You could order tiny caterpillars from a place like Insect Lore, with a habitat for them, and then you guys can observe them as they grow bigger, go into their crysallis, emerge as butterflies etc- no better example of the life cycle than that! :) (We did that last year, this year we're doing praying mantises- we just got the live egg case in the mail yesterday, in fact! Wish me luck on that, I think I will be a little creeped out by them to tell the truth haha). Enchanted Learning dot com also has some great activities, 'worksheet' type things, printable booklets and informational pages and craft projects on those kinds of things. And of course, there are always library books.

I am NOT what you'd consider a "classical" homeschooler but I would say pretty much the same thing as the first person to respond said, that it would depend on the child. I think if a parent wanted to go this route and the child was receptive to it and seemed to be doing well, great! On the other hand, I've heard of issues where people were talking about how their kids were miserable and never wanted to do anything and the parents were stressed out and miserable too, and nobody was enjoying homeschooling, and in those cases I feel very bad for them all around and think to myself "it doesn't have to be that way!" In that case (well, in my case anyway, but especially in that case) my main concern would be my child's mental/emotional health/happiness- AND mine. Rather than putting an emphasis on a rigorous schedule or a certain philosophy of very formal/structured schooling, I'd make the emphasis be on becoming more laid back and trying to make learning a fun, creative, hands on kind of experience, or one based on things my child had an interest in, etc. (I'm not saying most parents don't do that anyway of course! But I have heard of some who do just grit their teeth and push on no matter what and I think that WOULD kill a child's love for learning. And a parent's for teaching, I would think! Both would be very sad outcomes). As for me, I'm currently using the Oak Meadow curriculum with my 9 y/o fourth grade daughter. I LOVE it. I'm using a "curriculum" so I'm not just winging things. But it's a curriculum that is geared toward a lot of hands-on, creative things and not all dry textbookish stuff. And I modify a bit here and there as desired, adding things or spending more time on things we really like (like my daughter loved the colonial times stuff so we did extra crafts and projects), etc. She's doing really well, I can see she's learning, she's not resistant to doing school, neither of us are spending our days stressed out, it's been great. I do nothing formal at all with my 4 year old son. He'll start the Oak Meadow kindergarten curriculum next year (which is really more like a preschool curriculum I think, it definitely starts more slower paced than a traditional curriculum and is very story and nature and crafts and movement based). I like that about it. I don't personally agree with pushing academics on very young kids, I'd rather they just have time to be a kid and imagine and play and creative and shouldn't be made to sit at a desk doing worksheets or spending much time on school... ...UNLESS it is something they don't mind/enjoy doing. In that case, I think it's fine. But at that young age (3-5 years old for instance) I don't agree with pushing it on them if they're not interested. I think you should just see how it goes for your kids. I think as long as you have an open mind and a willingness to adapt as needed and the ability to realize if/when that happens, rather than some stubborn determined kind of attitude that "it's going to be this way, because this is the only way that 'works,' like it or not!" you'll be fine whichever way you go :)

Hey all, I was wondering if any of you have had any experience with volunteering for The Fresh Air Fund. I am really interested in hosting a child this summer. It would be my first time! I think it would be such a great experience, both for the child we host AND for us/my kids. I filled out an online query thing for additional information and it said that sometime in the next couple of weeks I would receive an "information packet" and that someone would be in touch with me. I could not seem to find out if only specific towns/cities in that are 'approved towns' so to speak or if it's the entire state as long as your state is one of the ones they use; I had come across a reference to the fact that "there are 305 'friendly towns'" overall, in 16 states, but no listing of what specific towns those are. So I was curious if anyone knew about that, and can tell me about how the interview/application process went, and what the visit with the host child was like and stuff like that. I'd want a 9-10 year old girl, someone my daughter's age. Anyone have any experiences to share? :) I'm a little nervous about how the interview will go, btw. I hope they don't hear that my husband is a tattoo artist, for example, or that I homeschool my kids, and get some preconceived notions about either one of those things and go "uh you won't be suitable" lol. Last summer I already had a bit of a bad experience when I tried to volunteer for a local place that works with pregnant and parenting teens, it was supposed to be doing mentor and parenting class type stuff, and the place turned me away because I'm not Christian. Despite the fact that the focus would have been on parenting skills, not religion. But hopefully for this none of that will matter :D And we can certainly get several "professional references" from people we know. But anyway, yeah, I'm just wondering if anyone has any stories/experiences to share with me. Thanks! :) Nance

