This is what I do and then I don't have any morning prep at all. I hope you get it figured out!

Nope, and we didn't do all of it either, no literature or projects. Mostly just reading and some essays.

At first I was adding to it, but my plan changed partway through the year, because I ditched R&S history, so then he did it as written (he did different writing assignments though and none of the projects). For the next kid, we'll do it as written over two years.

Now for some old school hits and misses because we did all our classes at home: MUS Algebra 2 - miss. We didn't actually need this much math this year, otherwise we may have continued with it, but it was pretty challenging and time consuming, plus DS hated it. Book list for literature - always a hit. CM style composition - hit. Wordsmith craftsman - miss. I was only using parts of it, but I basically had to teach the skills myself because the instructions were kind of lacking. Survey of Astronomy (Master Books) - big hit. DS really enjoyed this. The books are beautiful. Exploring world history (Notgrass) - hit. DS finds it interesting and moreso as he goes along, because he likes modern history more than ancient. R&S history - miss. I finally got fed up with Mennonite theology (and I have a Mennonite background!). Exploring economics (Notgrass) - hit. DS found it more interesting than I thought he would.

Thanks, KeriJ. Well... my thoughts on my original questions in my first post go something like this: I don't actually think it matters very much. ? How's that? One thing I have learned over the years is that the essay format is useful for any type of writing. I used to think essays were kind of useless, like you did them in high school and college, but which careers actually require them in real life? I have since come to realize that the format of an essay, with an intro, body paragraphs and conclusion, is useful for any type of writing. So that has sort of become my definition of an essay. I have also picked a favourite approach and I'm going with it. For me, it's Know and Tell by Karen Glass. It makes the most sense to me, and is the most logical next step from what we have been doing. My oldest has been writing an essay per week - outline, rough draft, edit - plus daily narrations in other subjects that are 2-3 paragraphs. I try to pick topics from his history, science or economics lessons so then I don't worry so much whether they are a certain type of essay. The variety of topics usually produces a variety of essay types without me having to think about it much. I think, in the end, if a student learns to write a coherent paper with an intro, body paragraphs and conclusion that is well-structured and grammatically correct, all the other stuff either doesn't matter too much or can be learned fairly easily. Also, I have to add that I highly doubt my students will have careers where they need to write much, so this approach may be too relaxed for some, but it works here.

Thanks for sharing. My oldest is going into 11th and we're in Manitoba, so it's always helpful to hear the stories of people who are going before us. ? And of course, congrats to your daughter!

My kids did 3-level outlines mostly from R&S history textbooks. It is hard finding that right book to outline from, but textbooks are probably where I would look first. My rising 7th grader, who is still doing 2 levels, is still using a CLP Nature Reader, which is too easy, but lends itself really well to outlining. Using something easier rather than harder has been a great help at my house with learning to outline. You can always try harder texts later when they are more comfortable. My number one suggestion for moving from outlines and summaries to rhetoric writing is too NOT stop writing summaries. I think SWB says to quit those after 6th grade, but I have found it way more useful to continue them, because they slowly get longer and morph into little essays on their own. Then all you need to do is add an into and a conclusion and voila! You have an essay! That, to me, seemed a lot easier than just doing outlines and rewrites, because there you never come up with your own content. What I do is continue with summaries 2x a week, and then have them do one outline and one rewrite per week. The outlines are helpful for structure, but I find it even more helpful to continue having them summarize. Eventually we drop the outlines and rewrites when my kids are thoroughly sick of them (sometime in 8th) and then just write daily summaries or narrations a la Karen Glass's new book Know and Tell. Then those morph further into essays. It's worked really well here so far. I don't use any of SWB's suggestions for rhetoric writing as far as books go, but I do basically follow her guidelines with weekly short papers and her lit. analysis suggestions.

Mine have never done half a page at that age... ok, maybe I shouldn't say never, but very infrequently and I never required it. My experience has been the same as KeriJ's: 3-5 sentences through 5th grade, but they start writing multiple paragraphs around 6th or 7th. As far as organizing thoughts, the only teaching I've done on that is when we learn about paragraphs and topic sentences in English. Then I try to have them transfer the topic sentence thing to their writing. That's it, other than outlining.

My biggest change is that I'll have 5 students instead of 4. My oldest is going to do math via distance learning for the first time, and he has to go write exams for that outside of our home, so that will all be new. Other than that, I'm just changing up English for my 5th grader (again). I want to try Language Lessons for Today with him.

I agree with Janeway. I would think it's replicating a classroom at home: grades, tests, lots of seatwork, timed class periods?? I'm not sure what all would qualify. And I don't know if everyone who uses the term "school at home" is referring to all of that exactly. Sometimes I suspect they are just referring to using textbooks and workbooks.

