I know the WTM book seems to tie grade levels to certain historical periods, but please don't overlook the chapter about starting in the middle. I have been & still am in a similar situation with children being behind in some subjects (per WTM standards). Mentally separate history into 2 categories: Content and Skills. As you read through the WTM 5th - 8th gr. history sections, you'll notice that not only are different historical periods recommended for ea. grade level, the skills build up as well. There is grade-level skill work that can be done on any content. I took notes from TWTM to make a reusable weekly assignment page for history which lists WTM assignments for all the grade levels I'm teaching for the year. It could be applied to any of the historical periods, but I have to update it whenever one of my children moves on to the next WTM skill level for history (overall or even for specific types of assignments but not others). It's the level of work you're requiring, how much, and what kind that makes up the skills. Off the top of my head (so, this is not comprehensive & may not line up accurately w/ WTM) I put it in a format somewhat like this: Day 1: Read main encyclopedia page(s) Make fact list, list ___ (however many) facts that are most important or most interesting Choose 1 or 2 facts to read more about Day 2: Outline encyclopedia pages or most interesting resource from further reading on day 1 (list specific type of outline for the WTM grade level you're teaching - might not match your dc's age-grade correlated level & that's OK. As soon as it's mastered, you can bump it up and try adding the skills from the next level up. For ex., learn basic 1-level outlines 1st semester or 1st Qtr., then 2-level when the child is ready, & so on.) Mapwork Prepare a summary of the reading from day 1 Etc. By the way, you can divide up the assignments into however many days you like, and you can do the assignments in whatever order makes sense for you. Hope that helps & isn't too confusing; it's very late here & I wonder if I'm coming across clearly, if at all, lol. :)

Thanks for the ideas! I'm not near an IKEA or a Target, and I don't know if they'd ship here, but it's worth a try. I *REALLY* like those solid wood ready-to-finish ones posted in one of the links, because I enjoy painting. I can cut a 1x1 & tack it underneath the shelves - do you mean run it horizontally underneath, or vertically to prop it up in the middle? It might not look pretty, but it might make things safer until I settle on a permanent solution.

You might need to contact your school district & legislators as well. Unfortunately, they might have more control over which tests are taken than the principal. I doubt they know the fine details of every problem on each test, but they are usually the ones who bless off on which brand of test to use.

I read about "Billys" and "Expedit" bookshelves in the homeschool room organization thread. In the posted pictures, the shelves I saw didn't appear to be sagging (Quit your laughing, I'm trying to ask a serious question here!). I have $30 cheapo pressboard (like Sauder) bookshelves from Walmart that were supposed to tide me over until I built my own of sturdier wood. I picked out plans from the Knock Off Wood site, but then realized I don't actually know what the heck I'm doing with any of that, to include identifying certain types of saws and such. So my cheapo shelves are now sagging badly & I'm afraid they might break. I pile books horizontally on top of the books that are vertically lined up if there is space between the tops of the books & the shelf above. I do this with thick, heavy hardback things like encyclopedias. Would these "Billys" and "Expedits" hold up to that?

Does the school require her to do practice or MAPS testing? I'd opt out and look for another way to find her reading level & offer appropriately challenging reading material if the school doesn't require it.

I take it DonQ is the first book on the WEM list? That should tell you how far into WEM I am. :o Like Nan, I've got my hands more than full right now, but things should settle into some semblence of a schedule come fall and I can dig in then. Amy, that is brilliant. It would be lovely for members to be able to click on whichever book they are one so that we can go at our own pace.

To be clear, I meant our home land-line phone. They don't have cell phones. They don't chat on the phone; it's usually quick invitations from friends or wanting to know if they can play that I feel guilty making them decline since it's summer. The home phone is also the one which calls from the auto & medical insurance companies and doctors come through. There are a lot of medical things going on currently, and when I leave messages with some of these places it can take days to get a call back, so if I let it go to the answering machine it just prolongs the process. I know it sounds like I'm making excuses, but I would need to filter for these particular calls. So yes, you're right, I just need to tell the friends not to call before noon or whatever time I decide we need. I just thought of this, too: While I do need to take calls from the Dr.'s, I can ask the insurance folks if I can call them back at a set time in the afternoon. I'll ask for their direct extensions and reiterate that I'll be returning the call at such-and-such set time. Hopefully it works. Thanks again for all the suggestions. It has given me much to think about.