I adore Oak Meadow. I am using an older version- I got a FANTASTIC deal on a used set of Oak Meadow from K all the way up to grade 8. Some of the assigned reading things are different but I had called Oak Meadow and asked them if the curriculum changed a whole lot from then to now and they said that nothing major has changed. (Back then it wasn't quite so new-agey either; they don't do the whole circle time/candle lighting thing in the version I have, for instance for Kindergarten). Anyway, I've been using the 4th grade curriculum with my 9 year old daughter this year and we have LOVED it. I love that there's not a lot of dry textbookish/workbookish stuff. I love how things are so hands on and creative. We don't really get bored with it, which is nice! Next year, I will be starting the OM Kindergarten curriculum with my son- I'll be starting it in September, and he'll turn 5 that November. And I'll be moving on to OM 5th Grade curriculum with my daughter. I've already been looking through the 5th grade stuff and it is continuing to look just great to me. I also personally very much like that Oak Meadow doesn't push academics so much in the earliest years. In K they stress the uppercase letters of the alphabet and the numbers 1-10 I think, in very hands on and story-based ways and a lot of craft and music and movement and nature stuff and that kind of thing rather than "you must learn to fluently read and do math and do worksheets by the end of Kindergarten." They say that they stray from 'typical' studies the most in K-2 and then from 3 on it starts getting more grade/age appropriate. I like that. I don't see the need to rush things too much with very young children, so I like that they keep things more fun and creative and slow-paced and hands on in those early grades. Actually, I like that they continue the creative, fun and hands on stuff in the later grades, too :) P.S. My only change to the 5th grade curriculum next year is that I will not be using Saxon Math, and we'll be using Teaching Textbooks instead. Up until 4th grade, OM has its own built in math curriculum, but in 5th it switches to using Saxon. Saxon seems WAY too dry/boring/lengthy/overly technical etc to me. I think TT will be a better fit for my daughter, myself, AND for the OM type of curriculum in general.

My 9 year old is learning to type online using this site: http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~gammakeys/Lesson/Lesson1.htm We do each lesson as it suggests (having you do most lines 2X each) and I never really paid attention to exactly how long it takes overall per lesson, but I would say no more than 20 minutes. Whatever it is, I couldn't see making her do more than that because by the time she's finished as it is, she's usually starting to say that her hands are tired. We do each of the lessons 2 to 3 times a week (2 in the beginning but now more like 3 as she's been learning a lot more keys and needed a bit more reinforcement), and then the following week we move on to the next lesson. She just got to lesson 11 and is doing well, it's a 16 lesson (so for us a 16 week) program plus review.

My 9 y/o daughter has "silent reading time" most days in which she can read anything she chooses. I take her to the library regularly so she can pick out her own books, and I buy her things I think will be of particular interest to her (like I recently bought some books that feature homeschooled characters; she particularly loved The Monster Of The Month Club series). The only reading I ever "assign" her is the books that Oak Meadow assigns through her curriculum. We read those aloud together to each other. If a particular topic is interesting, we will get books from the library about it and read those together (such as an Orphan Train series we just started today) but for the most part, she reads what she wants to read. I don't strictly enforce the silent reading time- usually she likes doing it but if she tells me she doesn't want to, I would never make her. I want reading to be for pleasure, not a "I have to read now" kind of thing. I've had my nose stuck in a book for as far back as I can remember and reading has always brought me great joy, I want it to be like that for her, too, not a "you have to" kind of sense.

I consider myself relaxed/eclectic (if you can do that while using a curriculum). My 9 year old fourth grade daughter is doing the Oak Meadow curriculum this year. I like it because it doesn't consist of dry text book-ish stuff and encourages a lot of hands on, creative, arts and nature type stuff. We modify as desired, sometimes sticking with something longer and/or adding on extra activities if it's of particular interest to us (like when we did colonial times), occasionally skipping something or shortening time spent on something if we've got it down pat and/or it's not of particular interest. We spend maybe 2-3 hours a day on the formal curriculum stuff and not on any strict schedule. If something fun or interesting is going on (like with our extremely active homeschool group) we don't hesitate to drop everything and go have fun and enjoy life (which is still learning!) and then get back to the 'formal' stuff afterward (or the next day, or over the weekend, or whenever we happen to do it). I manage to never get too far behind. I added on a little bit of extra stuff to it, like our own health curriculum and now an online typing/keyboarding course (at her request), a little extra times tables review and/or geography review (states and capitals). We go on a lot of field trips, we read a lot of books, we play games, watch educational shows, and I try to give her a lot of time to do her own thing (which often involves various arts and crafts, painting, playing outside, and playing with her Nintendo DS). She's in Girl Scouts, a 4H Wilderness Class, a homeschool bowling league, and we're currently doing a monthly "young writer club" with her and some other kids in the homeschool group. Over the summer we will be picking up where we left off last summer with Story Of The World Volume 1 and attempting to learn Spanish together (at her request). She'll continue with swimming lessons and art camp/classes. Next year I will continue with Oak Meadow for fifth grade but will not use Saxon Math as recommended at that point; I'll be doing Teaching Textbooks instead. Next year I will also start the Oak Meadow Kindergarten curriculum with my son, in September. He won't be quite 5 yet but I really LIKE that OM starts off much slower paced and hands on/creative/storybased etc especially in the early grades rather than pushing early strong academics. So it's sort of more like a preschool program, really. I do not do anything formal with him now for preschool, learning is very playbased and informal for us right now.

