I'm letting my 12 year old almost unschool next year. He will be watching some science videos with his brother and do math every day. I will also expect him to 'research'. This will involve reading, taking notes, writing. If he can self-direct and create a decent writing portfolio we will do it again in 8th grade. He insists he doesn't need to learn how to write (but writes on his own initiative) and resists being told what to learn. So I am giving him a year to prove it. Not exactly 'life changing' but not what I have normally done in middle school.

My oldest two didn't take it. We did consumer math and statistics. My oldest is now getting her elementary education degree online. The only problem with the math classes was that I never taught her common core so some of the material was very new to her. She got into the program without an ACT or SAT score too. She started at 24 with daycare experience (and the classes required for certification) and is finishing in two years. You could look at modernstates.org and see about cleping out of the required math.

Most of mine turned/will turn 18 in the spring/summer of their senior year. I have one boy who will be 18 his whole senior year. Technically I could put him in ninth grade next year. He can do the math and is going to start Antiquities regardless. But I feel we need another year of maturity and writing skills. I also think an extra year of being able to take community college classes as a high schooler would be beneficial to him. If he really balks his junior year I can adjust his transcript and graduate him early so he can start working full time. You might take into consideration what local programs are offered to high schoolers. It might be in her benefit to let her take part and think of it as a super senior sort of year.

My daughter is getting married this summer. She is cutting corners but they wanted to invite several hundred people so you can only do so much. She is having a morning wedding and serving brunch afterwards. Haven't heard what the caterer will cost, but we would never ask a guest to pay. And we will provide some sort of evening meal for family who traveled from out of state. Even with just cake and punch I don't see how you can do a $500 wedding in today's economy.

My condolences. Praying your traveling goes smoothly.

I did MEP year 7&8 with my boy who sounds similar to yours. He forgets the procedure easily. He did well and I think liked MEP (he decided to stick with it after year 7). We got through MEP 8 at the beginning of spring. At a lesson a day you can easily get through years 7&8 in a single school year. I do like the word problems and the fact that there are only "ten" problems per lesson. Some problems have multiple parts, but it seemed less overwhelming for him and I instead of seeing 60 problems for each lesson. He is reviewing with Khan Academy without my help for the remainder of the school year to see if he has actually internalized the concepts or if I have helped too much. As he is going into 8th grade I am not too concerned if we need to do pre-algebra again. To answer your question, you can easily begin in Year 7.

The purple math does have a pre-algebra option. It's in a menu on the left side of my screen. It does take you to Mathhelp but you can still do the lessons for free. I am not sure how much you have to do of Master Math. Usually grade 8 is pre-algebra. Of the three I have only done MEP.

A few free options: Purple Math purplemath.com Master Math mastermath.info MEP years 7 & 8 are prealgebra and could be accomplished in a single year if you do a lesson a day. https://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mepres/book7/book7.htm

Power Homeschool is another online option. Short videos and questions. They also have extra classes that might be of interest. https://discoveryk12.com/ Is free and covers core classes. If you want some enrichment type things to do (you in the evenings or hubby in a morning basket time) https://underthehome.org/ is also free online. Charlotte Mason style for grades k-5. Includes art studies and more. Just realized this is a very old thread.... should have coffee before responding.

If doing more 'school' in the summer is going to cause friction and ruin the healing your relationship has done, I wouldn't bother. The teenage years are hard enough, don't make it harder for 8 weeks of academic improvement (maybe). I agree the pizzazz worksheets could be fun. You could also do the Hands on Equations and/or Dragonbox Algebra apps. You could review books/games/whatever on Amazon (or the like) for real life writing. Taking his reviews through the editing process would cover basic grammar. Read and discuss a couple classics together.

I think in 5-10 years schools will honestly switch to virtual based learning as in "Ready Player One". Kids will be assigned an Oculus and the software will manage discipline and grading homework. One teacher will be able to teach thousands at a time. We've proven it can be done even if it didn't work out well in the initial trial run. Even if the kids still actually travel to a physical building so parents can work, the learning will be predominately online and the teachers will be mostly just babysitters who help with tech issues.

