The part of my personality that would not enjoy a surprise party is also the part of my personality that would make an effort to pretend I'm enjoying myself. I am not an assertive person and I hate conflict. I want to make sure everyone is comfortable and there is no conflict. I would go home and cry afterward, or sleep for a day. Now, I don't dislike all parties and I can be very chatty, but when I know that I'm going to be around a lot of people socializing, I need to have my energy bank and my emotional bank filed up before I get to the party. If I go into a situation already depleted, I will either snap at someone later (usually dh, poor guy), cry, or get physically sick (usually a cold). Furthermore, if I go into a situation already depleted and it was a surprise, I'm sure there would be real physical shock to my body. It sounds extreme, but these reactions are common for lots of introverts (not all). That's why I'm not surprised that some people have reactions that seem rude. I think I could keep those feelings inside, thus adding to the exhaustion and stress on my mind and body. Having said all that, I've learned that at some point if I'm unwilling to set boundaries and will not speak up for myself, then I can end up with misplaced resentment. I have learned to say "that's not my thing' or "I'm uncomfortable with that" and most of the time nothing bad happens and I no longer feel like something is wrong with me. But it takes courage for me to do that. So, I would like to kindly offer to those that don't like things like surprise parities, to make sure you speak up for yourself. However, sometimes we don't always know if we will enjoy something until it happens. So, maybe the person in the OP had no idea they would feel that way until it happened. That happened to me on my wedding day. I had no idea I would panic having to stand up in front of 400 people for 45 min. I only remember repeating in my head to breath and not pass out. I don't even remember saying vows. Oh, and I did cry when it was over. It was so exhausting. lol. And those that do like surprise parties or singing at restaurants that if someone says, "no thank you" they may have had to put on their brave pants just to be able to say no and if you push or shame, they may not speak up next time. Then there is lost trust and resentment, most likely on both sides. And that's why surprise parties are tricky, no option for communication. On a side note, I do like some surprises. Like when dh brings home dinner or an iMac. Those are amazing surprises! I did enjoy the surprise news of twins, but it did shock me and I did cry (not tears of joy either) because the body does weird things sometimes. ETA: I also don't enjoy attending surprise parties that much to be honest. There is way too much anxious energy in the room. I can settle once the surprise part is over the honoree is happy with the party and I'm pretty good at picking up when someone is pretending to be okay with something and that's hard. I'm a total sponge INFJ.

I have a 10 year old boy (5th), and two 8 year old girls (both 3rd). My girls are working at similar levels so maybe you could say I have closer to "two" children. But they stil do need one on one attention for some things. I combined for most things. Even LA most of the time. I know that lots of piece think that's not possible with multiple age kids, but it's been working really well for us. Here is a time break down. We start 8:30ish. Morning time together - 60 min LA - 20min Work with mom rotations/independent work - 45min (3rd) and 60 min (5th) Lunch with lit read aloud (30 min) Outside (60min) Afternoon interest led projects (60min). But they are free to keep working if they want. If they have no project they want to work on, they can read or rest. So it's also a quiet time if they choose. This is helpful on days that minds are tired or bodies are spent. We are done by 2:30. They practice instruments after dinner. 8:30ish we eat breakfast and during breakfast, we start our morning time and then move to the living room and continue our morning time. During morning time we read from history or science (alternating days), then go through a loop. This is also where we do artist/picture study, music, mapping, living math books, etc, and memory work. I alternate input/output things. We don't do all of it everyday and I'm not worried if we only get to most of those things in the loop only once a week. We also have discussion or narration during this time. I also block terms for certain subjects. For example, art study is term 1 and 3. Music study is term 2. Then we all do LA together. (20min) I also loop this and they do each thing at their own level. For example everyone does copywork or dictation or freewrite. Just the approperiate length for their skill level. Tea time is included in the loop and we read poetry or Shakespeare(those days last longer than 20min). We do this loop together for three weeks and on the fourth week I do a LA focus with either my son or my daughters. My son will be doing WR narrative II and killgallon this year. My girls will be doing the first part of TC or BW projects. Then I work with my girls for 45 min. Handwriting (5min) they read aloud to me to practice fluency and so I can keep a pulse on their reading skills (5 min each) Math (30) When they were still learning how to read last year, they did 20 min math and 15 min reading lesson. During this time, my son does independent reading and one other independent thing. Like logic workbook or drawing exercise or book of century entry or goodreads update (doubles as typing exercise). I work with my son for about 60 min Narration or discussion of his independent reading 5-15min Math - 40-50min We listen to an audiobook for lit during lunch. We take a walk or bike ride. we go to the same park several times a week and are able to incorporate nature study on our walks. A couple times a week we may go to a homeschool park day instead of our walk. Project time or quiet time or outside the home activities. Once a week we do an art project during this time. Two years ago when I had a third grader and two first graders, I had them doing so many things separately and I burnt out from it. So last year I combined whoever I could and started letting certain practices do double or triple duty for me. I also decided that not only do I not need to do everything everyday, I dont need to do everything every term either. I'm also okay with doing only one level of WR in a year or only the first part of TC in one year. I'm comfortable with just copywork, dictation, freewrites, and narration the rest of the year. I also like to use copywork and dictation for spelling and grammar and not have a separate program. Once they know the phonograms and how to analyze a word (first grade as per of reading lessons), I don't do "spelling" anymore. So if you and your kids are happy and no one is burnt out then it works. But if you start to fizzle out? There are ways to streamline as long as you are comfortable with letting certain ideas go. That's what worked for me. I typed all this on my phone so sorry if it's unreadable. 😕

