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This first week didn't happen for us...Instead I wrote a poem to commemorate the week. My mom has alzheimer's, and is fairly advanced. Last week she had complications from a failed angioplasty and was developing gangrene. By Saturday the decision to amputate was made and the surgery was done. It was an incredible shock to our family, and we experienced a level of grief we have not previously known on this journey. I drove the three hours to see her and stayed with my sister. It was a busy, sad time, but had its moments of beauty and serendipity. That said we did not start school. We will start tomorrow. That is about three weeks later than I had hoped to start, but that is okay...some things are more important. http://www.accidentalhomeschooler.blogspot.com/2014/09/convergence.html

Haha...it might be the wide camera angle. It does make it seem ridiculously spacious! It is roomy, and we enjoy it.

We have a huge, sunlit basement that is both school area and play room. We have always used it well for school, but sometimes we migrate up to the kitchen table so I can do other mom stuff while the kids work. I like the focused time that we have down in the basement and the white board is there. I think it depends on the family, but also you have to be very realistic about the lifestyle in your house. Our basement worked well because it was kind of like a second family room. We have the kids' computer, the tv, the toys the books and the school area. I can work with one kid while the other is playing. My main complaint is that my kitchen seems to stay a mess on school days because I am downstairs, but we deal with it. If i didn't have this, I would use the family room as school room, because it is attached to the kitchen in one of those open floor-plan / great room concepts. This is our school room, as it was in 2011, with some minor changes here and there. It is essentially the same, though.

Kids resort to tears when they cannot articulate their struggle. It sounds to me like what you did was spot-on. Back off, come back to it after both of you have had a chance to get some space from the frustration. It doesn't mean he'll never do math again. He needs to know you're on his side. If he's crying over math, it might be the approach, but so often in my case it is my attitude toward the thing that causes tears. I realized that I've put too much pressure to just get stuff done and not taken enough time to rethink it, look at it from a new perspective, make a game of it. YMMV...

Thank you so much! It is strange how a small thing like just hearing from someone else who has done it, even if it's not the way you would do it yourself can just kind of have a "shhhhhhh, there, there..." effect. I really needed that. I love the idea of how you build your lit and philosophy courses, though! Sounds like some great stuff to think about as we move forward this year.

I have always felt that "less is more" in the same sense that 8Fills does... Quality, not quantity, mastery of what matters... That said, my ds is starting 8th grade this year and I find myself under tons of personal pressure to prepare him for high school--like somehow that is going to change how we educate. I find myself under some weird pressure to prepare him for life as a robot. :huh: I don't like the thought that I will have to suddenly start assigning a value to things we have always done and test him for things that are drivel, and prepare him for an institution that may or may not value anything that we have done (i.e. university / college). It is taking all of my will to cling to what I know is best, and not fill in check boxes just for the exercise of getting things done for "credit." Then again, how important is it that he know that unfortunately, that is how the world works these days and it is just something we have to put up with and so... I'm not even sure this post makes sense, but then again I'm not sure if I'm making sense to myself right now. I just find myself in a weird transition point and I don't know how things are going to work out...

This has been a really weird year for us. My "partner in crime" -- i.e. a friend with whom I have been on the track for the past 6 years and have co-opted with has put her older daughter in a university model private school, and my other co-op partner is going with an online school. I, too, for personal reasons felt that it was time to move on from the group and think about my son's particular needs for high school. This is my 9th year of home schooling, and I feel very blasé about it... this is the first year that I haven't really felt ready for school to start. I actually feel ready for a vacation. I don't know what to think about it except to put one foot in front of the other and plod on. I have no desire to put the kids in school...i'm sure that is not the right choice for our family. I think we are just supposed to keep going, even if the going gets tough.

:001_unsure: despite my best intentions, it looks like we are in that "starting after labor day" group. I try to start earlier, but this year it just didn't happen. oh well...

Lyra. have had them for going on three years, good as new, and we use them A LOT.

I can hardly believe that I am posting on the 8th grade thread. We just started K a couple weeks ago, didn't we? We are going to be doing the following: TOG Year 2 Saxon Algebra 1 Apologia Physical Analytical Grammar, season 3 Cover Story Phonetic Zoo (spelling) List C Spanish 1 Java Script PE - Olympic Lifting and CrossFit, 4 days per week

I see your point, and I'm inclined to agree with you, since you put it this way...As I said, it has not tipped my opinion against TOG in any way. I will mostly likely skip the Henty selections though and sub in something I like better. :-)

