In my house we do around 30 min of math and 30 min of language arts everyday. We have 2 days for science, 2 days for history and 1 day for geography per week. That can take us from 30 minutes to 1 hour if the kids are really interested and if we have related science projects. Altogether it takes us 1h30 to 2 hours and we finish well before lunch time (and we don't wake up very early...) Anything else is child led and optional. Just leave it as an option. I have kids doing all sort of things in their free time, from programming and robotics to drawing, piano, etc. Just make sure it's available. I don't know, maybe I'm a little too unschooler for a classical education forum 😅

Since she likes Harry Potter she will probably like anything by Rick Riordan to. Starting with Percy Jackson.

My kids like these Science Comics. They're a lot less "horrible" but still fun. These Max Axiom comics are for science good too.

From K-2 we kept it very basic, simple USA and world geography, continents and different biomes, basic animal classification, water cycle, different planets, that sort of thing. Just by reading fun books and experiments. I decided to start SOTW and a proper science curriculum in 3rd grade.

I'm not the best source of musical education sadly. I did buy a keyboard on a whim and tried having my son take a class with a nice local teacher... It did not go well. It's been more than a year and he still goes "Remember that time mom put me in piano classes?" He thought it was so boring. But now the tables have turned because my new 8yo foster daughter loves music. She says she wants to be a singer/actress/celebrity (her words). She was so excited when she saw the keyboard. I set her up with Simply Piano since we're not doing live classes right now, but it's definitely something I'm considering for her future, as well as singing classes (this girl is always singing). Are piano/singing online classes a thing? They must be, I need to research that 🙂 For music appreciation I did try to start a tradition to read poetry or listen to music while the kids eat their afternoon snack (my kids don't do tea, it's more like poetry/chocolate milk time around here. Very sophisticated). It doesn't always work, these kids will eat so fast and go back running to their legos and outdoor activities. But when it does happen I do have some resources we like. I got these Great Musicians cds. We have this Usborne book on composers we use to learn a little bit more about them. I also recently got this Hip Hop book and this book called Feel the Beat which features rhythms from around the world as well in an effort to diversify our books and show that not all good music was made by white European men (very much needed even before but especially now since my foster daughter is African American). I just really love books, and the ones I've mentioned come with CDs as well. My idea of education (besides our 4 basic subjects) it's just rotating the books I display for the kids and hope they pick it up and learn something from it 😂 I've read good things about Squilt, but my kids interest is just not there for a whole curriculum.

Usborne has some great art books for kids, if you want something more casual and not so "curriculum like". I really like the Art Treasury, it introduces famous paintings and then it has step by step tutorials for the kids to do their own artwork inspired by that artist. That's basically all I do for art (I'm not a very artistic person...😛) We also have The Usborne book of famous artists, this one goes more into the artist's lives and works. I'll usually read from the second book while they work on projects from the first book. Sometimes my kids get really into one artist so we dive deeper (my older boy was obsessed with Leonardo Da Vinci for a while, we read the "Who Was" book for him and a book about his inventions).

We are doing everything at home or online, I'd rather not risk it being around a lot of people right now.

Writeshop has k book, I've never personally used it for K but I do like the older books. My daughter also loves these Eeboo story cards and the Tall tales game. These are not necessary by any means but are a fun addiction (and I'm a sucker for educational games)

My foster daughter was struggling with very basic math (she was in third grade, struggling with addiction and subtraction) and Math-U-See improved her math a lot. She's a visual learner and all the manipulatives help. But I have no experience about the transition from Math-U-See back to school, maybe someone else can help with that.

Thank you for the suggestions you guys, thankfully Prodigy seems to do the trick! I just let her play it while my son does his own math and she loves the screen time. Plus, extra math practice! My son and even my husband have been playing around with it too so it's a win win 🙂 She doesn't mention wanting to do Beast Academy anymore but she does still complain about MUS although it's a lot better because she knows that when she's done with it she can play her game. I'm still considering using Life of Fred as a way to make math more fun for her, has anyone used that curriculum combined with something else? Does it work as just a fun read aloud?

I'd say speech and debate or some sort of public speaking or leadership course might do the trick. It would be better if it were in person so he could be with other teens, my guess is he feels silly reading aloud and tries to be cool and nonchalant 😛 But since we're in the middle of a pandemic, it could work just teaching him about arguments and fallacies and things like that to help him write some sort of speech and get him to read it. I think it should help and it's a nice extracurricular for his records.

We have actual factual evidence of the damage covid can cause to our lungs but people are more worried about "what ifs" with masks.

