It sounds like your boys are doing just fine. You say they're doing reading for school that I'm assuming means stories and books you think are quality. You say that they have an interest in greek myths and sports biographies (that's great!!) on top of their lighter reading. They read on their free time for fun, regardless of what they are reading...and they're still so young. It sounds perfectly ideal to me!

I never even heard the word "twaddle" til I came to this board. I AM in the "as long as they're reading, that's great!" camp, and I let my kids read what they want to read. I take my 9 y/o to the library and she picks out whatever she wants. When I'm at used book sales and whatnot, if I see books I think she'd enjoy (many of which are better "quality") I will get them and leave them accessible and/or suggest reading them aloud together. I grew up being allowed to read whatever I wanted to read. And sometimes it was just 'fluff' and other times it was something 'better'- I loved reading so much that I made my way through all kinds of books from childhood through adulthood. If I had been refused permission to read books I wanted to, or forced to read books I didn't want to, I don't know that I'd have continued loving reading as much as I always have.

I highly doubt it would be a loss if you didn't teach it. Especially in elementary school. I personally believe it's the kind of thing you could easily skip if you wanted to, especially if you're already quite busy with things more important or relevant to you, and when your child is older (teens, whenever), if they say they WANT to learn cursive, you get them a workbook and let them teach themselves cursive. Like you, I never, ever use cursive except to sign my name and I don't think anyone NEEDS cursive for anything else. If they did find they needed it or wanted it when they are older, I think it would be very easy for an older child to teach it to themselves (rather than a parent forcing a second or third grader to do it). Just my opinion anyway, to each his or her own! :D

I don't know how to tell other people to come to terms with this kind of thing. For me, I felt like my daughter's earliest years (K and 1 especially) in public school were too academic and that she needed more time to be a kid. So when I homeschooled her that first year (partial year, anyway, I didn't pull her out of public school til toward the end of 3rd grade), I knew I wanted something more relaxed, eclectic and laid back and not overly time consuming. After reading lots of websites, books and forums and exchanging emails with people who had a homeschooling style that ranged from relaxed to unschoolish and seeing and hearing that they were happy and doing okay, and had children who went on to be "successful" (a relative term of course!) it make me feel even more okay about my attitude. I think what you read and who you surround yourself with and who you talk to has a lot to do with this. If all you read are things like TWTM and talk to people who are rigorous, classical homeschoolers, you're going to think "I need to do more, am I doing enough, look what everyone else is doing." If you read things like, I don't know, "The Unschooling Handbook" and talk to people who are laid back, eclectic homeschoolers or unschoolers or relaxed schoolers like the friend you mentioned, maybe you'd wonder "am I doing too much." One of the things I keep coming back to is that in all my reading and research when I first started homeschooling, I kept coming back to things that said that no matter what style of homeschooling you choose, homeschooled kids tend to do better overall than public schooled kids. So armed with that, knowing that regardless of how I homeschooled, my daughter was better off than she was in these failing public schools around here, I found myself a happy medium. I don't unschool. I don't classical school. I picked a curriculum I think is hands on and fun, and we do it, but we don't spend countless hours on it, I don't supplement with other curricula, I am always willing to drop everything to get outdoors on a field trip or whatever, and pick things back up again later- I school around life, I don't live life around school. I'm happy, my kids are happy, I can see that they are learning, I see an evaluator each year who tells me we're doing fine, we did a standardized test last year just for "fun" (and my information) that told me she's not behind other kids, I'm not spending my days stressed out and miserable over school and either is she. I stick with what's working, I refuse to allow myself to start stressing over should I be doing X, Y and Z on top of U, V, and W just because some other people are doing that.... We just live our lives! You need to find what makes you and your family reasonably comfortable and happy and then just enjoy it. Allow yourself to be reassured by other people who are doing a similar thing if need be- that does help! And then don't keep second guessing yourself. If it FEELS right, it probably is right, for you. If it doesn't feel right, maybe you need a little tweaking. But take a deep breath, either way. You guys will be fine. :)

rarely. Usually we eat cold sandwiches, salads, sometimes we eat dinner leftovers, sometimes we do "snack platters" of things like cheeses and fruits and crackers and yogurts or hardboiled eggs, things of that nature. Sometimes we have soups. Sometimes we get takeout food. Sometimes we'll make something simple like chicken nuggets or pierogies. But we almost never cook hot meals of the type that I'd consider more of a dinner food, no.

Hm well, I pulled my daughter out of public school in March of her third grade year and homeschooled her for the rest of that school year. So not sure if that would "count" as a year or not. Then I homeschooled her for all of last year, for her fourth grade year. And this fall, we'll be starting to homeschool for her fifth grade year.

