That's exactly what I was looking for!!! TY sooo much Jean :)

No, I don't think that was it. The basic concept had something to do with like setting up a pattern of subjects on a specific order or something and then setting a designated amount of time for the school day. I *think* the kids are supposed to go through the schedule and complete as much as they could in that time period and then pick up the next day where they left off. So if say they didn't get to science that day, that would be the first subject they tackled the next day... Keep in mind I only glanced over the original thread, so I didn't absorb enough to get a really clear picture of what it entailed, which is why I am desperate to find it again now! Thanks!

I want to say it was called circular schedule or spiral schedule? Where did it go? I was tlaking to hubby about how to streamline my lesson planning and this popped into my mind and now I can';t find it anywhere. I treid doing a search under both terms and couldn't find it. HELP!!

With my 2nd grader we are doing the dinah zike curriculum Great Science Adventures. Its multiage K-8 I think, but i like the foldables and the little minibooks that we read from. It incorporates evthing, including experiements and projects, even some nature study in the biology themed books. Best of all theres a download version, so I can make as many copies as I need!

I have PagePlus (Serif) and use it for tons of school-related stuff, including making my own lapbooks. In fact a friend and I are trying to start a little online storefront selling some of the things we have put together :) The program does a LOT and theres a learning curve to it, but it was sooo worth the $40 I paid for it.

Thank you all so much for sharing!! Now I am even more excited to get mus and see how it helps dd. Another quick question, if you bought directly from mus, about how long from the time that you submitted did you receive your stuff? I was reading the shipping info earlier on their site, and they said something about orders being shipped within a week and could take up to 2 weeks from order date to receive your items. I am really hoping it doesn't take 2 weeks!!

Thanks Lolosoli, very encouraged after reading about your daughter's experience! I don't worry too much about her falling behind, because the fact of the matter is as long as she still struggles with these concepts, she is always going to be "behind" what other kids her age are capable of doing math-wise. As long as we get her through Alg 2 by the end of her graduation year, I will be happy. And I know if we can find the right program to make math "click" for her, that is half the battle. I also need something that is really going to help me teach these higher levels of math, because I am not good at explaining concepts on my own. My immediate goal for her is for her to gain proficiency and confidence with math. SHe will probably never like math, but I am hoping my finding the right fit for her, it will at least be bearable and less frustrating!

Great thoughts! I didn't do the placement tests because I KNOW she has trouble with mult and division. I don't need a test to tell me that. SHe can do them, but she does them very slowly and misses more than I feel an 8th grader should. Not to mention she finds mult and division difficult and HATES it, lol. AND she cannot figure out when to use mult or division without some prompting. SO I know she needs some remedial work in these areas as well as the concepts covered in Epsilon up. I LOVE that the program is mastery based and NOT a spiral review program (like Saxon). Just trying to figure out how many sets I need to purchase. We do school year round, covering just the basics in our summer term.

Ok, so I knew this was going to be a learning/see what works process, but man this girl is costing me $$! Ok, we started out the year with Saxon 8/7, knowing that it would likely be a tough subject for her. We used it our first term, and she failed it, very badly might I add. I thought I might go through some of the topical Math Mamoth books with her, but after just a week (we started with the mult/dic 3 book) we are both confused and frustrated! i have been looking at MthUSee, and am pretty sure a program like this is what she needs. But I am trying to figure out where to start. I know she needs at least to start with Epsilon (fractions) cause she definitely struggles with them. But she has also struggled with knowing her mult facts (she is constantly counting or referring to a chart). Which in turn makes division difficult too. DO I really need to go back and do the Gamma and Delta with her to strengthen these areas before starting Epsilon? I have read that other people go through these quickly, using as many of the practice pages as needed then using the reviews to gauge mastery. I would be ok with these extra purchases, as I also have a very kinesthetic 9yo son who would also benefit from this program. In fact, I may end up ditching saxon altogether and using the MathUsee with all my kiddos. SO I am not really worried about cost as far as that goes, cause each set would be used 3 - 4 times. If I start with Gamma and Delta, I am wondering if we would even get to the Epsilon before the end of the year... Thoughts please? I am also wanting to know if anyone else has successfully used mus with a very weak math student and seen good results? TIA!

