I have experience with Reading Detective and Forms/Elements of Literature that you mentioned in your first post. My 5th grader has used each of those this year alongside a mixture of other resources. This mix has included: assigned reading (nonfiction and historical fiction) related to our history program, a Novel-Ties study guide, Reading Detective A1, Forms & Elements of Literature, and short excerpts to practice summary writing. The Forms/Elements workbook is a quick one to get through. My son did a page each Friday until he finished the book, and I found it to be a good introduction to a myriad of literature elements. The Novel-Ties guide he used also included literary elements in each section, in addition to vocabulary work and discussion questions. I was very happy with it, however, I cannot attest to whether they are all set up in this format. I am undecided on Reading Detective. It has served its purpose as he has completed assignments mixed in throughout the year, giving him practice in analyzing a passage and supporting an answer with specific information. However, I can't imagine my son doing it daily or as his only reading curriculum. He would likely find it tedious and boring if used in that way, which might suck the fun out of reading for him. For 6th, I came across a free student and teacher copy of Mosdos Press (Pearl). It looks fantastic and might be another option for you to look at.

This is still a work in progress. Algebra I - Lial Biology - unsure which provider...possibly Experience Biology World History (Wars of Independence to Modern Times) - Mystery of History IV.....I'm not sure this would be my 1st choice for HS, but my son requested it. He completed volumes II & III in middle school, but we took this year away from MOH to capitalize on doing Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere course while being stationed in Asia. British Lit - I was going to pair this with WttW for a 1 credit class, but my voracious reader has been excitedly helping me pick out literature for the year, and the current count is up to 11 (mix of 7 full length, 3 short stories, and a poetry unit), so I think I'll count this as 1 credit and list WttW as an English elective for .5 credit. I'm planning on having him read the works that we will discuss more informally during 1st semester while we do WttW. We will then dive deeper and he will have more written output with the ones he reads during 2nd semester. (**Is it okay for his 9th grade year to have just 4 core-subject credits, and get the remaining credits through electives? Our initial plan had him taking Spanish I as a Freshman, but it appears we may have an international move that will likely disrupt the first part of our school year. With that added stress and adjustment, I'm thinking it might be better to wait until 10th grade to begin the Spanish sequence.) Electives: Literary Analysis (.5) - WttW Worldview (.5) - Starting Points (only using the 1st and 3rd sections of the curriculum) Piano (.5) He will also take a class at our local Dodea school, but is still in the process of choosing, and it may only end up being a second semester class due to our pending move.

@ScoutTN and @Lori D., thank you both for coming back with more insight! I truly appreciate the encouragement to break out of the typical high school transcript mindset. High school is new ground for me, but I'm feeling more freedom in thinking through all the possibilities that these four years could include. Thank you both for the suggestions and ideas of alternate themes and plans for what an English credit can look like. Lori, I'm going to spend time reading through the links you posted and plan to compile some ideas/book lists. I'll then talk it over with my son and get his input and ideas. By the way, pulling portions of Starting Points to use over more than one year is a fantastic idea! I do already have a lit guide for Frankenstein, so we could definitely look at that one from both the literary side and SP's viewpoint. @Sebastian (a lady) , thank you for joining the discussion. It was very helpful to read how you used WttW and the Jill Pike syllabus with other works added in! I also agree with you and Lori, that spending time focusing on the allusions in literature is very important. I'm definitely going to work that in! @RubyPenn, thank you for the suggestion to check out Memoria Press lit guides! 😁 Here's to breaking out of the box and adventuring into high school literature and composition!!

Lori, I was reading back through your response, and I'm now wondering if there was something more to come at the end of the sentence that cuts off at "with teaching/g?" You are always a wealth of great information, so if there was more that got lost in a cut & paste scenario, I would love to read it. Also, if you have any further insights into my dilemma of desires for 'lit/comp/Biblical worldview formation' credit from the info in my second post, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you! Yes, I struggle with this as I'm just gearing up to enter the high school realm. I am still solidly in the nervous mindset that I need to have him "check off the typical high school boxes" among the other things he wants to do and the things I feel would be beneficial for him. 😬

