Geography for us is 2 part. We do check out things on our big map when we are reading most of our history and literature books. Also we pick a focus area for the year. We did China one year. That was fun. We put a big map of china on the dining table and covered it with plastic. This year we did a Holy Land theme and smaller versions of those different countries. This coming year we are going to do a half of the year on south america and half a year on Central America. Still with the map on the table. I LOVE having the map on the table. And almost every guest we have had to our house for dinner has become fully engrossed in it. The kids also joke around together about what city they are eating at or what country depending on the map and we have tons of conversations about it. We do reading and watch documentaries about the country throughout the year and will look up cultural events and foods. It is a super fun part of our home school without being over burdensome or overly complicated. We read classic older books and some newer ones. Some of them are kindle books and such. There are quite a few programs I have seen though not played with much on the internet where you can create/make/ view maps all online. While there is something beautiful about drawing and painting your own maps if you have those skills we are also in a very technology driven world and our kids will only need to become more and more efficient with it. I believe you mentioned on another post your son being into creating web stuff or mine craft, using those sort of tools to create maps to mimic could be fun and educational christina

yes we do for the most part as well. Right now I have one who is going into PS first grade next year and am homeschooling my older 4. I also have a DH who works for the public schools. We are due with another baby August 30th so my dh insisted that we do school lite over the summer and have included even the PS younger child in the mix. She is just doing reading and summer bridge type books. My older kids are just doing language arts, reading, and math all summer. We have had some complaints but less and less every day as they get used to my imposed summer rules/schedule. It just took sticking to my guns and not giving in. (I have also imposed a mandatory inside quite play /reading time from 1-3 where goodness forbid I force them to read or play games inside. It is easier too to keep to school schedules with kids in the neighborhood being around and even for me with neighbors and my friends wanting to meet together or play. WE find if we do a little over the summer regardless though we get more chances for mini breaks during the rest of the year. If my husband wasnt home all summer as well I am sure we would probably at least sneak in a few more weeks of school work. But when he is here "I" want to go play with him.

I want to put a plug in for essentials in writing. I am using it this year at the 2nd grade level, the 7th grade level, and the 9th grade level. I have been VERY pleased with it. While the DVDs offer alot in the way of teaching, especially for the older ones, I don't think they are as useful for the 2nd grade level. Even at the older level there is quite a bit of teaching in the workbook itself. At the younger level we have been known to skip the dvd instruction because I am too lazy to get off my rear and dig out the cd lol. But honestly the instructions are in the workbook. The workbook is just a printable PDF file. So you could print it all and bind it or you could print it out as you need it. I print out by unit and then keep them in a file so I just pull it out of the file by the day. The dvds are in one case each. The older kids have 3 DVDs and the younger ones have 2. I think baring the whole scratched DVD concern of yours it might fit the bill. I really like it more than I thought. It does what I want without being overly complicated and trying to do too much. IT offers the basics of grammar and writing and breaks them down into little daily chunks. Time spent per day. 2nd graders- 5ish minutes with video and another 5+ on the worksheet. Older two could spend 5-10 minutes on video and 10-30 on the assignment depending on the assignment.

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule for when children should or shouldn't be independent. I think there is a level where you shouldn't necessarily hand hold ALL the TIME. But I think as a generalization our society has stepped back from being involved parents. We are too involved in our cell phones or televisions or computers to actually spend meaningful time with our children. My 4 year old goes to preschool for 2 hours four times a week. I mostly send her there to have play time and fun while I try and focus on the homeschooling kids more. They passed this paper out a few weeks ago and I noticed a number of parents honestly struggling to fill it out. The paper was a list for the week to chart how much time they spend 1 reading to their children and 2 doing parent and child together activities (which could include games, cooking, talking) most of the parents honestly could not think of times they had spent on many days where they had spent quality time of any sort with their children. How sad, these are 3 and 4 year olds. That said with home school I try and encourage some level of independence in all my children. Younger children I just ask for a few minutes. Can I give them explicit instruction and modeling and expect them to finish or at least continue on said project/paper for a few moments while I attend to other children. ( I am homeschooling 4 children with a 4 year old and baby and one more on the way). Even my older children seem to need more than I give them. It still should start with instruction, model, and finish assignment. I definitely have more trouble when I send them off on their own. My 11 year old likes to go off and disappear and do all his work, but when I check in with him he tends to not do it as well as if I was able to monitor his work. And I tend to let it slide because he whines about having to do it over and I don't want a fight. The better way would be to have him check in with me after or during and before every assignment. My husband and I have been talking about different ways to accomplish this in our home next year and have decided a more specific schedule will help our family do this.

