Yes! Here's all the activities I did with my two when they were about that age and wanted to learn letters (I didn't know about HWT when dd was little): 1. Receive a foam-paper cut-out of the letter from mom to hold, touch, feel, bend, and play with all week long and beyond. 2. Make letters out of playdough. You can even write the letter Really Big on a piece of construction paper and have them lay clay snakes over your letter and then smoosh them together if they have trouble doing it free-hand. 3. Glue things onto a construction paper with the letter on it. We used macaroni for curves of the letter, pretzel sticks for the strait parts of the letters, and cheerios for round letters or parts like e c and o.This taught them to pay attention to how different parts of the letters had different shapes and moved different ways. 4. Trace mommy's BIG letters using BIG pieces of sidewalk chalk--out on the sidewalk! I didn't even tell them to, we'd just be playing with sidewalk chalk for fun (they thought--it was their idea) and I'd draw pictures, then draw a letter and say "Ooh, I wrote a "g" just like you're learning to write this week!" and they would want to trace it, or I'd suggest it, and they'd jump all over it. After a while, they'd ask me to write one so they could trace. 5. Erase mommy's letters. I write the letter on the marker board, then they erase it with something like a stiff bristled dry paint brush or a cotton ball or q-tip. 6. Lay out their clothes for the next day--in the shape of whatever letter they are learning. There's many more, I'm sure I've forgotten most of them, but lots of things can be turned into letter play. They never traced anything less than 3 inches tall at age 4, and then only with tools that are big, thick, chunky, and move smoothly, which means pencils were out, but thick markers and dry-erase markers were okay. They often took it upon themselves to write letters now and then as part of their coloring pages they did just for fun, but only if they wanted, and since it was their idea, they weren't pushed to do something that was uncomfortable for their hands or a strain on their underdeveloped fine muscles. We also had lots of little games that helped develop fine muscle skills. I would write a big bold line across a piece of paper with a sticker at one end, and they'd use scissors to cut through the line to the sticker. When they were done, they'd shred the rest of the paper, but they had to focus to stay on the line for that first cut, and that was all the exercise I was hoping for. They had little portion cups I'd fill with little things like beads, cheerios, macaroni, buttons, etc. and they would sort them by color, shape, type, etc. using a big pair of tweezers (the kind that you can rob from your first-aid kit or that stamp collectors use are great). They also had sheets of felt with numbers on them, and they could put little felt shapes (or felt-backed pictures) of various things on the board until they added up to the number. My kids LOVED when I pulled those games out, and when I gave them to younger ds to keep him occupied during big sister's school, 1st grader dd got all excited and wanted to use them all over again--gotta love 6 year old nostalgia! LOL! I also made these from cheap/free/recycled/salvaged bits and pieces and they cost me little or nothing. I stored each "game" in a gallon ziplock bag and pulled one out at a time, usually as a treat, or to occupy ds when dd started homeschooling in 2nd grade. Get creative, make one or two, and add more to your stash over time.

