While I was reading your post I was thinking, 'Set a timer'. And then that is exactly what Tanaqui said. Ending the session, even if the piece is not mastered right then, is sometimes necessary so that next time the situation can be seen with a fresh perspective. Then, sometime when the pressure's off, have a chat to ds about how learning is a process - a step by step thing - and not everything is mastered in one go. On a practical 'note' (pun intended), does your ds take the time to practise the tricky bit slowly and with separate hands? Sometimes that can be the first step to finally getting it. Get the right hand correct, then the left hand on it's own before SLOWLY putting the two together. Just something to look out for (sorry if he's already doing this...just thought I'd check :)).

I gave up Facebook nearly 2 years ago now. I didn't like how much time I spent on it etc. Life is fine without it and.....I still have friends ;)

My 7th grade boy is doing the second book in the series on his own and he is really enjoying it. He has requested to do all the other books on the series too. I think that he is going to run out of time for that because he is most definitely going to need to start an older series in there somewhere. But, at this stage, he is enjoying and learning his science so I think we will go from book 2 to book 4 or 5 (when available) for 8th grade before moving on. I'm not feeling that he is missing out and I'm glad that he is enjoying and requesting more of these science books.

Yep, it's time consuming. But totally worth Every. Single. Minute.

Friends of ours (a young couple both aged 21) named their baby girl Sarah. Little Sarah is just a week old.

Yes, we found it good too. My ds is now doing the next book on his own and is liking it.

My 7th grade boy is working through Science in the Ancient World and enjoying it. The lessons are a good length and he enjoys the practical component. I'm happy with it :) .

Maybe checkout www.allinonehomeschool.com and look at the Getting Started material. It's a lot computer based but also stuff to print out and make etc. My two younger kids really liked it and still ask for it sometimes even though we are doing other things. It would also be something different and fun for you which may be refreshing and give you a chance to just enjoy and connect with the youngest without worrying about applying a curriculum. Allinonehomeschool is all done for you so you and your 4yo just get to enjoy together :) Just a thought.

I do this for math with my 15 and 13 year olds. They have a set math time and, yes, sometimes they don't get through a whole lesson in a day. Other times, however, they will get through more than one so it can balance out. Dd15 completed 3 lessons in one math time the other day!!! It seems to work well.

My ds shared with sisters until he was about 9 and then he moved into his own room when we shuffled things around. The sisters he was sharing with were all older than him and it became a little awkward for *them* to be sharing with a younger brother as they began to need a bit more privacy. He will still occasionally ask to bunk down on the floor in their big 'dorm' with them as he is the only person in the house with his own room.

I am finding dictation to be really good for spelling. I choose a passage from a book that has a reasonable amount of new/challenging words, child studies it and practices words, I give a few words from the passage to be spelled orally (ie: the tricky ones), then I dictate the passage. This method has the added advantage of constant revision of older words (aka every other word in the passage that wasn't a new/challenging word). Somehow, spelling these words in the context of a passage makes more sense and is more like 'real-life' spelling.

Yes, that should be fine. The literature links are, from memory, unrelated to the other work.

Ranger's Apprentice series. Totally different time period because it's set in the middle ages but the protagonist (Will) is an orphan apprenticed to a King's Ranger. The Ranger seems quite anti-Will at first but warms up to him during the course of his apprenticeship. Great adventure series. My kids love it.

My 7th grader likes SOTW. He still learns from it...which is kind of the goal ;) . He reads more advanced associated literature than younger children doing SOTW would, which gives it a lift. You could also put your 7th grader in charge of doing activities for the lesson with the younger kids and he could outline from a history encyclopedia after doing the SOTW lesson.

Love this comment :) .

I have one dd that wanted to stop violin. I told her that I wanted her to complete her current level then we would discuss again, thinking that it would give her time to achieve more and reassess without completely shutting her down. So she finished that level and still wanted to quit so I told her she could as long as she still played another instrument so she was still doing music. In her case that was piano. She agreed and poured her energy into piano and really took off with that. Now at 18 she is still playing, loves it, and plays regularly in a church band. She still occasionally picks up the violin. It was the right decision for her. My current 14yo went through the same thing and I told her the same that I told other dd. She is now way past the level of violin I wanted her to finish and is now doing really well on violin. She has never mentioned quitting again. So my requirement worked both times but with different results.

Not imaginary stuff really - unless I'm drinking another pretend latte that one of them has made me... ;) But I play quite a lot of card and board games with my kids. It's great for interaction and is something that's not screen focused. My teens and early twenties dc will happily play games with me till late at night. We tried to teach dd18's boyfriend to play a card game the other day because he hardly knows how to play 'anything' other than video games. He struggled a bit with it but we'll get him hooked eventually...maybe...

My youngest is five and is now doing K but she and next-sister-up still spend lots of time in unstructured play. When they were preschoolers we read a lot together and I would sometimes do an activity or game with them - but not on a structured basis. They had lots of time to play freely. I think its healthy to let them play freely as it gives opportunity for them to be creative. So, it sounds to me like you're doing great :)

I currently have 11th, 9th, 7th, 1st and K. We start with 'family time' around the breakfast table. Everyone is involved here, including my two older dc who are still at home. We discuss, read Bible, memorize, sing (learn harmonies) etc. Even my younger two are part of this and they learn things above their grade levels by being part of this time. After morning clean-up we have read aloud. This is mostly for my three older school age kids but the younger two will sometimes hang around for it - and sometimes not. After that I do table work with my 1st and K'er. The others do independent work here. After that, I work with older kids while youngers play. At lunch we do another family activity - like DVD, read etc. After lunch I have a focused reading time with two youngers while olders have quiet time with own reading/individual work. So that's pretty much the way we roll and the way I try to manage read-alouds (which are important to our family), group times and also individual work at own levels. I pretty much rotate through the different groupings during the day. Hth.

My oldest was nearly 17 when my youngest was born. They are now 5 and 22. They love each other and are great friends. Dd22 would be the first to tell you how great it is to have the youngest two in our family. It's also lovely for the younger kids to have the older siblings to look after them, treat them, play with them. It's a very special relationship - wouldn't change it for the world!!

Haha. Yep. That's happened to a couple of my girls too including my 17yo just the other day. She doesn't look any older than 17 and usually gets taken for younger, so how she could possibly be parent to a 5yo and 6yo is a little weird....but, oh well. I think she thought it was funny. My dd22 calls them her 'Abraham moments' - you know, when Abraham says of Sarah, 'She's my sister'. ;)

I had my youngest at 46. So she is now 5 and I am 51. I also have a 6yo and a bunch of teens/early twenties. Love it! Wouldn't change it! Ps: The relationship between my two younger dd's and their older siblings is very precious. It's a bonus that my older kids didn't have. I also found that I had time to spend with my younger two because of the the age gap. Would do it again in a heart beat.

About 40 mins. Very, very intense. It was #5 of 8.

I like it for the upper levels. I have a dd currently doing Core 300 with the LA, and one of my older kids told me that, although she didn't really appreciate it at the time, she realizes now that it was worthwhile doing all those writing assignments. #thankgoodnessforthat ;)

I used to live near Hanging Rock...but I'm in NSW now. I have the book somewhere but don't remember actually ever reading it. I should dig it out.. PS: And we had the fire lit for the first time last night. It sure is better than the 48C that we had during the summer :).