It's normal to feel that way. But for me, it passed pretty quickly. We had so much fun homeschooling, it really did feel natural. I was like, "What was I even worried about?!" And I didn't even wait for the start of a new school year, I pulled my daughter out in March- with only 2 - 2 1/2 months of third grade left in the school year. That did make me nervous lol. Probably even more nervous than if I'd let her finish out the year and just not sent her back the following year. But in the end, I was so glad I did it. You guys will be fine! :)

When my older daughter turned 16, our only real expense was a limo. We let her invite like I think 5 girls from her very small special needs class over, and we had pizza and cake with them and our immediate family. A friend of mine who was good with that sort of thing came over and did the girls' makeup and styled their hair. We hired a limo to drive us all to the local bowling alley, where the girls bowled and were quite excited to arrive in and depart from a limo. (We were going to do a movie but there ended up not really being an appropriate movie showing when the time came so we bowled instead). When we got back to my house, the girls slept over. They played Wii games and Rock Band 2 and talked and giggled and did girl things. In the morning, we made them all pancakes, and their parents picked them up.

Sopranos Oz Sex And The City Queer As Folk Six Feet Under Prison Break Fringe Survivor American Idol The Biggest Loser Day Break (which was very shortlived, I wish they hadn't canceled it) Law & Order SVU Lost

My daughter did not learn to ride a bike without training wheels until she was 8 1/2 years old. At that point, she finally asked my husband to take the training wheels off her bike. And then he tried for a few days to teach her to ride the bike without training wheels. No luck. Then, one day, her two neighborhood friends, a boy a bit younger than her and a girl a bit older than her, decided THEY would teach her to ride without training wheels. And THEY accomplished that very day what my husband couldn't in a few days. When my husband taught her, he was trying to get her to steer AND pedal while he hung on so she wouldn't fall. She wasn't coordinated enough or whatever to steer, pedal and try to balance. Plus she was afraid of him letting go. It was too much to focus on, and it just wasn't working. Her friends, on the other hand, had her push off with her feet and then just keep her legs out wide and low to the ground for balance while she just focused on steering, while the bike kind of glided along and she could put her feet down to regain her balance any time she wanted to, easily. She told me, "look, they're teaching me to balance." Without too much to focus on and pedaling making things harder, she focused on steering and balance and got the hang of those things first, and next thing I knew, that very day, she was pedaling, too. And doing a good job. So maybe try it that way :) The kids knew what they were doing!

Good luck! :) I'm waiting til next month to start, myself, but it will be my first time homeschooling two kids, too! My daughter will be starting 5th and my son will be starting K. Fortunately I'm going with a very laid back K program that I don't anticipate taking more than maybe an hour a day (I think), so it'll be sort of easing into the two kids thing at least. :D

I didn't start homeschooling til toward the end of third grade, and that summer was when we found and started using SOTW1. To be honest, I thought she was of a good age for it, and I definitely cannot imagine her having been interested or ready in first grade, for anything other than some of the fun craft projects and THE youngest supplemental reading books. But to get anything out of the story, the supplemental reading books that weren't like kids picture books, I don't think she would have had an interest or retained any of that. Maybe it's just me but I found third grade a good age to start. MAYBE 2nd, depending on the kid, since there are a good amount of younger kid books and activities. But I just don't see it for a first grader, myself, so if I decide to do SOTW with, my younger son (who hasn't even turned 5 yet), I'm sure I'll be waiting til 2nd or 3rd grade, depending on him. Then again, I might be on this forum asking for suggestions on a similar history program to do with him instead, since it might be too boring for me to repeat SOTW after doing it already with my daughter lol. We'll see!

Well, my daughter was only 4th grade last year, so not sure if that counts in the age group you are referring to, but we were often done by lunch. We spent about 3 hours a day doing our OM curriculum, and if we started between 9 and 10, we were usually done between 12 and 1. We still did educational things outside of those hours- plenty of outings and field trips, plenty of reading, she'd go to work with her dad sometimes, we did outside activities and classes, we watched educational shows, played educational games and whatnot, not on any sort of schedule, but often. But our main curriculum stuff? Yep. Often done by lunch. And I foresee being able to do that this coming year for 5th grade, too, pretty much. After that, I don't know, I've only gotten as far as putting together our 5th grade schedule. Not sure yet how much time 6th grade will add on.

