Can you tell me where to find the labs? I signed up and started poking around a bit, but most of what I'm finding are the videos, the clues, and activities, but not actual "labs". Am I just missing them?

Our approach to science thus far has been very nature oriented: nature walks, animal books, weather, and an occasional related experiment (e.g., melting ice on a plate vs. ice that's been sprinkled with salt). But my 6 yo has been asking for "real" science lately: "mixing powders and watching reactions and stuff like that" - which I think probably falls under the heading of chemistry. Problem is, I have three younger kids (including a baby), and I have no desire or time or anything leftover to put towards an intensive science program, much less the money. Any ideas out there? If not, I'll probably just put him off for a year or so, but I just thought I'd ask. :)

This is what we do. But I don't know if I'm missing something formal- like they have to do it completely independently- but I start ed as soon as he could read a simple nonfiction book even if there were only one or two sentences per page. So if we were talking about marsupials and he read half a book about kangaroos, even if it was an easy picture book, then he'd write me two or three sentences about kangaroos and draw a picture. I still help when he can't spell a word and do stuff like remind him to capitalize at the beginning of sentences.

We just do PM faster and that seems to help a lot. Oldest easily does two exercise each day and we do beast once a week only.

They are 6, 4, 2, and baby. So we need a variety of stuff at the 6 yo's level, but also stuff for the younger kids that won't bore them, but that the 6 yo hasn't already heard five hundred times. :)

Any good ones not previously mentioned? We do a LOT of audiobooks here but are running out of ideas. :) Getting 2-4 a month means we really tear through them.

Is there already a thread on black Friday and/or cyber Monday deals that somehow pertain to homeschooling? I know there are often great deals on different supplies/books/materials/etc. that people use. Feel free to point me to one, if there's already a thread on this, or we can start one here if there's anything people are looking forward to and want to share!

It makes me feel better to know that 6 years old may just be the age of bragging and I haven't necessarily failed to teach him appropriate humility and sportsmanship. I want to be really sensitive in this area to praise my kids rightly so they can be proud of themselves, their work, etc. but just to teach them not to compare themselves with others in an unhealthy way. I know that it's sometimes difficult for me *as an adult* to not compare myself and our family with others (eg. so-and-so's not reading as early as them!) and I'd like to help my kids stay away from that temptation as well. :) I notice that a good number of you folks on the AL board do a great job of minimizing your contribution to that kind of sentiment in little ways (e.g., avoiding matching ages with school material used) and I actually find that helpful even to help myself not compare when reading the boards. So I'll just keep trying to learn from you all! :)

We don't single out academics, and so far we also haven't chastized for any sort of bragging, because I haven't felt like there's been any ill-will (e.g., no desire to put others down). And this is one of the reasons why I initially asked if the academic side of things just falls under the realm of kids being different, having different strengths, etc. in your family. Because I do want my kids to be proud of their work and themselves, but I also want them to have enough humility and sensitivity to know when is and when is not an appropriate time to be making a big deal of it (e.g., perhaps it's not the appropriate time to brag about swimming the entire length of the pool when a sibling is discouraged over their own swimming, you know?) And I know this goes more into the area of character and spiritual training than academics - I just thought that others with accelerated kiddos might have some insight into addressing it. :)

Thanks, All. It's good to read this. I don't think eldest is braggy in a "put himself above others" sort of way. He's genuinely excited about all that he can do and just wants others to praise/affirm him for it. But he's definitely a say-whatever-comes-into-your-mind sorta guy, and I'd like to avoid a situation like this one where he just blurts something awkward out. :) ((We already have to work enough to avoid saying things like "Mom, why is she SO fat??" in front of other people... He doesn't mean harm, but doesn't yet have a good grasp on what's appropriate yet... :P)) It's one of the reasons - even though I'm a pretty laid-back homeschooler and don't want to by "pushy" - why I *do* push him a little in the hour of school we do each day, just to keep things a little bit hard for him still. Spelling usually does the trick on that one. :) I really like Syllieann's line too, and may need to focus on that a bit more. "Mom! I think some of these kids CAN'T READ!" Syllieann, I think I may steal your line about the development and use of their gifts that they can be proud of.