So far we've only completed 9 chapters of Volume 1 and as a not-particularly-religious Jew I have not found it to be "too Christian" by any means at all so far (which is good, because I don't want anything with a strong Christian slant to it either). SOTW is our summer project. I'll pick it up again in June after the school year is over and will continue volume 1 from there. But based on what we've done so far I'm not expecting to have any problems with it.

I would leave her alone with it. Why put her into a state of emotional distress over it? When she's ready, she'll get rid of it, and if it falls apart completely all by itself before then, at least it wasn't your doing ("fault"), and then you can work with her to find a replacement if she wants/needs one.

My daughter's favorite subject hands down is art, which I know isn't on there. Aside from that, she doesn't seem to have a favorite subject at this stage. She's in fourth grade and she enjoys most of the things we do for science and social studies (particularly because we try to do a lot of hands on projects with regard to both of those subjects). She doesn't like doing a lot of writing as in reports or journals but she does like reading and creative writing and even spelling. Math is the only subject she doesn't love (she doesn't outright hate it but it would be her least favorite subject. All the others she seems to enjoy pretty equally so far).

"Drudgery" is a good word for Saxon, and I haven't even actually used it (and won't be as I have already sold on ebay the set I bought brand new a little while back intending to use this coming fall. Luckily I got almost all of my money back on it). I had started looking through it (Saxon 5/4) and it made my eyes bleed and my head hurt. It looked sooooo tedious and dry and boring. My daughter does not love math- and truth be told, neither do I. Never have. I could foresee Saxon making us both downright miserable, and that was just by looking at the very first lesson in the book. Which, by the way, was focused on addition review. And if it made THAT seem horrid, I shudder to think what the more complicated stuff would have been like. We're doing the Oak Meadow curriculum, which up until now (4th grade) has its own built in math curriculum which we supplement a bit with math games (both board and online) and of course "real life math skills" like at the store or in the kitchen. But next year (5th grade) Oak Meadow was going to have us using Saxon for the math curric part of things. I've decided to go with Teaching Textbooks instead. It looks easier, and by easier I mean explanation wise- the problems are laid out in such a way that I think she'll "get it" without a one dimensional and very dry textbook or a mom for whom math was never a strong point trying to explain it to her, and I love that it will show step by step both audio and visual demonstrations exactly how to do each problem. And it will never lose patience or throw up its hands and say "ugh I hate math, go ask your father" :) (Okay I haven't said that yet either, exactly, but if I went with Saxon next year, I probably would!!!) I did show her the demos and samples on the TT website and she's actually excited about doing it. Excited! About a math program! That right there tells me I'm on the right track. I sure hope so!

I live in Schuylkill County (I used to live in the Poconos, but I've been in Schuylkill County for nearly six years now). I belong to a homeschool meetup group which says it's in lavelle because that's where the main organizer lives but our members are spread out in and around Schuylkill County, with the Pottsville area being the central location and therefore where a lot of our meetups are held. We do field trips, co-op classes, craft days, social get togethers and all sorts of fun things, quite frequently. If anyone is interested in a group like that PM me or look it up online on meetup.com! :) We currently have I think 22 families. Some are classical schoolers, some are unschoolers, some are cyber schoolers, some are more eclectic/relaxed and just fall somewhere in between. Our kids range from preschoolers through teenagers. It's a great group! Nance ETA: P.S. I forgot to mention, I am homeschooling a 9 year old fourth grade girl (currently using Oak Meadow curriculum) and (VERY informally) a 4 year old preschooler (boy).

Thanks for the replies! A woman on my homeschool meetup board emailed me back and said that you don't need all 4. She says the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia is basically the same thing as the other Kingfisher one (a more updated version I guess) and that the two Usbornes are similar as well. She said she prefers Usborne to Kingfisher, so I think I'm going to just go with the Usborne Book of World History supplemented with library reading and see how that goes. I have a feeling there will be plenty to read and do with the SOTW book, activity book, usborne reference book, and extra recommended library books so I'm guessing we won't feel like we are missing anything :) (my daughter is only 8). Thanks again!

Hello, I recently purchased the first volume of SOTW along with the Activity Book. I know that it lists the four reference books to use along with it (the two Usborne and the two Kingfisher). What I was wondering was, do you think it is really necessary for me to purchase all four of those? Would it be adequate to purchase one of the Usbornes and one of the Kingfishers? And if it's sufficient to do that, would you recommend one over the other? We will of course do at least some of the recommended supplemental reading through the library and some of the activities, I don't want to rush through it or anything, but I don't want to buy four different reference books if I don't really have to. Thanks for your help! Nance