Love the Vietnamese Cinnamon!

My DS6 is doing Saxon 1 and we have just reached the +2/-2 facts. I know he understands the concepts, and he has no trouble with the worksheets or assessments, but when he sits in front of the fact sheet, it's like his brain turns off. Even though he has figured out math far, far ahead of where we are lesson-wise, it took him probably three minutes to figure out 6-2=4 for the fact review. It drives me crazy, but I don't know what to do about it. I know that's not really helpful to the OP, but I thought it might be nice to know that we're sharing the same problem. Incidentally, I use the flashcards as the consequences of bad behavior during school time. ("Since you can't settle down and focus on your math lesson today, we're going to have to review with the flashcards so I can be sure you've really learned this." "Noooo, Mom, I'll pay attention. Not the flashcards!") Flashcards seem pointless to me if the child has learned the concept. I reserve the right to revisit this opinion when we reach the multiplication tables, however.

Drawing WIth Children. I wouldn't hate it if I could figure out how to teach it. Instead, it sits unused on the shelf, taunting me.

If you like Dahl, you will probably like these. I did not care for them, but I've always found Dahl unpleasantly weird, too. I don't remember them as inappropriate. I recall thinking that they had several redeeming qualities in spite of my distaste for them.

Love this thread! I'm planning to start teaching DS6 cursive this summer, and I'm really torn as to which style to use. I think I learned Zaner-Bloser but ultimately derived most of my capitals from Copperplate because they're just prettier. Do I teach my kids the basics and let them develop their own style or do I just teach them my "prettified" version?

This thread makes me feel like I should be cleaning right now. The antidote to this is watching How Clean is Your House? on BBCA, which always makes me feel nicely smug about the condition of my home. I'm really impressed by how efficiently you all are using your time!

We use heavy-duty Staples binders and loose-leaf notebook paper, but they take up so much room that I've been wondering if plain-old 5-subject Mead notebooks would do just as well. Thoughts?

I do the same thing as Kathryn.

We used it for a few weeks last fall. The program itself is fine; I'm just not motivated enough to use it. DS6, who complained every time we used it, now whines, "Why don't we do PE anymore?" Maybe we'll try again this fall...

This is our second year of using BSGFAA, and I'm pleased with my child's retention. Last year, I bought only the manual without the student pages (I had DS6 draw a picture for each story). This year I bought the student pages, too. I definitely see better retention with them. We do one lesson per day, and I don't do all the drills or the timeline on the wall. I read the passage, sometimes ask the questions, and we do the page together. Since we have more school days than lessons, I intend to use the extra days after we complete Unit 2 to learn the drills we skipped. I bought the intermediate pages for my six-year-old because he's a good reader, and they've been more challenging for him than I expected (but still doable). I plan to order the beginning ones for my four-year-old because I think she could manage them. I like the music CD they offer. Lots of it is cheesy, but we learned several usefully informative songs and a lot more just fun ones. My kids sing along with it in the car.

The bellboy carrying my luggage to the Honeymoon Suite was someone with whom I'd gone to high school. I thought that was pretty awkward, until it was surpassed by subsequent events. The B&B where we spent the rest of our honeymoon had a fireplace in the room, but the manager had forgotten to stock it with firewood. Apparently, while DH and I were...um, enjoying the jetted tub (with the ensuite bathroom door open), the manager decided it was a fine time to just dash in, deposit the firewood, and leave.

We bought the junior set for our then-5yo. He quickly progressed from following the book to creating his own circuits, so we didn't find the limited number of projects particularly bothersome. This past Christmas, he received the music set and the light set. I think he can mix all the parts from the different sets. As to buying separate sets for each child, I think it would depend on whether the children will be happy working together on one circuit at a time, since the sets only come with one board and (I think) one power unit each.

I have very precise print and cursive. I took over teaching my DS6 after his private 4K taught him the letter shapes but did not require much in the way of diligence. I realized early on in my working with him that if I held him to the same standards I hold myself in terms of handwriting, we would both be miserable and I'd be encouraging his existing perfectionism. As difficult as it is for me to let it go, I insist only that each letter be made correctly and fit properly in the lines. Occasionally, he will erase an acceptable letter because he insists he can make a prettier one, but I try really hard not to make him. My only goal is legibility (although I do tell him that having good handwriting reflects well on one). When I need to reinforce myself, I think about looking through the family recipe box. How when I find a recipe in my grandmother's handwriting, it makes me feel close to her because it's her handwriting. It had quirks like everybody's does. Do I want my son's writing to look exactly like mine, or do I want his great-grandchildren to find recipes in the box and exclaim, "Look! Here's one that Great-Grandpa wrote! And this one must be his mother's -- look how neatly she wrote!"

I confess that sometimes I am terrified of teaching DS6 because I'm arty and he's STEM-my. I confess that I'm making us stick with Saxon math because I can do it, even though he might benefit from another approach. I confess that I hate reading juvenile nonfiction and I can't understand why he keeps choosing books like The Wonderful Water Cycle over books like Henry Huggins. I've been insisting on reading aloud the science books and leaving the fiction to him, but perhaps it should be the other way around. I confess that I enjoyed Star Wars until recently, but now I would like to never, ever answer another philosophical question about Anakin Skywalker's choice of the Dark Side. I confess that I worry about giving as much attention to my younger child's education when she starts in a couple more years.

