I'm looking for unabridged editions of classic books, with "lovely" illustrations--obviously "lovely" is in the eye of the beholder, but I figured I'd save a ton of time if I simply asked here.

As someone who wasted an inordinate amount of my and my7yo childs time trying to teach spelling too early, I would let cross-lingual patterns slide so long as it made sense phonetically. If x-langauge is highly phonetic and regular, then between Rod and Staff levels, I might teach and drill the 50 most common words with him. But I wouldn't blend the two languages. When he finished RS Spelling 3, I'd take a few weeks to teach and drill the 50 most common words in x-language with him, then move right back to RS Spelling 4, etc.

False alarm everyone. As of this morning he officially forgot about printed instructions. That they exist, that they are too be read--the whole 9 yards. Oddly enough, it made me feel better to see that he ignores common-sense advice even from himself.

I did some thing like that to them several years ago. They bombed the test and man it was funny. I tried it on them again a few years ago with a slightly more sophisticated version and Pal actually caught on. But it didn't transfer into him doing it as a normal, every day thing. But this morning he really said it like it had just occurred to him. As if he hadn't heard it multiple times every school day and then argued about it every other school day for the last 6 years. He really said it like it was a epiphany. There was a little note of wonder in his voice.

Re: Comparisons. In general comparisons don't do a ton of good for anyone and are more likely to cause harm than they are to have no effect. Comparing can be helpful to know where your kids are in relation to societal expectations/standards at large and of course it's helpful to know where they are in your sequence of study for your particular goals, but beyond that then what is the good of comparing yourself, not just to others, but to a highly niche sample such as another home school? I think that I'm more content because, for the most part, I design the gaps that are or will be in The Boys primary education. I know where I am placing the gaps and so the fact that they exist or will exist doesn't bother me. It can't. I'm just one guy, there are only 24 hours in my day. During those hours I still have to parent, have family time, eat, sleep, work, run errands, and so forth. It's important to me that The Boys get a significant portion of those hours to be kids or learn things that I can't be absorbed at a school table. I committed early on to giving them the highest quality education that I can. Using the skills, experiences knowledge and resources that I have or can obtain. If I focused instead on trying to give them a education that is well rounded--as defined by others--then I would lose out on the option of giving them a higher-quality oblong education. I avoid trying to give The Boys a "well rounded" education. I am giving my kids the highest quality education that I can give them. If they really want to fit through round holes, then have the skills, support and the time to pursue rounding themselves off on their own.

I have spent the last 6 years of my life trying to help my youngest son understand that the directions occur at the top of the page or before tasks, exercises or problem sets for a reason, and that the reason for this format is because the instructions are meant to be read before you begin and followed as you complete the tasks, exercises of problem sets. You know. If the instructions on a page say: "Find the quotient for the problems below." Then you're supposed to actually find the quotients. |But if they say "Explain why the Boston Massacre is a misnomer in complete sentences" then you're supposed to actually write complete sentences that explain why the name "Boston Massacre" doesn't fit the event that took place in Boston. You know, tricky, challenging things like reading the friggin directions and then doing what they directed you to do. For the last 6 years, Pal has used several evasive maneuvers to avoid reading the directions. These methods have proved consistent failures because they result in rework, but he's made a valiant career of staring at the problem sets or the blank lines beneath the actual instructions and pondering helpless what it is exactly he's supposed to actually do. After a moment of directionless-ness, he will usually take charge of the situation by doing 1 of 3 things. 1) Just doing something and then become indignant when I reject and reassign the assignment because it wasn't completed correctly. 2) Call me over and ask "What am I supposed to do?" as if he can't read or as if the directions aren't written on the page in front of him. 3) Procrastinate until I notice that he's off-task and ask him about his work to which he will reply "But I don't know what I'm supposed to do for that page. I didn't want to do it wrong so I was waiting." Today, Pal commented (and very casually too) "You know what, so long as I read them carefully, I can do the work right the first time and I don't have to waste time redoing it. I just have to read and follow the directions--they're usually on the page anyway." I stared at him dumbfounded. Absolutely shell-shocked. I think that there may be hope for him yet.

It seems like Pal is going through a linguistic growth spurt and it's very interesting to watch. Pal is not as wordy or verbose as his brother. He doesn't write stories and poems like Buddy. He definitely isn't as talkative as Buddy either, so it's easy to over look his language skills. But I've been observing him more closely these last few weeks and he definitely seems to be getting steadily stronger/better in Spanish than he has been. He's working on reading longer, more complex books in Spanish now that I've gotten some high-interest reads for him. He has not yet left behind the picky-reader phase which is a little disappointing, but I got him 2 fantasy trilogies that he really likes in Spanish and he's working on those without complaint. Pals "unlocked" a lot of Spanish word-patterns and so his active and receptive vocabulary has definitely ballooned. It's very interesting and gratifying to see how much vocabulary and content knowledge Pal has retained from our on going study of the encyclopedia. As we're reading and discussing a lot of history in Spanish, there are a lot of words and stories that have been latent in his memory that are getting "activated". We have a couple of Spanish language joke books, and when he reads them to himself, he laughs or snickers quite a bit.

