Is it needed? I thought I had read somewhere that they could go straight from decimals/percents to beginning algebra. Thanks!

3 bedrooms. 7 kids. Its tight.

I want to see pictures too! That is quite a bit bigger than the duggars 7,000 square foot house.

What Melinda said is right on, but I have been to quite a few LDS funerals, and no one looks down on non-LDS people if they are dressed differently. Its understandable and they are so thankful for the support. We dont worry about wearing black to a funeral. Regular church clothes is fine. Khaki's and knit shirt with a collar would be fine for the boys if you dont have white dress shirts. Sleeves on the girls is good, but I do know lots of LDS people who dress young girls/toddlers in sleeveless even on sunday. It will be held in a chapel, most likely. Babies/toddlers/children are very welcome but it is customary to step out with them if they get noisy, either happy or sad. The foyer has speakers for sound as does the mother's lounge(like a cry room, but only for women, in case some women feel more comfortable breastfeeding there). Non-messy snacks and quiet toys are welcome to help them make it through the meeting. I am sorry about your father in law. Wishing your family peace. Oh, and be prepared to enjoy the "funeral potatoes" :D

2000 sq ft. 7 kids. 4 boys in 1 room, 2 girls in the other. 1 year old girl with us. Her clothes/diapers are in the girls room though. Its tight. Less than 1/5 acre too so not alot of outside space.

:lurk5: ETA: ironic how I picked the popcorn smiilie without even thinking, LOL!!!(I was just trying to sub the thread)

http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/thestoryofcivilization/ Anyone have any reviews of this book series? I want to know if its worth the time/energy to download it all to iPods. Thanks!

:bigear:

Thanks for all the ideas. We are in contract on a new house so do not have the extra money to pay him to do work for us. I wish we could do more school in the summer, but it is hard with their friends home and wanting to play during the day. Not so much with him, but with the younger children. Someone gets invited to a friends house nearly everyday. I dont like to say no, cause their friends are only home a short time and then go back to school. It really makes sense though to do more school in the summer when its hot. We do light school, and take off for pool days etc. He is the one that is fighting me on school work so I know I will get a lot of complaining if I up it, esp if the younger siblings are skipping out to go play. My husband also thinks they need time off in the summer to just relax. I get that, but there is too much relaxing happening right now:glare: His sport is running,(he has done others, but loves running. ran a 200 mile relay race last year, The Ragnar) but he doesnt like to run when its so hot. Refuses to join a swim team. Maybe we could go to the rec center and he could run indoors if I could figure something out for the younger ones to do during that time. Hmm, really going to have to think that one through. I can not think of other volunteer activites, but will keep thinking. Thank you all for the ideas!

It is triple digits here. we have no pool. We cant go outside much. We are light schooling through the summer, but there are still many hours of free time my 14 year old is not using wisely right now. Lots of movies and video games. I hate to say no because Im not sure what else he could be doing. He pet sits/house sits but that takes just a few minutes a day. He is going to start volunteering at the library next week. He does chores, but not alot there. Dishes, picking up, that kind of thing. Most of his friends are from our homeschool group and we cant get them together more than 1x a week due to distance and gas prices. And honestly, we have the same problem when friends come over. What can they do beside play video games?? I need some ideas. My daughter is learning to sew this summer and will be doing some cooking projects and such. She's easy. My son is harder. He does not like creative or artistic pursuits of any kind. He does read alot(but not high quality books) I wish he could get a job. I see that drive in him and its not just about the money. He needs to be doing worthwhile, contributing to society things. But what??? He's old enough to be doing physical labor(think farming or whatever) but we dont live in that kind of place. Thanks!

On of my favorite books from my childhood that I recently bought are the Edith books by Dare Wright. Edith and Mr bear is the first one. They have gorgeous pictures and they would look good in black frames. Not sure I could bear to cut one up though. Congrats!

