That's why employers require college degrees for jobs that don't need college educations. It hurts both the kids who have high school diplomas but no skills, and the kids who have high school diplomas and skills but have to finish college (and pay for it) in order to get a job.

I really would suggest you pick up a copy of "What your Kindergartner needs to know". Even if you don't agree with it, it will give you a pretty thorough look into what some other people think. I just noticed that history is missing on your list. I'm not going to make a list of everything a kid needs to know/have been exposed to by the start of first grade, but stuff like dinosaurs way before people, cave men, early civilizations, middle ages, discovery of america, industrialization, etc might be useful to have some sort of a clue about. Telling time. Although they're covering that just now in my son's 2nd grade class. For your own sanity though, it's useful if a kid knows how to tell time, so you can say "don't wake me up till 8 on the weekend" and things like that. :)

I felt pretty overwhelmed when I started reading the list too, to be honest. And then when I went to reread the list, it actually wasn't so bad. I can actually check off almost all of those things for my 4yo, depending on what exactly is meant by some of these things. What does 'elements' mean in the context of "things to know before first grade"? Know the periodic table? Or just have a faint inkling of some small building blocks and a couple of examples? That's actually one that he may not meet the OP's req. But he knows that things are made of molecules (yay Magic School Bus), and he's heard of atoms. But I don't think he could name any of the elements (although he's heard of carbon, oxygen, and a few others), and I'm not even sure he knows what elements are. I'm completely unconcerned about that. I think that for early elementary it's about enough to know that everything is made out of smaller things that are so small that you cannot see them. Sure, call them atoms while you explain that. If the kid is interested, explain it in as much detail as s/he wants to know. But the kid won't be ruined if you delay the fine details of chemistry until 2nd or even 3rd grade. ;)

Just throwing this out there... http://www.chicagonow.com/little-kids-big-city/2011/08/is-your-child-ready-for-first-grade-1979-edition/

In 2014: 86% overall graduation. 28% regents with advanced designation (w/e that means - not planning on staying in NY long enough to care). 77% graduation rate for students with disabilities (82% in 2013 - there are only 40-something students with disabilities that graduate each year). The other high school in our district has 83% graduation, 34% regents with advanced designation, and 47% of students with disabilities graduated in 2014, 63% in 2013, but again, small numbers for those... 20-ish in 2014, 30-ish in 2013). Both schools each have around 300 students graduating each year. My oldest is in 2nd grade, and I have zero experience with the high schools in this district, but based on the amount of services they throw at my kid (4 hours of therapy a week and a 1-1 aide) we seem to be in a very good district for kids with disabilities.

The author actually recommends rereading them (every 4 books or so, iirc - so reread after reading Apples-Dogs). They're stories, and kids like to hear their favorite books multiple times. Kids learn by repetition. If you do the books at one chapter a day or so, you'll go through them too fast for a young child (the books have about 18 chapters, so if you don't reread them you might go through too many books too quickly and get too far ahead in math for the average kid). I'm still working through Apples with my 4yo, so not to the point of rereading it yet. Not sure if we will or won't. ETA: by "too fast for a young child" I mean for kids more or less in the normal age range for the books, as opposed to for example the 11 and 12yo kids of a friend of mine reading through Apples-Jelly Beans just for fun and to do a quick review of math.

Does she need subtitles to help her understand the French, or is she hearing impaired? I suppose in either case you could still do it, even without subtitles. In one of the movie reviews I just read, it said that they left out the mining scene. Probably all movie/TV versions will have left things out or changed things in ways that are obvious enough that you don't need to know what they're saying. Writing about how whether she thinks e.g. the mining scene is important or not or whether she would have left something else out or w/e would be an option. If she just needs the subtitles to help her understand what they're saying (rather than because of a hearing impairment), having read the book would make it easier to understand what they're saying too. It's okay if she doesn't understand everything they say.

WTH? And if a parent/guardian doesn't do it, the kid just never gets to 7th grade? I mean, there are no laws against a kid repeating 6th grade until turning 18, are there? On the bright side, don't the majority of bills fizzle out and die before becoming laws?

Every time I read that thread title, I kept thinking that if you have to ask people on the internet whether to get a dog or a foster baby, you should probably just stick to a dog (or neither). Reminds me of a joke I've heard in the past, about a couple wanting a dog but the landlord didn't allow pets, so they had a baby instead.

Well, apparently they turned it into a movie in French as well. So you could have her watch that and then write a brief essay (in French?) comparing the movie and the book. But I really don't know what kind of thing you need for your portfolio, so I don't know if that would be a good option or not (I also don't know how hard it would be to find a copy of the movie). I'm also not sure how good her French is (for writing things for example), since what was expected of me in 8th grade in NL is probably not the same as what they expect in 8th grade in Belgium, where it's actually one of the official languages. I also don't know if it matters if she writes something about it in French or if Dutch will do (although I suspect writing something in French about it sure wouldn't hurt from the perspective of the people judging her/you, even if Dutch is allowed). Alleen op de wereld was one of my favorite books as a kid. I've never read it in French though, nor seen any adaptations (into movies or anything). It's been a long time since I've read it though, so I don't remember all the details (although Wikipedia refreshed my memory a little, but I only skimmed that).

I think there is an increase in fear to do with everything involving parenting, and maybe even involving everything in general. Better homeschool parent education? Isn't that the stuff you teach yourself by reading some books/websites about homeschooling (and education in general), talking to other homeschoolers, etc? I'm not seeing how you'd improve homeschool parent education, since it has to come from the individuals. Unless you want the government to require aspiring homeschoolers to take a class on homeschooling...