I always help mine with spelling if they ask. If they miss a word, it doesn't bother me as long as the sentence still makes sense. Like the pp said, the point is to hold it in their heads long enough to get it on paper. If the "thought" is there, but not exactly (within reason), I let it go.

I need literature suggestions for books set during the Industrial Revolution. We're using Notgrass history and they suggest North and South, but I've read it and I really don't think my son would like it. I liked Hard Times by Dickens but my son isn't enjoying it. Does anyone have any ideas for something a little easier?

I wonder if something like Language Lessons for Today from MFW would fit the bill. They are based on PLL and say they are updated. I haven't used them but I've looked at them a number of times (and again now because of this thread).

I don't think Notgrass would be any more secular than BJU, but it would work nicely to break up into two parts/years, since it is two books. It also has all those original sources and suggested literature. You could skip the Bible reading and Bible lessons pretty easily if you wanted to. Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but just thought I'd throw it out there.

Going on 11 years here, and my style is primarily the same, with some minor changes. The biggest change has been becoming more relaxed, realizing there is no rush to the finish line, and also that there is no "right" way to homeschool. There are many paths to graduation and you have to do it the way your kids need you to. You can't be so tied to a method or a style that it becomes more important than the kid in front of you.

I am not aware of any kits to go with God's Design. I just looked ahead a few lessons at a time and added whatever I needed to buy to my grocery list so that I would be prepared with all the materials we needed. I don't remember anything in there that was difficult to obtain, and I also skipped one here or there if it called for something I didn't have. Most of them are pretty simple.

Well, if that's what you do with it, you'll be doing a LOT more than we are! We just read it. My kids will often use the material to write narrations, and on Fridays we add people and events to our wall timeline. Sometimes I have my youngest boy get the globe and look for places we read about. I also have lots of extra reading books that I've collected over the years (historical fiction and the like) and they are free to read them but I don't assign them. So we are very "free spirit" SOTW users over here.

Well, here are some things to consider based on my own experience: Do your kids do well with literature guides (any previous experience with them)? Can your kids write from a prompt about a random topic in a writing program? Are you comfortable with instructing them in writing without a program? Some of these things I didn't know ahead of time and had to learn by experience when we tried high school English programs. I had to eventually go without formal curriculum because that is just how my kid works best. Sometimes you just don't know until you try.

Mine probably takes around half an hour. If any of my kids had to do math for an hour before high school, they would probably revolt. ETA: He's using TT 6, no CDs.

It does look nice, doesn't it? I haven't used it but I've seriously looked at the Algebra levels. I love that Volume 6 focuses on real-life applications of algebra. I have this in the back of my mind if the current algebra I've picked for next year doesn't work out. Just thought I would give you a bump. Have you done a google search for reviews? There are a few from bloggers and other homeschool message boards.

I have found that when I teach a new writing skill, using very easy reading material to teach it helps a lot. Like, when my 6th grader was having problems learning two-level outlines, I had him practice outlining from a 3rd grade reader. Yes, that's too easy, but then he could focus on the outlining, not the reading or comprehension. It only took a week or two and he began doing harder texts more on his level. I'm doing the same thing with my 4th grader who is learning one-level outlines right now. I don't have experience with WWS or the class you mentioned, but for my kids, it goes better to focus on one thing at a time (taking notes OR reading/comprehending difficult material, not both).

Both of the 8th graders I've had so far have done Apologia Physical science. It's worked so far.

DS 14 had a good year and I was pleased to see him take some ownership of his education. Things like: he began the year with TT pre-algebra doing only the odd questions in the second set because it took forever otherwise. But part way through the year, on his own, he decided to do ALL the questions because he felt he needed more practice. He did Apologia Physical for science and although I only require him to write down the answers to the OYO questions in his notebook, I saw that he started copying some of the diagrams, and writing out all the vocabulary words, too. He did really well with LLATL Gray and he turned some of his daily narrations into essays. He will be very ready for more essay instruction next year for 9th. He also got a lot out of The Thinking Toolbox that he could relate to real life. I'm very happy how he did this year and I think he'll be fine next year. Almost everything I planned for him this year worked out well.

Well, I'm still waiting for the WWS handbook, like the Instructor Text for WWE, that SWB promised to write. I think something like that would be ideal for this. I wonder if that project is still on her list.

How do you know what will work for you? You pick a method that you like (and you think will work for your student) and try it out for a year. Literary terms and analysis can be left until high school, although many programs and families begin these things in middle school. I've done what SWB talks about in her literary analysis audio lecture. I just let my kids read good books, then in 5th-8th grade, once a week we talk about a book they've been reading and answer some of the basic analysis questions (they are in WTM, too) like "Who is the main character? What do they want?" They can write a paragraph or two answering some of the questions. That's it. I really don't want to kill their love of reading by doing too much analysis, so I keep it to a minimum. I leave literary terms for high school (or sometimes 8th grade) except for the ones they encounter in English. Our English program has some in there.