We received ours yesterday and DS got gold! He was so, so excited. This was an exercise in self confidence and following through with something and I'm so glad he saw the results of hard work. First thing he said was, "I'm so proud of myself. I've never won anything in my whole life".

So funny, we were at World Market yesterday looking at that exact same table and discounted it because of the lines. However now that I think of it they are always writing in a notebook or workbook so they very rarely write directly on the table.

We have used SSL, LFC ,Greek Code Cracker(just for fun) and W&R. All of those have been very successful in the sense that my child/children really, really enjoy doing them and I see progress. My 2 youngest ask to do SSL and my 9 year old started LFC this year and it's one of the things that gets done consistently. He loves W&R but we are only on the 2nd book.

I use FIAR with my 1st grader and my 4th grader listens in and enjoys it as well but it is not enough on its own for him. I have had much better luck with combining them for content subjects like history, science and art. We read and discuss the same material but I adjust my expectations for each student. They obviously each have their own math, reading for the younger and Latin that is at their own level.

I didn't read all of the other replies but this sounds very much like my youngest and my daughter when she was younger. My daughter was like this from about 2 until a month or two before she turned 5. They both have celiac disease. They did not get diagnosed until they were 3 and 1 but within about a week the difference was dramatic. It wasn't a magic bullet but it's clear they were probably miserable all the time and that was a major contributor. When they have accidentally been "glutened" I get the behavior you described. Also when they are sick or getting sick, sometimes their body reacts as if they have had gluten. There have been occasions where they are unusually out of control, meltdowns etc. and I can't figure out what is going on then the next day someone has a runny nose or fever. 3 is really the worst but there could be other things magnifying it. I would recommend doing a food and behavior journal for a while so you can see if there are any patterns and then you can move from there.

I know exactly how you feel. My solution has been to learn right along with them. We are using MiF and Beast Academy and I do all the problems right along with my son. I have not needed to use the TM at all. I understand and enjoy math more than I ever have in my life. I had so much anxiety surrounding it that what would happen is I would freeze up and not even attempt to figure something out in the past. Now I have conceptual knowledge that I didn't before. If I don't understand something we look it up on Kahn Academy. I am honest about not knowing something and having him show me how he came up with an answer. The upside is that he has such great understanding with math as a language and he enjoys us doing it together. Despite my own doubts, being transparent in my shortcomings has been really helpful for our relationship. I plan to learn right along with them for as long as it works and get help when I need it.

We really love it but I don't think it provides step by step beginning instructions. I think it would work best with a child that already has a strong foundation but needs direction and organization. It requires quite a bit of writing. My son writes volumes of books and stories but needs help with organization and getting his point across clearly and it has been absolutely wonderful for that. We find it very engaging and it's something he asks to do and loves to read his samples from the book to people.

We received ours yesterday! We have all been down with the flu for 3 weeks but at the very least he's been doing math and studying for the test daily. The study package was in a PDF and I missed it the first time too and didn't realize it until the link expired. I had to call but she sent it to me again right away.

We don't legally have to track days but we did for the last two years in the interest of having the kids track it just to see and then we have a "party" when we hit 100 days. We typically reach it around early March. We school year round so all the way through the end of July with a several week break and then back up again with the start of a new school year the last week of August. I count anything that would be counted as "enrichment in school. We go see a play, that counts as a school day. We only did math and reading then had doctor appointments, that's a school day. When my son was in school every day was counted even if all they did was watch Kai-lan in Mandarin class. Right now they are making Valentine's for co-op tomorrow and I'm counting it. I distinctly remember spending class time on that when I was in school every year in Elementary. So much time wasting and nonsense goes on in in school that I see no reason to overthink it. I would count just about every day M-F.

I am not artsy at all and so my purchases are usually very uninspired. I can't seem to think beyond model magic, markers and some cheap watercolors. I'm trying to get a complete art cart going with nicer, quality things for the older two and some things for my 3 year old that he can actually enjoy. We do a lot of Waldorf-type lesson books but they typically only use colored pencils in those since that is mostly what we have. I would love to expand on that and I think better materials would really motivate them. What are some of your must have items? I need hand holding! I think we need quality brushes, paint, better colored pencils...I don't know what else. They love to use clay, paint and my son sketches a lot. Cost doesn't really matter (I mean it does) but I'm building this slowly over the next few months. If you are artistically inclined, what would you have loved to have ready access to as a child or what do you have now at home?

I just love FIAR for the Pre-K-2 stage. It's some of the best times we have had and has been a perfect fit for my daughter. It's geared to her level (5, almost 6) right now but my 3 year old and 9 year old sit in with us and they all enjoy the story. We don't really use it as written but it works for our family. So we "row" a book for 2 weeks at a time instead of one. We read additional books that go along with the themes, maybe make a meal associated with the region and do an art and science theme. It's quite loose and I am not married to everything lining up perfectly every single time. This year we have been using the books as copywork as well. She has a Waldorf lesson book and does a passage from the book and maybe one original sentence about the book and then draws a picture. We've been able to read a lot of quality picture books that I may not have even considered otherwise. This year we are much busier so I did go ahead and write down the relevant themes for each book ahead of time in my planner so whenever I am at the library I can just pick up some related books quickly. Separately she does math, phonics/spelling and geography/history is often related to the book we are rowing.

