We use a charter but I can see both sides of the arguement. Our charter is very relaxed, they even allow unschoolers. The requirements are meeting with an ES 1x a month and handing in 1 "sample" per subject. The sample can be a picture of them making pottery for history or a video of baking for math if you would like. We use most of our money for fun classes like we took a circus class (silks, rings and trapeze bars), cooking classes, horseback riding classes etc. On the flip side I hate having to show someone anything. I hate them questioning my kids about what they've learned. Maybe it's a pride thing but I put so much into homeschooling and it just bothers me feeling like I have to answer to someone. There is much less flexibility for breaks. If we wanted to go to Europe for a month (not that we can afford it) we couldn't. Also some people are anti testing. Dh wants them to be able to have the experiences being involved in the charter affords but I don't find that it helps with our schooling. I plan on pulling out before high school. The rules at that age change quite a bit and at that point I think the charter is a hindrance.

I struggle with organization and I've used different reasons to comfort myself. I tell myself it's because of homeschooling, having twins, messy kids, messy husband etc. The truth is I'm just not a naturally organized person. I have friends with more kids than I have that homeschool with spotless houses, so I know it can be done. I have sort of accepted who I am and what my abilities are. I don't have problem purging but the stuff I do have just never looks quite right. I've re-organized our towel and linen closets a thousand times and they never look good and after a few weeks they are back to sloppy. I have pinned away on pintrest to find better ways to organize things but somehow it just never works out like the pictures. I am hopeful that someday I will find a good system, although by that time my kids will be grown and I won't have the mess to organize lol.

I don't think judging people is the problem or taboo. I think the unrecognized problem is gossip. We all judge people based on the little information we are given on them. Some of us are naturally optimistic and will take that information and put a positive spin on it and others are pessimist and will turn it into a negative. The problems arrive when they start to talk to someone else about their spin on that person or situation. I'm sure all of us have judged someone only to find out later we were totally wrong. If you had gossiped to 5 other people before finding out your assumptions were wrong now you've started a rumor about this person. On the other hand if you kept your assumptions quiet after finding out you were wrong you change your view and go on and no one has any idea what you were originally thinking.

Do you count sitting them down to watch leapfrog letter factory school? That's about all I've done. I had plans, they're actually in my sig but as usually the kids didn't care about my plans :) my twins just turned 4 so it's really not a big deal to me if they don't want to do school. If they feel lIke sitting I have stuff they can do. If not we skip it. My 4th and 5th grader however, have to finish their work.

I was actually looking on here to see if anyone knew what was up with all the spam. It was the only non spam post in the page.

Hit reply by accident sorry... and somehow I can figure out how to edit the post but not delete it...

We do BA on fridays. It's a nice change of pace for us. I haven't loved MM4 but my 5th grader trudged through it and MM5 is going pretty good. Now her sister is in MM4 and struggling. I don't want to jump around in math so we are going to stick it out. My kids have really learned a lot from MM.

I am reading more on this thread and I wanted to reply to the comments on obedience. As a Christian I teach my children we should be obedient to God and God's word which is more important than what society says is right. We talk about that a lot in reference to Hitler, Ghandi, Civil rights and things that would more likely affect them like friends doing drugs, lying etc. I want them to understand we have a standard and it isn't set by society or peers. Eta: Part of the reason I love classical education is because I believe it teaches to think and reason about things. Just because a person tells you something is right doesn't make it ok. You need to really understand what they are telling you, what do you believe about right and wrong and how do you decide. I am not raising kids to be mindless drones (and my kids are not that type anyway) but to be people that can stand up for what they believe in and articulate and debate their position.

Everyone acts better for someone outside of their comfort zone. You are yourself at home and we are all human. We make mistakes and do things wrong. We usually are on our best behavior around people we aren't comfortable with. Part of it is people we aren't comfortable with are judging us and we know that. At home hopefully your family loves and accepts you as you are with all your faults.

Easy peasy all on one homeschool has science and history.

I am very scattered on general. In order to really get throughy day and get things done I need to have order. I create a lesson plan in the summer for the whole year. Planning doesn't come natural to me but I do it because I know it's the only way we will get through our work. For me I focus on routine over a specific schedule. We have a set order for each day ie bible first, then VPSP, then memory work etc. I don't like the day to drag bit I don't want to be a slave to my schedule either. I schedule two make up days a month. That helps with field trips, sickness or anything unplanned. I use an online planner. We are involved in a lot of things so I need a plan already in place otherwise I fall behind and give up on planning all together.

Is spanish homeschool academy a vendor? I am thinking of using them. We started spanish and I'm finding it difficult to teach with my limited spanish. Dh is fluent but doesn't have time to teach them. Maybe some great courses. Stuff for next year? Eta: just noticed it looks like 1st or k? I would buy art stuff or just use the money on classes like my gym or karate

I wish I was better at teaching science. It's the one area I feel we could use some improvement. Personally I love history and my teaching reflects that. I also love studying cultures, food and understanding other people's views. We will read about a time period, try and do something to connect with that culture (we attended a fall festival at an Indian reservation last year) and we make food common to the culture or time period. It's easy when you love something, not so easy when you don't. My husband is a tech guy though so my kids are exposed to a lot of technologies and thankfully get exposure to that from him. As far as physical science, life science etc. Well we get what subjects apologia puts together :/

We are having a hard time with MM4 also but for different reasons. DD hasn't memorized all of her multiplication tables and now it's giving her huge problems. We are reviewing math facts in the morning to get her caught up on those. We are also doing beast academy on Fridays to switch it up a bit. She loves it and it's a nice break for her from MM.