My daughter asked at age 5. And I told her then. I told her by sitting down with her and reading her a book about where babies come from geared toward children. The one I read was by Dr. Ruth. When we had finished reading it, I told her if she had any questions, to let me know. She said, "Thanks for telling me about where babies come from, Mommy!" and she skipped off to play. Periodically after that she'd come up to me now and then and ask if she could read that book again. I'd say sure, and I'd give it to her to look at, then I'd put it back on my personal bookcase. More recently, I had this fun conversation with my 4 year old: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/98326.html (scroll down past the pics from the pond and the kiddie pool and you'll see what I mean haha) And in my recent posts, of course, I posted about how my 9 year old came to now know about birth control. Yeah, you've got to love these conversations with kids!

I guess I'd be considered an active member these days. Hi :D

Thanks all lol. I guess by default this also covers the whole "people have sex for fun, not just for making babies" concept huh? Not sure if she actually made that connection, but there it was! As for the boy- he doesn't live ON my street, I just know he's somewhere nearby because he rides his bike over here all the time to play with the kids on our block. I don't know his last name, his phone number, his address, or his parents. However, I talked to my husband last night, and we agreed that the next time one of us saw the kid, we'd say something to him. It would be in a gentle tone, nothing angry. We would say something like: "Hey, Chris, listen, Buddy. Just so you know, Silly Bandz are NOT made from condoms. That's just some silly rumor some kids started and other kids keep passing around. If you ever hear anything that sounds a little weird or gross to you, that you're not sure if it is really true, you're better off asking your mom and dad about it before you tell it to anyone else. Also, listen. Alexa's only nine (he's 10), and some conversations are not appropriate for her. If you're going to be hanging out with her, we need you to keep the language clean around her and not talk to her about things that might not be considered appropriate. Such as condoms. Okay?" ....sound okay? I want to get my point across to him without sounding mean, embarrassing my daughter, or saying anything to him that I wouldn't want another parent saying to my child without me being involved in the conversation etc.

My daughter has had some of her creative writing published in Secular Homeschooling Magazine. She was thrilled to get her $5.00 check and a copy of the magazine with her writing in it. :)

Would I have necessarily had a conversation about birth control with my 9 year old? No. I had figured that for now it was enough that we'd had the talk about periods and about where babies come from. I didn't figure we'd have to go any further than that for a little while yet. But since a boy her age who lives nearby in the neighborhood informed her that Silly Bandz are made from "used condoms" and then proceeded to tell her what a condom is and what it is used for, and she then came to check with me about whether Silly Bandz are really made out of used condoms, we had to talk. Alexa: "Are Silly Bandz made out of used condoms?" Me: "Uh... No! Do you even know what a condom IS?" Alexa: "Yes." Me: "What is it?" Alexa: "it's something a man puts...somewhere...on one of his body parts...giggle, smile....you know..." Me: "his penis." Alexa: "Yes. So a woman doesn't have a baby." Me: "Right. It's called 'birth control.' There are different things men and women can do to make sure that they don't have a baby when they aren't ready to. A condom is one way. A woman can take birth control pills. There are different ways, so they don't end up having a baby when they didn't want to." Alexa: "Well, I'm just going to be surprised about when I have a baby!" Me: "Yeah, well, if you decide to just be 'surprised' every time, you might have 15 or 20 kids." Someone pass me a Vodka and OJ and reassure me that I didn't totally botch the job haha. Oh, and if you see a kid named Chris riding his bike around my town, please give him a smack in the back of the head for me and tell him to stop talking to my daughter about condoms. Thank you.

I would show them to my child, ask "Are you interested in these?" and if he was, I'd hand them over and let him read them. I'm a fan of letting kids read what they want to read on their own independent reading time (within reasonable limits, of course, I wouldn't let my kids read anything entirely inappropriate for their age... but I wouldn't tell them they couldn't read something they wanted to read because I thought they could be reading something "better"- I'd rather take the attitude that if they enjoy reading in general and can read what they want to, they'll eventually get to the "better." I did!) If my kid wasn't interested in them, I'd tell the 12 y/o "I showed these to so and so and he said they aren't to his tastes, would you like them back, or would you like me to donate them to the thrift store or to somebody else?" ETA: And also, everything that Momma2Many66 said above :D

Ask me that at the end of this coming school year haha. I plan to do TT5 with no supplementing this year for 5th grade. And 5th grade is a required standardized testing year in my state. We'll see how it goes. :D

Well, being as I can't imagine doing more than say 2 hours worth of school a day with 2nd graders, I would think that would allow me some time to do some preschool type arts and crafts and nature and music type stuff with my little one, too- things the older ones might even enjoy joining in on just for fun, once their school time is over (or before it starts, whatever works). None of it has to take a lot of time a day. But there's no reason you can't devote SOME time per day doing school with your boys and SOME time having some quality time with your daughter so you don't have to feel guilty. It doesn't have to be very formal. My son's preschool year was very informal and casual and not ridiculously structured, but I did make time to do some preschoolish things with him while h.s.ing my 4th grader. You can do it. :)

Well, our curriculum last year typically assigned a specific book approximately every three weeks. Whichever book was assigned, we read aloud together. My daughter was in 4th grade. Sometimes I would pick a book that I thought we would both enjoy and would suggest reading that aloud together, too. But insofar as books she reads to herself on her own, I have never "required" it or insisted on particular books. I make plenty of books available to her, I buy things that look interesting at used book sales, I take her to the library regularly and let her pick out her own reading material, and I leave her alone to read for sheer enjoyment's sake. That's how I grew up maintaining a lifelong love of reading, and I hope she will, too. But I wouldn't want to turn it into something that seems like she's being MADE to do it. I want her to do it because she likes to.

