If only . . . my son would LOVE this! We started going to Bible Study Fellowship because ds had trouble with even the Bible studies at our church being less-than-serious. Never mind the Wednesday night "outreach" chaos!

Always. :crying:

Is there a way for it not to be entirely planned by the parents, but to give the graduates a planning role as well? I mean the parents can choose the speaker or do the videos of their kids through the years (that generally make even complete strangers cry), but could the graduates pick the music, bring beach balls to toss, or something else to ease the stress and heaviness a bit? I've planned several graduations for homeschool groups, and one thing we've done to give the graduates a voice is to have them write their intro in the program. They could write a poem, give a shout out to people who helped them, give a famous quote, whatever. I've had everything from short, sappy poems to thank yous to the family to Dr. Who quotes and song lyrics or Bible verses. They are all printed in the program and give each graduate a bit of creativity and individuality. Also, I've encouraged the graduates to do something fun as they go on stage to receive their diploma. Most are generally too nervous to do so, but some snap selfies, reveal a superman shirt under the ubiquitous gown, do a dance or even a back flip. It eases the tension and makes everyone laugh. The trick is to get the other moms to agree to give the graduates a say. I think with homeschoolers we feel it should be about US as well, and not without reason, since in many cases we have been teacher, principal, guidance counselor, and everything in between. But it can't be all about us--this is a special day for the graduates and they should be able to have a say in the celebration. Best of luck and enjoy the rest of this milestone year! Senior year is a roller coaster, to be sure!

The other day my high school son pointed to the SOTW books still on the shelf and mentioned that he really liked it when we read those. He couldn't name anything specific that he learned, but they left a positive "taste" of history with him. All we ever did was read through the books together. This year he is studying U.S. History in depth and learning a ton, because he's at a developmental level to not only retain the info, but also draw conclusions and inferences from it. It's really rewarding to see that happen, but it isn't because we "did" history a certain way when he was younger, it's just because he's ready for it now. IMO history study in the elementary years is to set the stage and cultivate interest. Period. And I say that with all certainty, having gone to the opposite extreme with my oldest. The projects, the narrations, the timelines . . . we did it ALL. And her retention by the time she got to high school history was no better than that of her brother, who got by with just reading through SOTW. It was familiar when she got around to studying it in depth in high school, but it wasn't like she remembered everything, or much of anything specific. It's the "story" that makes SOTW so great. Treat history like the fascinating journey it is and just enjoy the ride.

I'm definitely an INTJ, and I'm like Quill in that I've been part of the same homeschool group since my oldest (now a college student) was in K. The catch is that I've also led that group for the past 10 years. It was relatively small when I took over the leadership, it's quite big now, and I've had the opportunity to make it run effectively. It is a tremendous amount of work, but very rewarding, and at least I get to choose what I devote my limited "people energy" to. Ours is also an elective co-op, though people who want to teach can teach whatever they like and often that means classes with an academic focus as well. I taught Latin for 4 years because I wanted my kids to have it and it's a lot more fun in a classroom setting. This year I am teaching a high school level U.S. History class and having a blast. I guess my point is this--based on personality type, one of the difficulties of a co-op is being frustrated with someone else's efforts (or lack thereof) to make it work effectively, as well as playing by someone else's rules/schedule/etc. For me being the one in charge has been the solution. We've built a great community over the years and it's been a very rewarding experience.

She just needs the test scores and the volunteer hours. The county where you are registered as a homeschooler signs off on the volunteer hours, and the test scores get validated when you send them to one of the state colleges.

For sure you don't. I don't even know what made dh and I get into the whole Santa thing, because neither of us had much of that growing up, but I suspect because it was so much fun, especially for my middle one, who was SO into it. However, this was also the kid who took it very hard when we told him a few years ago. He was 12, so definitely old enough to know. This is the first year, 3 years later, that we've really been able to talk about how hard it was for him. Had I seen that coming, I think I would have toned it down a bit. Pretty sure he's forgiven us, though. And he is my deep thinking kid so we've had plenty of good conversations about other kinds of belief since then. All the same, I do miss the days when they came flying into the living room at o'dark 30 screaming "Santa came!"

I nominate this answer as the most practical and applicable to the OP's situation. Gold star for kiwik! We have a smallish house and a lot of toys. Only three kids, and they are big now, but as a former preschool teacher I sort of automatically set stuff up in a preschoolish format from the beginning--toys in bins according to their purpose, put one bin away before you ask to get another one out. My boys liked to make elaborate "sets" using a variety of toys, and in this case they just got out the bins they wanted, removed the toy they wanted, and kept building. People think kids can't be creative if they don't have access to all the toys, all the time, but for my kids knowing there was a place for every toy and that a certain toy they were looking for could easily be found by locating the right bin didn't stifle their creativity, it helped focus it. Of course brains are wired differently, and there are quite possibly some kids for whom random piles would really get the creative juices flowing. But this mama can't think straight surrounded by mess, so our toy storage was not random. It didn't mean there was never a mess, and it meant I spent a lot of time helping to put everything back where it belonged, especially when friends who were not used to our way of doing things came over, but it all worked out in the end.

