Never mind... I was looking for support not criticism...

I already addressed that in my previous post... I am aware of the irony..

Oh come on! Somebody! :) haha.. I know... See this is the reaction of all my friends... But I know there are people out there! :) Eta... :) this is why it's so hard! Sahm's who are isolated pretty much ONLY have screens to communicate...so limiting it or moderating it is particularly hard... Therefor the need for the chat group... To help support those who ARE trying to set healthy boundaries... For us that means Friday night movie night... And weekend iPad time for mama... :)

:)

Never mind...

These books are literally wrapped up for my kids best friend's birthday present tomorrow.... They are just enough precoscious for a kid to relate to... They meet them where they are at... But very sweet and entertaining... We have read them 3 times...

I ended up getting the Rhythm of handwriting ebook which is perfect for us starting out... And I think we will continue on with Zaner Bloser 2c etc... After that... Thank you all! Eta: that lamonator and pro click I bought on clearance years ago are SO paying off lately... :)

We live in the country and feral cats are all over... We have 2 outdoor cats (that found us... One a feral kitten we found and one that was probably dumped on the road)... We have one indoor cat that was feral but very sick when we found her... She is unhappy outdoors, very skittish, and lives inside... If you live in the country, the real country, there are probably feral cats around... One cat we have who is now outside was miserable inside... Bored, tried to sneak outside, I felt the same as you... Then she took to sneaking in our bedroom and pooping right under where I slept during the night... She was... Not... Happy... She is now a very happy, very healthy outdoor cat... We have dogs that chase away large predators, they have heated kitty condos if it is cold... Maybe a kitty patio or something might work... But I will say that what makes my cats happy is walking around our property, sleeping in the sun, chasing bugs ( and other things yes) and generally being a farm cat... Eta: we have acreage.. If you have close neighbors or busy streets that's more complicated... We live rurally, and there's more of the farm attitude around here... But I just wanted to pipe in because I know for certain that my 2 outdoor cats are living far happier lives outside. My indoor one? Also happy as a clam hiding out till it's dark then snuggling on the couch with me... Animals are all different. Good luck... I have worked in animal rescue before and a spayed/neutered, wormed, flea prevented outdoor cat who is fed has a life 10 times better than many who are either feral or euthanized... Good luck... I find cats obnoxiously hard to train, we only have ours cause they found us... :) I hope you can work it out that he stays inside if that's what you want... But cats will be cats... :)

This... :)

What kind of program? BFSU is what we're planning on using... Science is one of those things that in the earlier grades I think everyone does very differently... But in terms of a curriculum that builds understanding and skill BFSU is what we have chosen... But frankly? For us right now we just go outside, and go to the library... For my science inclined kids they have enough natural interest in it to just follow their lead...

Hi! I am wondering what some others of you might have done for LA... I have a kiddo who desperately seems to want more advanced LA in terms of understanding, concepts, narration, etc... BUT who seems to still need phonics and handwriting support... I am thinking of going more pure Charlotte Mason (basically not using a single darn workbook) so that our discussions, narrations, passages, literature, etc... can all be more advanced, without him thinking that he is working on the other skills "behind"... It complicates things because his younger sister is ahead in what he is behind, and he is VERY sensitive and I don't want him to lose confidence... The only problem is that my schedule is insane, I have no support or child care, and I had literally just decided to use workbooks more so that I could have a bit more time that want quite so one on one with them... Any curriculum recommendations or ways you all have done this? Especially if you had a full plate or youngers at the time... :) thanks!

I was JUST looking at Rhythm of Handwriting... it looks like it would really work for my kiddos... I will look up Getty Dubay... Thank you all!

Thanks! "Script style" was the only thing I could think of calling it to make it clear... :) I like New American... Was wondering about Zander bloser... Thank you!

For one who struggles with motor skills which curriculum has the simplest font?

Bumping this because I was about to ask the same thing and did a search first... Anyone?

I went to a highly advanced school, and we often read books several grades before recommended... In all honesty it ruined the books for me... I deeply wish I hadn't read several books untill I was truly, truly ready for them... There is nothing that can replace the first reading of a book... You will never again be held in awe, breathe caught, deeply PRESENT in the story... And if you read them before you are ready you can't get the same depth, and rereading them later will never be the same either... I am all for hard core reading, partly because I fall back on easier to read books myself... But one of the reasons why I think I avoided the real classics for most of my college life was BECAUSE I had been required to read classics earlier than my maturity level was ready for them... So I wasn't able to be engrossed in them.. so I thought that either a) they were boring, or b) I was stupid... neither of which were true...

