If you decide to home school you can use a variety of extra curricular activities to meet your kids social needs. Sports through the city parks and recreation department are usually affordable, fun classes as the Community Recreational Center can provide a 1 or 2 days a week excursion to learn pottery, chess, animation, etc... Put the kids in Sunday school at a church you feel comfortable with for fellow ship with other children in your faith. Go to the park and play. I teach my kids how to interact and invite random kids to play with them at the park playground, etc...

In my mind, "abstractions in math" are under the umbrella of relational "big ideas" and patterns.

No, prealgebra is not needed. Especially not in a school environment where the quality and caliber of teaching and the accepted student output is carefully and deliberately taught, expected and inspected. You don't need to do a course dedicated to training students to work neatly and systematically before they get to algebra. The skills students need to thrive in algebra can be systematically taught and mastered between 4th-middle school grades. learning to copy problems onto notebook paper working 3 step calculations with accuracy gaining fluency in showing work (ie, writing a full-solution) making quality notes in mathematics referring to mathematics notes appropriately using mathematics to check their work/verify their "answers" the ability to keep track of minor calculations, signs and symbols ("book-keeping") Mastering math facts and basic arithmetic beforehand Teaching children to see and understand relational "big-ideas" and patterns in mathematics In a homeschool you can teach (and grade) for good habits and final result all throughout Arithmetic. There's no reason to let bad-habits sink in for weeks, let alone for years.

I disagree, I think that we should do Real World Math a few times a day. Let them read the clock, estimate and calculate time throughout the day. We pointed out math, quantities and numbers in the real world all of the time. Aside from integrating manipulatives intelligently into our main math program and playing store a lot, we actively engaged and required the children to do the math when shopping (Order of Operations, Percents, Decimals), eating out (percents), cooking (fractions, order of operations, estimating) or looking at and considering the nutrition for their meals (adding/subtracting), looking at the weather (adding/subtracting integers). When shopping or before opening the package at home we might look at serving size and calculate how long a snack will last. If the pack says it has 3.5 servings, and each serving is 8 crackers, about how crackers should we expect are in this package? (28). This snack has to be shared between 6 children at once. How many crackers will you each get? (4) how many can daddy and I have if we're sharing the left overs? (2 each). When they're young we use tokens and items in jars and have them estimate the number in them. We use cash and coins a lot and have the children to pay for the items at the store. Just hand them the purse or the wallet and have them watch the bill tally and total up. While shopping they keeping a running, estimated tab as we grocery shop and count out money ahead of getting to the register. We have them estimate how much tax to pay as well. For my eldest, he now keeps an exact total and calculates the tax precisely. We also keep a bill book as a family and the kids can see how much we make, how much we pay out, etc. We work out the calculations long-hand, so if we save 18% of all income, they see us work that calculation out. (We take 10%, 5% and 1% using number sense and place-value) and add them up as needed. When our utility bill was unusually high, they watched as Hubby and I read over the bill and figured out what was up with that. When drawing, we some times ask them to recreate a drawing at x-times bigger or y% larger/smaller than the original. They have to estimate and use proportional reasoning to accomplish this. If this birds eye was .5 inch in the original, but when you scaled it up, the eye is 2.5 inches, then how much bigger is this bird? Are the wings and feet also 5x bigger? If not, you need to fix the proportions so it looks as good as the original. In addition to shining a spotlight on Math as tool used in our lives, and keeping Math in the forefront, we teach Arithmetic > Word Problems. We do a whole lot of word problems Process Skills in Problem Solving series, Kumon Word Problems, etc and the kids work every word problem. Then we use Forester for Algebra-Precalculus which has excellent word problems as well.

Science: Earth and Life Sciences (home made) Writing: Reasoning and Writing as well as writing across the curriculum History: US History and Civics (home made) Drawing: Drawing across the curriculum French: 500+ Sentences with a tutor, The ULAT and reading picture books with fluency. Sports: Golf, Soccer and Tennis

Thank you all for the many suggestions! I've order the Pitman ruled paper on Amazon! I'd tried to find printable Pitman Ruled paper but the margins weren't that great! @Clemsondana Can you share the measurements that you like for your self-made paper on Excel? I'm interested in making rows of different heights so that the exponents are aligned neatly.

That's such good news, @JazzyMom . It's always nice to see good updates.

The problem is with exponents and fractions. He runs out of room. We all prefer the horizontal lines only (no grids) for working expressions and equations.

Jr wants to be able to write more neatly in math, but it's frustratingly too hard for him to keep the expressions contained and legible in the bounds of a wide ruled paper. He doesn't want to use K-2 paper. I've found steno-pads that have wider rulings, but the size of paper is awkward for him. I've found printable versions but the margins are wonky and he hated them. Where can I find 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper with wider rules?

