I'm fininshing up R&S Math 8 with my oldest son, and he will start Algebra I next year. I'll be using an older textbook by Dolciani called Modern Algebra Structure and Method Book 1. Chapter 10 in R&S 8 introduces Algebraic terms and expressions, and the next chapter introduces signed numbers. I don't foresee a problem transitioning from R&S to Algebra. My son recently took the ACT. Math was his lowest score because of the Plane Geo & Trig subtest (as a 7th grader, we haven't studied these yet), but he did surprisingly well in the pre-algebra/elem. algebra and coord. geo. subtests. He didn't do any ACT prep books, but my husband did review common algebra concepts like factoring about 2 weeks before the test; everything else was what he learned in R&S math. Of course a lot of this depends on the child too...I'll do the same sequence with my middle son, but he will probably enter Algebra I in 9th grade, not in 8th like his older brother. HTH!

Here are my 8th grade plans: Latin Alive! Book 2 New Testament Greek for Beginners by Machen Classical Writing Diogenes Maxim & Intermediate Poetry Modern Algebra Structure & Method Book 1 R&S Grammar 8 (M-Th)/ R&S Art 8 (F) R&S Spelling 8 Omnibus III Streams of Civilization Vol. II (M-W)/Intro to Logic (Th-F) Natural History Syllabus using Fabre’s Book of Insects (M-W)/RS4K Chemistry Level II (Th-F)

My oldest son will be in 8th grade next year, and high school is looming on the horizon. I feel excited and overwhelmed at the same time. I think my oldest son will be a great engineer, scientist, etc. because of his strength in math and science, but right now his passion is carpentry. I know this can change, but he wants to have his own company, so business seems like a more prudent path to also plan for. I've been pondering your questions this weekend, and here are my thoughts: Disclaimer: This is my 1st attempt to plan for high school, and my only consolation is that my other 2 sons will benefit from this process. Lots of APs? None Lots of SAT2s? None IB? No TWTM with what purpose? Good engineer? Good scientist? Good math? Not quite sure what you mean here. I've moved away from TWTM approach for Great Books & History. Political power (for an activist - lots of rhetoric and history)? I'm thinking I would like to put together a debate team; our local co-op has done this in the past. ETA: I also want each son to attend the leadership camp through the Worldview Academy at least once before they leave home. Luckily, it's generally offered at a major university in the city we live in. It's expensive, but I'm making it part of our homeschool budget. Music? No desire; he has the basics though. Foreign languages? Latin & Koine Greek; He will probably need a modern language too, but I'll let them choose that as an elective and use SOS or Rosetta Stone. Art? Not a fine arts program, but more along the lines of art history in conjunction with world history. Half unschooling, half TWTM? Not for our core subjects, but I'll let this son unschool his carpentry projects. Cover school? No Foreign exchange program? NO CC associates degree? Maybe, but probably not CC classes but not degree? Maybe, but probably not Travel? as a family Sports? not organized Major projects? Senior thesis & presentation required to graduate Contribution to the world? Service & leadership roles at church Online school? No Online classes? No Public high school? No Charter school? No Private high school? No Online school? No Some of these decisions are based on finances and some are based on my desire to home school through high school at home as the main teacher/mentor. I'm I being naive? My DH supports this route, and I'm really excited about what I have planned, but of course, I want my son to get into college too. He took the ACT this month through the Duke TIP and made what I thought was a very good score (for 7th grader). I found out it was only 3 points away from qualifying for the Presidential Scholarship as our local community college. I have a definite high school vision, and I feel like I'm on the right track, but what if it turns out I'm on the wrong road? Thanks for listening to my rambling thoughts this morning. ~Beth

I've never heard of or seen this biology book. Can you post a link? Thanks!

Same here. My boys read, but they don't keep a booklist on their own; I tracked their reading electronically. For me this works because it's faster, more reliable, and easy to access in one place when I need to their reading information.