My opinion: None. I just don't think 4 year old hands are developed enough to hold a pencil and use it to apply enough pressure to write on paper and control that pencil's movement in order to form letters and numbers to fill in worksheets daily. You could argue for use of markers, whiteboards, crayons, etc. instead, and that's fine. In fact, I think 4 year olds are great with crayons, paints & markers and should be encouraged to use these often. Even pre-writing activities like circling, Xing, tracing, coloring, etc. can be encouraged, but only to the extent that they are fun and not tiring for pre-schoolers. They have many years of hard academics ahead of them: 12 years plus K, then likely another 4 years or more of college. Do they *really* need to do these things now? Will they be "behind" in Kindergarten or 1st grade because they hadn't already learned to write neat letters as a 4 year old? No. In fact, when it comes to writing numbers and letters, what takes you a year to teach a 4 year old can take a month to teach a 5 year old, and can be taught to a 6 year old in a couple of days, maybe a week on the outside. So, any notions of being "behind" are silly as a child can "catch up" in a very short time. I realize there are children who LOVE workbooks and even BEG for them. I recognize this is especially true for children who see their older siblings "doing school" and want to do "big-kid" activities like workbooks, too! And that's fine, as long as it's the kid's idea, and is only done at the kid's prompting. But I would not *require* a 4 year old to do ANY workbook pages any day, but would willingly follow their lead. Also, workbook pages are useful for drill & review for older children, but have only limited usefulness in helping 4 year olds learn anything since they are usually still very concrete thinkers. Of infinitely greater use are activities like being read to, giving and getting hugs, helping to cook, going on errands with parents, taking care of pets, making messy art projects, growing plants from seeds (or even just watering plants you already have), talking with mom, make-believe play, puzzles, pre-schooler board games and outdoor games, swinging on swings and sliding down slides, learning to jump, trying to catch fire flies, snuggling on the couch, and things of that sort. So, I would humbly suggest that you only allow your 4 year old to do those worksheets they *ask* you to do spontaneously, and to put lots of energy into keeping them so busy with activities like those in the previous paragraph that they have little time left over for or interest in workbooks. If that's 4 pages a day, fine. If that's zero pages a day most days, then occasionally 11 pages out of the blue, that's also fine.

Breaking the Spanish Barrier at least for 13, maybe for 11, probably too old for youngest. I own it, I love it. I would also add in Rosetta Stone for help with pronunciation, because it is fun (and encourages kids to increase their daily language work time because of the fun aspect), and can help build vocabulary, but would not recommend you use it alone. http://www.tobreak.com/

