I haven't previously used a handwriting curriculum, but I feel pretty intimidated about teaching my leftie how to write. Any general tips or resources?

Starfall helped my kids memorize letter sounds, but it didn't help with blending. We had already been doing Starfall for a while when we added Reading Eggs, and honestly, I didn't see any improvement. Maybe if I sat with him, but it seemed like he just clicked things without thought.

Yes and no. We don't have strict beginning and end of the year, and we just keep trucking. I had originally planned to start FLL3 next year, but we've already started it. I had hoped to do SotW3 next year, but I'm pretty sure we won't have finished SotW2 by then at this point. I want to do chemistry and physics together in one year, so I'm starting to think about how we will do that, and if we'll order a curriculum or if I'm going to piece something together.

I was taught this as a child, but I will not be teaching my child this.

Seconding Mirror Mirror We love the Poetry for Young People series. There's also a book called Poetry Speaks to Children that we love.

Duolingo was too text based for my kid at 7. We ended up coughing up the money for Rosetta Stone. My focus for teaching foreign language young was to minimize accent, and I think Rosetta Stone does a good job for this.

My five year old has been in a Kura for three years, and we love it. When my toddler leaves my bed, we will probably put a mattress underneath it and pretend that it's a bunk bed. We bought the bed tent and the smyg wall lamp to go with it. Amazingly, the tent still is intact. We had to replace the lamp, though.

All three of my kids do a weekly Spanish class, and my eldest, who is eight years old, does Spanish with Rosetta Stone almost daily. She probably speaks it the best: able to follow along as Spanish storytime at the library but not really conversational. Spanish is definitely a higher priority to me than Latin, but I can't quite get rid of some guilt about not teaching Latin. So, I have two questions. Does anyone teach both Latin and another foreign language in the grammar years? Would I be better off waiting? If I wanted to teach Latin, how little could I do to make it worth it? What free or low-cost secular materials are available for teaching kids Latin? My language learning budget is already ate pretty much by having three kids in Spanish classes.

English history from about the Cousin's War to Elizabeth I.

That's great! Thanks!

Maize - Good luck with your impending birth! Isabel - What an awesome pic of your DD with the horses. Still chugging along: My middle finished violin, a little handwriting, some counting practice, and read to me another beginning reader book. My eldest added to her timeline, did a history narration, Spanish, piano, typing, FLL, LoF, and map work. Both kids did music appreciation with me. My DD acted better today. We got out into the forest for a bit and did some chores and had a poetry tea party. Things are going pretty swimmingly.

I'd love a world map that only has the great circles (Tropic of Cancer, Artic Circle, etc...), continents, and oceans labeled. Anyone know where I can find one?

Sorry for the rough days, mama. DC5 got his violin practice and read to me a beginning reader book, so I feel pretty okay with what he did today. My DC8 did her Rosetta Stone Spanish, practiced piano, did a LoF chapter, a FLL lesson, added to her history timeline, did a written narration for history, and a pre-test for spelling this week. Both kids did a bit of a lesson from Drawing with Children with me. I didn't get as much done as I would like, but I never do. Everyone got fed. We got chores done. Everyone spent some time outside. My eldest had time to read. My youngest had lots of play and audiobooks. Maybe my eldest could have had better behavior, but overall I'd call the day a win.

Most of it is exposure. We do Classics for Kids for a composer each month, because the kids love that, and then I try to make a playlist of the composer's most famous works. If I can find one, I will read a picture book about the composer, too. We don't review it, and I expect very little retention. I also try to annually listen to the Story of Classical Music, hoping as they become familiar with more composers more of it will stick. My kids are both in music lessons, and I do expect them to practice daily, so I guess the "output" for music for us is learning to play an instrument. Art is similar. We do narrations on Mom-chosen artworks and once a season trips to the various art museums around here. I have no expectation that they will necessarily remember any of these pieces long-term. We do projects out of Discovering Great Artists, and I still have limited hopes of retention. We do a monthly art project that isn't drawing, and I do that solely in case one of the kids finds his or her passion in a medium that isn't drawing. We do work through Drawing with Children, and this is the only thing I expect some "output." I definitely think that without direct teaching, a lot of kids stop drawing as they grow frustrated with their lack of technical skill, and so I do expect to see some gradual progress in that area. All my kids are grammar age and younger. I definitely hope at some point to do more music theory as well as more art and music history, but right now, it's too much.

I live in an area with no public library, so I pay to use the library nearby $95/year, and even with the fines I get, I make back that much in saving each month, easy.

