Thank you for the suggestions, I'll have my DS look into in the footsteps of the prophet. We've listened to the series by Yasir Qadhi over the years on our car rides. We might start the one by Adil Salahi now😀. Do you have any experience with any of the books?

Assalamualaikum, Hope you all are doing well. My elder DS can read Quran in Arabic and knows his tajweed rules. I was looking at arabichomeschool, does anyone have any experience with this? Goal for us will be for him to understand what he is reading in Quran. We're not in rush, just want to start the process and totally fine if it takes him more than couple of years. Another option I looked at was Studioarabiya but that seems costly for us. Another help I need is on a good Seerah book for DS. Somehow it seems harder for me to find a good book for this age range. Below is what I've Owned/Sampled Online. Seerah Books: Simple Seerah Series : This seems perfect for my DS 10, might be too simple of DS12. When the Moon Split : I own this book but it doesn't seem very engaging. Sealed Nectar : I own this one too but DS isn't ready for this yet. Golden Seerah for Young generation: This looks like a good fit but writing doesn't seem engaging. Muhammad and his character by Adil Salahi : I've listened to sample audio for this one and this does sound like a good fit. Even the clouds spread shade for him : Sample looks detailed and engaging Some Other books we own: Imam Al Ghazali Children series : Everytime we open this book we spend more time discussing and less time reading it. Companions of the prophet by Abdul Wahid Hamid : Small stories about companions of the prophet, its story like very engaging. Clear Quran for kids by Mustapha Khattab : We read individual surahs from this and like it. Surah Kahf lego pics book: My DS10 picks this one a lot and reads by himself. Jazakallahkhair!!

Hi, I was looking at Aops Pre Algebra Classes by Aops. Currently my son attends their LA classes and likes them. So I was looking at Pre Algebra classes and see couple of options for Pre Algebra. My son takes LA classes through Aops Academy which is live video based class with discussion. Aops Academy has honors level 6 math which is Pre Algebra but this is different than Aops online Pre Algebra. I’ve heard about chat based classes and that would not work for him, so want to be clear before I choose either. Placement tests are also different for both of the options. Academy placement test level 6A: Aops Online Pre Algebra: https://data.artofproblemsolving.com/course-docs/diagnostics/prealgebra1-pretest.pdf This year I gave him an option between Mr D and Thinkwell and he choose Thinkwell and loves his videos. He will be done by Jan end.

I’m listening in too. My 8yr old is also having trouble with Subtraction. He doesn’t seems to be strong in place value so that is my plan with him for start of the year spend as much time needed on it. My elder child was stuck too at the same spot but he had pretty strong hold of place value. He said his brain needs to think more if he does regrouping in traditional way. I’ve stumbled on below while teaching him and this is how he prefers to do it. Steps are more but he says it’s pretty quick way to do it. https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/subtraction-quick.html

Daily Grammar Practice Grade 4 – DGP Bookstore (dgppublishing.com) This is link Lori it was suggested to me by my Homeschool Association.

I've never heard of it before but I'll look into it. Based on the suggestions I'll keep Figuratively Speaking aside for now. Based on LoriD's response I'll keep DGP aside and since we will not be doing Lightening and Lit I'll not have any grammar portion. Can we start at Level 4 or do you suggest Level 3 for FLL? If level 3 I can combine with my 3rd grader. I'll check to see if they have placement tests too. Cost:-) I remember checking Elson series when you suggested it and if I remember it correctly it is free available download right? If so do you print it off or use something like Kindle? My son loves to take his book and sleep on bed, couch to read. That was the reason I didn't think it would work for us. This is definitely something I'm gearing towards this year with him to be a year of adventure, mystery reading. I usually tend to pick books from newberry/caldecott section of our library and most of them are serious. This year I want to stay away from that section:-). I saved your middle grade reading suggestions made a while back here but I was wondering if you have any suggestion for something in between lower elementary and middle school. Reading together I didn't even think of this. Usually i read aloud to them and we have discussions around it. I will start doing this but probably only one kid at a time. Based on Ellie and your suggestion I'm leaning towards WWE since it is 4 days and then add in killgallon once a week. Also i've never used more than one program at once for writing we used IEW and only after we finished it we started WWE. Yes based on all your suggestions I'm not buying it as of now will keep it for later. On silvermoon suggestions I will look into FLL unless I can get MCT for a good price. This sounds like it he needs exposure to longer words. We did only one at a time and like I said he never resisted at WordlyWise so we kept at it. But if we do buddy reading that will give us lot of opportunities to learn vocabulary in context. Almost all my friends kids are in Public School and I had to hear about 2nd graders being taught simile, metaphor.....so I end up getting anxious about not doing enough and pile on/research. Looking back and reading all your comments I realize we may have overdone it this past year but hopefully this year would be better than last.

Hi, Below is what we did this year and how it went. Reading : Lightening and Lit 4 (My son loved it and I was happy that it was working from him but we never used the writing part and for grammar he repeatedly said that he needed more practice and i could see it was not enough) ----- As much as we love it I'm positive we don't want to do this next yr, I looked into Glencoe lit guides and really like it. I have Figuratively language as well so a combo of this and Glencoe might work for Reading?? Any other ideas? Goals for this year would be for him to have some lit analysis exposure and have fun before things get serious in Middle Grades. Writing : IEW Student Writing Intensive level A older version (My son did seem to like the formulaic approach and it seemed to work fine. We finished this earlier in the year and i wanted to try WWE so we hopped onto WWE4. I've WWE3 for my younger one so I thought in case this is too hard I can move back to 3 but so far we're just under 10 weeks and it seem to work well. I've been reading about Killgallon and Writing revolution which i think would be a good foundation especially with proper sentences. If I add this I will do it together with my 3rd grader hopefully it should work fine. Treasured Conversations is also something I'm looking into since I know i can work with both of them together on it. Writing and Rhetoric is another one I looked into but somehow think that we would need more instructions than what is given in teacher's manual.) ------- Going to IEW next level would be fine but somehow I think he needs more explicit instructions on writing good sentences. Goals for this year would be to write good paragraphs. Spelling : Didn't do much this year I was planning on having Word Roots (CTC) words as his spelling list but we never got it to that often. I bought AAS Level1 thinking we need to start there but it is way too easy and he keeps on asking for something at his level. -----Based on the 5th grade thread I was thinking of starting on R&S Spelling maybe level 3 with my younger one and then hopefully add in Word Roots Words. Megawords is also something I was thinking. Goals for this year would be improve spelling as long we see progress throughout the year I'm good. Vocabulary : WordlyWise (This is a success for my kids we started it middle of the year so still to complete it. My son said he got a word from this in his MAP test and was happy to know the meaning:-).On his MAP test he said they were asking for latin root of light which he has no idea.) ------- Based on the questions in MAP I'm thinking of adding in WordRoots more often and continue with WordlyWise next level whenever we finish his current book. Goals for this year would be to focus on rootwords. Grammar : Lightening and Lit Grammar peice + Grammar Island (We needed more explanations and review than what was in LL so towards end of he year i bought DGP level 4. We never got to start it because my son resisted it very much but I' hoping it will just take time for him to get hang of the program. -------Based on 5th grade threads now I'm thinking of Analytical Grammar junior and some DGP added in if needed since i already have it. Goals for us would be to have foundation set for grammar and keep it rolling. In my dream world I would love to add all MCT components (since grammar island was a big success with him and he seemed to grasp it pretty well.) Also with my 3rd grader I'm using pathway readers and like it but I don't see it mentioned a lot in upper elementary. So not really sure if we can use it for Reading. Any other suggestions are also welcome!! Thank you for reading and making it to the end despite all the grammatical errors:-).

Hi, My DS is 10yrs old and for next year I was thinking of adding in some fun logic and critical thinking books for him. I’m not particularly looking for a curriculum per se but something we can read and discuss. He loves to argue and I’m pretty sure we had some straw man arguments before. He loves to debate too and liked an outschool class he took last year. Critical thinking co has some books but I’m not sure which one to get( we tried mind benders and it was okay for him not too exciting).

I wanted to say big thank you to everyone who pitched in and deciphered our situation. I find myself coming back and reading all these comments and taking away something everytime I read. I do have lot on my plate to take action and this certainly will help me in planning for next year. Thank you all!!!

I seem to have lost leverage when I did this. And to be honest he knows very well I’m learning it too. Maybe I can retell same thing in a more positive way.

Yes head of AOPS or the person who does those videos is certainly his favorite :-). Andrew Pudewa is next in line. We took a pottery class and the teacher was half native american whose grand parents lived in our area so when he talked about anything pottery or history of this area we could see how passionate he was.

He doesn't seem to have mcuh of a problem with the materials itself and so far he has the independence to do his work within day in whatever order he likes. I'm hesitant to give more freedom as i see with him the more choices he has the more he is lost. BUT i see your point about parameters and i will try to add it in slowly. It's all him. We're always talking through whatever questions he might have since he wants to know why we're doing something the way we're doing. Some of his religious questions had me for a spin but this one is defnitely more mature than anything i've seen before from him. At this point i do not see any way out of scripted curricula for me. I defnitely see the need to enhance and broaden it. My knowledge is limited to PS and that is what i'm constantly comparing to see if i'm doing okay. The conversations that go on this forum about education is something way above my league as of now. This the need for authority at some level is also i see missing in our home. I see what you're saying here but do you think for him as a child who was always in day care and public school from the beginning and never saw me in that kind of teacher role before it's all hard to take in. If it's a problem do you think me being more authoratative in school space might be the solution? As of now that is one thing i'm getting out of all these conversations. You've definetely met my child he can sense it. On top of it and acting that way, fake it till you make it, being authoritative is all i'm taking away from this. Yes i do understand this and on the curricula side i'll definetely look to enhance our learning. Science units we've done are probaly one of his favorite things we've done this year.

