My son is in 7th and finishing up Algebra 1. I talked to a friend about doing Geometry next, but she suggested Algebra II while it's fresh on his mind. Just another option.

My ds, 12 1/2 years old, has been a natural speller since 5 years old. Last year, I tried out Spelling Wisdom and found it was less busy work (lists) and more of a focus on what he didn't know. The routine we followed was read a passage of literature from the workbook, circle words he didn't know, study them, and take a test for dictation & spelling. This worked on his auditory skills (whcih needed work) and continued to build up his vocabulary. I will continue with Spelling Wisdom, but I would add looking up these words for roots/stems/definitions. Feedback from Spelling Wisdom folks indicated this would be more of an exposure to great writing/literature versus spelling, but it certainly allows him to see new words and new passages.

Hi, Mosaic Mind ~ Did you receive the pacing guides I sent to you?

History/Geography/Reading -- Mystery of History 1 & 2 with Sonlight readers/read alouds & VP cards (curriculum found at MOH forum -- yay!) Science -- AiG God's Design for the Physical World Math -- Teaching Textbooks Algebra (7th grader) & Sonlight 3A/3B and Teaching Textbooks 5 Grammar/Vocabulary -- MCTLA Voyage (7th grader) & Town (3rd grader) Writing -- TBD? Spelling -- Spelling Wisdom (7th grader) & copywork/spelling from AWANA books/resources on hand (3rd grader) Bible -- AWANA Foreign Language --Rosetta Stone Spanish Greek/Latin -- English from the Roots Up Art -- I Can Do All Things

We are going to do World History this fall (from the Beginning to the Middle Ages), so we'll use SL Core 6 readers with Mystery of History as the spine (supplemented with Story of the World from the Core 6 and other history reference books). I also happened to have the Veritas Press history cards, so I will be incorporating those as well. Turns out, there are resources that combine many of these into a great schedule -- will just need to add in the other resources.

3Blessings ~ What are the ages of your children? Have you considered teaching them off one curriculum? When I started just a year and a half ago, I went to my homeschooling friends who had at least three to five kids. All of them, at least for the elementary & middle school ages, recommended for sanity & cost's sake to homeschool from the same curriculum, with younger kids using grade-/reading level appropriate materials for math. I homeschool both of mine from the same history & science curriculum.

I agree. Definitely get into the rfwp forum. I downloaded an Excel spreadsheet for both the Island and Town levels, as both my kids are doing MCTLA. It's a very straightforward schedule. If you can't find it, I can e-mail the files to you. PM me!

My 7 year old daughter is finishing up 2B and still has difficulty doing subtraction in her head, but when she does double digit/2-column subtraction on paper -- no problem! you mentioned your daughter gets hung up. Does you daughter get hung up on doing subtraction as she's looking at the textbook when going over a lesson, when doing subtraction in the workbook, or both?

My 7 year old daughter is reading above grade level but is having difficulty spelling -- so she can decode (read), but encoding (spelling) is more difficult. I checked out a book from the library recently called Reading Reflex. The exceptions to all the spelling rules can be frustrating. Reading Reflex approached things from a sound picture point of view. For example, the sound "ee" (long e-sound) can be represented by the sound picture "ee" as in street or "ea" as in treat. Might be worth a look. I have started to run her through the exercises in the later chapters of the book. We'll see if it helps.

Oooh! Forgot! Mom and Dad's birthdays were also in there!

I'd like to pass along an idea that a homeschooling mom/friend is doing. With her 6 and 10 year olds, she has a binder that holds baseball card sheet protectors. For each significant historical event, each child draws a picture of, say, Abraham Lincoln, and on the back each child jots down significant info (dates, details, etc.). Each era of history had an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet protector with that timeframe on it followed by the baseball card sheet protectors. For the modern history section, each of the children had a card with their baby picture on it with significant info on the back. As the children progress in age, the artwork changes. This book acts not only as a timeline, but also as a visual diary of the children's growth -- artistically and chronologically -- via learning. I thought it was very unique!

I am finishing up Core 3+4 with my 7 year old first grader & 11 year old 5th grader. 3+4 was the perfect way for us to cover US history in year, as we were not sure at the time if homeschooling was going to be for us this next year. We covered Landmark History & the four books of Story of the USA together. My 5th grader went on to do the chapter questions & reviews at the end of each Story of the USA book. For my 5th grader, the T/F or M/C questions were easy enough, but there were actually some pretty thought-provoking questions (essay-type questions) that were a bit challenging for him. In fact, if your older child needs more of a challenge, you could easily adapt the essay-type questions at the end of the Story of of the USA chapters into a mini-research paper. For my 1st grader, 3+4 was a hit. Although she did not do the readers (she did grade-level readers), she has very much enjoyed the read-alouds, and the time we spent together reading aloud gave us a shared experience that didn't detract from either child. In fact, I found they both talked a lot about the read alouds and the history content. As far as the historical fiction goes, my 5th grader enjoyed the "break" from Landmark & Story of the USA to get in some other type of reading. Open & go is one of the reasons we chose Sonlight.

I started mowing my parent's lawn when I was 11, before the days of bagging mowers. So, whatever you ran over (rocks, sticks, etc.) cam spewing out the side. Then, I had to rake up the whole yard & bag it all! My 11 yr old has been introduced to mowing, with the appropriate safety items being taught to him by my husband. The other day, he asked if he could mow. I would have taken him up on it, except it was going to rain. A self-propelled mower with an auto cut-off switch/latch would be a safe way to go. As for everyone else in the neighborhood, I think that they'll be asking you how you got your kids to do the lawn/yardwork while theirs are gaming or watching TV.

I pay my neighbors' teens $8 for my two. $10 for three sounds about right to me. Also, what level of interaction do you have with them? If you are heavily involved with them, perhaps more than $10 (say $12) might be appropriate. But $10, not excessive.