I havent finished the whole thread, but this quote is the BIG reason that I we have a group. To answer the OP, we had to form our own LDS group because of the SOF issue here. But we are actually inclusive and only about 1/2 are LDS anymore. When our kids were younger we faithfully did park day every week. This was our lifeline. The moms chatted the kids played. It was perfect. My kids do have some PS friends, but we have found that as they got older the friends didnt have as much time to get together due to homework and school activities.(neighborhood kids are slim to none) I have a friend who had a vision for what we were building for our kids. A place to belong and be a part of as they hit the teens years was essential. We are so glad we did the grunt work to building the group when they were younger. We have done a co-op for 4 years. At first it was small and just enrichment type classes. We have band and orchestra(where the parents and kids are learning together and playing together!) and musical theatre and choir and art etc. This year(and next with our oldest kids diving right in to high school) we added IEW writing classes and some science labs. We have done logic classes and spanish and chinese and latin classes and more I cant even remember. Next year we are doing the labs for high school biology with the kids required to keep up with the actual class work at home. We will continue IEW and we are having a world history class with the purpose of studying together for the AP world history exam. I see on here so often how homeschool groups are a waste of time or whatever and it just makes me sad. Our group has done so much to support our family, build relationships and fill in the gaps of the things that we find hard to get to at home(science labs!!) Most of us have big families and trying to get it all in is hard, but having our kids be accountable to someone else to turn in assignments etc has been so good for them. In the elementary years, the classes are all fun. Learning, but no outside work. It is more for the purpose of keeping siblings busy. If mine were all that age, I wouldnt do the all day co-op, I dont think, but the weekly park days we did in that stage were so important. My kids have such good friends, built from years of fun times.

Aww, thanks! Its okay. There is just a lot of emotion tied up in this for me. I dont want to let it go:001_smile:

Yes, he can! And all the other kids choose to draw, knit or build legos or anything quiet. He doesnt, I dont know why. Maybe next week when it doesnt seem connected to this instance, I will ask him if there is something he's like to learn that would work well at reading time. Any suggestions? Girls are easier, although he was the first one to learn to knit when I was learning and he knit a scarf for my mom for christmas, in less than a week, for his very first project. He did a few other smaller things, but hasnt really wanted to since(3 or so years). I dont know what else might work for him. Thanks for the reminder.

Thank you for that! I appreciate you understanding that this is a hard transition. I feel like Im starting all over again in the parenting department with teenagehood. This is new territory for sure. Tonight while I was telling my husband about the book at dinner(it really has become a very favorite book for me, I LOVED it) he chimed in several times with details and such. He didnt LOVE it as much as I did, but it didnt seem like he really hated it either. I think he just would rather be doing something else(like reading a book of his own choosing, or texting etc) Thats where Im trying to figure out if I will require him to participate or not. Interesting that when given the choice he stayed though. I am trying to be hurt by so many posters making it sound as if Im doing something wrong, calling it juvenille and "story time". Its not like that at all. I choose high quality literature and read with feeling and emotion. My kids really like to listen to me read, and even I as an adult like audio books, so I just dont see how its different. One of the next books I was going to do was Great Expectations. Its not as if the books are beneath him. Its family bonding and a chance to expose them to Literature that they might not choose on their own. That is the reason I hesitate to allow him to choose the books. Tonight even, he suggested I read Fablehaven aloud. I probably wont because they all choose to devour those types of books on their own time. This is my time, which I use for other purposes.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts! I was surprised at how many said they didnt do read alouds anymore after such a young age. My older kids have always enjoyed it. And we do lots of audio books too, especially in the car. Today I just announced it was time to read aloud and all came. He knew we were trying to finish it before his sister left. After the first chapter he fussed about going on(there were 2 more chapters) and I gave him the option of leaving. But if he stayed he couldnt complain. he stayed. And discussed the book with us after. So who knows? I am considering doing an older read aloud before bed and keeping the after lunch one for the middle kids. My good friend who I really respect(is on the school board, very active PS parent) still reads aloud every night to her kids, ages 11-17. I really didnt think it strange. It did bring up some thoughts about how to handle teens. i dont want to fight them and cause rebellion etc. But I also dont want to raise teens with little respect for those around them, who hide out in their rooms or have ear buds in their ears 24/7. its a hard line for sure and one we are still figuring out. Thanks again!

I see. With the age spread you have that doesnt surprise me too much. But I have 14, almost 13, 11, 9 and 5 and I dont pick books with the 5 year old in mind. Shes there by default. The books really are/should be of interest to the older ones. And as an aside, I think one of the best things of having older and younger kids is them reading to each other. it is so, so sweet! My 12 year old daughter brought home Superfudge from the library this week just for fun and when i saw it I asked me 11 year old if he had read them. He said my oldest had read the whole series to him when he was about 6.:D He was a late reader too, so my oldest would want him to be able to enjoy certain books so would read them to him. This same 11 year was found in bed last week with the 3 year old and a huge stack of Curious George/Berstain Bears and Dr Suess! Love it!