This is normal, and it will pass. My daughter was SO happy to be pulled out of school toward the end of third grade and was SO excited to homeschool instead. But, rather than homesickness, she got a bit of schoolsickness. She missed her friends- friends that she didn't even feel close enough to to make sure she got their names and phone numbers if she wanted to, which I reminded her to do several days in a row before her last day of public school. It didn't last long overall (it came up time to time for a few months), she'd say she likes homeschooling but she misses her friends and so on. But I can't even remember the last time she gave any indication of caring about or missing public school, and she's only been homeschooled for around a year and a half.

:iagree:

I subscribe to and love this one, too. I've even had a few articles published in it! :D (it doesn't pay much at all but it was a lot of fun seeing my writing published since I've been writing creatively since I was like 7 years old but never tried submitting anything anywhere for publication til I was well into my 30's, and then it was to a homeschooling mag- who would have thought lol) Anyway! The articles in that mag are always well-written, and I really appreciate that it's not full of advertisements and religious references!

So far as a secular jew I find SOTW to be pleasantly neutral when it comes to religion, and fun to do. But we're only on like Chapter 11 of volume 1 so far.

Wow. Most adults don't make that much money around where I live. I can't fathom paying a teen that amount! I had a lawyer try to hire me to be a paralegal in his office for $10.00 an hour. I was like yeah, right! I know I don't live in NY anymore but are you kidding me? I'd rather continue staying home with my kids than work for you for $10.00 an hour lol. (And good thing I made that choice since I ended up homeschooling anyway) :)

Thanks for the replies, all! We ended up having her here for just short of five hours, and we ended up giving her $8.00 an hour since we threw in an extra $5.00 when the friends we went out with were like "you have to tip your babysitter!" Huh? LOL I never even heard of that. Seriously! But my friend was adamant about it. So we threw in an extra $5.00. (is that common? Not that I minded, really, it was worth the night out! It's just that I never heard of tipping a babysitter before. Now I'm curious if everyone does that!)

Well, for me, Oak Meadow is my main curriculum. SOTW is something I'm doing on the side for fun with my 9 y/o. So, with that said, I don't put any pressure or stress on myself (or my daughter) over it. We get to it as we get to it, we take as much time as we want to or need to getting through each chapter (and the various supplemental reading books and whichever of the activities and projects we want to do), and when we're ready, we move on. Sometimes we might get through a chapter in a week. Sometimes it takes several weeks. We just go with the flow. It's working fine for us. I think you should do it on whatever schedule works for you without feeling stressed over it. That might vary depending on the given week, month or whatever. :)

fruit smoothies, fruit or veggie trays with yogurt or ranch dip, fruit and yogurt parfait, cheese and crackers (maybe like wheat thins or something), slices of a whole wheat bread with some sort of spread (maybe apple butter or something, or cream cheese), granola bars, oatmeal cookies, applesauce, frozen yogurt or fresh juice ice pops, rice cakes, whole grain goldfish or graham crackers

Yeah my daughter and I read that book together last year for "health," at age 9, for 4th grade. It's called: "The Body Book, The Care & Keeping Of You" and it's by American Girl Library. We also read the one called "The Feelings Book, The Care & Keeping Of Your Emotions" at the same time (I think that was what it was called). Both did a good job of talking about various emotional and physical changes girls will be going through, what to expect, answers FAQ's and concerns they might have, etc., but does not go into sex. It's stuff like hair and deodorant and pimples and periods and how to use tampax and pads and hair care and exercise and teeth and braces and developing breasts (and their various shapes and sizes) and so on and so forth.

For me to pay a just-turned-17 y/o babysitter? To watch an almost 10 year old girl and an almost 5 year old boy? It would be tonight from about 6:30 PM (after they've had their dinner) til about 11:30 PM. She'd be watching them/interacting with them, giving them dessert, putting the younger one to bed around 8:30-9 and she could decide when to send the older one to lay and read in bed, with a suggestion of between 9 and 10 PM depending on how it's going for her. The younger one usually gets tucked in without a problem, the older takes care of getting herself to bed. They're pretty well-behaved kids. Once they go up, she's welcome to watch what she wants on TV, use my computer, and can help herself to whatever she wants to eat or drink. Am I paying enough? I asked if she had a set rate she asks for babysitting, and the mom said no. My husband said, "ask if she thinks $7.00 an hour is fair." I did so, and she says that's fine but I want to make sure I'm being fair! She's the daughter of one of the moms in my homeschooling group and I hope to use her occasionally in the future, when my husband and I want to be able to go out at night and spend some time together or with another couple, which is kind of rare for us. It's our first time hiring someone in a very long time, usually I get family to babysit when necessary, but that's just become inconvenient lately for various reasons. ETA: The area we live in is not "rich" or anything like that, if that matters, we're all pretty average working-class people!

