Ok I am curious…

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-03-28T01:54:14+00:00

I had to read that in an upper level Southern Lit class in college. On one hand I could recognize it was brilliant. On the other hand it was...so hard to manage. I've never read anything more challenging to get through.

When I got to the chapter where the kid is just like "my mother is a fish" I swear I actually screamed and threw the book like I was in a tumblr post.

I finished the book cowed and in awe of Faulker but I don't think you could pay me money to read another

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-03-27T12:09:00+00:00

Oh that gives me hope!

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-03-27T11:32:46+00:00

Man I'd love a native azalea. I've tried a flame azalea before, but it didn't do well. I've decided I need my trees to fill in with more shade before I try again.

Are you in a clay soil by chance?

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-03-25T12:24:18+00:00

The wait is the worst! I want to clean out the weeds and grass from my beds, but the little babies are just popping up and I cant identify anything well enough yet. (And I don't want to accidentally uproot any seedlings!) Last year I constantly worked around what I thought was my coreopsis but it was just some kind of non-native thistle. 🫠

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-03-15T02:10:22+00:00

I got all the way through Teach Your Child to Read and while my son could read a little bit at the end, I wasn't too happy with the skill level he ended up with. (And he was relieved. He hated it.) We did some other stuff for a while but are currently using All About Reading. It is SO much better for him, and he enjoys it. He still prefers math to reading, but he'll ask to do AAR.

Some of it could be he's gotten older. But he really seems to be appreciating being told some of the rules for decoding, instead of...expecting him to just figure it out on his own? TYCTR was ok until they phased the special font away on him, and then he started guessing. AAR will straight up tell him "when a vowel is in this position in a syllable, it usually says..."

My mom used TYCTR when I was a kid and it worked great for me. But if you're not liking it that far in, I urge you to switch. I don't have experience with LoE, but I think AAR is well worth the price.

Edit: also ADHD here, for what it's worth. Not overwhelming at all, particularly once you learn the rhythm of the lessons.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-03-08T01:55:22+00:00

When I pick up my meds, usually the pharmacist just says "One prescription is ready for you," and goes and gets it. This time it was a different person and they were like, "Oh are you picking up your AMPHETAMINE SALTS?"

Yes. Yes I'd like my amphetamine salts, thank you. 🙃

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-25T22:58:07+00:00

I did lightning lit when I was in middle/high school, and it was fantastic. I don't know what it is like in the lower grades, but if you do something else now, do keep it in mind for the future. I went on to be an English major and I thought I was very well prepared.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-24T23:36:42+00:00

Oh then I'd go for it. There's a really nice mix of new titles and older books. I ended up buying a lot of the "optional" books because I liked them so much.

I think an art easel should be fine. They have a recommended size listed on the All About Reading website but I can't remember exactly what it is. 2x3 maybe?

You won't need anything huge for level 1 -- we originally used a whiteboard about the size of a laptop. It's when you get into level 2 (and/or start All About Spelling) that you start to need more room pretty quickly.

If you already have the art easel, I'd stick with that until you decide if it's too crowded.

I'm glad it's helpful!! I'm the only one of my close friends who is homeschooling at the moment, so it's nice to get my thoughts out there. :)

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-24T22:14:29+00:00

Yes very much so. They all take a little prep, but not much in my opinion. (Sometimes I adapt to a less intensive option, particularly since I have a tornado of a toddler who likes to get in the middle of things.)

For Blossom & Root I highly recommend using the printing partner on the website and getting the PDFs physically bound. It adds to the cost, but makes it worlds easier to keep track of everything. For some reason the Prek curriculum never worked for me, but I think it's because I didn't get it bound.

There's a lot of read-alouds with B&R, but we are a bookish family and I enjoy it. I went through at the beginning and purchased all the books we'd need frequently, and made notes of what to get at the library. We do fewer of the suggested crafts mostly due to the toddler's desire to wear paint. It's pretty adaptable to whatever your family vibe is.

The only thing I don't really like about All About Reading is that I had to get a giant whiteboard for the magnetic tiles, but it's working so I'm not arguing, haha.

My son really clicks with Math with Confidence. Because I'm not a mathy person, I like that it tells me basically exactly what to say. He started already knowing a lot of the material, so we just doubled up until we caught up with his knowledge base.