Thanks for the ideas & advice! Love the Dave Ramsey snowball idea! Well, they're going into 7th & 5th grades by their age-grade level. We're behind in pretty much everything, and while I cringe at letting history & science slide, math & language arts are the most important. It's been a negative snowball effect for years - various reasons including health that aren't on topic. I had imagined doubling - quadrupling lessons in all subjects over the summer. You're right, I didn't add up the actual time. If I had it all my way, taking no one else's likes, preferences, hopes, ambitions, etc. into account, sports would not be much a part of our lives. But I have a dh who loves it; he introduced the kids to it, and he coaches their teams. I also wouldn't want to squash the thing the kids like doing so much. It just stinks that it takes up so much time. Where we live, the season for each summer sport is very condensed. We have all these activities in the summer, and then barely any (if any at all) in the winter. Yes, this has made me rethink the plan for next year. I'm approaching it the same way my older would if there were a B&M middle school involved: we can only do so many class periods in a day. We can only accomplish so much in a quarter, semester, & year. So, I wrote things out with 6-7 "classes" in mind (though I feel I "cheated" by lumping all language arts under "English", but that's how they do it in school). The "English" period will probably be just a bit longer and I'll map out how long each thing will likely take so it doesn't get out of hand again. We also get constant invites from friends or calls for the kids asking if so-and-so can come over to play. I may secretly unplug or mute the phone during the morning hours tomorrow. There's been a recent medical emergency with tons of follow-up appointments & tests, some of which are last minute due to my daughter's condition. That frequently throws a wrench in things as well. This upcoming year, I will make a *doable* schedule and stick to it like white on rice without mentally thinking the summer time is some sort of catch-all safety net for unfinished work. P.S. - doing all Science during the summer sounds fantastic! It would work well because about 8-9 months out of the year, everything is covered with snow. I think we might knock out at least the lessons that call for "summery" things - bugs, leaves, slugs, plants, etc.

My intent for the summer was a fairly full schedule in order to get caught up on things we let slide previously. Then Dh had some time off, and it was hard to interrupt "daddy time". Then summer kid's sports started, and sometimes we don't get home until 10:30 at night. After having a snack & getting ready for bed, they get to sleep so late that it's completey impractical to think I can start school at 8 a.m. the next day. Then the ballgames begin again around 5pm the next day. It's so nice outside, and dh got the kids some very nice, major outdoor play equipment and it's just hard to keep them focused after lunch. So we end up with only 1 - 3 hrs. per day, IF we don't have any appointments or other things scheduled. Surely I can't be the only one that watches all my plans go down the drain summer after summer after summer. I'm starting to think I simply shouldn't schedule much for next summer at all. Does this happen to anyone else?

Happy Birthday, "Machine Gun Kitty"! :party:

I use Biology for the Logic Stage. I started out trying to do WTM science all on my own but added ES mid-year to give myself a framework to work from. I was looking for something that was enough all on its own if I didn't have time or energy to add anything, but to which I could easily add extra WTM-style assignments or my children's rabbit-trail interests when possible. My kids & I like it so far.

loesje22000, it sounds like you might be able to answer a question I've had for a long time about BJU science with or without the videos. People here who use the videos for 5th or 6th grade & up rave about the study skills (outlining, etc.) Mrs. Vicks & the other teachers incorporate. Is this specific to the videos or do the TMs guide you in teaching the same things? In other words, are there things taught in the videos that are *not* in the TM? Thanks!

...because homeschooling isn't work!? Has she seen anything you've written about science? Maybe she thinks homeschoolers loaf on the couch all day watching soap operas & eating bon-bons while the kids watch educational movies in the next room. :huh:

Thanks, both of you. I'll have to think on this some more. Penguin, yes, I meant 22-25 wks. per each time period (ancients, middle ages, etc.). I'm trying to squish it all in to 2 years, or figure out what to do with the 2 years my middle-schooler has left before HS.

For those grades, I was mostly in conservative Christian private schools. I heard a lot about it, but wasn't actually taught it. I was told it was wrong and I remember presentations from guest speakers (Ken Ham, perhaps? It was that type of presentation.) Looking back, evolution was presented in an over-simplified manner; never truly taught. I've learned more about evolution from reading Ruth in NZ's posts recently than I did my entire k-12 education. BUT - I did go to public school when I was older and don't remember it being addressed there at all.

What would you do? How would you do it? Would you cram? Would you eliminate some content altogether? Would you skim some of it by reading a core text only while spending more time (what would normally be the usual time spent) on writing assignments & extra reading for other parts? Would you just skip entire time periods? Imagine the kids you're doing this for have not covered any of the 4 classical history time periods with any thoroughness, 2 will be in 5th and 1 will be in 7th - how would you approach it? Sorry for too many questions. I'm just trying to figure out how to do this. TIA!