My 14 year old son has been having an attitude with family read aloud time. He comes and listens, but whines if I start another chapter, asks me not too etc. We have been trying to finish the current book before my daughter leaves for camp tommorrow so yesterday after church I called for reading time(we normally only read on school afternoons, right after lunch). He complained and said he wanted to nap(he is growing like crazy right now so I understand). I didnt want to make an issue of it and have a negative association with what has been one of our favorite times together. He slept, we read. I asked him to catch up this morning and he did so we could finish this afternoon. He wasnt excited about me making him do so, but didnt complain really either. This is the first time I have read aloud with someone missing and it really bummed me out. But I really didnt want to fight him. He also didnt want to play a game with us last night(Settlers of Catan) but when I asked him if he please would, he did. I know some of this is normal, but it just makes me so sad! I want us to enjoy family time together. Part of it is also that he doesnt love the book, although the rest of us a really liking it(Just David) and the game is not a favorite either. The last book was Little Britches and he did everything in his power to get me to keep reading, including doing extra chores so I would have time to read more.:) So, maybe it is just the book. Basically I guess Im asking if there is a time when teens grow out of being read to? I really, really dont want that to be true! I have 7 children ages 1 to 14. Should I split them and cater different books to 2 groups? Everyone except the 1 and 3 year old are listening right now since its during nap time. That is the best time to read since the house is quiet. I do read picture books to the youngers at other times. It seems as if I was reading to the "older" kids my youngers would likely gather and listen anyways. I do try to mix up the books as far as topic, length, boy/girl main character etc.

Thank you. I am so overwhelmed by all of this. It seems easier to just go textbook style, but we have never done that and I dont really want to change now. I really wasnt planning on using a published course for english. Can I list the resources used or number of reports/essays completed as well as literature studied? I really can imagine using a "canned" curriculum for english, it has not been our style at all(we use mostly Ambleside Online, with some other things added in) I really would have to track hours then? Seems so distruptive to the flow of our days, but I guess we would get used to it. What do you do with a transcript if the student follows a non-traditional school year. Like schools straight through, no summers off for 3 calendar years, completing 4 school years worth of work? What about credits earned in 8th grade? here in PS they are allowed to earn computers/typing and math credits in 8th grade at least. What about summer classes? Do you list them for the next year? My son is looking to graduate early(some of you may remember I was whining about his lack of motivation a few weeks ago, but he has perked back up and decided he wants to finish early) but we would keep him home doing distance college courses for 1 year untill he was ready to go away to college. So he wouldnt really be a freshman when getting there anyways. How does that factor in with NCAA? This is frusterating. I really want to homeschool high school, but it seems as if it would be simpler to just send him to the B&M school and call it good.

How essential is it to document the hours spent in the course? If there is sufficient work completed, is that not enough? I am thinking things like english, math, science where there is an accounting of work, not just a self designed course so much. Also, how to you count items(like historical fiction, or reports) that span more than one subject. If they write a report based on a history topic can it count for both english and history? Do colleges tend to ask for more than a transcript, especially if backed up with AP and SAT II scores? I mean, do we need to keep a portfollio of work and documentation of everything that was done? I am somewhat nervous as he is a cross country runner and may wish to run in college. I know the NCAA has some specific rules but am confused at what that means for us. It seems it would be simpler to do an online high school of some kind, but we cant afford that right now and I dont want the free ones. I really prefer to do our own thing,but dont want to close any doors for him in the future. Thanks for any help!

Any experience?

I haven't read the whole thread but this happened to me 2x this week wrt our camp trailer. I thought it was weird the first time and even weirder the 2nd.

:lurk5:

I was browsing netflix the other night and saw Food, Inc and thought to myself, Im going to have my son watch that as he is finishing up his health class. But my husband wondered if if was appropriated for a 14 year old(we are quite conservative, and very strict about movies etc) What about Fast Food Nation? Are there others? Thanks!

Yes, I do this and it does work. We start with table time which varies a bit by day, but includes vocab/roots, spelling rule review, editing a sentance on the board, math word problems etc. We are all together for about 20 mins. Then the kids break for "writing hour". They do whatever writing type thing is appropriate for them, copywork,handwriting, IEW, journals etc. I do spelling or grammer with my K, 3 and 5th graders during this time. I also correct any papers in my inbox(mostly math). Then its math hour and everyone works on their own math. This sometimes takes us until lunch as the 4 olders have to practice 2 instruments each and the K has one, and we try to get that done before we start school. If its not lunch time yet, then we squeeze in some reading to mom. My oldest 2 have other work they are doing after math, including foreign language, health, some history etc. After lunch is read aloud to all of them and then any of the middle children who haven't read with me individually will do so. All the kids cover many subjects with living books(AO style) and they do those readings in the afternoon, either with mom or on their own. I actually was a bit surprised by your question as I think we have always done it this way. of course, there are those that finish early or are younger and move on to do other subjects independantly, but I have pretty much always had them start in the same place(used to be math, now its writing/language arts, mainly so I have time to grade yesterdays math before they need it!). I hope that helps!