My plan is coming together, but a lot depends on how this year finishes out. Math: Beast Academy, finishing up 2 and doing most of all of 3. Multiplication and Division Facts that Stick if not done over the summer. Spelling: All About Spelling 3 and likely 4 Reading: if he's reading tons for fun: occasional reading aloud to me. If not, daily reading aloud to me. Literature: read alouds as a family. Writing: beginning cursive, unless he hates it, then he can continue to work on printing. Goal for the year will be to increase stamina and fluency History: The first half of Hakim's Story of US as a family. Not sure how far we'll get. We're currently doing Story of the World 3, and I think a 2 year US History will fit in well here and give kids time to mature. Geography: The Complete Book of Geography. This is going to be, along with handwriting and some other little bits, a main part of his independent work for the week. I hope he learns some geography, but mostly is an enjoyable way to build certain executive function skills. French: French for Children Primer A from CAP with big sister (and mom). We'll see how this goes. I'm planning on not doing any English grammar with the two of them during this, except as it comes up to better understand the French. They've got a pretty solid basis already. Science: plenty of this in our life and reading. Science museum membership, chickens, garden, science kits, PBS, etc Bible: Hoping to start Telling God's story soon. We will continue if it fits Choir? Or continuing Zoom choir if that's still the situation. Gymnastics. Cub Scouts. Book club. Hopefully library activities and playground get togethers

I read that article and didn't find the argument compelling at all. I don't have a great love for The Cat in the Hat and I don't have any problem with these titles being pulled, but I felt that the argument in that article were weak. One that jumps at at me is well down in it where the author is asserting the idea that the pink ring in the bathtub in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and the Yink who drinks pink ink in (I think) the Foot Book are clearly party of the racist trope of ink drinking to gain color. Then, the author compares a truly racist cartoon of a baby drinking ink and the picture of the Yink drinking ink, saying that the first picture obviously inspired the second as they resemble each other so strongly. The thing is, they don't. Both contain characters driving ink through a straw, but the resemblance end there. Different facial expressions, postures, arrangements on the page, kind of straws, kind of bottle, literally everything is different. The author wants to show that Geisel's racism taints everything he wrote, and I don't think the author succeeds in showing that.

I giggled at this because it was the exact opposite for me: super fast and easy labor for number 1, most difficult birth for number 2, number 3 was born at 41+6 but was then quick and easy, and 4 was fast and pretty easy, but not nearly as much as 1 or 3. I'm pretty sure what you said is more typical, though. I had home births with a very experienced midwife for 2-4, largely because my first birth was so quick and I figured that an assisted homebirth was safer than an unassisted birth in the car on the side of the road. I think it was a good decision for me, but I wouldn't advise anyone to do it, just like I don't advise anyone to homeschool. Those who really want to do either, I'll share my thoughts and say I think they have a good plan, but either one is taking an extreme amount of responsibility which shouldn't be taken lightly. I can't imagine going unassisted on purpose. If anyone is doing it because they can't afford care or doesn't feel safe in a hospital, that makes me very sad.

Thanks! I'd much rather explain theological differences of opinion than have my kids feed false dichotomies. They'll know, of course, that some people hold those views, but I don't want it to seem like the default opinion. Our church Sunday School is nice, but currently virtual only and the kids don't really participate. I understand why, but it's still tough!

Well, soon I'll be seriously potty training a 2 year old. I'll enjoy things much more after that's done, but it'll likely be a pretty miserable week or two. Waiting until consistently warm weather. Also, trying to teach with said 2 year old doing his best to have the most attention possible isn't my favorite. It's a good thing he's cute (and that 2 doesn't last forever).

I looked more into this and ordered the first set. I'm curious to see whether we will get to very many of the activities, but it all looked really good for our immediate needs. Since Telling God's Story just covers New Testament, I'll be looking into The Story of the Bible for Old Testament later, thanks! I'm really looking forward to when I can do a CS Lewis study. We've read The Chronicles of Narnia, of course, but I think it'll be really fun to get to do more as my kids get bigger.

