No, I think it would be too disruptive and stressful and would give me even less "me" time than I get now. I like that he goes in to work. Of course, I also like that he is self employed and can schedule extra time off whenever he wants for the most part, so it's the best of both worlds!

I believe in 6th grade you can just buy the Oak Meadow Life Science Book. Oak Meadow doesn't set up daily schedules, they give weekly ones. For fifth grade we were usually able to do science 2X a week (Tues and Thurs) and then if there happened to be anything we didn't finish in a given week, we'd just finish it on Friday. OM6 I'm assuming has enough more to it to take an extra day, so I'm assuming 3X a week for science and again just finishing up at the end if the week if there's ever a week where we don't get to everything. But no sure on that yet til we actually get started and see how it goes. I think it's just the kind of thing where once you get into the swing of things, you get an idea of how much time you want to spend on it and how many days you need and so on, but I suppose you could read through the lesson and decide what you think you want to aim to get done on a given day and then figure out from there how many days you think you will need.

I really love it! I have a link to a sample week here, from when I tried it with my son last fall, there are some pictures and what a week's schedule looked like, if you want to take a peek: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/125979.html

We don't do well with 'routines' in this house. We're more of a go with the flow kind of family. The kids go to bed at basically the same time each day, have meals at basically the same time each day, but as for everything in between- we just go with the flow. I've embraced and accepted the fact that that's just what works best for us lol. (In the past I've tried writing out schedules and routines only to find that I would never, ever, stick to them).

Huh. That's sort of...disappointing lol. I always kind of assumed they would be actual homeschooled kids with pictures taken by parents or magazine staff or something. Who knew they'd "buy stock pictures" to put on the cover of homeschooling magazines?! Somehow that seems kind of stupid to me!

My advice is not to worry about- or even THINK about- your state's standards. You're homeschooling so you can do things your way. Don't worry about which way the public schools would do it. You have them both in front of you- which one do you "like?" Your daughter is of an age to have some good input- why not let her flip through them both, with you, and decide either together or let her decide which one looks more interesting, more fun, and go with it. If she's enjoying it, she's more likely to retain it, you're less likely to stress over it, etc. As for me- I know nothing about Pearson but I LOVE Oak Meadow. I used it in its entirety with my daughter for 4th grade, and I used it for everything but math in 5th grade (science was her favorite subject incidentally), and I'm looking forward to using it for everything but math in 6th grade with her this coming fall. I'm also starting OMK with my son this coming fall. :)

We used Oak Meadow 5 last year and science was my daughter's favorite subject. We did things like burying objects in our backyard and digging them up later to see which decomposed and which didn't, starting a simple worm bin, a small organic garden, different water conservation and air pollution experiments, lots of drawings and coloring re: life cycle, habitats and so on, we did a four week biome observation project, made a multi-media forest mural and so on. There were some writing assignments, some supplemental reading- none of it was dry or textbookish. It was fun and we liked it, but people who want something very "rigorous" might not think it's "enough." We're doing 6th grade this year and I've been told it is "meatier" than 5th grade was, but we haven't actually used it yet so I can't yet say what we like best about it, dislike etc. I have a much older edition of the curriculum- Basic Life Science with a copyright date of 1998- but I do have it here accessible and flipping through, it starts out in lesson 1 by talking about "science and the scientific method" and describes controlled experiments and the steps one owuld take and so on. It has a "conversational" kind of lesson several pages long- not very dry or textbookish which I like about OM in general- and then it goes into having them do their own experiment which involves taking two identical growing plants, a ruler, classical music, rock music, and has you measure the height of each of the plants and record it. They then have to place one plant next to the classical music and one next to the rock music and play it for several hours a day. They have to guess which plant will grow fastest and they keep observing and writing down their results, until at least one of them has grown an inch. Then they have them come up with their OWN idea for a controlled experiment that they can try. Then they give a choice of 9 different projects for the student to choose from- another thing I like about OM is that it always gives several different options of creative activities, writing assignments, etc, and lets the student choose which one they want to do. In this example, they can choose to make "oobleck" (and they have to observe its properties, write things down, pose a scientific question about it and write their hypothesis etc). Or they can choose from a couple of different writing assignments (one of which is a creative story type thing). Or they can play a game that deals with the "power of observation." Or they can do "animal observation" with a pet at home. Or there's one about clay boats, where they make it and try to form three in different styles to see which float or sink, making predictions first and so on. They can choose one of those or if you and they want, they can do more than one thing. OM is usually pretty hands on and interactive like that- but simple as in not tons of complex preparation and materials required.... Hope this helps some!

