My 12yo is just finishing up Level 7 of All About Spelling. I'm undecided on whether or not I should have her complete Spelling Workout G & H (as recommended) before moving her into Vocab from Classical Roots A. AAS 7 includes several sections on Latin & Greek roots as well as a few sections on words from Spanish, Italian & French origin. She is chomping at the bit to get into VfCR and stole away to her room to work on Lesson 1 today (already had it on the shelf). Should I make her go through Spelling Workout G? Is it necessary? If she would really benefit from SW G & H, could I alternate back and forth between Spelling Workout and VfCR to keep things fresh and still allow her to dive into this program? Thanks for any input! - - Posted this in the middle school/logic section as well... I wasn't sure which forum section would be better :)

My 12yo is just finishing up Level 7 of All About Spelling. I'm undecided on whether or not I should have her complete Spelling Workout G & H (as recommended) before moving her into Vocab from Classical Roots A. AAS 7 includes several sections on Latin & Greek roots as well as a few sections on words from Spanish, Italian & French origin. She is chomping at the bit to get into VfCR and stole away to her room to work on Lesson 1 today (already had it on the shelf). Should I make her go through Spelling Workout G? Is it necessary? If she would really benefit from SW G & H, could I alternate back and forth between Spelling Workout and VfCR to keep things fresh and still allow her to dive into this program? Thanks for any input!

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath! ;) We looked at a number of samples, and I let DD have a big voice in what we chose for next year, and she chose Rod & Staff. I was able to compare BJU, Abeka, R&S and Hake at our local used book stores and/or our local Mardel. We're both really excited! Thanks for all the input & good luck to those of you still in decision-making mode! :)

LOL! I appreciate so much the feedback! You guys are awesome!

I haven't decided.... Asked some friends on FB and A Beka was thrown into the mix. ACK! Too many decisions ;)

Woodland Mist, would you go from FLL4 to Hake 5 or 6? Thanks :)

Do you think we'd be fine to skip R&S5 and move right into 6?

Man, I'm having the hardest time deciding what to do for grammar next year. Background: DD10 is finishing FLL4. Every single bit of it comes incredibly easy for her. She loves diagramming; loves working with me (although I'd like to turn her out on her own a little more); she just gets grammar and really enjoys it. Today at Mardel, we checked out: Easy Grammar 5 - she said she wanted something more challenging. We looked at EG6, but she didn't love it. BJU English - but neither of us were crazy about it Hake Grammar 5 - she liked the idea of a rigorous program Should I also be considering JAG/AG? Or R&S? Somebody tell me what we want!

You bet :) Glad I could help! Good luck with your year!

We really loved RSO Chemistry this year. We've done Life Science 1 and Earth Science 1 with them, and Chemistry 1 was just a natural progression. It was so very much fun and I feel like my daughter learned a lot. One thing I did as well (because she's pretty science-minded) was have her go through 101 Cool Science Experiments and note things that she'd like to try. Then, I wove those into our year as they fit with the course schedule or on bonus days if they didn't. We had tons of hands-on time in the lab (ahem, kitchen)! Best of luck with choosing your curriculum :)

I think Texas History is taught as a full year in both 4th and 7th. That may have changed, though. For my rising 4th grader, I plan on working Texas History in to our history timeline this upcoming year. Instead of using SOTW3 as our main spine, I'm putting more of a focus on US History (using Guesthollow's American History 1 as a guideline). I am going to weave significant Texas history events/people into that timeline. It makes sense to me that while I would be discussing Native American tribes in North America that I would also discuss Caddo, Karankawa, Comanche, etc. in Texas. Rather than treat Texas history separately, I'd like to just fold it in. I'm mainly using - A Gentle Tour Through Texas History (which is meh.) - Story of Texas (which I like) - Let's Remember When.... series of books on Texas - Texas Sampler - Let's Learn About Texas Indians (free HERE) - other library books & readers

Yep, I was going to suggest Hobby Lobby as well :) I was on that aisle this week and saw that they still carried the inflatable globes. Good luck!

I got so much done yesterday! I looked through the pics posted here & picked out specific things that I liked, then we got busy. We pulled out every single book, moved the bookshelves, put all the books back, bought & built a cube storage shelf, moved out an armoire that I wasn't totally using to make way for the girls' computer desk. It's totally coming together & I'm so excited! I usually look at these threads or rooms on Pinterest and dream, but this week, I'm doing it :D.

This thread is dangerous. What began as inspiration turned into an innocent reorganization here, but quickly morphed into an all-out room re-do. If I'm not back with pictures in a few days, send reinforcements. LOL

We have a small group - just 4 girls - and meet twice a month. None of the moms subscribe to all of the Keepers ideas, but we use the book as a guideline for what we want to teach and then do our own thing. It would depend greatly on the group, but I see no reason why the author's viewpoint should be a problem. ETA: I have read only the Keepers at Home guide (main text).