I'm so tired of people coming with 17923 reasons not to wear a mask. Someone literally told me that's "unhealthy to breathe your own carbon dioxide" the other day when I took my child (we were both wearing masks) to his doctor appointment... Tell that to doctors that wear those masks 12+ hours a day lol How do people come up with this stuff is beyond me lol I have no patience anymore. If you and/or your child can't wear a mask for whatever reason (breathing problems, disabilities or things like autism, believing in bullshit science you read on facebook) then just don't leave your house. It's that simple. Some countries have that as actual law, you get fined if you don't do it. That's the only way to stop the virus. And these people love to say "Oh but if your mask protects you so much why are you worried about me not wearing one?" Maybe it's because the virus will keep spreading between all those not wearing masks? Come on people lol

From one foster mom to another, you got this. Audiobooks are your best friends. Let the kids color or play with legos while they listen to Story of the World or A History of US by Joy Hakin (if you want to do American History). Playdoh for the younger ones work wonders (we use silicone mats for playdoh or paint so it keeps it mostly mess free. The kids learned to keep it on their mats). Any book read by Jim Weiss is a favorite at our house, especially the Greek Mythology ones. Percy Jackon or Harry Potter audiobooks will keep my older kiddos busy for a long time while they play quietly, so I can teach the younger ones. My foster daughter had a lot of gaps in her learning so I took it back to just the basics (maths and language). We're working on a grade below her age to make sure everything's covered. If I feel like she's ready we can always do a summer intensive and get her back to her original grade but I'm not worried about it. Bonding with your new kiddos during this period of welcoming them home is so important and it should come first, education can be second for now.

This year I don't feel comfortable sending my kids to their usual sports so we're doing kids yoga every morning (together with mindfulness exercises) and bike rides a couple times a week (which also doubles as our nature walks). Edit: We've been using https://ladybugyoga.com/ for the kids yoga. Sometimes I'll just let the kids pick up some yoga cards like from this set and we'll do the poses. But there's a channel called Cosmic Kids on youtube as well that might work.

Subscription boxes don't work for us. I used to get kiwico boxes for my son but it was such a hit or mix. Sometimes he liked the activity, sometimes he wasn't interested. I've learned it's just easier to let him pick his own STEM kits from Amazon so there's no risk of him not liking it as much. Plus I like picking some myself to match what we're learning in science, like since we're learning about the sun I picked up a solar power kit from Amazon 🙂

We're also doing ancients this year so I'm following this topic to hopefully get some ideas 🙂 For now I only plan on using the SOTW ancients activity book and I picked up a few random things from TPT Ancient Egypt Map CSI Investigation: Was he murdered? (King Tut) Escape the room: Crack Ancient Egypt Hieroglyphics & Solve The Puzzle! Ancient Civilizations STEM Challenges Ancient Greece Escape Room: Crack Greek Alphabet & Roman Numerals! Breakout! My kids love the "escape the room" type activities. They're designed for a classroom but it's a fun activity to do as a family. We're also going to "mummify" an apple (bunch of tutorials online for that). Editing because I forgot we also got some stuff from Rainbow Resource to make and paint our own Papyrus. I just personally like these ready to go activities because it gives me some time to teach the young ones while they're busy. Make your own Papyrus and Hieroglyphs stencil King Tut tomb tile Another thing that's designed for classrooms but can be adapted is this Greek Drama book. Gather the family and everyone can play a few different characters and it should be fun 🙂

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for but Pandia Press has a history timeline that's secular and should work well with SOTW. I personally use this one because my kiddos are younger and it's nice and colorful but a lot more simple. It also has a nature timeline that goes over dinossaus and the big bang and evolution timelines if that's something you want to teach as well

I feel you! I thought it would be so easy to have 2 kiddos the same age, assumed they would do a lot of their homeschool together and also have a built-in playing partner... Boy was I wrong! My bio son couldn't care less about her or what she's doing (he has some social issues... but that's a subject for another topic) and she's constantly comparing herself to him and wanting to do the things he does and it hurts to see😞 Especially because my son is an accelarated learner and she missed so many school days and deals with anxiety. I think I'll get those level 2 BA books out from storage and let her see them for herself, thank you!

Thanks everyone! I think I'm leaning towards letting her choose an online math game that's more appropriate for her learning style and level and seeing how that goes, since I suspect her jealousy has more to do with the screen time than the actual math program. I'll be checking these out. If it turns out she's still wanting to do BA after that, I think I'll start with the 2A comic book and go from there. I'd hope she would see it's not that fun and forget about it, but I'm just scared she'll think she's inferior somehow because my son can do it and she's not there yet 😞 It's really not fair for her to compare herself to him, especially considering all the trauma she's lived through and of course everyone has their own strengths. I'll also keep Life of Fred in mind if she continues to complain about MUS. She's making progress with MUS but everyday it's a fight to get her to do it. She thinks it's so boring and everytime she gets an answer wrong she gets really upset and wants to give up and often cries about it 😞 This is very new for me as my other kiddos never had issues with math so I'm having to do a lot of research. I'll have to talk to her therapist about this too and see what we can do about it, because her math anxiety is very real.