I have multiple read alouds going. I do Five in a Row and whatever Pre-K-2nd type library books in the morning and a higher level novel in the afternoon a few times a week. My husband also reads to them separately in the evening. The novel might be too much for the younger two as it is geared to the 9 year old but they still usually enjoy it and get something out of it. The morning read is aimed for the youngers but my older son also enjoys listening so it works out very well. Both the 9 and 5 year old have a basket of pre-selected books that they work throughout the year. My 4th grader has to do 30 min. silent/required reading daily of the "school" book. The 5 year old has to do 5-10 minutes of reading aloud to me daily.

Yes we have almost exactly that cart except for ours has 2 sides with 12 drawers total. One side is for my 4th grader and the other for my 1st grader. The top box is for their morning folder and daily morning work (spelling cards review, cursive, math drills) and the rest I rotate what's in them. I fill the boxes at night or even when I'm being lazy and I know we will basically be doing the same thing, I just move the order around. I try to stagger them so when I need to do math with one, the other's box is something independent. It's tucked away in a corner so it's not intrusive and it provides a quick way to clean up and put everything away. They can go to their boxes in the morning and see what they need to accomplish for the day. I have numbers on velcro stuck to the front and they move them over as they complete each box. It works because they know what is going on that day and what they need to get done as well as keeping the momentum going when I am with someone else. They aren't waiting around for me to tell them what to do next if I am busy. They just go to the next box or if they are outpacing me I can say, "Go ahead and skip to your 4th box then until i'm available." When my daughter was younger, her side was filled with busy box type stuff, games and books. The books worked well because then making sure she got her time with me to just sit and read was worked into our day. Also paints and crafting things were all ready to go in the box so I didn't have to stop in the middle of helping my son to get her things.

We do this to some degree with science, history and FIAR. I will read from our science book, discuss and then they notebook about what we have read and discussed. I expect more from my 9 year old obviously than the 5 year old. I will sit next to her and help her write her narration while my older son does his mostly independently. I expect lots more detail, correct spelling,punctuation etc. from him while she may only have a few well written sentences. They seem to benefit from this and it is more enjoyable for all of us I think since we are on the same page.

We use workboxes, so whatever they finish must be put back in the box and the card switched over before moving to the next box. I have the top shelf of our large bookshelf in the living room for anything not in use that day. We usually school at the dining room table which has a lazy susan in the middle. I have a portable caddy that holds most of our supplies (pencils, scissors, markers, dry erase pens and markers etc.) and is available for everyone to use. Everything lives in there and it goes back on my shelves out of reach of the toddler when "school" is over. They do each have a pencil box that houses their own special pencils, erasers and pens and those get put away on top of the workboxes when not in use. The pencil boxes work because they can pick out their own stuff and then I know exactly who left which pencil out. If I have to remind someone too many times to keep their belongings tidy, then it becomes communal property.

Both of my grandmothers yes lots, but only the Bible. I was reading well before I began school but I'm pretty sure the only book I had actually read or been read to from was the King James Bible. Once I began school I have vivid memories of being read to by teachers well into the 4th grade. My parents, never read to me. In fact I remember trying to get my father to do so when I was about 9 and he did it once and then said, "This is really stupid, you can read" and I never asked again. I was however a very strong reader with a life long love of books and earned a degree in English literature.

How is it not feminist to stay home to homeschool? Choice means just that... you have chosen this lifestyle. Equal access and opportunity does not mean that all people need to follow the same path and find fulfillment in the same ways. Why is staying home "less than" or why do you perceive it as less than? Is that not inherently sexist to assume that a traditionally feminine idea of being in the home is the inferior contribution? Would you feel differntly about the role if your husband was the at-home/homeschooling parent? I chose for myself and my husband and I chose jointly to put our family needs first in this way. I personally feel more personal satisfaction and mental, intellectual and emotional engagement now than I have ever felt in any job I have worked before. I think the message to your girls should be confidence in your choices and pride. Why is working for a paycheck for someone else more meaningful? I have done all variations, worked full-time outside of the home, worked from home, didn't work for several years and now back to working from home in the evening while I homeschool during the day. My job is the thing I do to make money to live our lives in the way we want. It is not who I am or suddenly make me worthy. My education has not been wasted, I use it every single day at home and it makes me a well rounded person and parent. My contributions are great to our family. My employer does not love me and I am not changing his life for the better by being present. Why do you have a responsibility to be a contributing member of the workforce? If you CHOOSE to do so and that meaningful contribution feeds you emotionally in some way then great, go for it. It doesn't sound like that though. It sounds like you feel you need to justify it in some way and you don't. You don't need a job to show your daughters power, agency and autonomy.