And does it even matter? Does it just fall under the heading of "everyone is different and has different strengths"? My 6 yo recently asked what the 3A on his singapore and beast academy workbooks meant. I don't think I really want him understanding that he's accelerated until he's also mature enough to handle it with humility and discretion when around other kids. Right now, he already brags about anything and everything he can do, and we're having a hard time balancing a good and healthy amount of pride in his work and accomplishments with an unhealthy pride that comes from comparing himself to others and always wanting to be (and insisting on being) the best (e.g., dealing with some pretty bad sportsmanship that is really coming out when he can't be the best). Just random thoughts and musings on my part and wondered what you all think and/or do. :)

Unrelated to the original post: Is this something one would use in addition to the WRTR, instead of WRTR, or if it's just unnecessary once we finish WRTR? Now that we have a good system going there, we're really flying through it, and I've been wondering if we just start over again next year when we finish, or move on to something else (and if so, then what, given that he's still a young'en).

What do you do when your kids get sick? Especially if they frequently get sick? Until now, we've generally just let them rest, watch movies, etc. and skip schoolwork altogether. But recently (like that last 3-6 months), my oldest seems to be getting sick more often -- several times a month, most months. I know it's genuine illness (rather than faking it to avoid work) and we're working on figuring out what the underlying issue is (if there is one), but in the meantime, I fear we've set a bad precedent of not doing school when sick. I want to be compassionate, but "normal" schoolwork is less than an hour a day still, and I don't feel like that's so much to ask when a kid is otherwise just laying in bed anyway. Thoughts?

Writing Road to Reading / Spalding. My oldest just skyrocketed up 3 grades in reading level after doing it for 6 months.

Maybe this puts its finger on some of my... odd... feelings about this. I am probably naive, but I just assumed (terrible thing to do! I just never thought to question it until now!) that homeschoolers as a group were mostly like the group on this forum - certainly very varied, but clearly really invested in their kids' education (at least most of the time). I guess I thought that even if you were doing it only for religious reasons or because you don't want others influencing them so much, that you'd still be striving for a great academic education (even if "academic" needs to be redefined a little to include all the cool stuff people on here do). This is an interesting point. Maybe I'd like to think it's personality (rather than foolishness or arrogance) that leads me to put a lot of thought into the front end of homeschooling and never questioning that others might just not care that much. Many of the folks who I've talked to who fall on the other side of the planning line certainly do work a lot with their kids! But I fall on the planning side to a fault - my husband always tells me I'm overthinking things. :)

It sounds dumb, but it's a genuine question. There are so many reasons we homeschool, but one of the main ones is definitely academics (being able to tailor to what each child needs/wants/can do) without sacrificing all our time to play or pursue our own interests. So I put a lot of thought into finding what I think will work best for my kids , and I assumed that was normal based on perusing the threads here (though I'm not on much). Of late, I've been talking more with homeschoolers who pretty much just use whatever curriculum some other friend was using and have never spent time researching the merits of different curriculum or methods or approaches. Without being critical of them - I am just a super/over -planner and over-thinker by nature! - I found myself speechless (literally - it was slightly awkward...) at this thought when I first encountered it, only to realize now that it's not so uncommon as I'd initially assumed. So it made me curious about the different reasons people choose to homeschool and how much time/effort/thought you put into the homeschool aspects that are not directly teaching. :) PS. I really tried to phrase this in a way that won't offend anyone, so please let me know if I failed, and I will edit the post.

