I'm in the exact same boat, I thought I'd use R& S but looked at the sample pages on their websites and it was really ofputting to my dd, we are christians but in R&S almost every single sentence has a religious reference and she said it felt too strange, like little house in the woods, it was too much for us. Then I looked at Voyages in English, that was appealing to my kids, lots of color, stories about pirates and mozart etc. but I thought it looked a bit confusing plus it was expensive. I've decided to go with MTC vocabulary and poetry and Growing with Grammar for the Grammar component, with writing strands for writing. I felt it gave us a chance to try MTC, which is also fairly expensive, and have something for dd to use independently at the same time for grammar and writing. If we really like MTC we might shift over to the complete program next year. Marie-Louise

I was in the same situation with my kids, but I just really, really insisted and it did work, but it was and still is hard work and you have to want it really bad. My kids are now in fourth and second grade and are fully bilingual and are able to read and write both in English and Dutch (their second language), despite the fact that there are no other Dutch speakers around at all, we've never had a playgroup, we have very limited books available, and did not have any dvds till this christmas, and the fact that my dh doesn't speak Dutch, so the only interaction they have in Dutch is with me, and once a year when we see travel to Europe to see my family for a couple of weeks. Their Dutch isn't quite as good as their English but it is possible to get them bilingual. The one thing that is important though I think is persistence, and I have to retake that vow myself every 6 months or so, I tend to slack of and respond in English or let them get away with responding in English, and then I have to catch myself and make it a priority for awhile again. Hope this helps

we use noeo chemistry for my third grader, and like it fine, though my dd doesn't like the notebook pages at all and we generally skip those, but then she hates to draw, which I think is rather unusual. We did buy the entire kit which is somewhat expensive but worth it. By dd also didn't like the recommended experiments though so we subscribed to Robert Kramps science site to supplement with other experiments. We also do not use noeo for my ds in first grade, I used REAL Science for dd for life science, first grade, and earth science, 2nd grade and I am using REAL science again with my ds for his first grade. I liked it better personally than Noeo, we found it more engaging, but they don't have a chemistry curriculum (yet I believe).

Thanks so much for your responses! :)

I'm thinking I need to add a writing component for dd. We currently use spelling workout, FLL, Zaner-Bloser handwriting but not a specific writing/literature book. I had always felt that the narration excercises in SOTW and our science were sufficient, but now I'm wondering. I looked at the program online though and don't know if it would work for us. It looks complicated and expensive, and I hate technology approaches. I would love to hear if anyone uses this curriculum though and what they think of it. Or any other suggestions would be very welcome.

I agree with most of the above comments. It seems like your dc are a bit young for everyone to be experiencing burnout already, and if you are, I think it is really important to take some time to focus on why your family chose to homeschool to begin with, and try to really give priority to things that serve those reasons and don't worry too much about the rest, if that makes any sense. And I definitely agree with everyone else that with these ages your academic sit down work really should take very little time. When my dd was in K I was really worried about being able to fit school in, since we travel a lot throughout the year. So I thought we should definitely do school in the summer. So from June through August we did an hour or two of math, reading and writing in the morning before swimming lessons at 11:00 and lo and behold, in August we had finished Saxon K, pathway Phonics, Zaner Bloser K etc. we were completely done with K academically. K really shouldn't take that much academic time for any child.

Mostly I keep the cds in the car and let them listen to the chapters we are working on, review of the one we just did, the current one we are working on and the one coming up. Sometimes we use them while doing map work, but since I do book 3 with dd and book 1 with ds, I typically tend to read on the couch with one child, while the other does the coloring page etc. I really enjoy them in the car (and more importantly so do my kids!).

I am so jealous! :confused: Even with cooking almost everything from scratch, using baking soda etc to clean, having a veggie coop, and never, ever buying any meat or fish, with dh hunting for all our own meat and going on fish camp every year for all our own fish we still spend 800-1000 on groceries a month for a family of four! That does include toilet paper etc though and we do mostly buy organic. Typically a bread or a gallon of milk in the store costs between 4 and 5 dollars here, curious how those prices compare to elsewhere?

I really enjoyed this thread, loved reading all the different experiences with language, which is such a fun topic anyway. Having lived, worked and traveled in many countries with different languages I've had my share of mess ups and misunderstandings. In France I was accused many times of being pretentious when I couldn't understand the french pronunciation of English or German words or places etc. Once friends were talking to me of the ....... complex duh deep (trying to render this phonetically the way they said it, almost impossible) and it took me forever to understand they were talking about the ............. oedipus complex. Another time someone told me they were going to see mee ah-mee. I thought they meant mi ami (my friend) and again it wasn't until way further into the conversation that I got it: they were going to see... Miami. Anyway it's always interesting to see how language is not a rigid thing, but people in different places play with it and change it and grammar and spelling continually evolves. Unless we're talking about Latin I suppose.

I agree, really like how you put this. I feel we have to constantly weigh off two sides against each other and choose the lesser evil for our particular circumstances, looking at many things. That said we also try to buy from locally owned small business, (although even there it is extremely hard to find something not made in China if you need certain household goods) and boycot Walmart. But there are always trade offs. We buy our vegetables from an organic coop, and the vegetables are flown in every week, and much fresher than at the store, but then I stress again over the use of airplane fuel in getting my vegetables, there is always something.

We really enjoyed REAL Science, the Earth Science book, did it with dd in 2nd grade, while ds was K, and he loved doing it just as much. There is a reading component, I found it well structured and easy to follow, and every unit has at least one simple experiment, not too complicated, but the kids really liked them, and still talk about how much fun it was to make igneous rock (with chocolate chips and marshmellows) for example.

We're about week 13, and have slacked off again on French, though not dropped, but we haven't made much progress, and we've dropped Singapore Math, which I don't know if it counts, we didn't drop math, just have gone back to Saxon. About the Dutch: we also do Dutch, my kids are bilingual and I would love to exchange/pass on material to anyone also interested? Maybe this would be a great place to find dutch readers! I've always wondered what to do with our literature / early readers/ grammar books etc., once my ds is through with it, I should post here! Duh!

Very interesting debate, and one that I think is not as easy to answer as it seems. Typically I let my kids decide for themselves whether they are hot/cold and what to wear, but I do impose limits which definitely include long pants/snowsuits or sledding. I was reminded though of an experience we had this summer, where a son of friends of ours went fishing with us at the beach with his three year old. This is Alaska, so even being June, all the adults and all the kids were wearing fleece pants and jackets, some even hats etc., except the three year old, who was in shorts and t-shirt. Several times different people said something to the dad, to no effect. I really felt this was bordering on child abuse. At night the girl would walk around with blue lips, shivering. There were some other things I really didn't like about the situation, she would walk around by herself at 3:00 am, looking for food, wandering around at any time of the day and night by herself, near the ocean (not being able to swim) and once, I was just in time to pull her away from a car which was backing up, when she had been fascinated by the heat waves of the exhaust pipe and was reaching her hand toward it! Well the dad kept saying, she is tough, and this was a native family, so it is definitely a cultural thing as well. But then the accidental death ratio for native children is way higher than that for caucasians in Alaska. So it this child abuse, cultural differences, personal choice? I certainly don't have the answer. All I know is that I was bothered as well by how this child was treated, and I would be bothered by neighors such as yours as well. Marie-Louise

I personally could deal with my parents asking every time again, so when exactly are they going to go to school?, but I found it much harder that my dh wasn't really on board for the first year or two. I felt like I couldn't say we had had a hard day or anything like that. Thankfully everyone, parents, dh, in-laws etc. are all on board now, maybe it just takes time, time for them to see the kids don't turn into social outcasts with no academic or social skills whatsoever? Marie-Louise