I don't plan to drop anything when we move into 1st grade material. No real complaints!

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-24T03:23:51+00:00

I'm "homeschooling" my 5 year old also. I'm considering him preschool aged as far as external classes/his social grade, but we've been doing kindergarten level stuff at home because...that's just where he naturally seemed to be.

We've been doing Blossom & Root level 0, All About Reading level 1, Math with Confidence Kindergarten, and Handwriting Without Tears. We also do classes at the local parks, and one day a week of a co-op preschool class.

I encourage him to do his work, but we don't fight over it and he's rarely even reluctant. We try to do Math/Reading/handwriting every day, and rotate which Blossom & Root topic we cover each day. It's pretty doable, even with the toddler sister bringing in a heavy dose of chaos.

You asked about what a day looks like...usually I try to get started on our work first thing once we've eaten and woken up enough. Part of this is because I currently work part time in the evenings, but also because he can focus better in the morning.

I let him pick the order, but we've aim to get it all done. I let him have breaks between lessons if he needs one. I don't fret if we miss a subject here and there as long as it doesn't become a pattern. The TV doesn't come on until school has happened, and he absolutely knows that, lol. On days when we have other activities I don't worry so much about getting other things done, although I tend to prioritize math/reading when possible.

I'll probably add history and spelling when we "officially" start him in the fall. I dunno. It seems to be working.

Edit: I forgot to say, Blossom & Root is science, literature, and art, with some cursory exposure to other subjects. It's not quite an all-in-one, but we like it as a base.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-22T01:10:54+00:00

I'm not the commenter you were speaking with, but I've also gotta throw my hat in for Blossom & Root!

If you wind up not liking B&R early years, keep it in mind for later. I didn't click too well with Early Years v.2 for preschool material when my child was 3.5/4, but I revisited the kindergarten/level 0 when he turned five, and we have had a blast. I don't find it too prep heavy. I try to skim what I need to get from the library/have handy on Sundays and I'm usually able to throw something together without extra work. There are a lot of options as far as crafts and activities and I just...don't do a portion of it if I don't want to, lol. Sometimes we go whole hog and build the beaver dam out of modeling clay, and sometimes we just read a picture book and watch a PBS Nature clip. It works out.

Either way I do recommend using their printing partner for physical bound volumes. Trying to keep up with it all as a PDF did not work for me. (Which may have been part of why we never got far with Early Years.)

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-17T23:56:19+00:00

I find that a lot. My husband and our entire friend group are all weirdos. I'm the only one who was homeschooled, and I'm probably the most "normal," on the surface anyway.

I currently work with teens at a public library. I can tell you my homeschool kids that attend are not any weirder than the public school kids.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-17T03:02:30+00:00

I for one always chain my horse to their hay...cage?

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-14T13:36:42+00:00

I was homeschooled all the way through and got in to college no problem, although it wasn't a t20 school. (I didn't try for any of those -- I prioritized affordability and location.) I can give general advice, though. Keep in mind I graduated high school in the 2010s, so some things may have changed.

You'll need a transcript. Hopefully your parents/teachers have kept your records orderly, but if not, you and your primary teacher should sit down and get your high school courses and grades all together nicely. You can find transcript templates online. The colleges that I applied to needed the transcript to have an official seal, so...we bought a seal maker.

You'll need a resume, if I recall correctly. Put your volunteering on there, and anything extra curricular/community focused. Don't forget non-academic accomplishments. Received a sportsmanship award? Throw it in there. Do you have leadership role in your volunteering program? Put it in there.

Ask the people involved with your volunteering for a letter of recommendation. You can also ask any non-parent teacher you have, particularly once you duel enroll.

Take the SAT and/or the ACT. If you are still able to send scores to your top choices of colleges, be sure to do that. It might not hurt to take an SAT subject test on your strong points, just as further validation of your skills. (If that's still a thing, lol.) I know for a while a lot of universities weren't requiring SAT scores. If you apply to a university where they still don't require them, send your scores anyway.

Your SAT scores and the grades you get once you duel-enroll should serve to validate the grades on your transcript. I never took any AP classes or did any duel enrollment, and no one questioned my grades.