You know what? I do now, looking back, even though I fretted like mad while we were doing it in the early years. We're only 8 years into this, and dd is just finishing 8th grade, but It's funny you should ask because I just listed out what I'd do if I had it to do all over again, and it looked an aweful lot like what we actually did, sort of a blend of what each kid did (they combined History & Science at times to make MY life easier, and at times life made us rearrange our original plans, so they did similar things but at different times). PK-K: Sonlight cores for PK-K as-is, minus Language Arts. I designed my own reading program that I used for ds when he was little, and I'd use that again since it worked so well. Singapore's Early Bird Math at age 5 but no sooner. Start learning to make letters using something fun (and easy on little hands) like chalkboards, marker boards, modeling clay, etc.--but not before age 5. Lots of messy cooking and art and nature exploring projects. Lots of snuggle time and silly games and make-believe games. Lots of living room forts. I wish I'd delayed real academics longer with dd, and tried to with ds who only started early, IMO, because he wanted to be like big sis and do "real" school work LOL 1st - 4th grades: History/Literature: SOTW I-IV plus Sonlight Cores 1 & 2, VP History cards & tapes, plus add in some books from VP's grades 2-6 sections for history & literature for reading and read-aloud material. All this makes for a FULL 4 years, and it gives flexibility to use some spines more than others (dd loved SOTW and CHOW but hated Usborne history books, ds likes SOTW and Usborne but hated CHOW). Science: Nothing formal, just lots of books, Dover coloring books, library books, books of experiments like those by Janice VanCleave and the ones suggested in WTM. We did use Sonlight Science 3 for Biology and really enjoyed that! (kids were 3rd and 5th grade, the oldest required to do lots more work!) English: English for the Thoughtful Child starting in mid-1st or early 2nd grade, slowly and gently, doing only a little bit at a time, adding in lots of extra copy work, especially from Memoria Press's Copy Books (which are like a workbook version of what we did anyway back then, that I had to make by hand LOL) then start Rod & Staff English in 3rd grade and take 2 years to do it, but continue to use narration & dictation in History, Literature and Science to fill out what R&S doesn't cover/teach. Math: Singapore Math 1A-3B or there abouts, adding in drills for the 4 operations to build speed and fluency. Memory Work: Memorize poetry, bible verses, songs about things like science or geography, lists of world leaders, capitals of countries, and anything else you can come up with. It's loads of fun, and good brain exercise! 5th-7th grade: History & Literature: Sonlight Cores 3, 4, and then alt7, used as-is. Science: Sonlight's sciences, let the kids pick from years 3-7 based on their interests. Math: Singapore Math for one or two more years, then Life of Fred Fractions then Decimals and Percents, finishing up the last by the end of 7th grade. English: R&S English 5 in 5th & 6th, then half of R&S English 8 in 8th grade. IEW's Student Writing Intensive B or C based on child's love for/abilities in writing. Wordly Wise at or above grade level and some sort of Roots program. Latin: using something like Latina Christiana I&II or First Form Latin (we used the former as the latter wasn't around yet) Logic: Fallacy Detectives, Analogies 8th-10th grade: (most of this is speculation as we're only 1/3 through this for real, and have only bought part of the next 1/3 for future use) History, Bible & Literature: Veritas Press Omnibus I-III (HUGE winner so far!) Science: Dd uses & likes Apologia, but we have been just as happy with Singapore Science in the past, and I think we will begin using both together somehow in the future, per dd's suggestion. Math: Life of Fred and Harold Jacobs math programs, using one or the other as a spine depending on child's needs/preferences, and then supplementing with the other. English: Finish R&S English 8, then no more formal grammar studies. IEW SWI, Wordly Wise, more Roots work. Lots of assigned composition work is included in Omnibus, but more can still be assigned as needed to address weak points in grammar or composition skills, or to develop particular gifts in certain areas. Logic: More Analogies, Traditional Logic I-II, Material Logic (the last if we get to it on time) Languages: Start with Rosetta Stone in a Language because it's fun and easy to do independently (as early as 6th or 7th grade), then add in a serious text to continue the language (and justify high school credit) after 6 mos to a year. Continue Latin studies with Henle, starting with a slow pace, but only if child still interested. 11th-12th grades: (these are merely my plans so far, subject to change) History/Literature: Sonlight Cores 300 & 400, adding in Veritas Press books to beef up two skimpy years, but only if the child loves literature and wants more, and isn't already too busy with outside activities (volunteering, working, interning, extracurriculars, arts, sports, etc.). Science: Continue with Apologia/Singapore Science, Stopping as early as after Chemistry for a non-science child, continuing on for one who loves it and plans to go into a field or to a college that may require more. Languages: Must continue until at least 2 years of a foreign language are completed as a minimum as this is a common minimum college entrance requirement. Logic/Rhetoric: Finish Material Logic, also do Rhetoric I&II, also from Memoria Press. Math: Continue with Life of Fred & Harold Jacobs at least through Algebra II, but continuing on in some circumstances (eg math/science interest, career/college choice). Things I did that were a complete and total waste of time: - Handwriting as a formal course separate from narration/copy-work/dictation. - Spelling as a formal course separate from narration/copy-work/dictation. - Health class. That one lasted exactly 2 weeks. What a waste. Things I wish we'd do more of, but didn't because of lack of organization/will on my part, or lack of interest on my kids' parts: - Art History (I have Sister Wendy and The Annotated Mona Lisa and more, well-loved by me, avoided/ignored by children) - Geography (we're making up for lost time now, using a mix of documentaries, a large collection of National Geographics, Usborne books, websites like CIA's World Factbook, etc.)

Agreed completely. Sonlight also now sells a better scope with a 100x for oil immersion lense, which is as much as you'd need even for college bio classes like Micro, and more than you'd need for A&P's histology studies (the standard SL scope will do just fine for that). Binocular: http://www.sonlight.com/SSM7.html Standard (Ultra): http://www.sonlight.com/250-40.html

Um, why not throw out the Wii, ban her from the computer (or take it away if she has her own), and ground her from the T.V. for at least one whole month, and longer as necessary until she learns respect. If she isn't distracted by that other stuff, then she will have more time to focus on doing her school work well. When you do let her have tech access again, make her earn every minute she spends on it by doing heavy labor around the house over and above her minimum daily household chores (such as mopping, clean out the fridge, wash windows, mow the lawn, rake leaves, etc.).

