Last year, we did math and language arts pretty much every day. We did social studies 3X a week, science 2X a week, art 2-3X a week, health and music were usually 1X a week PE was not scheduled, she got physical activity of various kinds on a regular basis anyway. We went on several field trips a month, and we'd just plan our days around that. Sometimes we'd do some school on the early side, go on a field trip, then come back and finish school stuff; other times we consolidated some of the school stuff into the next day's work, we always figured it out and caught up. I loved having the freedom to go on a lot of outings and field trips and to just get outside, do things hands on, etc.

Thanks :) I'm going to check some of these out after we're back from vacation!

Well, some of us will just have to agree to disagree. My feeling is that I don't need to toss my children out into the middle of traffic to teach them about street safety, I don't need to toss them into a burning building to teach them about fire safety, and I don't need to toss them out into the middle of deep water terrified and against their will to teach them about water safety. It just is not and never will be a necessary or humane thing to do in my opinion. Instead, I would talk to my children about the importance of water safety, I would monitor them very closely when they were around water, I would take whatever precautions I needed to take to ensure their safety without compromising their sense of security, and I would respect their right to overcome a fear in their own time and their own way. I also agree with Nakia that your child (rookie) is probably the exception rather than the rule. Kids forced into facing fears they are just not emotionally ready to face can be affected for life by that. Seriously. They may never overcome a fear if you (general you) do something like that to them, and I believe it could affect their trust in you (general you), as well.

Am I the only one who doesn't even know what this post means? :blush:

The meal doesn't sound overly fancy (although I don't make mashed potatoes VERY often because it's a bit time-consuming). We definitely snack here, my kids usually get 3 meals a day and 3 snacks a day, a morning snack, an afternoon snack, and a dessert, on average.

Absolutely not. That's cruel and completely disrespectful of a child's feelings and rights, not to mention quite likely to set them up for a lifetime of fear that otherwise would likely have only been temporary.

Yeah there is no way in H*** that I would allow someone to dunk my crying, terrified child under the water. That's more likely to traumatize them for a very long period of time than it is to help them overcome their fear. And yes I do believe that if not cornered into doing something he is terrified of doing, that he will outgrow this fear. Maybe in a year, maybe in two. In his own time. In the meanwhile, you just need to closely supervise him when he's near water. This isn't just a matter of A) Be forced into swimming lessons, or B) drown. There IS a choice C)- supervise your child carefully.

I've never heard of or seen any of the shows mentioned in this thread, but they sound like very interesting concepts! Would they be remotely suitable for a 9 1/2 y/o to watch with me?

Absolutely agree. Any pushing you do at this point is going to make things much worse. Let him play or not play in the water as desired under your supervision and try again next year in regard to swimming lessons.

What an idiot.

Welcome :)

Just for the heck of it, maybe you should read this book and see if it helps with your way of thinking at all: http://www.amazon.com/Better-Late-Than-Early-Education/dp/0883490498/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276778870&sr=1-1

Blood donations are desperately needed in the summer months, when fewer people take the time to go, and there are often shortages. That is all! :) Nance, who is going to donate blood later today.

Everywhere lol. I have two two bookcases in my computer room/den. Plus a 'china cabinet' that I took over for school stuff, and some of the school books are on one of those shelves. Plus I have a big bin filled with little kids books for my four year old sitting in the living room. Who also has some of his books in his bedroom, in 'pockets' of his rocking chair. I also have a book case full of my personal reading books in my bedroom, stacked every which way. We have a few books in the bathroom (well, my husband and daughter do, anyway lol). My daughters each have books in their bedrooms, too. I'm running out of room for books! I have such a hard time parting with my books. But periodically I just have to. I give them to my mother who either donates them to a 'books for soldiers' type cause or puts them on paperbackswap. Then I have room for more books- usually obtained through yard sales, thrift stores, and library used book sales.

I'm all for giving to charity and I think it's great he wants to contribute. But there's a difference between contributing and going without a salary for MONTHS while you live off of money that is supposed to be your nest egg in case of an emergency and virtually deplete those funds. I don't think that's a very responsible idea, and it's not even like it's going to some sort of life-saving organization- it's a building construction fund. I could never go along with that, to that extent. No way! I hope that you are able to find a compromise- well, it sounds like you already found a very reasonable compromise, I hope that he is willing to take you up on it!

