I haven't used WT yet, but I'm looking into it for when my DD is in 3rd grade and I came across your post. I'm happy to see others enjoying this, as it looks kind of fun for this age range! Glad you 2 are enjoying it and it is sometimes hard to put things aside especially with the goal of completion, but looks like you made the right choice!

I am a full time WAHM and I feel guilty too, even though I have a full time stay at home dad! Just know that the feeling seems to be typical especially if you used to be a full time SAHM! I was a SAHM for 5 years before we switched our roles, right before we started to homeschool. I still managed to homeschool, but we are splitting the subjects up even more next year as it was stressful for me to try to get them all done + work. I agree with the other posters, that they should see that we are not just Moms only and that we can share our time with others, as well as them. If they are safe and have something to do, than I feel better about the situation. If they were staring at me the whole time, that would be impossible for me! Has your kids said anything about it to make you feel guilty or is it just a gut feeling? Did you just start this new routine recently? Because you may feel less guilty overtime, but it does come back sometimes... but than I read these threads on WAHM and it helps!

My mom lived in forks as a young girl and my grandparents are resting there now. We visit there about once a year and I like it for its quietness. I am on the south of the hood canal, so still to far away for a meetup but wouldn't mind chatting or helping out with advice on WA homeschooling. Since it is close to summer time, anyway you can ask her to think about it and research during the summer to figure out the best plan for the next school year? I think WA is very relaxed for requirements on homeschooling compared to a lot of other states, so if she doesn't want so much restriction hopefully she can find another method that will work for her.

Manga! That is the reason for many teens wanting to learn the language these days. I've met at least 2 other young teens starting to learn Japanese for this reason. The reading/writing resources should help with that need. Goodluck!

My DH wants to do Chemistry with my DD next year, but I really want to do a nature study... I asked her which she preferred and she said both! I'm not really sure what will happen, but I will probably focus on the nature study aspect as I follow closer to CM style and also because my DD has really been interested in bugs/nature related sciences since we've finished up on Space study. She is done with Space for now :c).

Here is a short list of most of the resources I have used in my Japanese adventures and pieced a lot of it together for my now 7 year old who has been learning along with me. Websites with free lessons or previews: http://www.mangolanguages.com/ (listening/speaking - check your library as it is free at mine!) <-- I use this http://www.genkienglish.net/genkijapan/menu.htm (free Japanese learning songs and games!) <-- I use this http://www.textfugu.com/ (online textbook listening/speaking/reading/writing) <-- I use this http://japanese-lesson.com/index.html (free writing instruction) <-- I use this http://www.coscom.co.jp/hiragana-katakana/hiraganakatakana.html (listening/writing/reading instruction) <-- I use this http://www.humanjapanese.com/home.html (software - more like a textbook, lesson guidance on reading/writing) <-- I use this http://thejapanesepage.com/ (wide variety of resources/community) http://www.byki.com/ (software - free version and is suppose to be like Rosetta Stone) http://www.livemocha.com/ (free lessons & I think tutors? I don't personally like this sites format, but your DD might like the format) Textbooks I've seen and used: Adventures in Japanese Mirai (This one is a lot of fun & it is geared toward your DD age). See the above and more Japanese materials at: http://www.cheng-tsui.com/catalog/japanese Also check out this site for more Japanese materials: http://www.thejapanshop.com/ <-- I've ordered from them several times in the past Start with some of those resources (a lot of them are free or parts, especially the first 15-20 chapters/lessons) and if she is getting somewhere and shows motivation, you can look into getting a local speaking coach. Here is a local tutor locating website I've been checking out for a while: http://www.wyzant.com/japanese_tutors.aspx I have never used Rosetta Stone, only seen the prices and demos :c). I haven't seen any Japanese language blog I've read recommend it, as it does not provide any writing instruction and provides sentences/words out of context (which might be difficult latter to translate, as you cannot translate words directly into Japanese from English). For me personally, what has cemented Japanese into my brain has been the writing (and I do speak while I write -- ask my kids!). But as we all know, everybody learns differently! I don't think Japanese is a hard language, but I also grew up around Asian languages so it's normal to my ears & I understand some of it instinctively. Any motivated person, with a reason and desire to learn any language can learn any language they choose to! I am curious what sparked your DD's interest in the language?

