Oh that is good to hear that someone used it in 7th! That's when I was considering it but others said it was auite different from 1 and 2.

We completed A already using the CDs, and she really liked that it was indepdendent because not much of our curriculum is. But, I think the narrators drove her a little crazy.

I have no advice just a tip that I've heard that vol 3 is more like high school level unlike 1 and 2 which are definitely middle school. We are using vol 1 in 5th.

Oh! I have so much to say to everyone.. let me see if I can do it right.. Not attempting multiquote.. Aurelia: Which level of Phonetic Zoo? DD did A this year and it went fast. She is a weak speller (and we've done LoE, How to Teach Spelling, are on Megawords 3...), but she's grown tremendously this year, though. I can't decide if I should do the next levels of Phonetic Zoo or not. We are doing Brain right now and are enjoying it. I've added a few things that we've enjoyed. Melissa B: Have you used Galore Park for foreign languages before? Why did you choose that option for French? I am still trying to decide. I'm fluent in Spanish; DD was born in Guatemala; but she wants to learn French for circus purposes! Ack! (One of the best circus schools is in Montreal!) mc26: What is this program? Geography: Discovering the World of Geography Arcadia: What's this: Language Arts - Grammar for writing Farrar: Does she have info about this on web; I haven't heard anything about this yet: Faltering Ownership Soror: I bought one of the OUP history of technology books. They are excellent, but the material and reading level is above that of the OUP World in Ancient Times series. They are very content dense too. We've been mostly reading snippets of them to supplement our ancient studies. I'd put them closer to high school level (at least 8-9) than middle whereas I consider the other OUP series to be solidly upper el to middle school. If you want to see comparison, PM your email and I'll take a few pics and send them to you. Critterfixer: OH!.. logic. DD loves it, and I never remember. I have Philosophy for Kids and just now remembered I was considering that so perhaps I'll do that. General comments: So many of us are using Mapping the World by Art, and doing Middle Ages. :-) We haven't tried online classes yet. I spent hours going through them last weekend, and I haven't decided. We are staunchly secular and so many are not so it has taken me a lot of time to evaluate the options.

That's the same series I mentioned earlier in the thread. I've bought them used and OUP often has excellent sales. I got a bunch of them that way too. It's totally worth the investment!

We just completed Grammar Revolution, and it solidified DD's grammar and diagramming but I agree that there is a lot it doesn't do. It's not complete on its own but it was what we needed for diagramming. To be fair, though, it's much more than just parts of speech. She also covers direct/indirect objects, predicate nouns/adj, types of verbs, functions of nouns, phrases, clauses, verbals and probably more stuff I can't remember. Parts of speech only implies (to me) just the basic noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection.

OUP World in Ancient Times is. Each civilization has its own volume. It's popular for the 5th grade and up ages.

Oh, gosh, I know BA can be a challenge from that perspective at first. We started when it first came out about 3 years ago so DD was 7 and in 2nd. She was also a very sensitive perfectionist. She really, really loved BA so we worked together a lot in the early days to build up her confidence. She really liked it when I got stuck and had to double check answers. She absolutely loved it when she got the answer right, and I got it wrong. (Yea, that happened...) I think BA did almost as much for taming her perfectionism as it did for her math skills. In our case, there were so many other benefits to using BA (she had such negative opinions about all other math we had tried before BA so we had just been doing living math for a while) that we just kept going. It really did get better, and she never lost her love of it.

I'm a bit in shock that I'm planning for my 6th grader. I posted this on the AL forum, but I wanted to see if anyone had some 6th grade ideas that will inspire me! MCT CE 1 vocabulary. Blackbird's poetry program. Something for spelling still. I think it will probably be whatever the next Megawords we need by then, probably 5 and 6. Drawing Sentences for ongoing diagramming practice MCT Voyages. Blackbird's Intro to Composition--2nd half of the year AoPS Pre-algebra for sure. DD said she really wants to continue it. History will be Medieval/Middle Ages using OUP and K12 Human Odyssey. I don't yet have my full list of books and other resources. Geography will likely be to continue using Mapping the World by Art Hakim's Joy of Science coordinated with Middle Ages. Will also do an overview using Dr. Arts Guide, Magic of Reality, History of Nearly Everything, and more McHenry. Foreign language. Need a solution for Spanish and French. Still researching. Might do online tutor for Spanish and something else for French. I want to use Español Santillana 1A, but I have the cost estimate for all the pieces, and I'm not sure I want to make the cost investment. Circus arts, dance, tumbling, and stilting group and private lessons. She's attending an advanced camp this summer which will help guide decisions for next year. Group chorus, private voice and piano. Sewing and pottery classes WTMA Study Skills Philosophy for Kids

My 10-year-old liked Keyboarding without Tears just fine. But, I am disappointed that there is no reporting. I have absolutely no insight into how she is doing, etc. She adamantly does not want a program with games or pressure. I think we might actually try UltraKey after seeing that.