Honestly, if he did Hakim in middle school and he'll do 400 next year, I think that's plenty.

I think it's regional. You'd have to ask locals. I'd suggest that if you let him go, you set down clear rules. I wouldn't allow him to go to after-prom parties, even if they are hosted by parents, because many parents today do NOT have the same sort of rules you do, and might allow things (including sex & alcohol) that you wouldn't. Require him to keep a cell phone with him so you can call and check on him, and he can call you in case he needs to bail. Play chauffeur so they can't park on their way there and back. Rent a really cool car if you think it will make the idea more appealing to them. Just for one night, it's not as pricey as you might think to get something uber-cool. Tell him in no uncertain terms before he leaves what is and is not okay with you. If you don't want him kissing her, say so. If you don't want him drinking alcohol, say so. If you don't want him having sex, say so, even if you don't think it's necessary. Leave no room for questions ;-)

We don't use ANY online school at all for anything and never ever have and have no plans to. I prefer the personal interactions we have, have not felt the need for outside help yet, and wouldn't like the time restrictions.

His shoes are now *way* bigger than my shoes! I like that because if I have to run out the door to grab something from the car or bring the dogs out, I can slip my feet into them easily ;-)

You wanted factual rather than emotional, and I'm guessing informative rather than anecdotal as well, so that's what I'll try to stick to. I hope it is helpful. First, a c-section is major abdominal surgery. It involves cutting through skin, fat, multiple layers of muscle, and then into your uterus (a huge muscle) in order to remove the baby. That is a lot of connective & support tissue that is being damaged and that must then be sewn back together to heal. Though they happen often, they are not as "routine" as many assume. Any time you have surgery, there is risk involved. With c-section there is danger to both mom and baby from anesthetic, bleeding, and infection. Hospitals are filthy places (trust me--I work in one!) and though much is done to keep surgeries as sterile as possible, infection is *always* a risk every single time someone at the hospital breaks your skin, whether that be for an IV stick, a blood draw, an episiotomy, or a c-section. The bigger the invasion, the bigger the risk. Many nurses don't even think about this, but I do--I actually work actively to reduce total needle sticks necessary for patients even if they *aren't* immune compromised, but it is telling that it is one of the things we are supposed to think about for those who are. If you have never had surgery before (or at least the type of anesthetic that will be used for your c-section) then you simply don't know how it will affect you. When you sign the consent, they will give you a packet of info about all the risks involved. Most people don't read those thoroughly, but everyone should, just so you are going into it with open eyes. These risks obviously are not high, but they are very real. The drugs we use to numb you (or put you out) are powerful and can sometimes cause serious side-effects. The risk is small, but it is greater than that faced by those who receive no such drugs at all. (Remember this risk is similar to, but not the same as, that faced by those who opt for an epidural) Recovery following a c-section is, in general, harder than that following a vag birth. I know there will be people who give you anecdotal info to the contrary, but the facts are that, in general, c-sections are harder on your body and harder to recover from. Average loss of blood from a vag birth is 500 ml. Average loss from a c-section is 1500-2000 ml that alone makes a huge difference in how you will feel afterwards! This difference is usually reflected in such things as longer mandatory minimum hospital stay allowances from your insurance company for c-sec vs vag birth, and longer (8wks vs 6 wks) maternity leave minimums. These may not be relevant to your situation, but they are the way they are because c-secs really are harder on your body. Being pregnant, and then breastfeeding, takes a lot out of your body. Adding yet another big stressor like major abdominal surgery is simply that much harder since it's sandwiched between these two other big hits on our body reserves. There are some who believe that there are benefits to baby of passing through birth canal, including helping to empty all that moistness out of their lungs, and stimulating them to pass that meconium. We just don't have enough evidence to know this for sure, but it is something to consider and research (it's something I haven't looked into in *years* so there may be evidence out there I don't know about).

