Dd8 sounds a lot like your son in regard to dictation. Today she resisted doing the dictation lesson (WWE2 week 15) so I went ahead and pre-wrote some of the more challenging words for her with space for her to fill in the rest of the sentence. I usually help her spell words she doesn't know but this method helped make a long sentence not so overwhelming. She was much more willing to do the dictation with that help. I did require her to add all capitalization/punctuation on her own. I think I will try more of this. I suspect she has some type auditory process issue which we will test for in the near future.

Having moved several times, I've found some success connecting with other newbies. Our last home was in an isolated, small city where many friendships had been established for a long time. It was difficult to break into that community and religious segregation (strong Seventh Day Adventist community, strong Catholic community, etc. - we're neither) added to the challenge. Other new families, whether they homeschooled or not were in the same boat as us and we got to know them best. Now we live in a big city and we've tried lots of different groups and activities and I've decided it takes close to a miracle to develop good friendships. One good friend (who lives close by) is a priceless treasure. We have found our best friends at church because that's where I get to know other parents well. But, we're also slowly getting to know other homeschoolers in the area.

This summer we've tied screen time (1 hour allowed per day) to work. Each week DDs have to earn a minimum amount of points (earned by doing jobs) in order to get the benefit of computer time the following week. Most jobs are worth 5 points and they must earn 60 points this week in order to have computer time and videos next week. If they earn the points they can use the laptop which has a time limit programmed to their user account. Although they can learn from the computer, I think they learn more valuable skills and knowledge from books or playing. Thirty minutes to an hour per day seems like plenty. If they don't use the time each day, I do not accumulate it to the next day. At the end of the school year when my dd11 was on computer restriction for five days, she realized that she missed playing and having more free time away from the computer so she asked me to change her passwords and not tell her. I was surprised by this but it's worked well. When she wants to log on she has to go through me which diminishes the temptation. I know this wouldn't work for every kid and it would drive me crazy if she was asking me all the time but it has worked for her.

I did WWE 1 and part of WWE 2 with two kids together this year. I took turns asking them narration questions which worked well and I wrote down each narration separately which also worked well. It became a little more complicated when we did dictation in WWE 2. I decided at the end of the school year I would do dictation separately with each of them so they could concentrate on the dictation alone. Otherwise, I think all of the other days were fine being done together.

Yes, thank you for clarifying. I did mean the sections labeled "Practice A" etc. and "Review 1" etc. found in the textbook.

We caught a stride with Singapore this year and it has been a good math year for us overall. I had DDs do all lessons including practice lessons, review lessons and workbook lessons. One thing that worked well to mix it up was to have them do the previous unit's textbook review after finishing a unit workbook review. I found this is where Singapore builds in the needed review. The one challenge we faced was the textbook practice lessons and textbook review lessons. Dd8 struggled to keep up the motivation working through these lessons. I gave her a spiral notebook to use for writing her answers. She was overwhelmed by having to write her answers on a separate sheet and the perceived handwriting required (although it really wasn't a lot more than a workbook review lesson.) I let her do these lessons over a few days. I'm curoius how many of you have them do all the lessons including all review and practice lessons in the textbook? If you do work problems from the text, any tips on how you handle the writing? Thanks.

I like the Standards Extra Practice book because it offers some textbook-type instruction pages for each section as well as problems. It might be a simpler and more economical way to review material he already has been exposed to but with the twist of using the Singapore method.

Thanks for the info! We'll be there later this week for an end of the school year celebration. What a great deal.

Bumping after I changed the subject line.

I've been at this homeschooling thing for a little while. While I do think the curriculum we use is important, my experience is that a whole lot of psychology is involved in motivating kids. My older dd loves to read and write, enjoys history but does not enjoy math or science generally any way I serve it up to her. She has matured to the point where she likes the challenge of Singapore math and is testing well in math but she doesn't like it. I've been homeschooling two kids this year from outside our family and motivation has been challenging with subjects they don't like also. For short term motivation, I've used a point system for earning and taking away points with the goal of everyone's points accumulating to 100 for a special outing or prize. I've also been letting them earn money towards prizes for math fact/mental math/spelling words. It's amazing how effective these little techniques have been in improving attitudes and making it more fun. How do you motivate your kids when they are not motivated especially in a subject area they don't like or that is hard? When do you use punitive motivation and when do you use motivational techniques like rewards? Older kids can begin to grasp a vision for their future so do you use motivational talks like, "You're doing so great in math and this is so important for your future!"? I'd love to learn about what other families are doing. Every kid is different but they do have similar wiring. I'd also love to read a book on the most effective motivational techniques for kids. Any good recommendations?

We're almost finished with standards 2A/2B and will have the HIGs ($10/each) textbooks and one unused workbook ($8/each) for sale. PM me if you are interested. Otherwise they will be on HomeschoolClassifieds.com in a few weeks.

I see some trends here. Writing is high on many outsourcing lists as well as handwriting and math. Now I'm curious where people find the most value for their outsourcing dollars.

I was talking with another homeschool mom the other day about how, as our kids get older, we can't teach it all. I like teaching math, history, grammar and science (can you tell which side of my brain dominates LOL) to dd11 but I appreciate or would appreciate being able to delegate art, literature, writing and languages. Fortunately my husband has taken over writing this year and will probably take over literature if we continue homeschooling. If you could, what would you most like to delegate to someone else?

Thanks, Lori. These links were very helpful especially Halcyon's requests for submissions. We're aware of "Stone Soup" and other lists of publications and plan to submit to those.

I've posted to the General Education board and Logic board and haven't received much response. Does anyone else have an 11-14 yr. old who is looking for a place to have either their written or artistic work published? I'm thinking visual art, essays, poetry, short fiction and book reviews. My dd11 would like to publish her stories and, as a result, I think it would be fun to start a literature and arts journal specifically for those who learn at home...perhaps in the format of an e-zine? Middle schools and high schools often offer this type of school publication bi annually to showcase students who enjoy the arts and writing. I would love for homeschoolers to have this option too. I know some co-ops may offer this type of class culminating project but we don't have access to that type of class. I need some encouragement and would love to hear from you if you have a child who would respond to this. Thanks!