Ugh, this is me, too. Actually, I'm organized except for history, but as I told my dh last night, I don't want July to end yet, because August means I have to start working again, and I just can't shake my serious case of the can't-be-bothereds.... Boooo, it's August anyway!

Another vote for a rescue cat! When I was wanting to get my first cat (as an adult on my own - we always had a "family" cat growing up), I headed to the local shelter looking for a short-haired, black and white moggy. I ended up with a long-haired, gray-and-white moggy, because he picked me. :001_wub: He was such a love! I still miss the goofy, cuddly furr-ball. When we eventually get another cat, we will definitely be going the rescue route.

It's interesting that this is seen as a Catholic school thing - which I don't doubt. But in my family, it was more of a class thing. We all said "haitch" in our (Catholic) school, but my mum, (whose mother was English) always corrected us to say "aitch". I grew up with the impression that it's more "proper" to say "aitch" and more "ignorant" to say "haitch". (FWIW, both my parents were cradle Catholics and went to Catholic schools, as did all of us kids.) Then when I came to the US and found that I never heard "haitch" but always "aitch" (where I live, at least), that little cultural blindspot wanted to tell me that everyone was very well-educated here! :)

Oh man, this thread is making me feel so much better! I'm not alone!! :) You're not the only one! My 8-year-old dd is the same. The other day at the pool with her friend, she told me she tried to see if she could talk underwater. I listened in a very appropriate manner to her story about it, but inside I was all :smilielol5: :smilielol5: :smilielol5: thinking, Yep, that'd be about right!! :lol: As a mom who occasionally has to tell her children to just not talk to her or come near her for the next (x) minutes, I just love this line! I think I might have to steal it and use it with my kids. "OK, recharge time for mom!" sounds a lot better than "Please just leave me alone!!" :P

This is so interesting! I think, for me, it comes down to whether I want the kids to read the book fresh after learning about the relevant thing, or whether, while teaching them, I want them to be saying, "Oh yes, mom, and then this and this and that" because they've already discovered the book for themselves. I think I prefer the latter (and if necessary, perhaps further delving into the book in question). But I do like the idea of having the books relevant to the upcoming school year on a dedicated shelf/shelves with all the other school books/texts...just to highlight them separately from all the other (ahem) twaddle on the bookshelves! :laugh: I would love to color code all my books, too...and I need another major project right now like I need a hole in the head!

This question might sound a bit daft, but I'd love to know how others do this. With your collection of "living books", be they relevant to history, liturgical year, science, or whatever - do you leave them in among the "everyday" books your kids pull from for reading on their own time, and then just get them out when the time comes in your lessons - at the risk of the books already being "old hat" to the kids? Or do you stash them away and then only bring them out at the relevant time, so that they are still fresh and exciting to the kids when the time comes to actually address their topic? TIA! :)

We did that project this year - it involved a table knife, some Crisco, a toothpick, and a plastic lid from a cream cheese container or something similar. It was from the chapter on Sparta and Athens, Chapter 22 of Volume 1. We had fun!

I used 1 & 2 in those grades; I didn't use K though. Phonics 1 does spend a bit of time on individual letter sounds, but starts moving into digraphs and other concepts before lesson 30 (out of 140 total). Phonics 2 does cover a lot of what was covered in 1, but at a faster pace, so that by the end of the year, more concepts have been taught and reviewed. I don't want to say "you should do this", because obviously you know your children best, but having said that, I think if your child knows their letter sounds thoroughly, you could probably get away with starting them in 2. But be ready to slow things down (do extra review, kid games, etc.) if they need help with any of the concepts. Also, if you do end up starting with 1, it is very easy to "speed through" the lessons/concepts that your child already knows well. If you'd like to see the TOC of both 1 and 2 to get a better idea of exactly where your child may place, shoot me a PM. Good luck! I have to say that I absolutely love Saxon Phonics! It's Saxon, so it's not all colorful and fun-and-games, but my word, it does an outstanding job of teaching a child to read (well above grade level for both of mine) and to spell. ETA: Another option might be to use the 1-year Phonics Intervention program that Saxon also sells. A friend of mine (who uses it to teach in a school setting) promised me that it would be all my children would ever need...but being who I am, I opted to do the full 2-year program. :) So I have no personal experience with it, but you might want to look at it for yourself to see if it might do what you want for both your kids.