With 4 kids you might want to consider ways to combine the kids for content subjects (such as literature, history, science) and only do separate materials for skill subjects (math, english). The 6.5 and 5 yo could work well together, as could the 3 & 2 yr olds when they are older. Getting them tracked together now will only make things easier on you later. If you need to separate them later in order to cover all you want to cover, remember it will be easier to do so when they are older (say >12 yrs old) when they are able to do a larger portion of their daily assignments independently. Right now, when they need soooo much hand-holding for nearly every little thing, combine all you can!! It will save your sanity! If you want some more classical (and honstly way more vigorous in later years) you could go with VP and have the older kids start in their K or 1st grade program (you know what the 5 year old is ready for better than we do). If you need to spend less time planning because of the 2 toddlers tagging along, you should seriously consider Sonlight for the first 4-5 years. Even though it is not terribly classical, you will do a full cycle through World and American in 1st-4th grade, and it is SO easy to use. It is also lit based, uses many of the same readers recommended by more classical sources in the early years, and will set up the kids well for later years. If you want to put it all together yourself, you could simply cover geography with them this year (such as with Galloping the Globe, Seterra, Geography Songs etc.) and then either this year or next start Story of the World as your History spine and add in lots and lots of readers at their reading levels plus lots more read-aloud literature. Use VP and SL catalogs along with WTM reading list suggestions for more ideas. Other great books to add in to SOTW for a do-it-yourself course would be the Famous Men books. They are definitely read-aloud for K/1st graders! For Science, you don't have to do ANYTHING if you don't want to just yet! Just read hi/low non-fic from the library, take walks, do simple projects, grow plants, keep pets, etc. is sufficient IMHO for K-1st. You can also get fun project ideas from Janice VanCleave books and TOPS books, or check out some of the recommendations for Grammar Science in WTM. Some people feel strongly about some of the newer science books for these grades (mostly these weren't around when mine were that age) so check other suggestions about those. For English, I urge you to keep things very simple. Don't bother with formal Spelling and Handwriting programs unless your children really need them. Find something simple, and do it just a couple times a week. I used English for the Thoughtful Child and loved it, and think First Language Lessons is similar (wasn't around when mine were that age). For K-1st you could simply give them a sentence or two to copy onto handwriting paper each day, and talk about how the first letter is capitalized, it ends with a period, etc. and let them absorb grammar naturally that way for the first year or two. Really, I feel strongly that the exact program you choose is not nearly as important as your approach--gently and gradually work into these things. Your children will progress in fits & starts with stagnant periods in between, not in a steady progression, so keep that in mind no matter what program you use. It is paced for steady progression, but kids aren't made that way! For math, I'll stay out of all the debates ;-) Use what you think will work for your kids as noone knows them as you know them. I really loved Singapore's Early Bird math for K no matter what you use after that. It makes simple math operations simple, and gets kids off to a great start for making sense of word problems. As far as I'm concerned, everything else is gravy at this point. I would urge you if this is your first year HSing to just start with the basics--Reading, Writing, Math only. THen add in stuff like History/Geography, and finally History. Don't even worry about all the other goodies until you get the regular stuff going well. Art, music, latin, and everything else can wait!

Thanks for all the replies! I'm planning to show them to my kids who are sure to be inspired to make new things off y'all's lists! Me too! It is neat to see how creative everyone is, including those who claim to not dig cooking all that much. I think that takes more creativity sometimes.