DD likes Grammaropolis, which usually has a discount on HSBC. But, she really seemed to enjoy it more this year (5th) than previous years. It just reviews parts of speech so no review of punctuation or mechanics.

My DD would love to try it. She is a vegetarian so she won't test meat dishes. She does a lot of independent cooking. Looks up and uses recipes, has knife skills, handles oven and stove on own. Forgot to mention that she's 10.5.

Absolutely Almost is in DD's TBR pile. She loves anything Lisa Graff writes. I think the Meaning of Maggie came out in 2014 too, and DD liked that quite a bit too. I'll admit that I only quickly skim and read reviews when giving her new books. I can't keep up with pre-reading everything. She's self-aware enough to just stop if a book doesn't work for her. (Usually because of things that make her too sad.)

I'll go so far as to say that, depending on the ages you're teaching, you might not even need a science curriculum. DD is in 5th,and we still haven't used a true curriculum. We are currently using the Brain from McHenry but I add a lot to it. Younger years were spent reading, watching videos, going to science museums, observing nature, looking in microscope and through telescope, raising butterflies, backyard bird feeding, experimenting with behavior modification on cats...etc. Basically, learning science naturally through interests. She is keenly observant, inquisitive, and skeptical with tremendous respect for nature. All excellent qualities to have as either a professional or armchair scientist. She fell in love with paleoanthropology during our pre-history studies, and that's now one of her top career goals (between Cirque du Soleil aerialist and 5th grade teacher).

I downloaded the one that included information about nervous systems to accompany our current neuroscience study, and it's quite good! The animations will help with further explanation about synapses for sure. Do you have any recommendations for other interactive iBooks for any subject or tips on how to find them?

DD took a very non-traditional path through elementary math. She thrived in BA, and we glued together everything else from bits of Right Start, MM, Singapore, Key to, Danica McKellar, Khan, Hands on Equations, living math, and lots of other things. I thought we'd do JA because I wanted a gentle discovery approach, but folks encouraged me to give AoPS a try, and she wanted to because she loved BA. I am working alongside her, but she is driving the lesson. She's had no problems with Chapter 1. It's all review so far, though. Since I thought we might need a bit more review once we get further in, I evaluated the programs I own. I really wanted to like JA, and many people do, but I know it won't work for us. It's very text-dense and doesn't use any information design elements except for bold and numbering, which just presents too much of the same-looking info at once. DD is 2e with working memory issues, and she looked a bit panicked when I showed it to her. I wish I could post pictures because I find JA to be much more verbose than AoPS. I also feel like it never quite circles backs to the conclusion and it lacks some basic information design layout elements that would make it easier to use. I think AoPS's excellent use of design elements provides just enough consistency and scaffolding for DD. (Examples: color distinctions between problems and solutions, boxes separating problems from explanations, clear summary of important take-away message at the end of sections, good use of bold and attention getters.) (Full disclosure: I am a professional information designer with a background in cognitive/neuroscience so these things pop out to me quite obviously. These types of things are incredibly important to the way DD and I organize information in our brains.) I think it's an excellent program (in terms of content), and I never would have realized these things if I didn't have it in my hands. I think that there are actually a fair number of excellent choices. MM has pre-algebra now. We also have Lial's, which I quite like too, and others have found it to be too busy (Again, I felt Lial's consistently used information design elements which made it easier for us to use.) Dolciani is a solid traditional approach. There are more choices than this and even more once you hit algebra. For now, I am working with both AoPS and Lial's. I like that both will give us a solid and clear path beyond pre-algebra. Lial's is more traditional in its approach yet still includes conceptual material. I realize now how difficult it is to choose one of these just based on other people's reviews and comments. Except for AoPS, I found all the other programs for quite cheap, and I think it was really useful to be able to compare them myself with consideration of DD's learning style and my teaching style.

Rules and Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord. I think Rules was a Newbery Honor book, and DD tells me Half a Chance was "life changing."

