The board game "The Way Things Work" is loads of fun. http://www.amazon.com/IPlay-Way-Things-Work-Game/dp/B0007PGJXA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323901490&sr=8-2 My son also loved k'nex kits like the roller coaster set. http://knex.com/building_toys/roller_coaster_physics.php Zoobs were one of his favorite building tools when he was really little. Now that shifted to Lego Technic. Even though he is older now, he still plays with Snapcircuits. ;) (whenever he encounters the box...)

The Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium, accepts exchange students. They also provide English courses, starting at the masters levels. I know that if you'd like to attend the bachelor's courses, you will have to take a proficiency exam in Dutch, show a diploma from your country (and maybe even take a test). We have been looking into this for our children, who still have the Belgian citizenship, which makes it easier.

My 11yo is using CPO Life Science and Earth Science concurrently. My daughter already went through these books. Some of the experiments are indeed too hard to do at home, or simply to expensive. But I have found that many can be done or adjusted to do independently at home. I love the way the books aren't cluttered. We also have physical science at home and the labs in this boo are fairly impossible to do unless you want to spend a fortune. Hope this helps.

We did because we were combining it with epgy math. That was too much so we choose to continue with epgy and drop sm.

We did and still do. Ds has been enrolled in EPGY math for several years. Along side we used Singapore Math. Dd enrolled in EPGY math 2 years ago. She is now finishing up Algebra 1 and so far we have used Liall as a textbook.

When I was a teacher in Belgium, kids learned cursive in the 1st grade. That was also the time they learned to read. Print was never formally introduced. And yes, fountain pens work, unless your kid is left handed. Even though there are left handed pens out there, they really are not as efficient as the regular ones. (Ds is left handed sow e have plenty of experience) My kiddos were schooled in the U.S. Dd learned to print in kindergarten and I thought her cursive in 1st grade. I did the same with ds. Neither like cursive and the use of computers doesn't exactly help either.

I was born and raised in Belgium and lived there for 16 years before moving to the U.S., where I still live up to this day.

Not Christian and expensive if you enroll individually is EPGY provided by Stanford University. Some courses are self-paced while others are not. Kids then 'meet' in a virtual classroom. My kids take math and recently dd also started writing.

Depending on what you mean by accelerated, dd is 1 year ahead in coursework that is rigorous in science and math. She is 13. She accomplishes this through hard and diligent work. Ds on the contrary, is very gifted. He is 2 years ahead in math and reads science books like a novel. But he is lazy and takes too much for granted. I am sure he will hit a wall soon. There is no way he can complete course by counting on 'raw intelligence' only.

Ds, age 11, has the same problem. His work is extremely sloppy and makes careless mistakes because of it. Even though he would be able to work through algebra, we kept him in pre-lagebra. He participates in the epgy program which is challenging. On top of that he works through another program so he learns how to carefully write out all steps. I agree with the previous posters that it's better to make mistakes and learn in middle school than having to deal with it in high school. I believe we already made the mistake of letting him get away with too sloppy writing which continuously comes back to bite him in the butt.

Charlotte, dd's name ;) Hannah Helena (pronounced he lay na) Evelien (pronounced eve leen) or Evelyn Lies (pronounced lees)

I live in CA and experienced several smaller quakes. Never did I hear a sound. As someone else mentioned it has to do with the type of waves, but also with the amount of fault lines present. Waves travel super fast in the Bay Area because of the many fault lines, hence feeling the unexpected quake before you hear it. Many years ago, when still lived in Europe, I felt 2 small earthquakes. Both produced a rumbling sound, kind of like a heavy truck driving by.

Thank you so very much for all the information! It is much appreciated! We, too, devoted a full year on world geography, studying different cultures and religions.;) I already know (unless dd, and ds too for that matter, has a serious 'makeover') now that both my kids will go into the science field. Your opinion gives me a lot of food for thought. Thanks! I never looked at it that way, but it makes total sense to focus more on what they are planning to study. Thank you!

We have been homeschooling for many years and now that dd will be in the 8th grade, we've been thinking a lot about high school. Because we didn't start the classical cycle in the first grade, dd will be studying 'modern' history in 9th grade. After reading through TWM (again!) I learned that she should read the great books associated with that time. That leaves her with ancients, Middle Ages, and Late Renaissance for the other 3 years. For some reason that sounds strange to me. Do you recommend starting with the Ancients again in 9th or stick with TWM suggestion. Has anyone done it this way? Thanks!

My kids are not in highs school yet, but since dd just completed 7th grade, we've been experimenting with how to implement all the sciences. So far we've used CPO Earth, Physical and Life Science. We started out dividing the books in 3 so we kind of knew what to cover each year. I give dd a weekly schedule and she completes her work whenever she wants but it has to be finished by 3pm on Friday. In my mind she would complete each science subject on a different day, but she told me she prefers to finish a full chapter for each science. So that's what we've been doing. After finishing a chapter of Life Science, she goes on with Earth Science etc. In European schools (not sure everywhere though. I know they still do it in the ones dh and I went. I have a niece and a nephew attending there now) all sciences are covered every week. It depends on the track you are on. Because I chose heavy math and science my roster looked different from my siblings, who chose to emphasize languages. As of 9th grade on I had 2 periods of biology, 2 of physics, 2 of chemistry, and 2 of geography, each week, throughout the school year. On top of that for each of these subjects (minus geography) I had a 1 period lab. So you can say I had 3 periods for each. I also took 6 hours of math. Obviously other subjects had to give. I never had art (just had 1 semester, each year of esthetics), psychology, music or sports (just 2 hr PE) and less languages. (although still every week 4 hr Dutch, 6hr Latin, 3 French and 3 English, but never German or Spanish) Dh and I are still trying to figure out how to to it this way in high school. I still think that dividing a textbook into x parts works. Or you can also cover different disciplines of biology in year x and the rest in year y. Unfortunately I cannot recommend any resources that show you how to work this way. I have only heard from some high school students that they wished subjects would be taught this way in the U.S.. What is better? I don't know. I only know that for me (and also for dd) it would be to monotonous to study 1 science the whole year. Hope this help!