So, Relative called me to ask me a question and I just deflected the conversation at every turn. Finally she said" So you're really not going to help me, huh?" I'm a fairly direct and straight-forward person. So it's really noticeable to anyone who knows me when I'm not being straight-forward and direct. I told her "Look, Relative, I am helping you. You don't have to accept it, but at this point, this is what my help looks like. If you want to do something different, do it. If you want to do what I advise, follow the instructions and process that I've given you. But I can't help you with over-complicating a simple process. I've had long-term success with adhering to a simple process, but you do you. We discussed current events for 10 minutes and she got off the phone. Finally. I just have to keep this up for the next 40 days. *long suffering sigh* There is no need to apologize and thanks for the congrats. My sobriety is one of my proudest accomplishments. It's not like I was really going to come over to your house just to drink and commiserate with your DH anyway, but I'm not shy, sad, hesitant or ashamed to say that I'm sober when someone offers me alcohol. Also, I won't lie. I'm stoked that I can say I'm 10+ years sober. I have probably mentioned it more this year than the last 4 or 5 years combined.

Thanks everyone. I've decided to combine advice from @8FillTheHeart, @purpleowl, @PeterPan, @SusanC, @domestic_engineer, @whitehawk and @Lang Syne Boardie (hopefully I didn't miss anyone). I can't cure her anxiety. She has to work through this on her own, so I write her a schedule to follow for 42 days that explicitly states the school day is done after essential tasks A, B and C are completed, however, if they're finishing early, too easily or growing bored, then try one thing--just one--after C for a few days and see how it goes. I'll strongly encourage that she journal and document the process because it's invaluable to have your data that's relevant to your family-culture and your kids. For the duration of this trial, I will take and answer specific questions from her on specified "check in" dates and if she gets nutty during a check-in, then I will whip out the psuedo-socratic questioning to keep her at bay. I'm 10 years, 10 months and 1 week sober so I can't drink, but I do commiserate from the bottom of my heart. I am certain that Relatives husband would not put up with this level of nuttery about home school, which is part of the reason that I'm so deeply in this mess.

A relative of mine has began to homeschool her 4 kids and asks me my advice constantly. She has a K, 2nd, 4th and 6th grade student. The K and 2nd can't read, the 6th grade student is very behind in mathematics, the 4th grader is mostly on grade level, but coming from a bad public school that's not saying much. I have told her "Simple > Complicated"; I have given her a copy of my Homeschool Commandments. I have given her my opinion on some curriculum and I keep telling her the same thing over and over again--do little and do it often. Do a max of 3hours of focused academics every day--(even weekends)--and just wait. Give the kids a chance. Give yourself a chance. Give homeschooling a chance and in the meantime stay off of homeschool related YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, forums, Facebook, blogs and every search-result link that is in anyway related to homeschooling. At her request, I have gone over to her place 3 times in the last 12 days to "show her what it looks like" or "demonstrate what I"m talking about." Each time it's setting the kids up with ZERO distractions, coaching them through their work, actively teaching and drilling the K and 2, supervising the 4th and 6th do their reading, checking everyones math and then turning them loose. It takes 3.5 hours from beginning to end and she always talks about how it's easy to do it if she just does it. But then less than 2 days later she's bugging me about all the stuff that's NOT built into the routine. What about XYZ? ABC? GHI? and JKL? She keeps asking for my advice, direction or input but won't listen to any 2 words that I say. It is making me nuts. She wants to change what she's doing every 1.48 days. She's a stay at home mom right now so she has nothing to do but drive she and myself NUTS with her nuttery about home school. I want to gently and kindly try to convince her that it's important to LEAVE things ALONE and just friggin WAIT for at least 60 days. How? What do you say to a relative who is asking lots of (stupid or annoying) questions--repeatedly--but not able to "hear" your response. I know that she's not doing it on purpose. I actually like this relative, and The Boys are excited that the kids are being homeschooled now too. I agree with her reasons for taking them out of school, I know that she want's what is best for her kids and that she's willing to do it. But how do I help her understand that sometimes it's more important to NOT DO things if there isn't a compelling reason to do them? In the course of me writing this, she's texted me twice three times about different ideas to complicate her day and adding some task she could to the agenda to burden herself and/or her kids with and some idea for something from somewhere that's a TERRIBLE idea to add or substitute. She's annoying me to the brink of death, but won't even leave me to die in peace.

