A few suggestions. Life of Fred Language Arts. My 7th grader is a Fred fan. Not everyone is. There are numerous spelling resources available. My struggling speller uses ABCs and All Their Tricks, McGuffey's Speller, copy work, and dictation. We are also enjoying Life of Fred Math. Are you wanting secular or Christian resources for history, science and geography? Gombrich's A Little History of the World is interesting and is available on audio cd. We are currently reading through Synge's history titles.

DS #2 struggles with spelling. This year I typed up some worksheets to use with ABCs and All Their Tricks (linked above). DS does the worksheets independently 3x per week and we go over it together 2x per week. He will read all the words aloud and highlight any words he thinks would be difficult for him to spell. We then have a spelling lesson with those words and a few others I think he might have trouble with. He uses McGuffey's Speller independently 2x per week. He is required to write several words from earlier in the book (which he has already learned), and several new words. Again, he reads these aloud to me. I jumped up dictation a bit this year too. 2x per week I will choose a selection from his McGuffey's Reader or his Book House volume. He will write it in his notebook and the next day he will type it for further practice. We are noticing an improvement. He actually wrote a narration this week with no spelling errors. But we have a long way to go. He also wrote 'to' when he should have wrote 'two' as he was writing a silly sentence on the whiteboard. He knew it wasn't right, yet these mistakes are common. Anyway, if you decide to go with the ABC book, I could definitely email you my homemade workbook pages.

Please share your experiences. I found this thread, which was positive, and also shared the book list. Anyone else?

Yes, I recently stumbled upon her blog and have been reading. Thanks. Looking at your research, do you know which Maritime schools are more open to homeschoolers in general without an accredited diploma?

Are you using College Board?

Thank you, fellow Nova Scotian. Congratulations to you and your son! If you are comfortable pm'ing me which schools accepted your son, please do so. Which year did your son take the SAT? Grade 11?

Thank you for clarifying dual enrollment for me. I was not aware of the differences between US and Canadian post-secondary education. Which AP courses will she take?

Okay, a few questions. 1. Do you know if any provinces offer dual enrollment? Nova Scotia does not appear to, unless they make exceptions. 2. For those who have graduated students, did you go with an accredited diploma or regret that you didn't? An IRL friend has used CLE's accredited program for her oldest, but that's not the route I want to take. 3. What did you use for Canadian history/government? 4. When applying to Canadian universities, did you submit a portfolio?

Please. :) Anything and everything is welcome.

Reading through CM's Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6). Will begin Volume 3 after that. Reading through most of my oldest's independent reads for the new school year. Also, Nuture By Nature, which was helpful in deciphering our personalities. We have a lot of variety here!

I think this is it. Maybe. Morning Time: Plutarch - Titus Flamininus, Marcus Cato, Philopoemen Shakespeare - Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, plus one play (leaning towards Comedy of Errors or Henry V) Artist Study - SCM Picture Portfolios - Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Titian, Durer Science/Nature - View From the Oak, The Brain (McHenry), year of firsts journal/sketchbook, a health/nutrition book (still thinking) Poetry - Favorite Poems Old and New, The Classic 100 Poems Bible - Young Peacemaker, Westminster Shorter Catechism (Williamson), the Gospels and Acts with Matthew Henry commentary, Apostles' Creed Geography - SCM Visits to North America and Africa World History - Mystery of History Volume 3 (audio only), On Shores of the Great Sea and Discovery of New Worlds (Synge) Canadian History - Canada: A People's History DVDs Composer - Beethoven Character - Laying Down the Rails Literature - Age of Fable (parts), Dangerous Journey, Tanglewood's Secret, Black Ships Before Troy, Aeneid for Boys and Girls, Wind and the Willows, Penrod, Farmer Boy, Phantom Tollbooth, And the Word Came With Power, Basket of Flowers 7th Grader for a reader/dreamer/farmer/builder: Math - LoF Pre-Algebra 1 and 2, 10 Things All Future Scientists and Mathematicians Must Know (Zaccaro), World of Mathematics (Tiner), AoPS Pre-Algebra Videos (continuation) Literature - Book House Volumes 10 and 11, History of English Literature (1st half), Animal Farm, Pilgrim's Progress (along with audio), Robin Hood (McSpadden) English - Maxwell's School Composition (continuation), McGuffey's 4th Reader (continuation), LoF Language Arts series, Figuratively Speaking oral and written narrations, Book of Centuries, commonplace book, dictation History - In Freedom's Cause (Henty), Joan of Arc (Twain), Martin Luther (Morrison) Nature - Adventures with a Microscope, The Sea Around Us, nature sketchbook Physics - Secrets of the Universe series (Fleisher), Physics for Entertainment, World of Physics (Tiner) Biographies of Scientists - A Piece of the Mountain (about Pascal), George Washington Carver, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein (Cwiklik) Astronomy - Experience Astronomy, Signs and Seasons (1st part), Great Astronomers (select chapters) Economics - Whatever Happened to Penny Candy Logic - Fallacy Detective, How to Read a Book (1st part) Architecture - Child's History of the World: Architecture Art - Line Upon Line (Arduini) Geography - Lost in the Barrens (Mowat), David Livingstone (Moody Press) Poetry - Beowulf, Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, Hiawatha Bible - Courage and Conviction (finish), Trial and Triumph, More Than a Carpenter, God's Smuggler Character - Practical Happiness (Schultz) Greek - Hey Andrew Level 4, Hey Andrew John copywork Typing - Mastering Computer Typing (continuation) Current Events - unsure 5th Grader for a select reader/doer/baker/builder: Math - CLE 405 through half of level 5 (that's the goal anyway), LoF (start with Farming and see how it goes), Fractions Book using C-Rods (2nd half) Literature - My Book House Volumes 5 and 6, English - Maxwell's First Book in English, McGuffey's Speller and 3rd Reader (continuation), ABC's And All Their Tricks, oral and written narrations, copywork, dictation, Book of Centuries History - Pages of History Volume 1, Martin Luther (Robinson), Champlain (Moore), Hudson (Saffer) Joan of Arc (Nolan), Nate Saint (Benge) Nature - My Side of the Mountain, Story Book of Science with corresponding video, nature sketchbook Anatomy - Blood and Guts, Simon Seymour titles, Life Before Birth Biographies of Scientists - Story of Inventions (maybe), I'm hoping my library will order a few audio cds I requested about scientists Logic - Logic Liftoff, possibly The Great Chocolate Caper Art - Home Art Studio or Line Upon Line with older brother Geography - Where Am I? (Smith) Poetry - unsure Bible - God's Great Covenant (CAP), Grandpa's Box, Pilgrim's Progress (with audio cd), Young Christian's Intro to Bible Character - Boyhood and Beyond (Schultz) Greek - Hey Andrew Level 3 Typing - Mastering Computer Typing