Like the PP, if I did easy, hard, easy, hard...I think it would get pretty ugly after a while! :) It sounds like you're already doing your own "Morning Time", it's just broken up (and I think Cindy Rollins - or was it Chelli? - talks about breaking it up into smaller chunks throughout the day if it works that way for you). For me, I see it as a tool to not only get those elements done more consistently, but also as a way of slowing us down and allowing us to delve deeper into the beauty. If you're already achieving that throughout your day, you're a few steps ahead of me!! :)

Another vote for SOTW1, along with its Activity Guide. I just finished it up with my 1st and 3rd graders, and they *loved* it. Review questions for both, coloring pages and http://www.amazon.com/History-Pockets-Ancient-Civilizations-Grades/dp/1557999007/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405196087&sr=8-2&keywords=ancient+history+evan+moor for the 1st grader, narration and mapwork for the 3rd grader. Extra reading and some projects together. We all learned so much! Whatever you go with, good luck! :)

I haven't begun using it yet, though I am definitely planning on incorporating it into our next school year. I hear what you say about "we already do all this" - me too! But for me, what I'm looking for is a more focused way to do all those "truth, goodness and beauty" items in a focused way that doesn't get dropped off the list when life happens. Personally, it is far too easy to just skip the art and music and poetry and other such elements when I'm tired or stressed or whatever. I'm hoping Morning Time will offer a structure that encourages us to continue with those elements even on the bad days, and will also encourage us to delve into them a little more. I want the time to be more open and free-flowing, and to involve cuddling on the couch - which is not how I would generally describe how our "3 Rs" are conducted! :) Of course, as I mentioned, we haven't actually used it yet (!) so maybe it won't be as rosy as I picture...and hopefully someone with some more experience under their belt will chime in here! :)

I was just pondering this question the other day...I decided to go with Spanish for my 2nd and 4th graders next year. Since conversation is one of the most effective ways to learn a foreign language, SWB advises (in TWTM) that if you have someone with whom your child can converse in a foreign language at least a couple of times a week, go ahead and learn that language, and save the Latin for later. Well, no problem with that around here, so Spanish it is. :)

This is so interesting. I was taught a terrible mish-mash of methods for my cursive, with the result that I lift my pen at various random places throughout a word - but I find that I never lift or break for an apostrophe! I think what I tend to do is make the join a little longer, to make space for the apostrophe, which is probably wildly incorrect! As I said before, at least I'll get the chance to teach my dc properly. :)

LOL, I should have made this a poll! :laugh: The variation in answers is really interesting, but it looks like so far the majority are going with a break. Nice to know! (I was never taught proper cursive, and I'd like to get it right for my dc.)

When writing contractions in cursive, do you make a break where the apostrophe goes, or do you complete the entire word without breaks and then go back and add the apostrophe? For example, if you were writing the word don't, would you write don then put in the apostrophe then add the final t as a separated letter? Or would you write dont then go back and put in the apostrophe?

:iagree:

It's definitely regional. My kids' US textbook teaches carefully that they shouldn't say "and", but my kids definitely do, because that's how I was taught, and how I still say it all the time. I'm an Aussie (ex-pat) and for me to hear someone say a longer number without the "and" is a dead giveaway that they're American or American taught. For me, "point" is the indicator of a decimal. Or if you're going to add the fraction, it's just another "and" and it becomes apparent what you're saying when you say the fraction. "Three hundred and twenty five and four fifths" or "Three hundred and twenty five point eight". Mind you, the "and" in the middle of the number is usually verbalized more as "n" than the fully enunciated word. Whereas the "and" that would tack on the fraction is fully enunciated. "Three hundred-n twenty five and four fifths" would probably be a more accurate way to write how I'd say it. But maybe that's just lazy Aussie-speak! :)

