That's how our experience was. Completely anticlimactic. After all that thinking, discussing and worrying. And it really wasn't a big deal. I was literally waiting for the police sirens to come the next day.

We also homeschool in Missouri... I roughly count a school day as 6 hours. Since we're usually done by 1 or 2, I guess this comes out about right. This also doesn't count things like read-alouds in the evenings and visiting things like the zoo on the weekends, so we probably do more hours than we log. I don't know if this helps you...

As far as homeschooling with smaller siblings... I am hsing a 7 year-old and 6 year-old. We also have a 4 year-old and 1 year-old. Everyone thought I had lost my mind, too. It's not really as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, we're having a great time. You've gotta get a lot done during naptime.

We're finishing up 1b and I think we spend about 15-20 minutes per lesson with the textbook and workbook.

We're in CLE-World right now. :tongue_smilie: We're doing CLE 100 series LA (the 1st grade) and CLE 200 LA (2nd grade). It is painfully thorough. Some of the 2nd grade lessons, I've had to break up over 2 days so we could get through it. We're starting the 2nd Lightunits (so we've finished 1 workbook in each series). Each lesson reviews material from previous lessons, so the student retains the information a lot better. There is a lot of writing for the 2nd grade and if you look in the Teacher's Guide, there are Creative Writing suggestions. We did public school until this summer and my kids have learned more LA from the CLE program than they did at school. Also, we bought the CLE 1st grade Reading (reader and workbook) and it was too difficult for the 1st grader to read. This is our 8th week of school and he still can't read it. I'm hoping another month and we'll start using it. It's basically a textbook with a bunch of short stories in it. I haven't tried to math or anything else yet, but have heard good things about it. :tongue_smilie:

I have a 7 year-old, 6 year-old, 4 year-old and 1 year-old...so when you learn the ancient secrets to this riddle...please, let me know. Half my day is spent with my hair sticking straight up in the air, legos stuck to the bottom of my socks and imaginary friends following me throughout the house. :nopity:

We're using CLE Language Arts 2nd grade and 1st grade. I also bought CLE Reading 1st grade, but 1st grader can't get through it yet (it's a little advanced). The LA is painfully thorough, but the kids are learning A LOT and they're doing a lot of writing too.

Maybe you're just not used to the public school culture...our kids went from K-1st grade. It really is like a mini-internment camp. We're conditioning our kids to be prisoners. I went up to the lunchroom one day and NO KIDDING there was this woman up on stage with a microphone who was telling the children EXACTLY when to take bites out of their food and then put their food down on their plates. It was absolutely mind-boggling (it was like a brain-washing center). We were really used to the school micromanaging exact details of our lives...down to the brand of scissors the kids put in their pencil boxes. :confused: My 1st grader remembered that she had forgotten to do her math homework one morning as I was pulling into the drop-off lane. I told her to just tell her teacher that she'll get it done tomorrow and that it was mommy's fault that I didn't check her folders. Anyway, she starts screaming and having like a panic attack in the minivan. I'm looking at her like she just lost her mind and I pulled into one of the parking spaces. I told her I would walk her in and tell her teacher myself. She hid behind me the entire time I was in the school. She couldn't even make eye contact with her teacher while I was explaining the situation to her (situation - WHATEVER...like she robbed a bank or something).

My Ipod and coffee

When my daughter started kindergarten at the ps, they asked me what race she belonged to and I could ONLY select one. She's half Korean and half white. :confused: I went around in circles with this question for a long time. Is she not white because she is half Korean? Or would she not be considered Korean because she is half white? :confused: They also looked at her and asked me if she spoke English. :confused: I gave birth to that thing, I hope she speaks English! :D

Korean.

