:iagree:LOL, that's where I'm at too. I do have some used CW Aesop on the shelf that I took down and skimmed through (again) last week - to see if I still want to switch to that after WWE or sooner. I've also got books on request at paper back swap for the next 2-3 years. I finally plugged in the TOG 3-wk. sample CD-ROM that I've had forever but have been too afraid to look at (fear of liking it combined w/ fear of the "TOG fog"). TOG is now a strong contender for once we're done w/ WP AS 1 & 2. Can this count as planning? :D I'm still blown away that it's already November. :001_huh:

Heather, Can you elaborate on this? You mean that you timed AG in this way, not CW, right? How exactly? :D P.S. Thanks for answering my new question about CW before I even posted it!

:iagree:Same here.

:iagree:I'm using 3rd grade Abeka math for my guy who wants math to "get harder". I've kept my Horizons books around for a few of the things in there that aren't in the Abeka books - mostly elementary geometry. I have some Singapore on the shelves that I keep wanting to dig into with them, but you can only do so much. I've just come to the conclusion that no matter which math program I land on, I'll always find something that can be added. If I were in a situation where I could only use ONE, Abeka or Singapore would be my choice; both for totally different reasons. I switched from Horizons (mostly) to Abeka for the logical progession in the introduction/memorization of the math facts - they keep them together in "families" and the TM tells you exactly what to have kiddo go over in flashcards daily. Horizons TM just says "do addition flashcards 1-9 for 5 min." That leaves me wondering which flashcards - the ones that have answers of 1-9 or ones that begin with 1-9 or what? The content and approach of Horizons & Abeka are so similar that I had no problem switching.

Here's how I divide up the typical 36 week/180 lesson curriculum into a whole year: Out of the 52 weeks in the year, I plan to homeschool 41 of them. We rotate 5-school-day weeks and 4-school-day weeks, switching every week and having Fri. off on 4-day wks. We will end up doing 19 5-day weeks and 22 4-day weeks, for a total of 183 school days. That leaves us 11 weeks free - to take off, catch up, or work ahead - whatever our case may be at that point. This is my 1st yr. homeschooling year round, and originally I wanted to do 4-day weeks only, but to at least get done w/ typical 36 wk. curricula we would have to do school for 45 weeks. That only leaves 7 weeks off; not enough for us. HTH!

So... does one quit cold turkey to achieve this effect? :D :grouphug::grouphug: to you!

Oh ya, my 6yo son loves those.

:iagree: This is my reason. On the fda . gov website, it states that usual standards for limits on the amount of thimerosol (mercury-based preservative) were lifted completely to speed along the manufacture of this vaccine. It says they will be reinstituted after this vaccine has been made. If you want to know specifically why I am worried about higher levels of mercury, it's because autism is one of the things linked to it. What they are allowing for the H1N1 vaccine is far higher than what they allow for yearly flu shots.

In the thread, "The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease (WWE) -- All separate threads merged here", I asked SWB if the WWE workbook alone is all that is intended to be done for writing, or if skills learned in WWE are intended to be put to use accross the curriculum in history/science/lit. Her answer was that if you're using the WWE workbook, you would absolutely cut down on the number of narrations you're doing in history/science/lit. BUT you wouldn't want to eliminate them, because they have value for those subjects. My son is in 3rd and I feel like we're 'behind' because I don't have him writing 1 or 2 responses per week, a paragraph long each, to history and/or science. That's my goal before we hit 4th grade. If we can only fit one in per week, fine, but I feel it's an important skill to transition from the narration - dictation method over to writing one's own words. This has nothing to do with creative writing - I'm only speaking of expository writing. If he wants to use this skill, once attained, creatively, I'd be he could take off with it and really enjoy it. That's an entirely different ball of wax, though. YMMV, but I'd consider at least oral narrations for history and science - that way your dc is used to having to exercise those WWE skills on other topics.

I can't name one curriculum that is what you describe, but my mix of R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey and God's Design meet that goal for us. HTH

Here's something someone on this forum (I wish I remembered who so I could give credit) said, that when I read, was a kick in the pants for me: "We don't *do* overwhelmed. We accept that it is hard, laugh about it, and get to work." Reading that was a minor epiphany moment for me. I realized that to be able to do that you can't have unrealistic expectations. You can have high ones that take long, hard work, but even then we can't do everything and do it well. That's what it spoke to me.

