Well, we already got together last week, so no. :)But that would have been a good idea. I did make sure that I repeated several different times that each of their homeschool is going to look different than mine. Not because I'm better or more experienced, but just because their kids are different than mine, they are different than me, and our families each have a different dynamic. Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

I so love reading all of your combined wisdom! Such great nuggets in each post. I'm thinking of printing it all out and giving it to my friends. I am also absurdly proud of having started a thread that is officially labeled "HOT" :hurray:

I'm a conservative Christian too and I'm tentatively planning on having my kids read Grapes of Wrath just because it's one of few classics written about that time period in history, and it's one of the few books I can recall reading from high school. I read Kite Runner with a book club years ago and the memory of the graphic sexual violence still bothers me sometimes when I see it on a bookshelf. I would never hand it to a high schooler. I don't know anything about the 3rd book.

I actually did tell them in those exact words: "Curriculum is a tool." :)

These are so great! Especially 5, 6, 9, and 11 :)

This is pretty much me. I keep thinking *this* will be the summer I chill out and let my plans sit and don't think about them all summer long til it's time to start up again in August. But that has, alas, once again not occurred. ETA: I blame these boards. :lol:

I agree that it's totally fine to not have them do science and history every day. When my boys were in middle school they both liked to do a modified block schedule where they worked on skill subjects in the morning and content subjects for longer blocks of time in the afternoon a couple days a week each, and it worked out just fine and they covered plenty of material in that time. I also have had my 7th graders do some independent art lessons (Artistic Pursuits), music lessons, and some logic puzzles.

My 3rd grader will be reading to herself and orally narrating lit selections to me, working on cursive handwriting with HWOT, doing AAS, and alternating weeks of IEW writing lessons and FLL 3. So I think your plan looks pretty good. :)

That's a good reminder to follow up with them and periodically ask them how they're doing. Thanks! Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

Awww ... thanks! :blushing:

We haven't produced a finished product yet - our DSs are just 16 and 14 - but I did notice that they both matured a LOT once they each found their "thing" and had time to run with it and become really good at it. With oldest DS it was computers and programming, with 2nd DS it's movie-making. They hardly ever play Minecraft anymore because they're too busy and involved doing their "thing". And also when they got a job and started earning money. It's just a couple of days a week working at a local organic farm doing grunt work, but it's done wonders for their self-confidence and maturity to be able to work with their hands and *do* something that has a visible end result.

My oldest was a natural at organizing his thoughts and putting them to paper, and he enjoyed Wordsmith Craftsman and did well with it. After that he was ready for literary analysis using Windows to the World and after going through that he's pretty much ready for any essay or paper I assign. 2nd oldest struggles more with structuring his thoughts and Wordsmith wasn't working well for him, so we're switching to IEW for him next year because it's more incremental.

:eek: This totally freaked me out.

I have been thinking about this all day since I read it this morning. I think I just take it for granted that it's ok to do these kinds of things, but it probably is really important to tell someone just starting out. Thanks!

Good practical advice. Thank you! Especially the buy too much curriculum part lol Can that apply to non-newbies too?!? Please? 😠Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

I've been wondering if I should tell them about the forums yet or not ... I know I was terrified that whole first year of lurking! Lol Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

That's a good idea, to start with asking them some questions. Thanks! Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

I am actually glad they're asking me and excited to be able to share our experiences with them. Sorry if I gave the impression I'm not! I just feel like they're all wanting to know the same kinds of things and being able to talk about it all as a group instead of several identical conversations will be beneficial (for all of us). But I so appreciate your wise words and the encouragement not to try to make their homeschool look just like mine ... or each others' ... or any preconceived notion ... or whatever. Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

:001_wub: Thank you for this ... it's good to be reminded where I was not so many years ago!

We used Life of Fred for supplemental practice of fractions (and decimals and percents too). My kids thought it was a fun change and didn't object to doing more fractions after MM.

I have had several close-ish friends contact me in recent months asking questions about pulling their kids out of ps to hs. I love their enthusiasm and sharing ideas with them about what has and has not worked for us, but fielding several phone calls and separate conversations from each of them has left me feeling a bit drained. So I invited them over to my home all at the same time this week to have a big hs'ing pow-wow - to talk, discuss, ask questions, look at curriculum, etc. while the kids swim - and hopefully only have to say all the same things once! lol Judging from the number of phone calls I've received so far, they'll each probably come quipped with their own lists of questions and I won't have to guide the discussion at all. ;) But it made me curious what you all would ask if you were a new homeschooler and you had the opportunity to pick someone's brain.

My DS would have gladly burned Saxon 7/6 if it hadn't belonged to a friend and we were just borrowing it. Apologia swimming creatures on our very 1st day of hs'ing went on the toss pile after the very 1st lesson (it sounds soooooo different when read aloud than when reading it in your head on the screen!), but it has too high of a resale value to burn lol

Legacy box was great! Pricey - especially to add the thumb drive option - but I was able to just box it all up and send it off and not have to deal with converting it myself and cussing because something wasn't hooked up or transferring correctly or whatever. Just had to wait for it to come back in the mail. Sooòooo worth it! Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

I would put the 6th grader with the 7th grader for geography, which for my kids would make it much more interesting for them. My high schooler did CTC World History Detective as a supplement, and while it wasn't necessarily difficult, it did involve some long answer/essay writing skills that he would not have been ready for in 6th grade. And it was kind of boring.

I thought it was funny too :)