I don't do any of that. I use the OM curriculum. I have a china cabinet type thing that I took over for school stuff, and the bottom shelf of it is all of the books we need for the year (for a 5th grader and a K'er). My 5th grader has a binder, and my K'er has a Main Lesson Book. Each day we get out the things we need and sit down and do the work. Much of it is hands on, anything written gets written into the binder, there are no "worksheets" etc. When we're done with our supplies, we put them back into the cabinet. Each Friday I print out my word document with my schedule for the following week, figure out if there's any special materials I need for that week, and that's about that. It's easy, works fine, and I haven't felt the need to do anything else. Including reading that monstrous thread LOL. I do have a small filing cart in my closet where I tuck away 'extra' things- newspaper articles I might want to keep about education, there's a file for written communications to and from the school district for that year, there's a file for "receipts" which sometimes I keep and sometimes I don't, there's a file folder for "art" and some of the finished art projects get tucked away in there, I keep blank paper in there of various sorts, and stuff like that.

I agree! You can't make someone like art or want to create art, maybe it's just not his thing. So figure out what IS his thing and help him explore THAT instead.

I pretty much agree with this. I'd give at least $50 for the graduation. I'd give at least $100.00 for the wedding. The funeral could just be a card and/or a card and flowers. And for a shower anywhere from $25 to $50.

Can you hire a limo and take (or send) her and a couple of friends to a movie or bowling (some alleys have "glow bowling" at night), a spa day or something like that?

Late last night I finished reading "Cleopatra's Daughter" by Michelle Moran (historical fiction). Tonight I'll probably start reading "Fly Away Home" by Jennifer Weiner. My 10 y/o and I are STILL reading "On The Banks Of Plum Creek" aloud together (we take turns reading it aloud, and it's taking us forever to get through because we keep stopping to read other books). We're on the last couple of stories in "Tales Of Ancient Egypt" (SOTW1) which I usually read aloud to her. For school, she's reading "...If You Sailed On The Mayflower In 1620" aloud to me, and "Pocahontas And The Strangers" to herself.

I like to put a block of cream cheese (one of those rectangular packages) and smoosh it onto the bottom of a small casserole dish. I top it with two cans of chili- one with beans and one without, because I don't like a lot of beans- and then I top that with a bag of shredded cheddar cheese. Heat in microwave and serve warm with tortilla chips. You could also add salsa if you wanted or chopped tomatoes or whatever. At someone's house recently, they had these mini franks which they just served in a crock pot full of Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce and they were SO good! Cheese balls with pretzels or crackers are always good.

If he's the better cook, let him do most of the cooking! But let him also invite her into the kitchen to keep him company or to suggest they make dinner together, and she'll learn more by example than a more official "I will teach you how to cook" kind of thing. She can observe what he does, help out, and just sort of pick things up. If she asks questions, he'll answer them. But I'd keep it really informal unless she asks for more. And the mother in law? Er... no!

I would never attempt to "keep up with" my kid's books. I don't feel the need to pre-read them (I can tell fairly well by cover/description whether it's at least appropriate for her age). I don't feel the need to quiz her on books she reads for fun to see if she's "getting them"- like the person above said, a kid who loves to read that much, who goes through that many books, is probably getting them just fine. When it's assigned/school reading, sure, do narration, reports, whatever you want to do. But when they read just for fun? let it be fun!

I wish I had a much bigger property, we only have a very small yard. Whether that's ever going to really happen though, who knows! This it the first house we ever owned (as opposed to rented) and we've only been in it just under 4 years; I don't foresee us moving anytime soon, if ever.

You're familiar with the term "homesick"- well, I think it's normal for kids who leave public school to go through a phase of being "schoolsick." Even if they hated a lot of things about school, they're still adjusting to a change, and they might be missing friends or certain parts of school that they DID enjoy or the group setting or whatever the case may be. This could take a few months to adjust to. During this time, I agree that it's a good idea to do some "deschooling." Forget about textbooks, worksheets, sitting at a desk/table and all of that stuff and HAVE FUN! Enjoy each other. Bond. Talk. Laugh. Play. Go on fun outings and field trips. Watch TV together. Play board games together. Run errands together. Explore a hobby together. Trust me, she'll learn from all of these things! Ask her if there's something in particular she wants to learn about. Then help her explore it. Then, when it's time to start doing more 'regular' schoolwork again, evaluate what you're doing/using. Is it something your child enjoys? Has a say in? Suits her style of learning? Maybe she needs something more literature based. Or more hands on/creative. Are you trying to make school last too many hours and pile on too many subjects, so that she gets frustrated and bored? Did you join some sort of activity or group so that she has social opportunities? A homeschool group, a co-op, is she in something like 4H, things where she can regularly be around other people and kids? Just out of curiosity, did she want to be homeschooled to begin with?

