We dropped L'Art de Lire for French. He wasn't ready for formal foreign language study.

We are in the 45-60 minute camp with my DS6. We do a lot of BA orally, so that he is not slowed down by having to write everything out. Last year, math was almost exclusively oral. This year, I would say that we are 75/25 oral to written work.

My DH was actually the one who pushed me to homeschool. I was pretty reluctant at the start. But, he leaves the research, curricular choices, and actual implementation to me. I bounce ideas off of him now and again, but that's about it. He trusts my research and judgment. I do lasso him into practicing guitar and doing science labs with my oldest, though. :)

A monthly boxed kit: https://melscience.com/en/ The experiments sound cool: https://melscience.com/en/experiments/

Gosh, thank you! This helps so much. We swam almost every day all summer, and he goes to swim lessons twice per week (plus preschool, plus nearly daily park visits -- care of the San Diego weather). He is very outdoorsy. Loves animals and craves movement and novelty. We don't have a trampoline, but he is currently balancing on our pumpkin on the balcony (we also had to block off the balcony because he frequently shimmied across to our neighbor's balcony -- again, he thought it was hysterical, no fear at all). My husband is much more the adrenaline junkie (though, I do have my moments) and athlete (he makes everything look effortless), but he has a physical job, and even he struggles to keep up with Ronen (who rarely naps and often stays up to 11pm+).

This is going to be my mantra.

I relate to so much of this. He is indeed stubborn as a mule. Unbelievably, counting to 3 still works with Sacha (at almost 7). Ronen thinks it's a hysterically funny game to ignore me. I've tried reverse psychology, but even that doesn't work. He has a mind of his own. On the plus side, because things have generally come easily to us, Sacha and I both struggle with perseverance. Ronen. Does. Not. Give. Up. I have to admire his grit.

Thank you for this post, MomatHWTK. I know that you are right that my husband and I are still adjusting to having an [unplanned] second child. I appreciate the wisdom that you have shared. My younger sister went to art school; I went to law school. I know that she felt inferior for much of her life, and I don't want to be that mom to Ronen.

A preface: I will probably delete this post (so please don't quote), but I need to get this off my chest, and I am not sure where else I can say this. We had a speech eval done on Ronen, and his expressive speech was rated 9-12 months. He'll be starting twice weekly speech therapy soon. He is two, with an August bday. He's an extremely physical, active, fearless, kinesthetic child. His gross motor skills are off the charts. Even his preschool teacher -- who has over 20+ years of experience in early child development -- swears that he's going to be a professional athlete. The problem is: I have a very difficult time relating to him. Communication issues are challenging, and he just flat out wears this [older] mama out. Toddlerhood -- while never easy -- was a cakewalk with Sacha when compared to Ronen. There were no terrible twos, and minimal threenager issues. Sacha and I learn in the same way, and, by and large, we have a pretty peaceful homeschool life together. But, most of the time, I just don't know what to do with Ronen. Sacha and I read for hours at a time when he was 2, usually books that were rated age 4-8 on Amazon. Sacha spoke in full sentences in two languages at 18 months, and potty trained early. He loved puzzles and logic games, and watching science documentaries. Ronen has very little interest in being read to, he throws or eats puzzle pieces, pours juice on games, colors the walls, jumps off the chairs during music class, dives into the pool and hopes someone retrieves him in time, and bolts into traffic and thinks it's funny. And the thought of someday homeschooling this Tasmanian Devil seems like a nightmare. Intellectually, I know that I am not supposed to compare children, and that Ronen has his own unique gifts waiting to blossom. But, if I am honest, I am really struggling with accepting the "other" child. It seems that most of the other people on this board have children who are quite near each other on the cognitive bell curve, but has anyone here struggled with this same issue -- having a child that seems to be a few standard deviations away from his/her sibling? I'm not sure what I am really asking for in this post (other than for someone not to shame me -- I already feel shi**y for feeling this way, yet alone publicly articulating it) -- perhaps anecdotes of other people who struggled with this and came out on the other side with a changed perspective?

Sacha has a January birthday, but we still went the French/Spanish immersion route for preschool (with a year in Mexico during his pre-K4 year) to try to keep him out of trouble. I can't say that it worked exactly. He was still a disruption in the classroom (generally due to boredom), but it would have been much worse in an English-language preschool environment.

