I don't think, in general, middle schoolers would be able to set and follow a schedule by themselves. Most of my 9th graders in my Pre-AP class in public school could not do this, and I worked at a great school where MANY students went to Ivy League schools. The students were SUPER motivated to do well. Last year for my 6th grader I gave him a planner and would write the assignments for the week in them and he could check off as he did them. In years past I have given him a typed list. I did notice that with my handwritten list he would sometimes miss things (I think it was because my handwriting may have just jumbled together in the s all box that I had for each day). This year, I will be using homeschoolminder.com to keep my lessons and grades organized. They have a student log in option where my son will be able to log on and see his lesson and then mark it complete. I have tried other lesson planning programs, but this one seems the best one for me. I will probably still give my son a calendar of assignments.

There was also a free place to find links to tons of lessons free, but I can't remember off the top of my head what it is called.

Just looking over it on the site, I couldn't get a feel for what exactly was included. The free activities looked like ones you could find easily on the Internet...if you want a site for lessons, I would suggest schoolhouse teachers.com. It has tons of good lessons and are in the subjects and topics I would already teach.

Looks good! Fox, thanks for the Fallacy for Kindle, I have been waiting for this book to show up at our used book store for a while and it hasn't come in. I might just go ahead and get it on Kindle!

Allissa, you are not the only one! I constantly try to do this, just have to talk myself down too! Last year I had so much packd into MFW Exploring Counties and Cultures that we all ended up hating it. I feel so bad for destroying this curriculum! We had so much fun with Adventures, but I tried to improve ECC and put in WAYYYYY too much...thus, failure. My daughter asked several times a day, "can we be finished now?". She was learning NOTHING. We ended up dumping it at semester. We went back to my tried and true favorite, Five in a Row. Simple and effective, no need to add anything. I just hope I can remember this for this year!

Thanks a lot...I ordered it... ;)

One thing I have learned over the years is stick with your plan. What I mean is this...I would go all over the place trying to "add in" extras, when in reality it was just overkill. I am not talking about interest driven extras or rabbit trails, but just taking your plan (whether it be TWTM, Sonlight, MFW, or something you create) and adding more to that. I am notorious for this. My worst homeschooling years have been years that I over planned. When I would stick to the plan and allow time for interest driven exploration, those were the best years. Now I have purchased the CK books and used them as a resource, but I really didn't need to, and I only bought them because they were really cheap at my used books store. I would suggest just having ONE really good resource per subject, and then just get library books for a "book basket" , or go with the resources on the "plan" and stick with them.

Here is what I would do for my student for their outside reading books (they could choose the book), I would have a book conference. First, I would start out asking the student to five me a summary or narrate the book for me. I could usually tell at this point if they had not read the book. Then we would move to quotes. I would open the book randomly and read a quote on a page, then they had to explain the quote and tell the situation surrounding the quote. I would give them three different quotes (beginning, middle, end of book). At that point I had a good idea if they read it or not. Sometimes I also asked them to tell me about their favorite character and why that character is their favorite. They will usually be really engaged when asked about their favorite character or favorite event. I always enjoyed these with my students.

I am using AO this year and I am tweaking! Homeschooling is all about meeting your kids were they are, IMO. I have found the ladies very open and helpful.

And, they used to offer a DVD for free for teachers, but I am not sure if you can still get the DVD or not. They do have the episodes on Netflix streaming!

Sorry, here is the direct link to the page with the guides for the BOOKS. look halfway down the page. Each book is represented. The activities are structured for classroom use, but can easily be adapted for home. Oops...forgot link! http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/teachers/primer.html

In my search for free materials to use for American History this year, I came across these. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/teachers/guides.html I know that the activities are geared toward classroom use, but was wondering if anyone had used them in their homeschool. TIA!

My son STILL talks about how much he hated Saxon, and we stopped it in 4th grade (he is now going into 7th). The spiral approach made him want to bang his head. Mastery is MUCH better for him! We use Singapore and am switching to Tabletclass this year.

Any and all of the Winnie the Pooh books or Beatrix potter books!

The only thing I would say is vary your sentences a bit more. They all seem to start like, "________ were (or other "be" verb) ________". The factual parts look good to me!

Jam enjoying homeschoolminder.com. They have a free trial for a month. It might not fit the budget for everyone, but so far so good!

So sorry to hear of the loss of your precious baby. Hugs from a mama who has been there.

Thy have these on Netflix now, if you have that!

We are trying Science fusion this year. It is online and an interactive lab book for students. Hopefully this will work for us!

First, read TWJ, you really can't incorporate a program that you have not read. You have more than enough time in 3 weeks. It is a very fast read. Read with a pen in hand to write down notes. She tells you what to do in there, you just have to get the steps. I have read it in years past, but really have not incorporated it thoroughly, as my son really was not ready to write yet. This coming year is it for us! I am going to re-read my notes and schedule it out. Can't tell you what a week looks like yet, but after I plan it, I will! I don't use LOE, so maybe someone else will chime in, but I think there are video clips on YouTube, maybe that could help? HTH some!

I second Spalding! I have always just taught my kids the strokes, but this really put it all together for us!

Wow, lots of questions!! Let me see if I can answer for you. I have used this for years. We love it. No need to know the stories before hand. They go over things thoroughly and the kids really know the details when you move on to another story. I have used the pages and the cd. That is all we have needed. We have other full curriculum, so we did not need other timelines or extra activities for Bible. I have only purchased from BSGFAA, not cbd so I can't answer you there. The owners of the company are really nice. The beginner pages are pretty easy (just listening and coloring - but I still use them for my 2nd grader and I use it as a "follow the directions" type of activity). Like I said, our other curriculum choices are pretty full, so I don't need extras. Hope that helps!

I have a separate planner that has the plans for all my kids in it. I customize and print mine and my son's from newbeehomeschooler.com (I think that is the right address).

I gave my ds a planner last year. I wrote his assignments for the week in his planner and he checked off each one as he went. I will give him one this year and probably do the same thing. My son needs a bit of help in the organization are so I will not require him to write out his own "homework" until 9th grade.

I give away most of my stuff to other homeschooling moms. I tend to, ahem, over buy, so my closets are filled with stuff someone would treasure.