Thanks for the thread; fortunately the local library system has this available as an ebook! DS has been on a big writing kick this year and is beginning to want to “spice up” his sentences; we’ve been discussing expansion, the importance of a broad vocabulary, and the inclusion of phrases. I was already planning to incorporate both Killgallon and IEW, both of which it seems are referenced in the book or have a more-or-less parallel approach. Look forward to discussing it with you all!

These look great! The majority of sites I’ve found dedicated to kids’ cooking have been assembly projects - put fruit on a skewer, combine these dry ingredients into a “snack mix”, etc. It’s nice to see one with actual RECIPES!

Only time will tell how successful our endeavors are! Several of the recipes (dumplings, pasta, etc) I’ve split across two working days. I’ve also included a couple of “stretch goal” recipes in our list, that can be replaced by simpler things if necessary. I’m excited to see how he does! He has always loved being in the kitchen.

The cheese-testing will also be good for fondue down the line... I recently received an electric fondue pot & am anxious to try recipes for it! I’ll have to make a trip to Spec’s for fancy cheese!

How funny - I had this on my list initially, but eliminated it. You’ve convinced me. It’ll be excellent practice for using the grater (which currently intimidates him). Potato soup was largely included for the same reason (fear of the peeler), so perhaps something else that involves peeling / grating as well? Carrot cake or zucchini bread perhaps? 🤔

Some items, like eggs & breads, we’ll be making routinely “outside of school” after they are formally introduced. Others, like dumplings & meatballs, we’ll make less frequently but in freezer-size quantities. Mostly the focus for him is building knife skills, measuring skills, & the habit of keeping a clean workspace - which can happen with a wide variety of recipes. He tends to be really resistant to repetition, but if it’s only a few days throughout the semester I may be able to get away with that by having him choose his favorite of the previous few recipes to repeat! 😊

DS (nearly 7) & I will be spending about an hour 1-2x a week on culinary arts next semester, in addition to standard “helping mom in the kitchen” stuff. Day 1 will involve a lab about telling common substances apart, followed by turning heavy cream into both whipped cream & butter. After that we’ve come up with a list of foods that can be made within an hour (not including unattended time spent marinating, chilling, or rising), but we still need a handful of ideas... what else would be a good skill-builder recipe?? On the list: Scrambled Eggs, Fried Rice, Wonton Dumplings, Tortillas, Baked Tortilla Chips + Bean Dip, Crustless Quiche, Birthday Cake, Baked Cinnamon Apples, Yeast Bread, Meatballs, Potato Soup, French Bread, Chocolate Snack Cake, Pizza (scratch dough), Hard-Boiled Eggs, Fettuccini Noodles, Alfredo Sauce, Bolognese Sauce, Ice Cream (in a bag), Baked Doughnuts, Meringues, Mousse, Cheese Fondue...

BFSU looks fabulous & I’ve been hearing people sing it’s praises for years, but it intimidates the heck out of me tbh. I love things like that for subjects I feel confident in, like writing or math, but right now I need more guidance for science & history.

This looks a lot like the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science, which we own. I suppose I could always pair the chapters in that with library books & simple Pinterest demonstrations / activities... maybe I’m making this more complicated than it needs to be.

These are simple, but they have the breadth I was hoping for without the pages being too busy visually. Content-wise we’ll need to jump ahead a few levels, but we won’t need it annually so that’s fine. Perhaps we’ll try a level paired with the Usborne book that OneThought linked...

This is what I meant, really. He wants a wide survey & I want just enough of a framework to follow to be sure we make our way around to exploring a good variety of topics so that he acquires enough of a background familiarity & vocabulary to dive more deeply into whatever sparks his interest later.

They are, but my DS prefers even the Usborne Encyclopedias (also geared much older, but still visually tidy). The busy-ness really bothers him. This is what we’ve done this semester. It’s okay... but I’d like something a little more consistent/ structured. Just enough framework that we can steadily move through something & see progress. I think I remember hearing that there is a new guide or curriculum somewhere that is supposed to make BFSU more open-&-go; I’ll have to look into it. I’ll check out Nancy Larson & the public school texts while I’m at it. Thanks for the ideas!

Ooh, he loves Usborne - thanks! Many of the big overview books I’ve found, especially those by DK, are too visually overwhelming for him.

After discussing plans for next semester with DS7, I am looking for a science curriculum or series that is different from things we have tried in the past. DS wants something that will give him a general idea of what many different branches of science look like (not one-subject-per-year) so that he can then select areas that he’d like to dive into more deeply. Minimum requirements are that it is a secular, open-and-go survey course. I would prefer that it not involve a ton of supplies or labs; I want the framework to be light enough that we feel free to add to it without getting bogged down or pause for rabbit trails / unit studies without a bunch of supplies spoiling. We would be dedicating a 45-60min block to this once or twice a week (he prefers fewer subjects covered over longer periods). ETA: He enjoys Magic School Bus (picture books, chapter books, episodes), the Let’s Read & Find Out series, & Human Body Theatre. I was underwhelmed by the MSB Science Kits we saw.