Music: We listen to Wee Sing songs and do the fingerplays, we have a bin full of simple musical instruments- some store-bought, some homemade- that the kids can play with at their leisure, we have different CD's of kids songs my 5 y/o listens to (he often listens to one while he's falling asleep at night), and sometimes we go to live musical performances- maybe a kids musical production or some such. Art: Simple age appropriate crafts that we do together, and access to all sorts of different arts and crafts material that the kids can use when they feel so inclined. I really don't think it needs to be anything formal or structured at that age!

I will be starting K with my son in September and he will turn 6 in November. I briefly tried K last fall for a few weeks, but he just wasn't ready/interested enough, which I figured was fine (he wasn't even technically of K age if we went by public school cutoff dates anyway). So we just did another year of informal pre-K. He still doesn't know every single letter but he did learn a lot of them over the past year (and picked up lots of math skills very informally, and computer skills which he enjoys- so reading, writing etc isn't everything, and keep in mind he's a year older than your son - I figure it will all come in the end in its own good time)! Anyway, some of the things we did were: Playing on starfall.com (which he doesn't "retain" much of either) Watching Leapfrog Letter Factory Occasionally reading "ABC" type books (there's one about Curious George which is a really good one). And we started a homemade "ABC Book" which involved using a scrapbook type thing where I'd write the upper and lowercase letters on one side, and then we'd find something we could glue or tape onto the other side that started with that letter of the alphabet. So for the "B" page you might glue in buttons or stick on bandaids. For the "C" page you might glue on cotton balls or coins. That kind of thing. There are also board games that focus on the ABC's...there's a cat in the hat one and a garanimals one, for example. The K program I'm going to use this year focuses on learning the uppercase letter of the alphabet in hands-on, Waldorf-inspired kind of ways, such as looking for the letters in nature, drawing them in the dirt with sticks, tracing them in a tray of flour or salt with your fingers, learning them with stories and drawings and that kind of thing. I figure it doesn't much matter whether a kid learns to read, write, all their letters etc before they're even 6- it used to be that was what first grade was for. Now K has become much more academic to "prepare" kids for 1st grade, and then pre-K became much more academic to "prepare" kids for K- I don't want our earliest years to be like that, so I'm not stressing over it. I know it will happen in its own good time and for now we're just having fun, learning all sorts of things more informally, and looking forward to giving this gentle, hands-on K another shot this fall. I'm confident that by the end of that year, him not recognizing all his letters etc will be a non-issue.

I think those things sound fun and sound like a good direction to go- but don't be afraid to be flexible, you don't have to do any of that stuff on any sort of rigid schedule- you can just do it here and there as you get to it or as it naturally comes up or as you both feel motivated/inspired- it does not have to be any sort of formal "We need to do this on this day and that on that day and this at this hour and that at that hour and oh no we skipped a day" kind of thing. I suggest just sort of going with the flow with those things in the back of your mind as the types of things you'd like to work on and do it as you both feel like doing it. And if you don't, don't. I had two "informal" pre-k years in a row with my son who wasn't ready for K last year and it was never overly structured or scheduled, we just sort of went with it and as learning opportunities came up, we took advantage of them- through games, conversation, field trips, crafts and fun activities, books, just being around older siblings, outings with our homeschool group, manipulatives and other fun/educational toys- I was amazed at how much he learned this past year all without my ever really trying. :) I'll be giving another shot to K with him in September (using Oak Meadow, which is not a very academic K- it's a hands on, Waldorf-inspired K which incorporates a lot of the types of things you mentioned). He turns 6 in November. You'll know what your daughter's ready for and how interested/motivated she is and how much you feel up to- use that as your guideline and don't feel guilty if you feel like it isn't working out on a schedule/in a structured way at her age. So much learning happens informally as you just go about parenting and living your lives!

