I feel like a slacker! 8th grader... 3 more chapters of AOPS Pre-A to go. She will finish up her online German I and Physical Science the first week of May. Band finishes up the second week of May. Analytical Grammar and Figuratively Speaking are done. IEW SWI-B is only 1/2 way done, and she still has quite a bit of reading in Lord of the Rings. In history, she has 3 more books in the OUP Medieval and Early Modern Times. Getting this child to read is a challenge! 5th grader... switched from MM4A to MUS Gamma. She's almost done, and I hope to get a little into Delta before the end of June. She's read almost the entire Horrible Geography series, Old Yeller, Who Was Julius Caesar?, Who Was Harriett Tubman, finished the Warriors ,and is on Warriors New Prophecy book 2 4th grader and 5th grader together... finished Spellwell C, ETC7, SotW 1, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. They also took 8 classes with the Aviation Museum covering topics such as Engineering, Laws of Motion, Chemistry, Electricity and Magnetism. We watched most of the Bill Nye The Science Guy episodes. We're 1/2 way through IEW SWI-A and FLL3. We're almost done with A Wrinkle Time, and I plan to read Ben and Me with them before the end of June. They should finish SpellWell Cc and ETC8 by the end of June, as well. 4th grader... She's almost done with MM4A, and I hope to get her through at least the division chapter in MM4B before the end of June. She's read Mr. Popper's Penguins, several Judy Moody books, and The Golden Compass. She didn't care for the Horrible Geogrpahy books but has read several books from the Who Was... series too include Who Was Harriet Tubman?, Who Was Davy Crockett, What Was Pompeii?, and Who Was Jesus?. They all went to 3 classes on the Holocaust at the Kennesaw State University Holocaust Museum and learned a lot there. We, also, watched the Wild Africa and Frozen Planet series. We will finish the Wild China soon. Although we didn't finish much, I think they actually learned quite a bit. We were borderline unschoolers this year. lol

Is there an order that these should read in? I'm thinking yes. Anyone have a list with them in order?

I have a hard time getting science done. The kids love it, but it is a pain for me. I've tried a few programs, and so far the only one that really gets done is Real Science Odyssey. It's simple, to the point, and hits your time restrictions and activity requirements.

An apartment would actually be more expensive than keeping the house or getting an rv so that's not something we've seriously considered. The only up to the apartment would be the maintenance free aspect, but I'm not willing to pay that much for it.

Yes, insurance is a part of the deal.

No, not Hawaii, but Okinawa. It's fun for the first little bit, but the inability to visit family is very hard. Plus, once you've seen everything and there's nothing new, it gets boring.

I guess I can see your point. However, we've lived the military then DoD contractor life our entire relationship. We've lived together full time a total of 7 years non-consecutively out of the 18 we've been together. So the time apart really isn't a big issue for us. He'll come visit for a couple of weeks wherever we are a few times during this period. My concern is taking kids away from their social life and activities and living in a small space for that long. Just wanted to see what others thoughts were. Most everyone seems stuck on the money and dh being away from us which really aren't our decision makers on this so I'll let this die.

His company pays for shipping so no expense to us. I'd rather he had it than store it or sell it.

Have you ever lived on an island? There are lots of reasons to not move. I'm really hoping that it's a short lived assignment, and we don't have to go. Since we most likely will, I want to get in as much travelling as possible before we go into exile.

Ymmv??

We're not going to HI right away. That decision has already been made. There are more reasons than just braces. Braces define our timeline, though. I don't want to be homeless with the kids and trying to organize that large of a move and finding a place, etc... Send him, he finds a place, send stuff, he receives stuff, then we tie up loose ends here and go. Plus we've had 2 households for 5 years because of his job so that part isn't an issue. Also, I really hope, secretly, that in that 1-1.5 years that he'll get transferred back mainland so we don't have to go at all. So take money out of the decision process. This is about living accommodations, travel, happy kids, happy life.

We'd sell the rv when we were ready to go to HI. The braces aren't specialized, but it's really hard to find an orthodontist to take a transfer 1/2 way through treatment that won't charge a ridiculous amount.

Background: Dh is being transferred to HI. He'll leave about mid-June. I'm choosing to stay back a year to 18 months for Dd1 to finish out her orthodontic treatment. Option 1: Send all household goods over with dh. Sell the house. Buy an RV and travel, coming home for a day or 2 every 6-8 weeks for othodontist appointments. Kids would give up all extra-Curriculars until we got to HI, obviously. Option 2: Just stay in the house and go on a couple of small vacations like normal. Option 3: Do the rv thing but stay stationary here while extra-Curriculars are going on then take big trips on breaks... 4 weeks in summer, 6 weeks in winter, plus a week for spring break. We could also take little trips here and there for just 3-4 days as we felt like it. Dd1 wants to do marching band, Dd3 wants to play baseball, and none of them want to leave friends. I'm afraid once we get to HI our travels will be extremely limited because of the expense. Every trip to the maInland will probably be to see family, kwim? Dh will pretty much support any decision I make since it really doesn't affect him, but thinks I'll go nuts with 3 girls in an rv for 18 months. Unfortunately, keeping the house and buying an rv is not one of my options.

English- Eil, vocab from Classical roots, SWI-B CC Algebra 1- Math without Borders & Foerester's Biology w/lab- CK12 Modern History- History Odyssey German 2-GaVS Band That will give her 6 credits. We're considering P.E. and photography as electives which would give her 2 additional 1/2 credits.

