This gives me a bit of encouragement. I tend to feel really guilty that my oldest is doing most of his work independently, bc most of my friends are doing very teacher intensive work with lots of one on one instruction. But it was such a relief when he started reading well and I could spend more of my focus on the rest of this chaos!! :)

I'm mostly just following. I feel terrible saying it, but my 1st grader does most of his "work" (math, reading, writing) on his own (30 min if he hustles, 2 hrs if he's distractible), with only occasional help from me, since I'm often chasing younger kids around. My other kids get 10-20 min of 1-on-1 time (if they're lucky :( ) and everything else is together time (either all of us together, or them together playing while I clean house or cook or nurse)...

This makes me feel better about our situation as well. I've read so many people who knock Captain Awesome or Junie B Jones and I feel a little bad that I'm letting my kids read them... It's the kind of feel bad that makes me feel guilty each time I see them with one, but not guilty enough to say no. Because really, for us, I'm just happy that oldest is reading and that next oldest wants to be reading. Life (and school!) got so much easier once oldest decided that reading was actually enjoyable and something he wanted to do of his own volition...

Can you tell if these are different from the ones in this picture that we already have? https://www.spielgaben.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/V4-2and8.jpg?b2e2a1 ETA Upon closer inspection, it looks like the zometools may have more holes around the middle (mine have eight) of each ball, but it's hard to tell, because the zometool balls are *all* holes, but many of those holes seem like they won't fit the rods (unless the rods have a variety of shapes on the end).

Does anyone have experience with this Code Master game? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014993TCI/ref=gl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3LPB125BB1KKM&coliid=I27OOTMSAFCJRN

just wanted to say that my guy loves Solitaire Chess! My mom got it for him last year (i'd never even heard of it!), and I thought he'd hate it, but he really liked it. Originally, my plan was to get him a real chess set for his bday, but then I realized that he doesn't really have many other toys anymore. So I think we'll just get chess for the family and get him something else for his bday. :)

I haven't yet! That looks fun! Thanks!

We actually do have lots of board games and I am a real game lover myself! But I'm looking for something that he can do and/or play with during our afternoon time when everyone has to do something relatively quiet and alone.

We've gotten my oldest legos for every bday and xmas for the last four years (his request). While he's very pleased with legos and plays with them daily, this means that he doesn't really have very many other age appropriate toys anymore, and I think sometimes he'd like to do *something* that's not legos. We do have zoobs and magformers (with gears) and a spielgaben that he still enjoys playing with. He's almost 7 (but able to build fairly complex things -- his can easily do lego sets for older kids of around 1000 pieces) and I'm thinking about his next birthday. I don't mind things that use electronics, but I don't want video games. He loves, loves, loves to build and is always coming up with his own lego inventions. What do you all suggest? I've looked at snap circuits, little bits, lego mindstorms ev3 (but I'd really rather do something non-lego at this point), erector sets, and k'nex machines. But I can't really find too many suggestions outside of those. Is that bc those really are the best and there's not much else on the market? Or is google just failing me lately? Please note that we don't have smart phones, so all the cool toys I see that involve controlling it from your smart phone are a no-go. TIA!! :)

I just gave my oldest a book list and told him every time he finished XX many books *from the list*, he'd get a reward of some sort. This is working well for us (so far) because it easily adapts to different needs based on different reading levels in different languages (i.e., minority language is weaker, so rewards come more frequently for reading books in the minority language) or books of differing difficultites (i.e 5 books from this list are worth a prize, but 2 from this harder list are worth a prize). Sometimes the reward is just 30 min extra reading time after everyone else goes to bed, other times it's a trip to the zoo/arcade/etc. or a train ride or something. He's relatively young, or I wouldn't be bribing him to read. Probably. :)

Psh. Took two years to get to CVC words comfortably (from 4 until right before 6th bday). 1 yr later, he reads chapter books easily, but still prefers picture books. For him, it just had to "click" I think (and we needed a better system than the ones we tried for the first two years). We'll see how it goes with #2 starting Kindy next year! She'll be 5 and I didn't even bother torturing us both with trying to start earlier! lol.

Thanks for o your thoughts. Do you mind sharing more about what you did for this? Threeare issues I need to work on with some kiddos, but feel overwhelmed by the prospect. Currently seeing a good therapist, but still curious. :)

This fall, my kids will be 7, 5, 3, and 15 months, and I do daycare for another 3 yo (who's much more behaved than my own...). Right now, it's just about all I can do to manage home, juggle nap times, and keep them all fed (did I mention my kids eat 12 eggs, a loaf of banana/zucchini/etc bread, 2 lbs of various fruit, and two quarts of green smoothie with extra protein powder for breakfast most days and are hungry again an hour later?), not to mention trying to actually have a little fun with them. Things that are important to us are: going outside, hiking, learning to swim, learning to cook, chasing bugs, playing with our spielgaben, coloring and crafting, etc. But I also know I can't completely neglect things that my Dept of Education say are also important (stuff like reading, you know?). :) So I know I could drive myself crazy by insisting the oldest or older two do hours of "school" each day. And I also know I could let it all go and do nothing formal/structured and just keep chasing bugs and reading library books. But I'm wondering, from those of you with far more experience and wisdom than I have, what you have found is actually reasonable to expect both from myself and from my kids? I may have to modify it, to suit us (and because kiddos have some social/emotional/attention issues as well), but I'd like to see what the spectrum between my two extremes looks like, and where on that spectrum most folks feel is a healthy place to fall. Mostly I'm just looking for your experience: what worked, what didn't, etc. in a similar situation with young-ish kids. My 7 yo reads well, and my 5 yo wants to know how (though it's not clear she actually wants to learn...) But The younger kids keep me awfully busy and don't amuse themselves very well!!

