My boys are 10mos apart, they do everything together so far, though we may be separating (or not) next year for some areas so that each boy can do what he wants to do. So far, combining has been a huge success for us. They both completed MM6 recently and are now focusing more on their other math stuff and still reading a ton. My boys are best friends and very silly together, they play and laugh and chat all.the.time. For Pal, my youngest, this is what is able to keep him progressing. Pal can work through all sorts of chaos. Noise doesn't bother him at all. He can have a conversation and read through a movie or read a different book while listening to an audio book and still know what happened in both. Buddy likes peace so that he can read. They tend to argue more when they are doing reading together because Pal is boisterous and can't be quiet or still for more than a book at a time and Buddy wants to read for an hour without interruptions. They solved their book-etiquette dilemma themselves by agreeing to do some buddy-reading aloud which allows them to interact, Pal to guffaw, etc, and then they split up a bit to read separately. Of course, this means that Pal winds up chatting my ear off about his book, but that's okay. I like talking to him and once they've both read the books they love discussing and even rereading them together to do an interpretive/dramatic/sometimes completely made up version. In math especially, Pal works much faster and for longer periods when his brother is by his side, even though he is, seemingly, distracted. Oddly enough, I think he has greater accuracy in math during those times. I guess time really flies when he's having fun. Buddy likes to have someone around--just the fact that someone is at the table with him (even if they aren't doing anything) makes him able to focus more and he is better at redirecting his attention--he'll be chatting and say "Oh, I need to finish this page!" and then just...do it. I don't know how this dynamic will translate into more structured reading time or content-subjects just yet. So for us, it has been a primarily positive experience thus far, but that could change in the future.

My vote: Focus your language energy solely and intensely on Spanish while you have a live-in speaker and the community for support. You can add Latin any other time or never.

Well, lets see...we are going to visit family and friends. We are going to continue schooling through the summer (ramping up Spanish and focusing on content-heavy reading), I guess our big project is our "Action Plan" where we are going to try and get in a minimum of 100hrs a month of outdoor play and/or (in)activity using new and old methods such as: fishing hiking biking playing in the neighborhood running play ground water fights camping (?) swimming sailing on a boat skate boarding walking on trails skating beach anything else I find a chance to do with them. And without making myself a complete and utter nut, I'm going to be trying to figure out the curriculum for 2015 (which implies finding, reviewing, budgeting, etc...) Oh, and I want to get a 4.0 this summer, so there's that.

I happened upon a Fencing school in the mall once. That was my first and last encounter with fencing. Maybe you should check your mall, library, community center, homeschool group and local K-8 schools to see if anyone has any leads within your community. Also check with drama/theater people because apparently random skills are highly prized in the theater world...

If it weren't for my marble run and k'nex, I'd have dropped out of or failed physics and shop when I was in highschool. :)

Thats the way the world works! ETA: My mom would say: "Ain't that a blip."

Ha! Most likely he's just happy and a bubbly baby enjoying life. But, it could also be that he is enjoying your distress. You know how some babies think its funny when some gets hurt? Maybe he thinks its funny to watch mommy work herself in a tizzy. lol. I doubt it. Pal has always thought its funny to do crazy stuff like that. Though admittedly he started at ~26months, not at 8. Anyway, just a couple of years ago he and I had to have some "very serious conversations" about his habit of doing crazy stuff like screaming for help just to get a rise out of me. Especially when it was 3am in the morning. Or we were Oh, whee, it is at times like that when I can't wait for this kid to have his own kids...I hope he fathers triplets the first time around and that each one is exactly.like.him. and that I'm alive to see it.

I had 2 two-years old at one point so you have my utter sympathy. One boy napped in the living room, the other in the bed room. Everyone was required to have 'quiet rest time' for 20 minutes at a time. I didn't care what they did so long as they were quiet and still. We had QRT 2-4x a day, depending on how tired daddy was.

I have typed and deleted about 3 replies so I'm going to foregoe thoroughness and just try to respond. hi :iagree:. They both seem like textbooks to me--one is more engaging/better written--but both are textbooks.