I haven't seen this so far (halfway through Omnibus I w/dd) either. The material is decidedly Reformed (we are not-we are Lutheran) so I often do not agree with the TG answers in some sessions, and we have skipped or will skip books (Chosen by God), I just don't see that they are extreme enough to be referred to as Reconstructionist. Maybe it's in there, but it's only contained in the answers we reject for reasons of them being Reformed, so that I don't read them closely enough to see the Reconstructionism in them as well. Even if VP is, I still think their material is quite usable for those who aren't.

I suspect that the things we teach in traditional (public & private) schools initially had more to do with that which lent itself well to classroom study than it did with that which was most needful to be learned. I suspect that, today, the content of those same subjects has more to do with what some well-funded PACs, or what some agenda-driven teacher college profs and school board members can get put into the textbooks than with what is most needful to be learned. I have cut back drastically on what my kids were officially "doing for school" out of need (reading, english, math--everything else was gravy, and SOTW done haphazardly from CD 'cause I had no time to read it) and the kids still thrived. I've put back lots and lots of subjects that some people might consider a useless waste of time (Logic and foreign languages in grades 6 & 8). I've also chunked everything to do a week-long intensive writing course with my kids, or to do a unit study on something interesting that sparks someone's interests, or to spend intensive time working on practical life skills. I say, go for it. But I'm what some would consider recklessly adventurous, and am wholeheartedly supported by a similarly adventurous dh who trusts me completely to make sure that, in spite of our side-trips, we get the big important things done in the end. We have no desire to ever send our kids to school, hope we never have to, and also have no desire to worry about whta goes on in regular schools when deciding what will go on in ours.

After reading about school lunches in France (oh how I envied french students from the moment I first learned of them in 7th grade French class, and on through 5 more years of French classes ending my senior year in high school), I was curious about what other HSers do for lunch. When we started, I had more time at home but less money (I now work 36+ hrs a week as an ER nurse). From the get-go I wanted to feed my children well, and did not want to resort to sandwiches every day. Soup was often on the menu as it is affordable and nutritious (and I almost always make them from scratch rather than opening a can) and go nicely with fruits and homemade breads. Snacks included things like our favorites: peanut butter & apple sauce on wheat crackers or celery with cream cheese or cut veggies with hummus. When we did do sandwiches, we ate good peanut butter with low-sugar fruit spreads (or just sliced bananas or apples or mashed berries with a little sugar sprinkled on top, or pb with honey) or leftover meat (healthier than "lunch meat") and always with 100% whole grain bread, preferably home-made. Now that I'm busier but have more money, we eat more fish, leaner meats, and more fresh veggies with cool sauces, and lunch mostly involves leftovers of last night's dinner. However, my kids have gotten into the homemade soup craze, and at 12 & 14 often make their own homemade soups for lunch--I just stock lots of veggies, low-sodium broths, and also pre-cook (and lightly season) chicken breasts, ground beef, etc. for them to use in their soups. I agree with long lunch breaks. I love that my kids have enough time to make their own lunches as I know that when they are on their own, they will be able to make healthy one-person meals for themselves. Of course, we often have a couple days a week where the kids eat unhealthy things, too ;-) Both of them love Ramen (NO idea why) & Chef Boyardee, and both love to buy these Deli Creation sandwiches at the store. I give in to these purchase requests, but limit the number so that they have no choice but to rely on healthier fare for all but a couple lunches in any given week. I also keep a huge plastic bin on my kitchen counter filled with apple sauce cups, raisin boxes, Kashi granola bars and fruit cups. These are snack foods for everyone to grab whenever. I also try to keep fresh fruit in stock, but they often eat all that I buy in a few days, and then have half the week to suffer through with only frozen & sauced fruits until I get to the store again.

Thinking I'll spin off a thread about what WE serve for lunch each day ;-)

I'm with you. I stand to make it, sit to eat it. The only exception to this is when we have lots of people, lay all the sandwich stuff out on the table, and everyone makes their own sandwiches. Then, the making is kind of part of the meal. Otherwise, it seems a big waste to sit down to make a sandwich. Is it normal in his childhood home? Is it regional? Does he have a traumatic childhood experience related to making a sandwich while standing??