This is something I've been wondering about. My 6 yo went from reading almost nothing 6 months ago to reading English at a 3rd grade reading level now (thank you Spalding!!) and he's expressed interest in reading in German. I told him we could start after Christmas because I wanted to buy myself some time and because I'm still slightly traumatized by how terribly reading lessons went before finding Spalding. But we do very little in terms of real academics - pretty much 15-20 minutes of spelling/Spalding, a little math, and 15-20 minutes of independent reading a few times a week, so I've been trying to decide if I should just keep our work load as is by alternating reading lessons in each language every other day or if I should try to do both each day. If it won't mess him up academically to alternate days, I'd rather do that since I have three younger kiddos running around too, but I don't know if it'd be better for him to have a little of both each day. I plan to teach German reading more or less like I taught Spalding - I have a sound chart in German and we'll just start there. My hope is that it'll be easy since he can read in English now, but I'm nervous to confuse him again (like I said - still slightly traumatized... :) )

This is how simple we keep it, too. Singapore for math, Spalding for reading and writing. Our philosophy is that there's lots of time for academics later!

This isn't exactly "real life examples" like you asked for, but I thought it a good read, and possibly applicable. http://qz.com/139453/theres-one-key-difference-between-kids-who-excel-at-math-and-those-who-dont/ That being said, I think that sometimes "I'm not smart" or "I'm so stupid" is actually more arrogance and pride than the opposite. At least in my own experience, though I would've never admitted it at the time, I only ever felt this frustration when I was feeling pretty high at the top of the stack and I couldn't bear the thought of being "average." As for "real life examples," we sat down a while back and decided on some (<5) key values/mottos for our family, and one of them is "We do hard things." We talk about this in all areas of our life, and I would like to think it carries over into academics as well. :)

I didn't see this when you first posted it (saw the original post, but not the addition), but was recently directed to the elephant site by another friend, and I just wanted to bring this up for anyone else who missed it. These are great! My younger kids really love these episodes! We watch them here, and you can watch the last three most recent episodes in their entirety: http://www.wdrmaus.de/elefantenseite/eltern/was_laeuft/der_elefant_fuer_unterwegs_ganzesendungen.php5

So I now have a variety of activities for my 2 year olds and occasionally 4 year old to do while I spend a minimal amount of time homeschooling my 6 yo. Seriously, he could be done in 30 minutes, and it'd be perfect. Except that he gets incredibly jealous of the younger kiddos while they get to "play". Any great ideas on helping him stay focused or is it just a "learn to deal with it" sort of thing?

Thanks, all! I'm mostly concerned about my 6 yo. He just turned 6 in August, and will probably finish up Singapore 2B next month. I realize that his pace may slow considerably after that, but he currently does at least 2 lessons a day, and occasionally 10, all the while talking about how GREAT this math is, and how it's so much FUN, and how he wishes he could do it ALL the time (which is code for "I'll do more math if I can skip reading lessons today?"). :) But he only started level 1 a few months ago, so he's already ripped through 1.5 levels in just a few months, and I didn't want him to be super frustrated. But you've all given me great things to think about and do. I really appreciate it! :)

Sorry for the cross post... I wasn't sure if the best place for this was the afterschooling or accelerated learners board! We're looking to move somewhere where we won't be able to homeschool anymore (and we're not really looking to move to a new country and see how much we can "get away with" by trying to skirt the rules). The education system there is good, but doesn't have much room to be "individualized". So what do I with my advanced kiddos? If someone's working 3-4 grade levels ahead in some subject (like math), do I just hope he adjusts without getting too bored? Should I afterschool at home in that subject, even though that could make the subject even more dreary/boring in school (seems like it could do more harm than good!)?

Sorry for the cross post... I wasn't sure if the best place for this was the afterschooling or accelerated learners board! We're looking to move somewhere where we won't be able to homeschool anymore (and we're not really looking to move to a new country and see how much we can "get away with" by trying to skirt the rules). The education system there is good, but doesn't have much room to be "individualized". So what do I with my advanced kiddos? If someone's working 3-4 grade levels ahead in some subject (like math), do I just hope he adjusts without getting too bored? Should I afterschool at home in that subject, even though that could make the subject even more dreary/boring in school (seems like it could do more harm than good!)?

Depending on how old they are, you'd also be surprised what kids will pick up just from watching/listening to their favorite movies but putting on the french audio track. I find that's often a good "intro" since the kids already like the movies and know the what's generally being said.