Even on one of the bad days my DS says he prefers HS than going to school BUT just wishes his schoolwork is same as PS. As i think out loud my DS might want the best of both the worlds very less schoolwork like PS, lot of breaks and reading time (he loves reading) like @home. PS was an easy ride for DS and HS is making him think. We did adjust his schoolwork to reflect some of the changes he would like but complaining never really went away. Dynamic of our relationship during school is something even i would like to sort out before taking deep dive into next grades. What he said initially came as anger but then subsided and he was genuinely questioning my expereince. I've left my job couple of yrs back to stay home with kids so he remembers that I had a different career. It might be that he was comparing teaching to the career I had before not really sure yet. I wanted to have some thoughts cleared myself before I talk to DS.

See I do have the look but in this case I wasn't even sure and was caught off guard. This is true for us we we discuss a lot of things and if they still have questions we've something called interest time in our house where they can research about a topic of interest and let me know of their findings (great alternative to passive tv time) This is stark contrast to our area where we hardly have private schools and generally everyone prefers public schools which have a good rating. My DS is above average but didn't get into gifted programs hence what was taught in class was easy for him and didn't challenge hime enough. I'm guessing there are lot of kids like my DS who don't fall into one category or other.

He isn't struggling but constantly keep on comparing how little he had to do in school ( 2 pages a week for math). We did talk about it a lot changed amount of work he needs to do. Everything was easy for him at school and now he have to put a little effort which he capable of and actually enjoys once he gets into it. Not sure about pre teen hormone since this is the only place we are rubbing off everything else is completely normal. He never questions my role as a mother it's only when it comes to teaching he has a problem. I'm learning math in a very different way too with him when we do BA and he loves it and asks for it. We constantly do this as of now i know he doesn't like his grammar but it's new for him so giving him time to go through it. My DS is pretty vocal about everything not just school if he isn't into it he will let me know about it. But i can see that it would be nice to do a year end review. Never thought of it this way!! Thank you for putting light into it. This forum is a BIG help for me since i'm anamoly in our close group of friends (only HomeSchooler)

Hi, This is our first year of homeschooling and it’s been a roller coaster ride for us. It is something I’ve wanted to do for a while but never had a reason to do so until this year. My DS (just turned 10)recently asked “what made me think I can homeschool when I don’t even have a minute of teaching experience” This brought out the feeling I was having that I do NOT bring anything to the table as their teacher. We mostly follow scripted curriculums ,do read aloud and for science very light unit study approach. I didn’t study here so all this is new to me too hence I do scripted curricula. So at this point I’m just a facilitator for them if they want to go down any rabbit trails or if I see any sparks in them on any particular topic. Am I doing a disservice to them by keeping them away from possible passionate teachers in public schools. Because of how I was feeling about it already I couldn’t reply back to my DS.

This is exactly what we love too!! If we stick with this curriculum then i have to ad something to matchup to it's grammar which seems advanced to me. I was looking at MCT for grammar route but town level doesn't seem to be in line with lightening lit grammar. I'll check out Sonlight readers package and see. I feel the same way. This looks interesting i checked out the discussion area and we would love to have conversations like those. Book list in lightning lit is awesome and I loved that my DS has a chance to read/reflect and discuss those. We actually did TGTB level 3 start of last year when we started homeschool but i felt it was missing comprehension part. Once we moved to Lightning Lit my DS was super happy that he got to read and would not want to go back to TGTB.

I'm thinking for next year and want to get some recommendations. We're using level 4 as below. Writing - We don't use the writing part at all ( instead we do IEW level A DVD set (older version)) Grammar - He isn't retaining much from it and there isn't much review .I strongly feel he needs a proper grammar book. Reading Comprehension - This seems to be the only part we're using along with book discussion. My DS loves to read and enjoys most of the books he would be totally fine if we continue but i'm worried we will end up supplementing a lot. I wonder if we are better off using a different curricula for each of those. If so what program would give similar reading comprehension/book discussion format? Any thoughts?? Thank you all!!!

Thank you Kirsten for sharing your expereince. So far we have done them in parallel (BA online and SM workbook) and it's been working well for us so i'm looking forward to continue with same format book and online. It's reassuring to know that BA 5 should be enough for AOPS. I might read up more and see what others might be using.

Did anyone use Understanding Pre Algebra by Critical Thinking co? Right now my child is doing Singapore Math Standards 5 along with BA 4 and should be done by Summer. He will continue on BA5 for rest of the year or longer if needed. I can't seem to decide if i want to continue with SM6 since i heard it's mostly a review and also SMLive states kids can move from SM 5 to pre algebra. My child is mostly independent with math if he doesn't understand anything we go through it or he watches math antics videos. We love everything by critical thinking (he started Balance Math teaches Algebra recently and is liking it very much) so i stumbled upon their prealgebra book and started wondering if i need to add that to BA 5 instead of singapore math. Goal for us is to try AOPS pre algebra after BA5 so was wondering what might prepare him well for AOPS. My child just turned 10 and will be in 5th grade for 2021-22 school yr. Thank you!!!