I think if you're only going to do 3 years, do 3, 5 & 8. The rest is very skippable IMHO. We also own 2 & 4 and I find both to be a waste of time. For me, the ideal sequence for grammar/English studies would be: - English for the Thoughtful Child (the first book) starting in 2nd grade. Even if you only get through 1/3 - 1/2 that's fine. - R&S English 3 starting in 3rd grade. Take your time, up to 2 years if you want. - R&S English 5 starting in 5th grade. - R&S English 8 starting in 7th grade or thereabouts. I generally skip most of the writing assignments and use IEW for most things, though I do like that R&S 3 covers simple letters, addressing envelopes, etc. quite well. ETA: We're R&S English users who HS year-round ;-) This is why I hated the overlap, and why skipping is okay for us.

I'll second LOF recommend since the OP mentioned that her son just isn't applying things to real-life situations. Most math programs include lots of drill on working through the math, and just a couple of word problems per lesson. LOF is practically *all* world problems. Some children will do well with LOF alone (both of mine have been fine through Fractions & Decimals) but some will need supplements for the arithmetic part starting in Algebra I. For dd who is in Algebra, I have Jacobs Algebra that I use to supplement LOF only in areas where she needs reinforcement because it gives her more practice with certain types of problems. Other than needing more drill in certain areas (easier to supplement IMO than need for more real-life applications and word problems) I'm quite pleased with LOF, as is dh who is *way* more math savvy than I am.

She is supposed to be memorizing words by sight, even if she gets there by way of phonics. You see, that's how we proficient readers do it--we read by sight, not by sounding out every word. The problem is that some educators once figured that out, and decided that since that was the end-goal (it IS the end-goal of ALL reading teaching methods) that all that messy phonics sounding-out nonsense could be skipped altogether, and even little kids could skip strait to the memorization of whole words stage from the outset. So your daughter is *able* to sound out words. Great! And she is also now memorizing the more familiar/frequently repeated/common words so that her reading speed is increasing. Also great! That's the ultimate goal of phonics teaching! Instant sight-reading! (That's the point of all that reading practice--it's the drill that makes fast reading possible). The problem is that she now hates all forms of sounding out. No sweat--she only has to do it now when she meets a new word, and that will happen less and less often over time. For now, let her read huge volumes of stuff that is so easy for her it requries little or even NO sounding out, that is filled end to end with words she can read by sight now that she's memorized them. Have her spend only a tiny portion of her total reading time (5 min a day is plenty!!) reading harder stuff that requires her to actually sound stuff out sometimes (but not 5 minutes of nothing but sounding out--can you imagine? It would be like asking *you* to spend 5 minutes a day reading the last 10 ingredients on food containers! LOL! What a drag!). Supplement with phonics stuff that requires careful attention to words (to help train them to be careful about too-similar words) and requires some small amount of sounding out, like Explode the Code books. Just don't tell her it's phonics or sounding out practice, and she may not notice.

