I agree. I was careful to never teach multiple hard concepts on the same day. If I was teaching something new in reading, I was reviewing in math, and vice versus. History wasn't an issue with teaching new things, since it was just progressing to the next level of the story, but sometimes I had to space out difficult topics in science too. You may be thinking longer gaps than that...but it reminded me of this.

So, I never read that book (sounds like a good one), but due to my son's dyslexia I've let him dictate a lot, and it did lead to better writing (even when he wasn't dictating). I would guide him when he was saying something that sounded fine conversationally, but didn't work on paper. For example, if he started going into chain of consciousness type of narration, I'd stop him and say "That's too much to write...we need to stop and make these into shorter sentences." He had a habit of staring sentence with because. For example, if he answered "Why did Andrew get mad?" with "Because his parents weren't listening to him." I would explain that he could either say "Andrew got mad because his parents weren't listening to him" or just say "His parents weren't listening to him." You can't start a written sentence with because, because you need to include what caused the thing that comes after because first." (We also talked some about rewording the question, though I didn't always require that.) "Now say that in a way I can write it," became a common refrain.

Don't know if I have an answer, but man I can say I can relate. My son, who I later learned had dyslexia and ADHD, had this issue. Incorporating imaginative play (his main motivator), helped with essential things. But it wasn't just obvious things like reading... everything from sports to music to art projects got rejected as soon as they got hard (or not even tried because they MIGHT be hard). Good news is, it changed around age 10. I don't know if it was just his executive function catching up to where most kids are when they start school (executive function issues aren't "cured" but executive function does increase with age just as it does with other kids, even if it will always lag behind). He started both being interested in stuff and being willing to try them. Lots of things were short lived but at least he was starting. And with some interests he stuck with it for a long time. Once he got to middle school, he did a 180 on his effort for nearly everything. He still wanted to quit some optional things early, but he became very self motivated on others. So, my advice is push on what's necessary...but don't push too hard on the rest. For reading, specifically, which I knew was more of an issue than just "lack of will" even before we got our diagnosis, it was a very tentative balancing act on how far to push. Reading lessons were essential and I wasn't going to allow him to get out of them. Pace was where he needed it to me (and I would stop when he was tired...I learned that pushing past a certain point was lots of pain for not much gain. But we always had to start. I encouraged reading outside of lessons. Some of it was thanks to video games. He got Zelda, and it's all reading. I would stay and help him (but not read it for him except for stuff that was just flashed up on screen to fast for him to read it), and I would let him play as long as he was willing to read the prompts. When he finally attempted reading books (His first was a graphic novel his brother gave him...thank you big brother! He totally asked me to get the graphic novel from his favorite series, and as soon as he got it, took it down the hall and gave it to his little brother and said "This is for you." I still get choked up thinking about that, cause it made him want to read it). We took parts at first, and I only asked him to take one part (I probably would have let him let me read all of it if he had resisted that, but he agreed and picked the main character). He soon was asking to read more characters parts. But he would backtrack too and ask to go back to just one or have me read all of it to him and I'd let him. That's the kind of dance we did with this...and it's necessary, cause I wanted him to know if he tried something he wouldn't be stuck always doing it. I wanted him not to feel forced...to want to do this.

Did you mean just movies, or videos too? I started to make up a list of youtube videos and where they would allign to SOTW II chapters, but I didn't finish it (my son ended up going back to school for a while and we were only half way through Vol II then). https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EHRuh40M4ieLSzPWJnRG3igNEWBoa7gvGqy3mLqyTeM/edit?usp=sharing

OK, this study on learning phonics/phonemic awareness through Pokemon is WONDERFUL. I mean, in one way it's not that significant since it's small (3 participants), and one of the participants was intentionally fudging the results because he thought it would mean he would get to play the game more times with the researcher. But it had positive results in the other two AND it sounds like a fun method that could be easily done by a parent at home to insert phonics practice into play (I think the child would need to understand that this would be part of it though.). I could see implementing a "Pokemon for Phonics Friday" or something, where you did this in stead of a regular lesson. The most useful part I think is their description of what they did (page 11-13): The Procedure and Decoding Strategies sections...especially the Decoding Strategies section. https://scholarworks.utep.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4788&context=open_etd If any of you have used Pokemon as a teaching tool, I'd love to hear what you did. I've also used it for math (subtraction...every time a player loses points ).

