Here's an example of the OUP books: https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Roman-World-Times/dp/0195153804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495722859&sr=8-1&keywords=oxford+world+in+ancient+times We loved them, and we preferred them over Human Odyssey, but they end about midway through Human Odyssey 2.

Is she interested in aerial dancing at all? I only mention this because it's a bit wider open than traditional dance, which means there are some pros and cons comparatively. DD (12+) has been doing it for nearly 6 years now, and is a teaching assistant and helps at workshops, in addition to her training. Unlike traditional dance, there are not many established programs for aerial and other circus arts in the US. There are professional track programs that are non-degree, but for degree programs you have to travel outside of the US, typically to Canada or Europe. (this is a con for us) As a result, many people stick to the professional programs in the US. Or, there are several instructor programs, but obviously you need to have a high level of skill or interest. (these are both pros for us!) Aerial has also become quite popular for serious pro level training, fitness classes, children's therapy, and social circus (using circus skills for social advocacy). DD is hoping for an aerial career at some level, but she's also interested in massage therapy, education, anatomy/physiology, etc. She can start taking instructor training at 16 (possibly sooner with permission), and she can't wait!

We really enjoyed Mosdos Jade for 7th grade this year.

I had an 8th grade graduation, and I never understood why. As a student, it didn't make any sense to me at all. I made DD an elementary school certificate so I'll do the same for middle school, but no plans to do a graduation from middle school.

We used BA as our primary elementary math program, and I supplemented with dozens of things. But, it was never a full set of anything. I'd pull out Key to... booklets for extra practice, Education Unboxed videos, or books like Zaccaro, Danica McKellar, or manipulatives, or board games, etc. I even used a few Singapore and MM lessons here and there. But, it was only if she needed some extra practice. I'd personally just wait and see what you need when you need it rather than add on a single supplementary program.

My memory was accurate but I also validated on FB!

BA 3A was released in March 2012. DD was in 2nd grade, and we switched to it right away. It's took 5 years to release 3A-5D which is why so many of us early folks had to move on from it.

Our costuming classes were 1:1 with one of the best costumers in our local circus community. I got her private facepainting lessons too!. Maybe someone within his dance world? It was like an apprenticeship almost. It was awesome!

My DD has loved crafting forever, and some things she got good at just naturally, but I ended up getting her in a sewing camp, then a homeschool sewing club, and then some costume making classes. Her skills rise with her confidence and vice versa. She's learned to overcome mistakes too. She and DH had a misunderstanding about her measurements for some stilting pants that she was making this weekend, and she ended up having to make a major save as a result of mis-cutting the fabric. But, she got through it. She still sometimes doesn't take our recommendations. When we were designing this costume, the 2 of us sat down with colored pencils and each brainstormed ideas. Neither of us are great at drawing but it was enough for us to put out a bunch of ideas before we committed to anything. I had an idea of which one I thought would work best, but we had a bunch of ideas, and she ended up liking my base idea but expanded/changed it, and it ended up coming out great.

I thought she was talking about Destination Imagination (DI).

I showed my DD the parachute book for teens and she said, "Why would I need that? Some quizzes aren't going to tell me what I want to do." So, I got her to tell me definitively and she said something to do with education, aerial, and massage therapy. She said she is absolutely certain and wants to design her own major. It gives me more to work with yet with more defined boundaries.

Lori, you rock as usual and addressed all of my unstated questions! Thanks everyone!

Beast Academy was the only thing we did in its entirety. We used pieces of others, but just to supplement and never as successful as BA.

I was just trying to make sure if I assume that she and I are working together in some way, like discussing a subject 2 hours a week, then I would just try to not give her more than 3 hours of work to do on her own for a given subject per week.

Hi-- I'm just doing planning for 8th, but I have high school in the back of my mind, and I've realized that I don't understand how credit hours are counted. In-class time is included in that total, right? 180 hours across 36 weeks means 5 hours per week for a course, right? So, if you're in a class that meets daily for 1 hour, does that mean that no extra work outside of class is expected? Or, do you consider like 2 hours in class and 3 hours of work outside of class? I'm trying to remember my own high school experience, and we had every subject daily for about 40 minutes plus a lot of homework. Thanks!