My oldest got glasses at 2. We were clued in to her need for them because crossed her eyes to compensate for the fact that she is terribly far-sighted. The glasses were not too much of a big deal, and she did a couple of rounds of patching as well. It does mean a lot of pediatric ophthalmologist appointments because they want to keep close track on how the child's vision changes with growth. At 19 she still needs corrective lenses and always will, but I will never forget the look on her face when she first got her glasses--she actually looked around the room and smiled.

True EC educators have been saying things like this for some time. Yet the policy makers continue to push skills and concepts at younger ages, defying knowledge of and sound practice in child development. Then when we don't see results, everyone wonders why. Will we ever learn that this cart before the horse strategy is not benefiting anybody, except maybe the companies producing preschool and kindergarten "curriculum?" Good article. Thanks for sharing!

I second this recommendation, keeping in mind that SWB is a professor of English at an excellent school. She regularly sees kids who were products of the school way of teaching writing, yet her own program and philosophy are vastly different. I think that speaks volumes about the long-term effectiveness of the way writing is taught in most schools.

My oldest did Singapore all the way through elementary and she did well with it. So of course I started my second child in Singapore. But I knew by book 1A that it wasn't going to work for him--just the whole number bonds thing was conceptually too much, and he was older than dd was when she was in the same book. He is NOT an intuitive thinker and it seems to me that intuition is something that Singapore leans heavily on. So we bounced around a little in 1st grade and reluctantly landed with Saxon in 2nd. I do not love Saxon, but it's "incremental approach" is exactly what this particular kid needs. He's in 9th grade now and still plodding away with Saxon. It's one of the things I love best about homeschooling--the ability to say "this is not working" and find something that does.

My ultimate goal in Latin was to help transition to a modern language, and that did not pan out as I had hoped. My three have all done Latin in elementary/middle school with the purpose of transitioning to a modern language in high school. Dd also completed two years of high school Latin before moving to Spanish. She's now a Linguistics major in college minoring in Spanish and taking Russian. She loves language, but says the Latin she took really didn't benefit her much. My boys did several years of elementary level Latin and my high schooler is now taking Spanish 1. I had hoped that Latin would help him with modern language study, and it has a bit, but not to the level that I had hoped. He went into Spanish already knowing how to conjugate a verb, which is not true for all second language beginners, and some of the vocabulary transferred, but once he started Spanish he pretty much forgot all of his Latin. I did not have a Latin background, but teaching Latin was easier than teaching a spoken language. I enjoyed teaching it and I don't regret that we did it, but what I have discovered is what I really loved about it was the structure and approach to language that it offered. Elementary Latin programs like those I used are like grammar stage building blocks, teaching the form, structure, and vocabulary in a very incremental way. I loved this and my kids did well with it. When my son got to high school Spanish, it was not a building blocks approach but instead more like a dump a bucket of information over the head approach--so much information is given with little time to absorb or learn it before moving on. In short, I wish we had found an elementary Spanish program that followed that same building blocks style and spent our elementary years on that, which would have definitely made the transition to high school Spanish much easier.

I wouldn't switch. Sounds like Singapore is working great, and if you feel it is too easy, add one of the extra practice books. For a kid moving quickly through Singapore, the switch to the slow pace of Saxon could be a math killer. I use and love Saxon with my boys. My daughter used Singapore until Pre-Algebra. She would have hated Saxon, and she didn't need its slow pace or its constant review. I say the grass is NOT greener.

Also consider some lego idea books. There are several options on Amazon. These have been well-read at our house and are a great inspiration for new builds. We've spent a long time in the Lego phase. It's fun.

The problem I see is that it is no longer possible to have a catastrophic-only policy, and it used to be. In prior years we were able to purchase a plan with a high deductible that didn't cover things like maternity, birth control, office visits, etc. For a reasonable amount each month our insurance provided a plan for emergencies, but as a young, healthy family, we opted were able to skip the options that raised the rate and pay those costs out of pocket, which amounted to significant savings. It seems that this option went away with the new insurance regulations. Well-visits are covered, maternity is covered, B/C is covered, but as a result the monthly cost has increased significantly. Meanwhile, the deductible just got higher. When our insurance costs approached $1,000 per month, we said enough. We're with a health share plan now. It does make a tremendous difference cost-wise when you don't have an employer chipping in, but it used to at least be possible to choose a less costly option for those who didn't need all the extras. On the flip side, providers are now required to provide insurance to those they were formerly able to reject, so there's a winner for every loser when it comes to issues like this, I suppose. ETA--just re-read the OP. $67 per month for a family of three? I can't even imagine. Even the "low cost" options I mentioned were never lower than $200/month. And that was with a $10,000 deductible. Your employer is footing the bill, big time.