Took my daughter back and forth to judo Did a load of laundry Unloaded and reloaded dishwasher with daughter's help Got my hubby to do maintenance on the pool lol And I'm now babysitting my three nephews plus my two kids while hubby works. I'm in the process of making their dinner. Oh and I called for information on a joint birthday party I'm trying to arrange for my two younger kids.

LOL- ah, that name doesn't really bother me and I wouldn't really have a problem using it. But you probably could add the "ma" or "mc" or whatever makes the full name and just use that when you address her/talk about her up until the parents ask you not to- which they may not. My son's name is Benjamin and we all call him Ben, but every now and then, someone uses "Benjamin" for him instead and we don't really care or correct them. (Although at this stage- he's 5- he might tell them to call him Ben).

Hypothetically speaking, ( :D ), what would this nickname potentially be?

Not sure, but maybe you can call your local radio station and ask if they would let him come in for a tour and to chat with them etc at some point, and maybe while you're there, you can ask them for ideas as to resources you might use to further encourage his interest.

Sounds good but I already purchased Meet The Masters through a HSBC group buy, and we're looking forward to using that in the fall. :)

This, maybe? http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/learning/p/coursep.htm

I second Teaching Textbooks. This was a LIFESAVER in my house last year for 5th grade and I'm looking forward to it again this year for 6th. TT uses an animated lecture, too. My daughter loved it and did very well with it, and she's not particularly mathy. I have a detailed review of it (which also addresses the whole "but it's too easy!" thing) here if you want more info: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/124221.html

Our curriculum (Oak Meadow) does this...it's one of the things I like about it. We've used it for 4th and 5th grades now, and Language Arts and Social Studies are always integrated. They assign living books that pertain to the social studies material (and suggest supplemental books along the same lines). Then whenever there's some sort of writing assignment for Language Arts, it will tie into the social studies material and reading... They select the books for me for the most part but you could probably look up "living books about _____" and put in whatever you are studying and see what comes up that you can get from your library.

Try googling "quotes about hard work."

Oak Meadow 6 for my daughter for everything but math. Teaching Textbooks 6 for math plus LOF Fractions 1x/week. And because I'm stretching 6th grade out over a two year period, I'm supplementing with various things, including: Continuing with SOTW 1 Story Grammar for Elementary School Getting Started With Spanish Meet The Masters (art) Typing Instructor For Kids Kidshealth.org for health Weekly cooking lessons using Rachael Ray's Cooking Rocks cookbook. Plus extra-curricular activities- continuing with Girl Scouts as a cadette, continuing Judo classes at the Y, and adding on guitar lessons this year. With my son, I'm using Oak Meadow Kindergarten.

:iagree:

Not in my Merriam Webster's Intermediate Dictionary either. That says: 1: adapted to a use or purpose (food suitable for human consumption) 2: being fit or right for a use or group (clothes suitable to the occasion) (a movie suitable for children) 3: qualified 1, capable (looking for a suitable replacement) Nope... nothing whatsoever about "common." Wonder what dictionary he's using! This whole thing is stupid. They need to just leave that woman alone, and I hope the jury agrees that this harassment is ridiculous.

My daughter's most recent "Little Passports" packet came and pertained to Mexico. The "souvenir" they sent was a little game/toy where you toss a little ball up, which is attached to a string, and try to catch it in the little holder thing it is attached to.... Anyway. I couldn't help but be amused by the fact that our "Mexican" souvenir was prominently stamped: MADE IN CHINA.

No. We use it for too many things that are important to us, and I doubt a million dollars goes all that far anymore.

I wouldn't worry about that. That means he's right where he's "supposed" to be for his age/grade level. So, good job, Mom. :) With that said...I'm not a fan of standardized testing and don't put too much stock in them to begin with. You know your son's strengths and weaknesses, his interests and talents, that there's so much more to him than a test score... really, they just don't matter much, unless he's much older and they're going to be used toward trying to get into a college or some such.