I don't know that I have any qualifications at all to answer this, as I am only schooling two, but I've been thinking about this sort of thing in my own school - so I hope you don't mind if I think out loud a bit here. There are certain subjects that my kids do not like. Different ones for each kid, according to their personalities, and that tends to color their view of school. Eg: "Because I have to do math during school, I hate school!" I really want them not to think like this. I want them to enjoy the challenges and celebrate the successes, to really feed that "love of learning" that everyone talks about, and to say "I like school!" (Maybe at least once a month? :p). And the conclusion I've come to is that this has to come from me. I have to have a better attitude, and if necessary, I have to pare down my subject list and change how we do things each day (introduce "morning time" for instance, or have them take more frequent, physically-active breaks) so that school becomes more enjoyable for them, and they think less about the "pain" of completing a page of math problems, but more about the fun of cuddling during read-alouds, or hunting flash cards around the room, or reciting the times tables while jumping rope, or whatever it is that will help reduce the "angst". And maybe for you that will be using a boxed curriculum. I don't know if I'm making any sense, or if I'm just repeating what everyone else has already said multiple times, or if I'm even coming close to answering your question here, but I have realized that I can't wait for the kids' attitudes to shape up in order to "teach from rest": I need to learn how to "teach from rest" first, I need to do whatever it is I need in order to achieve that peace, and then once I am teaching from rest, that will lead the kids' attitudes to shape up.

Really? Wow, so much gets lost in the typing... Don't worry, I wouldn't just jam things down my kids' throats without their understanding it. I'm not that kind of teacher! (Heck, I wouldn't be here if I was.) And there's no way my kids would let me get away with it, either. Of course I teach the "whys" behind concepts, until they are mastered like the OP talked about. But rhymes and jingles that raise a chuckle and help memorize processes can go a long way. My oldest has a great ear for music and rhythm and rhyme, and this sort of thing, once we'd had a laugh about it, would be totally up her alley in terms of helping her remember the concept. She would be chuckling about it every time she used the process for the next month. Just another tool like those goofy stories about numbers that help kids memorize their addition facts. So relax, it's OK!

Thanks again for the advice, everyone. I feel a lot more at peace about how to approach math with dd now. Love the hive wisdom! ;)

Thanks, LivingHope. I recently bought the ebook, read through it quickly, and am about to go back and re-read it slowly and use the journal to help me figure out how to incorporate the principles here in our school. (I haven't listened to the audio yet). My question here is partly prompted by the Circe ideas that have been percolating in my mind over the past month or so, as well as my continuing frustration with dd's math attitude. I guess when I hear "don't teach a certain and complete lesson in a certain time frame" I start to worry, "But, but, but, she'll never get to where she needs to be if I don't! She'll just keep dragging the chain until it's too late, because she doesn't care!" I should go listen to that interview! I"m not feeling very well today, so it's a good opportunity to lie on the couch and plug in the earphones! :)

Believe me, I have and I am. This is part of it. :) Love this! This sounds great. I like that it limits the impact of "dawdling" on the rest of the school day, and that it also gives the child responsibility for their own choices. Good life lessons! :) Oh, it is totally an attitude problem. The same work can take only 30 minutes on another day. Thanks for your great advice, everyone. I really like the concept of discerning and defining "what should be done by the end of this week". I think I will be limiting the "lesson" time and any spillover goes into homework - and into Saturday morning if needed. Thank you!

So, I've been mulling over how to streamline our homeschool days a bit better for next year. One concept that I've seen mentioned several times is setting a timer for each subject and once the timer goes off, that's it - it gets put away until tomorrow. My question is, how do you deal with that mentally? My dd, some days, can take hours to do a single page of math, just because she's "not in the mood" and spends most of her time complaining and/or goofing off. If I set a time limit of, let's say, 45 minutes for math, here's what I picture: bad day, two problems get done...next day, the page is finished...next month we're a couple of weeks behind...by the end of the year we're only halfway through the work...by the time she reaches senior year, she's only doing freshman math....can't get into college...general freak out! :) OK, so that's a bit nuts, but honestly, how do you deal with that? How do you come to peace with the fear that your kid is just going to let it slide, and that you will end up just getting more and more and more behind?

I taught mine as soon as they were picking up a pencil to learn how to write. We used pencil grips for as long as necessary. My dd took longer to correct her grip, while my ds has a naturally correct grip anyway, thank goodness! We're now just down to the occasional reminder for my dd. Bear in mind that even if your niece's grip is not corrected, hope is not lost! My (now 16-year-old) niece had a horrible pencil grip, not corrected at school. However. she finally corrected it herself when she was about 14. I asked her about it, and she told me she did so because she got sick of her mom nagging her about it! :lol:

I have the same problem here! Except that, to my shame, the response of "No" is usually followed by an exasperated lecture about if you actually put things where they belong in the first place.... Maybe one day my kids will get sick of hearing that particular track and will actually put stuff away and then be able to find it again when they want it... :lol: