Do you have a link? I don't see it anywhere.

That actually looks perfect! I knew there had to be something like this, but none of my searches were successful. Thank you!

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good middle school-college level book that provides an overview and description of types of writing? Not a how-to but a conceptual book that discuss intention/purpose and some basic characteristics of just about anything: poetry, short stories, novels, news, reviews, technical writing, academic essays, etc. Fiction and non fiction. If I need more than one book, that's fine too.

We are going to be starting the Plague in a couple of weeks. We're doing it within the context of our middle ages studies this year. (I don't follow WTM history cycles; this is the first time we are doing middle ages in 6th.) There were a few threads I found here when it first came out, but I think I only saw one person post details about how it was going. I don't have the materials in front of me right now, but if you have any specific questions, I can take a look at them later and let you know. We just don't have any personal experience yet.

I think those are from Learning Resources. They have a bunch of manipulatives in similar colors: https://www.learningresources.com/category/subject/math/manipulatives.do

Got it--but it sounds like a great intro. I'm another algebraic thinker who isn't a fan of geometry. DH is, but he's too lost in his deep naturally mathematically-inclined mind to teach DD. I actually liked proofs quite a bit because they were logical, but I was never ever able to abstract that learning to intuitive thought nor practical purpose.

Rose, didn't you guys do an edX geometry course last year? Was that helpful? Or am I misremembering?

Nearly a month later now, and I have a few additional things to report. In addition to these specific items, she is generally happy with our other curricula choices. Mixed Cover Story. Enjoys the videos, but the work for about the first 10 lessons is too repetitive from work she's done before. So, we're switching things slightly and reducing the work she has to do in the workbook so she can get more into the parts that are new. TabletClass. She doesn't love it, but I like it because it lets me be able to easily see where she needs help. So, my teaching time is spent on concepts and specifics that she doesn't understand rather than everything. Misses Analytical Grammar. Too repetitive and slow. Dropping and switching back to occasional sentence diagramming and more comprehension mechanics review instead. Loves Philosophy for Kids. She absolutely loves this book and the discussions that we have. Poetry by Blackbird and Company. Seeing the output she produces with this curriculum has been eye opening! It's amazing what she does when she enjoys it!

If you have a Mac, it's built into OS X. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202584

Opportunities... -To learn in ways that are best for her learning style -To study things she never would in school -To go on wicked cool field trips -To dedicate more time and training to non-academic interests -To work with young kids by volunteering at a preschool -To remain close to me and DH -To have lots of downtime -To be herself Just a sampling!

It is a stylistic choice, not a grammatical one. I manage a group of writers at a large high tech company. The trend is very much to encourage simple and bold writing with much more informal styles. The styles we advocate now are vastly different than what we did 15 years ago. We actually has this very discussion (argument) in a training course last month. Imagine about 80 opinionated professional writers trying to make their case about it! Good times! The key is always to know your audience and purpose.

It was much too slow and repetitive. We're not fans of workbook style programs (which I still manage to avoid when folks talk about some other curriculum every year during my planning), and spiral curriculums absolutely do not work for our teaching and learning styles. It also didn't make sense to me in many ways. The vocabulary seemed like a random thing to toss in with the grammar work; it was trying to do too much or something. I never even got around to trying to remember to look at the writing assignments.

I just read the 1-star reviews for the Little History of Science and am not feeling the love. One reviewer included some quotes. I'd love to find something too even though I have no useful suggestions!

We weren't fans of that Vikings one either. BBC has a 3-part (3 hours total) documentary on the Vikings on Curiosity Stream that we are enjoying a lot instead.

Analytical Grammar. Too slow, too much busy work. It's just not the right fit for us. I thought it was something it isn't so it's my mistake. DD begged to just go back to diagramming sentences without all the review again.

Just agreeing with everyone else. I personally would drop the project school. But, I also resent homeschool programs that take up that much of our time. I will give an important single activity most of a day, once a week, at most.

Thanks for the suggestion! It is a bit too "workbooky"" and non-secular for us. I think just ongoing diagramming and solid mechanics review is what we need.

The Key to Algebra series isn't bad, but it's all procedural practice. We are using it, but I only have her do a page here and there if she needs additional practice to reinforce something. It works fine like that, but I do the same too with the other pre-algebra programs I have. DD is the type who when she gets a topic, she gets it right away and is ready to move on, but if she struggles with something, she needs a tiny bit from several different resources to get the pieces to fit. So, for us, personally, it works well to bizarrely combine multiple pre-algebra programs.

Yea, I had already had her do a reduced set of questions, but it was still frustrating her. I think it's just not the right fit. It does look very comprehensive, though! Rose, I think you're probably right. She has a lot of experience analyzing sentence structure, and she does fairly well with punctuation in her writing, but I bet she would get more out of a comprehensive review of mechanics this year and then just happily diagram sentences for ongoing practice. Thanks for the suggestion!

We finished the first 4 lessons but it's just too slow and too much busy work. It's better than Hake when we tried that briefly a couple of years ago, but still, DD and I are both ready to pull our hair out. Granted, she's had a lot of grammar, including MCT and Grammar Revolution, but I just wanted a one-year course to keep it fresh. It's just not the right fit. She begged me to just go back to diagramming (she prefers that to MCT 4-level analysis). So, we are. I've heard such great things about this program, but now I'm wondering if it assumes little pre-existing grammar knowledge. I thought it was more advanced. Has anyone else felt like this or are we alone?

My DD is doing pre-algebra Tablet Class too, and I just don't think they give enough practice or insight into the conceptual details as much as I would like. I also am not thrilled with the encouragement of calculator use at this stage. But, we're continuing with it with modifications that help. I have her work on one of the chapters entirely on her own one week, I can tell if she is having any problems because I check her work on the exercises, and then I just pull in some more practice exercises or conceptual info from any of the other billion pre-algebra programs I have (AoPS, MM, Docliani, Lial, Key to Algebra, plus tons of other resources). She's been scoring well on the chapter tests with this method. I like it because I'm not having to teach everything; I'm just filling in any gaps in her understanding. We did chapter 1 of AoPS pre-algebra in the spring, and she liked it okay but we decided to have her do something more independent (she's not emotionally ready for AoPS-level independence).

I should follow up and admit that we ended up dropping before the class began. I just didn't think it was going to fit into our style, and I am already incorporating many of the planned topics in our school this year.

Prime Climb Equate Shut the Box Yahtzee Suduko Sumuko 24

I cared more about DD falling in love with history so we did our own thing for K-4. We started Ancients in 5th and it was the perfect time for her. We use OUP which is an excellent spine for logic stage history. K12 Human Odyssey and Pandia Press History Odyssey are good too. We never used SOTW, and history is one of DD's favorite subjects.

Intelligo was my first thought too.