Thank you so much, everyone, for your replies. He does compose on the computer now, and we always wait at least a day between his first draft and any revisions. I hadn't thought to have him read the paragraph out loud, however, so I'll definitely try that with next week's writing assignment and see if it helps his ear pick out problems his eyes are missing. :) Interesting! We've used Shurley up until now, and even though we've been pleased with it, Shurley doesn't teach diagramming. I had just about made up my mind to switch after this level of Shurley to a program that does teach diagramming, just so my children (*cough*andtheirmother*cough* ;)) will have some exposure to it. I might move up the timetable on that switch - thank you! (I should probably get that writing CD, too...thanks for reminding me of it.) I think what makes this so frustrating for me is that I really see a spark in my son's writing. My DD writes lovely, well-organized sentences and paragraphs, and I'm perfectly satisfied with them, but there's no spark there. It's a skill that will serve her well in her life, and I'm glad she has it, but I doubt it will ever be a creative outlet for her or bring her joy to string words together. I think writing could be one of my son's gifts, though, if he can work through these technical difficulties. And do that he must - I understand that - but I'd really like to do it without crushing his enthusiasm. Thanks again to all who took the time to reply and offer ideas and encouragement. I feel like I have some new things to try now :). Best, SBP

You know how some kids can do really well on a spelling test and then misspell the exact same words the next day in a writing assignment? Well my DS11 has the grammar version of that. He's been doing formal grammar since he was in second grade and has always done well; it's probably his best subject. Give him a page full of sentence errors, and he can spot them and fix them. Run-ons, comma splices, fragments - no problem. But his WRITING!!! :eek: His writing is creative and funny and delightful, unless you happen to be a fan of grammatically correct sentences, in which case it's just agonizing to read. It discourages him so much when I go through it with him and point out all the sentence errors, even though I try - truly - to balance the criticism with heaps of praise on that which is praiseworthy. I don't want to discourage him, but I simply can't let all those problems slide. How can I teach him to apply what he knows about sentences to his writing? Right now we're doing Shurley 6, Daily Grams 5, and IEW. The things he's learning in the first two just aren't transferring to the third. And in the meantime, his IEW assignments are getting longer, which just gives him more opportunity to make errors, get frustrated, etc. So, does anyone have any great BTDT advice for me? Anything you can suggest to help us bridge this disconnect between theory and practice? I'd really appreciate it! Best, SBP

Here's our list for this year. There will be a few more (I haven't finished planning 2nd semester yet, especially readers) but this is what we have so far: Read-Alouds: The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare Johnny Tremain - Forbes Carry On, Mr. Bowditch - Latham Amos Fortune, Free Man - Yates Across Five Aprils - Hunt Little Britches: Father & I Were Ranchers - Moody Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Taylor After the Dancing Days - Rostkowski The Winged Watchman - Van Stockum Readers Pedro's Journal - Conrad The Landing of the Pilgrims - Daugherty The Sign of the Beaver - Speare Toliver's Secret - Brady Seaman: The Dog Who Explored the West with Lewis & Clark - Karwoski The Boy in the Alamo - Cousins The Last Safe House - Greenwood Caddie Woodlawn - Brink Bull Run - Fleischman Maureen the Detective - Jones Where the Red Fern Grows - Rawls Number the Stars - Lowry So far, Johnny Tremain has been the kids' favorite of our read-alouds, but really, there hasn't been a dud among them so far. Hope something here helps :). SBP

:iagree: Megawords is effective and easy for me as a teacher, but we went through the first two books this semester, and now we're all a little tired of it. I'm going to use Spelling Wisdom next semester and might do that combination from here on out - Megawords mixed with dictation, either alternating weeks or alternating semesters. I have one natural speller and one not, but for lots of reasons, it's easier just keeping them doing the same thing. I think DS needs the rules he gets in Megawords, so we'll keep doing it at least part of the year. SBP

For my children, Fred will always be a supplement. My son usually does about one LoF lesson per week - sometimes two if he does one with DH on the weekend. We love LoF, but both of my children need to spend more time on math than Fred provides. My son, especially, seems to need LOTS of repetition before he internalizes a concept. We're using BJU 5 for our spine and then letting him put what he learns into practice using LoF. Next year, I'm leaning toward using Chalkdust and LoF, just as you are :). So much depends on the child, though. I can see how a child who is intuitive about math could do just fine using Fred alone. I didn't seem to get any children like that, though, so we'll continue to use something else as our spine and let LoF be our "fun math." Best, SBP

Hi Sunny - I see from your sig that your DD is 5. Some five year olds are ready for writing and some just aren't. Fine motor skills are still developing at that age, and the fact that her handwriting is horrible doesn't necessarily mean she isn't trying or isn't being cooperative. It might just be that she's not ready for that much writing. As for not minding, I do think this is something that needs to be addressed - firmly - if you plan to continue homeschooling. I don't know your situation, so some of my advice might be way off base. Please know that I'm not judging you - just passing along some things I've learned over the years and have found helpful in organizing my own homeschool. 1. I realized many years ago that I could not expect my children to be disciplined about their school work if I was undisciplined. Homeschooling is my job. Period. I have to approach it with the same work ethic that I would approach a paying job that I got up and went to every single day. That means that I do not start late, I do not blow it off on days that I don't feel like doing it, I do not allow my work environment (my home) to be a cluttered mess, I do not come to the "office" (my dining room table) unprepared and disorganized. I also don't answer the phone in the middle of lessons, don't volunteer for projects or run errands that will disrupt our school day - don't do anything, basically, that will send my children the message that there is something more important than their school work. If I did send my children to school, I would be outraged if the teacher took personal phone calls in the middle of their lessons or dashed out in the middle of the day to handle personal business. Why would I offer my children less commitment than I would expect of a public school teacher? 2. It is important to my son, especially, that we have a schedule and that it be pretty much engraved in stone. He is an ADD kid, and he needs to know exactly what we're doing, how long it's likely to take, and when his breaks are scheduled. This was especially important when he was your DD's age. He had a written schedule with breaks in red, and we didn't deviate from that schedule unless someone was in need of urgent medical attention ;). The schedule changed (slightly) from year to year as we added more subjects, but it didn't change from day to day or from week to week. Now that they're older, they get a written list of assignments every day and are able to work on a number of them independently, in whatever order they want, but we still have a predictable, set pattern to our days. 3. My children learned early and well that there were consequences for refusing to do schoolwork. When my son was six, he refused to start school one morning when I asked him to because he was busy playing a new computer game. We got in the car right then and took the game to Goodwill. He's almost eleven now, and we've literally never had that problem again. If the schoolwork isn't completed with a willing, cooperative spirit, or isn't completed to my satisfaction, then there is no playtime, no tv, no Wii, no anything until it has been. 4. People who don't get a good education need to learn to support themselves somehow. You don't want to do schoolwork? Well, there are leaves to be raked, baseboards to be washed, weeds to be pulled, etc. My children have learned that a day of manual labor makes schoolwork seem much more appealing. Your DD might be a bit young for this approach, but it's one to keep in mind for the future :). Again, you might not see yourself or your DD anywhere here. It's just some of what has smoothed our path over the last six years. Best of luck to you :). SBP ETA: I'm afraid I came across as a bit of an ogre here, and that wasn't my intention. I've never used Abeka, so I have no idea if it's too hard/structured for your DD, but I do agree with the other posters who suggested keeping lessons light and fun for a five year old. My kids at that age never had lessons longer than 15 or so minutes, and we made sure to do lots of moving around in between. BUT when I said it was time to do schoolwork, I meant it, and they knew that from a very young age. I think establishing that authority and developing good school habits when the dc are young is far, far more important than what they actually learn in kindergarten. :).

My favorite non-fiction read was Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. My favorite fiction was The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which I read out loud to the kids. Somehow, I'd never read it before, but it was one of those (like Anne of Green Gables the previous year) that I was sneaking upstairs at night so that I could read ahead :). The book that made me go "huh?" and wish I had those hours back was Twilight. Sorry, but I just don't get what all the fuss is about with that one. :confused: SBP

I've had success with this ear wash, which seems similar to the spaniel ear wash another poster mentioned. When I see my Labradoodle's ears getting icky, I use this for a few days and they clear right up. It's kind of a pain because the gentian violet stains horribly, so you definitely have to use it outside, and I always wear old clothes just in case she splatters me with it when she shakes her head. But on the plus side, one bottle of the stuff seems set to last me for years, and it really does work. I also have her ears plucked several times a year when I have her groomed. Doodle and poodle owners seem divided on whether or not this is a good practice, but it seems to help my dog, so we'll keep doing it. Good luck :). SBP ETA: I saw another poster mentioned Lamb and Rice - we did switch to that, and it might have helped as well. My other dog has developed chronic skin irritation in her old age, and I can't tell that the different food has made much of a difference with her, but I haven't had to treat the Labradoodle's ears much at all this past year.

:iagree: If you think you want to homeschool your son, I really can't stress enough how important it is that he respect your authority. There's nothing wrong with picking your battles - you might be fine with him wearing a Hulk shirt (or whatever) every day of his life and choose not to make that a battle. But if you're not fine with it, then you need to assert your authority. The bottom line is that he's three, and however smart or stubborn he might be, you can be smarter and stubborn-er ;). That might not be the case when he's thirteen. The rest sounds like pretty normal three year old behavior to me. He sounds bright and imaginative, which is fun! Best of luck to you :). SBP

We went to Spell to Write and Read... and stayed there for the next four years. 100EL does a terrific job of teaching children to sound out words, but SWR is what made my kids truly fluent readers and spellers. Lately I've seen lots of buzz about All About Spelling, which wasn't around when my children were little, but it also uses the Orton-Gillingham phonograms/methods. For readers, we went straight from 100EL to the Pathway readers. My kids were CRAZY about these and begged to read them. We also used some of A Beka's early readers. I found that when they were just starting out, it was easier to stick with controlled-vocabulary readers than to try to find library books that wouldn't frustrate them. That period didn't last long, however (6 months, maybe?) and they soon were able to tackle a broader range of material. Good luck finding the right thing for you and your DD. It sounds like she's doing very well so far :). SBP

I would pick either Essentials, which uses Leigh Bortins's Essentials of the English Language for grammar, OR Shurley. Definitely not both. We haven't used EEL, but my understanding is that it is very challenging and would definitely be too much either to combine with another program or to use with most 3rd graders. If you're set on keeping the 3rd and 5th grader together, I'd suggest maybe going with Shurley 4. There's a great deal of repetition in Shurley 3, 4 & 5, and my 3rd grader did fine in Shurley 4. Hope this helps, rather than just muddying the waters :). SBP

We switched this year because I didn't want to do a year of geometry, but I miss it every day. SBP

I'm not crazy about DVD programs either, but IEW has been a great fit for our family, and I don't regret a penny we've spent on it. This is our second year using it, and I'm seeing such improvements in my children's writing. It's really exciting! I have one child who is more creative, and IEW gives him the latitude to have some fun with his compositions. My other child is more the "just the facts" type, and IEW works for her as well. Good luck in your decision :) SBP

We tried this one from Pandia Press. We wound up not being "wall timeline" people, but it was pretty :). SBP

I wrote a long reply to this this morning, and it disappeared into the ether when I hit 'submit' :banghead:. I don't have time to recreate it all at the moment, but I did want to suggest that you might want to look at Easy Timeline Creator if the paper timeline is driving you and your DS nuts. I've never been able to keep up with a written timeline (and I've tried several) but my kiddos LOVE adding things to their Easy Timeline Creator timeline. It's neat, easy to read, and easy to use. It's one of the best things we've added this year. :) Best, SBP

That sounds very complete to me... and very much like what I did with my two for fourth, though we used slightly different curricula. The only gap I saw with my two was in "mechanics" - capitalization, punctuation, etc. - and I added in Daily Grams to help with that. It only takes them 5-10 minutes per day and has really helped. Your dc might not need review in this area, however, so I'm by no means suggesting that you need to add it to what you already have. It's just been a worthwhile resource for us, so I thought I'd mention it :). Best of luck to you! SBP

I've already decided that fifth grade is as far as I go teaching math. My current plan is to switch my son to Chalkdust next year, and my DD the year after that. I will probably sit there with him to watch the lessons, both to make sure he's paying attention and because I'd really like to understand sixth grade math myself! I tell my kids all the time that I'm trying hard to give them a better education than I had. That would be my answer to them if they suggested that I was doing fine without proficiency in the higher maths. :) Best, SBP

