Looks good to me for a 9 y/o boy, especially a reluctant writer. There's a book called: "Teaching Poetry, Yes You Can!" by Jacqueline Sweeney I think, and it's great. It's got all sorts of neat, fun exercises for getting kids more into writing poetry. I ran a poetry workshop for my daughter and a few of her friends a couple of summers ago based on that book. You should see if you can get ahold of it and check it out. :)

Have you ever read The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley? If not, you should definitely check it out! ETA: Here's one for "toddlers and preschoolers"... http://www.amazon.com/No-Cry-Sleep-Solution-Toddlers-Preschoolers/dp/0071444912/ref=pd_sim_b_6 But the original is this one: http://www.amazon.com/No-Cry-Sleep-Solution-Gentle-Through/dp/0071381392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300407420&sr=8-1

Although their site says: "At this point, we are drawing on unrestricted donations given to MSF to fund our efforts, and we are not accepting donations specifically earmarked for recovery efforts in Japan."

If you're looking for a Kindergarten curriculum that will allow him to be a kid, not focus on struggling over deskwork and so on, I highly suggest looking into Oak Meadow. Here is my review of it: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/124071.html Here is an example of what a typical Kindergarten week is like with Oak Meadow (including some pics): http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/125979.html And here is the Kindergarten Overview directly from Oak Meadow's website: http://www.oakmeadow.com/curriculum/kindergarten.php I'm a big Oak Meadow fan. I was lucky enough to get a used set of K-8 from one seller for a great price, and I started using it last year for my daughter for 4th grade. She's done Oak Meadow 4 and is now more than halfway done with Oak Meadow 5. In the fall I'll be starting the Kindergarten curriculum again with my son and OM6 with my daughter. ETA: It wouldn't be for you if you are looking for something "gifted"- this is way more gentle and more hands on and non-academic in the earliest years; they have a philosophy along the lines of "childhood is a valuable period and nothing is to be gained by rushing through it" and an "involve the whole child, not just the intellect" kind of thing.

I do have a blog. The link is in my signature. I started it because I wanted to chronicle everything as I went through the process of pulling my daughter out of public school and beginning our homeschooling journey. Then I wanted to chronicle that journey with writing and photographs because I enjoy doing those things, and I thought it would be nice to look back on some day, and I hoped that eventually it might help others in some way. So, its theme is our day to day life as relaxed, secular homeschoolers, with text and photos. I also include links to various things, homeschool curricula reviews, helpful forms, schedule and log samples, favorite links, a list of books featuring homeschooled characters, and more. I do update it regularly. I try to do it every day although occasionally life gets in the way and I get a little bit behind. I do not get paid to do it.

We've never done copywork. Or dictation. I don't see a need.

Scrambled egg muffins? Baked oatmeal? Breakfast pizza? Homemade waffles Homemade pancakes made with fruit or some such?

I would let her! I'd make sure she knew that I didn't personally care if she made spelling errors in the "sloppy copy," that she could go back and fix them later. But if she preferred to do it first- well, I think it's great that she cares enough to want to get it right. :)

Oh my gosh, I just looked at it on your blog, that is like the most adorable thing ever (and I'm totally impressed that a 5 y/o is writing a story- and a story with CHAPTERS no less... my 5 y/o can only write his name. And the N will be backwards. heh.) Anyway, love his story, and love that you showed it in his own handwriting, too. :)

:iagree:

It looks cute. I'm sure it DOES depend on the kid. If my daughter was 7-8 years old I might consider it, but she's nearly 10 1/2 and a bit too old to believe in the house fairy (not to mention we don't celebrate Christmas so the whole Santa's sister thing is a little "eh" for me).

I'm no expert on whether fish feel pain but a quick Google search shows more than one article that suggests they DO. I don't know who is right and who is wrong but purposely trying to make living creatures uncomfortable in order to observe effects you already know will happen just to be able to watch it happen seems unnecessary and cruel. I'd rather TELL my kids about it than show them, and/or I'd rather just observe them in their natural environment than do something like this. I guess I just don't really see the purpose.

I don't know, but here's what worked for my daughter's eczema (which seems to be seasonal- comes mainly in the winter months)... http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/160161.html

Me either. That sounds really awful and... sad. :(

Giving this a bump, since it is coming up tomorrow. :)

Another A

Yep, that's one of the perks! I'd at least make sure to call them in in time to do the poster, though, since it's supposed to be turned/brought in today.