We are using RSO Physics. It's very open and go. Most of the items needed for the activities we already have so I just send the kids in search of. The only thing that I have bought is a spring scale so far. On the surface it looks youngish, but it is really strong in my opinion.

It sounds like he'll get plenty of time with friends through sports and church. At their ages, school should only take 2 hours at the most. Libraries, museums, zoos, parks, and aquariums often have homeschool days for outtings which always make things more fun and interesting. Some curriculum that you can use for an age range are Story of the World and Real Science Odyssey. There are others out there. Those are just the ones that I have found helpful.

We use assignment notebooks that I fill out each night before bed to inclue all appointments, practices, etc... School starts at 10. They choose the order in which they do things. I grade and go over assignments as they are completed. I stay available for help during school hours. Because they choose how their day progresses, I rarely have bad attitudes about school work. When there is a bad attitude, I deal with it on a case by case basis. Sometimes, the attitude comes from frustration or being overwhelmed and doesn't necessarily need punishment but redirection. If I got up super early and made my kids get up early, I could guarantee a really bad day for everyone! Lol. Lack of morning stress is one of the perks to homeschooling for us. The girls usually wake themselves up sometime between 7:30 and 9:00. I'll wake them up at 9:00 if they haven't gotten up by then.

We didn't start homeschooling until the girls were in 2nd, 3rd, and 6th grades. Dd1's looks something like this: 6th-9th 4 year world history 10th- American History 11th- World History 12th- Economics and Government Dd2 & Dd3 will have a differect sequence because I've had more time with them. 6 year world history rotation 1 year American History (8th/9th) 1 year World History (9th/10th) 1 year Econ/Gov't. (10th/11th) Dd2 will be done at this point with requirements and will choose what she wants to do her senior year. Dd3 will take a DE or AP American History for 11th and then choose her senior year.

Are you wanting her to go straight to Vet Tech school out of high school? That's a lot of college credits to try and squeeze in. My Dd1 wants to go to vet school. She and I are planning a fairly traditional college prep path heavy in math and science with some DE. Where she will shine is in her volunteer hours. We have the informational meeting for the Atlanta Zoo Volunteen program next week. She, also, participates in 4H.

I agree and would add another course. Something that he is interested in. Here's our schedule for 9th next year. English 1- Comp and Lit Algebra 1 Biology Modern History German 2 Band This will give her 6 credits. She wants to take a photography class, archery, and cross country. These are still being debated, but if she does them, I'll probably give her a 1/2 credit in P.E. and another 1/2 for Fine Arts bringing her total to 7 credits for the year. Not every credit needs to be academically demanding or stressful. Two of these credits dd will think are fun and a reward for getting the 5 tough ones done, kwim?

I tried working full time from home, homeschooling, taking care of the home and finances while dh worked out of town 5 days a week. It didn't work for us. I gave up the job and now work 2 days a week when he is home. If this is you and it's just not working, call it. If, however, you can do it and are just concerned about his not being accepted at this private school, don't worry about it. All kids learn at their own pace. You cannot put them in a little database and expect them all to advance at the same rate in all subjects. It doesn't work that way. Example: My dd9's best friend is in public school. One day, I asked what she did at school. She said that she wrote a play and got to have her class act it out. I was all "Oh crap! I'm lucky to get dd9 to write a paragraph without hand holding." (internally of course) It wasn't long after that that dd9 is playing school with her, and I overhear that her friend had no idea that the Great Wall or Terracotta Army even existed and had no idea what inertia meant. Also, she did xtramath that day and scored in the 30% range on multiplication while my dd was in the 90%'s. I'm not saying that my child was more advanced then her, but they are learning in different environments with different methods and with different priorities. If dd9 spent a day in her class, she probably would have a lot of things that she had issues with. The only reason that would be of any concern to me is if I planned to put her in that class full time. Then, as you have already stated is your plan, I would make changes to prepare her for that. My ultimate goal is to have her ready for secondary education, whatever that might be, by the time she graduates high school. I have 8+ years to accomplish that so she doesn't need to be writing plays right now if that is not of interest to her.

For K-7 Reading Language Arts (Composition, Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary) Math Science Social Studies (History, Geography, Civics, Economics) Extra-Curricular (Music, Art, Sports) If they read about a composer or artist, it goes under Social Studies as a biography. 8-12 English Math Science Social Studies Foreign Language Electives

Another MM lover here. My middle daughter was not succeeding with it so we switched her to MUS which is not my favorite but is working for her. I would not call the past 2 1/2 years that she has spent with MM a mistake or a waste, though. She learned a great deal, but it was just taking her too long and causing too much frustration. My other 2 dd's didn't/ don't have this issue with it. I think dd2 just isn't "mathy" and needed something more procedural and less conceptual. Like someone else said, try what you think you would teach best then make adjustments as necessary.

My 6th grader's schedule will look very similar to my 5th graders except for math and art... Math- MUS Epsilon Reading- Lots of good books L.A.- SpellWellD/Dd, Vocab. from Classical Roots 4/5, FLL4, IEW SICC-A Science- RSO Chemistry History- finishing History Odyssey Middle Ages w/ SotW 2 and starting H.O. Early Modern w/ SotW 3 Civics- Notgrass Uncle Same and You Art Classes

My husband is being transferred to Hawaii in June. The girls and I are going to take a year to travel the country before joining him. Maybe, we'll see you out there! lol