I hope we don't have to, because I've been homeschooling 6 years and have never set eyes on Spelling Workout ;). We used Spell to Write & Read until this year and have just switched to a workbook program for the first time because the children were spelling very well, and I thought I could free up some teaching time by switching. So far so good, and it sounds like that's the case with your DD as well. If she needs something more rules-based as the words get longer and more complex, you'll probably know it and can make the change then. I'm a big believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Best, SBP

I looked hard at TOG for the logic stage, but I think I've decided to go with TRISMS next year instead. There were just too many parts of TOG I didn't think we'd use. SBP

:iagree: I can't imagine telling my dh he couldn't go somewhere with one of his siblings, nor can I imagine him telling me that if the shoe were on the other foot. I think that whole conversation would be far more damaging to our marriage than a trip to Vegas would be. Marriages are different, though, and only you know how this trip might affect yours. If his going will cause lasting resentment between you, then it's probably better that he not go. SBP

I majored in English and minored in journalism. I enjoyed my English classes the most, but when it came time to find gainful employment, it was the journalism experience (and particularly several college internships) that got me that first job...and the second, and the third, for that matter. Based on my own experiences, if one of my children winds up wanting to pursue an English degree, I will strongly urge them to either minor in something more "practical" or, perhaps, even to get an associate degree first from a technical college in some trade that interests them. There is nothing wrong with wanting to write the great American novel, but there's a lot to be said for eating and having a roof over your head while you do it. When the "homeschooling" phase of my life is over, I've considered going back to school to pick up the classes I'd need to get certified to teach high school English. I've enjoyed the co-op classes I've taught and enjoy teaching grammar and writing to my own kids. (Once, in the middle of a Shurley lesson, my son shook his head and said, very gently, so as to spare my feelings, "Mom, I don't think this stuff is quite as exciting as you seem to think it is." :D) I hate education classes, but in hindsight, I realize this is probably what I should have done in the first place. So that's my take on it, for what it's worth. I think my English classes prepared me more for being a teacher of English than anything else; there's not a thing wrong with that, but I'd want my children to approach the degree with that in mind. Best of luck to your family as you approach these decisions :) SBP

ITA. I am very put off by books that romanticize adultery, and I was surprised by and disappointed in Outlander, which had come very highly recommended by several friends whose opinions I value. It's been a long time since I read it, so I can't comment on the details, which have long since slipped my mind, but I had no desire at all to pursue the sequels. SBP

How exciting for your son! And for all of you, really :) Cesar Milan recommends walking the dog around the neighborhood before ever bringing her into the house. If you want your son to be most tightly bonded with the dog, then he would be the ideal person to take the dog on this and subsequent walks. It establishes him as the dog's pack leader and also hopefully tires her out a bit so she'll be less excited/nervous when she enters the home and meets the other pets. We did this with our 1 year old rescue dog a year ago, and she settled in beautifully and quickly. I would keep her on the leash for a few minutes while the other dogs sniff her and get to know her a bit, and even though the kids will be excited about a new pet, I would encourage them to remain calm and quiet while the dogs meet. Your previous pets' reactions will probably dictate whether you let the dogs remain together at first or whether they'd all do better to get to know one another gradually. Another way to promote bonding is "denning" - allowing your son to sleep with the dog in his room, at least at first. Even if you elect to crate her, the crate could be by his bed for a while. Also, of course, having him be the one to feed her will promote their bond. Good luck with your new addition! I hope everything goes smoothly and that your son is blessed with a wonderful new friend :). SBP

We're doing American history this year (5th) using Joy Hakim's History of US series and enjoying it very much. For 6th and 7th, I plan to use TRISMS History Makers. I'd always planned to repeat the four-year cycle after SOTW, but this seems like it will be a good fit for us and will match up well with my goals for my dc. I haven't thought ahead to 8th, but if we're happy with TRISMS, we'll probably stay with that. Best, SBP

I have that same recipe and was very sad when I could no longer find the garlic cheese in stores. Now I just finely chop some real garlic and add it to the grits while they're cooking, and that works pretty well. I usually use cheddar cheese, but there's no reason Velveeta wouldn't work if you prefer it. Have never tried using garlic powder, but I have used the crushed garlic you can buy in a jar, and it works, too. Real garlic is always my preference, though :). Happy cooking! SBP