My daughter is a bit young for her grade. She will be starting our 5th grade homeschool curriculum right after Labor Day, which will be a few weeks before her 10th birthday. She started out in public school when she went to Kindergarten, which, here, started at the end of August. It wasn't until October 1st of that year that she turned 5. At the time, our school's cutoff date was October 1st... so she was THE youngest in her class, still just 4 when she began. As it turned out, the following year they revised the cutoff date to September 1st, so if she had started a year later, she wouldn't even have been allowed to start K as young as she had. But since she did, she's just continued through the grades, and she's often nearly a year younger than many other kids in her class. Not that it matters now that she's homeschooled. My son is only about to start K, homeschooled, and he'll be about where she was- it'll be a bit before he turns 5, too. But in this case I'm okay with it because the K I have planned for him will be MUCH less lengthy and academic than the K my daughter had to deal with. His will be like maybe an hour a day of hands-on, story and nature and music and craft based stuff that will really be more of a preschool curriculum than a K one (which I love about Oak Meadow)!

Oh yes, read it again! And then make sure you've read all the sequels too! There's another one coming out at some point. I can't wait!!! I never heard of Sara Donati, I'll have to look into that!

Yes! I wish I would have thought to add that to MY post. :)

Sounds like you did okay :) I'm glad it came up and that you managed to have a discussion with her, because by 10, puberty changes can come on much more suddenly and unexpectedly than you might think, and a girl that age should definitely have some clue as to what's coming before it comes! So I think it's good that the issue was brought to the forefront at this time. I know those kinds of conversations can be awkward!

Here are my "proposed educational objectives by subject area," which I submitted to my district, if you want to take a quick peek. It doesn't specifically say "social studies" but I believe that's covered under history/geography/civics. http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/122810.html

I see you are dropping some things. I think that's great! I think the problem with this kind of thing is (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) that some moms research all these curricula, decide they can't possibly decide between X, Y, and Z, so next thing you know, little Johnny has to do ALL of them. Because Mom couldn't decide on one. And that isn't fair, really to the kid. I agree that there seemed to be way too much duplication in all these subjects from your original post. So glad to see you decided to drop some! Could you put handwriting off for now (if you haven't already), work on typing instead, and let him worry about handwriting down the road when he's a little older and less anxious? You know what? As far back as I can remember in elementary school I always loved to write- short stories, essays, eventually poems, and all sorts of things. But I also always had atrocious handwriting. Every single report card that came home would comment on my poor handwriting. The truth is... my handwriting is STILL bad. Not because teachers didn't work on it with me. But because it just is. Maybe my mind goes faster than my mind can keep up with and the result is sloppy. Maybe my hand gets tired and cramped after just a couple of lines of writing. (It does!) I rarely NEED to handwrite things, though. Most things can be typed and anything I have to handwrite is brief. And when I WANT to make myself slow down and try to write neater- I can/do. But it's an effort. And I don't think being made to do yet more handwriting ever made a difference. And if there's a subject he loves, I'd definitely encourage his interest in that, even if it means letting other things go to some extent. Maybe that's his path in life. Give him the time and the resources and the support to find that out. :)

I'm sorry... I didn't mean to imply/shouldn't have implied that the speed thing was INSTEAD of attention and diligence. But, still, I think you have to take YOUR son's personality and learning style into account. If a timer does nothing but stress him out and it prevents him from applying that attention and diligence... then he's not ready for those timed speed tests, and he's not benefitting from them. And I just don't think they are necessary in every case. You son is one of those cases. It sounds like he'd do better without them. Learning to work under pressure and deadlines and learning to pay attention to things you have no interest in, are both things that develop on their own, with time and maturity and/or out of necessity when exploring your chosen path as an adult. Again, I have no idea how old your son is. But something he is incapable of doing at age 8 may not be something he'd be incapable of doing at age 12, and something he'd be incapable of doing at age 12, might not be something he'd be incapable of doing at age 19, etc.

I always love finding another Outlander fan! Do you have as huge a crush on Jamie as I do? LOL.