I thought the OP was asking about expressing interest in her daily activities and education of the children not in if your DH actually teaches any "subjects".I definitely would be disappointed if my husband appeared to be uninterested in what I spent most of my waking hours doing and how my "work" was going.I listen to my husband tell me about his day, he doesn't go into intricate details but I am familiar with some of his duties, his coworkers etc. He can come and talk to me about an interesting meeting he had and I will know the players and basically what they were discussing. I expect the same level of interest if I want to tell him about what happened at co-op today or how much our son is enjoying the new Latin curriculum. We don't do it to be polite to one another. I think we are both genuinely interested in each other's jobs or at the very least interested in how the other feels about their job performance. That's what friends do, right?

Yes, that happens all the time around here and I just keep it moving. Today we went to see a theater adaptation of "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane". When we read the book I could barely hold it together but they were fine. I wouldn't say unmoved but certainly not crushed or pained and definitely no tears. So I was curious to see what they would do today and they reacted the same way. They enjoyed it but mostly were thinking about having lunch. I sobbed however, oh how I sobbed. The burly gentlemen next to me was wiping tears and there were muffled sobs from the middle schoolers in front of me but my two youngest just wanted a granola bar. It's okay, they are compassionate little people but they just don't have the depth of emotions and life experiences to really take them to heart right now.

At maybe 4 and 7 they were allowed to go out unsupervised in our fenced back yard with me checking periodically. They are pretty much always together. My oldest was just not mature enough to be alone before maybe 7. He panics under pressure so if there were anything to be worried about he would likely forget anything we had discussed about safety. My daughter was allowed to be alone out there at 5 but she was simply more capable of handling herself and independent. I can't even conceptualize a situation where I would leave the 3 year old for more than a few minutes. The oldest is too distractable to keep watch and although more diligent, my daughter is basically the same size as her baby brother so not much help to him. He loves to climb and jump off of the picnic table or porch, throw sticks and rocks at people so he still needs constant supervision when outside.

We have Goodbyn containers too and I can pack it pretty full. It has 3 sections so I do maybe a veggie burger or sunbutter sandwich (gf bread) in the biggest section, carrots and hummus in one and dried cranberries and cashews in the last. In the colder months I bring our Thermos containers with usually leftovers or quick things like veggie fried rice or soup. I almost always have some dried seaweed and coconut in my bag as well.

I sometimes come off this way probably. I just simply cannot handle small talk. It makes me sleepy! Plus if I have been with my children all day, I am all touched and socialized out. I find it difficult to continue to make eye contact with people once I have hit that point. I feel overwhelmed and panicky. If I saw you at a gym day and it was crazy, I just might avoid looking at you and mutter some polite grunts and giggles and then find a way to go chase after my toddler to avoid further contact. It has nothing, nothing at all to do with the other person. I know they must think I am an idiot or rude and that makes me even more awkward. If I am in a smaller group with people I am comfortable with then I can be myself and I will be warm and talkative. In that situation we have skipped all the surface stuff and people are usually talking about specific topics. I will shut down at some point though and just stop talking. Or of course she could have just been exactly as you described. Some people are just like that. I will say that I think a higher number of people who are introverts are drawn to homeschooling for many reasons. I felt really overwhelmed every day at drop off when my son was in school because it was lots of small talk but every morning! I would pretend to not see another mom friend (whom I love and is a family friend) sometimes simply because I couldn't handle the interaction every day. Obviously had not a single thing to do with her. I just needed a couple hours in the morning with no talking. I'm sorry you felt that way OP. Whatever her reasons I don't think you should spend any time concerned with her. If it is a popularity contest with her then that too is all about her issues and has nothing to do with you in reality. Remembering that helps me to keep perspective when I have had my feelings stung.

I prefer MiF and we have used it since 2A and will continue. My DS used Singapore at school in 1st and the transition was smooth for him. I do not find MiF to be expensive if you do not buy the TM brand new. I have not needed the TM so just the workbook and text. I find them on Amazon or ebay and have never payed more than $25 total for the two books. This year for 4B I chose to get the TM but I paid around $45 on ebay. Pricier but nowhere near the cost of a brand new copy. I do not consider myself mathy at all but the text is so well done that I have been able to teach from that. 1st grade should be absolutely fine with just the two books.

Why pick just one? We use MiF as our spine and then add in BA when it makes sense. Sometimes we take a break and do only BA. I think they compliment each other nicely.

I use a binder and print everything out. We use Memoria Press recitations and I add to it when something comes up that I think something needs to go in there. Behind the recitations in the binder I have our poetry selections labeled by month. If I don't actually have it in hand or I can't hand it to a child to read then it simply won't get done. We review them monthly.