I think we'll save How to Be for at least Year 8 or 9. I'm reading How To Read a Book very slowly. It is not a slog, but for me to retain anything important, I must take my time. Learning about the different stages of reading, and how to skim a book, and the importance of the table of contents. I'm still in part 1, just a few chapters in. I will only have students read a little bit each year, as Ambleside recommends. Will probably introduce it in Year 7 or 8. I'm thinking of Philosophy Adventure for Year 9 or 10 depending on student. Enjoy the rest of your summer! :)

I have How To Be Own Selfish Pig if you want to pre-read it. We won't be using it yet. It is short enough to do 1x a week, but make sure you are ready to discuss mature content. We are also using Fallacy Detective for 7th, along with More Than a Carpenter by McDowell. I am currently reading How To Read a Book for my own benefit. Have you seen Philosophy Adventure?

My children each have a shelf for their own books. A Math basket is near the table and contains all current Math books. A basket for current Morning Time books and a basket for Bibles, devotional books and the evening read aloud book. Baskets for the children's books would be too messy for our house. I have to enforce keeping their shelves neat. Perhaps the older ones could have a shelf together for combined books, and the same for the youngers?

Thank you. Yes, I struggle with narrowing down my choices. I have the series of My Book House and my oldest devoured most of them for free reading. They are wonderful. Thinking ...

How are you using these in your home? I believe 4blessingmom uses Picturesque, anyone else? If you have found anything objectionable, what was it? I'm thinking about what I want my 7th grader to read independently for history. We will listen to the Mystery of History Volume III audio cd and read The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation by Miller together, but I want something he will enjoy on his own.

Twelve Youthful Martyrs - This is on my wish list. Trial and Triumph - This is scheduled for Ambleside Online. My oldest will read it this year for Year 7. Preview before reading it to younger children. Torches of Joy - My son and I read this for Year 6. We both enjoyed it. I also second the recommendation for The Word Came With Power. I'm reading it now and will read it aloud to my oldest two.

My upcoming 5th grader needs to focus on spelling so we are setting grammar aside for the year. Could her reading time happen before bed? I know she has late evenings out, but maybe a reading time before bed would help her unwind. My son began his 4th grade year using CLE Math as a supplement to Singapore. We ended up switching completely to CLE as it is a better fit for him. Before he switched, I would go through each Light Unit and mark various parts of each lesson that I thought he could use more practice in. I like your plan for geography. We read parts of Windows on the World this year that corresponded with Europe and Middle East.

A Mind in the Light has chemistry recommendations for Year 8.

Thanks, Tara. Your explanations were helpful. My 6th grader has been working on SC for about 6 weeks or so. He is learning more than when we just did written narrations from History or Science. I had tried a few modern programs, but they just weren't what I was looking for. SC will be a keeper. I'm sorry about your grammar dilemma. I'm hoping Maxwell's grammar books will be keepers for us too. We shall see. Thanks again!

Mater Amabilis has Teacher's Notes for OIS, addressing these concerns.

I find this blog helpful. Expanding Wisdom. I linked to her What to Teach page.

My 6 yo is finishing Year 1 now. She turns 7 next month. We used: Singapore Primary Math 1B The Verbal Math Lesson Life Of Fred Apples Life of Fred Butterflies Mind Benders McGuffey’s Primer (2nd half) McGuffey’s 1st Reader emerging readers – various titles Teaching Character through Literature by Beautiful Feet – Primary The Children’s Classic Poetry Collection McGuffey’s Speller manuscript copywork from McGuffey’s 1st Reader and other sources Mystery of History – Volume 2 (AD 30 - 1456) (audio only) Egermeier’s Bible Story Book daily Scripture reading (ESV version) Thorton Burgess titles – animal stories Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out series – picture books Seasons (Berger) gardening and animal care Lessons in Responsibility for Girls – Level 1 – Home Economics A Little Book of Manners (Barnes) Taekwon-Do Soccer (seasonal) Home Art Studio – Grade 1 Odd formatting. I just copied and pasted from my report form. For Literature, I read Little House in the Big Woods, Betsy Tacy, and Courage of Sarah Noble with her. We do read-alouds at night too with everyone. She did not sit in on Morning Time this year. I would not repeat the Let's Read and Find Out series. I simply don't enjoy reading them. :)

This.

A Considered Booklist by Wildflowers and Marbles High School Reading List by Homeschool Encouragement