Also, if you have any power to do this, I've long thought it would be wonderful if Libraries carried curriculum that could be lended out for longer periods (however long the curriculum was intended for...6 months to a year, etc.).

That's so great that your library is doing that. Here are classes I would have loved... Any Language classes but especially ASL. Science classes. Science fair. Geography/culture day. Art classes. Learning game day and regular game day. Book clubs or writing club (where you can share your writing) for older kids. History Potluck and Play Day. Pick a historical time and place (Ancient Egypt, France in the middle age, Edo era Japan, Ming Dysnasty China, wherever). Pin historic recipes on a pinterest board. Invite families to bring a dish from the board for people to try (have them write ingredients on a notecard so people with allergies could know if they could eat it). Encourage those who want to dress in a period costume. Provide a craft or other activiy related to the time period and do a read aloud of a story from the time period (or watch a short video). Since a lot of families go on a 4 year history schedule, if you did this weekly you could pick something from each level (ancient, middle ages, Renaisance to early modern, late modern) each week. Or you could do this once a month and pick from a different level each month so all families have something related to where they are in history. Geography day. Similar to history day but in stead pick a country. Geography fair. The Girl Scouts in our area used to do something like this (just swap troop for "homeschool family" and it works for homeschoolers. Homeschool families could also team up to pick a country). Every troop would pick a country and set up a table about it. Each troupe was required to make a dish from that country, and to make a stamp for people's "passports" (which were just folded up paper stapled in the middle...I think maybe with a printed cover), and to make a souvenir related to the country (some things I remember were toothpick flags, woven bracelets, bookmarks with animals from the country, etc.), and decorate the table with information/visuals related to the country. Half of the troop would stay at their tables while the other half would visit others and pick up the souvenir and stamps. The food was served in a potluck later--or maybe it was first (with someone from the troop explaining the dish and where it was from as they gave you a sample). Each troupe also did a performance (a dance, a short skit, played music, that sort of thing) which people watched while they ate (this I think might not work for homeschool families...but it could be an optional thing).

Science in the Ancient World by Jay Wile is a Christian curriculum that combines history and science that would work really well for all those ages. It has different workbooks for different age levels starting at grade 2 (older student and oldest student workbooks). I haven't used the workbooks personally but I love the textbook and experiments. For your oldest, if you wanted to add in more reading you could add reading from The Story of Science by Joy Hakim (secular curriculum combining history and science...that's respectful of religion). I think Science in the Ancient world is actually better for explaining the science, but The Story of Science does a better job at telling the story of the scientists and how they and their ideas fit into and changed history. --- This free unit study is another one combining history and science (something we loved to do in our family) and is great for those ages (I did sections of this with an 12 year old and 7 year old. It does not have a workbook componant though (it has a story you read about a Viking man and his family, and experiments/activities you do to learn about science topics related to Viking life/times. https://edu.rsc.org/resources/experiment-with-the-vikings/1940.article Another free unit study that I think would work for both these ages is The Good and the Beautiful's Marine Biology Unit Study. They have different workbooks for different ages. https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/products/pre-k-8-marine-biology/

I hate the short/long terminology. I'm a reading tutor now, and I only use it if I know they are using it in school. I use "common sound" and "name sound." Common sound is the sound it usually makes, and the other sound is the same as it's name. Makes more sense to me and they understand it too. When I have needed to use it, I make up a little guide that shows examples of words with short and long sound and I write it so they vowels in one look short and in the other look tall. I don't worry if kids don't know terminology though (well, I do try to get them to understand noun and verb and adjective...cause those come in handy later when working on writing). But short sound, long sound, schwa, digraph, blend...I may use that terminology to explain things initially, but if they can read and don't remember that, I don't care.