Andrea, I don't have a whole lot of advice but I can give you a (((hug))). I've got a 13 yo dd and she goes to a public charter school. The schedule you laid out looks very much like my dd's 8th grade class. Most of the kids take outside instrument/art/sport lessons, so they have that additional practice time as well. I know it's hard to offer much help when they give reasons why your help won't work, or just won't do anything, etc. The only suggestions I have are these: It sounds like you're doing a great job working on fostering independence and responsibility in her; it also sounds like you're frustrated in this area. If she cannot come up w/ reasonable timeframes for how long ea. subject should take, maybe she needs you to give her that frame to work within. Could it be that the nice comfy bed and easy access to internet are just too much temptation (when faced w/ the option of schoolwork) for her, if even only at times? I agree with limiting internet access in some way until it's time for her to do her computer subjects (are the online, or just on the computer?). If they're online, you could type in the password when it's time for those subjects. Could she get some noise-cancelling headphones or earplugs for working outside her bedroom? I would assign reading ahead for lit. on the weekends rather than relying on her to make the decision to do it, if she's never decided to on her own. It may take a little backing up and holding her hand until she gets it down, then slowly wean her off to more independence once she proves she can handle it *and* perform well academically. Just my 2 cents, and that's about how much they're worth. :)

I got PP on loan from my library and have been using it as an optional (i.e., not daily) addition to OPG. It's really good and ds6 likes what we do with it.

I don't know where the "worst" or "hardest" state to hs is, but I do know I'll always want to stay in AK or a state w/ hs laws like AK's. All that's required is a letter of intent to homeschool - this is if you're going it alone, no umbrella program, etc.

:iagree: Also, The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis, as this addresses some of the most common misconceptions about the nature of God Himself.

Thank you for this thread, and the first 2 links to the other threads.

I voted for logic stage writing. The WWE method has transformed my view of writing in our homeschool, and put it much higher on the priority list. Having the WWE main text and workbooks helps me to see where we're going in the long run and give me what I need to work toward those goals day by day. I agree that there are already plenty of American History materials available; though I'd love to see one in your narrative style. Since I struggle with teaching writing and not with history, I'd rather see the WWE series continued than American History since you can't clone yourself and do both. :)

:iagree: If I had everything to do over again, I'd just stick to Abeka, adding in some "real" books, or at least Bob books and other readers for variety at the K level. For first grade on up, I'd still use Abeka but add in FLL and WWE, skipping almost all of Abeka's creative writing assignments (subbing w/ WWE). FYI, I am switching to this as soon as my Abeka order arrives! One thing I don't like or understand about Abeka is why they have to have SO many books (TM, Answer Key, Teacher's Edition, student workbook, student testbook, test answer key, etc.) all for one subject. IMO, they really should integrate all these components. It's still a tried-and-true method though.

My WWE 3 book *is* the workbook and the student pages combined. You order the workbook, you end up w/ it all. It's all in one book. In level 3 the stories are in the student pages b/c they're supposed to read them. All other instructor info. is in the front half of the book. I've never heard of ordering any WWE student pages separately. I could be out of the loop on that though... anyone else?

I got a very interesting, although slightly above level poster last year from Amazon. It's titled Chief Taxonomic Subdivisions and Organ Systems of the Animal Phyla, it's by McGraw Hill, ISBN # 0-07-291786-5. It is basically a detailed picture outline using bars of square units to represent the relative number of species in ea. group, so you can compare populations by seeing how long the bars are. A pie chart sounds cool, too. I got this poster more for me to use as a teaching guide, so I'd know what I was doing. ;) ETA: this would give you all the info you need for her to create a fill-in chart of your own, if you're up to it.

