Whew! You've got some hard stuff in your list! (Or it would be for my crew, anyway). Ds12 did Atomic this year in 7th and it was a definite step up from what we had been doing. He really struggled the first half of the book-there are some pretty detailed and difficult to comprehend things about atoms for a few chapters. I'm planning on doing Earth Science in high school.

Haha-Did I start too early? Seems like they are usually starting up in January. After I put up the 8th grade I expected the others to pop up, but...nope! Maybe no one wants to plan early this year.

I'm going to knock out another one of these while I have a minute. This is child #2 so I'm feeling a bit more confident. Bible: together as a family just reading through and discussing. Language arts: dictation day by day for spelling (he has drastically improved this last year-yay!), analytical grammar year 1, writing stands level 5/6, daily handwriting practice maybe? (I'm going to start that up in a couple weeks to see if it helps), reading good books modern era History: sotw4, Kingfisher Encyclopedia for supplement Geography: seterra, researching meals from the country with his older brother (we do a monthly geography meal) Science: between builders (we just rotate through the elementary books so this next year we'll be in ancients) Math: rod and staff 6 Logic: finish Orbiting with logic, Fallacy Detective, maybe Case for Christ (the kids books) Language: alternate days of Greek (Hey Andrew), and Latin (Latin's not so tough) Other: weekly art class, biweekly historic dance group, Fridays some kind of computer thing (typing, programming, intro to some computer program basics)

We do berean builders as a family until 7th. Then for 7th they do berean builders independently. I happen to have a few apologia books, so I'm planning on their physical science for 8th (and a couple in high school too and I'll order berean builders' Earth science). If you've enjoyed apologia in the past, you could stick with one of their books.

Oh man! My dh had that a year and a half ago: small cut in his elbow that let in strep. He has to have surgery on his elbow to remove the infection and then was on antibiotics for like a month. I'm so sorry but glad you are home now. Dh got it right when our local hospital was changing over a new computer system. Due to everyone learning a new system he ended up being in the hospital 6 days (the department that needed to clear him didn't receive the notification, then didn't work the next day, then didn't receive the notification again...it was maddening!!)

Boxcar children, Ranger in Time, Time Warp Trio, any of the You Choose the Adventure books.

Is Art of Argument similar to Fallacy Detective? We did that one last year (mostly). Thanks for the beautiful feet recommendation-I'll check it out!

I love that idea. I'll have to see if ds12 wants to do another year of 8th next year

I've had Samaritans for a few years but haven't ever had to use it. It's a low monthly cost but they don't cover anything until it exceeds $400 (I think). All of my Dr visits have been under that amount. My friend also has Samaritans and has had multiple things that have been covered no problem. I think these type of programs are fantastic for those who are generally healthy and don't need to go to a Dr often. I love the whole concept: that we are helping others pay for their needs and praying for them at the same time.

It's February-are we ready to talk about next year yet? I gave ds 12 the option of doing 7th again or pushing on to 8th (he's an early fall birthday) and he wants to do 8th. My current thoughts: Bible: read through as a family and discuss. Math: Saxon Algebra 1. I guess I'll count this as a high school credit 😳 I am not ready to think about high school yet. Science: Apologia Physical Science. Another high school credit. History: we're going to do another geography year. This year we did 2 weeks per country and that was too fast. Maybe 3-4 weeks this next year. I'm thinking doing a geography-related meal with another family(s) every 6 weeks or so. And requiring some kind of output: papers, books, drawings. Not sure. This year we've just done a book and it's getting a little boring-I'll probably change it up for March/April. English: finish Analytical Grammar, finish Figuratively Speaking, Vocab from Classical Roots B,C. I'm going to have him do some handwriting practice and tie it into memory work. Maybe finish writing stands 7? Maybe creative writer? Is The Lively Art of Writing considered high school or can I do it in 8th? I'm planning to do more writing across the curriculum in preparation for high school. Reading: good books based on modern era. Maybe one progeny press or similar workbook just to get him thinking about analysis. Language: we're going to switch up our Latin to Latin 1 which I found online (that sounds sketchy, ha, but I thought it looked good). Greek is going to be translating a verse or two from a book of the Bible and discussing with me. Logic: I don't know yet. Thinking toolbox? Traditional logic 1 from MP (this looks dry...)? Misc: I'm planning on teaching a weekly art class again. I'd like to do a gentle intro to computers on Fridays with him and ds10. Maybe jousting armadillo's or some kind of fun math thing for Fridays. Look forward to seeing what everyone else is doing!

This year we're doing a couple of weeks of something totally different in February. I'm putting the science, history, grammar, normal writing, and spelling aside. Instead we're doing a family unit learning about our state history and writing a couple papers/drawings. It is a completely different schedule for me. Yesterday I sat down to plan March-April and I didn't at all feel the normal February feelings of boredom with our curriculum and rethinking everything. I was actually excited to get back to all our normal things in a couple weeks. I think I fixed my February problems! What things have you done to fix your February homeschool blues?

I learned it in preschool in Michigan and have passed it on to my homeschooled kids (who love it!)

We do something similar to a freedom ranger: they are good sized birds (maybe slightly smaller than a Cornish cross, 5-6 lbs I'm guessing) and don't have an odd/game-y taste. Maybe he's processing earlier than we are if they are so small (I think we process around 12 weeks)? Or maybe it was a different breed than the one he currently has listed on his website?