Thank you!!! It was such a relief to find this out! It was like a gnat in my ear or something because the back of my mind kept asking "What is Beka? or "A Beka"? Is it a person?" I looked in the dictionary and didn't find anything. I didn't know that Beka was a name. :) :)

I can't take it anymore! What the heck is: 'A Beka' or a 'Beka' or whatever the name of that company is. What does it mean? What is it? Is it a noun? a biblical reference? What?!!! Some body, please, please, please tell me! I cringe everytime I read 'A Beka' because I just don't.get.it!

I'm so sorry, that sounds awful! We always avoid mothers/fathers day celebrations because it just is so much stress and fuss! I'm sorry, it isn't fair! I guess its just important at times like this to think about the fact that you would be devastated to lose one of those little people who call you mom. I'm sorry you had a craptastic day.

I'm curious. Does anyone know what would likely happen if the OP snarled at the dog? I don't know squat about dogs (and I like it that way) but if the dog is likely to be startled by the noise of an airhorn or whatever, could you just snarl/growl/bark at the dog in a threatening fashion to startle it off? It would be free, it would get the dog and the owners attention, it would make a point and it wouldn't harm anyone... As in Rover runs up, sniffing, jumping and licking and the OP viciously snarls/roars at the dog?

Yeah, I know, but I meant until my boys are highschool aged. We'll be starting Singapore DMCC young and using a few (or several other) texts along with it. My goal is to use them for 5-6 years so that by the time the boys are 13yo/14yo and ready for 9th grade, we should be ready for other things.

I am (sort of) doing 2 things. 1) I'm looking for a set of textbooks to use a 'spine'. 2) Continue doing non-fiction reading in science subtopics via the library. For item 1 on my list, there are there are several free McGraw Hill textbooks that I found through this forum and I'm sorely tempted to just use them. My boys are solid readers and they are good at remembering what they read and making connections so I'm thinking of just starting we definitely wont be doing 1 book per year (we'll probably finish the 1st-5th grade texts by the end of Dec.) Item 2 is easy--just keep going to the Jr. non-fiction section at the library and read the books. We try and discuss the material as well. I keep reminding myself not to over complicate the issue of elementary school. After all, it is elementary, my dear Watson.

Hey! I didn't know you were in the same boat! lol. As it stands, highschool science doesn't really presume a good deal of background knowledge, so I think its safe to go with what works. Which grades are you looking for?

If its the expensive, high quality sort you should be good to go with the water-proof bandaid.

Thank you all for your feedback and I'll continue to turn everyones suggestions over and I'm trying to find the best compromise. --Gil, who is a little grumpy today.

Congratulations. Whats her name?

I can't imagine there being some huge disservice to not doing history in 1st grade. I can't imagine there being harm in not doing history before 4th grade either though. I decided that we would do history because I wanted to do something that would be a little meaningful and more academic since by boys at 6 and 7 are both strong and fluent readers who read well above and beyond grade level. We are doing SoTW and not taking it too seriously.

We have a crazy schedule, but I'd say we do about...2-4 hours a day of work, but that includes ~2hours of free reading my boys do (they are fluent readers), an hour or so of math (sometimes more.) and writing out copywork and now we are doing Spanish too. We don't have a definite sit down time, but it is usually after dinner that the boys do their table work. While I do my homework, they do theirs. I have decided to keep First grade restricted to 4 subjects: Reading, Writing, Math and Spanish. We touch on content subjects via reading, but we don't have much formal going on right now. I'm trying to figure out our summer schedule and what we will be doing for 2nd grade also.

You can get through all of highschool (possibly undergrad) math and science with out using a calculator. Certainly not using one so much that it effects your mental/written math abilities. Some curriculums specifically build in calculator questions and exercises but you could excise them easily enough. You should not need a calculator for algebra 1 or even most of 2. You might find it handy in PreCalculus (or which ever class you do a ton of graphs and applications in) but...it is 100% optional for the core skills that those subjects require.

Well, there is something like 300 free sample pages of MM on the website, so I wouldn't use my free gift on it. ETA: I'm leaning toward the Math Analogies because I've been eyeing the Critical Thinking books but the cost is prohibitive to me. I think my kids will like the Math Analogies...