I eat either Go Lean cereal w/fruit and soymilk or almond milk or fruit and some nuts. My son has a whole wheat bagel w/Earth Balance or Tofutti and a smoothie.

This is what my son and I will be doing starting in August. Bible: Wise Up by Positive Action for Christ Science: BJU Physical Science Math: Jacobs Geometry History/Geography: TOG Redesigned Year 4 Latin: Outside Course English/Writing: A Beka Grammar and IEW History Based Writing Worldview: Summit Ministries Lightbearers Curriculum Reading: TOG and Teaching the Classics Logic: Introductory Logic starting in January This is going to be a challenging year for both of us.

I can only speak about Bob Jones Life Science. My son just used the newest edition this year (without the DVDs) and it was his favorite subject. It was enough in depth that it was challenging, but not so much that we needed the DVDs.

For the Citizenship in the Community Boy Scout Merit Badge, my son needs to watch a movie that shows how the actions of one person or group of people can have a positive effect on a community. I would like one that is rated no higher than PG. Thanks, Deanna

I struggled with the same thing when my son was going into 7th grade. We had always used A Beka Grammar and I had some frustrations with it. So I bought a copy of R&S 7. It looks like a really good program, but it looked to me like there was going to be a big learning curve in using it. It is set up so differently than A Beka. From what I saw, it expected you to know a lot and was not going to review enough at the beginning. A Beka is broken down into chapters on the 8 parts of speech, capitalization, punctuation, etc. and starts at the beginning with review. It looked to me like R&S didn't exactly work this way. It assumed you knew a lot of that and didn't really review. Maybe I am wrong about this, but that is how it looked to me. On the other hand, I was more pleased with 7th grade A Beka than I had been with 6th grade. Also, in the back of the student book, there is a handbook which can be used for review. Deanna

I am struggling with the same thing. However, I can't find a suitable other history program for the 20th century. TOG has everything laid out exactly the way I want it. So I am planning to buy it anyway. One thing that I saw in your post that I believe is not true. It is my understanding from reading posts at tapestryofgrace.com that you will not be able to sell the printed portion either. I have seen posts on the high school board that discuss 20th century history plans. They aren't what I am looking for, but they might work for you. Deanna

My son (finishing 7th grade) has been using IEW for the last 3 years - all through outside classes. He has used SWI-A, SICC-A and History Based Writing. He does well with it, but I have a few issues with it being so formulaic. I think that some of the dress-ups make the writing seem unnatural. I would like the program to add to what he already knows. If I switch, I guess I would go with Aesop/Homer for older beginners. How difficult is it going to be for him and me to switch? Since there aren't dvds to help, like IEW has, is the teacher's manual very clear about how I should teach the material? Will he have to scrap what he already knows or will CW add new methods to help him write better? If anyone has used both IEW and CW, could you compare the difference in difficulty and time needed to complete a lesson? Any other advice, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Deanna

My son (finishing 7th grade) has been using IEW for the last 3 years - all through outside classes. He has used SWI-A, SICC-A and History Based Writing. He does well with it, but I have a few issues with it being so formulaic. I think that some of the dress-ups make the writing seem unnatural. I would like the program to add to what he already knows. If I switch, I guess I would go with Aesop/Homer for older beginners. How difficult is it going to be for him and me to switch? Since there aren't dvds to help, like IEW has, is the teacher's manual very clear about how I should teach the material? Will he have to scrap what he already knows or will CW add new methods to help him write better? If anyone has used both IEW and CW, could you compare the difference in difficulty and time needed to complete a lesson? Any other advice, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Deanna

If any of you give your children a report card, would you mind sharing with me what it looks like. If you have an excel, word, etc. file that you could send me that would be even better. Thanks, Deanna

I have been using Arm and Hammer Essentials and Purex Natural Elements. They can be found in grocery stores and Walmart.

My son used the BJU Life Science this year and it was his favorite subject. We used the newest version without the DVDs. The DVDs are for the older version.

We used BJU Life Science for 7th grade this year. We have never used BJU before. The book was colorful and interesting. The material was meaty - exactly what I was looking for. It was my son's favorite subject. Deanna

This is my plan for next year. Jacobs Geometry A Beka Grammar IEW History Based Writing - Civil War to Present TOG - Yr 4 Redesigned for History, Literature, Geography Latin - outside class Traditional Logic Book I BJU Physical Science Lamplighters Worldview course Positive Action for Christ materials for Bible He will continue in Scouts, Tae Kwon Do, and meals on wheels. I hope to find more service opportunities. Any ideas on that would be greatly appreciated.