Thanks for all of the feedback. I do have a few items to consider for Omnibus IV-VI: (1) knowing the different books used, (2) determining the value added with the deeper rhetoric level questions, and (3) showing the Omnibus work on a transcript (not something that crosses my radar screen yet). I did skip a few of the Omnibus I books because of the mature themes, but they are books I want to discuss before my boys head off to college. I won't go back to some of the theology books that I skipped. I'm not quite as concerned about the writing aspect of Omnibus IV-VI since I will still continue to use CW in conjuction with Omnibus. My frugal side looks at the $300 (or more) for Omnibus IV-VI, and I really don't see a lot of books in the Veritas Press catalog for 10th -12th grades: 9 books for 10th, 14 for 11th, and 17 books for 12th. Of course, they can add more books as they continue to develop the Omnibus series. I think I'll wait for Omnibus IV comes out and compare it to Omnibus I to see what changes are made, and whether or not it's worth the investment. I had thoughts of abandoning Omnibus, but I think I'll continue to use is some modified form or another. I wish knowing the right thing to do was more apparent. Many, many thanks! ~Beth

I'm using a modified Omnibus I schedule for my 7th grader this year. I'm thinking of modifying Omnibus II for 8th grade and Omnibus III for 9th grade. Instead of moving into Omnibus IV-VI (assuming their available when I get there), could I just go through Omnibus I to III for 10th to 12th and pick up the books we are skipping in the younger grades? For those of you already in High School, do you think this would work? Any cons I'm not considering? I appreciate any advice or insight you all have. Thanks! ~Beth

I believe their 10% off sale (equivalent to free shipping) starts early to mid-March and runs through April 15th. I haven't received my newsletter announcing the sale dates yet.

I finished 2 books this week: A Hunger for God by John Piper and Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher. I was very disappointed with Crunchy Cons; Dreher's worldview seemed very inconsistent, and I found some of his comments extremely naive. I'm now reading Life Wide Open by David Jeremiah.

This is my 6th year of homeschooling, and I plan to graduate all 3 boys. I really enjoy homeschooling, and I don't regret giving up my career at all.

I hate my oven. It doesn't keep a consistent temperature and takes forever to preheat. I have to use an oven thermometer to make sure it's close the right temperature for what I'm cooking. It's impossible to cook bread because of the large fluctuation in temperatures while it cooks. Thus, my threads about make bread in a bread machine... We've priced a new oven, and we will be saving a long, long time before I can replace the one I have. Well, at least it works.

Okay, that makes sense. I have a food scale, so I'll see how much the 3 cups of flour I was using weighs, and then adjust from there. I'll shoot for 15 oz. first and increase the amount until I get a normal looking loaf of bread. Thanks again! ~Beth

Thanks! I forgot I had dough enhancer. I'll try using that next time too.

Okay, I'm very challenged in this area. The recipe calls for 3 cups of bread flour. I'm grinding my own wheat berries now, so how much milled flour should I use? If I increase the flour, should I increase the water too? The recipe calls for 10 oz. of water. I really, really appreciate your help. ~Beth

But my bread keeps collapsing in the middle. Can I not substitute the wheat flour that I grind for bread flour on the recipe? Do I need more or less flour? I've made successful bread loaves with store bought bread flour based on a simple recipe of water, flour, honey, salt, and yeast. Now I just want to use better flour. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated!

We have no requirements for how many day we school, but I schedule 180, and today is number 115.

What are you using? Do you have the core book, student workbook, and instructor's guide? Without all 3 components, I was really lost with CW. I started with Aesop B and plugged along with my sons. It wasn't until after I read the Homer core the next year that the program came together for me, and I could see how it all worked together. Writing is not the favorite subject around here, so CW Homer is not embraced with enthusiasm all the time, but my boys really, really enjoyed CW Poetry for Beginners. Is it the program or is it writing in general that your dd doesn't like? I think it's good to know the difference. For me, CW has been a great program that really teaches my boys how to write well. I've seen steady improvement in their writing over the years. Yes, there was a learning curve for me as I became familiar with the CW, and yes, my boys groan when the lesson has a 9 1/2 page model like it did this week, but overall, it's been a wonderful program for our homeschool. However, you may find that CW is not a good fit for you and your dd, but I wanted to encourage you that it may be too early to tell... HTH!