This is what we currently do, but we turn it off in the car when the 2 year old loses interest or the baby just jabbers loudly. Sometimes, we leave it on quietly only on the rear speakers where the older two kids sit so they can still listen to it. Whew - beyond my kids, I don't know that *I* can handle as much noise as we'd have with kids talking over audio books and all four of them doing random things (even just at 25% of the time if they were listening nicely the other 75% of the time)! The four of them make enough noise as is, sometimes I just want peace! I've just been reading the read aloud handbook again recently, and it makes such a big deal out of "the more words kids hear, the better off they are" that I began to doubt myself. But I think there's a big difference in "hearing" words and actually "listening" to them. Doubt - the story of parenting, right? :)

This is mostly how I feel, except that not even mealtimes quiet enough for audio books, most of the time. My two year old and baby just have no respect for the concept that someone else is talking, and even less that others may be listening. :) I've been planning on individual iPods for Christmas, so maybe I'll just carry as I have been until then. :)

We used to listen to audio books all the time around here. In the car, at home, all over. When I had only one or two kids, I feel like it was fun and fairly manageable to get kids involved in a quiet activity so we could all listen in peace. But now there are four of them ages six and under, and they don't like holding still, or refraining from talking, or the baby starts jabbering nice and loud at random points. So I usually turn the books off when things get noisy, but the end result is that they're very often off most of the time these days. So I'm wondering if there's any benefit to just leaving them on anyway. Do kids still get anything from stories (even just enjoyment?) If they're only hearing broken bits of the stories? Or should I continue to save audio books for when they can be a little more focused in their listening? (Maybe in ten years! :P lol)

Thanks for the suggestions! In general, I don't require much reading bc I'd rather they read for enjoyment. But I decided I really do want to have some say over their content to, so I made a book list and decided to offer rewards whenever they finish a certain number of books. The number will be much smaller for German books compared to English, I think, first because their German testing is weaker and slower, and second just to make German reading more enticing. We'll see how u it works!! :)

It's a good idea, except that I have a thing about writing in books. Not sure why, but I rarely can bring myself to do it and nearly always regret it badly when I do! :) I'll think about it more though!!

I asked about requiring reading a while back on the general ed board, and the consensus was to just let them read as much or little as they want to fit enjoyment (early elementary, so only just starting to read fluently). However, we're almost at the point of reading in German now, and the situation feels different to me somehow. Is it? Is it not? What, if anything, is good and helpful and reasonable to ask of them? They do love reading in English at this point. Currently, we speak on German whenever dh isn't around (though it's on the decline as the children outnumber me more strongly and don't speak it amongst themselves willingly... and mostly unwillingly either...) and we listen to lots of German audio books, and I read German books aloud. But I feel like I'm losing battle slowly but surely and they have no formal school work in German other than l learning to read and write at this point.

I know there's been conversation about the lists in this book before. I've read the book, the lost, descriptions, etc a few times and think it would be a fun family project to actually read all of the recommended books over the coming years. So I started to type out the list, organized by recommended level and age instead of title, and including the other books in the descriptions. Before I get too far though, it occurred to me to ask if anyone else has already done this and maybe save myself some typing. :) anyone?

Thanks, folks! I'm so glad for your responses. I almost didn't post this question because I was nervous folks would ridicule me for the suggestion or tell me he just needs to have more space / discipline / or something else... :)

My oldest boy gets frustrated because he's so distractible when he's trying to work. I am considering some sort of noise blocking something for him, since space constraints make it so that he can't just go sit in a quiet room by himself when he's working. Thoughts? Recommendations? Alternative suggestions? We have a pair that dh got at a truck show, but they're designed to keep out roaring while letting in normal vocal frequencies, so not ideal for this situation.

I moved too much as a kid to have any sort of coherent history curriculum (e.g., something about 6 middle schools...). Hubby's reading SOTW Ancients at bedtime with the kids (he LOVES history!), but I'm in and out with the babe and have a hard time keeping up on it. I'm looking for something similar (but geared toward adults) that I could read several times to really get the "flow." I've always been fascinated by history, but it never seemed to "stick." I know SWB makes one for adults as well, but am wondering what else comes highly recommended from the hive. I don't mind if it's more than one book for "ancients", but I'd like it to be cohesive. Bonus points if you can recommend good ones for the later periods too! :thumbup:

I I'm loving all the articles, and the discussion of their respective strengths and weaknesses as well. This is the kind of conversation I was hoping for! :)

I think this is exactly the crux of my question! I'm wondering if anything (and I honestly mean *anything*!) has ever tried to control for all these other factors. Maybe it's the analyst in me, but I'd really LOVE some huge study that broke into smaller sections that each break the data down in terms of a different variable: parental education level, single parent / 2 parent/ etc., socioeconomic status, intelligence, methodology, etc. I know that no such wonderful study exists, and it just made me wonder what (if anything!) there really is that at least tries to address some of these factors/variables. It'd take a book to write about such a study, if one did exist, and it has no real bearing on my homeschooling. I'm just interested in the topic. :)