We're using the Saxon Math Homeschool versions of 5/4, 6/5, 7/6, etc... I've not used the Intermediate Series, so can't speak to that from experience. When looking at them online, it seemed to me that the Intermediate Series had more moving parts to each day's lesson. I could be wrong, but that's what I remembered thinking. I looked on CBD (ChristianBookDistributors), and they had a pdf of the differences of these two series of math books. I'll link it here: https://g.christianbook.com/g/home_page/Intermediate_5465_Saxon.pdf Hope it's okay to link that here....if not please delete. We use Saxon a little differently than most, in that we use Saxon Teacher cd's *and* the Art Reed dvds. We liked the format of TT, but the actual curriculum wasn't a good fit for my younger kids, so we've been doing this combo with great success. The kids view the Saxon Teacher lesson, which mirrors their book, but on the computer, and then view the Art Reed lesson. Both are fairly short, and really help the kids to stay engaged in the lesson with good understanding. Then they move on to completing the lesson in the book. The kids are enjoying this audio/visual approach and it seems to be working to help them be successful in their math learning. Best wishes! :)

We're loving Saxon Math here! ;) We're using it with Saxon Teacher cd's *and* Art Reed dvd's. May seem like overkill to some, but for our kids (who needed more of an audio/visual way to learn math), it's been a great fit. They do the lesson with Saxon Teacher, following along in their book, watch the corresponding Art Reed lesson, then begin their math lesson problems. I always check it over each day and we discuss along the way if they have any trouble. Saxon Teacher also has all the problems in the book worked out on the cd with explanations, which is a big help if they get stuck. The kids love the way Art Reed teaches the lesson and it really helps to cement it in their minds before doing their assignment. Anyway, it's been a great combo here that's finally helping our kids to be successful with math! :D Editing to add: We never liked the early levels of Saxon Math here either....but the levels from 5/4 on up have worked out great.

Yes, I have high schoolers using HOD right now. My oldest is finishing up 11th grade using US History 1, and my 9th grader is finishing up World Geography. I've tried a few different things for high school, but we came running back to HOD, and that's where we'll stay. We just really like the program, and it's been a good fit all around. Some years I use a lot of their components (like science), and other years we use something else. Just depends on the year, and what we need for that particular student at that point. ;) Guest Hollow has some pretty cool stuff, so I can see why your student is excited about that! :D Glad you'll get a chance to look things over at convention. One thing that always bugged me in the past was the feeling like I had to 'do it all' or do everything 'as written'. Don't let that feeling creep in. Just do what works best for your students, and make it your own. Once I started realizing that, we really blossomed with using curricula to meet our needs. ;) Best wishes...and enjoy your convention!! :D

Agreeing with Kolamum, we used Heart of Dakota's World Geography for 9th, and World History for 10th for my oldest two and it worked great!! :D

This is our 6th year using HOD. I've used this guide once before, and am preparing to use it again next year. I loved this guide quite a bit, maybe partly due to the fact that we're getting closer to "our time" in history. ;) We've always really enjoyed the book choices with HOD. A lot of thought went into the planning and writing of these guides, and the assignments and activities scheduled are very purposeful and well timed. One favorite that I didn't think would be a favorite, was the reading of primary source material...letters and speeches, etc. They provided excellent opportunities to really understand this time (and the people involved) in history better. My dc really connected with what they were learning. *I* learned so much, myself! :D There's also a lot of opportunities to make tasty recipes, and construct cool projects. If we came across a project my ds wasnt into, we just skipped it and moved on....no big deal. You need to feel free to make it work for you. ;) I love that with HOD there's always a nice mix of audio/visual opportunities for learning, as well as hands on projects and games. We felt it all flowed very well. :) The only thing I didn't like about it the first time around was cost. We didn't do the Presidents Study, or the science, due to money being tight, so I just used some things we already had for science. I'm excited to purchase the last few things well need for next year (for the next sibling), and be able to do those parts as well. Even without those things, we had such a great year. I can't speak to the extension books, as my student was within the target age range, so we didn't need the extension set. We did get the read-aloud set, which was absolutely wonderful. We loved every book! They did connect very well to the history portion. It was fun seeing my ds make those connections as we went along. I know HOD isn't everyone's cup of tea, but for our family it's been a great fit. ;)

Heart of Dakota - Preparing Hearts Not sure if this is what you're looking for. This is the guide that fits your ages well. We love, and have enjoyed their book choices, and the included Bible study. They recommend R&S English which fits your goals, though you wouldn't have to use it, if you found something you liked better. Best wishes! ;)

We've used it! :) We found it very interesting. It covers historical events very well, including missions, but not focused solely on it. Missions to Modern Marvels, just states the time frame being studied....modern times.