I was with Raven my first year homeschooling, but am w/ Cyberlynx now, for 3 reasons: 1. I can homeschool year-round w/o feeling pressured b/c they really only ask of you the minimum that the state requires. I do not have to report how far along we are in any subject. I do not have to fill out ANY forms quarterly. I simply hand in 1 sample of work for ea. subject per child, no additional forms or summaries needed. I take digital photos of my dc's artwork and PE activities and email those in for samples. The beginning of the year ILP form is done by them - all I have to do is tell them my plan (which curriculum ea. child is using for ea. subject). It's easy, and they offer services if I want but leave me alone if I want. 2. I can get reimbursed for orders from faith-based companies for non-religious materials; like history from WP or math from Abeka or Horizons. They take the time to look through all of this stuff page-by-page to see what can qualify. If it doesn't instruct in religious doctrine then it's OK by state law. Cyberlynx isn't set up for direct deposit reimbursements though; they mail checks which adds about an extra week to the process. Not a biggie for me, but I suppose it could be for someone else. I'm at a point where I'm going to do and use what I want to whether a program pays for it or not. Since so much of what I use is from faith-based companies, I'd be reimbursed for very little from the other programs but still have to report on my dc's work. 3. Last year when I had to decide which one to go with, Cyberlynx was offering $200 more per child than Raven or IDEA. All 3 only offered $30/mo. for internet reimbursement then, so that wasn't thrown into the mix. Basically, all of these programs are different school districts' interpretations of the same law(s) governing them. Some programs are more strict and require more paperwork for themselves, not b/c the law requires it. IDEA is through Galena school district, Raven is Yukon-Koyukuk, Cyberlynx is Nenana, and there are others as well. It all depends on what you want out of them. Cyberlynx has never been big enough to be able to offer the kind of resources that IDEA or Raven can. I know that IDEA and Raven offer group classes; a friend of mine had her son in an art class at Raven and is talking about enrolling in IDEA in the future for their LEGO engineering club. Sorry this is so disorganized and rambling, it's late. :)

I was going to take the approach you mentioned - learn a modern language (Spanish in our case) 1st and just do a Latin/Greek roots program, maybe doing Latin formally starting in 5th - 7th grade. After reading a lot and asking questions on some threads regarding this, I'm convinced it will be good to at least start Latin by next year, even if we don't go "full-steam-ahead" with it. Both of my boys, who will be 4th and 2nd grade then, would be doing this. It wasn't an English grammar or foriegn lang. thread that convinced me; arguments for learning Latin to benefit those areas had already been made well, IMO. It was the benefit of how it makes kids think logically; and ultimately it was a science thread (of all things) that tipped me over the edge. Right now we're just focusing on getting the basics done in our homeschool. I don't know if by next year we'll have room to implement an entire new, separate subject or not. That is a big factor as well. English from the Roots Up and Michael Clay Thompson's Vocab. both look very good for root programs (to me anyhow, after looking at several for 1st - 3rd grade level). I'm still up in the air as to whether I care if my kids can read an entire novel in Latin by high school. Sounds like quite a lofty goal for us - like I said, we're just trying to accomplish basics right now. :)

:grouphug: Sarah, I had an almost identical situation back in the spring. I got alot of very good advice here, some of which I never would have thought of myself - it would be worth looking up. Stay strong for your kiddos, they are young yet and won't have a full grasp of what things mean even if you tell them. If you want to talk to the kids about it, be ready for all the "but why" questions. For my kids I directed them to ask my dh why, because I didn't fully know why, and since he was the one leaving I figured he should have to tell them himself. Things worked themselves out here and no one left, but I can completely empathize. I know you must feel like your whole world has been turned on its head. Things that seemed to matter suddenly don't in light of trying to hang onto the one most important thing in your life. There will be a period of grieving and adjustment. I would watch your $ account(s) daily. As for work-at-home options, you've gotten good advice. I'll just add a warning to not fall prey to any of the many "home business" pyramid schemes out there. I wish you all the best and hope you will feel peace & rest within soon. ((hugs))

I voted staying on schedule. We haven't found a good groove yet this year either but that's b/c of me. I do hate dealing w/ whiny, uncooperative attitude from older ds; he really stretches my parenting skills some days. I can also totally identify w/ KayT and Tara's comments. How about "All of the above"? :D

When my older son was in 1st grade I had not yet heard of WTM or WWE. I was using VP's First Favorites lit. guides with him, which were mostly Q & A about the books (no narration helps) plus some activities. Something that did help him which continues to help in WWE is going back through the text himself and looking for keywords from the question in order to find the answer. I help him scan through and he has to keep his eyes peeled for the answers. Just an idea, YMMV.