The only spelling book my younger daughter has had success with is Apples and Pears. It's pretty thorough.

Generally just ballet for one kid and tennis for the other, but those days have increased as they've gotten better and older and are now each 5-6 days of lessons and rehearsals / tournaments.

I also have a 7th grade ballet kid. She takes class most evenings and Weekends so it's nice to homeschool her so she doesn't have to worry about homework and class projects getting in the way of ballet class. As for history, I'd probably do world history, perhaps using k12's Human Odyssey. It's solid and well written and not far off from what public schools use. For science, I really like Ellen McHenrys materials. It's both fun and educational. She doesn't have any earth science out, but the elements, cells and the brain are the best science we've done.

It might be an awesome program, I really know nothing about it. But... I did once get some crazy junk mail from Art Robinson that made me think he might be a complete nutball. I'd check him out before subscribing wholeheartedly to his curriculum.

Three that we've used and liked are: Singapore - Challenging word problems ... I'd start around book 4ish? Zaccaro Real World Algebra and Becoming a Problem Solving Genius Hands on Equations verbal problem book

Since you mention you feel exhausted reading about all the activities you could be doing, it might be helpful to step back and remember that your child will continue to grow and thrive and develop regardless of whether you do any special activities with her. Short of severe neglect, there's surprisingly little you could do or not do that would change much at all. Her brain is programmed to develop and learn without any intervention or teaching. So if ever you feel stressed to read about parents attempting to teach their three yr olds to read or enrolling them in expensive classes, just remember that humanity has survived and thrived for an awfully long time without needing "special developmental activities".

Oh - and yes, I used them secularly. I added a human evolution page to the Ancients, and the biblical history bit could be changed or considered cultural literacy. After the ancients, it was not noticeably religious. We've just now done a year with a DIY non-western "World History" focus and it's gone great.

We've used them! Each year I have become more and more independent in my usage. The first year, we did all the activities as suggested, by my fourth year, I just bought blank card stock and the horizontal binder and completely planned it myself. Anyway, I definitely recommend it!

There's a series we read that was pretty good - I don't remember all the titles, but one of the books was called "Dude, That's Rude" and included information on manners.

If you're looking for materials, we've enjoyed "10 Best Bible Stories" from horrible histories. Also "World Religions" workbook by Teacher Created Resources.

I'm not sure this is what you mean, but I've been thinking about doing a unit study approach to social sciences in 8th grade... kind of a one year whirlwind through the study of psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology... Maybe some economics and political science thrown in too? I was envisioning perhaps a month on each topic addressing the question of why humans behave as they do and how it can be studied empirically. My girl has a research oriented kind of mind, and I think she'd love to apply it to the study of people. She loved reading Freakonomics last year and it occurred to me that there are plenty of accessible books in the social sciences that address big questions but are aimed at an audience with no knowledge of the field. It could be just the thing for a bright thinking middle school aged kid.

We love the Tiffany Aching series! I'd start there. My daughter's favorite is Monstrous Regiment and Masquerade and anything with Susan. I also like Vimes and Moist Von Lipwig, but never got into any books with Rincewind. For some of his books, it really adds to the story if you have some background (like knowing the phantom of the opera for Masquerade or Oliver Twist before reading Dodger...).

In our county and most likely in yours, decisions about permanency are made by judges and implemented by case workers, not decided by foster or prospective adoptive families. In our state, children are switched to an adoption track after a year in foster care if parents show no signs of progress. They look for relatives first and then put out a bulletin to invite prospective families to submit a home study. Once a family is chosen, the child may move as a foster-adopt placement even if the termination of parental rights hasn't happened yet. I think it's wonderful when adoptive homes are in the same community as foster homes so that friendships and schools can remain! It sounds like a great idea to maintain close contact.

I had really immature looking cursive until I went through the Spencerian books. They really improved my cursive, though you have to really want to do it. They can be quite tedious.

No, but if it's that easy, sometimes I'll double up on lessons. Review is important! Just because a book is below your child's reading level, doesn't mean they will not get benefit from reading it. Or if your child is learning a tricky Chopin piece on the piano, doesn't mean they shouldn't occasionally play some Bach sonata they learned a few years before. There's always work to be done on improving accuracy or speed or fluency of an already learned skill.

Hits: Galore park Syrwl math McHenry Elements and carbon chem Rules of the Game History done with portfolios and videos and books of my own choosing Okay: MP Geography (nothing special, but it got done) Duolingo (great, but not really enough) Misses: Art of argument (dd hated cheesy dialogue between Socrates and the kids)

My daughter read and liked http://www.amazon.com/4-000-Years-Uppity-Women/dp/1606710869. It's more overview than details, but still interesting. There are others by the same author.

I'd go with 4. Being a wiggly little guy and not knowing times tables (typically memorized in third grade here) and not knowing long division (taught in 4th here) suggests 4th grade placement would be appropriate. I always figure, when in doubt, go lower... It's so much easier to accelerate or promote then to hold a kid back and make them repeat material. And math needs a solid foundation.

I don't remember the version, but it was definitely intended for adults. Also, we watched a cool video - probably meant for high school or early college. I'm not concerned about censoring ancient naughty bits, but you might preview if you are concerned. http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/

We've had a few FAS/FAE kids with some mild/possible facial characteristics. The two I'm thinking of also had significant missing teeth due to bottle rot and so I always wondered if maybe the thin upper lip/philtrum thing had something to do with that? We do know a definitely non-drinking family whose daughter looks exactly like the picture of the girl on the poster who comes up when you google-image fetal alcohol syndrome. Some people just naturally have small jaws and thin upper lips and small eyes. Anyway... I think you can have fetal alcohol without the facial characteristics and can have some facial characteristics of FAS without having had any alcohol exposure.

7th Grade!! History -Story of US books 1-5ish with tests, videos, portfolio, etc... English: - Writing - US history DBQs, Sentence composing - Grammar - Rules of the game - Literature - Glencoe American Lit (Readers choice) Geography - McHenry Mapping the World French - Galore Park Math - Foerster Algebra Science - Story of Science Einstein, then??

My daughter just took the 6th grade Cat 6/terra nova with a homeschool group and got all questions right in the reading and vocabulary and mathematics sub tests and missed only a few in the math computation and language sections for a total score in the 98th %ile and 12.9+ GE. I officially only need to have her test in 3rd, 5th, and 8th, but do it each year as a practice. I was thinking about next year... Is there any actual benefit to testing out of grade level? She clearly is doing great and I have a sense that it's good to make sure she hasn't forgotten typical grade level skills even though she might be working on non-grade level topics. But I know some folks have their kids take out of grade level tests. Why? Should I do have her do this? One grade level ahead? Two ahead? If so, do I just lie about her grade when I sign her up? Will that mess anything up on the off-chance the district requests her scores in eighth grade? Thanks!

Yep - we just follow the same schedule for all the kids.

Our "goldendoodle" is 3/4 standard poodle and 1/4 golden retriever and is a great dog. She has soft non-shedding wavy hair and is a bit less high strung than the standard poodles we've had and a bit smarter than the golden retrievers. We shave her in the summer and let her grow in the winter - so not high maintenance grooming. We've taken golden doodles rafting and backpacking, but they also are happy to just hang around the house all day. They're great family dogs and super cute too!

Awesome - thanks!!!