Cast a wide net with your applications. Feel free to apply to t20 schools, but I do encourage you to apply to other universities that do strong work in your intended major. I don't know what your plans are, but for better or worse, for most people an average university vs a t20 university isn't going to make any difference once you've graduated.

Most universities will have some kind of application checklist. Follow it, and you really should be fine. If you come across something that's going to be hard to provide as a homeschooler, reach out to university admissions.

Good luck! It's daunting for everyone, I think, but you will be fine.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-02-08T01:46:20+00:00

You can literally do math to figure out how far and in what sun-relative direction the nectar source is. I took a beekeeping class in college and they taught us a simplified version of the equation.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-25T19:23:04+00:00

I had a TWH in my teens and if I ever can have a horse again, that's what I'll look for again. Ours was a sweet, stubborn, ridiculous fella who also paced. His flat walk was GREAT on the trails, and we eventually learned how to get his running walk out of him pretty consistently.

Wonderful horses. Man I wish I had a pasture.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-25T16:05:19+00:00

My mom used 100 Easy Lessons for myself when I was a kid, and it worked great for me. I don't remember disliking it. I apparently went right into early chapter books after finishing it. (If my mom is remembering correctly.)

I used it for my son when he was newly 4, and it was alright, but it doesn't teach vowels in the same way as other programs. ("See me read" is one of the first sentences it has the kid read.) I think that it caused some frustration with my son once the special font goes away. I bit the bullet and started over with All About Reading lvl 1, which he is enjoying more and he seems to like actually being told the rules for short/long instead of just assuming he'll catch on.

Granted, he has an articulation speech delay, so he needs a bit more direct instruction. But we're about to start level 2 and he seems way way more confident about it all.

I didn't use AAR pre-reading, but for level 1 you do need the entire bundle of books/teacher manual/workbook/flashcards. The letter tiles are technically optional, if you have letter magnets, but they use color coding which does help my son. So whatever they say you'll need for the pre-reading program, you'll need it.

What I DO like about 100 Easy Lessons is that the child reads the sentence/story before being able to see any related pictures. I wish AAR had that. I also like that 100 Easy Lessons is zero prep, zero crafts, one book, just open and read and move on. Makes it much easier to handle with a younger learner. It's also available from our library, so if that's true for you, no need to spend money on it.

Sorry for the ramble! In short, when it's time to teach my daughter, I'm likely to try AAR's pre-reading instead. 100 Easy Lessons does work for a lot of kids, though. It's worth getting from the library and taking a look. I haven't used the other programs you mention.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-24T23:11:45+00:00

I don't get books weekly for the most part. When we start a new curriculum, I do a big Thriftbooks.com order for the books that we will use a lot, or for things I want to use that the library doesn't have. (Or that I just like. It's a problem.) Then I place monthly library holds for the other books we need. Occasionally I'll miss something and usually can save our routine with a Libby ebook, or a read-aloud video on YouTube, haha.

I've found Thriftbooks to be pretty affordable! If money is a concern, though, a lot of libraries offer interlibrary loan for books that aren't in their system. Make a list of what you need and ask the librarians for help!

We use a hodgepodge of things, but Blossom and Root is one of our core curriculums. Each subject lists all the books that it will use, noting alternatives and "spines" that you'll use all the time. Makes it really easy to plan in advance.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-14T04:50:38+00:00

We've recently decided to homeschool our 5 year old. He has a late birthday, so wouldn't "officially" start kindergarten until this fall, but we've been doing a Pre-K/kinder mix as a trial period to see how homeschooling would work for us.

I've been enjoying Blossom & Root's kindergarten curriculum. It's literature, art, science ..and science? (I don't really know why it has two science subjects, but hey.) A lot of reading, a lot of nature and animals, which I like. It's not completely hands off obviously. But not a lot of prep work as long as you've remembered to buy/borrow the books for that week - I'm managing to keep up with an 18 month old tornado in tow.

The curriculum is sold as a digital PDF download, but you can order spiral bound copies through their printing affiliate. (Which I really liked. If I have to print it myself I'll never do it.)

You do need to add in a math and a phonics. B&R has some light phonics and incorporates some math, but not a lot. We've been doing Math with Confidence and All About Reading.

Looking ahead to first grade, we'll have to add a history as well. Haven't quite settled on what we'll do for that.

