Usually, I do it all. However, when there is some sort of hands on project that I think he would be better suited to figuring out or would enjoy doing with my 10 y/o, I ask him to "help" (by which I mean "can YOU do this with her?") and he does. Some recent examples of things he's done with her: Candle Making Paper Making Setting up a simple worm bin Figuring out the instructions to make a "covered wagon" out of a shoebox, cardboard, a wire hanger, some dowels and cloth. And occasionally I will ask him a math question or ask him to participate in a science experiment. But most of the time I do the teaching, and like someone else said, he does the money earning so I can buy the things I need in order to teach and take the kids on all those fun field trips and sign them up for all those fun extra-curricular activities and so on. :D ETA: Nothing to do with our "curriculum," but my husband's main hobby is his large saltwater aquarium/coral reef tank and he does have our daughter hang out with him a lot while he's messing around with it and so she has learned all sorts of names and terms and things pertaining to maintenance and stuff. He's also been talking about restarting his old glass-blowing hobby and involving her with that, as well. And once in a while, he lets her come to work with him (he owns a tattoo shop) and she'll sit with the lightbox and do "line drawings" and stuff. Or he'll randomly start telling her about odd facts that might pertain to art or science or trivia or whatever. So he does his thing in his own way, too.

Yep. I think PA Home Ed Law is too intrusive to begin with. And some PA districts, including mine, have been known to ask for things that we are not legally required by law to give them. I don't like that. In most cases, I give them the minimum I HAVE to give them by law and have no intentions of "over-complying." All that accomplishes is giving them even more of a sense of entitlement, whereas I'd rather they just butt out. :P (NOTE: Where I make an exception is with a "Summary"- I do provide a "Summary" with my portfolio each year, where I briefly explain what we did for each "required subject" that year- but I only do that so that they will not hassle me about submitting a minimal number of "samples"). College is different- if my child WANTS to go to college, then we will do what we need to do to ensure that can happen and will hand those records over willingly. But right now? If we have to provide "A" to the school district, they'll get "A" but I'll be darned if I'm going to give them "B" and "C" too! I have to write out or type up the titles of all our books but I don't have to waste my time typing/writing all the authors names, too (and we read a LOT of books so that WOULD be a lot of extra writing/typing, not to mention extra printer ink and paper)!

I'll have you know that I was quite proud of my very first pair of Shelltop Adidas!! :lol:

Yeah, I'd read a great review of livemocha in Secular Homeschooling Magazine, and I've got it bookmarked. At some point (maybe next year? 7th grade? 8th? I don't know) I will want to check it out with my daughter and see if it's something we want to stick with. She has expressed interest in learning Spanish. Maybe we'll try it over the summer or something!

I may start doing so in the high school years when I will want to keep good records of everything in general but I haven't bothered for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades so far!

So you guys won't use a name if somebody else in the family has a name that starts with that same letter?? LOL my family sure doesn't worry about that! One of my brothers has a daughter named Alison, I have a daughter named Alexa, and my other brother has a son named Alec :D And my son is named Benjamin Caleb and 9 months later one of those brothers named his son Caleb... neither of us cared that I'd already used it for a middle name. And my other brother named his second son Zachary, even though we have a cousin named Zachary. I think you should just go with whatever name you guys both agree that you like and/or has meaning to you. Who cares if someone else has the name or a name that starts with the same letter or whatever!

I want to add I'm so glad that my husband isn't into sports and doesn't watch any televised sports at all (other than UFC fights!) I can remember when I was married to my ex and my oldest daughter was young, her birthday parties (in January) consisted of my ex and his father and so on watching football on TV. It used to make me nuts. Now I never have to suffer televised sports lol. (Although I do enjoy attending live baseball games occasionally).