I loved Righstart for K... I did just want to say what we're doing with in in case it. I got help... Turns out the spiral approach doesn't work for my son, and A didn't move fast enough... But I personally don't think you can beat how RS introductes and teaches... So this is what we're doing... My son(who is asynchronous and complicated so take this for what it's worth) did B working at about half pace, for K... Then we switched to Math Mammoth, skipping parts he'd covered... For my daughter who (gasp) is sorta starting PreK stuff now I am going to start doing lessons from A with her now, just for fun, and will decide to either do half pace with A for PreK and K, or switch to B and do just the first half for K... :)

I want to know too! :)

Thank you all! This has really helped me... My boy is just finishing his K year starting 1st early and we're only working through 1b now... I loved Righstart, love life of Fred, love the idea of BA... But honestly MM is just so solid, simple, easy for me to implement... And I think the style really works for my oldest... I had such a complicated math plan originally that the idea of doing this program the whole way through is just so lovely and simple!!!! :) I really liked the idea of simplifying at least something in my life! :)

I have been like this my whole life... Well.. Until I had a baby who was the same way and didn't sleep at all for 6 years... Then I would sleep whenever possible! :) You have lots of good suggestions... One thing I will say that might be new... When is bedtime? There is a hormonal thing that happens to adults and adolescents... I think possibly 10 you but not sure... There is a natural time the body is tired... Especially if you are chronically tired if you fight that and don't go to bed it is then hard to go to bed... Does that makes sense? For years before kiddos I would be exhausted at 8-9, but then at 10 get a second wind and not be able to sleep well until 2... I have known some sleep challenged people who when they turned their lives around and made sleep an absolute priority would go to sleep at the first sign of tiredness.., after a few weeks of this is sort of reset their sleep pattern... Also one thing that I think has helped me more than anything else is diet? I think most of my life eating cheap processed grains was actually making my body, emotions, etc a bit messed up... Last thing that hoed me a LOT when I wa younger was to find things to make it positive.. If you are a worrier, or have constant problems sleeping it can be really frustrating and emotionally exhausting sntaring up in the dark... For me always having headphones with music close by, or and audiobook, or for me even a tablet with a show on to watch for 30 minutes breaks intensity of the "I need to sleep!" Frame of mind... Also, I do think it helped me when I high school I started working outside and doing a sport almost every day... For my son he needs VERY consistent not just bedtime but basically everything... Any change in routines is hard... Good luck! sorry for my bad typing I am on a tablet...

Anyone? I want something that is easy-ish for him... He is a perfectionist which is the main reason he is a bit late finally being willing to embrace he idea of phonics... But the ETC descriptions are unclear to me which book I might start with... I had planned on just starting 1, then going quickly thru if he wanted... But then looking again it seems maybe 3/4? Ps... Only starting them because he sees little sis doing the get ready books and wants them.., and I think the easy ones he could do independently while I am preoccupied with a kid, an animal, or food of some kind...

Can you get someone else to come in and test them? Kinda as an experiment? I do know several that when it is someone they are not as comfortable with, or a new situation, or whatever, they tend to wake up and focus and try a bit... Hugs! :)

I have had Don Quixote sitting on my desk for six months... I'll do it if you do it! :) But seriously, books are like true friends, they don't care how often or in what way you talk (or write) to them, and they will enjoy sitting and visiting you outside in a field, while whispering in a library, or while dodging splashes from the sink while you are doing dishes...

I went to Film School and worked in the industry for a while... It is very very popular to use unpaid interns/students... But usually only if they have pretty high interest or education already... Definitely look around locally if something like that would be of interest... Good luck!

Have you ever done a backwards outline? I am not like this... But know a TON of people who are... Sometimes if you just brain dump the details without worrying about the outline, you can then look at it and reorganize it later... Maybe an essay, a journal entry, a list of things to do, etc... In the long term this doesn't work, because it is not efficient... But it can help you figure out how you CAN organize... Some people think they can't outline or organize, but it is usually only because they can't do it the way they have seen other people do it... Use notecards, fuzzy pencils, different colors of water colors, pipe cleaners, dishwashing tubs of different materials, highlighters, crayons, jars with tiny notes, a diagram of circkes connected, a collage.... There are more ways to organize a series of sets of thoughts than we know... And finding your own way to do it takes the drudgery and lack of creativity out of it and instead makes it a part of YOUR process... On a more simplistic note I know several people that discovered bullet journals and used a similar system to start planning many things... There ar loads of YouTube videos about this. But I find that many people need something they can physically maneuver... Like colored notecards...