Me too! I've been spying on that book for the last few days. I found out yesterday that RainbowResource will carry this title when they update their catalog in a few weeks. Anyone here used this before? It seems very gentle, so it could be possible to do it with another curriculum?

I agree, it seems like if we can integrate subjects we should do that to the best of our abilities to make it easier on everyone involved! Thanks for letting me know the acronyms! PLL seems similar to Queen LA and I do like this simple format/lesson a day thing. I will have a hard time deciding on this now :) Since both seem really good!

Sorry, I am only starting my homeschooling journey but you've done this before with a homeschooling graduate, so you seem to be successful with the method you've used! This next school year I am trying to focus more on CM language arts style, because I didn't like the idea of doing "vocab" and "spelling" workbooks. After reading "Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing" from SimplyCharlotteMason (which I just got in the mail yesterday YEY!, and I've had a hard time putting it down :), it has confirmed what I was thinking... that my DD just doesn't need this extra instruction. She already ask what such and such word means if she doesn't know and spells about 10x better than I do at my age! The new book outlines very clearly what Charlotte has outlined, using her own words as references. I think it will be a handy book to remind myself of why I am choosing this direction and reassurances into the fact that it will work. I'm currently looking through various resources or might juts put together my own. But what is FLL and PLL?

You can find them here: http://www.hometrainingtools.com/search.asp?ss=rso+kit&x=0&y=0 Whoops didn't see the above post! :)

Thank you so much, sent you a PM! I agree that AS1 so far has been a little dry compared to what I see in some of the other programs. There are some fun activities in there that my daughter likes, mostly the decoding/spy messages, but I mostly use the sheets right now as more of a narration guide. AS2 has "American Achievements Activity Pack" that looks like it might have a little more activities than the AS1/AS2 notebooking pages, but I don't have those yet to compare.

I live out on the Hood Canal and would love more ideas for this area! :001_smile: For the OP, you should also check out some recent threads about science books: Good science/nature reads? Science through Living Books

Glad she is okay and what a wonderful women to look after her! Our first was not like that, but my second is an adventure too! We started using the chains all day and shutting the gate to our property when home. When my son was about 2 years old, he was staying with my mom who had only a very small 2 bedroom apartment. Basically you can hear everything from anywhere at that place. We are still not sure if my, at the time 5 year old opened the door, but he went out the front door, down 2 flights of stairs and up a steep driveway. When my mom discovered this about 5 minutes later, a man was holding our son and looking around. I always wished my mother got his name, because I would love to thank him in person for his good deed. But I also knew that I could trust my mother, because she actually told me this story. She thought I would not let her watch my kids anymore, but instead it made our trust stronger. I know this can happen to anyone at anytime. This is the second story now that I've heard of a stranger helping out, when unexpected things happen like this! It is great to see good outcomes from scarey situations. Hope you guys get a lot of rest and time to defrag, because it takes a lot time to get over those what ifs. I still think about it today and count my blessings. Give your babies lots of hugs & kisses!

You seem upset that AS1 didn't work for you, which I can completely understand as I would be too spending that kind of money! Our experience has been different with AS1, so it sounds like AS1 was just not a good fit for your family. The books, crafts, and activities have all benefited my DDs (in 1st) understanding in early American history -- and my DH and I have both learned a lot too! I hear often that if you don't like WP you might like Sonlight and if you don't like Sonlight you might like WP! I like both and have enjoyed the books from both. I hope you do find something that works better for your family!

:iagree: What a wonderful gift!

We are using WP this year and we will return to WP again next year. I'm just glad to see WP on the poll list! We are always attempting to add a little more CM to our day too.