1) There is no "set" way to help a person enjoy math. Different people might have their interest hooked by different things. Of course there is always the possibility that your child is a person who, ultimately, will not like mathematics for mathematics sake in the end. If that turns out to be the case, it doesn't mean that you used the wrong curriculum, or that you used the right curriculum incorrectly or anything like that. 2) It is by far much easier and more efficient to simply augment the instruction and/or problem sets in a math book that has already been written, than to create something completely customizable. Doing math off the cuff can be done--and well--but it's not really an approach that I'd recommend unless you have the knowledge, experience, time and energy to do it well for a year+. I have 2 kids and they are very close in age and are academically capable of a lot of the same academic work. There were quite a few topics or subtopics in math that I wanted introduced or exercised in a very specific way. Other times there were topics that I wanted to introduce them to, but aren't a part of the typical scope/sequence or wouldn't have been introduced at a time that was convenient for us. By age/grade The Boys are in middle school but we've done a lot of math and I've had to "DIY" a lot of math teaching and have customized a lot of math lessons for them over the years. At various points in the mathematics curriculum/continuum, I've taught The Boys (and occassionally Tutees) using my own explanations and home made problem sets, my own explanations and 3rd-party problem sets, using 3rd-party explanations and problem sets. In my experiences it's easier to write a few lessons to explain or teach a few key concepts, and write customized problem-sets and exercises to fill specific needs than it is to write an entire math program. I really don't recommend creating a customized math curriculum by hand unless you have the knowledge, time, energy and experience to do it well. There is no need to pour that type of time and energy into this project if you run a very likely risk of producing a mediocre project. I don't want that last part to sound snide, superior or anything like that. It's just plain old logistics. If I ever wound up HSing another kid or crop of kids, I wouldn't create a customize math textbook for them. I'd use my own explanations and ready-made 3rd-party text for problem sets and exercises and just use my customized lessons/exercises where they fit.

I'm pretty sure (95.8%) that Python won't run directly on Chromebook. You'll need to hop through some hoops--probably have to run a virtual machine, or use a cloud-based solution--to use Python from a Chromebook.

@lewelma How do the levels for the NZ tests work? I found the list of subjects and I see that they have a Digital Technology series of exams. Any idea how I can find the texts/resources that NZ schools use to prepare for those tests?

You're a genius. The "create an answer key to their own test as their test" idea is a great idea. I would probably find having the evaluator there distracting, but even if I wouldn't I really don't like to put them under spot-light so I wouldn't really want the evaluator there. The Boys don't get to attend each others lectures anymore because they heckle, distract and tease one another too much and sometimes it's overwhelmingly distracting for whoever is the lecturer and I find myself glaring at the "student-brother" and trying to keep the "lecturing-brother" focused and on task. For my sake, it's easier to just have the lecture be 1-1.

Ideally, I'd like to administer a test for each subject, each month. It'd make it easier for the evaluator to "see" what material they're working on and that they are progressing--even if it's not very traditional in scope/sequence. Based on their notes, summaries, and outlines, I can harvest or write enough essay questions to use on tests for history, geography, civics/government, etc based on their notes, summaries or outlines. Thanks @Junie for the tip. @Jackie I want to keep a close and native eye on their secondary language development. A large chunk of their academics are done in Spanish and the evaluator is bilingual and willing/able to assess them in both Spanish and English, and he's open to our "quirky" style of doing things. We do value his input (to an extent) so while I don't really have the urge to "test" The Boys, I think that the evaluator is being reasonable and just looking for traditional bench-marks that he can "categorize". We're better served being assessed by a bilingual, open-minded human than a well-designed and comprehensive test at this point in time. But the day that I no longer have to jump through anyones hoop is the day I jump for joy. @ClemsonDana you are a genius. I really like your idea for a language/grammar test. I think that a "Proofreading exercise" would be a good way to demonstrate understanding of several grammar concepts all at once and in a nice succinct package. Even better is I wouldn't have to change the tests composition/format month-to-month. I'll call it "mastery" and I could just keep the same format of 1) ID parts of speech, 2) proofread, 3) vocabulary dissection, and 4) define X, Y, Z -- literary types. Best of all is that with that format, all I"d have to do is swap out the passages, different vocabulary, etc each month. Seriously: you, are a genius. We don't have to test in IT/Programming--the evaluator said that he's happy to let them just demonstrate and discuss their programming projects and in the terms that they don't do anything in IT/Programming then it's fine. @RootAnn OMG you might have just struck pay-dirt with the Answer Key idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that. If they've written the math test, then their own answer key might very well be able to serve as "them completing a test." Hmm...I don't have to broadcast or announce where the test came from.