As a family, we pick up litter. We're not a part of any groups, we just keep work gloves and heavy duty trash bags in the car. We make the habit of taking grocery store bags with us to the park or on walks and when we see trash, we pick it up.

Do Magic Treehouse books have staying power in your family? Because your kids may or may not like having to "dig deep" with the Magic Treehouse books all year. What if they don't like the characters? What if they read the books in a day but don't want to revisit them for extension activities? I would trial making a unit study out of a 2 or 3 MT books to see if it's an approach and a series that you guys even enjoy.

For Human Body we like this model 11in Human Anatomy Model + Posters and these books, (though I know you said you don't like what you've seen of DK) DK How The Body Works Human Body Pop Up Book Our kids don't watch videos so I can't recommend any documentaries at this time.

Thank you Ladies for your input! I have decided that it takes tremendous courage as a Homeschooling Parent to stick to your intuition and allow a time in life to (seemingly) be good, instead of great. When I think of all that he could be doing, but isn't, it's hard to not feel something stir me into making sure he does more. But the more I look at what he's doing, the more I am satisfied by and at peace with how gentle it is. Hubby has began to say that a "gelling year" is a really good thing for him.

That sounds great! I hope that it catches on. I had no idea that someone had already taken Augsburg and made lesson plans out of them. How nifty--the text can be a little thick to read when you have kids running around underfoot. The links on Under The Home seem like they might help you glance over the lessons in NA2-5, without getting too lost in the weeds of the teachers notes (which aren't always very concrete anyway).

1) Drawing is skill-based so I recommend that you try to assess his basic skill level. I would take a look at what your 10 year old can draw fluently. Look at all of his drawings, not just things that he worked on for 10+ minutes, but quickly drawn things. Maps or diagrams that he's drawn for school. Scenes of super heroes or illustrations for books that he's drawn. Bear in mind that we use Augsburg in such a way as to support and re-inforce TDT. Can he do basic object drawings? How is he with placement of objects in a scene? How fluently is he with drawing on average? Etc. When you say that your kids would draw for 40+ minutes, what are they drawing? If they don't have a bunch of drawings laying around the house already, then for the next couple of weeks give them time to draw and take a look at their drawings to assess them. 2) No, we do not follow the fall/winter/spring suggestion. We do adhere roughly to sequence that NA sets out, but we school year round. We don't feel comfortable enough to "re-invent" the drawing curriculum. We use TDT and NA because we deem them to be high-quality and good at their jobs. 3) Certainly not a typical crayola crayon that we think of today. We use colored pencils. I don't know for sure, the impression that I get is that it was some kind of chalk-marker. 4) We jiggle and fenagle things to work with the wider scope of TDT and just taking our time. We tend to plan 1 semester at a time, but with drawing (and all the skill subjects) just set a broad goal and then take it day-by-day. (ie, my daughter struggled with the angled/rectangular drawings because it the parallel lines have to be straight and roughly even But no struggle with rounded objects. We just support with the foreshortened rectangle needed for rectangular objects) 5) Drawing is not an elective for our kids, so this is like asking me if they get bored with phonics or counting-drills. They typically enjoy drawing, since we use TDT and NA there is some variety between 3D and 2D objects and we try and keep the lesson pleasant. We're not unwilling to bring in some other things to draw or to breathe new life into the lessons with different books from time to time, if need be. But Learning to skillfully draw--like learning reading, writing, music or math--is a journey. It takes a few years to get a foundation laid and there is no royal road to excellence. If they're struggling with something--ie foreshortened rectangle--then they might get "bored" with drawing lessons, but no one overcomes a challenge or improves at a skill by quitting. They know that they have to do it and the lesson doesn't take long anyway.