Thank you each for your insights! I greatly appreciate the input of those of you who are much more experienced at the high school level. I'm still torn and a bit murky in working this out though. I want him to do "ALL THE THINGS," yet I don't want to overwork him at the same time. In my mind (this may be the problem!), doing a British Lit year for 9th (along with World history), a World Lit year in 10th (paired with a world geography course for history), an American Lit year in 11th (paired with American history), and then cover other lit we just haven't gotten to in his senior year, sounds like an organized plan. So in that regard, I could have him do WttW (which he does need in order to learn lit analysis) with added British lit for a 9th grade English credit and call it good. However, I also want him to gain the insights and grounding of Biblical worldview for himself personally and as a basis as he interacts with literature going forward. Therefore I am back to wanting him to complete Starting Points. Your description of WttW is exactly why I want to go through that with him. He has done other writing programs and is currently doing very well in Essentials in Writing with the outsourced grading, but he has not had any formal instruction in lit analysis. Thank you for the guidance regarding the number of other books to add to WttW to make it a full credit. My son is a voracious reader, but I was unsure what load actually counts as a high school credit. In the realm of middle school and YA books, he's already read 156 books during our school year that started the middle of August. I know this type of reading is much different than reading literary works for high school, but I just include that to give insight into how much he enjoys reading. Thank you also for your breakdown and suggestions of other British lit. That definitely helps me with formulating a list. As for Shakespeare, what would be your recommended choice for a boy who has no interest in reading Shakespeare? With regard to your comment about Starting Points strength solidly being in the worldview/theology vein rather than in literature, is it possible that the curriculum maker's marketing as a full credit of lit/comp is overly generous? If so, or if the program can be done without an emphasis on literature elements, process of writing and grading written submissions, but rather more focused on my son fleshing out his worldview/theological stance, does that make it more "doable" alongside a lit/comp credit from WttW with 4-6 works added to it? Or is that still too much work for the allotment of 2 credits, or just simply too overwhelming? To add in another option, would it be better to have him do Starting Points as is, add the 1 semester of WttW as it is, and count it as 1 credit of English and 1 credit of a Theology elective? Is WttW as a single semester still valuable without the added literature to flesh it out during second semester? If so, instead of adding in the other British literature for 9th grade, I could make his senior year a Brit lit year and cover those at that point. (I had only planned to make 9th his British lit year, simply because the Starting Points curriculum already included Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) I feel like I'm probably making this harder than it should be, but my brain is having a hard time adjusting to the mentality of high school credits!

I am prepping to dive into the high school world with my son, and I'm second guessing myself. Please help me figure this out! I would like him to use the Starting Points curriculum by Cornerstone for 9th grade. According to their website it counts as 1 credit for Literature/Comp, 1 credit for Bible, and 0.5 credit for History. I do not care to count the history 1/2credit as he will be doing that separately, but I will be adding to the overall program in both literature and writing. I would like to consider his 9th grade year as British Lit/Comp, as Starting Points includes Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Chronicles of Narnia in addition to the several apologetics/religion books. I don't have a finalized list, but other books I am considering adding to the list are the following: Animal Farm, Tale of Two Cities (or A Christmas Carol), War of the Worlds, Pygmalion (along with the movie version), Farmer Giles of Ham, something by Arthur Conan Doyle and/or Agatha Christie. I would not plan to do formal lit analysis on every one of these books, but would definitely be discussing them with him. My son loves to read, but I honestly do not know what amount equates a robust literature class. Also, I would like to add Windows to World during his 1st semester for the lit analysis instruction. I'm confident on giving the 1 credit for a Bible elective, but I'm struggling on what to give for the Lit/Comp portion, and how to delineate it on a transcript. Is Starting Points alone really worth 1 credit for Lit/Comp? If so, then what do I do with the added literature and the Windows to the World course? Please help my high school newbie brain grasp this!

We used the audio version of Mystery of History volume 1, in preparation for this current school year. My youngest was between 2nd & 3rd grade, and he really enjoyed listening. My oldest continued with volume 2 (book format) this year for 6th grade, and is looking forward to volume 3. He really enjoys this curriculum. For it to work with my younger, however, would have required continuing with the audio version. To keep his focus in a history book, he needs more color and illustrations than these books provide.

Thank you to each of you for the input! After checking them all out, I think we're going to try CWP from Singapore.

Please spam me with recommendations of word problem workbooks you've used (and loved) with your kiddos. My boys will be starting 7th and 4th in August, and have been using CLE math (still undecided if we will continue that). Next year in our weekly schedule, I want to incorporate logic puzzles/critical thinking exercises (I've got those covered), and extra word problems that are of a different style/more challenging than what they have come across thus far. I had ordered some levels of FAN-Math Process Skills in Problem Solving, but just received a canceled order notice due to no international shipping from that particular vendor. I decided to take that turn of events as an opportunity to get other recommendations.

kbutton: Thank you! That is helpful information regarding how you have used the MM topical units. I plan to spend more time today looking through all of the online samples for MM.