We're members of a Methodist church now. We grew up conservative Presbyterian and only in the last few years had to leave that. I should do more looking to see what the Methodists have.

Thank you. I'll look into that.

I've found for little ones, a combination of reading through Bible story books and the actual Bible and discussing it works best, but as the kids get towards upper elementary, I'd like to add in more of a study element. We aren't Biblical literalists, though we do take the Bible as the Word of God. I don't want my kids working through a study, for example, that implies to them that one must either believe God created the world in 7 days or else be a heathen atheist. That might be an exaggeration, but when we were trying to work through Long Story Short I did a lot of editing on the fly. Does anyone know of a good study? I'd like it to give historical context, information about genres, different ways passages have been interpreted, and interesting questions to ponder. It could be for elementary or upper elementary ages, or I could keep it in my pocket for the future if there is something awesome that is suitable for older kids. I'm not very hopeful such a thing exists, so I'll be extra grateful to anyone who can help me out.

I'm not sure how many exactly because he doesn't tell me about car crash stuff (to ease my own anxiety) and waits for appropriate times when the child is close to our children's ages (unless he needs to talk right away). There have been a few infant suffocations when a baby falls down beside the bed or similar and everyone thinks someone else has the baby. A couple medically fragile children whose parents spoke another language so police were sent instead of paramedics. Pedestrian fatalities. If you include teens the number goes up a lot because shootings and drugs and other risky behaviors start to be the main factor.

My husband has been a police officer in our major metro area for right at ten years. He's helped find numerous missing juveniles, uncovered child prostitution, dealt with runaways, abusive parents, step parents, uncles, foster parents, etc. In all that time, there has been one case of a stranger abducting a child under 12. (I don't know whether there were any teen abductions). In the same time, I've seen several dozen "reports" of close calls on Facebook. They are mostly "I got a creepy feeling because an immigrant man/woman was being very friendly, so we ran away fast!" People who believe that all those "close calls" are really close calls are getting a very skewed view of reality. I still pray sometimes for the one little girl who was taken. My husband found her, living but understandably not talking, dumped in a parking lot not far from the run down apartment complex from which she was taken. She hadn't yet been reported missing. She was covered in injuries, most of which predated her kidnapping. The evil man who took her had not planned and stalked the prettiest child he could find; he had taken the most vulnerable child. False narratives can lead us to fear the most vulnerable rather than protecting them, which is why they stir me to anger.

Math: Finish Beast Academy 4, start 5 Spelling: All About Spelling, taking up where ever we leave off. Probably finishing 4 and doing 5 and some of 6 History: As a family: Joy Hakim's History of US based American History, stopping right before or after the Civil War, most likely Science: Interest led, primarily Perhaps doing comprehension questions from some standard science textbook for practice doing that sort of thing. Literature: Reading tons, individually and as a family. Mosdos Literature (still thinking about the appropriate level) Possibly participating in the local Reading Bowl Writing: cross-curricular projects French: French for Children Primer A Perhaps only the first half. This will be the only formal grammar for the year as she's pretty solid on the basics. "Electives": Gymnastics, Webelos, Bible, Piano, Art, music I'm probably leaving out something huge. One great thing about these threads is they give such a great chance to think through things.

This is something I kind of worry about because my older two are just a year and a half apart. They are both good at math, but the younger seems to absorb math things the way the older absorbed reading. So far, they've been really supportive of each other rather than competitive, but when I'm playing math fact practice games with the oldest, I make sure little brother isn't there because he has a tendency to get the answer faster than her. That's not welcome when she's feeling even mildly stressed. Thanks everyone for sharing how it's worked or is working in your homes. It helps me see different possibilities for the future.

"Plan" is a strong word for what I have so far. My Kindergartner this coming year will be turning 5 in September but is a very quick and eager learner. The big changes will be that I'll require him to do minimal work rather than trying to make time when he requests it, and he'll be able to participate in cub scouts and gymnastics. Otherwise we'll be continuing what we are currently doing. We may be doing Subtraction Facts that Stick, or we may be done with that by then. We'll trying through a first grade math curriculum or two. We'll be doing the worksheets that go along with Bob Books unless we are done already, and then I'll find other handwriting opportunities. We'll read together daily to practice his reading. He'll tag along with year one of American history using Joy Hakim books. He'll hear lots of read alouds. We do tons of science in daily life.