Neither Hubby nor I are naturally talented as an artist though we've definitely improved by teaching New Augsburg in combination with The Drawing Textbook to our kids. We gave priority to TDT because we wanted the the kids to be able to draw in 3-dimensions, but we include New Augsburg because it's remarkably well put together, includes drawing guidance for the teacher and the drawing exercises are phenomenal! The kids have been through a Pre-Drawing curriculum prior to starting formal drawing lessons in either The Drawing Textbook or New Augsburg. The PreDrawing curriculum is lots pencil-handling skills, learning to draw the basic geometric shapes quickly, and a ton of of tracing patterns, learning to use heavy-lines and light-lines to make the different shapes. Learning to draw ovals and rectangles. We printed Pg7-12 of the New Augsburg books because they give the "big picture" scope and sequence for the New Augsburg Drawing curriculum. We used this to mesh books 1 and 2 together whenever we needed more time/practice with a skill. New Augsburg uses 3 stages of drawing in its teaching. >Object Drawing -- looking at an object and drawing it. >Copy Drawing -- looking at a picture and drawing it -- this is typically step by step after a teacher ( or series of illustrations). >Memory Drawing -- visualizing an object or a a picture and drawing it. Please note that we do a lot of 3D drawing as well, so we chose items to support that endeavor. We chose items that compliment the first several lessons in The Drawing Textbook. We do most drawing on paper but introduce Rhythymic Drawing (2-handed drawing) at the whiteboard. We do a 3-5 minute 2-handed drawing most days as a part of our evening wind-down routine. Augsburg 1 and 2 (A1/2, going forward) we use simple items from around the house. We try and get 4 identical version of each item to go in the drawing collection. Circular objects to draw: bottle caps, cans of food, a thread spool, baseball caps, a roll of tape, CDs, cups, bowls, candles, ping-pong balls, etc. Angled objects to draw: Books, food boxes, game boards, playing cards, digital clock, cd-box, tupper-ware, binders, re-usable shopping bags, hand-mirrors, etc. Natural objects to draw: twigs from a particular bush, blades of grass, single leaves from a tree, a house-plant, fruits, vegetables, roots from the from market. We also purchased fake plants to draw. They don't wilt or break. 🙂 We draw every day and we have about 3-4 Lesson Days each week, with the other days used for Review We try to draw one round and one straight item every Lesson Day. On Review Days, we draw natural items as well just for varieties sake. We start with the "recording exercises". We select a single round and a straight item for each Lesson. We have about a minute to recording a simple drawing of what you see from a particular angle. Place one item at a time on an empty table or shelf at a time and draw it. We've found that it's important that you only have about a minute per drawing. If drawing is slow and laborious, it will not be enjoyed nor used voluntarily. We err on the side of too-little time for this simple class of objects because want the kids to learn to do really simple drawings quickly. Starting with Recording Exercises -- For a recording exercise, do not allow embellishment. (ie Don't put designs on blank cups, or capture too much detail to the point that it's inaccurate etc.) 1st) Do the Timed Recording Exercise 2nd) Share and discuss the the drawings 3rd) Now, ID "the best" drawing from the group and discuss a - ways to improve it and ask the participants b - why it's "the best" recording of the object from that angle. 4th) Everyone does another Timed Exercise 5th) This is where the Copy-Drawing starts. The Person who drew the best drawing (At Level 1-3, this is almost always the adult) demonstrates step-by-step how to draw the item. 6th) We do up to 3 rounds of copy drawing to get "the gist" of it 7th) We draw the item in timed laps. So we might draw the same object(s) 5-10 times a day. 8th) This is where the Memory Drawing starts. Later, we draw the item again without looking, check our work and try to draw it again if we made a mistake. Every few days we have a "review day" and draw the previously learned items from memory, check our work and make any corrections. This is more Memory Drawing. We also draw a Natural Object on Review Days. We progress through the drawing collections. Any item that is correctly drawn from memory, 4 Review Days in a row, is retired from the collection. On Review Days, we tend to draw a natural object as well. This will get you into the groove of drawing lessons and start you drawing. Once you've gotten through about half of the collection of round and linear items, you can venture into the positioning exercises. We explore and introduce Positioning informally with illustrated picture books. Augsburg 1 and 2 are very explicit with the Positioning Exercises. We felt more comfortable sticking closely to what they did in those books because we know very little about positioning and composing drawings. We did the lessons and drilled pretty much as they suggested. We started positioning with the apples and balls exercises from A1, then created scenes using the items that they knew how to draw, while also teaching them to draw new images of the natural/rural scenes that the book describes. We have a habit of visiting museums and nature reserves. We'd intentionally take pictures of things for them to draw during these excursions. We chose to focus on the drawing portion of the curriculum. We use pencils and regular paper though sometimes the kids like to use their colored pencils on their drawings.

We are hitting the basics. His PreK-2 years were very 3Rs focused and geared towards developing skills. As a result, he is a very good reader and uses reading to learn history and science. He's very strong in math. He's very happy--he has loads of time to play and pursue hobbies. He does his work with a good attitude. He's a go-along-kind of kid, so he engages easily with his work. He loves Snap Circuits and K'Nex. We have so...many...K'Nex. We might do a big build project in January. Ultimately, that bolded is what we're working on this semester. Sometimes, Good enough is just....good enough. Thank you for saying this! It could just be the season too! We're going to keep things as-is for now, and re-evaluate later. Thank you ladies.

