Yes, we are using Horizons for the first time time this year. But why would a publisher assume that children would have always used that particular curriculum? Why make it difficult to jump into a new grade? Both A Beka and Saxon start at the beginning each year, so any child can come into the program and quickly be up to speed. I am actually using it in a classroom, and 2/3 of the class did not use Horizons in the past. So maybe it is not a good choice for a classroom, where you have children coming in each year from different backgrounds.

Get the CLE books for 6th grade grammar. Just get the first set (lightunits 1-5), and just have her do the grammar portion for each day, not the spelling or handwriting. They will teach her everything she needs for diagraming, parts of speech, etc. I think they are excellent. Every day there is review of old concepts and a couple of sentences to diagram.

I'm using Horizons 5 this year and am extremely unimpressed. Compared to A Beka, it is very deficient, IMO. It constantly asks the student to do things that haven't been taught, and it barely touches fractions the first half of the course. They need to be proficient in fractions by the end of the year, but that won't happen if they aren't taught until well into the 2nd book. I am quite frustrated with it.

I meant to say, my dd who hates history liked A History of US.

A History of US, by Joy Hakim. Very interesting.

This is interesting because as a Protestant, when I first started homeschooling years ago, my mother asked me what materials I was using. I told her BJU, because there weren't a lot of options and I decided to try them (as an evangelical), and she said, "Well, I won't tell your father you are using BJU." That's because of the negative history of BJU with evangelicalism. So it's not just Catholicism. I will say that I have used some of the BJU high school materials, because I taught in a school that used a few of them - American history, specificalliy; and I used their world history with my ds. There were times when I would correct what was said in the text because of an anti-Catholic bias. The world history text actually said that Henry VIII wanted a divorce because he was really concerned about being in an illegitimate relationship with his wife Catherine. I thought that even Protestants knew better; Henry VIII wanted Anne Boleyn, period. The other was just an excuse. But at the same time, I thought the American history was a well-presented history book, and in one passage which started out being somewhat anti-Catholic, it ended by being fair. (My take, anyway). I can't remember exactly what the passage was about now. But yes, you have to watch it if you use it.

Oh, we also used the BJU grammar, which I thought was equally bad. Sorry to be so negative, but I don't do grammar the way BJU does. They don't diagram - they label; I prefer A Beka. It was unclear and difficult to use.

I taught at a little school last year using BJU American history text and teacher's manual. I hated it. It was dry, dry, dry (I think American literature is not the most exciting - a lot of it is depressing anyway), but the TM was very little help. It ran in chronological order, so began with the Puritans. They are pretty deep for a lot of high school students, and don't hold their interest. I gave up after a while, and just picked out books for us to read and discuss. I had much more control over the level, interest, and content, although I had to write my own study guides. The BJU was just extremely difficult to use - nothing like the 7th and 8th grade books, which are written very differently, although even there, I much prefer just straight books. HTH

I've used Spelling Workout with 3 of my children, and it is one of the few programs that I would use again and again. It seems to cover several different skills at once, uses the spelling words as vocabulary words also, teaches editing skills, analogies, etc., and my children liked it. I have started using it in a class that I teach, and the students all like it. However, I have not tried the other two programs that you mentioned. Spelling Workout is just one of only two spelling programs that I have every liked. The other program I liked was Calvert Spelling, because my kids could do it on the computer.

Jann in TX, you are so knowledgeable about math, I am wondering if you could give me some advice. If my daughter is doing TT pre-algebra now, because that is what her little private school uses, but she will switch in about a year to a school that uses Saxon for Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Advanced Math, would you recommend that she use Saxon 1/2 next year, or that I try the Lial Introductory Algebra with her, if I use my own program with her next year? The little school would put her in TT Algebra 1, but I am uneasy about that. I don't know whether I should be. I am not sure either about switching into Saxon after using Lial. I have used the Lial with my ds in the past and thought it was very good, but the Saxon is so different. I can't figure out why Saxon is so different, unless it just has so much geometry in it. Thank you.

I started using CLE language arts with my children a few years ago, and I love it. I have used R&S in the past, and think that it is excellent, but it was too time-consuming for me to use in a homeschool setting. I have been very pleased with CLE. We have used it at several different grade levels. At first I tried to do everything, and then found that if we got behind in spelling, we would get bogged down in grammar, so we gave up the spelling. We do the grammar only, and use something different for spelling. We also ignore the penmanship. It is easy to do just the grammar, because the grammar is first in each lesson; spelling comes after the grammar, and penmanship is last. If you do the grammar only, it really just takes a few minutes a day - maybe 10 or 15. They do a great job of including constant review. I am extremely happy with it. My older dd went to high school this year, and her English teacher has been very impressed with her grammar understanding; and this is a school that emphasizes grammar.

If you think she would really be interested in homeschooling, why couldn't you try it next year, and keep her in the choir? I would enroll her in one or two online classes so that someone else is grading her work and making the rules, setting the deadlines, etc. And I think also that your daughter sounds very normal. I think girls in particular tend to need/want to break away from their moms and prove to themselves that they are independent creatures, plus, they have those hormones. But if I were you, I would take her to school every day rather than have her catch the bus; that way she can talk to you and vent, etc., and she will feel that you love her so much because you are driving her to school. :)

You could do CLE for grammar, and BJU for writing. BJU is not very good for grammar, in my opinion, and CLE is excellent in that regard. I have used CLE for my children for their grammar instruction, but used other things for writing.

I love Wheelock's. I was working through it last summer, but have been sidetracked since school started in the fall, (because I am teaching school this year and have NO time for studying). So I am teaching Latin and can no longer learn it - how crazy is that? But I don't know how easy it is because I have a foreign language background, so I am comfortable studying Latin on my own. I guess it just depends on the person. I like Henle also; I just especially enjoyed some of the quotes that Wheelock's includes.

The main thing for college is that she needs 2 consecutive years of a foreign language. If she does Latin next year, then she will, I think, still only have one year of a high school language, because she is only in the 8th grade now; but if she switches to Spanish next year, then she can begin her two-year sequence, and she will have time to do even 3 years easily in high school. Sometimes colleges prefer a modern language; but I am not an expert on that. I think that the Latin study will make it much easier for her to learn Spanish, also.