I did finish Self Talk Soul Talk early in the week and started on A Hunger for God by John Piper. I thought I might read this one quickly too, but it has challenged me spiritually (in a good way), so I'm going slower and taking more of it in. I'll probably finish it this weekend, so I'll start Crunchy Cons by Dreher next. 6 things that make me happy: 1. My DH 2. Hugs from my oldest son 3. Listening to all of the ideas from my middle son 4. Cuddling with my youngest son 5. Fixing healthful meals to eat 6. Keeping up with the laundry

Classical Academic Press has a new Latin series called Latin Alive! that was developed to follow the LFC series. It's designed for 7th grade and up. I'm using it along with Lingua Latina (LL), and so far, I really like it. It's a lot of review early on, but that's probably good for my sons. We didn't do much work on pronuciation either which is stressed more in Latin Alive!; this is also helping us in LL. Here's a link to their program: http://www.classicalacademicpress.com/latinalive.html HTH!

I finished Renovation of the Heart by Willard. My next book is Self Talk Soul Talk by Jennifer Rothschild. This one is a quick read, so I might be able to finish two books this week. I need to get ahead when I can because I'm sure that I'll fall behind one of these weeks... If I finish early, my next book will be A Hunger for God by John Piper.

Well, I'll take a stab at this. Personally, I think the Harvey's Elementary Grammar & Composition book is more like a reference guide. There's no review and not much practice. I've had great success with R&S grammar (from 3 to 7), so there's no way I'm making a change. However, part of this is that R&S builds a strong foundation for grammar, and part of this is that I have a very weak background in grammar. I have both of the Harvey grammar books, and I can't imagine myself teaching from these books. I could do better now that I've had 5 years of R&S, but it would still be a stretch. Harvey's may be more advanced because it addresses all the grammar concepts in 2 books. R&S takes a slower, methodical approach from English 2 to English 9/10 that reviews and reinforces the concepts taught over many years. I'm sure there are parents out there that can teach grammar successfully from Harvey's; I'm just not one of them. CW did produce workbooks for Harvey's, but I haven't seen them, so I can't comment on how they might help in teaching from these books.

I'll 3rd R&S Math; I've had great success with it in our homeschool. It provides the right amount of help for me to teach the concept along with daily review and oral drill.

I use these exercises to reinforce what they are learning in R&S. If we haven't covered a concept yet, I explain it quickly and give them the answer. We usually do the grammar work as a group, and I have the answer key in hand. Yes, you can drop the grammar component of CW, but I like the way they show how grammar is an integral part of writing. The diagramming has been overwhelming in Homer B. I usually write the skeleton (or lines) on the whiteboard and let my boys fill in the correct words. There's no way I could begin to diagram these sentences because I'm just now learning advanced grammar, but again, it's a great visual for how intricate (but logical) good writing can be.

I'll have an 8th grader next year too, and our schedules looks similar; however, I did question the need for handwriting in your 8th grader's schedule. Honestly, at this point, I just require legibility because all of my sons have inherited their dad's handwriting. I don't see a logic course planned, but you may have it scheduled for high school. I've been trying to decide if my son should start logic in 8th or 9th grade. Personally, I would include a logic class over handwriting. You have a very full schedule already. Are you doing LL in place of some of the TOG literature or in addition to? From what I've seen and read, TOG is very comprehensive; I don't think you would need to supplement with LL. These are just some thoughts from a mom who's planning for 8th grade too... HTH!

I found a comparison that I posted last year between R&S grammar 5 & 6. I'll copy it here to help in your placement decision: I'm doing R&S grammar 6 with DS#1 & R&S grammar 5 with DS#2. In comparing R&S 5 & 6: -the lessons are longer in 6, and a smaller typeset is used -there are more oral drill exercises, written exercises, and review exercises for each lesson in 6 -there are 139 lessons in 6, but only 119 in 5 -there are 82 worksheets for 6, but only 68 worksheets for 5 -there are 11 chapter tests & a final for 6, but only 10 chapter tests in 5 -5 talks about verb tenses & principal parts; 6 talks about transitive verbs & action verbs that aren't transitive -5 talks about linking verbs with predicate nouns & adj; 6 talks about passive and active voice -5 talks about nom, obj, & poss pronouns; 6 expands on this and talks about relative pronouns & relative clauses -there's more diagramming in 6 including adjective clauses, adverbs of degree, and adverb clauses -more advanced concepts in 6 include prepositional phrases as adjectives and adverbs, subordinating conjunctions, and avoiding misplaced phrases and clauses