Hubby and I've been unsatisfied with 3rd grade. The main issue is that it feels "too lite" because it feels like writing is the only skill that is actually being learned this year. He's using his reading, math and drawing skills, but we feel that he's kind of coasting in those area, instead of being really challenged and actively improving. We'd like to push him a little more and stretch him, but with everything going on this year, what we have for 3rd grade while not great, it is very sustainable. We plan 1 semester at a time, and were going to change up a few things. However, Hubby and I sat down, looked back and discussed what Jr. is learning in 3rd grade and what skills he's getting from it, we realized that this 3rd grade plan is good, but it's certainly not great. Because we have a lot of things going on, we're tentatively deciding to not make changes to the 2nd semester because 3rd grade is at least going good. We do feel that he's growing as a writer and writing is an important component of the literacy skill set that we want for our home schooled students. Hubby and I feel good about leaving things as they are--but we don't feel great about leaving things as they are. Why does it feel so hard to let things be simple?

Hits: SRA Reasoning and Writing -- teaches solid writing skills, practices great habits from the beginning and the skills have transferred across the curriculum. The kids can productively proofread their work. The kids really enjoy the writing-activities in the student materials, the teacher support is amazing and ensures that even as newbie, Hubby and I are delivering GREAT Teaching the first time around. Also, the sequence builds very incrementally and allows the kids to master what's being taught so that it actually makes it into their skill set. History -- Actively Reading from The DK Atlas of World History. Very beautiful illustrations and side bars. Having Jr. actively read 1 (sometimes 2, but usually 1) spread a day is wonderfully sustainable. There is only 1 to 2 paragraphs of text in the main-entry and Jr. reads it aloud a few times and we question him sentence by sentence to make sure he understands what he's reading. We use the passages to build his vocabulary and reading comprehension. It feels too simple, but when we look at how much history he's learned using this method, as well as stack in the vocabulary and reading comprehension piece, we decided to let it a lone. Besides, it naturally includes a consistent review of Geography so when he looks at world or regional map, he recalls bit of World History Literature -- we use the Prindle Institute and Philosophy for Children reading lists and get the books from the library or order them online. So far it's going great. Drawing-- systematically teaching the fundamental drawing skills with a combo of The Drawing Textbook and Augsburg while prioritizing the daily time needed to practice has resulted in our kids being able to truly draw. They draw across the curriculum and it is a delight for them to have the skill at their disposal. Spelling by Sound and Structure -- We teach 2-6 directly from the Teachers Guide. We do the exercises on the whiteboard or a sheet of paper and they write in a notebook or whiteboard as needed. The SbSS exercises of working with the words and the spelling drills seems to really click and allow the spelling of the words to sink in. The kids are definitely able to spell outside of the Spelling Lesson, and they are able to generalize and spell words that they aren't directly taught also.

Hubby and I have been talking about this and have decided that Simplicity is Super Sustainable. That on top of building on his Geography knowledge and giving a nice foundation of historical knowledge a couple of things that we like about the World History book is the sophisticated vocabulary and reading comprehension that it interjects into his daily school routine. When he finishes the *World* History book, we'll move to US History and focus there for a couple of years to give him a firm foundation in national history that Hubby wants.

Is he artistically inclined? Art Lab for Kids might be enjoyed for a few years. There are 52 Art Projects in a range of different mediums.

We've been doing some lite World History--it just happened that way. We're just reading and appreciating a DK World History book, However, Hubby would really prefer that Jr. get a solid introduction to US History sooner rather than later. I'm thinking of starting up a US History Program in the spring and doing US History and World History them concurrently throughout the next few years. Are there reasons why this is a bad idea that I'm not thinking of? Hubby is worried about giving the kids Too Much at once and them getting confused and learning nothing (or very little).

Lyrical Science has been a huge hit! But some of the songs are still a little too lyrically complex for this project. We have a lot of Educational Music and sing along with it (and are always on the lookout for more at the Gr3-12 level). We do sing along but we are ready to expand our musical library to include some things for music education. We've been looking and listening through this list for ideas about what we might sing. Are there more songs like Soldier, Poet, King that are melodic and simple? The interludes of melody give people chance to enjoy the music and it's something that a group of (non-talented) voices can make sound enjoyable too.

I need help with curating a list of songs that naturally lend themselves to non-talented singers. No one in this family has a greatly talented voice but we want to sing with the kids more to help with inhibitions and build their comfort singing in front of others. We need songs that we can sing as a group but also songs that we can "pass around" and while we don't need to sound amazingly good it would be helpful if, as a group we can have fun with the song. A song that we've had fun with is Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos. It is not lyrically complex and has no profanity. They don't watch movies or much TV. They don't know most Disney songs and when Hubby and I reviewed many Disney songs, they're outside of the scope of what we can sing well.

Have you looked on Rainbow Resource? They have several pages of Poetry products that I know nothing about. I would let RR be my starting point for Poetry Writing resources. Once I have some resources in mind, I would look on Amazon as well for any thing related or better prices.