OM provides a weekly schedule. Some people like that approach where they just know to get everything done that week. Other people (like me) prefer it broken down by day- I LOVE Oak Meadow though and refuse to let that deter me lol- so what I suggest is each week, look ahead a week, and see what needs to be done the following week, and then write or type out a daily schedule for yourself. So for instance you look at their list of Language Arts activities and go "okay, they have X number of things listed, so let's do these two things each day and then we'll finish by the end of the week" or whatever. And then you have something to at least loosely follow- if you find you DON'T get to something, it's no big deal to just tack it on elsewhere over the week. Once you've done a few weeks, you'll figure out the rhythm of how long each thing is taking and then maybe you won't even need to do that anymore.

We started using TT this year for 5th grade. Is it "easier" than other programs so far? Yes. (We've done 8 lessons and 1 quiz so far). With that said, my daughter LOVES math, looks forward to it, and is building a whole lot of confidence right now. Math is not a torture, a struggle, a battle, confusing for her or for me, and she is developing an attitude that "hey, math is fun!" and "Hey, I'm good at math!" Which goes a VERY long way in my opinion. I'd rather have math be "too easy" for now than have a kid who has an "I hate math, I'm no good at math, math is hard' attitude at this young age. I'm trusting that as the program develops and goes along, she'll learn what she needs to learn. Without it being a miserable experience. And in later high school years if I'm discovering or thinking that she needs stronger math skills, I'll do what I need to do, whether that's hiring a tutor, enrolling her in a class, or SOMETHING- especially if it seems she 'needs' it for college, a field she wants to go in, or whatever the case may be. But am I going to make math be a miserable experience in the meanwhile? Heck no, it's not worth it. Nance (who grew up hating math and developed a "math is hard, I'm not good at math" attitude that never went away and doesn't want that to happen to her kids)

Yes, I do creative writing with my daughter. But my daughter isn't four or six years old. Many six year olds are just learning how to read, let alone write, and let alone write CREATIVELY. Ignore her!

Well, my daughter is only just-about-to-turn-10 and in 5th grade, but I don't grade her writing assignments. She does get writing assignments- and it's just this year that she's started to work on them much more independently, which is a good thing! I spend a few minutes discussing the assignment with her and making sure she understands what she's supposed to do. I remind her to use full sentences, proper capitalization and so on, and I remind her to make sure she uses adjectives and tries to make her sentences interesting, etc. When she writes it, I ask her to proof read it herself and see if she wants to make any changes or corrections or additions. And then I go over it with her. I try not to criticize it and I don't grade it. I make sure I point out which parts I think are good "Oh that's a good word you used!" "I love that sentence!" And I gently tell her what needs fixing or improvement "Make sure you don't switch back and forth between past and present tense like that, okay?" "Well, maybe you could add a sentence like this here so you have a little more info/detail, what do you think?" and so on, and I help her rewrite a little bit. She gets feedback and instruction in this way, which eventually I figure will stick in her mind as she's writing next time, but she doesn't feel like her attempts have been reduced to a letter or a number "grade"- that's not really what I want homeschooling to be about at this point, for us. With that said- I really DON'T know if her writing is on par with other kids her age/grade level, and it would be nice to know, just for my info, so this is a helpful post for me anyway :)

I don't know how old your kids are but sometimes on that show there is what some people might consider "objectionable content" just FYI! Like last season there was a pair of lesbians which wasn't a big deal (to me) except that some of the other teams would make disparaging comments or constantly refer to them as "the lesbians" and somebody called somebody else a b**** and so on, it does get some "reality show drama" in it just like any other reality show does. With all that said, I think the show can definitely also be very educational as well as entertaining!

Well, see, the problem was the whole vegan thing! Pumpkin pie... Yum!!! :D

Just to throw it out there, I lived in a foster home from the time I was 14 to the time I was 16. The foster family I lived with had a son who was 12 and a daughter who was 7 (she turned 8 shortly after I moved in). Other than occasionally hearing me listen to Ozzy or Skid Row (haha) I didn't "expose" them to anything and got along with them very well. I was a totally different person in that house than I was in my home environment, which just wasn't a good place for me to be at the time. I did well in school, got involved in sports, made very nice friends. Overall, I really thrived with that family. That particular family only took in teen girls. I always thought I'd like to be a foster parent someday, be on the other side of that, but in the end, with the hours my husband works and knowing he wouldn't be as open to the idea as I am of having another child living here 24/7 and having three kids all with different needs and so on, it just didn't work out. I talked him into being Fresh Air Fund hosts instead lol, we started doing that last summer. Anyway, good for you for looking into it. I think it really makes a difference. ETA: My issues were behavioral if anyone is curious, nothing to do with abuse at home, or drugs, or anything like that- just way too much rebellion, probably stemming from the fact that my father abandoned our family and my mother was a single mom who worked full-time and then had other commitments after work and I was left alone too much in a town that wasn't the greatest and I made bad choices and so on and so forth.