There are many people in the world who will say that one of their favorite things to do is read. You will rarely find these people without a book, their homes are filled with books, they are often talking about a book they have read. Many people, but not all people. Others prefer to do something active, or to create something, or . . . whatever. Just because your (still relatively young) children don't walk around with books in their hands and prefer reading to all else doesn't mean that anything is amiss or that they will never be people who enjoy reading. But it might be the case that they just prefer other activities to reading. My oldest has loved books from infancy. She read early and often, she reads in her spare time, her favorite place to go is the bookstore. This is not true of my younger two, who grew up in the same house filled with books, the same weekends-only screen time rule, and the same book-loving Mama. My middle would rather be writing a story than reading it, my youngest would rather be outside jumping on the trampoline. Yes it's fun to have a book-loving child. My daughter and I will share our love of books for our lifetimes. But my boys are just different people and I'm okay with that.

I'm using the Hakim books in a co-op class for 9th graders. We use the condensed version of the books, with 4 books in the series instead of 10. My approach has been much like Julie in MN's above. The students read approximately 2 - 3 chapters per day and are assigned a study guide with 3 - 4 questions per chapter. I get most of the questions from the Sonlight guide, others I make up myself based on what I want the students to know. Our co-op meets twice a week, so class times are devoted to lecture, during which the students take notes, discussion, and critical thinking activities (see Reading Like A Historian). After each unit in the book (usually between 15 - 25 chapters), we do a unit test. I get most of these questions from the Oxford assessment book, which I pick and choose based on what we've covered extensively in class. Yes they are multiple choice, but I've found that the questions are phrased in such a way and the answer choices are thoughtful enough that the students really have to think about the question and what they know before answering. I also add short answer questions of my own where appropriate. In addition, we've spent the last few weeks working on an American Hero project in which the students each chose an individual from American history to study, then write a paper on and give a presentation to the class about that individual. The semester will culminate with the presentations right after Thanksgiving, so I'm excited to see how they do. Note: the Assessment book lines up with the original 10 volume series, not the condensed version. I own both, so I've gone through and marked in my condensed books which chapters correspond with the original series. Then I coordinate the tests, which takes a little extra work and some flipping back and forth but is not too bad.

Well my nn is Barbie, so I get to make fun of other people's names all I want, mine being so serious and all ;-) The worst one I've personally come across was in our local paper, some cute little toddler who won the baby crawl at a small-town 4th of July celebration. Kid's name was Silver, which is slightly unusual, but when you read on and find that his last name is Ware, it's a head scratcher. But maybe it's just his stage name. Winning the baby crawl would make you rather famous, after all. Then my kids mentioned that it could have been worse. They could have named him Under, or Any, or No. Still, Silver Ware?

I just hope my kids don't move far away . . . like I did. My mom was an excellent grandma, but still my kids only saw her a couple of times a year when we would visit there or my parents would visit here. She made the most of those times and the kids have fond memories, but it's not the same as being able to spend the weekend at grandma's or have grandma there for every birthday party and family event. That's the kind of grandma I want to be--a there grandma. I'm probably still years away, but my sister has grands so I have a lot of grand nephews and nieces. Boy, they sure are fun, and I love being able to jump in and help out.

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Cool! I'll definitely give it a go. We love Brain Games and shows like that.

This was pretty much my experience as well. Then you get to high school and "chained to the desk" becomes a reality. Almost. Still working on balance with my 9th grader. But all of you with young elementary children, absolutely positively enjoy the flexibility that homeschooling provides to you now. It does lessen as the children advance, and it is a beautiful thing to take an afternoon or a day or a week and just explore without worrying about books and curriculum and keeping up. Schoolwork will take up your days all too soon, don't let it do so any earlier than necessary. I should also note that we have been involved in a co-op for as long as we've been homeschooling, which means our school week has always only been 4 days. Only in high school have we not been able to squeeze the work into 4 days rather than 5. By high school the extra day gets squeezed into the weekend as "homework." But such is life!

Having a child like this will give you empathy for other parents to the nth degree. My first was the "perfect" child in that she did everything by the book. I had the audacity to think it was because of the way I parented and looked down my nose at others whose kids were not as well-behaved. So God awarded me with child #2 and said "See how you do with this one." He was different and difficult from day one and bought me humility in spades. I am exceedingly grateful for all I have learned because of our journey together. Add me to the chorus of recommendations for Greene's book. It was a game-changer for us and hugely helpful. We also had success with eliminating artificial colors and flavors. At any rate, those years were hard. The teen years are a different kind of hard, but what an amazing person my son is. When he was 7 and I was worried about what I was going to do when he was bigger than me I couldn't have imagined that he would become such a thoughtful, gentle young man. He's learned (and is learning) to handle those powerful emotions that at younger ages totally overwhelmed him. And I'm a better person because I've learned how difficult that is for some kids.

They're great books and I love the narrative story aspect of them. But my kids have gotten a lot more out of them starting in middle school. I started reading them when my boys were in 5th and 7th. The older one and I had some interesting discussions as a result of the reading. The younger one sat there with his eyes glazing over. Of course every kid is different, and just making it a chapter a day family read aloud is certainly not overkill. But for me the interaction and learning together was a lot more fun when they got old enough to really get how all of the random events were fitting together in history, and this was something that came later in the logic stage of learning.