My daughter's a seventh grader, but we'll continue with what we've been doing for the past few years since it works for us. We work on literature throughout the year that is aligned with what she's studying in history (this year, US history to late 1800s, next year more modern us history. ) This year and next year, we're using a high school american lit book for short stories, poems and essays along with several novels (Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, Little Women for this year). I weave the literature throughout the year. Along with literature, we have a special focus on writing in the fall: writing mechanics, sentence construction, paragraph and essay writing. Then in the spring we've been working on literature terms and literary analysis. Of course, it's all spread throughout the year too, it's just that I like to have a particular emphasis to work on and it makes sense to me. If I didn't want to design everything myself and try to match it with history, I think I'd use something like Galore park English 9 or Lightning Lit 8 one semester and a writing program the second semester.

For a responsible kid, babysitting a younger sibling starting at 10-12 yrs old seems reasonable. My older daughter started at 10 babysitting as a "mothers helper" with an adult in the house. She started working in the church nursery with an older girl at 11, took the Red Cross babysitting course at 11 and now babysits for two families with kids who are between 5-8 years old.

My own kids: 7-8 years old. Nowadays my 10 yr old happily stays home all day if needed and rides her bike 2 miles to the tennis club daily. My 12 yr old takes the bus to the next town for ballet and babysits weekly. They are responsible people and doing a great job of learning how to maneuver around the world. The idea that I wouldn't trust them to be at home by themselves is absurd. But... I do have foster kids that I would not leave at home alone, so I understand that every child is different (also, that child welfare has different rules).

Pay attention to syllables and stress patterns. With a longer last name, consider a short middle name: Heidi Joy Anderson Also I think a long middle name goes better with a short last name: Heidi Elizabeth Jones

Zaccaro, Singapore challenging word problems (anything grades 4-6 would work fine... They're Plenty challenging), Hands on equations verbal problems book.

I don't bother showing work with arithmetic, but started insisting on showing work when working algebra problems in the upper grades. I just explained that algebra is a game that follows rules and to play the game, you have to write down how you got from equation to answer. Spending time working on two-column algebraic proofs in Foerster was especially helpful in showing how each step is clearly distinguishable from the others.

I ussd Saxon as a child, but not as a teacher. However, lots of parents say that the first third of the book is review. There's nothing wrong with review inherently, but he sounds like he needs a challenge. How about if you give him the tests instead of the lesson? Because of his erratic work habits, I'd give him just one quiz each day so he begins to get used to consecutive daily work. If he passes it with 85%, move on. If not have him work through the lessons in that section. If he's truly ready for more challenging work, he'll get through this test/review in a few weeks. At that point you can know for sure that he's mastered the math he needs for algebra. I'd start algebra after that, but not Saxon. Foerster is what we use and it's really good. Once you start algebra though, the focus must be on showing work.

We called those "leg problems" and struggle yearly with them. We ended up making a whole series of them (legs at a Beatles and spider farm, fingers at a polydactyly conference, heads of mythological dogs, cherries that come in bunches of twos or threes). I recall at first giving my daughter marshmallows as bodies and toothpicks for legs and having her solve and write easy versions of the same problem. She really got the idea of distributing the legs for the fewer legged animal first then when everyone had them, distributing the remainder of the legs. I think she'd solve it now with algebra, though the marshmallows were yummy.

I have my daughter read and draw and research on her own, not with a pre-made timeline. She uses a blank "History Portfolio".

My daughter loved Concordia language village!

For those of you who do Foersters Algebra, how long did it take you to get through 10-8, the lesson with 78 word problems? We've been working on it for over a week and we're not through yet. They're good problems and my daughter is challenged by them. But we're feeling overwhelmed by the number. She typically can complete about 5 or 6 per hour, working for 1-2 hours, often making an error somewhere and realizing it and then spending more time going back to fix it. I'm considering taking a break and moving on and coming back later... Or maybe I should plow on? What do you think?

I'd get it. Math is math. It doesn't matter what the number on the cover says. It's fun and there's something to learn in there and probably some very challenging problems too. I have often regretted making decisions to move my daughter onto more grown up books and skipping out on some fun stuff. When you realize it, it's too late to go back.