My DD loves Science, so we do a curriculum for science that has a lot of experiments, but we do a lot of living books too. Her grandma has been sending her this series Lets Read and Find Out Science (What Makes Day and Night, Forces Make Things Move, etc). She really enjoys these books. Here are some other Science series: Magic School Bus books/show (covers just about everything) One Small Square series (African Savannah, Arctic Tundra, Backyard, etc) All Aboard Science Reader series (Magnets, Lightning: It's Electrifying, etc) Math: A Math Adventure series (Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi,Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens, etc) Math Is Categorical series (How Long or How Wide?: A Measuring Guide, On the Scale, a Weighty Tale, etc) I know that Noeo Science has literature based science mixed with experiments and so does WinterPromise. I don't think these only have living books, but there are some there that you could use for suggestions. Also anything about Gnomes will teach a lot of science, such as tinkering and nature (actually that is mostly me, but works well for her). :) I will have to look up all of the above suggestions! I'm always looking for ideas.

Looking at your childrens ages, the WP AS1 would suite your age group (1st-3rd), as Sonlights is aimed for 3rd-5th so the content is delivered for a little older crowd. If you don't mind supplementing for the younger crowd, Sonlight could work for you. Also I hear that the younger programs for Sonlight should have more crafty type things added this year, but I haven't seen it myself yet as I don't have the catalog/the website is not updated yet. Be sure to check that out, Sonlight is suppose to update their website in April sometime. I am currently using AS1 for my 1st grader this year. We have really liked the curriculum and flow, but not all of the non-fiction history books have been hits for us. This was easily fixed, as I always get extra books from the library on the same topic. The read alouds, which are fiction, have been great and we have actually managed to throw in extras we've picked out as we get through them pretty fast. There is an Native American "focus" included with the program that has books/activities throughout the week, but it was hard to do this in pieces once a day. Instead we try to do all of the Native American activities on one day, throughout the week and it has been working better for us. I can say there are sooooo many crafts/activities planned out, and even with just one student -- it would be impossible to do it all. This is how they have planned the curriculum, but I thought I would mention it as a lot of people complain about this aspect. They've given us a lot of options to choose from, but you do not have to do it all. There is a lot of "papery" activities planned out, and we have done probably 75% of them. We don't use any of the coloring books, there are maps we have done and some other paper crafts that show what life was like during that time period. We actually don't color every paper craft, so there is not too much coloring for us -- some of them are colorful and some are just plain black & white. They sell an "Early American Crafts Kit" that comes with supplies to do crafts that are not so much "busy/paper" work, it has real items such as making moccasins, tepees, games, bracelets, etc. I didn't buy this, instead searched the internet for similar crafts, printed the instructions for that week and gathered the supplies myself, so some of our crafts were more "meaty". This has worked really well for us. I would suggest that you look at the books from both suppliers and see which you like or would work for your age range the best. If you have a library or time :) it would be great for you to check them out before hand to see which would be easier for your youngers to digest.

When they first introduced the extras, I tried it out right away! We had used the free portion for years and loved it, so I wanted to give their new extras a chance and it was a big hit. They have added and continue to add new content all the time. Both of my kids like to use the more.starfall.com section! They also have a Teacher's Lounge where there are worksheet makers: Math Generators (3 types), Letter Formation Generators (6 types), and Blending Practice Generators (5 types), and High-Frequency Word Generators (4 types); their 31 week kindergarten curriculum in free through this extras area (you have to print it), and a few other resources word cards, number cards, etc... I've used some of the worksheet makers before, but there was only 4 when I first signed up. So they do keep adding things. I think its worth it and we've been subscribed for 2 years now!

It is my understanding that the prices will all be online. I sure hope they do update their site, as there is a lot of clicking right now to get to the information you need. I am still patiently waiting for my catalogs (any homeschooling catalog at this point will work for me)... I'm considering strongly to the idea that my DH has hidden them :), but he told he wouldn't do that!