I don't feel guilty, but then, I don't tend to "curriculum hop" so it's not like I'm always going "ooh I need this, and that, and that, and this and I'm going to change to that, and then this" and so on. I bought OMK through OM8 used from one person for a great price, and my son is going to start with OMK in the fall and work his way through all of the grades, and my daughter started with OM4 and is set through OM8 (she didn't even begin homeschooling til toward the end of third grade, so before that, it was a non-issue). As of this year (5th grade) I chose to use Teaching Textbooks for our math portion of the curriculum (because my older version of Oak Meadow didn't have its own built in math from 5th grade on and suggested Saxon, which I didn't want, so I chose TT, which I plan to use from now on. I bought TT5 used). I have bought a few extra things this year to try/supplement but I don't think I go nuts with it. Like, I bought Life of Fred Fractions and the second book in the series used from someone here to try out in the fall in conjunction with our main math curriculum (we will be doing TT 4X a week and LOF 1X a week, if my daughter likes it). I bought Times Tales (book and DVD) to help reinforce her multiplication tables. (The DVD has seemed effective btw!) and I bought the paid version of the Timez Attack game for the same reason (and for fun). I bought Meet The Masters (art) (half price via homeschoolbuyersco-op.org) to use for next year's art curriculum. And I bought "Sentence Composing for Elementary School" recently after reading good things about it here, and I've added it to my daughter's Language Arts; we've been using it for several weeks now. MTM was the most expensive thing I purchased at around $45.00. I plan to get two school years of art instruction out of it. The Times Tales DVD came in second at around $30.00. (oh and Timez Attack was kind of pricey too I'll admit). Other than that, I replenish craft supplies and school supplies over the summers, and now and then I buy various kids' books used at library book sales, thrift shops, yard sales, used book stores, and once in a while on Amazon if it's a must have. We do try to utilize the library a lot, too, though, and not feel like we need to own every single book we read.

I don't know what's "standard" but as a not-particularly-religious Jew I don't use the word "sin" or think in terms of "sin," although I do have my own "moral code" and views of right and wrong. Some of them happen to correspond with some of the "Commandments" as listed in the bible and some don't.

I hope everything's okay!! :grouphug:

No. I wasn't even aware that it was tomorrow!

aw post pics now!! AND later! :)

No, just the titles!! The law ONLY requires that it be designated by title, so don't cause yourself more work than necessary. :)

I'm sorry, but I don't agree that in the case of a five year old that this is a discipline issue. I see it as more of a development issue. Perhaps he is just not developmentally ready to do these things! There are a lot of "experts" out there who swear kids aren't at that age.

The most exciting thing I got was an issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine which my husband ordered for me :D

Are you saying we're all really just talking to ourselves?

:grouphug: I'm so sorry. I will be thinking of you and hoping that you receive good news!

I have a review of it and some photos on my blog. Click the link in my sig, then see the "My Reviews" section on the sidebar to the left.

Teaching Textbooks. You can check it out at teachingtextbooks.com. There's also a review of it on my blog- click on my sig line, then see My Reviews section under sidebar to left.

That's not an issue for us being as the work gets done on paper first and only then entered into the computer program to be checked. And I do mean on paper- we do not write in the book itself because it will be eventually reused for my son and then resold. I haven't noticed my daughter becoming suddenly lazy since starting TT so I think we are fine ;)

We spend 30-35 minutes on math a day with my 5th grader. We do spend more time on reading and language arts, though for us language arts and social studies are integrated. We do science 2 days a week usually.

Well, nothing, really, now that my younger daughter's Judo class and my older daughter's hair appointment AND the used book sale at the library were all canceled due to all this freezing rain and ice we're dealing with. Blah! I'm sick of it! 10 more days til we leave to drive down to Florida and escape all of it for a while... I can't wait!

Motley Crue...I had such a crush on Vince Neal and Tommy Lee lol. My mother would never let me go to any concerts until I was like 17 or 18 though. My first concert was Aerosmith (Skid Row opened). And yes, I used to listen to Kasey Kasem's top 40 countdown haha!

That is SO.FREAKIN.FUNNY. !!! :lol::lol::lol:

:iagree::iagree::iagree: Love this post. This doesn't have to be a battle or a power struggle, and it shouldn't be. And it's okay for you to to change tactics and say "I thought this over and I've changed my mind and this is why and this is what we will do instead." IF you have come to agree that perhaps your expectations were off base (and that's up to you to decide), then don't let stubbornness win out over common sense or a good relationship with your son just so you can say you "won" something. This isn't about winning or losing, it's about child development and a relationship between a mother and son. It's just as important for a child to learn that EVERYBODY makes mistakes and can admit they were wrong (yes, even grownups, even Mom) and that it's okay to sometimes change your mind, or to change courses if the first isn't working, as it is for them to learn that they have to do what mom says. And PLEASE come at this in a positive light and let him know it's not because of some sort of "failure" on his part.