EPGY (provided by Stanford) can still be started. dd didn't start until she was 11.5. The program lets the student advance at his/her own pace. I know they have scholarships available but do not know how they work.

My husband and I had a European education close to a classical education. The difference was in the sciences. They were all studied concurrently every year, starting in the 7th grade. Dh has a master of science in electrical engineering and I hold a degree in education.

5A nor 5B contains any pre-algebra, however, the kids do solve word problems for which I would use algebra (writing an equation containing a variable). The students solve these kind of problems by drawing a graphic representation.

Even though this is not at all a bad book, I found it very hard to navigate. I found Homeschooled and Headed for College by Denise Boico, and The High School Handbook by M Schofield easier to use and to digest.

Dd, who is in the 7th grade, receives a weekly schedule. She is allowed to schedule her own work, but it has to be done by Friday 3pm. This is hwat she needs to complete. Math (EPGY Algebra 1, min 5 sessions, extra work Liall Algebra) Grammar (A Beka Grammar I) Vocabulary (Vocabulary from the Classical Roots, 1 lesson each week) Composition (Writeshop I, 1 lesson spread out over 2 weeks) Literature (Lightning Literature, finished 7 and started 8 in same school year,She does not finish all writing assignments) Logic (Fallacy Detective) Science (alternating Life and Earth Science with CPO Focus on Life Science, Focus on Earth Science. Not sure yet for Physical Science next year. It seems hard to do experiments at home) Experiment with typed report every week. History (Human Odyssey) Latin (Latin for Children C, 1 chapter each week) Spanish (tried Rosetta Stone unsuccessfully, now use Lifepac Spanish 1) Scuba Diving Course (PADI Course, finished! Yahoo!) For P.E., our entire family hikes, bikes or dives. :) Music (guitar lesson once a week) Art (co-op) Ds, who is in the 5th grade, receives a daily schedule, 5 days a week. He decides the order in which he completes the subjects and how long he spends on each. (needs to be finished in a timely manner) Math (EPGY combined with Singapore Math) Language (A Beka) Reading (books assigned by me that go with history) Writing (IEW and Writeshop Apprentice) Science (Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry and Physics I) History (Human Odyssey) Latin (Latin for Children B) Spanish (same as sister) P.E., art, scuba diving (same as sister) Music ( Guitar Lesson) We usually start around 8:30 till about noon, eat lunch and continue around 1. We finish up by 2-2:30 ish. On Friays we stop earlier or whenever the kids have finished all their work.

Yes, they will poop all over the place. I do not consider chickens to be toxic, but I would not let my kiddos play in the poop. I grew up in the country and we didn't even do that! By the way, it's always a good idea to wash your hands after handling animals, especially before eating something. Chickens can be 'free range' when they are allowed to run around in a big enough enclosed pen. That will definitely help with containing the mess.

I was born with 2 deformed hips. When reaching 40, the hips (one more than the other) bothered me tremendously. I too loved wearing flip flops, but I can assure you, they are the worst for your hips. Unless I wear fit flops, I am doomed. I'm guessing the fit flops offer a lot more support. A friend of mine who has hip issues always wears MBT. They look like Shape Ups and she told me that the rocking motion really helps her. Now she has had hip replacement and is scheduled for a second one. I have not had the surgery yet but I know I am very close. (yes at 41!) That's why I go out of my way to purchase more expensive shoes and to visit the pool 3 to 4 times a week.

My dd uses Saxon math and has done very well with it. I know many people do not like the drill, but for some students this seems to do the trick. She finished 7/6 before we enrolled her in the EPGY program offered by Stanford University. She finished the pre-algebra in 1 semester and scored 'sufficient' on the final test. So I can say that Saxon does prepare a student sufficiently for more challenging math. It all depends on the student, really. Saxon does not work for ds. (too repetitive) He uses Singapore. We tried Horizon's first with which he was very frustrated. He had a hard time remembering all the 'tricks' the program teaches. he's the kind of kids that uses logic to solve problems.

The answers are in the back of the book. But the problems are not worked out. There is just a number printed. Instructions are written for the student. There are no teacher notes.

Both my kids participate in epgy math only. Ds, who just completed the 5th grade math level, also works through Singapore math. Techniques learned in the workbooks often help him solve problems in a different way and vice versa. Ds especially loves the Challenging Word Problems series. Dd, who just completed the epgy pre-algebra course, worked concurrently through Saxon math pre-algebra. She likes to have a book that sometimes explains concepts with simpler numbers. She just started epgy algebra last week. From that level on epgy has book recommendations. (Liall Agebra) This being said, I believe that Singapore math is a better fit for use with epgy. But it mainly depends on your child's preference. Hope this helps.