Chris in VA, Thank you--that is good information. I was going to have his hardest subject (math) first thing but now maybe I might start off with something simpler to get warmed up. I like that idea! He's not a morning person, and neither am I! I'll see how it goes and determine if we need times or not. Maybe I'll just have lunch be a definite time and everything else can be working on specific things for that day. "Sometimes you have to go off-road a bit to find the best scenery." That is good!!!

OnStepAtATime, That is a very poignant story about your DH. Wow! I love that! Ideally, my son would go to this school in Florida that specializes in computer science. If he doesn't want to do that, I have heard that our local community college has a good computer type program. I do agree that the academics are not always the most important thing. I just want to give him a good foundation. He did ok up until middle school, and somehow he got lost. Once he sees the bigger picture and has a real, attainable goal, I think he can do it. He likes politics, fishing and video games so I have incorporated civics into his curriculum. I think we will both enjoy that. Your daughter sounds like my son, and I'm really hoping that once we get the basics down, that he will see that he can do it and gain some confidence. It sounds like your daughter is coming along well, and that gives me hope. I will check out all of those websites you mentioned. I was just looking at donnayoung and she has a lot of good resources. Thank you so much and you were not rambling too much. It's nice to hear from someone who understands where I'm coming from.

Thank you, OnStepAtATime. I have not seen that website so I will check that out. Between books, blogs, websites, and researching all of the curriculum, I've read a ton! Boy is there a lot out there which is good but also overwhelming! My son is really far behind, which is why I'm pulling him out. If I can rant a second, I was just reading "The Core" this morning and it just affirmed my decision to homeschool. How can they expect a child to succeed in 8th grade math if he's failed 6th and 7th grade math? How can he be expected to write an essay if his grammar skills are lacking? So we are going to start with the basics and work our way up, and he is going to argue with me every step of the way; he has Aspergers and is prone to arguing. He thinks school is a total waste of his time when he could be playing video games so this should be fun! Fun ( :crying:) but totally worth it!!

Hi Everyone, I am new at this--planning on homeschooling my 8th grade son in the fall. I have most of the curriculum (phew!), and now I need to figure out how to plan our days. I have made a schedule to get an idea of what I want him to do when. Both of us are going to need a schedule and/or checklist to stay on track, and I'm going to be relearning all of this material that was long forgotten. What planning do you do? Do you read ahead in the books so you will have a good grasp on teaching it? How do you keep everything organized? What does your typical day look like? Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.

I'm glad this topic came up because my kids ped has a very similar questionnaire and he has me fill it out for each of my three kids, every single year. I don't remember it bothering me much at first, but now after 15 years, it just makes me uncomfortable answering these questions. I do feel like it's intrusive and I guess, if there was more trust with the system (for example, the Pelletier case) maybe it wouldn't be an issue but things have really gotten out of control lately. I do like the doctor and feel like he's been very thorough with the kids so we keep going back, plus he respects me as a mom and doesn't try to tell me how to run things, for the most part. I think I'm just going to tell them how I feel next time, that I don't like having to fill out that questionnaire and after 15 years, is it really necessary?

Thanks to all who responded. I am rereading your suggestions and I thought this was really great and can apply to many of the books we read. Also, I ordered Writing with Skill Level 1. It was very inexpensive and it will hopefully give us a place to start. There is just so much to choose from!

Thanks Chels, I'm going to check it out.

Because we will begin homeschooling in 8th grade, we are going to work on typing and trying to improve his math skills. Even though the public school would just push him through, he has not had one passing grade in math this year so we have a long way to go to catch up.

Wow, you've both given me lots to think about. I will be coming back to your suggestions multiple times, I am sure. I like the idea of the debate related writing and the nature books. Motivation is big with him; he has none except "can I get this over with so I can play video games." Maybe that will change. It would be good for both of us to have clear steps. It would be good for me because I feel like I need that direction too if I'm going to help him and edit his work. It's been so long since I've been in school. But then maybe I just need to get him writing at this point and fine tune it more later. Good idea to just focus on one thing at a time. Oh, for grammar I bought 180 Easy Grammar Lessons. I thought it would be quick enough that it wouldn't overwhelm him but the repetition over time will help him improve. You've helped me decide to work on typing over the summer. I was debating about cursive or typing but now it seems like typing will be more beneficial to him. Here is our whole curriculum so far, and keep in mind it's trial and error right now and I'll be somewhat flexible because I don't want him to burn out. My main goals are to improve his writing and math skills. I can see him going to community college for computer science or graphic design. Math-Teaching Textbooks (can do on the computer) Science-Apologia Physical Science (got the cd-rom since he likes computers) Writing? Civics-Uncle Sam and Me (also has book suggestions to go with it) Grammar-180 Easy Grammar Lessons Spelling Workout Vocabulary from Classical Roots Then I also have a few guides for books that we can do: Phantom Tollbooth Animal Farm The Hobbit Also planning on field trips for government/historic places. Since his 8th grade class in public school would go to D.C. this year, I might take him on our own. We will go to at least one town council meeting so he can see how things get done in local government.

Hi, Thanks for the welcome! He likes video games, fishing and politics. I am planning on doing Uncle Sam and Me by Notgrass because I thought that would interest him. I let him choose between American history and civics and he chose civics. They do have some writing in that course but I need to help him with the mechanics of writing. He has always had a hard time with punctuation and forming paragraphs, that sort of thing, so I need to figure out the best way to teach it to him. I need something that is going to help me help him so that's why I was thinking about Writesource or IEW. I don't want to overwhelm him so that is something I will just have to play around with since we are just starting. He doesn't know how to type. I think we will work on that over the summer. I had to look up fan fiction because I had not heard of that.

and just hates school in general. I am pulling him out to homeschool starting next year for 8th grade. Middle school is when his academics really went down hill. He is bright and creative, but he also has aspergers and a processing speed delay. I think I've got our curriculum figured out, but I need something to ease him into writing. IEW, Writeshop or something else?