Within the last couple months my DH and I have poured over home school philosophies, parenting philosophies, and personal observations. We have also looked realistically at what we think the goals should be at preparing a child to be a good citizen in their home and community and what means should be taken to help them get there. We have above average children who are naturally bright, though not extremely talented in any particular area or genius' by any means. But we both feel we need to offer them more to encourage them to broaden their view of the world, increase their creativity, and to expose them to more breadth than depth. I know that isn't always popular but after much thought we have decided we want our children to know about many of the possibilities out there instead of limiting them. Yes we pursue depth when there is interest but or need but generally this is the time in their life to explore and discover. As adults we realize how locked into our lives we get. How perhaps other things would have been talents or even careers had we known they existed when we were younger. 1) Anyways basically we are loosening up on science and humanities type subjects. Covering more variety. We still want to tackle the R's well and deeply. 2)While I love the CM idea to writing I just cannot seem to pull it off. My older children's writing is horrific. (I have tried it for three years and I can honestly say while their vocabulary has improved their general writing may have even gone backwards) So we have already started and will continue traditional avenues to learning better structure for writing. 3) I am hoping to evaluate the whole less is more concept. I think I may be trying to do too much. 4) I am going to plan all lessons out into a LONG checklist lol. Because I am due to have a baby literally the first week of school and want to know exactly what I am doing so I dont have to think too hard while helping my oldest through his first year of high school, ds#2 through 8th (so he is prepared for high school), my twins with their 3rd grade year, all while shuttling a first grader and preschooler off to PS, and chasing a 16 month old while nursing a newborn baby. I am thinking preparation will be a HUGE key to surviving. I might be in over my head but I will do my best to prepare for it.

We bought the whole kit and I am VERY glad we did. My one son does fine with it on the computer and the other one just doesn't. I think it might be the whole second chance thing or something. (Even though I still give him a second chance). He is just lazier about his work on the computer. So he does most of his lessons out of the book. Then he brings me the answers and I check it with the answer book. I like doing it this way because I can see what he is doing wrong. (Simple arithmetic error versus concept confusion). Then he takes it off and tries to fix them and then enters answers into the computer. If he still has any wrong he is required to view the solution. My other kiddo does fine with the computer and rarely needs second chances and has NEVER worked in the book. Though is we traveled or had computer problems it would be very helpful to have the book with us. So it does kind of depend on the kid and how they learn best but I never would have known prior to buying them an doing it with my kids. m

For the summers and keeping up on stuff we usually do more math games, and work much harder on learning math facts. We keep it pretty simple but still keep math in their brains. If we do actual "Math" like my dh wants to do this summer it will actually just be to keep going with the next level of the curriculum maybe at a more leisurely pace than during the actual school year.

I am using levels 2, 7, and 9. In regards to the language arts curriculum I add in spelling separately and literature. I think it is enough for grammar honestly but still use another program with my 2nd graders that adds grammar in connection to literature. The 7th and 9th grade levels do not have grammar but by then they should know it. I think it is enough on its own but even just for writing it is pretty good. I am happy with it.

I second essentials in writing. Short video lessons followed by 1+ days of simple written assignments matching the topic addressed in the video.

We just started the early american history with my 2nd graders. I love it! It does try to teach alot of character at the same time as telling the stories. We are also just buying books used on amazon or borrowing from library. I cannot afford the package deal. Buying them from amazon allows me to spread the cost over the year as well since I just buy the next book a couple weeks before we need it. I agree at the older levels my children can certainly read much better than they suggest. I got the ancients for next year for my 7th grader and decided to have him do the sr high section since his reading is definately there. I dont have that problem with the Early american K-3 level though because my guys are beginning fluent readers. So we read through it together with them doing most of the reading. Some may need to do most of the reading for their children though.