Yes, these middle school years definitely bring in a new dimension with the hormones! Did you use the topic series of MM to supplement, or did you have the grade specific course and just use the applicable units? Did you find the topical courses easy to implement? Was it easy to jump around and find what was needed? As an update, I'm still floundering! Such good advice in this thread, but I have yet to settle on something 100%. I get to the point of being settled and ready to purchase something, then second guess myself and start looking at the other options again. Gah! I even added in a new option...I ordered a copy of Lial pre-algebra off of Amazon to look through. I may just end up buying "ALL THE THINGS" (the 1st few units of CLE 700, the Key To books for fractions & percents at least, and some form of MM (grade level or topical units???) to get the conceptual component. Once I can look through it all, then maybe I can decide which options would be best! I feel like my oldest is my guinea pig at this unique transitional point and I want to set him up to be successful once he reaches HS. I think I would worry much less about the particulars of these next two grade years if I knew for certain that we were going to continue homeschooling at the HS level. As it is, my husband is promoting putting him back in a private school in 9th grade. I'm not sold on that idea, but knowing it's a possibility makes me stress over where he needs to be in his math courses by 9th grade so that he could slide into that tract. However, I really have no idea what school this would be or what their particular math tract will be. We are overseas currently, but will most likely be in (an as of now unknown) part of the U.S. by his 9th grade year.

Good point! And since the digital format of MM can be purchased, reviewing some topics from MM6 would be easy to do. That's also great to hear that your son was well prepared for Algebra with 2/3 of MM7. Thank you! Thank you for the level-headed reasoning. You are right! And if he does surprise me and ends up being ready for Algebra I in 8th or part way through 8th, I'll then have more questions.... I'm not sure how to go about listing a course taken in Middle School for HS credit on a transcript. Eek! These are things I have not had to tackle yet.

Thank you so much for the input as well as the specific info on CLE and MM! Your insight into the correlation between MM7 and Jacobs for algebra is good to know as well. It's helpful to get insight from someone who actually has experience with these curriculum. May I ask what you use as a problem solving supplement? As far as general supplements go, have you used or seen the "Key to" books IRL?

I have been researching curriculum choices for my oldest son, and I "think" I have it narrowed down. However, there are several uncertainties I'm wrestling with that I would greatly appreciate input/feedback on. DS is finishing CLE 6 this year. This is our second year homeschooling (he used CLE 5 last year), but was in a combination of public/private schools for the years prior. He tests above grade level in most regards, but he doesn't enjoy math (doesn't fight it, but it isn't something he likes either). CLE has seemed to work well and I think the review approach has been good for him coming into homeschool. In both years he's gotten A's with an occasional B thrown in there on quizzes and tests, but I can see that he doesn't have a solid foundation of the underlying groundwork of how numbers work and relate in order to manipulate them in relation to each other. He can follow the directions laid out and get correct answers, but this really plays out in knowing how to figure out approaching an 'out of the CLE box' word problem or real life math scenario. He knows what to do (in most cases) in each lesson, but the conceptual foundation to translate into other scenarios isn't as strong as I would like it to be. My thought was to possibly take the next two years (7th and 8th) for pre algebra, but supplement with other things during that time to really shore up the groundwork and the conceptual side of the house before moving into algebra I for his 9th grade year. Obviously CLE's program is set up for that with 700 & 800, but I've also been looking at Math Mammoth and from what I see online, I like her approach (maybe this would be good to help him with the conceptual aspect?). It would be a switch for DS from spiral to mastery, but I know MM has the review books that can be utilized as well. As far as being on or above grade level, where does MM fall? That's also just a one year curriculum though. Option 1: Continue CLE for 700 and 800, but supplement. What to supplement with though? ...Keys to series? ...Math Mammoth subject reviews or grade reviews? ...Math Minutes? ...Simple Solutions Math? (These are titles I have seen tossed out in various places online) ...something else entirely? Option 2: Use Math Mammoth 7 for a different approach as pre algebra and still supplement. Do it all in one year and see how algebra I in 8th grade would go? Or still take two years for pre algebra, doing MM7 and other supplements to shore up his underlying groundwork? Option 3: I'm completely off base and need to go a different direction... 🤪 Once we're beyond pre algebra, I think I've narrowed down algebra I to either CLE (textbook format, as I think it would be good to get away from a workbook and have him actually write out answers separately), or Jacobs. From what I have seen, I like both of these and can't really decide. I also like what I read about Foersters, but since DS isn't all that mathy by nature, I thought it might be better to hold off on that curriculum until algebra II. Thank you for reading my long ramblings! My head is swimming with this at the moment, so I thought input from others would help. Also, I have no real life experience with any of the items listed above except CLE.