I have an 8 year old playing piano and a 5 year old playing violin. I love Ed Sprunger's books, and I think it can be very inspiring. My eight year old struggles with perfectionism, too. We come from a Suzuki program, and one of the first songs they teach has these lyrics: Dr. Suzuki says never be lazy But practice and practice until you go crazy For you know and I know that playings not easy But practice more practice make hard parts seem easy So Dr. Suzuki says never be lazy But practice and practice until you go crazy-oh! It's become kind of an anthem in this house over the years, and we will often sing it when frustration starts to mount - but this is still really hard for my daughter. I often see mistakes as a symptom of playing too quickly or too much. I try to help her isolate very small sections to play very slowly repeatedly until it can be integrated perfectly into a piece. I do not make her play until she plays correctly, since that often stresses her out and makes her play worse. We focus on "keep going." I also think a lot of review is good for her, since it gives her confidence playing things she already can play well. My five year old? Well, he's a young five. I try to break the practice into two halves each day, and I try to make it a game. We march around the house playing follow the leader. I put post-it notes on the stairs each with a practice point he has to do on each stair before he can level up. We race to see who can make the best bow hold. We balance silly things on the violin while playing songs. He's a ham, so we will skype mini performances to uncles, aunts, and grandparents once he learns a tricky new part of a song. We sing a lot of songs for exercises. A lot of these games come directly from lessons: Part of the lesson, for me, is teaching me how to teach my kids at home to play their instrument, not just teaching them to play.

I did talk to her pediatrician about the issue. I don't really know what kind of specialist to see, without being referred. She's eight years old, and it started when she was three. There is a lot of stress in the family right now, but this issue well predates it.We will have a few months here and there where the raging will quiet down a bit, but they never completely go away, but we also have gone through periods where it happens multiple times a day, too. Somewhere between several times a week to almost daily is pretty normal for her. We've read a lot of books about how to calm down. We've tried having her take a time-out with me. We've tried having her take a time-out without me. We have posters around the house about what's acceptable and unacceptable behavior during raging with ideas for calming down including reading, blowing bubbles, blowing out candles, putting on her calm down playlist on the ipod... I've tried punishing by taking away things, especially things she's trying to break or using to hurt other people. I've tried empathizing and active listening (which almost always escalates things). When we talk after she rages, she tells me that she just doesn't care when she's angry about anything. After she calms down, she often is remorseful if she manages to break something or hurt someone in a way that still shows, but sometimes she doesn't seem remorseful. When I ask her about the times when rages were less frequent, she tells me that things were going more her way when she had less (though I will admit I have a hard time seeing any difference between good months and bad months beyond her behavior). I try to adjust her sleep and diet, but I'm not sure I see any difference. I don't know what my instincts are: sometimes I think she has an emotional/behavioral disorder. Sometimes, I think she acts this way due to bad parenting.

When you have multiple kids, how do you manage when one kid has regular, explosive temper problems? I've talked to her doctor, and he believes she will grow out of these temper problems by fifth grade. But in the mean time, how do I homeschool my kids when we have almost daily meltdowns? We started our morning playing piano, and she grew frustrated and started trying to destroy the piano, and the morning has just spiraled out of control from there, but if it's not piano, it's something else. Anything that doesn't go exactly how she wants will lead to hours lost with me trying to keep her from breaking things or hurting other people. When she rages like this, she doesn't care about any consequences. She's very smart, so I don't worry about her being behind in terms of academics, but I do worry about cultivating a kind, generous, grateful, hard-working child. I don't enjoy being around her very much right now. Right now, she's working on chores. There's no way she'll finish school at this point before we have plans to meet up with another one of my child's friends. I think it's unfair to take away a different child's social time, because his older sister can't keep her temper under control, but at the same time, I feel bad that school isn't getting done and like we shouldn't go do fun things with other families when school hasn't been done, and with a toddler to supervise and a trip planned outside in the snow, I can't imagine making her do it there, either. How do I make things go more smoothly?

I prefer handwritten copy work, but I allow my kids to type some. They retain what they write more than what they type, but they still learn enough from their typed copy work that as long as they write most of it, I refuse to fight about it.

I read the Writing Road to Reading, and I liked it, but I need a more open-and-go kind of approach. I'm looking at The Logic of English and Spell to Write and Read. Would anyone recommend either of these two? Or something else?

We started our holiday break. My partner is Jewish, and today's the first day of Hanukkah. The public schools don't start break until next week. I'm struggling with the guilt of feeling behind and like we should be using this time to catch up. We're okay with core subjects and all my kids are under eight years of age. I had had higher hopes with getting more history and Spanish done, especially. Anyone else struggling with being behind and second-guessing taking a break?

I kind of want to be Mrs. Weasley, minus the sending the kids to boarding school...well, most days, that is.

We just started spelling workout, too, and I put my daughter in the book recommended by WTM and found it too easy, too. So, right now, I skip to the review sections. I let her spell words orally. When she makes a mistake, I have her write it down, and then we use that for her weekly list.

Me!

So, we are in the end of FLL2 (lesson 80). FLL1 went well, but ending FLL2, she still has trouble finding prepositions unless we review the list immediately before looking for them, identifying adverbs, remembering what interjections are, etc... The MCT books are available at my library: should we jump ship on the curriculum? Is it likely I will see a big improvement by the time we finish the book?