I agree with what hunter said as well. If you use these lists as a general guide. Coordinate subjects to match across the different levels of your children. Do writing and Math on level with their abilities and what they need to work on, then have them read everything. My kids LOVE to read anything that is at reading level, slightly above level, and easily anything below level for them. They just enjoy reading. It is simply entertaining and educational. Yes we have had books we have to muddle through but for the most part they like almost everything.

Sometimes I feel like I do such a mish mash. I actually at one time printed out all the recomendations from Milestones and AO and a couple other sites. Looked at the books for each year and selected which ones I prefered to do at certain grades. I pick a time period to do for the history rotation and actually have used the synge books and SOTW. My children enjoy both. I use that as sort of a spine for most ages until high school. I kind of took the idea more than anything. For example this year I decided to do a US history year focus so I have a spine for my older two and a spine for my younger two. Somewhat based on some the reccomendations on the two sites as well as some from this forum. Then my older boys are also reading more difficult Biographies as recommended from Milestones. My younger two are reading a couple smaller books with me as per other appropriate recs (since they are beginning readers). You can look at the lists for your childs age/grade and go up and down a year at least and get a fairly appropriate book list going. So even if the spines dont line up the idea they are studying the same time period still makes a difference. Same for science we do a spine curriculum with the whole family. This year we did a human anatomy course. The older two used Apologia (I didn't love it) and the younger ones used some simpler books to cover human anatomy. So they have all been learning about the body all year. They are all using their own nature study books per grade year recs and the olders are reading science biographies as well. We also pick a geography focus for the year like they do on milestones. I LOVE this. It is so much fun. Last year we did China, This year we did the Holy Lands for the first half of the year and North America for the second half (since it matched so well with our history focus). Next year we are planning on South America and Central America. The way it gets the most exciting is I buy a map on amazon and put it on my table with a large sheet of plastic over it. SO it is always there to refer to but we also spend a ton of time discussion it during meals. So much FUN!

I used alot of the ideas for Milestones for the last few years. She basically combines history and science. But uses many similar books from the AO book lists. Basically the spine for history is combined as a family. Whatever you choose. WE have used different books and enjoy SOTW books for younger years. We make the difference in what the different ages do with the lessons. From short discussions to written narrations. So while they read the same information they are expected different outputs. Same with Science. The main difference being that there are sort of rabbit trail books in each area as well. Other books that kids read independently and give them more breadth in the subjects. I really enjoy having all the kids learning the same part of history. Even if they are reading very different levels of spines I like that we can have dinner discussions and people can share all of what they are learning about a certain topic at the same time. Plus the older kids get excited to share with the younger ones what they know about a subject. I think it brings a bit more unified atmosphere to our home to have the same general topics history and science, even if the extra readings and such are very different.

I agree, sounds like a wonderful year to try a US history year. Something like Beautiful Feet American history, using their junior high level since your son is advanced would probably keep it interesting and fun (It is mostly based on reading level). I am currently in love with BF right now lol, that's why that rec. You could also do a State history unit in there as well.

Sorry it gets confusing. I did IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) with my kiddos for 2 years and got some good skills out of it but wasn't getting the result I really wanted. They learned some tools of the trade were it, but it never transferred over to being able to just write a stinking paper especially one that took them expressing their own opinions. So I switched to Essentials in Writing (EIW) and so far am happy with it.