Generations (Kevin Swanson) just put out an economics course for 9th graders (so could probably be simplified for middle schoolers). Definitely faith based though if that's an issue. https://store.generations.org/collections/curriculum/products/how-the-world-runs-set

Oldest child will be getting married. Second child will just be working, but is planning a spring trip just for herself. Third child will be going to a church conference in a different state. Fourth and Fifth child will be going to summer camp. Poor sixth child can't go to camp because of the wedding so we will do some fun stuff just with him when the others are at camp. We will all be helping with a VBS. Not the calm relaxing summer I usually prefer!

You could use Jensen's Grammar and Format Writing (2 single workbooks). They can be accomplished in a single year and cover most everything. Masterbooks now prints these (they have been around for years though so you might find them used).

Your packages would just ship priority. You could look into their flat rate shipping envelopes. That might save you money if it's a large set. You can add insurance to any package. Tracking comes with everything now. I usually use media mail. Every once in a while the package gets totally lost. I keep my receipt just in case, I can't be responsible if the PO messes it up. I think you could ask someone to cover insurance if they want it, understanding that you won't refund money if it's lost. As for your homeschool store not taking secular items, I would be surprised if they were that picky. I run a homeschool library and accept almost everything knowing that the homeschool market is more dynamic than ever before.

There are worksheets to go with the videos at Teacher's Pay Teacher's.

Predominately we eat at 5:30. Sometimes a little sooner depending on hubby's schedule. It's early from my experience but we eat lunch early and have a snack mid afternoon. Maybe it would be later if my kids woke up later but they are up and hungry by 7:30 every day.

Personal Finance or Business Finance or Consumer Math. BJU and Abeka and I am sure many other textbook companies all have at least one of these covered. The math will be definitely be easier than Algebra 2. You could couple Math.andyou.com (free) with Crash Course Statistics (free) for a years worth of material that checks a box. If you want a rigorous credit I would do a full year of statistics.

Download a cursive font like Learning Curve or Learning Curve Dashed and create your own worksheets. The fonts are free. I also like Simply Charlotte Mason's Print to Cursive: Proverbs. You can skip the print pages and just use the cursive ones. It is a reasonable priced pdf download.

I would suggest blood work. It can be very difficult to lose weight if you have thyroid/adrenal gland issues. If you can't lose weight on a reasonable diet then there may be underlying issues. I have thyroid problems and can't seem to lose weight (except for when I had Covid and simply wasn't eating much at all). So I feel your pain! Hopefully wiser people than I will share their wisdom.

You could do Crash Course videos (free on youtube). There are, supposedly, worksheets to go with them, but I have not seen them. If you prefer print, the Stobough history books from Master Books would be *very* get er done.

If you decide to join Facebook, the Blue Collar Homeschool group is great for parents of kids who aren't taking the typical college prep road.

Do you have a local homeschool library? You could donate the stuff that isn't selling and try new things. Or find a local FB group and offer to trade your old stuff for different stuff.

I consider FB as the equivalent to having an email address 20 years ago or a phone number 30+ years ago, its a standard form of communication. You can live without it, but it's very inconvenient for 'other' people to get ahold of you. I have a homeschool library that I post weekly hours on FB (they tend to change more often than I would like). I have a web page, but it rarely gets accessed and it is considerably harder to update than sending out a message on FB. I have friends who have bailed to other platforms, but almost all my potential 'customers' are on FB. Others can email the library or me personally if needed. My biggest annoyance is trying to remember how friends prefer to be contacted. Some don't read emails more than once a week, some don't keep their cell phones on, some don't look at FB often, a few only have IG. At least back in the Yahoo days you only had two options, email or phone call.

You could pull problems from the Everyday Math series on this page (they are free workbooks) https://www.nwtliteracy.ca/index.php/resources/youth-and-adult-literacy#38