I would also suggest Rocket Phonics, and were you aware there is an ETC online version?

As per my personality (aka curriculum junkie, lol) we have already ,ade ltos of changes with all 3 kids. Ds 8 was getting stuck and no longer progressing through reading and phonics, so we stopped using the BJU Phonics and reading 1 (for now) and are now using a combo of Rocket Phonics and ETC online. I also added in Great Science Adventures for him, I purchased all of the biology related ebooks and we are currently working through the one that covers plants. Dd13 was really struggling with Saxon 8/7 and BJU Earth and Space science 8 (these are 2 subjects she has consistently earned D's and F's in through the past few years of ps. SO we are spending some time going over specific skills with Math Mammoth books before we pick up where we left off with Saxon. For Science, we jumped back quite a bit (I wanted to focus on getting her to retain info and enjoy studying Science) and she chose to go through the Elementary Apologia Anatomy & Physiology. We are moving through it quicker than the recommended schedule, so when the time comes, we will decide from there what to do the second half of this year. Ds10 hasn't had many changes. We did change him from doing Logic stage Bio via the WTM recommendations (sorta) and he is also working through APologia Botany. Although we are still incorporating many extras that WTM suggests for Science (sketches, experiment logs, reports, etc.) We also changed from Latin's Not SO Tough Level 2 (I didn't realize it was a whole-to-parts text until we started Latin with my dd13) to Lively Latin. He is learning so much more with LL, I am so glad we made that change. Im a hopeless tweaker so I'm sure these won't be the end of our changes for the year, lol. BUT I must say as apprehensive as I was about Rod & Staff English (dd13 is doing 6 and ds10 is doing 4), I am super impressed. It has been very challenging for both of them, but I am giving us permission to move through slowly and make sure they have a really good grasp before moving on. I love how thorough and rigorous it is! I find myself often having to refer to the teacher's edition to make sure I am getting it right myself! And yes, I HAVE already gotten the whole "Why do we even need to learn how to diagram a sentence? I already know my parts of speech!" argument from dd13. I was ready for that and explained how it was necessary to be able to break a sentence down and see how all the parts worked together in order to be a better written and oral communicator. Her response was "I still think it's stupid." :tongue_smilie: Yup, thats my daughter, LOL!

Ok, I will try doing Science with her this week and see how that works out. Yes, she lives with us, technically we share custody, but she is here wayy more than her moms. We are moving out of state come spring (our first army move) and she is moving with us :)

I guess when a say deschooling, I actually mean reschooling, lol. Meaning getting her used to learning in a new way in a new environment etc. I am doing a lot of teaching with her. Some of the assignments she's missing are Science, which she has a hard time with. When I sat down to do her prep yesterday I tried something different. I compiled a study guide based from the questions that will be in the chapter test and other important things I want her to "get" from the reading. She is also missing a few math assignments, which is also a tough subject for her. She is doing Saxon with the teacher cd's. She does her lesson and the messon practice independently, then watches the lesson practice problems worked out on the cd. Then as she does her mixed practice, i sit with her (solutions manual in hand) and help her as needed. There have been a few instances where I wasn't able to do this (teaching/working with/ helping the other kiddos) and I'm wondering if these were the times she had incomplete assignments? With 3 other kids in the house (one who is 2) it's really hard to sit down with her throughout the entire schoolday, but I feel like I am doing a decent job of being available for those subjects she needs guidance with. I just think the major issue is trying to break old habits.

