:grouphug:

Yowza. My brother can put his foot in his mouth sometimes, but them's fightin' words.

Me again (sorry; forgot to include this!). We also used a deck of cards and played a kind of version of "War." I'd put down one of my cards, they'd put down one of theirs, and have to add/multiply/subtract/whatever they were working on. ...yup, we're budget-schoolers, lol.

When my guys were little we did a math version of Scrabble to learn basic skills -- made cards cut from index cards into the numerals/functions and laid them out on the floor, taking turns.

OP, thanks for asking the question, and thanks, all, for the great input! Something I've been thinking about more and more lately. :thumbup1:

Absolutely praying. :grouphug:

Serene Lake

Duh! Nothing like trying to make things harder than they really are, eh? Thanks!

Good morning! Anyone use this program? Maybe I'm just slow, but I can't figure out where the vocab and spelling are introduced -- maybe I didn't get a complete "set" of books? In the Grammar book, it references "your spelling words," and yet...can't for the life of me find those words. Ordered from RR, and I thought it was a complete program. Received three books -- thick grammar book, thinner writing book, and teacher's book. Guess I didn't read too closely? Thanks!

Hi from another newbie! (Joined last year, then life went wackadoodle, back to try again!)

Great advice! As the mom of boys, I agree -- it's far more loud, active (and sometimes smelly!) than I remember life growing up with my sister (and one very placid, much younger brother).

Rabia, My guys are 9 and 11. I started writing (with publication in mind...I began writing stories when I was 5!) when my oldest was about 5. Maybe earlier. In the early days, I didn't plan on writing much while they were awake. If I absolutely, positively had to do an interview, I'd set them up with a toy they hadn't played with in a while. (But in case of emergencies, I had a cooler in my office with ice cream bars...if they stumbled in to my office, it kept 'em quiet, LOL.) As they got older, I had a treasure box that was just for my interview/writing time. If I got, say, 20 minutes of quiet in, they got a prize from the box. I'm sure this reward system sets some people's teeth on edge, but it achieved what I needed it to and today my kids respect my writing time -- and they do things without need of constant rewards, too! Nowadays, I use a cool salt lamp on my desk. If I absolutely don't want to be interrupted -- the muse is flowing or something -- I turn that light on. They know to wait until it's off to interrupt. The trick there is not to use it too often -- first of all, because as I said upthread, they're my first priority and second of all, it loses its oompf if I abuse it! Kate

Well, I'm brand-spankin' new to this forum, hope it's okay to jump in here. I fall into both categories. My homeschooling experience and my writing career launched at just about the same time. You're right -- both take a lot of time and work. But fortunately, homeschooling really meshes well with writing, and vice versa. I can write whenever and wherever, while the kids are doing something independently -- or while we're all working on language arts together. I write magazine articles and nonfiction books (so far; just started work on a fiction project). Things that the kids and I uncover in h/sing are things I can pitch to magazines and write about. With the three books, they're science activity books -- and the kids helped fine-tune the activities in them. They learned, I learned, I wrote. I think it's a matter of finding the balance for you, like everything in life. Personally, the kids got higher priority, but that didn't mean my writing was excluded. I began getting up earlier and earlier. So for the past six years, I've gotten up at 4 in the morning to write. Just works for me. I squeeze in interviews around our schedule. And any books we read is just fodder for my writing. Really, homeschooling and writing has been a perfect blend of my interests. If you want it to work out, it will! Good luck, Kate www.kathleenreilly.com www.polkadotsuitcase.com

Thanks for the welcome -- and I can see already how addictive this forum can easily become! Kate

Good morning! I'm the writer who posted the request that Susan passed along (thank you, BTW!). I really appreciate everyone who took the time to respond to my call for input -- I'm very grateful. A couple people mentioned this forum in their reply to me, so I came over to visit, found this thread, and I wanted to mention a couple things. Not everyone in The Media (insert ominous music) is opposed to homeschooling or thinks you're crazy for doing it! And I would be a hypocrite if I did think that, anyway: First and most importantly, we're a homeschooling family ourselves. We started when my oldest was kindergarten-aged (he's now 11). We've used TWTM as a guide for many years, and we've enjoyed SOTW in text, activity book, and audio book versions. When I get responses to my requests from homeschoolers, I react like this: "Of course!" I'd have been surprised not to get good responses from parents who view reading as a family lifestyle. I wrote a feature on homeschooling for a national parenting magazine last fall, and all the families profiled were very pleased with the result (I was tickled, too!). We're not all mainstream ogres in the media! Just some of us. And you can tell who they are because they send you lots of rejection letters. And for my request, "real moms who 'get' their kids to read" ...yeah, I know. Nice phrasing, Kate! Should have worded it differently. But as Susan pointed out, in journo talk, "real moms" means "not a PR person selling something." As for the "getting your child to read" part -- I should have phrased that much better. (Hey, in order to squeeze everything in, I start my writing day at 4 in the morning. Lesson learned -- wait for coffee before seeking sources!) Unfortunately, sometimes in this biz, to get the info I need, I've got to ask questions that seem like the correct answer would be, "uh...duh." Anyhoo. Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for the responses. I do appreciate everyone's input. And now that I've found this forum...I'd love to stick around if that's okay! Thanks again, Kate www.kathleenreilly.com www.polkadotsuitcase.com