I really like the idea of building the tests for content subjects around their notes. But re: math (and science) we have worked out this weirdish system of examining The Boys knowledge and abilities and it's very hard to condense or abbreviate. .... **blah, blah, blah** ... I have always been crappy at writing succinct assignments. Regentrude and a few other posters advised me on crafting assignments a while back. So for content subjects, I have followed that advice mostly, but I haven't gotten the nack for writing tests for like, math and science. We did a year or so of physics and we got through it, but I didn't do as good of a job as I would've liked. So I've just been focusing that teaching energy back into programming/IT for the time being. I'm not a good enough multitasker to do several subjects at high levels, so I'm planning ot direct the bulk of my teaching "chi" toward IT/tech/programming for another year or so.

Unfortunately, no. We have used textbooks in the past--so I'm not philosophically opposed to using a textbook if it fits, but currently switching to textbooks won't fit in with our plans for the coming year. (we count our school year Jan-Dec). We'll have an evaluation sometime in May or June of 2020. I am thinking that I could do 1 test a month per subject.

He'd like me to include tests as a part of their portfolio.

We live in a state that requires annual evaluation and we prefer to meet this requirement via portfolio evaluation, rather than state exams. Given their age/grade, our new evaluator has requested that I administer and include tests in our portfolio. We like and want to keep this evaluator, so I'm willing to try and meet this request. The evaluator strongly suggests that I test them in math, science and grammar/language, at minimum, though he'd like to see tests for other subjects too. I am not good at writing tests at all. I could just find random tests online and have The Boys take them, but those tests wouldn't line up with the rest of their portfolio at all and since this evaluator actually peruses, takes an interest in and evaluates their work, I think that would not go over well. Again, we like and want to keep this evaluator. So, if you had to write tests for your kids, how would you write them? I might be able to tweak our examination model and make it so that I can flip it around to be a test for them, but I'm not sure if it would work well for their portfolio. So maybe I should just cobble together tests from online? Thoughts?

Does it have to an online/computer based game? Is there anyone who could/would sit and play an Algebra themed board/card game with her?

re: 1- Welcome and enjoy the journey. re: 2- Huh, and after 6+ years of this, I thought that I'd at least be a little familiar with the struggle. 😉. re: 3- We found it helpful to copy+paste to Word, format and print the online articles for a long while. It helps to be able to mark on, write in the margins, draw illustrations, note vocabulary etc. For high-interest reading on things that they already enjoy, the Fandom Wikia has a healthy German and French version. We also used normal old Wikipedia for high interest topics, For kid-friendly articles on non fiction topics, Vikidia has a French version, but their German site is really lacking so I'd recommend Klexikon instead. You can find something in hard copy on eBay or Amazon.com with a few carefully selected phrases. You can also use the French and German versions of Amazon, but I've never ordered internationally before so I can't attest to how easy/hard it is. On the US Amazon.com site, you can filter for books by language, or you can simply search in the target language. re: 4- Good luck! It helps to learn a few key phrases in the target language so that you can find more of what you want. I guess you'll need to teach your boys the phrases for their respective languages. re: 5- Sorry, I'm not able to help with anything like that.

A 3.5 hr lesson-block that's tailored to a 7yo child isn't out of whack, in my opinion, so I wouldn't let the time bother me but learning a language does consume large amounts of energy so I'd watch for that. Make sure he's eating and well-rested an hour or so before language class and has time to nap/rest after wards. In my experience, adding in reading/writing with a young child who still doesn't speak the language fluently and easily wasn't beneficial. I would re-assess that decision with the tutor. I would want the tutor to focus on lots of role play, crafting together, cooperative story telling, cooking together, discussing story books, discussing shows, etc. If the local children started school already, I'd want him to know whatever stories are common in the schools readers, but not necessarily that he read them for himself. I would want the tutor to instead tell/read and discuss the common stories in the grade 1 primer--like wanting a child to know Little Red Riding Hood or whatever folk talks/fables are common among their peer group. As for the rest, it would depend on WHAT "English work" was to be set aside and for how long based on where he stood academically thus far.

Yes, I speak Spanish. I was willing and able to learn and improve in Spanish with them, but I'm just not doing it again for Japanese. I don't have the mental energy or the time to get into Japanese with them. We are just really excited to see it all coming together slowly, slowly, slowly but very, very surely. People sometimes talk like The Boys are super-human kids, or machines but I can't convey how much work this takes. How much concentration, how much day-in-day-out grinding or how dedicated we have to be to realizing the vision. Acquiring these languages to this extent, under these conditions has taken discipline, dedication, and sometimes it has taken the will to endure head-banging, hair-tearing frustration. It's not always been fun or easy, but it's always been worth it. I can only hope that it always will be.

I think that its also worth mentioning that there may be certain times within the academic continuum that make more sense to use as a natural pause to seize some other opportunity than others. I don't pretend to have them all figured out though.

Heh. I had no idea my post had gotten so popular over on this subboard. Sorry I'm late to the discussion. Is there still any reason for me to enter the conversation? It seems like you've resolved your dilemma already.