Here's my advice: 1. Don't get caught up in thinking you need *just the right* supplies, and don't get caught up in the process of organizing. These are often the very traps that snare the hoarder: They are often downright obsessed with organization to the point that they hoard things like containers, organizers and boxes (notice the HUGE number of boxes and plastic bins many hoarders have! watch more episodes and you'll see what i mean!) and do things like make lists and schedules and charts so compulsively that these acts actually inhibit the life improvements they are meant to bring about (listmaking that delays grocery shopping for 3 days because what if the list isn't complete). 2. Use any old thing: ratty old boxes, gallon or larger ziplock bags, trash bags, etc. to protect your stuff. Use a fat tipped Sharpie to labe the outsides--seeing through clear bins isn't always helpful ;-) Just get the job done. Fast. 3. Throw most of that stuff out! Did you watch them hold onto silly stuff during the clean-up process? Try pretending you have a camera crew looking over your shoulder -- what would you friends, family & neighbors *really* think about you holding onto those things? Use that to hopefully motivate you to throw more stuff away. If you follow through with it, donation is a fine alternative, but PLEASE don't jsut move it to "donation boxes" in your garage and never donate them. That's just shuffling the problem around. Ditto garage sales & recycling plans that never work out! The main tool EVERYONE needs when organizing is a good old, cheap Garbage Bag! LOL! 4. Pretend you are filthy rich. Frugality in its extreme can exacerbate hoarding tendencies and make you hold on to useless items just in case, or perhaps out of a sense of guilt. Pretending you are rich will help you let them go ;-) I realize you're probably not really a hoarder, but fearing becoming one (and understanding how they got there so you can avoid it) can help motivate you to work in as non-hoarding a fashion as possible. Most of us are hoarders to one degree or another--it's just that some of us are closets-and-drawers-only hoarders, some of us are horizontal-spaces hoarders (how does that table/shelf nearest your garage/front door look now? LOL!) and a rare few of us are every-cubic-inch-can-be-filled hoarders. Most of us simply have way more junk than we really need. I'm guilty! But purging like an anti-hoarder can be liberating. Have fun and good luck!

Agreed that we would need a study (one that would be very difficult to design well) to know for sure, but I honestly don't see that it follows logically that people with sexually deviant tendencies would gravitate more towards professions requiring celibacy. I could see a draw towards professions that put them in close contact with children (teaching?) or people's privates (medicine?) but not one that dictates celibacy or other deprivations (eg poverty) that actually tends to isolate them in a sense (separated by the collar) and does not put them in more contact with children than simply living in a neighborhood (as opposed to a rectory) would. It does help give them an aura of trustworthiness (or did at one time) but that seems like a lot of trouble for that one benefit for your average deviant, don't you think?

An excellent article from a secular source - Psychology Today - that we could all benefit from reading.

I hate when I type up a looong reply and it gets lost. *sigh* here we go again... Here's what we are currently using for 6th & 8th graders: CIA World Factbook website: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html It is a good jumping off point. You can direct your children to the website, or copy and paste what you consider useful into a Word document they can read on the computer or you can print out for them (we do the latter for ease of use). Seterra: This is a free computer program you can download off the internet here: http://www.wartoft.nu/software/seterra/ I hope that if you use it and like it, you will make a donation to the developer (an individual). It is great for learning where countries are, memorizing flags, and learning capitals in a way that feels like playing a game. Provides a great foundation in the 'basics' that makes the other geography studies make more sense. Provides those pegs to hang later info onto. Usborne Encyclopedia of World Geography: It's a bit young for their ages, but still quite useful as a brief intro or summary to a region. Beautiful photographs, maps, and brief overviews of regions and occasionally of individual countries. Also includes info on other geography topics such as volcanoes, geology, solar system, weather, etc. that is more appropriate to late elem. years that we don't use now. National Geographic: We have nearly every issue from 1970 to present, but you can copy articles from library copies or buy a CD-Rom version (we have a set of CDs that covers 1970-1999 that dh bought in 2000 - much cheaper than buying the paper issues, more convenient than going to the library). NatGeo website has a great searchable index you can use to find topics you're interested in. Right now, we are using them to read our way around the world. First the kids read from the Usborne and CIA Factbook and then read 1-4 articles I dig up from Nat Geo magazines. I try to find at least one older and one newer article to give an overview of their very recent history, and I also try to make sure they cover local culture, which often originates in ancient or medieval history. Unlike most geography books and texts, these articles tend to focus on single ethnic groups, cities, small regions, and single issues rather than give overviews of an entire country, but these articles with their famous NatGeo maps, illustrations and photographs really bring these peoples up close and dig into details and make these places real in a way that other books just don't. HTH.