We are entering our fourth year of TOG and we love it. I love having the structure of a weekly plan, even if I don't always follow it. There have been times when I have and times when I haven't, but usually, I follow it closely. The key is it is very flexible. The pros are (as others have said) the socratic discussions, the teacher notes, the Bible and Christian history threads that keep right along with the conventional history threads, and the overall plan. It can be very rigorous if you choose to make it so. One con (as I see it) are that historical fiction is used for teaching literature. I feel that this does not need to be at all. Use historical fiction to teach history, but do not substitute a good literature read for historical fiction. This has bugged me, but has certainly not tipped the scale against using TOG. A perfect example is the use of a Henty novel to teach the literature section on Cortez. ??? I'm sure there was literature being written at the time of Cortez! I would much rather have my kid read that than a reprocessed Henty plot with different characters. Most of the literature is excellent, don't get me wrong. My kids covered so much good stuff last year (year 1) and gained an appreciation for ancient Greek and Roman mythology. I'm so pleased about that. One other con is that it would be easy to become overwhelmed if you did not look at it for the huge feast that it is and take it in smaller, manageable chunks until you are adept at using it and know how to pick and choose. Just be forewarned. That said, we are four years in and going strong. I would not stick with it if we didn't love it! :D good luck!

Lyra...they do not break, color is rich, and they do not sharpen away quickly. Best colored pencils we've ever owned...

Thanks for the replies...Has anyone used Galore Park's "So You Really Want to Learn..." series? I'm also looking at Latin Prep. Thoughts or comments appreciated!

Thanks, I will check that out.

I am looking for a Spanish 1 program to start with my son this year (8th grade). I have NO IDEA where to look for these programs or how they are rated. Has anyone successfully taught their student Spanish 1 using a curriculum and not an online or a classroom class?

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Best. Book. Ever. no, really. But that would be a read for you. If you want homeschooling lectures, then SWB's are all great.

we don't display ours, but they are about the size of a baseball card or smaller.

Love WWE, but WWS not so much. WWS sucked the fun and joy of writing right out the window for us. I have looked at IEW so many times and get knots in my stomach every time I do. It would never work with my teaching style or my children's learning styles. For us, we are doing a combination of academic essays based on our history and science content, and a new program called Cover Story, which is a more creative (but not entirely) approach, and we love it.

For us it has been the best thing to get my kids' hands on their learning. We have done more crafts with TOG than I ever would otherwise, because I shamelessly admit that I hate doing crafts. That said, my son made an entire suit of Spartan armor this year complete with a crest on the helmet. It's pretty impressive. My daughter and her friend sewed greek goddess costumes. When they were smaller we did less involved activities such as simple costumes, dioramas, maps, sewing, etc. It has been a lovely fit for my crafty kids / non crafty me.

We are just wrapping up with our THIRD :eek: year of TOG, but we started with Year 3 and and so we are finishing Year 1/ Ancients (does that make sense?). I can honestly say that you can bite off way more than you can chew at first and end up looking at TOG as an overwhelming / impossible hill to climb. Don't do that! Look at it for the long term and and like a pp said, just do the reading on the subjects you wish to do and maybe one activity a month at first. Don't worry about the 5 million suggestions there are out there. Get done what you can and enjoy it. If you look at what you are NOT getting done you will soon forget that even just the reading selections are a LOT of information. This is the first year that we have actually managed to complete all 36 week plans, from geography to Bible. So much of it has to do with the maturity level of my kids and their ability to work independently, and a certain amount has to do with my ability to organize and motivate them. You can have all the print-outs, highlights, and schedules known to homeschoolers, but what counts are the pages read, the discussions held, and the information retained. Take it easy, read and enjoy. Do what you can each week with no regrets and keep moving forward. If you have this attitude from the outset, you will enjoy TOG a whole lot more.

With audible you can either listen from an app on a tablet or phone device, or you can download your books in MP3 form. You own the books, not just the right to listen to them whenever you want. If you want to download them onto CD, you may.

I have not read the responses of other people, so I hope I am not repetitive, but I can tell you that our Audible subscription is one of the best investments I have made in my kids' and my education! My daughter can read well, but would much, much rather listen. She has listened to so much good literature! She will be 9 in May, and we have had an Audible account for at least two years, and we use other sources of audio books as well. We have listened to abridged Dickens, Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, Marguerite Henry books, all of Henry and Ribsy and Ramona (multiple times) all of the Chronicles of Narnia (so many times I've lost count), Around the World in 80 days, 39 Clues (we actually get these from the library), Story of the World multiple times, tons and tons of Jim Weiss, War Horse, PollyAnna, Swallows and Amazons,The Hobbit and LOTR...and there's more that I don't remember... The cool thing about audiobooks, in my opinion, is that it elevates a child's working vocabulary and exposes them to complex stories that they are able to enjoy but might not be able to read on their own yet. I am amazed at what my children have learned from listening, and since we all enjoy it, we have something to do and to talk about together.