I have an issue going on with the two 8 year olds at our house. One of them is great with math, doing Beast Academy a grade ahead. The other 8 year old is our foster daughter, who we'll (hopefully!) get to adopt soon. She's had a difficult life and missed on a lot of school days prior to coming to our house and absolutely hates math. I'm doing Math-U-See with her while my son does Beast Academy online. Here's the issue: she wants to do Beast Academy too. She cries about it almost daily. I know it won't be a good fit for her. She needs a gentler approach, and word problems and puzzles are some of the things she hates the most (tears involved) which Beast Academy has a lot of. She has A LOT of math anxiety. I think she just likes the look of the program (it's very colorful and cheerful) and the fact that it's online (screen time is very limited at our house). What can I do? - Let her try Beast Academy at the risk of her hating math even more and feeling inferior. Or maybe she loves it? I'm just scared of traumatizing her even more. - Let her do some sort of online math, even though I think Math-U-See is the best option for her. In this case, which math? She's doing 2 grade math so Teaching Textbooks is our for now, and that's the only one I'm familiar with (and to be honest I don't love it). Anyone has recommendations for online math programs for kids who are struggling? - Continue with Math-U-See and add some extra online math so she doesn't feel left out? But adding even more math for a math-hating kid also doesn't feel right. - Continue with Math-U-See and let her do something else online so she can have her own "special" online time going on. But what exactly? She loves drawing and coloring and learning about animals. She also enjoys reading. - Just keep doing what we're doing now and keep trying to explain to her that different kids learn in different ways and this math program is the best fit for her. But she feels so left out! Does anyone has any experience with this? Any words of advice would be appreciated.

Math: Beast Academy 4 online. By far his favorite thing to do. Language arts: Winning with Writing and Growing with Grammar. Simple and to the point. I keep going back and forth on having a dedicated spelling curriculum as well... I'll probably get Soaring with Spelling just in case. It gets done in 10 minutes anyways. Science: Nancy Larson 3. Another favorite that we're not changing, and I love that it's scripted because science was never my thing. This is 3 times a week. We always add on tons of books. We liked Magic School Bus before but I think he's at that age he'll really enjoy the Horrible Science books so I got him the set as well. History: SOTW ancients audiobook version while he paints and does the workbook. I want to do this 2x a week when we don't have science, so I need to figure out a plan. Adding lots of fun of books as well, Greek Myths and Egyptian Treasures audiobooks by Jim Weiss sound great, and I'm hoping he might want to read the Percy Jackson books too. Sports: This would be his fourth year of surfing lessons and I had plans on getting him Snuba lessons too but with everything going on I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen this year. But I'm considering upgrading his bike to a mountain bike so maybe we can focus on riding our bikes more for some nice, social distancing exercise. Extras: Coding and robotics. He works on his Mindstorms robot everyday. He also works on Minecraft coding a lot. Python coding books as well.

I'm a fan of Winning with Writing, it's simple and direct to the point. Very different from IEW, which is the exact opposite 😂 It's very open and go and it breaks down the writing assignment into manageable pieces which is a must for me, my kids get overwhelmed otherwise. I've heard some people say it's over simplistic but I think it covers all the necessary skills.

I can relate, one of my kids HATES being taught and wants to do everything by himself. For coding that age we enjoyed the Wonder Workshop Dash robot, but we've since then moved on to Lego Boost and now Mindstorms. It's a very expensive interest 😭 But it's used every single day in our house. I also bought him coding books for kids on scratch 3.0 and now moved on to Python and he likes working on those projects independently. This book on Python is something he's been really enjoying, can't really remember the early ones used cause they've been donated. And for math we now use Beast Academy (2-5th grade) but before that we also used K5 learning math which is another online based math that can be done independently.

History has always been audiobooks for us. We did SOTW, which a lot of other people recommended, and now we're doing The History of US. They love it because they get to quietly play with Legos while they listen to the audiobooks or paint. Sometimes I suggest for them to build something with the legos related to the history, like the Mayflower ship or the different types of Native American's homes and they really enjoy the challenge. They seem to be retaining the information and look forward to it. And I love that I get some free time while they listen... Is that ok to say?? For science I like Nancy Larson from 1-5th grade with a LOT of science experiments then I think I'll be going with some sort of online science class because my kids absolutely love science and I don't know what to do 🙃