I can't answer your question totally. I recently just needed something to get it done. I had 3 levels of kids to work with. An 8/9th grader a 6/7th grader and twins at the 2/3 grade level (since I just started this late in the year). My oldest is who was really driving me. I feel like I have offered an excellent education to my boys, but their writing was atrocious. I consider myself a decent writer. I always did well in college paper and was also responsible to editing my husbands thesis in grad school. Apparently teaching writing was not panning out for me. At any rate we tried IEW and while it offered some very good skills and tools to work with I still couldn't get a decent composition out of my boys. I just needed something that was clear, no fluff and broke the work into little itty bitty bite size chunks. After looking through EIW's syllabus for the year I decided this was right. I bought just the 9th grade level to try it out and tried it out for a couple weeks. After about 3 weeks I went ahead and ordered the other two levels. I am happy with it. I don't think it is terribly exciting or thrilling but it gets the job done and done well. The 9th grade starts with sentences and strengthening them. Then it works to paragraphs before moving into essays. My biggest reasons for choosing this curriculum. Small chunks of assignments breaking things into manageable lessons. Essay Lessons don't just cover persuasive essays (like many of the others I looked at), but cover personal, expository, persuasive, compare/contrast essays and an expository research project. I wanted him to learn how to write more than one type of essay. So far I have been happy with it and feel it is helping. Edited for clarification

I think it is a slow process every year and even throughout the year changing more and more. I think once they are reading fluently there is less time required of mom. We go from reading aloud and concert reading with discussion to the kids run off and read and then we discuss. I actually struggle with not being involved as much with my 7th and 8th graders. They read independently, do their work and sometimes I am so busy with their 2nd grade brothers I just dont check their work. I fall into a funk sometimes where it will be days before I check it. Stupid I know but they start to take advantage. I have to force myself to remember they are not fully independent. And actually my 8th grader still requires me to do his math with him. He just needs help focusing for some reason on math. He is decent at it just doesn't like it and easily sways himself to distraction. And certainly some curriculum lends itself to more or less parental involvement. Which is great for different family dynamics. Christina

I say just let him go for it. That's what I would do. I think if he is capable of the work you can just do it and have him work on dual enrollment or exam credit that last year. You know what he is capable of. If he can do it why hold him back? My only concern with not holding back is the idea of sending a kid away to college too soon. Dh and I have toyed with the idea of telling the kids (so long as they are capable) that we will give them their "diploma" when they have an associates degree. The kids could spend the 4 years of high school with me testing out of a certain number of credits. I looked at the community college and half of the credits can be tested out of (I believe around 30). So if they test half of the credits out during their "home high school" years then they can take actual courses during their senior year and that extra year before they turn 18 and they will have an associates degree. I am not sure how dual enrollment will work here. I will have to work through the local high school to arrange it. Luckily my DH works there 2 days a week and may have some sway there. It is also WAY cheaper. So even if I have to jump through hoops I may pursue 2 years worth of that. More than testing. I still have a couple years before I am going to worry about that though. That's just my opinion and I have never been on the other end (having not graduated a kid yet). Christina

Haha I feel dumb.. :blushing:I knew DE meant dual enrollment. I was just looking at distance education classes for my Dh this morning (for continuing ed credits for bonus at work). That was the first thing that popped into my head. Sorry for that. I think overall you have decide what is right for your family and your child. What fits your goals and his? Does he have passions or interests to pursue. Most kids this age don't have some definite life course to pursue but if he did that would make a difference.

I have no experience with this but my plan is to add some life of fred in there to beef it up maybe. My 2nd child love fred. Like have him read the chapters alongside and maybe do some of the problems but not all. My hope is this way it keeps it fun and interesting without really requiring 2 separate courses. I agree my kids thrive with TT algebra I see no reason to stop using it because it isn't the "most rigorous" program out there. You could also just beef it up with some khan academy. That would be easy to link up with the lessons and perhaps teach multiple ways to tackle the same problems. Christina

I think she meant "distance education" for DE

We are in the same position. I have a kid a year plus ahead of his peers academically. We have decided to forge ahead and do high school. It is something he really wants to do. I have told him his writing is not up to par but he has agreed to work extra hard on that for the remainder of this school year and even over the summer. We will also be giving extra guidance in that area next year in "9th grade". I decided to forge ahead because dh and I decided that even the best of kids get "senioritis" around 17 and we have had a number of friends who are fabulous parents have kids who have rebelled and "quit" school around 17. We figure hey if our kid decides to do that then well at least he will be "done" with what we are requiring for high school. Mine would also be 17 when he graduates from us but we figure on keeping him home and having him test some college credits and take a few credits at the local cc. I know it isn't the most popular opinion of some but we have no way of knowing which road our kids will take on the teenager track. WE would all love to think we have perfectly motivated and great children and in homeschool especially where we can focus on good morals and ethics but alas all children grow up and get to decide what they want to do for themselves. That is just my opinion though Christina