Aside from what others have mentioned above, I'm wondering why you have a 9yo in 2nd grade. Does he have any learning challenges or other issues? Because if that's the case (whether they're diagnosed or not), it might be even more work to homeschool him.

I voted for "if they'll get it, they'll get it", but I do sometimes worry a little bit more about hygiene when one or more of us are ill. But not much. More along the lines of not letting one kid finish the other kid's food (like, if we had something yummy and the ill kid took only a few bites, the other kid is out of luck, whereas normally we're like, sure you can have that if he doesn't want it) or changing my pillow case if snotty kid slept on it before I go to bed. We don't share toothbrushes. Although when my oldest accidentally used his little brother's toothbrush I didn't run out to buy a new one. I just rinsed it a little more thoroughly and called it a day. We do all use the one rinsing cup (for rinsing after brushing). I wash it more often if we're sick. But to say I'm trying to keep it to just one sick person. Not really. Very half-assedly, and mostly if we're in a long stretch of cold after cold after cold. I'm the one who always gets sick, btw (as a kid I got diagnosed with chronic bronchitis - as an adult I've had a few doctors tell me kids don't get that - I don't know). The kids get sick less often than me. ETA: stomach bugs are not really an issue here because they're rare and usually short-lived. It's all the respiratory infections that drive me nuts.

Lightning Lit elementary Ouch. I guess that's why you're homeschooling now?

Anyway, this is the forum GAME, not the forum serious discussions thread. So... Would it be crazy to buy all the Singapore Standard copies I need As opposed to stealing them?

She's not blue yet. From the internet, I get the impression it varies per person how much it takes. Carrots temporarily make you orange (if you eat a LOT for some stretch of time). Silver has cumulative effects, happens quite suddenly when it happens, and is more or less permanent (although apparently there is some sort of laser treatment that helps now). The person I know says that it's in nanoparticles and that the bottle says it won't make you blue (because they're nanoparticles - and we all know we should trust everything any manufacturer says, right). FWIW, there is no scientific evidence that drinking colloidal silver helps for any medical condition. I'd understand using it if there was no normal healthcare, or maybe even if you have some possibly lethal condition and you're like "why not?", but as a normal part of your preventive healthcare routine... no.

healthcare - bronze or silver? I know someone who takes colloidal silver (which I wouldn't recommend - it can turn you a grayish blue). Never heard of people using bronze for medical reasons. I suggest finding an MD?

I just love watching the lightbulb go on Um... okay. Usually it happens too fast for me to really enjoy. And if it's in the middle of the night or the morning I usually hate it. Or when the kids turn it on and off over and over. I love this thread btw!

I've done Khan Academy exercises for fun (I've got something like 1.7 million points, just from doing exercises). I liked to do math problems in my head while trying to fall asleep when I was a kid. I remember trying to figure out the square roots of numbers (like the square root of 2 or 3) to as many decimal places as I could in my head (I had some insomnia). That said, long division is not on my 'fun' list. I can do it of course, but I think calculators were invented for a reason. I'm not sure why I prefer other tedious math over long division, but I do.

I don't know what the changes are going to be, but it's going to be new to everybody taking it. That said, when I moved to the US in Dec 2004, I took the SAT in Jan 2005, since that was the last one before they added the essay in spring 2005. I really wanted to avoid the essay because it's more subjective, and taking a more subjective part without knowing how graders are going to be grading it seemed like a dumb idea to me (plus, who wants to write an essay if they can avoid it? -not that that's an issue now). I suspect that unless you're aiming for (near) perfect scores, it probably won't matter much (since it's new for everyone).

Our oven is broken, so I'm happy we have a toaster oven. But, if I could affordably have a working oven, I'd gladly get rid of the toaster oven. It takes up so much counter space. My in-laws sent us an even bigger toaster oven for x-mas this year (ours already fits a frozen pizza, but only has one rack; the one they sent has two racks), and we returned it to BB&B because we really just don't have the space for it in the kitchen.

"Hiding in my room with coupons/discounts"

My first one came with my first pregnancy (22), the second with my second pregnancy (26), the third one after they pulled the molar in front of it (because it either needed a root canal or be pulled - 29yo). But, if you google it, they can come at pretty much any age. I don't remember the record for youngest (I think 7 or 8yo?), for oldest it's something like 78yo? Most likely in late teens though.

Reviving this old thread... I'm trying to teach my kids some Dutch now. I've sung songs to them since they were babies, but when it became apparent that my oldest was having some serious communication delays (due to having an autism spectrum disorder), I decided to focus on him learning *one* language (I was seriously worried for a while he'd end up knowing zero languages). He's caught up a lot with English, and we're ready to try a second language - Dutch. But other than me having sung songs to him and his little brother, their knowledge of Dutch is close to non-existent. They're 7.5yo and 4yo. Some of the resources mentioned above look really good... just hoping someone has some more ideas. It's so hard to teach a language when no-one speaks it except the one parent and materials are hard to obtain/expensive.

4 years ago (when I was 26), there were people who were surprised when I told them I was a senior. They thought I was younger than that. When I then added "in college" they were floored. They thought I was a high school freshman or sophomore at most. Yeah. I could do without that. In other news, you're less likely to be carded for alcohol if you're juggling two kids, put some groceries on the belt at the grocery store, then the alcohol, then some big boxes of diapers, and then continue to add more and more groceries. When there is a mountain of groceries and diapers between you and the cashier, the cashier is more likely to shrug and decide that you're probably old enough, and if not, you probably deserve the right to a drink anyway. :)