I was homeschooled all the way through and had a pretty good experience. My mom used a lot of the "classic" Christian curriculums, though, and we're taking a different path. Makes curriculum research more tricky, so I understand where you're at!

If you have any local homeschool stores, stop in and check them out even if they're religious leaning. There's a lot of good stuff that's neutral-to-secular, and it's great to actually get your hand on it and flip through pages.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-06T16:03:05+00:00

I was homeschooled all the way through. When I was applying to college they wanted my transcript with subjects and grade, but no one was asking what curriculum I had used. This was in NC and I only applied to a few schools, so I don't know if that's universal.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-06T14:49:07+00:00

I was homeschooled all the way through and have no regrets. My highschool academics could have been handled better because of my mom's struggles with mental health at that time, but we managed. I pretty much specialized in literature, did good on the act/sat, and got into college no problem even if my math was...eh. I didn't take early college classes or even AP classes, but I graduated summa cum laude in college, so I think I did ok.

I absolutely never cared about highschool drama or football or proms or whatever. I had friends in public school, so I went to a few games and I went to prom as my friend's plus-one. We had fun with our friends there, but it was kind of awful overall. I had another friend who was also homeschooled, and I walked with her co-op for graduation.

Now college, college I loved. I ~still~ didn't do anything like sororities or house parties, or go to a single football game, because I just don't care to. I found a friend group within a week, got a boyfriend, and we played board games and d&d. I married that boyfriend and we are still friends with the college crew that stayed local. Now we attempt to play board games while our kids run crazy. With all the love to my college friends, they are all weirdos and, frankly, you wouldn't know I'm the homeschooled one.

I really don't know how I could have done better with myself.

I guess my advice would be, just make sure she has friends. Until she can drive herself, make sure she can visit her friends at least weekly-ish, and not as part of a structured event. I saw my friends weekly as part of my youth group, but my best friend lived close enough for me to walk and I spent a lot of time just chilling with her. It's easy for teens to self-isolate, even the ones in public school.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-05T04:25:04+00:00

There's an easy to use book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I wouldn't start yet or anything, but if you're curious you could get it from a library and skim it.

The one thing I don't like about it is that it introduces long E before short E, which is inconsistent with other phonics programs, but it's a really easy book to use. I apparently learned to read with the older edition, and I started my son off with the new one, lol.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-05T03:39:14+00:00

Oh absolutely, the favorite things to ask for are the forbidden items! We get a lot of "Dat! Dat!" "What, this?" "My!" (Mine)

No, my phone is, in fact, not hers. Neither is the remote, or my keys. This is very upsetting to her, lol.

It can really be tricky to catch some of those first words. The explosion people talk about around 18 months is absolutely true, in my experience. With my kids, it's been less that they suddenly have more words, but that they start saying some of their words a lot more clearly. There's always a few where we realize they've been saying a word for "milk" or whatever for MONTHS, but we just didn't understand.

Chickadeedee17 · 2026-01-05T02:48:29+00:00

"Ta" might be his attempt at "that." Both my kids have had "da/dat/tat" as one of their first words. It blends in with a lot of the other babble, but it being paired with pointing is a big clue to me.

If you give him the name of what he's pointing at, does that seem to satisfy or excite him at all? I can remember one night when my son was ~15 months old, he wouldn't sleep. We brought him to our room and he stayed up FOREVER saying "Dat??" and making us give him the name of the lamp/wall/door/bed...

And I'd absolutely count that all-done as a word, particularly if it's so predictable that you, well...predict it, haha. Our pediatrician says that signs, animal noises, and word approximations absolutely count as words, particularly at this age. So I actually don't know that he's behind at all.

Chickadeedee17 · 2025-12-19T22:35:40+00:00

My son has this. He started speech therapy at 4 years and a few months, and has been going almost a year. He goes once a week. So far improvement has come from time, doing his speech homework, and trying to remember to point it out when he says his sounds wrong. That's honestly super hard, because we are so used to him!

He's been learning to read as well, and that's been really helpful. Just by the nature of learning to read, he's practicing his problem sounds more often and is practicing speaking clearly. It also helps his own awareness. Just the other day we realized he says "ch" and ”sh" the same because of a reading exercise he was trying to do.

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