Yes, I am grading her work. Because her Mom has requested a weekly progress report, I am using HST+ and giving letter grades for her assignments. A lot of things like notebooking and reading assignments don't get a point value, but I still enter them into tracker and mark them as complete. I would love to grade her work as she finishes, but with 2 other students (one who is moving towards a lot of independence and the other who still requires Mom at the elbow most of the day) I find it hard to do. This is our policy, however there have been days when I have been too busy to actually go through the work and check it. Those are the days we end up with unfinished work. I am going to have to find a way to institute a daily check-in with her before she is released from school for the day. As far as how we plan for the week, I printed off a bunch of weekly lesson plan forms (2pp) for each of my kids and comb-bound them into assignment books for each kiddo. Each weekend, I fill these out in pencil for the entire week. When Monday rolls around, they go through that days assigned work and check it off as they finish. My 10yo ds never has problems with this, he knows not to check something off until it's done. For some reason, I think she may be checking things off that are NOT yet done. There are two columns there and I think I will use one for them to check off, and one for a place for mom to check off that I have seen the completed work and it can then be officially considered finished. Dd does about half of her work independently. First thing in the morning, we sit down together and go through Art of Argument (Logic) and Latin Alive. We do the Latin exercises on the board together and she copies them onto her notebook. She has never studied a foreign language, so I want to make sure she gets the assignments and understands the new concepts, so we do them together. I also "teach" her Rod & Staff english lessons (she is doing r&s 6) most of the time unless it is an easy concept for her that she is already familiar with. For math, we use the Saxon teacher cd-roms. As she goes through her mixed practice, I have the solutions manual handy so I can help her with any difficult problems. She also likes to know if she did certain problems correctly before moving on. For history (TOG) we have a discussion time at the end of each week, before the evaluation, to make sure we have covered all the necessary material and tie everything we are learning together. Most of her other work she does independently. EX: Science. We are doing BJU SPace & Earth science 8. She reads a few sections and does the section review questions and any related worksheets. She hasn't been doing well at all in Science so yesterday as I was preparing her work for the week, i went through with the test in hand and made a study guide, with questions for each day's reading. Some of these I took directly from the test, some came from the section review questions, some are vocabulary related. My goal is for her to be able to use the study guide at the end of the chapter to prepare for the test. She has trouble identifying the important information in a reading passage, so I am hoping this will train her eye so to speak. It's also handy to have all the info down on paper in one place. Thank you ladies for sharing your advice and encouragement. I feel so much better and now feel like I am well-armed for the coming week. Keep the suggestions coming!

Ok, for those who havent read any of my recent posts, this is the first year we are homeschooling my stepdd. She is 13 and in the 8th grade this year. I also have 3 younger boys (2, 8, and 10) that have never been to ps, so this is a whole new experience for me. She has never been a strong student and will tell anyone who asks that she hates school - anything related to school. She is also on the messy/disorganized side and can be very lazy. We just finished our 3rd week of our new year, and I sat down to grade things and enter them into HST+ to see where we were. She has been half-finishing assignments, "losing them", and not even attempting others. Some of the curriculum we have chosen is challenging for her, but she knows I am right there to help her figure it out, but she also knows I will not do the work for her. The first week, I took her word for it that things were done and found out at the end of the week there were a few things that she didn't do. The second week, I asked her throughout the day - did you get abc done yet? Don't forget you are supposed to finish def today! Still with some unfinished work. this past week I thought we were doing pretty good. I had given her a short list of make-up work she needed to get to, she did about half of it. Then she didn't do/lost a few new ones through the week. I sat down Friday before I released her for free time, and went through everything in her planner and checked things off as I could see they were finished. She did complete 2 assignments she had missed. By now, it is too late to make up any of the work from weeks 1 and 2, so I am trying to focus on making sure she gets things done DAILY. I want her to take responsibility for getting things done, but I think I am beginning to realize that after years of being 1 in a class of 25+ kids and getting away with missing assignments all the time, this is going to be a hard habit to break. i guess this is all a part of the deschooling process? Is it too much for me to tell her what to do and then check it before she moves on? i don't want her to feel like I am treating her like a baby, but it's super important that we do this right. I was thinking of something along the lines of: Ok, first thing I want you to do your math. The assinment is written here in your book, Make sure you do the mental math and the lesson practice after you are done watching your lesson. Today you are to do the odds. When you are finished, bring your work to me so I can look it over and then I will tell you what I want you to do next. Is this too much? Anyone have a better approach? I also think it's important to note here that with our situation, there is a third party (her mom) that is not crazy about homeschooling. She wants to be sure dd is doing well in this learning environment and that it is giving her better learning opportunites than ps has in the past. She is in agreeance with dd's decision (it was her choice to hs this year because she will be moving with us in the Spring out of state - army move) but very much wanting to see results. HELP!!

