For sure! My oldest figured out this year that if he applies himself he can be done early (because I've NEVER told him that before 🙄). My friends with a son who is similar are all jealous. I have no advice for the distractions-they just figure it out when they figure it out and drive us crazy in the meantime. My other two are not at all this way (yet?), thankfully.

I only have 3 school age kiddos right now, but my oldest was very much like yours: wanting me to sit with him for things he could do by himself. Eventually he figured it out after I repeatedly told him for days, "Try it yourself. Do as much as you can and then go on to the next subject.". It was the constant interruption from him of, "I'm done. I don't know how to do this." that was take wearing on me while I was trying to work with another child. But, they do eventually figure it out-just be consistent.

Agreed-they are sweet to me also, and I don't find the skin bitter.

I think that's why I like them-haha. Maybe I don't truly enjoy the taste of apple, so the apples that are fairly tasteless are good to me?

DH loves honey crisp, but definitely not my favorite. Nor are Fuji, though. I prefer gala or red delicious-my palette must not be well developed 😉

We are enjoying Berean Builders.

I can't even imagine the reaction of the thieves when they discovered what treasures they had stolen. 😂

My son, after opening the door of a van that wasn't ours, was shocked to discover that people don't lock their doors, until I told him that we don't either. (We live in a pretty rural town). I told him, "What are you worried they're going to steal? The diaper bag?"

A few weeks ago, but took a pregnancy test and placed it level on the counter to await the result. And waited...and waited...and nothing happened. I thought the test was probably bad, so went to throw it out only to realize that the results showed up on the other side (there was a kind of window thing on the back side too). I thought the test window looked weird.

Typing instructor platinum. One of my sons likes to do it just for fun now. ETA: I just noticed this is posted in the middle grades forum. We use the program in elementary.

That is a great question. And I think it's subjective. We are all so different-what speaks to one person might not speak to another.

I agree. I think this is very true of art as well. But, it can also mean it is subjective, in a way. There is a lot of modern art that is celebrated that I think is garbage because I think the message is garbage. True of books too -all those books about Cape Cod women having affairs-is that a message someone needs? I'm doubtful that it is... I'm seeing a huge decline in the "valuableness"/goodness of children's picture books too. There are far too many that I've read and walked away confused about what the author was even trying to convey.

I think that instruction is needed in both art and writing. Not everyone is made to be an artist or a writer. What's our goal here? For me, I want to give a good base for both art and writing so that they can go in their own direction when they reach the rhetoric stage. There seems to be a big push, in the art realm at least, to just let students "make art" without any instruction. The idea being that without adult interference students can make much more creative work than with adult interference. But, I think that's a mistake-how can the students be creative when they have nothing to pull from-no basic skills at all? Developing the skills in both art and writing seems to be ideal before letting them go. And, you're right that students aren't graded on doing art the "right way", but in a way they are. No one wants to read something that doesn't have the basic skills down-same for art. Artists, even the modern ones, have the basic skills but choose to use them or not use them as they see fit.

And @Hunter it is good to see you here. I'm not one of the older members or one who comments a lot, but I have always enjoyed reading your posts.

How do you read your PD books? We were reading a MB Synge book for history last year, but the website wouldn't save where I was and kept reverting me back to the big list of books and I would have to click multiple times to try to remember what chapter I was reading. Seems like a minor issue, but it was annoying enough that I just bought the book. Are there better websites out there?

I didn't read this article, but just based on quote #1 it sounds like it is arguing that, while slavery was the main cause, there were other causes ("the breaking point" implies that there were other things leading up to it). I think it is absolutely important to teach our kids that the main cause was slavery; however, this war was composed of many many individuals-people are complex and do things for many number of reasons. To put it as the cause was either 'A' or 'B' misses that complexity-it can absolutely be mostly 'A', but also 'B', 'C', etc. I don't think saying that diminishes the horror of slavery.

Eh...we quit today. They had a great year and worked hard. There's no reason to do tomorrow. We'll go out to breakfast in the morning to celebrate!

We went to the library today. That was a fun change of pace. Maybe we'll do a special breakfast on Friday-kids would love that. Friday was supposed to be a zoo trip, but it will be raining so we postponed it. 2 more days to go!

Haha: fun?! 😉. But, really, that is a good idea. Maybe I can whip up an idea today.

We are in our last week for the year and I am slogging through it! DH said, "Why don't you just be done today?". There's really no curriculum things I'm trying to get done, just trying to make my state quota for days. Anyone have a fun activity you do at the end of the year? We do some things at the beginning, but we're kind of going out with a "blah" here instead of a "bang".

My changes are coming in the opposite direction: so many things I want to include! I keep adding to my list. I'll need to scale it back eventually, I guess...

What are you planning to use in 6th? I plan to use Analytical Grammar starting in 6th. I felt like DS was nearly prepared for it this year in 5th, so we used Grammarland for a basic review, some of Maxwell's Elementary Grammar, Analytical Grammar Jr Mechanics, and the first few lessons of Grammar of Poetry. I would evaluate where your daughter is and where you want her to be for 6th. Maybe you just need some basic review or maybe you need a full grammar. I kind of felt like 5th was a weird in between year-not elementary, not middle school.

Oh, that is good to know! Like you, I discovered that it's necessary to wait 2 hours before starting anything (poor kids before I learned that: they threw up a lot as I tried to force water and crackers every 15 min). We always start with water, though-I'll try the honey thing next time. We are just getting over a stomach thing here. Some how the 2 yo and I have managed to escape (it's been over a week, I'm hoping we're in the clear!).

I was venting about this a couple years ago on here: I had one phonics thing with 'Earth' for letter 'e'. Crazy!

DS has a late September birthday here too (a few years younger than yours) and I have him a grade ahead right now. At some point I'm planning to put him back so he graduates at 18 instead of 17. My main reason is that he can get free community college until he has his hs diploma-it would give us an extra year of free classes.