The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean ISBN: 9780745960760 This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotten ISBN: 9780545053860

I guess it depends on the topic. For some things, there's a list (feeding the hungry, etc.), so that's a good starting point. Atheists might wonder why theists suggest they know any better, for that matter.

I use my standard waffle iron for grilled cheese... actually quite a bit more often than I do for waffles. But I can see how a Belgian would be lovely with a thicker bread.

I think it stems from people thinking that FB "friends" means your actual list of friends. Anyone who has been selective in "friending" will seldom have to do it anyway. If you have 942 "friends," probably 700 don't give a pixel whether you defriend them anyway, and you're just annoying people who will begin to wish you would. Come to think of it, there's only one person who does this whom I haven't hidden yet. I should do that next time I log in.

Starfall.com for emergent readers https://www.youtube.com/user/NASAtelevision/videos (NASA's video channel on YouTube) And then for parent/teacher resources (besides this board!) I like Pinterest.com TeachersPayTeachers.com HandwritingWorksheets.com my library's online catalog

NC does not have anything like that. The parent runs the homeschool, including setting graduation requirements and issuing a diploma.

We're going to go from C to Essentials, but I know many people have been waiting for level D to become available. For those who are interested, the price will go up after this month. https://store.logicofenglish.com/foundations/foundations-d-complete-set

Two sturdy reusable grocery bags.

I bought English from the Roots Up, and I don't think it's very impressive. A simple list of roots to learn would do just as well. I haven't seen the other one, sorry.

I do think a lot of 8yos still believe. We've always said it's just a story--for one thing, DS was terrified of visitors as a preschooler--but if he believed, I would have told him before 5th grade for social reasons, or sooner if he asked good questions.

I liked the movie overall. It was a little on the unschooly side--lots of the commentary is "Don't worry: your kids will learn everything and you don't really need to make it happen"--although that's not really what Ana and Lily really wound up doing. In some ways this is very true, and it's reassurance that will be helpful to the Modern Anxious Parent, but it takes a lot for granted that the film doesn't explore. I would've liked them to look a little longer at more of a variety of styles as well as at the resources that parents make available to the kids in order for the child-led learning to be successful, beyond the Village Home and going to work with a parent sometimes. Maybe someone should make a sequel. :) In no way does the film "feature" WTM; instead, it shows the spine of the book when mentioning classical education--not the friendly blue and yellow cover, but a black cloth spine with silvery letters, as though it's a Bible or a Harry Potter book. Not sure what was up with that. Anyway, the main family featured does not seem interested in a classical approach. Lots of parents brought their kids. I wonder how many were school-leavers versus never-enrollees, so to speak. Everyone seemed absorbed in the story. Lots of knowing laughs at certain points. The focus of the film is the way the homeschooling opens up possibilities--so much so that the lack of enforced structure is scary to parents and children alike. The older girl even considers going back for high school as a path of least resistance. Ultimately, though, homeschooling is paradigm-changing and empowering when the family persists.

Try Before We Read. (You need the teacher book to go with it for certain pages.) Lots of good preschool skills.

There's a Montessori book in which the letters are soft and fuzzy. It's very appealing to trace them with a finger. I also liked that the letters are bright red, while the illustrations are just black and white line drawings. Lowercase only. They have one for numbers also. That said, DS taught himself the uppercase letters and their sounds with the LeapFrog Fridge Magnet thingy someone gave him, because it sings.

I made DS write FIVE WHOLE WORDS in his handwriting book this morning. And two of them had a lowercase g! And he wasn't even allowed to do math first (because math was playing with unit blocks and a whiteboard on the floor). Is that even legal?? Never mind that we'll be at the park two hours before the PS lets out....

Up Kind of Day Sail Away or Mandolin Moon by Sister Hazel

One when I'm teaching phonics, two when I'm using it in conversation. :)

DS will walk into the room and ask what I'm doing even when it's perfectly obvious. I have started to make stuff up. "I'm building a robot dinosaur... No, I think I was training the cat to make pancakes. No, wait, what was I doing?" and he points out that I'm actually folding the socks. I would definitely do that to an adult who was guessing. "No, Mom, I'm sculpting the Eiffel Tower in marble. [Wait for her to think a second.] Oh, wait, no, I'm changing the baby."

Yes, but "school" that day could be an audiobook, a math toy or game, and a Spanish video instead of direct instruction from Mom. Think of it as being a substitute teacher for yourself. You make sure things are under control and there is educational activity, but don't necessarily do the next lesson.

The grade level labels on books are pretty arbitrary and don't necessarily apply to every kid. If he's ready, move on.

The question that started our first conversation on the subject was in the women's locker room, where we were changing after a parent and child swim class (maybe the third or fourth one, not the first). In a loud, incredulous tone, he demanded, "Where's your pe**s??" He sounded like he could not believe I didn't have it with me! I was so shocked I just replied, "Girls don't need one!" And then I went online and bought books when we got home.

If what you're doing works, that's what you should do. :) I mostly plan for the sake of things that aren't just Do The Next Lesson. E.g., for next year, we're going to Logic of English Essentials; as long as we do a lesson every week, the book will get done. On the other hand, I am going to do DIY science, and I need to think ahead to find library books, activities, field trips, etc. Otherwise, I'll be like, "Um... oh, we should do some science. What was I meaning to do? Oh, I don't have the stuff for that. Okay, we'll do science next week...." Also, for those elementary math books that are meant to be done in a quarter or semester, I don't want to suddenly run out of pages just because DS had a couple of math-happy weeks.

La Clase Divertida is a DVD-based one. It's very light (favorite colors, days of the week, alphabet, etc.). There's a lot of singing and doing motions, and some optional crafts. Some Christian content, but it's not central. If you're willing to preview the videos and plan a bit on your own, the free Salsa series from PBS could probably do as well.

Unless he's also having trouble with reading and non-handwritten spelling (e.g., if you give him letter tiles), my assumption would be ABT ("ain't been taught," LOL). In a class of 25, there's a limit to how much a teacher corrects handwriting. Handwriting can become drudgery fast, so a few--literally two to four--minutes a day working on it will do better than an hour on Fridays. Keep it fun with whiteboard or chalkboard practice, a favorite color pen, etc. I made up a packet for a 6th-grader with his name in different fonts/sizes to copy, etc., and he really appreciated it more than more of the same old "Aunt Anna ate an apple" workbooks.

He came out and asked at dinner one night when he was five, "How does the sperm actually get in...?" I said, "Oh, we have a book about that. I'll read it to you later." And we did, on the couch. I already had the book because a year and a half before, he had asked, loudly and in a public place of course, about anatomy. So I bought the beginner boys-and-girls-have-different-parts type of book, and while I was at it, I bought It's So Amazing because we'd need it sooner or later. There are still sections we haven't talked about much, but he's got the main idea. I love books.

That's very true, kids can spot whether the "doing" is authentic or not. I considered high school chem labs a complete waste of time, in that the teacher already knew the right answer. (IDK why I didn't have a problem with that in math.) In the same vein, reading comprehension questions tend to be too shallow. Some kids are just not going to play along.