I would say this is not a bookish curriculum and is really focused on hands on experiments and or activity to "sink" in the topic being learned. This was a great fit for us, because my DD loves experiments. Let me explain in general how this science works: 1) There is 1 page to read about the topic you will be learning about. They suggest you add this to their science notebook (I decided not to make extra copy for the notebook). 2) Than there are 1-3 labs related to the topic that you just learned about. These include experiments, coloring, notebooking, and other activities that are fun and support the topic. The experiments include lab sheets they have to fill out, either draw or write in. And that is it. It is very simple! 3) We also added books about the topic from the library. They have suggestions listed in their guide. 4) We also added videos and online games we found on the topic from the library. We did rabbit trails on the topics my DD really liked and even found some free lapbooks online. Than we moved on to the next topic. It has a very open format that allows you to beef it up a lot or just do the basics and it is still covers a lot of topics. Any experiment that we didn't like or couldn't find the supplies for, we found our own in books/online that had the same learning output. At the top of each experiment it list your supplies. There is even a list of all supplies needed for the year too. They have some "kits" at Home Science Tools I've been looking at for the past two years, I think for chemistry I might just give in and buy the kit this year: http://www.hometrainingtools.com/search.asp?ss=rso+kit&x=0&y=0

If the father did stay with the wife and choose another path of supporting his wife and children... than what? He should hide her in the basement, hospital, anywhere that the children can't find her? Do you know how many children in our country and around the world live with their disabled parents? As they get older they can assist in the care, and it is very humbling experience. This happens all the time with grandparents, why not with parents? I'm sure they will be curious to know how their parent got that way, but just like the birds and the bees talk, its one step at a time and certain information is given at certain ages. Most children wonder how babies are made, but we don't exactly tell them out right when they ask at age 5. I cannot judge a person by what I "would" do in that same situation unless I was in it also, I will only judge by what promises he made to his wife when they were married. And since I do not know what arrangement they made, I can honestly say I don't know if they said in "sickness & in health". I will say that is an assumption on my part, since most do say that when they marry in our country. I will reserve further comment on that situation. I simply do not think it is okay to say that because someone is disabled they do not have the right for their own children to visit or spend time with them. I think children are shielded to much in this country and they can handle a lot more of the truth than people think. The whole truth can be dished out over time as appropriate for their age. Helping to care for their parent, can mean a lot to a child even if they can't have a "normal" relationship with their parent. By some of the attitudes on the news article comments and here, I wonder what they must think of us letting my children visit their severely disabled great-grandfather? How did he get that way? Why can't he talk? Why does he lay down the whole time? When can he come home? Why won't he let us play the tv louder? We have those questions and we answer them to the best we can for their age. This teaches children that people who are disabled still need our LOVE and CARE. And that not all people in this world have the same abilities and can also lose them with accidents/old age. Visiting their mother can only be a positive thing. I don't expect them to live there and I can agree that her parents can move to make her more accessible to the children. If the children DO NOT want to visit her, well that is a completely different issue. But from the article it appears they do cherish their visits and like having her picture around.

I have only read a few articles on this situation, but the exhusband... divorced his wife within a year of the accident and her parents are looking after her. From an accident caused by the birth of HIS children. The thought that a husband would abandon his wife that way, after birthing their 3 children -- there are NO words to express the feeling that evokes. If anybody watches American Idol, earlier in the year there was a story of a contestant whose fiancee was in a terrible car accident and does not have control over her body. He goes to her house DAILY to assist in her care, and they were not even married. He is sticking by her side. They have no children, they have not made a marriage commitment, but he truely loves her and still cares for. And is there. I am not sure what their future is for these cases, but I think hastiness is not the answer. And back on topic. I'm glad she got visitation rights, no matter the reason the grandparents wanted it for. They have the right to know their mother, no matter if she is disabled or not. The children have that right at the least.

:iagree: My 7yr old DD will watch these with my 4yr old, she insist on putting them on for him as she watched them when she was his age. The newer ones have different themes, which has made the content seem new and they sit quietly together -- can't go wrong with that. I am not good at all at making the sounds. I think this might be because that is not how I learned, so making them confuses me and I'm not even sure which is the right sound to begin with. My DD is better at phonics than me and a better speller too!

Thanks for the reviews. I was curious about this myself. The kit looks great though... is the kit not put together well too? Or was it just the curriculum that pieced it together?