"Her constant reference to being "just a hockey mom" is so incredibly insulting. As IF any of US would even let her sit next to us. She's a wannabe hockey mom. She's done nothing to earn the badge" a little hesitant to jump in here, especially as a newbie to the board, since it does seem to be getting a bit touchy, and I don't know how to do the quote thing but I did want to ask why you thought her hockey mom "credentials" are phony? Just to get this straight: I don't actually like Sarah Palin, either her personality, which just rubs me wrong, or her policies, which don't coincide with mine, but the one thing I do think she is, is a hockey mom. Frankly I don't think she is a whole lot more, but I do think she is that. I live in the same community as Sarah Palin, and have met her a few times, and my kids hockey coach used to be her kids hockey coach (and actually rumors abound about her having had an affair with him, but that's another story alltogether and probably just a rumor). Anyway, wondered why you thought that was phony?

The public school program in the Mat-Su gives quite a lot of funding, it is up to 2500 a child this year I think, am not totally sure, it depends a little on age and on their test results and the rules changed somewhat this school year, but last year for my kids it was 2000 a person for elementary grades. They also have music classes, choir, band etc., field trips and a library, which we really love. On the, somewhat negative side, they require you to come in 4 times a year for evaluations/grading, and they require you to participate in all the public school testing. So that means more paperwork etc. On the plus side though, that means it is easier (I think, but we've never done it) to go back and forth from homeschool to a public school setting. Another advantage our family feels is that we can participate in our local school sports/classes etc. Again we have never done this, but have friends who do this and are very happy with it. When we started homeschooling I checked all the options out and I did feel it seemed as though IDEA and Raven etc. had people working there who were very knowledgeable about homeschooling, whereas the Mat-Su Correspondence mostly has teachers from the public school setting, who are not always very informed, or even very helpful. It really doesn't matter much to me any more, since we are pretty happy with everything we use but I have definitely learned to come to this and other boards if I have questions about curricula etc., rather than to the Correspondence School Anyway, that is just our experience

We're roughly in the Palmer area and go through Mat-Su Correspondence

I personally don't think it is confusion so much as just plain old time, there are never enough hours in the day for every thing you want to do. I was raised bilingual dutch/french and languages are very important to me as well. I am fluent in several other languages which I would love to teach to my kids. I really wanted to raise my kids fluent not only in English, living in Alaska, but also fluent in Dutch and French. However I soon felt I had to concentrate my efforts and decided that Dutch was my first priority after English. I felt it was really important to get at least 2 completely fluent before adding a third one, or fourth one etc. So I taught my kids to read first in Dutch before English and then when they were both able to do that last year when dd was in 2nd grade and ds in K we started on French. They are definitely not fluent in French, neither of them can read it, or really speak it, but we are working away at it and hopefully they will become fluent eventually. I would love to spend more time on French and add Latin and other languages, but we already spend 1.5 hours a day on different Language Arts and there just is a limit to how much time we can devote to LAs. If you are already bilingual, I would really recommend focussing your efforts on a couple of things at a time, and only when that is going good, at whatever age that happens to be, adding something else. Anyway just my 2 cents Marie-Louise

I as worried about the exact same thing!! My dd finished with saxon 3 right after her 8th birthday and I got Saxon 54 but then was really intimidated, thought it looked so different. So I was hesitant between trying something different, repeating part of saxon 3 before moving on maybe, and I went ahead and bought singapore. For a couple of months we did half singapore and half saxon, before talking it over and deciding to just leave the singapore and go completely saxon again. My dd didn't really like singapore and although math is not her strong point, she really enjoys the format of Saxon 54 after having gotten used to it. One thing I have done is that we are supplementing it a little by sort of having our own meeting time. Saxon k-3 has this meeting time for practicing time, money etc. right? and I really felt that at just 8 my dd should still be practicing that, so I added that on to our memory book; my kids have a memory book with all their fact cards, grammar definitions, history timelines etc., that we use every day for a bit to go over stuff. Marie-Louise

It is a book originally I think, not too bad, though I didn't think great either, cannot remember the author. Marie-Louise

I have lots of them, and never had a bad one yet, I think you should just pick whatever topic appeals to you Marie-Louise