After you've checked your state's requirements and settled on what *you* will require based on how you want to prepare her, here's some food for thought: My high school dd is currently in AP Bio. as a Jr. but never did physical science. The science program in the school she went to for 7th & 8th was pretty weak, actually. She went straight into Biology in 9th because she did Alg. 1 in 8th. Math is the driving factor behind what science you can or cannot do, even more than what science has been done previously. So, don't despair! Your dd doesn't have to do physical science, or can do it in 9th without worry. Plenty of kids still do that. Or she could skip it altogether like my dd did, and just go straight into Biology, or do a year of Earth/Space/Geology like you mentioned.

Genscharm, my advice would absolutely be the same for my closest friends, for the most popular posters on this forum, for anyone at all in this situation. That is because my feelings about it are so incredibly strong, having lived it. My advice has nothing, NOTHING, to do with hypocrisy. I've edited out the rest of this post because it was TMI for public internet.

I agree with what has already been said, esp. the need for outside professional help. I'm familiar with this sort of situation so I don't give this advice arbitrarily. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned (forgive me if I missed it, I'm tired right now) is what is going on in a child's brain when they are that scared. Our brains burn new neuro-pathways, and the more a specific one is repeated the "deeper" the path; that path is more easily traversed. Our brains, esp. children's, can freeze up to everything else except that familiar pathway to fear when frightened or even anxious about a scary thing possibly happening. The more this happens, the more it reinforces that fear/anxiety neuro-pathway. This brain activity blocks learning, and you say you get frustrated at that. Trying to learn in this kind of environment would be immensely difficult even for a neuro-typical child. There are entire books written on the topic of the learning difficulties due to anxiety/fear. You say you worked in a sort of group home/RTF, so I don't mean to sound like I assume you don't know these things; chances are you do with that background. I say them for the off-chance you don't, because you don't seem to see that continuing in this situation is worse than her attending an academically terrible public school. As long as she won't encounter this sort of verbal abuse there, the ps isn't worse. Your own healing process for this likely won't happen overnight, but her mind won't open to learning until she isn't on edge or afraid. That makes for a bad cycle. Your situation weighs on my heart. Please reach out for help. Please don't isolate in this problem in your off-screen life. Please forgive yourself and reach out to begin your own journey out of this. Someone else wrote something about you not allowing yourself to "go there" with other people in your life yet doing so with her. Is there intense stress in your life that is out of your control, outside of this situation, by chance? You don't have to answer that, but just realize that if you do, even if it seems unrelated, it can play a part. I've heard it referred to as the "pecking order". Stresses from the highest authority get passed down to the person with no authority, through a chain of stressed-out people in between. I think someone in your life, a professional, a clergy member, anyone to get the ball rolling, would serve you & your daughter far better than strangers on a screen.

I'm not sure if it's specifically a "parenting" book, but although I found many of the above titles very helpful (HtTsKWL, for ex.), if I knew someone was only ever going to read a single one, I'd recommend Protecting the Gift.

I tried out BJU Reading 3 & 5 for about a week. There is phonics reinforcement/review all the way through 5th gr., which I love. I also love the literary elements & devices they teach. I stopped after a week because it took an hour per lesson per child, and we just didn't have room for that on our schedule. I went with CLE Reading for that reason at the time, and would go w/ them if I ever chose a textbook reading program again. I like their scope equally as well, but I think BJU has a lot more built-in discussion in the form of Q & A in the TM (probably too much, actually - you're supposed to pick & choose how much and which type to use with each child per their needs, and the TM guides you in determining that).

Right there with you! A little budgeting tip I learned early on is to make a regular "car payment" to yourself every month to build up a cushion for car repairs & maintenance. There's not much room in the budget for that anymore, but I need to start doing it again because a surprise large repair bill could really make life hard. My immediate family has vehicles ranging from '92 - '08. My parents still own vehicles from when I was little - old '70's trucks.

I'm curious about Edu-tracker (or is it Edu-track?) as well. I saw it in person years ago at a friend's house and liked that she could print each child's daily or weekly assignments from what she had put in for the year. Sarah CB, do you have to have an apple computer to do that?

I agree that if your kids love SOTW, do that and beef it up with WTM logic-stage history instructions for your 7th grader. The 3rd ed. WTM talks about doing this - using SOTW for everyone, and adding the other assignments for the older kids. I also agree about dropping MBtP units since your kids burn out on them. You can still use extra books from TOG's list to augment this plan for kids that loved all the historical reading. Over-scheduling is a tough habit to break. It's easy to stop buying, once you finally make yourself stop. But it's entirely different to get out of the "I chose ea. thing for a good reason which still needs to be fulfilled!" mentality. There are only so many hours in a day. There are only so many days in childhood. Doing schoolwork isn't a bad thing, but you have to ask yourself at some point what kind of homeschool you're creating and really weigh out priorities, making sure not to crowd out regular non-school time.