No, but I rave about Oak Meadow every chance I get because I really love it. Maybe I SHOULD get paid! haha.

Ridiculous. There's a book called "Better Late Than Early." You should see if your library has it and read it just to get a different viewpoint. With that said, your son sounds like he's doing fine. You certainly did not fail and you should never consider giving up homeschooling because of someone like her saying something like that. Oh and by the way? The kindergarten curriculum *I* chose for MY son (Oak Meadow) is going to have him spending Kindergarten learning the upper case letters of the alphabet and the numbers 1-10 in hands on ways via story telling, music, drawing, nature and hands on activities like forming the shapes with sticks, bread dough, and so on. It does not focus on having them able to read by the end of the year. It's more laid back in the earliest years. I appreciate that about it as I think that today's Kindergartens (in schools especially) are TOO academic. Nothing like what they used to be when I was in K, that's for sure. And I don't think that's a good thing, personally. Keep doing what you're doing with your son at your own pace and his. If it's working and he's happy, who cares what some pompous private school teacher thinks.

I do it gradually, over the summer, as I have the time and inclination, and as the kids are otherwise busy, either sleeping in the AM when I'm the first one up, or in bed at night, or playing and occupied.

This is VERY NORMAL. When I was pregnant with my son, I knew he would be my last baby. And because I had two girls already, I REALLY wanted him to be a boy. As it turns out, he was. I was so happy when I found out! If I had been told he was a girl instead, I am sure I would have felt a little bit of disappointment. There's always somebody in conversations like this who starts the whole 'you should be happy no matter what you get, how could you be disappointed blah blah blah' type of lecture, but whatever. It does not mean I'd be devastated and crying. It does not mean I'd trade her in for a boy. It does not mean I'd love her less than my other daughters. It does not mean I'd spend my life being disappointed. It simply means I'd have a bit of wistful mourning for something that would not be. And then I'd move on to loving and appreciating what was. It hardly makes one a bad person or shallow or unappreciative or uncaring about infant mortality or people who can't have children or anything else along those lines.

Will you take a minute to take a peek at these pictures and quotes I am trying to decide between to head each of my daily livejournal entries and tell me, either here or there, which picture/quote you like best? Thank you so much in advance! http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/123534.html

Well, I use the Oak Meadow curriculum- and in their summary of "Language Arts" for 2nd grade, in the second trimester, it lists "letter sounds/preparation for spelling rules" and in their summary for 3rd grade, it lists "simple spelling rules" in the first trimester and "simple spelling rules and spelling quizzes" in the second trimester of the year, so I guess we'll be following that with my son (who hasn't even started Kindergarten yet at this point).

If you were able to find an older version of OM used, they used to not use Beatrix Potter stories. I have I think like a 1998 or 1999 edition of the curriculum, and it wasn't Beatrix Potter. And used would be cheaper, too, of course! I think OM is a fantastic curriculum. My daughter and I did OM4 last year and will be doing OM5 this year. I'm going to try my son on OMK in the fall if he seems ready and willing (if he doesn't, I'll delay for a while longer, as he won't be 5 til early November anyway). So with that said, I don't think you HAVE to use a curriculum with her at this stage. You could always wait six months or a year before giving it a try.

Thanks for all these suggestions! I'm definitely holding on to them and looking into them. There were some i never heard of that sound good! portland_hill, I forgot about True Blood- I've never seen it yet but it's also on my list of things I know I eventually want to watch, because I've read and liked all the books! :D

Sorry, no, but I've seen the ads and every time I do see one of those ads, I think about what a great concept that is and that maybe when my daughter's older, we'll check it out.

Hm. Well. You could try maybe picking out one book at a time from the library yourself and leaving it around for him to either read with you or hopefully pick up and start reading on his own and see how it goes! Some suggestions: The Hardy Boys The Boxcar Children Harry Potter Encyclopedia Brown Chronicles of Narnia Peter Pan The Sign of the Beaver Shiloh James and the Giant Peach The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker The Indian In The Cupboard Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing (if you consider Judy Blume appropriate; I've always loved her lol) I'd have to think on it some more. My only son is only four years old lol. My 9 year old is a girl. But those were some that either came to mind or are sitting on our bookcase.