I think we may start learning cursive this summer, when the academic load is lighter. I'm planning to teach it myself without a book. Other than that, we stick pretty closely to TWTM. Bible -- BIble Study Guide for All Ages Unit 3 & Intermediate Worksheets Math -- Saxon 2 WWE 2 Workbook FLL 2 Spelling Workouts C / D SOTW Vol. 2 (I think I'll get the downloadable activity book this year instead of not getting around to making copies every week) Science -- narrations / illustrations based on the spines suggested in TWTM plus various experiments Piano lessons, year 2 (outsourced, as I don't play) Stuff I have bought/will buy but know in my heart of hearts we'll never get around to doing: Drawing With Children Family Time Fitness any kind of music survey

When my grandparents were downsizing to a smaller house and had to seriously purge their stuff, they sat down together and reread all their old love letters to each other and then burned them so no one else could read them. It seemed sad to me at the time, but I can understand their reasoning.

There's a lot of truly heinous poetry floating around in the world. But as a lot of it is written by teenagers, your child might not yet appreciate its awfulness. I agree with ferrarwilliams' post above. It takes prolonged exposure to good literature to recognize that of lesser quality.

I certainly understand the point you are making, but I perceive "science" -- everything and how it got here and works -- as having been made by God; therefore, it should have many things to say about its creator. I completely agree with Walking Iris about its being the parents' job to teach their children their own theological beliefs. I do not want Creationism taught in schools any more than I want evolution (well, maybe a little more...). I would prefer that schools not address the issue of origin at all. Conflict makes me uncomfortable. I probably should never have waded into the fray, but I felt the YECs were underrepresented in the discussion.

But---I have said it so many times to people who have asked. I don't "believe" in evolution any more than I "believe" in electricity or "believe" in gravity or "believe" in ...I don't know...plant life cycles..... . . .I like religions. I like reading about them and studying them. But I can't see why there has to be conflict. I think it's fine if someone doesn't want to believe in something. Sort of how the Amish don't use technology. That's fine. But you can't insist that the rest of of learn why electricity is bad. I don't need children to be taught in schools there's another option, another opinion on the use of electricity. Parents need to do that. That's their job, not a public school teachers. "yes that's the way electricity works, but we don't believe in that in this family and here's why...." I'll chime in as a YEC. Personally, I think the issue for us is not so much science v. religion, but rather the conviction that what is being presented to us and our children as "science" has been carefully edited to exclude the possibility of a Creator. For example, I read recently about the discovery of a fossilized miner's hat (the existence of which, if the account is true, would support some aspects of YEC). This is something that would never be presented in a PS textbook, not necessarily because the editors are Godless heathens bent on corrupting the young, but at the very least because it would -- how to put it? -- maybe "disrupt the narrative flow". I kind of view it like the Vaccination Debate. Is there a truth whether vaccinating children hurts them or is good for them? Yes. Is there information to support either viewpoint? You betcha. At some point, though, I chose which viewpoint to accept and which to reject, based on my own criteria (we vaccinated). In that debate, as well as in the debate over our origin, I just don't want to feel cheated out of the other side of the story. And since I believe that the Bible is the source of absolute truth, the viewpoint I choose to accept is going to be the one that most closely matches the Bible's account. I realize this is a volatile subject and I hope not to have been offensive in giving my opinion. I do not wish to debate, myself.

What do you do post-BA? Many people philosophize and discuss the humanities with their fellow Bachelors of Arts while cleaning the Frosty machines at Wendy's. Others pursue an exciting and lucrative career in homeschooling.

This, exactly.

I like the idea of being outside, but I actually hate being there. I detest sweating, freezing, allergies, and being devoured by insects. We have a big basement and my kids mostly play there. They have their father to take them outdoors on evenings and weekends. I feel guilty about it, but apparently not guilty enough to do more than the occasional park day.

We're faithfully following TWTM's recommendations, mostly because I'm weak in science and strong in literature, so TWTM approach appeals to me as a teacher.

We zipped through Book A doing a lesson per day and testing three or four lessons at the end of the week. Now that we're in the B Book, we've slowed to one lesson per week. Ds6 copies all the list words and bonus words for the week on notebook paper and does one exercise the first day. He does two exercises per day for the next two days, and I verbally quiz him on all the words so I can see which ones he struggles with. The last day of the week is the spelling test. Any words he misses, we discuss and add to the next week's list again. I absolutely think there's a strong memorization component to spelling, and I personally think traditional spelling tests are the only way to measure whether my child has succeeded in memorizing the week's words. P.S. Our weeks add up to four days because we take off every other Friday. When we have a five-day week, we use the extra day to practice dictionary skills. I pick words from the week's list and he has to look them up in the dictionary in the back and define them. Now that we're halfway through First Language Lessons, I'm going to start having him find and tell me the parts of speech, too.

Magic Treehouse is apparently losing its magic for my ds6, too. He's been pushing himself a little to read the various Star Wars children's books from our libraries. Some are written a little above the Magic Treehouse, and some are considerably more difficult, but his obsession with the subject is fueling his desire to persevere. I actually think Magic Treehouse achieved the desired effect of providing a bridge from picture books to chapter books.