s kind of nonnegotiable. If they finish early or are done, they can just read books. I usually have us all in the same room so I can see that everyone is on task. (I am currently teaching twin 3rd graders and a 5th grader, with a preschooler thrown in to add some spice...) I have three rotations...Teaching Time with me, Independent Time, and Activity Time. We rotate every 45 minutes, sometimes with a break in between. Independent Time—I rotate library books by topic, handwriting books, easy workbooks (that I know they can do without any help), spelling practice, assigned chapter book reading, math fact practice. They each have a checklist that they need to work through during this time, it’s not free choice, but they can go in any order. I want them to be able to sit and do some things independently. Activity Time—I rotate puzzles, blocks, games, math manipulatives, etc. Sometimes I might give a specific challenge, such as build a tower and measure it. Once a week we have iPad time, where they play educational apps (I really like Squeebles apps, BrainPOP Jr, Epic). Also sometimes they listen to audiobooks and color or build LEGO. During this time they can also go get a snack, if needed. Mostly though they are supposed to keep themselves busy without distracting the rest of us. Teaching Time—Math lesson everyday, then I rotate through grammar, spelling and reading throughout the week. We do history, science and writing all together in the afternoons.

I wrap most things, especially now that we are past the Santa stage. Santa still fills stockings, though if they are wrapped depends entirely on my level of energy leading up to Christmas. I like the tissue paper idea some of you mentioned. When the kids were younger, Santa gifts appeared on Christmas morning and under the tree we mostly had just a few from family. Now though, I wrap things during the week prior and add under the tree as I go. One thing I do is assign each person a reindeer name...each year a different name and they don’t find out until Christmas morning who they are, so nobody knows which presents are really theirs. We started this when everyone knew about Santa, and it added a little bit of excitement. I mentioned that I didn’t think I wanted to do that this year and 18ds was shocked. Apparently that tradition is more important than I had realized!

We love it! We have visited many of the parks, but it also gets us learning about new parks and talking about future plans to go. I haven’t played Ticket to Ride, so can’t compare.

We made an awesome marble run for our kids one year. We purchased a huge sheet of metal and hung it on the wall. Then we took various lengths of pvc pipe and attachments, glued strong magnets to them and put them all in a huge bin with a big set of marbles.

One thing I love to do is Author studies with picture books. It’s a great starting point that you can take in different directions...and do just a little or a lot with. Read them, compare/contrast the plot or characters, take a close look at the artwork, write your own version of the story, try your hand at the art, create your own picture book, create a stop-motion video, rewrite as a reader’s theater, research the author’s life. Since it is just a picture book, it’s naturally more fun and less “academic.” December is the perfect month for Jan Brett and or try a common theme such as Gingerbread stories. Another idea is to take a trip around the world and learn about how different cultures celebrate Christmas or other holidays.

We have been enjoying Skyjo and Virus. A friend gifted us Virus when the pandemic started and it added a little humor to our quarantine.

I have found several great writing-for-fun books through Usborne for my natural writer. They approach writing in a fun way and kind of guide them along. I can’t remember exact titles, but I bought them thru Amazon. Here is one of them: Writing Sci-Fi The book Writer to Writer by Gail Carson Levine is great. Short chapters that explore characters, setting, etc and then encouragement to try it in your own writing.

I’m a little late to the party, but thought I’d share a coding game I recently tried. A friend of mine just bought https://www.turingtumble.com/ for her 12 year old son and it is amazing! Coding but not electronic.