Another suggested one that looks good....Science Geek Sam. "When a meteorite crashes into Sam's school bike shed, his class have a LOT of questions about space, the universe, and life on earth. But can they believe in God AND the Big Bang? They make some cool discoveries that show them that, surprisingly, the answer is a clear yes. A fact-filled and thought-provoking story that will make you chuckle." https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/science-geek-sam-and-his-secret-logbook-cees-dekker/1128217764

Haven't read all the replies but assuming you don't want "iphone stuff" a physical map...can be printed out from google, covering the length of the trip. This solves "how far do we still have to go ?" questions for teens even better than kids. "Look for the next city sign we pass and look it up on the map." Also, and if you can get wildlife guides (like those foldable ones meant to be portable) for the states you pass through, trying to spot plants and animals through the window and then use that to identify them is nice. And I agree with others on the spot bingo. You can even make one with things from the state (including restaurants that may not be in your state...I've found some of those already made for some states, like Texas). A good neck pillow isn't a toy but it will allow them to better sleep through some of the trip, so it's good to have.

I think I might have found the unicorn! This site is about Christianity and science, and talks about evolution (and is not anti-evolution). Here's their main page... https://faradaykids.com/ And their page on evolution https://faradaykids.com/evolution While this book is not from a Christian perspective specifically, and I haven't yet read it, it was suggested by two different people on a forum I'm on for Christians who accept evolution: When Whales Walked

The Story of Science (secular curriculum) is a really great read aloud. It tells how science changed through history. My only issue is that it seemed to focus less on the "how" of science (though it does address it...just maybe it's not the main focus). I supplemented with "Science in the Ancient World" (a Christian curriculum...but written by a nuclear chemist, so as far as chemistry goes, it's solid. Pretty good on physics too. He's a creationist, so if that's not your view you might want to skip the biology). Anyways, they have great experiments and really solid, easy to understand explanations of the science. I would read the story of different scientists and how they affected history in Story of Science, and then when we got to the Greeks (where "Science in the Ancient World" starts, I would supplement by doing the experiments and reading his explanation of them. Before that, I used Dr. Dave's "Science of Ancient Egypt" unit studies...another one I like the writing on, though it's not at the level of Story of Science. Another really good one for middle school science is Ellen McHenry's unit studies (the writing is great--plus there's humor).

Usually anywhere from 4th to 8th grade is when "idea" is taught as being a noun. At least in the past they usually didn't teach "idea" until later grades because it's a harder concept. But the parts of speech have always been about how a word is used. For instance, if I have "red" hair...red is an adjective. But in the last part of the sentence where I talked about how "red is an adjective"...there red is a noun because it's the subject of the sentence. I can spray something (and spray is a verb there). But if I am talking about how the "spray" hit me, then it's a noun. And in the phrase "spray bottle," spray is an adjective because it's describing bottle (a noun). Ideas could always be nouns. You can love someone, or talk about love and what love means. Parts of speech have more to do with how the word is used in a sentence than what "type" of word it is. If it's the subject, it's a noun. If it's what the subject is doing (or being), it's a verb. If it's describing the subject, it's an adjective.

I love San Diego. It has a huge homeschool community, with a lot of secular homeschoolers (it's almost too huge...like you could go to a different homeschool event every day of the week but you might not see the same people). Weather is beautiful. Close to the ocean. Lots of hiking trails in the hills and near the ocean too. The only issue is cost. At $150 K though I think you can afford it, especially since you can be anyplace in San Diego and don't have go where the good schools are. Finding a house is also a challenge as there is a housing shortage. Gas prices are high but since you work from home that should be less of a problem for you. If you homeschool through a homeschool affidavit you have pretty broad freedom to do what you want (there's some required subjects to teach and you have to keep attendance and some other records, but generally no one is checking in on you). You also have the option of homeschooling through an "independent study" charter...there are several in the area. Most provide help with buying curriculum, and often with other things like tutoring, sports, classes, etc. All require meeting with a teacher periodically, and some have other restrictions. But that's also a cost factor to consider, if you're willing to give away some freedom for that. Because of this, there are less homeschool co-ops here (and those that are are often religious)--because so many homeschool through a charter, and most charters cover the sort of things co-ops usually do. But there is lots of homeschool meet-ups, field trips, classes, and activities that don't require charter attendance. Like I mentioned, you could do a homeschool activity nearly every day if you wanted to...though I don't suggest that. Oh, and I noticed you said earlier that you are fairly liberal, but were worried that California was TOO liberal. California is one of the few politically mixed counties in the state (it's a swing county...healthy mix of red and blue and independent/3rd party). There's lots of moderates here, though there's also people on all ends of the spectrum.