I love Simon. I used to see "Esther" as an old lady name, but it's grown on me. I actually like it!

I am a high school drop out. I then went on to get my GED, go to a two year business college (because I had a baby at age 18 (and one with developmental delays no less) and didn't see that I had "time for" a 4 plus year college), and ended up working as a legal secretary for pretty decent pay. My husband is a high school drop out. He now owns his own small business and earns enough money that I can be a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. We have everything we need and much of what we want. He's doing better than a lot of people we know who have college degrees and can't even find jobs in this market.

Sadie is a beautiful name. So is Sadie Josephine. If she gets CALLED "Sadie Jo" though, that sounds very "country" to me or something though lol. (Not saying whether that's a good or bad thing, lol, that would depend on you- I'm just saying)!

Wow, I can't even answer that, it just wouldn't be that black and white for me. It would strongly depend on the kid and their personality and past behaviors and the degree of trust I have in them, and how I "feel" about it- if it makes me feel nervous in the pit of my stomach before leaving them home alone for any length of time then there's no way I could do it. And the things *I* would have done at that age if I had a house to myself for even just one overnight? Whew! You don't even want to know!

I am still in the process of watching it (I've watched 3 or 4 episodes) and I'm really enjoying it. My mom's watched the first couple with me and really enjoyed it. My 9 (almost 10) y/o is watching it with me and it's holding her interest pretty well. They'd never be able to make a series that covers EVERY SINGLE THING or covers every single thing of historical importance with enough depth to satisfy everybody, but I think they did a very good job overall.

I have NO idea why my post about "fun projects" posted three times, I hope the mods can delete them since I don't see a way to delete my own posts. I kept getting something that said "fatal error" when I tried to post and I didn't think they were showing up.

Have your kids done any projects that they've really enjoyed this year? We've just completed our 3rd week of school. So far for 5th grade, my daughter is LOVING Environmental Science. She made a forest mural using different media (colored pencils, construction paper cutouts, craft leaves, magazine cutouts, etc) in which she included living and non-living things. We buried a bunch of things in our yard yesterday after reading about decomposers. In 3 weeks, we'll uncover them and see if and how they've changed. Things like: An orange peel, an apple core, a quarter, a piece of styrofoam, a plastic baggie, a plastic spoon, and a piece of lettuce. For social studies, she's made a wooden sailboat, made her own compass, made a diorama of Jamestown and a Pocahontas puppet. She's also been tracking her shadow stick (measuring the length of a stick's shadow once a week; after 6 weeks she's got to chart the differences). Next week we'll be making and trying "hardtack" and making a simple "worm bin" (Ick)! :) She says science is her favorite subject, followed by reading, and then math (she loves math now that we've started TT)! But I think she's been enjoying most of social studies, too- even though OM assigns a fair amount of writing assignments for social studies this year. My daughter is actually MUCH better this year, though, about doing writing assignments independently. So that's good! I do love how many hands on things she gets to do in OM even in these "middle school" years! And the writing assignments are usually interesting and she gets a choice of things to write about. So, what are the favorites in your house so far?

Have your kids done any projects that they've really enjoyed this year? We've just completed our 3rd week of school. So far for 5th grade: My daughter is LOVING Environmental Science. She made a really cool forest mural using different media (colored pencils, construction paper cutouts, craft leaves, magazine cutouts, etc) in which she included living and non-living things. She had fun with that. We also buried a bunch of things in our yard yesterday after reading about decomposers. In 3 weeks, we're to uncover them and see if and how they've changed. Things like: An orange peel, an apple core, a quarter, a piece of styrofoam, a plastic baggie, a plastic spoon, and a piece of lettuce. For social studies, she's made a wooden sailboat, made her own compass, made a diorama of Jamestown and a Pocahontas puppet. She's also been tracking her shadow stick (measuring the length of a stick's shadow once a week; after 6 weeks she's got to chart the differences). Those have been her favorite things so far. Next week we'll be making and trying "hardtack" and making a simple "worm bin" (Ick)! :) She tells me that science is her favorite subject, followed by reading, and then math (she loves math and looks forward to it now that we've started using TT)! But I think she's been enjoying most of social studies, too- even though OM assigns a fair amount of writing assignments for social studies this year (kind of an integrated social studies/language arts curriculum). My daughter is actually MUCH better this year, though, I've noticed, about doing writing assignments independently. So that's a good thing! I do love how many hands on things she gets to do in OM even in these "middle school" years! And the writing assignments are usually interesting and she gets a choice of things to write about. So, what are the favorites in your house so far?