My daughter will likely attend the public high school too If you want traditional and solid, I'd use: Dolciani Pre Algebra Foerster Algebra 1 Jacobs Geometry What we used / will use was Galore Park SYRWL Maths 2-3 for pre-algebra in 5th & 6th grade (I liked that it was integrated and didn't look like a giant scary textbook) Foerster Algebra 1 in 7th grade For 8th grade geometry, I'm considering using Saxon Geometry because I want a serious algebra review throughout the year and because it's a textbook that has been adopted by my state and because it looks easy to implement.

Sports bras? After every wear. Regular ones? After 3-4 days of wear maybe. I have about three I wear regularly and so on average I might wash two a week while I'm wearing the third.

We use it all the time. I have schoolwork planned on the homeschool helper app, my daughter researches information for reports and essays, we watch educational videos, she uses duolingo, we check information as we read, it even gets used as a calculator and timer and dictionary and thesaurus. Also, I check emails and fool around online while she's working sometimes, so it's nice for that. Really, it's been the most useful gift I've ever had.

For science, we've studied biology, chemistry and physics in an age appropriate form. For 8th grade we'll run through all three as a review but with less depth. For history, we do a lot of reading and writing. We finished a four year cycle of essentially European history in fifth grade and decided to do a year of world history and geography (focusing on nonwestern countries) and then two years of US history. Since she'll be going to a public school, I want my daughter to both learn content as well as academic skills like paper writing, working with a textbook, answering questions in complete sentences, showing work in math and such. Honestly, I feel like she's already well prepared and we have plenty of time left. Of course, I'd like for her to be a little less daydreamy and more focused and organized but otherwise we're set.

Every trip overseas I take, I always end up wearing exactly what I'd wear around home: Nice well fitting dark wash jeans and nice looking shirts (or sweaters) and my brown keen walking shoes. It's worked in London pubs and the Paris opera house and hiking in Bavaria and on a cruise to the Greek islands. I might take a pair of shorts and sandals if it's really hot weather or a wool pea coat and scarf in cool weather, but my standard uniform has never failed me. I fit in and feel comfortable wherever I go.

We stayed in Moab and visited both of those parks... We did some biking and rock climbing (with a guide) and went on some hikes to see ancient rock art. We also took a day trip to see Mesa Verde. I think it was about 2 or 3 hour drive. But worth it!

No, she's talking about this next semester and BA 4C. She said her son enjoyed it but she thought she could get him to algebra sooner if she stopped alternating it with SM5. I'd argue that we shouldn't stop using what is working well. Big algebra textbooks come soon enough but BA has a fairly small window of time in which a child will enjoy it. Math isn't a race to some imaginary Algebra or Calculus finish line.

Just because he can do AOPS pre-algebra, doesn't mean he should. There's a window of time in your son's life when something like BA is fun and cool. The Pre-Algebra will still be there. So... Is BA still challenging and fun for your son? If so, stick with what's working. It's easy to skip forwards, but much harder to go backwards.

I have thought about making the same career jump from TESOL/ teaching/linguistics to SLP. I've had more than my fair share of time in school so am giving it a miss. I'd probably look into time to degree completion vs salary and available jobs.

I know they have some GCSE test prep, but do they have any proper textbooks past their middle school program? We used book 2&3 of SYRWL Maths which is intended for grades 6-8. I liked them a lot, but they don't really go past algebra 1 and the easier bits of geometry.

We did Ellen McHenry 's free human anatomy unit with brainpop videos and quizzes. Both were sufficient to learn about basic anatomy, reproduction, disease, wellness.

My daughter and her homeschooling buddy learned the periodic table with this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUDDiWtFtEM Also, not online, but the teacher's guide to The Elements by Ellen McHenry have several fun games...

Late summer is good. We've stayed at the treehouse place in cave junction. Very fun! My dad went in early spring and hated it. No heat, dripping roof, etc.... Cave junction is a little creepy, but the Oregon caves are worth a visit. Don't forget the Shakespeare festival and river rafting in the Rogue valley.