You can also go to www.worldbook.com and look at grade level standards. Of course in the US, there isn't any national standard, but this list reflects topics covered in the "average" classroom.

Don't go too crazy Kriston! Our first grade native american coverage so far has consisted of one handout/story on Squanto at Thanksgiving. I'm sure you'll be ahead by checking one book on Native Americans out of the library.

Ugh! Good to know, kimck. Thanks! I'll dip a toe in instead of diving in whole hog.

I don't think DS6 has any interest whatsoever in Native Americans. Early humans, yes. But European settlement of the Americas is too late for his taste, I'm afraid! <shrug>

I tend to hate the Eurocentric view on that period of time anyway. And all the attention paid quite wrongly to Columbus is another annoyance to me! The Norse were here 500 years earlier! Hello!

See you all after my oral surgery! Wish me little bleeding and no swelling, will you?

Ouch, good luck. I hope it goes well. I had 3 wisdom teeth pulled at the same time and it went really well. No pain to talk about. The oral surgeon even gave me a special note for a tooth fairy (aka Dh). Apparently wisdom teeth are worth quite a lot. LOL.

Don't forget to milk it a little bit and take it easy over the weekend You know no cooking, no cleaning, no dishes, ...

Yes, thanks LMom. I plan to do zilch all weekend! DH is in charge of kids completely, and I'm planning to catch up on lots of bad TV...if I even get out of bed to watch it! I may do nothing but sleep.

And BTW Grinity: I'm not allowed to exercise for a week. After that, I'm hoping to get back to the gym on a regular routine!

Bed...See you all in two or three days!

Kriston- I hope you are recovering well. Tell us some of the "highlights" of your weekend when you get back here

It looks like for us, that next year will be our first of homeschooling. DD is now asking for it more and she keeps referring to it with more conversations. She is currently doing an extra credit project on Ammonites and she told me how she would love to study fossils to this depth every day, but her school doesn't allow it. I was concerned about the socialization (although I know it's not usually an issue) but as DD tells me how she doesn't have a friend in her classroom and there are some bullies, I'm not sure what the damage is for this type of "socialization". DD has some many wonderful friends outside the school ad that wouldn't change. She is also soooo bored in math, and is excited to do Challenge Math at home. I don't remember asking to do math growing up, but she is, LOL.

Anyway, welcome back Kriston when you get here!!!

Thanks! It's nice to be missed.

How are you feeling about next year? You have plenty of time to prepare, so you "should" be feeling confident...as if there's any "should" when it comes to feelings! But what I mean is that making the decision now will probably make for a fairly smooth transition.

It's great that your DD is so excited about HSing! Have you started making lists of the topics she wants to study? We did that on our first day of HS, and though we have deviated from it quite a bit as DS6's interests have changed, we've covered a surprising number of his areas of interest. It's good to write it down so you remember where she wants to take you.

Do you have any questions, concerns, fears, things you're looking forward to, etc. that you'd like to discuss?

Always happy to chat!

It's actually rather normalizing to read about other people feeling as nervous about HSing as I do. I think it's one of those situations in life that you just have to go through to have any true understanding of it. We are looking at Waldorf right now - still weighing options, but HS is in the lead. For now, too, we're doing Kumon, and my son really likes it...and it lowers my anxiety about his potentially falling behind.

OK, now I'm researching this, too. There is a four and a half hour introduction to homeschooling/unschooling at the library this weekend given by Patrick Farenga. Ever heard of him? It conflicts with the gifted conference and I can't decide which to go to.

Also, for you HS'ers, I was wondering what a typical day would be schedule-wise. Don't waste your time responding if you've done so in the past. I do plan to go back and read those old threads. Just wondering if you try to keep a school-like schedule to keep your children ready to return to school someday.

And I also wonder about the transition back to regular school for those of you who have done it.

I don't know that speaker, but I Googled him. He looks to be one of John Holt's disciples, so he's probably going to be all about unschooling.

If it helps, I'm doubting that you'll be an unschooler, just given what I know about you and your DS...It's the least structured form of HSing and basically says that all children are natural learners, so if you just spread opportunities before them, they'll learn on their own. No teaching unless the kids ask to take the class. No taking the kids on field trips unless they first express an interest in the subject. Etc.

It's a valid method, and a lot of people love it, but it's too hands-off for me (and perhaps for you? I could be wrong, but...). Oh, and if you're unschooling, you'd have to restrict media time pretty much completely so that TV and computer are not all the child does!

Mostly I just don't want you to think that unschooling is the only way to go. His form of HSing may look nothing like what I do!

I've responded before about how we do our HSing thing, so I won't bore you. If you can't find my description of our LOOSE daily plan, let me know and I'll repost. We definitely leave room in our schedule for field trips and playdates.

The biggest thing I would warn against is the other extreme from unschooling: thinking that you have to do "school at home" in order to HS. (Not that you would do that, but just in case...) We don't try to keep to a typical school schedule at all. Not even a little. In fact we take one day off a week for skiing--that's his phys ed! Not typical!

So much of a typical school day is wasted time (waiting in line, waiting for everyone to catch up, waiting, waiting, waiting...) that if you have just one child to focus on, a whole school day's worth of material can be managed in just a couple of hours, including dawdling time. Less is more I've found, since you're probably going to FLY through curriculum even faster than you think you will. Without pushing by me, DS6's reading has improved about 2-3 grade levels in 5 months. He's done 2 years of math in that same time. Etc. in short, there's no need to spend a lot of time on traditional school. Cover the basics and give him plenty of time to play/work on his own projects.

I guess what I'm saying is that unless your DS *prefers* a typical school schedule at home, or unless your state requires that sort of time commitment, there's absolutely no need to go that route. It will wear both of you out for no good reason.

Oh, and schedule clean-up time in that day somewhere. The mess expands the more time you're home! Clean-up has to be part of your DS's day...or else!

I don't anticipate trouble returning to a regular school schedule. DS6's biggest worry for next year is that he'll be bored. I think the GT school he's going to part-time next year will prevent boredom, so I'm not worried about that. I do think he'll have to readjust, but I don't think it will be a big problem. It's not like they have no idea what school is all about, you know? I think the transition back in is less of a big deal than the transition out.

Finally, I would advise you to talk to your DS about HSing beforehand to a) be sure he's on board and understands the commitment you're BOTH making to the state, since this will make it easier on those days when he doesn't feel like working, and b) let him know that you're going to have to learn together how to do this, so he's going to have to communicate well with you about what's working and what isn't and why and be understanding if something doesn't go well. You're new to this, too, so you're going to make some mistakes. But the two of you are a team, and together you can figure it all out.

Having that conversation before we took DS6 out of school was the best thing I could have done! There are still some hard days, but he gets why we're doing this and he is definitely a member of the "educate DS6" team.

If I can help, you know where to find me...