My youngest (Ronen -- age 2) had an eval by a speech pathologist a few weeks ago, and his expressive speech was rated at 9-12 months. Everything else was developmentally appropriate for his age or advanced. I met with the county social worker today, and they have recommended twice weekly therapy -- once per week with a speech pathologist and once per week with a teacher, who will focus on speech and other preschoolish milestones (cutting, drawing, jumping, etc.). In September, he started attending half-day preschool 2 days/week, which he loves. I feel a bit lost as to how to help Ronen. His older brother was the complete opposite, speaking in full sentences in two languages at 18 months, and I admit that I feel guilty about Ronen's delay. He's just a very different kid from my oldest -- very physical and high energy, not really interested in being read to, etc. I want to be proactive with the speech therapists, but I don't really know what I should expect, what progress I should want to see, how I will know if things are proceeding at an appropriate pace, if the therapist is a good fit, etc. I was reluctant to even ask for the eval because, after my oldest, I feel like I just don't have a good understanding of what developmentally appropriate looks like. But, I trusted my gut that something wasn't right and made the call, and am glad that I did. So, for those of you who have been down this road, what advice would you give to someone just starting out with speech therapy? What things have you learned that you wished you'd known or done sooner? What kind of progress should I be seeing? Thanks so much for any thoughts.

Sacha has asked to do physics next year, and since I'm hitting the November doldrums early, I figured I'd do a bit of research. I'm wondering about the Conceptual Physics or How Things Work books/lectures, along with some sort of kit for Sacha to work with my DH. I don't want to hunt anything down, and it seems like Exploration Education would fit the secular, all-inclusive bill. Does this sound doable for an accelerated kid? He will be 7-8 next year, and my husband can assist with any fine motor issues. His attention span for science is really good. We are currently watching 1-2 hours of astronomy documentaries a few times per week, and he loves them. Math-wise, he seems to intuit basic algebra pretty well (we've done some Balance Benders and Hands on Equations stuff). Thanks so much for your thoughts.

I tried to talk to my EF about the policy for early high school courses, and she looked at me like I had two heads. It didn't bolster my confidence in sticking with the charter long-term. I figure that we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Yes, you can, and if the provider is a vendor for the charter, they will pay for it as well. For high school, most people here who stick with the charter seem to mostly dual enroll at the community college for A-G. I just don't think we will to go the community college route in high school. I imagine that we will use a combination of outsourced APs and DE at the local UC school for added rigor. But, that is *very* far off for us, and I have no idea what the rules for CA charters will be in a decade.

Every semester, we have to sign a Master Agreement that sets forth the terms of the independent study program at our charter. You work with your EF to decide on the modalities of learning, etc. Our charter is also a hybrid of (optional) campus-based learning centers throughout Southern California, and independent home study with parent teachers. It's not an either/or at many charter schools in California. Personally, I love the hybrid model. It gives us the best of both worlds -- enrichment classes with peers (stuff like art, music, foreign language, programming/robotics, etc.) and rigorous core subjects via our homeschool. I know that it doesn't work for everyone, and that we will likely leave the charter at some point, but it is a great fit for us at present.

There is also a difference between an independent study program at a charter school and an ISP, which are private schools (hence my use of the lower case to denote the former). :)

So-called "homeschool charters" are not umbrella schools. They are public schools with independent study programs in place for their students. So, yes, Scout would be free to a child enrolled in one, as the kids are legally public school students. Having said that, I expect that we will abandon our charter by high school, as the hoop-jumping becomes too onerous by that point for my blood.

What about Julia Denne? http://bytheonionsea.com/russian-language-2/

Yes!! We just did G the other day, and my son was like, "What the heck is that thing!"

I am anti-2Q and pro-New American Cursive or Getty-Dubay.

Listen to your gut. I haven't been wrong yet. I knew something was amiss with my oldest's eyes. I assumed myopia since my vision is pretty bad. I asked his preschool teachers if they noticed anything. Everyone assured me that his vision was fine. Took him to a pediatric ophthalmologist, and sure enough, he had amblyopia (lazy eye). He patched for a year, and is fine now, but it's actually the leading cause of blindness because it so often goes untreated. I also had a nagging feeling with my youngest that his speech was not progressing appropriately. Finally ignored everyone who told me that it was normal for a boy, and went with my gut. He is two, but his speech eval showed that his expressive speech is 9-12 months. He will be starting speech therapy soon. Go with your gut.

I know when I'm pushing because things just don't go smoothly and I feel like a salmon swimming upstream. I tried AAS spelling with my son when he was 4, and still learning to read (thinking that it would help him with reading). It didn't go well, so we stopped, and just did HWT. He liked that. We tried formal French study this year (he's been learning it orally since birth), and it was like pulling teeth. So, we stopped. He's just not ready for formal foreign language study. He drags me to do science and regards himself as a math beast (thanks to BA). I don't pay attention to what level he is learning at anymore. Instead, I just really watch for his signals when something isn't working. At that point, I just stop. I don't try to push. I've learned that, no matter the grade level, when they are ready for something, it is pretty obvious. And, when they aren't it, well, it is usually obvious as well. That has kept things pretty smooth in our homeschool, despite the acceleration.

We're using MCT, and really like it.

We've used HWT and New American Cursive so far, which have been good. I love the look of Getty Dubay the best.

My boys go to my stylist. They are $25 each, plus 20% tip. They usually go every 6-8 weeks.