We actually just switched our homeowners to Geico, which is Travellers (through Geico) and I think it's flaky. I'm probably going to switch later. It's cheap and I was OK with that, but the company seems shady. For example, they told us if our house ever goes on the market within the next year that they'll drop us. Also, they sent some strange guy out to our house to take pictures. He had a cracked windshield on this old beater jeep, he pulls up alongside our yard doing like 40 mph in a 25. Then, he gets out and looks at my 4 year-old riding her tricycle and makes this strange comment. This guy leaves and then Geico calls and says that they have to raise our payment because (in their words) they think it will cost $230,000 to rebuild our house if it burns down. :confused: BTW, our house is an old, tiny piece of crap and I could go out and get some sticks and moss out of the yard and rebuild it. Our house and plot only appraises for $180,000. And why would they threaten to drop us if we put our house on the market?? Wouldn't they want to insure the next house? Where are we going to live, in our car? :auto:

Here I am! Bachelor of Science with an emphasis in Cellular Biology but now stay-at-home mom...

Thanks for the suggestions. I never even thought of Math Mammoth and I'm going to check out the RS website.

I am using Singapore with a 2nd grader Perfect Paula (:Angel_anim:) and Horizons 1 with a Wiggly Willy (:biggrinjester:). Does anyone know of a workbook-type book with some math drills in them? The kids are absorbing the info in the lessons and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I feel like they need a little more practice with the calculation-side of math (especially to supplement singapore). Thank-you! :auto:

HA! I just mailed my withdrawal letter about 3 weeks ago and already received my reply from our school district. My relatives acted like corpses would rise out of the carpet in my dining room if I took my kids out of school. Seriously, all they did was mail me copies of their report cards and shot records. It was sooooo anti-climatic. :lol:

Daughter finished 1st grade last year in public school and was considered at the "top of her class". She was reading (at the end of the year) Cam Jansen, Amelia Bedilia, Magic Treehouse, etc. Heck, she'll still sit and read one of those beginner reader books. I don't think she would have the attention span for Harry Potter or anything like that. I think your kid is perfectly normal. Don't worry.

My 2nd grader is reading the books from Sonlight Readers 2 Intermediate and then she fills out a worksheet that has questions from each section of the book. I was always told (by her teacher in school last year) that they need to write a lot themselves. So, that was one way I got her writing.

:lol: ROFL!! I remember the wonderful day we learned: Ich bin gefallen und kann nicht aufstehen! HA ha ha!! :lol: (translation: I have fallen and can not get up.)

I have a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Germanic Studies. I always took German because there is an INCREDIBLE amount of literature that is awesome to read in its original language. When I asked the other students about their language choice, it was a general consensus that if you were going into International Business, German was one of the languages that employers were looking for. German is actually spoken in Germany (obviously), Czechoslovakia (parts of), Switzerland, Austria, Belgium (parts of), Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, parts of France and Poland, and I thought Namibia used German in some capacity. You're talking about a part of the world that has a LOT of money and business. While, yes, most German-speaking people also speak English, part of the culture has a lot of respect for foreigners who can speak the language (I'm drawing this on personal experience) and that can have a huge bearing on business dealings. I think German is a great pick as a foreign language.

We are also doing Sonlight Read-Alouds from Core 1 and Readers from 2 and 2 Intermediate. I am getting most of the books from the library and I bought the IG. I print the questions from each book out and make the 7 year-old write out the answer to each question when she hits that segment of the book. She did really well with it so far.

I also lived in Egypt and I drove when I lived there. It was terrifying. I saw several horrible car accidents, a ship-accident and 2 guys from our office were killed when their car skidded off a cliff. One of them died instantly, but the other guy was stuck in the car for a LONG time and none of the passers-by (mostly truck drivers) stopped to help him. Poor guy. Be careful.

Our 7 year-old girl scored in the 99th Percentile on national standardized testing. :w00t:

I'm white and my husband is Korean. Our kids are biracial. I am EXTREMELY protective of my kids' feelings with regards to race. Kids at that age are still trying to develop self-esteem, self-worth and just figure out who they are. We've had many family run-ins during our 8 years of marriage. If I were in your situation, I would keep your child away from those family members. Good luck. I always say marriage is very difficult, but interracial marriage is a whole new ballgame. :glare:

Me and my husband had this all year. We called it "The Fooooog". :tongue_smilie: Yeah, we actually had a name for it. :D