I LOVED the Smurfs when I was a kid. I even had a big collection of Smurf figurines- every time I had some spare money, I'd go to this store that sold them and just loved picking out new ones. I'd play with them in my dollhouse lol. One day when I was out, my mother had a yard sale and my younger twin brothers decided to sell my Smurf collection. I never got over it. :crying: On the bright side, recently my husband has been buying some Smurf figurines for me here and there to build up a little collection again :)

I agree with this!

My 9 year old daughter is in the middle of reading a book called "Magyk" now, the first in a fantasy/adventure series by Angie Sage. The last book she finished prior to that was the last in the Orphan Train quartet/Orphan Train Adventures, by Joan Lowery Nixon. As a read aloud, she and I are in the middle of "Mary Poppins."

Read to him while he's in the bath. Or in his crib/bed at night. Or while he's sitting down and eating his breakfast/lunch/dinner. Or while you're in the car, if someone else is driving. You know, places where he can't run away from you lol.

Not sure if you can get four weeks out of it, but how about a tinkering class for the boys, where everyone brings an old or broken appliance and takes it apart and examines it and tries to put it back together, etc. Our homeschool group doesn't do weekly classes or anything, our "classes" are more one time things for fun offered here and there, but we do a lot of neat things in general. One thing I organized was a "Community Helper A to Z" type project. I try to find people for each letter of the alphabet and contact them to see if they'd be willing to meet with our group so the kids can learn more about what they do and the many, varied people and jobs it takes to make up a community. Sometimes we get tours, sometimes demonstrations, sometimes talks and Q&A sessions, sometimes hands on participation, it depends on the person. But in this way we've met with an Architect, a Banker, a Charity, a Dietician, an EMT, a Firefighter, a Groomer (pet groomer), and a Historian so far. We also try to set up "dad's classes" where we see if any of the dads in our group want to try to do a class for the kids. We tell them they can pick anything they are interested in or good at and just go with it. So one dad who is really into gems and fossils and whatnot did a "gold rush" class with the kids- they found fossils and they panned for gold and gems and they saw his collection, etc. Another dad did a nature and archery demonstration and all the kids got to practice shooting at a target with the bow and arrow. Another did a science class. Another is supposed to do a karate class at some point. For that age group (8-10) I've also offered weekly poetry workshops and a monthly "young writer's club" (short story writing workshop).

Well, why don't you just attempt it and see if he enjoys it? If he does, you can continue with it. If he doesn't, I wouldn't force the issue. Just play it by ear! :)

We work on SOTW over the summers, not during the school year when we're focused on our Oak Meadow curriculum. With that said, we just go with the flow. We take however long we need to do the chapter and the activities/projects we choose to do, and to do the supplemental reading which usually has to be ordered through interlibrary loan, etc. (We usually do most if not all of the supplemental reading, the mapwork, any coloring pages, and at least one of the crafts/projects suggested for each chapter). So I would say we do a chapter once every week or once every other week for the most part, before being ready to move on to the next one.

None! Last summer, before my daughter started fourth grade, I went through the Oak Meadow 4 syllabus and broke the weekly lessons down into daily lessons summarized in a wordpad document on my computer. This took several days, I did it gradually. But then when we started fourth grade, I could open that wordpad document, highlight and print that week's lesson, and then we'd just sit down and do it. As she's only in elementary school, I don't give her "grades" and I'm usually there with her while she's doing her work or checking it immediately afterward to see what she got right/wrong, what corrections need to be made, etc. That's it. Zero prep time unless I've made a notation that we need specific things from the store in a given week for projects, and if that's the case, then I make sure I get anything I need for the week. I don't know if that will change when she gets more to the junior high/high school years but for now I have/see no need for preparation time on any sort of regular basis.

After reading all the replies, I'd say: A group of men walked down the steps. <shrug> LOL. (Okay I agree that "was" is the correct one to use but it sounds 'funny' to me, for some reason).

Well, my reading runs along the lines of: Better Late Than Early (by the Moores, whose parenting advice I am not in agreement with but whose educational advice I enjoy and like to think about) Reclaiming Childhood (William Crain) The Unschooling Handbook (Mary Griffith) ...stuff that favors a more relaxed approach and/or a delayed approach to academics. It might not be your 'thing' but I think it's nice to get that sort of viewpoint too as maybe you'll find a balance of your own somewhere in there :)