We are currently working on 7th grade. BJU Life Science - son's favorite Jacobs Algebra - son is thankful we're not doing Saxon again Abeka Grammar IEW History Based Writing Vol. 1 Kay Arthur Bible Studies Fallacy Detective/Thinking Toolbox TOG Yr. 3 Redesigned Computer Science Pure and Simple Vocabulary from Classical Roots/Vocabulary Cartoons Son is also a Boy Scout and participating in Tae Kwon Do 3 times a week.

I use Kamut to make bread. First of all, it has a sweeter flavor, which makes the bread much tastier than just using wheat. Also, my bag of Kamut shows that it is higher in protein and fiber than wheat.

My son has done IEW for 3 years through outside classes. The only dress-up that I don't like being required is the who/which one. Sometimes you really have to work hard to get one in the paragrah, and you can tell you've worked really hard, if you know what I mean. He is sometiems allowed to do invisible who/which dress-ups which are much better.

My son (13) will be in 8th grade next year, and he will be doing geometry (not sure if that matters, but I remember doing some logic with geometry). Do you think he could get a lot out of Introductory/Intermediate Logic, or should I wait a year and do something like the Art of Argument/Argument Builder first? Please let me know your experience with an 8th/9th grader and logic. Thanks, Deanna

My 7th grade son has used Jacobs Algebra this year. He likes it. I don't think that it is wordy. Each lesson has a couple of pages of explanation before the lesson, but I don't think that there is any rambling. In my opinion, it is a mastery program rather than spiral, like Saxon, which my son begged me not to go back to. We are planning to do Jacobs Geometry next year.

My 7th grade son has used Bob Jones Life Science this year and has really enjoyed it. We are going to skip the normal 8th grade Earth Science and go into Physical Science for next year. The Life Science has been challenging, in a good way, and he says that it is his favorite subject. I think that you can go to bjupress.com and look at samples of the books. A lot of other people use Apologia Science books. From what I have read, BJU sciences are more rigorous. You can also see samples of the Apologia books online.

I just read that if you want to take the Chemistry CLEP test, you should do both Apologia Chemistry courses. To me, that means that the first one is not all that rigorous.

Something that I have learned in watching my son, and other children, is that most of the time they don't intuitively know how to act the way you want them to. A lot of it is going to depend on personality too. At first when we would be in a situation, and he didn't respond they way that I expected him to, I would be angry with him. Then I realized that he didn't respond the right way, because I hadn't taught him. Even though it was something I knew to do intuitively, he didn't. I now try to discuss with him before we are in a situation, how he should act and what he might say. This goes with friends sometimes too. Most of the time, kids just do and say what comes naturally, and it isn't always the best. If you have a shy child, he/she needs to be encouraged and coached a lot so that they have a game plan for interaction, especially if they are not comfortable in the situation. A more bossy child needs just as much coaching to learn to defer to others. In your situation, I would want to witness the group situations to try and find ways that I could encourage him. On the other hand, I was like this and still am. I am just not as comfortable in group settings. I prefer to talk to just one or two people at a time, while my husband prefers a larger group. It is a personality thing. I hope this helps.

My son used the BJU Life Science curriculum this year, and he loves it. We are going to skip Earth Science next year and go straight to Physical Science. So I would say you could skip Life Science and go straight to Earth Science, if you want. If you plan to go into Biology in couple of years, Life Science is a good intro class. It's probably not really necessary, just helpful.

We really enjoyed MOH. There is a lot of history of Israel in year 1, and church history in year 2. Have you looked at Tapestry of Grace? We moved into it after MOH 2, because I wanted to be in a 4 year cycle. MOH is going to be a 5 year program when it is finished. It has been great. We have both learned so much. Check out their website and see if you can look at samples for whatever year you want. www.tapestryofgrace.com

My 7th grade son has used BJU Life Science this year and really enjoyed it. In fact, he says that it is his favorite subject. We are currently using Tapestry of Grace for history and have really enjoyed it. We have also used Mystery of History and liked that too.

My son used A Beka math through 6th grade; however, I wish that we had changed after 4th. We went to Saxon for pre-algebra. Saxon, in my opinion, does a much better job with geometry. Also, A Beka would assign division problems with 6 digit dividends and 4 digit divisors. It was frustrating for my son, and I don't think it was necessary. We have always used A Beka language, and I plan to use it all the way through. However, we use IEW for writing. We gave up all the other A Beka curriculum after 4th grade. We found the science and history to be boring. With all A Beka, I used the homeschool curriculum and the teacher's guides.