My 10 y/o dd is in 5th grade. She reads at an 8th grade reading level. But she doesn't love to write independently and has always required a decent amount of handholding for her writing assignments. She's JUST starting to get better at it recently this year, though. For this assignment, she had to write her own "legend" after reading a selection of North American Indian legends. It had to pertain to a "natural phenomenon." I didn't tell her how long it had to be. I already helped her fix a couple of run on sentences (she does tend to repeat mistakes when it comes to that, no matter how often I tell her, and I'm not sure she FULLY understands how to recognize a run on sentence). But other than that, and especially content wise, writing style, length, level of detail, vocabulary, etc., where do you think she stands for her age/grade level? Does she seem on track for her age/grade? --- How Tornadoes Came To Be It was a hot day outside, and the two Indian gods (brothers) were visiting Earth. On Earth they saw a golden apple. The oldest brother said, "I'm the oldest, I get it!" Then the youngest said, "I'm tired of not getting things. I get it! Now don't say no or you'll regret it!" "What are you going to do about it," said the oldest brother, taking a huge bite out of the apple. "That's it!" the youngest screamed! He clenched his fists, tilted his head up high and yelled "I HATE YOU!" "Whatever, I can live with that!" snickered the oldest. "No, you can't. Say bye-bye!" "Wait! What are you doing?!?!" The oldest yelled, for winds were getting strong. It was getting hot then cold, hot then cold, hot then cold. In the distance, the oldest brother saw something coming fast and it was swirling. Could this be? Could this young man really have caused the tornado?" the oldest thought. But that was his last thought because the tornado was an inch from his face. It sucked him up then disappeared and the oldest brother is in every tornado, and tornadoes only happen when the youngest gets mad. After: The youngest brother took seeds out of the apple and planted them, and that's what he sold, ate for snacks, and fed the animals. The End.

My daughter does a Teaching Textbooks lesson usually 4X a week, and usually independently. (We go over the lesson together in the book first and then I leave her to do it on her own on the computer; she can call me if need be). She is 10 and in 5th grade. I bought Timez Attack for multiplication tables practice and she can play it whenever she wants on her free time. If she hasn't played it in a while, I might suggest it. She's also got games on multiplication.com that she sometimes plays. Sometimes we play family board games that might require some math skills but nothing formal or scheduled. Next year for 6th grade she'll be doing TT6 4X a week and LoF Fractions 1X a week.

I wouldn't.

:iagree: My 10 y/o is doing TT5 this year, in 5th grade. Next year, when she's in 6th grade and doing TT6, I intend to do TT 4X a week and LOF 1X a week, starting with "LoF Fractions."

Not sure if you can find cheap flashlights but going with the space theme you could have them make star boxes. You take shoe boxes, cut out most of the middle of the lids, just leaving a lip all the way around. Glue black construction paper to that lip (cut to fit obviously) then let them use a nail to poke holes in designs of their choosing into the construction paper- they might want to do constellations or simple spaceships. Then you cut a hole on one end/side of the shoebox itself just big enough to stick the flashlight into. Then when they go into a dark room and shine the flashlight into the hole, the light will shine thru their design. It's pretty neat.

I buy from used book sellers on Amazon as long as they have good feedback, and as long as I can find one that is in either "very good" or "like new" condition for less money than it would cost to buy new from Amazon with Amazon Prime or whatever.

Here are some books/movies my 10 year old daughter and I read and then watched so far (with 5 y/o ds sometimes joining in on the movie)... ***** Heidi (with Shirley Temple; we tried goat's milk afterward, too) From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (actually in that case, we read the book and then saw the play; not sure if it's a movie too) Pippi Longstocking (several) Escape To Witch Mountain Mary Poppins Pinocchio (not the animated one) Because of Winn-Dixie Nim's Island (animated) Alice In Wonderland (animated, 1972) Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (both movie versions) The Indian In The Cupboard Harry Potter (The first two books and the first three movies) Skellig (has a homeschooled character in it) :) Treasure Island (animated) Sounder (read the book, will watch the movie shortly) Tuck Everlasting (read the book, will watch the movie shortly)

I'm in Schuylkill County. Have you joined the PA Home Educators Yahoo email list? That would be a good way to reach out to lots of PA Home Schoolers and see if anyone else is in your area. Also, have you checked out meetup.com to see if it has any homeschool groups in your area?