No, I meant the high school level books she wrote, the History of the Ancient World. :)

Has anyone come across a chart correlating the ancient world book with Tapestry of Grace year 1? I want to read through it as we are studying through year 1 so I am prepared for questions, discussions, etc. Has anyone else done this or used it as a spine for thier rhetoric stage student using TOG?

We are doing the Phonics of Drawing this term with my 3 kids ages 8, 10, and 13. It is set up to go along with the stages of the trivium, and me not being artistically inclined, at all, I think we are really going to enjoy the lessons. it is available on Lulu.com as an ebook very cheap right now. I also got Multimedia Jr from the same publisher that we are going to do after we finish the drawing book.

Have you looked at peterson directed handwriting? We are doing it for a review right now and although my ds os 8 and has been printing a long time, he is a lefty and struggles with spacing, placement, etc. This is working out great for us and I am seeing a major improvement in all areas. Before you buy the HWT (which I do use for my ds10 for cursive) you might want to take a look at it forst. You can get them in ebook form, which is nice if they need extra practice and for multiple kiddos.

I JUST wrote a post on our final choices. i think it's important to share that my 8th grader has been ps'ed up to this point and so while I want to give her a rigorous classical style education, I am trying to ease into things this year before its time for high school Heres my post: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201659

Ok, I have completely finished getting everything for my dd13!! Our final year plans contain the following: Logic - the Art of Argument Latin - Latin Alive level 1 Math - Saxon 8/7 w/ Saxon teacher cd's English - Rod & Staff 6 Writing - TOG writing component w/ Writing Aids Science - BJU Space & Earth Sceince 8 History/Worldview/Lit - TOG Year 1 Dialectic Spelling - Spelling Power Vocabulary - Wordly Wise (not sure which levels yet) We are also using edworksheets.com, world book online, Remedia Outlining book, and other various resources. This is gonna be a tough year for her and I both. I am going to be teaching 8th grade math, laogic, and latin grammar along with evthing else I am doing with my 2 boys. Praying we don't hit any brick walls with our curriculum choices, cause I have spent too much already :)

We also use safe-eyes. I came across it on a clearance rack at Staples about 6 months ago. So far, we haven't had any issues with it, i have 3 children that access the internet daily and have never had anything unwanted get through.

I wholeheartedly agree with Judomom, get yourself a nice peice of tile board from Lowes, i think here they run about $16 (we have purchased 3 since we started homeschooling - moves) and they work great! If oyu want them to be more like a "real" dry erase board, you can also purchase a inexpensive piece of plywood and have them both cut the same (for free at Lowe's) then mount it onto the plywood and put trim around it. I plan on doing this once we are no longer living in an apartment, and have a house. (We are doing our first Army move in March.) They come in 8x4 sheets and if you have enough wall space, can go floor to ceiling. I love it cause my little one can draw on the bottom while we are doing school :)

Ok, we are studying Ancient China this week and one of the projects we have chosen os from SOTW1 - Make a Ming Bowl. My children really want to be able to actually eat from thier bowls after we are done. The book recommends sealing the pain with a glue mixture brushed on, but is there some kind of spray i can use to really seal in and waterproof the clay and paint? It will need to stand up to multiples washes (by hand of course) and I would hate to wing-it and try something that ends up ruining our bowls. Any suggestions? Also want something that is obviously safe to eat on and deosn't have any lingering chemicals once dry. WalMart had some kind of Mod Podge high gloss sealant, available in a bottle and a spray can. WOuld this work?