Honestly, this year (5th grade) has been, by far, the most successful year we've had. We just have had the right curricula choices, and DD has grown leaps and bounds in pretty much every subject. She's had tremendous growth in her aerial dance skills too. I am just so incredibly pleased with how this year has gone.

DD loved Pedro's Journal too, and we read it alongside Morning Girl, and it was a great combination for discussion. Some other things she liked... When DD was in 2nd, she was obsessed with the "Who Was..." series of biographies. She learned a lot from them, and even enjoyed reading about the Important People in that format! She also loved the Brown Paper School USKids History series. They are all very social-history focused on major periods in early US history. Another favorite is the Pioneer Sample, Pioneer Thanksgiving, and Pioneer Christmas. I believe the family was a Canadian pioneer family. She didn't like Little House on the Prairie series at all, but she loved this. She also loved Rachel's Journal, Caddie Woodlawn (and its sequel). She never really liked the American Girl, Dear America, or the Royal Diaries series.

We have liked Zaccaro's Upper Elementary Challenge Math and Family Math: The Middle School Years. ETA: I might have misunderstood the original question. So, I have a new answer. Earlier this year, I bought a bunch of pre-algebra workbooks to have a healthy source of ongoing math practice of all elementary math skills. Every day I give DD 5-8 problems that I randomly pull from them as practice to keep her skills fresh. For example, last week I gave her a bunch of multi-digit long division each day. I'm probably going to give her some exponents this week. It's all stuff we've done, and she's mastered, but get rusty if she does't do them occasionally. So, every week she does about 20-40 problems as review. This is in addition to the new math we're doing together.

NM...I saw OP later post, and I wasn't offering what she requested.

My DD also didn't like SOTW or Jim Weiss. I was sure she was the only child to refuse all Jim Weiss CDs! I didn't bother after the initial failures. It just wasn't worth it, and I was not at all committed to the WTM approach to history. My #1 goal was to get her interested in history. We spent nearly 2 full years just learning about Native Americans throughout the Americas. (We are an adoptive family; DD is Mayan so this was really important to her.) From there I moved into early US history through to the Industrial Revolution, but skipping the Civil War (she wasn't ready for it at her age and sensitivity). I then moved into Central American and South American history through the same time period. Those were very difficult resources to find. I also quickly learned that she really has no interest in wars. So, I de-emphasized those at her age. She's extremely interested in social history, history of the common person rather than learning about yet another Very Important Man in History. We are just now (in 5th) working on Ancients for the first time. History is one of her favorite subjects, and I feel strongly that it's because we spent so much time exploring topics that were interesting to her. I didn't demand any output at all for history for K-4. We read, watched, listened, discussed. We did relevant projects together if we were so inclined.

I only have very vague ideas so far for 6th grade-ish MCT for vocabulary and poetry. Might also use Blackbird's poetry program. Something for spelling still. Drawing Sentences for ongoing diagramming practice and possibly some else TBD. Writing. Still undecided. Might use Blackbird's essay program. Math really depends on how long it takes us to get through pre-algebra. We just started a combo of pre-algebra using AoPS and Lial History will be Medieval/Middle Ages using OUP and K12 Human Odyssey. I don't yet have my full list of books and other resources. Geography will likely continue using Mapping the World by Art Science is a bit of an unknown. For sure we will use Hakim's Joy of Science coordinated with Middle Ages. Might do an overview using something like Dr. Arts Guide, or more McHenry or DD might take an outside lab science. Foreign language. Need a solution for Spanish and French. Still researching. Circus arts, dance, tumbling. She's attending an advanced camp this summer which will help guide decisions for next year. Chorus, private voice and piano.

My DD actually loves those connections. I didn't consider that unusual for her because she is a big picture thinker who likes thing things together. We have spent a lot of time comparing the different ancient cultures. Honestly, that is just what comes naturally out of our lessons. I never considered that to be a much higher skill. But, she is an only child who has been subjected to deep conversations with her nerdy parents her whole life. As an example, we work on scrapbook pages after each culture and she had the idea to create paper circle Venn diagrams to do a compare/contrast of Mesopotamia and Egypt. We stop while listening to discuss; it is a very dynamic experience for us. Yes, we loved that opening too about being a farmer!

I think that it depends on the child, and I find age and grade level to be an arbitrary distinction when schooling my daughter. She is "5th grade" by age only. It tells nothing about her skill level in any subject nor her experience to this point. It also doesn't indicate my priorities for her education. I assume, universally, that no one will ever have the same experience as I will. I have no vested interest in what anyone chooses. I was just posting a follow up from my previous thread.