When I bought my steam cleaner thanks to this board, the company offered to send me free cloth pads for it and suggested strongly that I should leave a review. I mentioned the free pads in my review. So many of the reviews on Amazon are completely fake at this point that I have to read through really carefully to try to find ones that seem personal, but I bet the companies are already a adding personal touches into their fake reviews.

I'm glad it's working out, and I don't disagree it would be worrisome in a neighborhood. As to who would use an AirBNB in a neighborhood in an industrial area: We did that! My husband went to University in France for one semester. We needed to secure housing for the whole time before we went due to visa requirements. There was a group that was supposed to help with those with odd housing needs, but apparently family with 2 kids was too odd. They strung us along till the last minute, so all that we could decide quickly enough was an AirBNB. It wasn't a bad experience at all, but it was kind of weird.

We have 1 red sex link and 4 black australorps. I think we'll be getting barnyard mixes this time around. We haven't hatched any before. I've spent much of today trying to do battle with the incubator and learn how to manage its humidity before we get eggs and it matters. I fell into the rabbit hole of debates among chicken people about what the correct humidity even is, and now I'm more confused than ever. It like starting homeschool, reading one book and thinking you know the one true way, then finding out that there are lots of different ways people do it but you have to choose something.

Yes, we have 5 hens. We're getting eggs to go in a borrowed incubator, hopefully this week!

I know we get a lot of reports of the worst in online behavior, so I wanted to report I just had a civil exchange on Facebook about a controversial topic with a stranger who disagreed with me. It was nice. We see each other's point of view and remain unconvinced and that's fine. The topic was what to do with "extra" roosters in a backyard flock, so plenty of room for getting heated and taking things personally. Can anyone else share some good news on the civility front? It's very cold, so my only human interactions will be online today.

I'm thinking as I'm writing, so to call this idea half baked is generous, but would the family be willing to take part in some kind of collaborative gift? Like, everyone send in pictures of themselves in a certain pose so that they can be glued together to make a group picture? That way, there could be something to hang on the wall and put in an album showing who is in the family and how they all worked together to welcome the baby. Maybe they could contribute stories, too, for a baby book? What were they doing when they heard the baby was joining the family, what are their wishes for the baby? I guess these things could be unwrapped/revealed in a big group Zoom, then people could toast the baby.

An oddly aggressive one, too!

It looks like you have a wonderful plan that you've researched carefully to fit your child, your family, and your values. One thing I'd encourage you to do is take informal inventory of where your child is right now in a variety of areas. What are strengths you want to build on and weaknesses you want to work on in large and fine motor skills, language skills, math skills, character traits and habits, self care skills, and anything you can think of. Think about, and write down, what your priorities are in the coming months, then revaluate every few months to see if you want to move things up and down the priority list. I know that when I have a carefully made and crafted plan, I sometimes make that the driving force for our days, but when I've thought about my priorities, I'm much better at taking good opportunities when they come and changing things when needed.

That's a big reason to advocate for math not being done completely independently. Having those kinds of problems from the beginning helps teach the parent as well as the child.

We got our version of Go Fish for Ten from Addition Facts that Stick. It has you keep playing longer by drawing 5 new cards when you run out and going until the deck is empty. It gets lots more practice in! We use 40 Skip Bo cards, but she suggests a regular deck with face cards removed. I haven't looked through the Subtraction Facts book yet to check out those games. She does encourage you to teach the child to count on. The worksheets that go along with it have some questions on the traditional format but others with a missing addend. My kids have all been fine developing an understanding of the equals sign using that sort of combination. My 4 year old was doing an activity a few months back (from MEP) where you had to choose greater than, less than, or equals for two expressions, and he asked me, "what do you call this 'same as' one again?"

My four year old loves playing Go Fish for Tens (if you have a, 7, you ask "do you have any 3s"). When I was a kid I played a lot of Rummikub with my grandparents. It gave plenty of practice with mental addition.