Hear, hear!

I’ve been staring at this thread for the past two weeks, but knew I wasn’t ready to join in. 2019 has been full of upheaval; I feel as if I’m only just getting my footing under me for this year - & it’s practically over! The semester ending has granted time for reflection. The threads that came alive over this weekend have really helped me to dig deep into where we are, how we have grown, & what I want our homeschool to look like in both the short- & long-term. I sat down with DS to discuss this past semester, & the following is what we came up with as our daily schedule for 2020, with timeframes in parentheses: Reading (30), Writing (30-45), Mathematics (30-45), Games (60), Loop / Project (60) Reading can be shared (buddy-reading), aloud, or silent. Anything he chooses, so long as it is at a reasonably appropriate level. Writing will have an internal loop: composition, spelling, cursive handwriting, poetry. The loop can be paused for larger projects as desired, such as NaNoWriMo which he looks forward to each year. Mathematics will alternate between a chapter of Beast Academy & deep exploration of topics of interest such as special numbers, geometry, measurement, history of math, math in art, etc. Games will be precisely what it sounds like. Gaming is his currency & can be an excellent way to introduce / reinforce / review topics, so we do a lot of game schooling. This can be spread throughout our day as several short games or it can be one long game. Loop / Project will be a loop of other subjects which he would like to explore or which I feel he needs a basic introduction to. For now the loop includes culinary arts, integrated studio art + art history, & history or science (alternating). This loop can be paused if any of the above spark interest in a special project. Once the project is completed, the loop would restart. On days that we have outside activities during our normal lesson hours, such as field trips or social co-op events, we will shorten Games & omit Loop / Project. Extra-curricular activities are soccer & Scouts; eventually we plan to resume tennis & add music.

It’s funny how individual this is, too. I was just chatting with DS about the semester that has concluded & the upcoming one. We have done an exceptionally high amount of writing this semester (a play script + a nearly-1000 word narrative) & yet when I asked what he felt was most “worth it” - that was his immediate response! He has loved it! For my DS, rigorous and stifling would be assigning copious reading. He has convergence insufficiency, so while he can decode & comprehend at a high level, the physical act is exhausting. It’s far more valuable for him to read a little bit each day, but have the vast majority of things being read to him rather than by him. Attempting too many topics at once is another rigorous and stifling pitfall for us. We do best focusing on 4-5 subjects at a time for a month or longer. As much as I see super-short lessons recommended for kids his age, he finds constant switching draining.

Yes! So little of the work of homeschooling right now is directed at DS during our formal lesson time. His breaks are almost always crammed with learning for me! This weekend’s threads have been invaluable to me - they have come at the perfect time. As such I have written close to 10pgs of notes with perspectives pulled directly from the the posts, content referenced in the posts, or my own associated rabbit trails into other threads & content.

I have struggled with this as well. A huge part of my motivation for including certain things in our days last school year was to have proof that we had done something. Some of that resulted in really beautiful work that I wouldn’t have anticipated DS being capable of... but a good chunk of it was a colossal waste of his energy. It was rigor without vitality. ETA: This year we have done hard things. Incredibly challenging things, that stretched DS in new (& sometimes painful) ways. The difference is, these things have all felt worth it. He has been relieved to complete the things, the way we all are after a difficult task - but he has been proud to complete them, & inspired to possibly circle back to them later. They have stoked his interest, not extinguished it.

I feel so much better now about having to look up so many words while perusing these forums. 😅 I mean, I knew my formal education was somewhat lacking - but there are times here that I feel like I’m having to translate from another language altogether!

At what age(s) did you begin diving into philosophy with your children?

I definitely think that as students age & outpace their instructors (be that a parent, school teacher, tutor, or whomever else) sourcing mentors becomes important both to keep the learner advancing at their rate of potential & to lessen the workload burden on the instructor. I strongly disagree with the view that a home educator must be the ONLY educator a child has - which is a view I’ve occasionally seen expressed when discussing “outsourcing” in general.

This sounds like a dangerous skill to develop! 😅

I like how concise this is. It sounded very much like the way we have approached writing & I laughed when I scrolled down far enough to see Killgallon referenced - those books are a definite source of inspiration for me! We are using an amalgamation of Killgallon, Michael Clay Thompson, Writing & Rhetoric, & IEW to guide writing development... as well as possibly a commonplace book as he gets older because I think it could be an excellent tool for synthesizing all of the above as well as a way to support drawing from literature of his own choosing.

The bolded is precisely the mire I am currently working through. My perspective on the education I want to provide is evolving & my confidence in curating that education is growing. I find myself stepping away from others’ procedures, others’ plans, others’ organization... but at the same time I feel as though I haven’t quite gotten my footing yet. It’s a very vulnerable state. Many a rabbit hole has been explored this weekend - no doubt with many more to come!