This is my 5th kiddo. She’ll do— Math with Confidence (she’s working on K now and we’ll just roll into 1st whenever we get there) TGTB K language arts & handwriting and she’s starting Suzuki violin. We have some informal exposure to Spanish going—mostly songs, TalkBox, overhearing the older kids Spanish lessons, and she often asks to watch Salsa Spanish videos right after her other lessons Everything else will come through my book basket time with her and younger brother, outside play, listening in on Morning time with the older kids, and her enrichment “class” at our co-op.

History: History of the Medieval World as our spine. I definitely want her to read Bede, and I have the Humanistic Tradition textbook for pulling out just snippets of some other primary sources. We’re also going to read The Plantagenets by Dan Jones, and I don’t know what else yet—my stack of potential books is way too high. English: mostly literature this year; I am teaching a British Lit class at co-op. Beowulf, Sir Gawain, Faerie Queene, Much Ado, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, the Romantic poets, etc. She’ll have a couple papers for that class. I will probably also have her work through Stewart English. Math: this is the only struggle with this particular kid. 😩 We will probably finish Algebra around November-ish, and then switch to Mr. D geometry Science: she’s had biology already and we’re putting off chemistry until next year. First semester we’re doing Ornithology; second semester is Genetics online with Dr. Moon. Foreign language: Spanish 1 (BJU), I am teaching this one to her & her brothers. We’ll also use SpanishDict, some easy readers, videos etc Electives: creative writing her other class at co-op will be Rhetoric (0.5 credit in the fall) and Speech/Debate (0.5 in the spring). extracurricular: continue violin lessons, taekwondo, swimming, track, youth group

I actually searched for this too and didn’t find one. Math: TGTB & supplement with Beast History & Literature: Middle Ages. The World’s Story vol 2, the David Macaulay Castle/Cathedral books, and I might have him read some of my Diane Stanley (and other similar) Middle Ages picture books to his 3rd grade sister; he’ll probably overhear her listening to Story of the World also. Beowulf & Sir Gawain (Michael Morpugo retellings), Questing Knights of the Faerie Queene, etc. We’ll be doing some King Arthur stories and Shakespeare and finishing up Lord of the Rings as a family Grammar and Writing: Rules of the game; not sure on writing—we may continue Writing and Rhetoric for another year or two but I can’t decide 😬 Science: Joy Hakim’s Story of Science (class at co-op) and Tiner’s History of Medicine (I know he will love this one) Spanish: my tentative plan is for him to go ahead & do Spanish 1 (BJU new edition) with his older siblings, because this kid soaks up language like a sponge and I think he’ll more than keep up with them. We’ll see how it goes… piano lessons, taekwondo, swimming

My second time through 8th grade! Math: Dance of Number book 2 Science: at co-op; they are using Joy Hakim’s series and adding some experiments and projects etc History and Literature: Middle Ages; I’m still torn on a spine for him. Possibly HotMW along with his big sister. Maybe something else. He’ll read Beowulf, Sir Gawain, a prose version of the Faerie Queene, the second two Lord of the Rings books, some Shakespeare He’ll do Stewart English and writing some papers in his other subjects Spanish: BJU Spanish 1, the newest edition, with his sister He’ll continue piano lessons and learning some coding skills.

Four of my kids have used Hoffman Academy at different times…I think we used it for 5 years total, maybe, before everyone moved to private lessons. It’s fantastic. I will spare everyone my lengthier glowing review, but feel free to ask me if you have questions. 😃

Sure! Yeah, the program doesn’t teach grammar by analysis, but there’s definitely intent behind the types of structures and sentences used in each box. For example, in box 1 you learn to say “I’m hungry” and “we’re hungry,” you learn a bunch of nouns in singular and plural, how to ask for things, etc. In box 2 there are a lot of action verbs—mostly imperatives—and prepositional phrases used with locations. Parts of box 3 are almost like a Gouin series…you learn to say several sets of sentences in the informal future, present progressive, and past tenses in the first person singular. Box 4 reviews a lot of the previous structures plus adds adjectives and numbers and negative commands and some more common verbs in the first person plural. Box 5 has more of the verb tense series and adds the second person singular to it. It seems to be trying to introduce the most frequently used concepts rather than following a more traditional sequence (such as all present tense forms first).

So, the TB.M phrase book is not the same as the boxes at all. The boxes do have a vocabulary theme (kitchen/snacks, etc) but there are also different grammatical structures used in each box. There’s a definite progression of difficulty through the program in the boxes (more grammatical structures, more words, faster audio, no English used on the last box). If you’re sold on the method, the boxes are the way to go. I have been through box 4 Spanish and box 6 French with my kids, then we fell off the wagon for quite awhile and I’m trying to decide if we will pick it back up. I think it’s a good method, the idea is good, the audio is sooo helpful with both listening and pronunciation practice, we learned a lot and when we use it consistently we do actually use the language in our day to day. My personal preference is for a method like this for younger kids, but I want more explicit grammar instruction for older kids. My biggest struggle with Tb.M is that there’s no plan, no lessons, and the constant need to be motivated and make decisions on which phrases to learn just makes it difficult to be consistent for me. It can also feel stale/repetitive after awhile. if you’re looking for just some phrases to use & add to another program, we got more mileage from the homeschool phrases packet than the phrase book. Especially the coffee phrases. 🙂

Math with Confidence TGATB Language Arts Song School Spanish 2 Story of the World volume 2 audio book Read alouds…I have a big stack of Middle Ages picture books, plus some books I really enjoyed reading with her older siblings—Heidi, The Princess & the Goblin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, The Tale of Despereaux…or, I am not sure she remembers our last family read through Narnia so maybe we’ll pick that up! science & cultures/geography at co-op (astronomy, botany, Australia, Japan) she spends a little time most days on art & guitar

Thank you for sharing this!

That’s helpful, thank you!

Thank you!! I had forgotten, but I think I might actually have that Kilgallon grammar book in a box somewhere.

Yes! This looks great.

I'm looking for grammar resources for my rising 8th and 10th graders next year. We have not done a formal grammar program every year, but they've done a little. They both write very well and we have done languages all along, so I feel like they are pretty solid on the basics. I mostly want to cover the different types of phrases and clauses, ideas like subordinate/coordinate/dependent, and the comma rules that go along with using phrases and clauses in more complex sentences. It would be *really* nice to be able to "jump in" where I want to without having to cover parts of speech, verb tenses, agreement, etc. again (all the things they learned with Latin & are about to repeat with Spanish...) Any ideas for me? I've considered Jensen's Punctuation, Fix-it Grammar, Grammar for Writers from Compass Classroom, the Kilgallon books, and probably others, but I hate trying to choose things from online samples only...

A few changes… 1. He asked if we could please try Beast Academy (his younger sister uses it), so I’ll let him try it out but not sure yet if we’ll switch or supplement or end up sticking with Math Mammoth… 2. Language arts still the same, grammar + Writing & Rhetoric 3&4 3. Going with Latin for Children B, French for Children A plus continuing TalkBox/Duolingo French and adding some reading 4. He’ll actually have science at our co-op, looks like it’s going to be anatomy. He’s also going to have a fun geography/world cultures class at co-op. 5. still ancients for history, using Picturesque Tale of Progress as our family spine. I’m still deciding on his literature booklist and our family read aloud lists. His extras are the same (plus summer swim team), except sometime this year he’ll switch from Hoffman to a local piano teacher.

Thank you!!