I guess that must be it. My oldest daughter says that some of her guy friends trick-or-treated until 14/15. The woman who wouldn't give them candy was older, so we can let that go, but my husband is absolutely livid about the man who spoke specifically to my older son.

My oldest son is 12 (I have two older daughters) and he went trick-or-treating tonight with his younger brother and a few friends. Twice he was told that he was too old to be trick-or-treating. He was really shaken up when he got home about how aggressive one father was about it. One woman would only give candy to my younger son, and not to any of the 11/12 year olds.:confused: My older son is a little tall for 12, but really doesn't look any older than he is. They were all dressed as the Flash. My daughters trick-or-treated until they were at least 14, but is 12 too old for boys? After tonight, he definitely won't be going out next year, but am I setting my younger son up for the same reaction if he goes out at 11 or 12?

Thanks, that's what I've decided to go with.

Our official start date is November 5th! I will! :001_smile:

Thanks, I'm not sure yet whether we'll study any languages besides French, but I'll keep that in mind! It does! Thanks for the SWB link - I think my expectations were a little high, so the questions aimed at the Logic stage should be very helpful! I took a closer look at Hake, and I'm impressed with both the writing and grammar portions! I'm still going to go with WWS, but I've ordered Hake and we'll see how it goes!

We've decided to take our two boys out of school in just a few weeks, so I have to make up my mind very soon! They're both very strong readers and seem to be good writers for their ages. The older can write a basic 5-paragraph persuasive or literary analysis essay. Younger can write a good paragraph and writes really well creatively, but hasn't done essays yet. Neither has done research papers. I'm thinking WWS for both of them? Possibly Teaching the Essay as well, if that isn't covered explicitly in WWS? For grammar, I'm leaning toward either KISS or Stewart Principles Plus. I don't plan to do diagramming (this forum is the first time I've heard of it!) and want to focus on applying grammar, not memorizing terminology. Would either of these be what I'm looking for? Or any other recommendations? I'm thinking Red Hot Root Words for vocabulary, then moving on to Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop next year. Or just go ahead and start Vocabulary Workshop now instead? I don't think we need a curriculum for literature; I can just assign a book every 3-4 weeks, discuss it with them and assign essay topics. I don't think they really need the comprehension and short answer questions that seem to make up the middle school literature programs I've seen. Do you think this would be okay? Is that covering everything? Any help or other suggestions would be greatly appreciated! :001_smile: I guess this is important: Grades 6 and 7. :tongue_smilie:

Thanks! You've convinced me to at least have them do the placement tests. 5 does look like the right place to start though.

Barring a snowstorm, ours is always on October 31st. :)

I've seen a few toddlers out the last few years around 5:30, but most kids seem to start trick-or-treating around 6:30. When my older kids were small, it was later. We get a few older kids as late as 9:30 or 10.

Thanks! I'll have to give Singapore another look, but I'm not sure about starting it this late. My boys are really good at math, but it still looks a little tricky to jump into. I've been looking into AoPS for the older one and it seems perfect for him. He's been playing around with AoPS, Volume 1 for a few months and really likes it. I only discovered the videos and Alcumus today, but I think he'll love them. My youngest doesn't really love math, but is good at it. Key to, Teaching Textbooks and Math Mammoth all look like good options. I'll get him to take a look at the samples tonight to see if I can rule any of them out. It does look like MathPower is out of print. Our schools are using McGraw-Hill right now, which is okay, I guess. I think I'll hang on to the textbooks for the year to make sure we don't miss anything major.

Do you use a homeschool or homeschool-friendly curriculum that follows the American sequence, or do you use a Canadian public school textbook? Something else that I'm missing? If you use the American sequence, do you plan on your children ever going to public school? My boys are in grades 6 and 7, but based on the placement tests I've seen, it looks like my older son is ready to start Algebra 1. Thanks!

Thank you all so much for the honesty and encouragement! I've just e-mailed the two homeschool groups I know of to see whether they have anything to offer us and for information on other resources nearby. I don't think there are any co-ops within driving distance of us, but hopefully I'm wrong. I'm thinking now that with the right combination of materials this could work for us. I wouldn't be comfortable with all computer-based or online courses, but that might be best for a couple of subjects. The boys don't have any friends in our neighbourhood and their best friends are their friends from hockey, who they mostly hang out with on the weekend. They do have hockey 1-2 nights per week, but I usually get home from work before 5, so even on those nights we could get at least an hour in before or after their games. I never really thought about them helping out at the rink as part of this - they do help out whenever they're needed and sometimes for fun. They love fixing things around the rink and helping out on the ice, but I agree that learning the business side of things could be beneficial too. I did start thinking today about what other areas my husband is knowledgeable in and figured that health/nutrition/fitness and geography/current events are subjects that they could work on together that would break up their day a bit. I'm about to dive into curriculum research, so I'm sure I'll have lots more questions. :D

Thanks everyone, I'm still thinking everything through and your comments are actually really helpful. :) Both boys handle almost all of their homework independently, and have for a few years now. They can't stand big, artsy projects (I'm pretty sure my son is doing more colouring in grade 7 than he did in kindergarten), so I help with those to make them more bearable. I wouldn't say they're "intrinsically motivated" to do schoolwork, but they do their work without complaint (unless it's colouring :tongue_smilie:), one does math for fun and both go through spurts of reading everything they can get their hands on. The only extracurricular they're doing right now is playing hockey, but their schedules are pretty manageable this year. My husband doesn't really work from home, he just doesn't work much during the day. He owns and operates a hockey rink, and runs a private hockey program and league out of it. So, he mostly works in the evening and on weekends. During the week, he responds to things as they come up, but typically just drops into the rink/office for a couple hours in the afternoon. He could rearrange his schedule to have one or two full days per week at the rink, and the boys could work there, or just adjust on the fly. My husband is very committed to our kids' education, and will always be around, but we both know that he can't help a whole lot with academics. I've spoken a fair bit with my 12-year-old about homeschooling and he is all for it. He's even more frustrated than I am with his middle school and wants to give this a try. My 10-year-old is more hesitant, but I know that if we started homeschooling his brother, he'd be begging to come home within days. TGHEALTHYMOM - thanks for the recommendations! I'm reading The Well-Trained Mind right now. :D I've spent some time reading and research the Logic Stage, but now I've just started reading from the beginning to get a bigger picture. I'll check out the books and articles that you mentioned. :)

My husband and I have begun to seriously consider homeschooling our two youngest children, who are in grades 6 and 7. We're only six weeks into middle school and, well, I won't rant, but it isn't a good fit. My younger son doesn't seem to mind his K-6 school, but he really has outgrown it. Our biggest issue is that I work full-time, and it's not possible for me to leave my job right now. My husband owns his own business and has flexible hours during the day, but he isn't at all confident in his ability to teach the boys. If we were to go ahead and homeschool, I would do any necessary teaching in the late afternoon and evening and he would supervise their independent work during the day. I think I've seen a couple posters here who both work and homeschool - do you think this plan is feasible? My main question, or concern, is whether this level of independence is appropriate for my sons' ages? They will turn 11 and 13 in January (my younger son skipped grade 2) and both are bright and pretty mature for their ages. I've been reading the forum for a couple days and the opinions on independence at this age are so varied that it's hard to get a picture of what expectations are reasonable and how to approach this. I really want homeschooling to be able to work for us - I just can't tell if I'm being realistic. Does anyone have any advice? Also, if anyone has any recommendations for books related to homeschooling older kids, or any curriculum recommendations, I'm open to all the advice I can get. :)