I’m glad they are starting to recover from what PS did to their interest in learning.

I don’t see any reason not to do the experiment first. Yes, it goes against the traditional way, that’s ok. Try to get their curiosity up about the why while doing the experiment then encourage them to read more. Have interesting books ready nearby.

For your Taz, you should look into Math-U-See’s Beta. He sounds a bit like my son (loves math and reading but not writing). That’s what I’m using now. It covers 2 digit addition and subtraction plus much more. I bought another math program before I realized MUS covers those other things like place value, money, =, rounding, and estimation. Oh well. It’s very teacher friendly. We watch the video (I highly recommend it) then he does the lesson page. One or two pages is usually enough for each. We do math 2 times a week. The first we introduce the new lesson. The next we do mixed review. If he really understood the concept, we may skip the review and do 2 lessons that week. There are blocks to use (good for keeping hands busy if he’s having trouble concentrating). There’s also a few word problems each page.

Another thing that helps is to be able to stick to some kind of daily routine. Not necessarily a schedule but generally waking, eating, playing, school, and sleeping at the same predictable times each day. Kids feel safe if they know what to expect and yours may have lost some of that by not doing PS routine/schedule anymore.

What do your children like to do in their spare time? Are they readers? Do they like computers? What are their interests? This is important and if you can tap into these interests things will improve. It may be uncomfortable at first getting used to something non-traditional but well worth keeping at.

If textbooks aren’t working, scrap them and try unit studies or literature based schooling like WinterPromise or Sonlight. (they make it a lot easier with their guidebooks than trying to do it yourself.) Look into some smaller curriculum publishers instead of the traditional ones you see in schools. Often they have more interesting materials if you really want to use textbooks. If your kids like computers there are online courses but be careful of these to make sure they have time away from the screen and not totally replace your (or the pubic school) teaching with the online teacher.

Most of all, don’t feel you need to do everything perfect this first year at homeschooling. As with everything else, practice makes perfect as you and the kids get used to being together again and the freedom of homeschooling. It may not seem like it, but you are off to a good start even if it seems rocky.

And happy birthday Taz! There are a lot of 2001 babies on the JM HSing board born between July and November 2001.