This sounds like an excellent plan. We did the prehistory unit from Build Your Library this year and we are also reading Quark Chronicles. We finished Botany and are a third of the way through Zoology. The unit was a great complement for a year of biology and ancient history. As far as the books being neutral, I think it does actually work in this case, for reasons other posters have mentioned. It's not a textbook or curriculum (on its own). It could be considered a living science book in the sense that is comes alive to the reader and I do get a sense that the author has a passion for science. But it is still a fiction book. It's not like SOTW, in that I would describe it as a nonfiction book told in narrative form. Quark has a science fiction feel to it. I do appreciate how the author weaves the science into the story. One of the characters, Tom, seems to have a love of science (at least botany/zoology) and talks about things he's read or he has prior knowledge of "back on earth." We are secular and I teach evolution. I'm not a biologist. We are reading some of the non fiction books recommended in the guide. I have also added the book Animalium, which does talk about evolution in a way very accessible to elementary age kids. Plus, we love the illustrations. They compliment each other nicely. When the Quark kids were on a moon with an ocean encountering ocean life, we were reading about life in coastal water and coral reefs in Animalium. We are also reading the Giants of Science, Charles Darwin bio right now as well. But, I could have just as easily presented young earth creationism or anything in between with other books. My kids are 10, 8, and 8 for reference.

The notebooking pdf file contains the book lists. I just use Wayfarers because I have it and it's easy for me, but I'm assuming the additional book reading schedule lines up the same in the notebooking pages. Here is the link to see the sample for botany, using the preview link (under the pic of the book cover).

I'll also recommend taking a look at Wayfarers. Although I don't have high schoolers, I'm reading some of the selections from the rhetoric lists to self educate, and then I have one doing logic stage lists, and two doing grammar stage lists.

I did buy Ellen McHenry's Botany and my son looked it over and chose not to read it. He is reading from DK Eyewitness Plants and Arabella Buckley's books. He is also reading the several of the other books listed in additional science reading in Wayfarers, like Understanding Photosynthesis with Max Atoms. He also read Barbara Bash's tree books when we were in the trees section of Quark, Botany. They are not in the Wayfarers' list.

My vote is for Quark Chronicles! Hands down. My children are 10, 8, and 8 (fourth and second grade). This is how we use it. I read a chapter of Quark Chronicles: Botany a week and they narrate. My son has additional independent science reading (that he also narrates) from Wayfarers (Ancient). My daughters read aloud to me and narrate additional science books, also from the Wayfares' list. Although, they read fewer additional books than my son. We do nature study. We watch documentaries. We don't use the note-booking pages. We read from the book Nature Anatomy and will read Animalium. Those are not included in the Wayfarers' lists. My children are retaining the info and enjoying all the books. This year has been a wonderful science year. I will definitely buy Zoology, as we are almost finished with Botany.

I agree! It's a wonderful science spine. We are loving Botony as well and we are using additional science books on the Wayfarers list to round it out.

Here are a few science books we are enjoying during our morning time this year Scientists in the Field Series Quark Chronicles Animalium Mistakes that Worked 65 Short Mysterious you Solve with Science

I drop off my children (ages 10, 7, and 7) for piano lessons, each 30 min long. They bring books to read, drawing books and supplies, coloring books, and their iPads. Our piano teacher has two young children that my children will play with as well. This arrangement has worked out well. I do check-in with the teacher to make sure that the arrangement is still working and she knows that if it is no longer working, I'm willing to stay.

Thank you!

The LOE flash cards didn't have the phonogram MB, but RLTL does. I just made a flash card for it. Also, RLTL doesn't have a second long sound for the U (oo). We just mark the second long U when we come across it. I think those are the only differences.

I've used RLTL levels 1-3 and the only OG experience I had was the first 16 chapters of LOE essentials. I think she could teach it without previous OG knowledge. However, watching the LOE teaching videos first may be helpful. It would be a small time commitment and they are free on the website. I've found RLTL easy to use and effective. I do add some of the LOE games on game days and we use the LOE phonogram app. Neither are nessecary, but have been fun.

My son started Beast at the end of third grade because we were trying to find a good math fit and I wanted him to start at the beginning, so he is working about a grade level behind in BA. My son is an average math student and needs some support during BA and he is also a bit slower at computing, so we are not going to move fast to "catch up". For this reason, we use Khan Academy to allow him to continue getting exposure to new grade level topics and also to provide some spiral review of previously learned concepts. Khan works great for this because he doesn't have to waste time on concepts he has mastered, but gets the continued practice of concepts he has not yet mastered.

I don't know if it's sending the wrong message or not, but I think it depends more on what works best for both of you and what creates a peaceful environment in which he can grow and learn. If you feel stressed or distracted knowing the stuff needs to get done and you could be doing that stuff and the multitasking helps you to feel peaceful, then that will spill over onto him. I am opposite. I have a hard time focusing on what my kids need while doing something else. I feel frazzled and then I start to get short with my words and my tone of voice is not very encouraging. So for us to find peace I have to put the full force of my mind on what we are doing and do the other stuff later. There are seasons of life and give and take. Find a routine and rhythm that works for your family right now. eta: I also don't have babies or toddlers to work around right now. Seasons. ;)