I'm worried I'm over doing it. School is taking longer this year because I decided to add a craft time everyday. My kids LOVE it. They all participate and we do it outside. It breaks the monotony of sitting but it means that the day is a little longer. I am having a hard time keeping my house clean. I tend to put a lot on our plate and just think I can do it all.

Twins are amazing! Watching my 3yo's play together and go every were together is such a blessing. The other day one of them got hurt and his twin brother came up to me and said his heart hurt because his brother was hurt. I remember being so worried about having twins and after I delivered feeling like I was the luckiest person in the maternity ward since I was able to take home two babies rather than one. That amazing feeling you have holding your baby for the first time is doubled. :) I started homeschooling when the twins were 22months so I had a little bit of time and that first year with twins is tough. At 22 months I could just put one of those door knob lock things on the door and keep them in the homeschool room with us with toys. The next year I put a bunch of toys in a closet and would rotate them and I did a lot of schooling during nap time. I also started rotating my girls with math. One plays with the twins while the other does math with me then they switch. That has been a lifesaver for us. If you can get a mothers helper once a week or a maid every other week it would help. For my baby shower gift my MIL paid for a maid the first year twice a month. It helped to know my house was clean 2x a month. Even if that was the only 2x it was really clean...

After going through the diagnosis process for daughter who has adhd I realized I most likely have it also. I need structure or things don't get done. People look at my planner and schedules and maybe think I'm a little over the top but it's what I need to function well. I also realize life happens and I am ok with changing things or moving things around but for the most part we stick to the schedule. I have a couple of friends who are naturally very organized and are able to just do the next thing and they stay on top of things. It just depends on the person I think.

I have a plan although I am sure it will change as I figure out what my twins do best with. We are doing MEP reception followed by right start and most likely going into beast academy as a suppliment and MM and primary. Finally AoPS. I also like the look of jousting armadillos. We will see where we really end up. In actuality this is a list of curriculums *I* like. That doesn't mean anything when it comes to how my kids will learn best or what will help them grow. I really wanted AAS, MIF and Saxon to work but it just didn't and the sooner I realized that the quicker we were able to move onto something that did work.

At the schools here you are lucky to learn the 8 parts of speech. I have looked at the common core standards and there is nothing about diagramming. Diagramming is taught in the classical school my friends daughter attends but that's the only school I personally know of that teaches it. I am teaching diagramming to my kids. I want them to understand grammar really well and I feel diagramming is a good tool to learn it. I think grammar now a days is not heavily emphasised at all. It's interesting that you constantly hear complaints about student's writing yet there seems to be a sentiment that grammar is useless.

I haven't read all of the replies but for me andy daughter when I tried the paleo diet we felt much better. Much clearer thinking, a better ability to organize myself, she had a better ability to stay on track with school work. Paleo is a little to extreme for me to consider sticking to it for a lifetime so I was able to add back rice, oats and beans without any noticable affects. I also found morepa omega 3 to be helpful. It's a lot of work to change your diet this drastically and I know for me I suspect the adhd is related to an underlying condition. There are other issues that show up when I am eating a normal diet. I've often thought though things would be so much easier if I decided to medicate instead.

Anyone have a link to the circe thread mentioned? Btw I love this thread, reminded me once again of why I love this board. To the original poster I am pretty new to this board also but I can say in then time I've spent on here I've been very encouraged and inspired. I love both the rest and rigorous post :) and I have also learned many people are working to achieve a great education for their children in different ways and achieving it. There really isn't a one size fits all. I've seen amazing unschoolers along with classical educators. I also recently heard of a group that identified as classical unschoolers. I sort of ignore the labels now. My goal is to follow Gods will for my kids and use whatever tools he puts in my path for that. Its been an amazing journey of self education while educating my children. Do what works for your family, we are all here to support each other no matter what path your homeschooling journey is taking you on.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/school-at-my-house/these are old but they do mention some of the curriculum she was using. I loved reading them, it really helped me feel normal in my house with two 3 yo running around while I do school with the older girls.

There are some samples of her days on this site. I will see if I can find them. I remember her mentioning science in a nutshell. I'm guessing story of the world and first language lessons.

I'm also reading the Mensa List. I printed it and checked off a total of 10 books that I had already read :mellow: pretty pathetic. Considering how much I am trying to push the classics with my kids I figure I should probably read them also. I've read The Knowledge Deficit, Climbing Parnassus, Why Students Don't Like School, The Core and Soul of Discipline over the summer. I finally decided to just check out my books from the library and it is really helping me whittle down my reading list. I've been researching Ancient History for the school year. I wasn't exited about it at all but now after researching I got really exited to teach it. I think researching classical education at the same time helped that. I finally feel like I understand why Roman and Greek history is so important.

No, it's the high school list. I told my girls if they would read the list for their age I would read the high school list. I checked off the ones I had already read and it totaled up to about 10. Pretty sad. I also wanted read them all before they hit high school so we could discuss them.