We combine for science until 7th grade and then they are independent. Instead of history for my 7th grader I'm having him do geography independently (he researches the history of a country), but the rest of my kids do history together (my 5th grader has some independent reading to do in addition to me reading). The rest are doing the same country/region as the oldest, but do their geography separately. On Fridays (our light and fun day) I read Life of Fred as our math to my 2nd and 5th grader. Bible and memory work is always together. My 5th and 7th grader are reading the same book (and I'm having them do a lit guide), but they prefer to do it independently...although as I type this I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to do it with me...might help them get done faster. If it helps, it doesn't seem like there's enough of me to go around either 😕 I try to find as many independent things as I can, even though I treasure the time that we work together. The younger ones definitely get more one on one time than the older ones, but their school doesn't take nearly as long.

Have you read any Holling C Holling books? Those are packed with history. Tree in the Trail is about westward expansion. Eta: Oh, nevermind, I see Lori included it in her list 😉

We loved those too, but I think they take place in England. Matchlock Gun, Witch of Blackbird Pond, Sign of the Beaver.

We started going to storytime at the library. My big kids have a couple of activities, but my Pre-K doesn't so it is good for him. I've been trying to be better about reading at least a couple of books to him each day too. They sure do love books at that age.

We like Teach Your Monster to Read. Not phonics or numbers related, but we also like The Bible App for Kids.

My oldest will be in 8th next year so I'm starting to lay out some tentative high school plans. Looking at history and rereading the well trained mind section on that leaves me with some questions: 1) my state doesn't have any set graduation requirements, but following the public school list it is: Civics, Personal Finance and Economics, American History, World History. Let's say I start the well trained mind method for 9th and decide it isn't a good fit. Would it be impossible to switch to the traditional method? 2) If I wanted to keep the public school list on his transcripts, how would that work? I can see making the credit for American and world history fit, but would I have to do totally separate classes for the Civics/Econ? Are those classes something colleges would be looking for on transcripts or would I be ok to just call the classes something like history I-IV and not do civics/econ? 3) does anyone do the well trained mind method for history? How much work is it to put together? I've got 4 other kids and I'm worried about putting together an entire curriculum, especially for high school. Will I include enough writing assignments? What if I don't understand things in the book he's assigned? Etc. I think he would prefer reading through the great books as opposed to a textbook, but I am not very confident I can do this.

We start back tomorrow. Ds 2nd finished OPGTR right before break so now we can just read books (host!!). We might start with The Velveteen Rabbit. I started using flash cards with our daily math. He is always counting up with addition and doesn't seem to be memorizing. He wants to do typing with his older brothers. I'm torn. On one hand I don't care but on the other I don't think he's paying attention to finger placement and I'm not sure if that will cause bad habits. Anyone have an opinion about that? I've decided that we're doing something different during the hardest homeschool month: Feb. We're going to put aside several subjects, learn state history, and complete some kind of project (I'll let them choose a state related subject to research). I'll probably assign my oldest at least a paper, maybe a poster. Next ds I might do a shorter paper and a diorama (I think he would like that). Ds 2nd... I'm not sure what to have him do yet.

Hmm-no, I wasn't trying to lay the blame totally on the hosting people. There's a verse in the Bible about being salt -I've always understood that to mean that those that are salt preserve the meat from going rotten. So, I think I view all of culture as heading towards selfishness but if there's something I can do to prevent a small amount of that from happening, I should do it joyfully. I often recognize, in myself, that when I try to withdraw from doing good-that-is-not-reciprocated it is for selfish reasons. It's just a small amount of good I can do to help preserve a culture that is turning, frankly, rotten.

We have a large family so no longer really get invited by couples without kids or with grown kids, even though we invite them. That is fine-it's the season of our life and I understand. We have a few families who we reciprocate back and forth with-those are great friendships for which I'm thankful. When there's not a reciprocation for multiple invites I tend to think that the other family is not really interested in establishing a deep relationship with us. That's fine and doesn't necessarily mean that I will stop inviting them, just that my relationship expectation is shallower. Every relationship needs someone who will take the first step to do the inviting: I've seen some people decide that since it's never reciprocate they will just never invite anyone again; I think that's a shame and is leading our culture in a direction of selfishness.

When we were using Rod & Staff I used to pick the ones that were hardest and assign about 10 problems. Now that he's using Saxon I just started assigning evens, which works out to 15. He's thrilled because some of them are easier...even though it's more problems 🤷‍♀️. I find that if I assign the evens he hits all the review stuff every few days and it seems to work out fine.

Are there consequences if he doesn't (assuming he understands what you've asked him to do)? Especially if he isn't doing any probably at all. Re: feeling overwhelmed: I started having my 12 yo just do math for one hour (which includes instruction time). If he gets done, great! If not, put it aside to work on something else and then come back to it at the end of the day. I'm also only assigning the evens (we use a different curriculum, so not sure that's an option with yours).

We did a co-op one year. We didn't make any friends, which was the only reason we joined. The following year I opened my house up and taught an art class. It was a subject that was easy to put off without that weekly accountability and it provided a weekly social opportunity for my kids. That has been a great fit for us. If we didn't have that, there are a couple of homeschool groups that do field trips and weekly playground meet ups that we would probably join. I've also had to kind of make peace with the fact that my kids might make friends somewhere but I might not-I have to suck it up and be ok with that.