I have no real experience in this yet either. But I already own visual link 1 and 2 (and they have a third level) and will be using them paired with madrigals as well. I don't plan to line them up as they don't seem like they would line up like that. They are totally different ways to tackling spanish but I believe they both offer something good. I will probably require all three levels of visual link to be completed at the end and who knows what else. If you do it right along with them it makes it easier to try and converse with them at dinner and such using the newly acquired words from that days lessons. I do agree that if you aren't learning it to become fluent, then that should be good enough. Honestly I got very little out of my Spanish classes in high school. I love the idea of having my kids privately tutored to become fluent but it is both impossible where we live and probably out of my budget even if it were possible.

msjones, I totally get you. Even in our small town we have friends who schedule every moment of their lives away I swear with sports and dance lessons and such. I agree I believe it is wonderful to just let kids play. One of the huge advantages of homeschooling my younger ones. My now first graders used to spend 7:50 am to 3:30 pm every day all day in school with 2.... 20 minute recesses. Then home and any extra activities and homework, dinner and family time and suddenly it was bedtime. Now with homeschool they have soared academically. Gone from reading right at beginning 1st grade level to beginning 3rd grade level just in the first half a year. Math has also sped by and we just started 2nd grade math this year. And they get a nice long 45ish minute break in the am and are usually done by lunch. And there is zero homework. They spend the rest of their time riding their bikes, building snow forts, playing soccer. I feel like I gave them their childhood back by choosing to homeschool them. I dont think I would trade my rural living for anything. When my DH almost got another job a couple years ago we were looking at housing in the area and had already decided to try and get a few acres about 30 miles out of town. To me I would love to live about an hour outside of a bigger city. Maybe a bit more. But living 4 hours from one creates a much bigger challenge for us. Our trips to town are exhausting marathons of dr visits, shopping, family visits, and attempts to have a bit of fun in there too. Of all my rural challenges though I think my biggest one is medical care. Thankfully everyone in my family is healthy but I cringe at the thought that I would need to drive at least 2 hours to get to a hospital if one of my kids say broke their arm or something. We do have a small local hospital but they are HORRIBLE and I would only use them in a literally life or death emergency. For example my DH got 3rd degree burns from mid thigh to mid calf on both legs. The dr told us to just let them air out (his exact words were something to the effect of wearing shorts and letting them get lots of air). um yeah. We went straight home and called the burn unit 4 hours away. They had much different advice. With the medical care issue if any of my children had special needs or disabilities we would really struggle. DH an I already decided long ago that if we had a child with a disability we would probably move. It would be a big deal for our family but the resources available to special needs kids in cities vs rural is NIGHT and DAY.

Thanks everyone and thank you Lori. I do have a few of those mapped and I know I need to get my rear in gear about administrating better which was sort of why I wanted to change things. I needed that part to be easier for me to handle. I figure on making a grade book for him for every subject. We really haven't "kept" grades. Until now I have generally taught a concept until it was known with enough proficiency to get a 90% or better. We do have plans for him to do AP/CLEP tests but not too many. Most of the likely college picks we have looked at will only accept a handful of credits from tests. So I am guessing he will test out of just a few and I am not even worrying about that til Junior and Senior year. He will likely do dual enrollment senior year as well for at least one subject each semester. To make my plan I just looked at ALL of the most likely and possible college picks, including ones he has shown interest in and ones that most local kids go to as well as ones close to family. Then I picked the one with the most requirements and went with that to build my plan to make sure at a minimum he has that.. I think I at least did a good job with that lol. High school is a whole other ball game. When people find out we are homeschooling through high school they look at me with shock and wonder. Most just cannot see how it is even possible. I just act like I have it all together and I know what I am talking about and tell them its really not a big deal. We will have him well prepared for college and probably better prepared than most of his peers in school. Thank you for the links. Definitely will have to check them out more closely.