Clementine for sure. Ivy and Bean are a bit more challenging if I recall but also beloved favorites.

I agree too about Jade--workbook was useless for us!

If you have sufficient Spanish, then I love Español Santillana. It's not cheap, but it's an excellent program. We get the student/teacher book, plus the Practice Workbook, and Speaking/Listening Workbook. Level 1a/1b is the same as Spanish 1, just split up for middle school. So, you'd just get Spanish 1 level materials. http://www.santillanausa.com/catalogs/secondary-catalog/spanish-as-a-world-language/espanol-santillana-6-12.html

I don't have personal experience, but many have spoken highly about Derek Owens' physical science course for 8th: https://www.derekowens.com/course_info_physical_science.php

Well, I might not be the best to share how we did it because I just have 1 child and we just did one of the higher levels. I also read all the material too. We tried using the workbook but we have low tolerance for school-like materials which it was. I ditched it and asked DD to review the questions at the end of each reading in her book. I told her to jot down notes to help herself remember if she needed but I didn't require it. . But then we'd just talk about the daily readings. We would use those questions as a starting point, I'd go into some more detail with something from the teacher guide, and we really just talked and discussed. I'd sometimes pair it with Figuratively Speaking or some other things. I was interested in her expanding her preferences and being more willing to try things outside her comfort zone. I wanted to just continue to expand her strong critical thinking skills. I wanted her to enjoy the experience. I honestly didn't care about output at all. She's an advanced studen who is sometimes inflexible in her willingness to expand her horizons but she had a very positive experience and she's actually much more willing to read outside her preferences now. ETA: I have typos from responding from phone and am too tired to fix them!

I buy the teacher and student books, practice guide, speaking and listening, and assessments. I don't buy the answer sheets for those books anymore because I don't need them. I'd say that this program requires you to have strong Spanish skills too. One of my undergrad degrees is in Spanish, I've lived in Spain, etc.

We've had a pretty good 7th grade year. I started to write a long summary and realized that probably no one really needed to know about all the things I made up ourselves. So, I'll just say a couple things that might be useful. We liked Mosdos Jade much more than I thought we would. Shame it's not really available anymore. Forester's Algebra has annoyed me at many times. Too much emphasis on calculator type problems and weird order of introducing polynomials and overwhelming volume of word problems. We're going to go through algebra 1 again with AoPS next year. AoPS will work as a 2nd year math for her but not for primary. I don't want to do every math level every 2 years so I suspect we'll switch to Derek Owens after algebra 1. I still big giant fluffy heart love Español Santillana, and it's well worth the $$ to have a real Spanish program finally. DD has learned a ton this year. Everything else we've done is a mix of things I've stuck together that wouldn't make sense to anyone. The things we stopped were more because I realized they'd work better for high school than my goals for middle school. Overall, we got an amazing amount of work completed that was still pretty interesting and engaging.

We really enjoyed Mosdos Jade for 7th. We also used Figuratively Speaking, which was fine, but I felt it was a little light. We're using Oak Meadow English 8 for 8th.

I've been slowly introducing possible majors and options to DD because what she really wants to major in isn't offered in the US yet. Since she's not yet keen on leaving the country for it, I've been researching on my own looking into alternatives. Right now she really likes the idea of building her own major with some very specific options. That's a slight difference from when she was convinced it wasn't worth it to go to college (and I support that choice too but her given career choice has a high chance of injury so I think she needs an alternative plan). She's also 2e so I worry about her performance on SAT and ACT if we can't get time extension accommodations. But, other bits of her are quite unique so she would likely be an interesting candidate beyond her test scores.

We are going to use Oak Meadow English 8 next year because I didn't like the grade 8 Mosdos selections. We only used the Jade level, and it was a perfect fit for us this year. I told DD that it seemed like the company went out of business and she said, "oooh, I loved that book." I will have Jade for sale once I sort it out but I just haven't decided if I should sell it as a complete set or not.