I LOVE using CLE Language Arts, but my kids have been through the revised 2nd Edition Sunrise levels, and I'm not wild about the format of the older editions, so we're looking for something else. CLE is VERY good, though!! ;)

Thank you for sharing this! 😊

I've been thinking about possibly getting FLL for my rising 4th grader, and JAG for the 6th grader. Right now they're both using CLE.

I'm in a similar boat...I called CLE last month and they said level 5 wouldn't be ready until next year at the earliest. 😕

I read somewhere on this forum a while ago that someone was using MUS by doing review pages from the previous week alongside the new pages from the current week. So it could possibly look like this: Mon: 21D & 22A Tue: 21E & 22B Wed: 21F & 22C Thur: Test 22 Fri: (none) I thought that was a neat way to review past concepts, and schedule the lessons. MUS does include a good amount of review, but perhaps your ds just needs a bit more review. Perhaps printing out extra pages for review from their website might be just the right amount for him, possibly working on some form of review each day. We used MUS in the past, and I wish I'd used a review page every day, as I've read that some here do. Probably would have helped a lot. Your little guy sounds a lot like my ds. He too, struggled to learn to read and also struggled with having enough review in math curricula to really cement those concepts. He's a 9th grader now. We were using TT at the beginning of the year, but ran into the same problem with not having enough review *for him*. I know with math it can vary greatly on how much review each child needs. Some do better with a little, and then there's my guy who needs a lot of review for things to really stick. We ended up moving him over to using Saxon. He gets new concepts in little incremental "bites", and a lot of review cycling around for him to really master a concept by practicing it over and over. We're using the Saxon Teacher cd's as a way to make it a bit more audio/visual, as that's what works best for him. Again, this may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for our ds it was the right amount of review. Best wishes! :)

This is me, too!! ;) Must.....know.....more.....soon! :D

We love TT for our oldest who's mathy and loves the format, and independence it offers. Our next child much prefers Saxon because of the smaller bites of new concepts each day, and the wonderful review they include. 😊 We noticed with TT, that sometimes they were presenting practice problems to work that we're taught in a future lesson?!? Not sure if that was an error in the program, but it threw my younger student for a loop. They also test on topics just learned, where Saxon waits until they've had several lessons to practice the concept before presenting it on a test. Everyone's different, and so each curriculum might work out a little bit differently for each student or family. If you do go with Saxon, I highly recommend getting the Saxon Teacher CD's as they are presenting the same lesson as what the book teaches, and they also have every single problem in the course worked out step by step on the cds. Very helpful resource! The Art Reed dvds are also a fantastic resource for teaching the Saxon lessons. My kids love Art Reed! 😊 If you'd like something with more of a workbook format that presents solid math teaching similar to Saxon, CLE is absolutely wonderful! We've used that before Saxon for all the kids, and it's been phenomenal! 😉 Wish you the best! 😊

We've also been using Saxon with Art Reed DVD's, and highly recommend that combo! ;)

We are using CAP'S W&R series alongside CLE LA this year, and it's been really enjoyable! :)

I'm curious to see your responses, as I "just" ordered my 7th grader W&R Book 3:Narrative II. We tried WWS 1 this fall, but it was a struggle, so I was hoping to shore up narration skills this year. If we like W&R, I may just stick with it. It looks really good! 😊

Bump ! ;)

I have an HP Laserjet Pro 200. I know others have had good experiences, but I have been burned every time I've tried generic. I've tried quite a few different ones at various differing prices (thinking if I spent a bit more, it would be better). I learned that lesson the hard way, and now buy my toner from Best Buy (HP brand). They ship it free, and it arrives literally 2 days later. Always top-notch quality toner. ;) A while back, I bought HP brand toner from amazon, which has worked out well, too. :)

Thank you both for sharing further thoughts on Writers In Residence. I've been kicking it around for next year, and just can't seem to decide for sure. Like 'Kesmom' wisely mentioned, I want to be mindful that what I'm getting is worth the cost. ;) Thank you! :)

To the OP, what did you end up choosing to use? I'm also curious if others have used Writers In Residence and can give more info on that? Thanks! ;)

This is GREAT! Thank you, Ellie! ;) Your post confirmed my original thoughts with Saxon, that it *does* contain conceptual thinking. I've recently been looking at a few programs in the "conceptual" category, and I'm realizing that my kids are already picking up, and doing those things within their daily math lessons. Ok, so where this is coming from...I was reading in TWTM4, and it was saying that Saxon is more procedural and that those programs should/could be supplemented with something more conceptual in nature. In fact, it says that they strongly recommend you combine it with one of the recommended supplements listed in the book. Since moving everyone over to Saxon, I've noticed much more conceptual thinking vs. procedural. My kids also seem to really thrive with the incremental lessons and thorough practice of each concept. Their math understanding is growing so much. :) Thank you! ;) Eta: We are using Saxon 5/4 up through Algebra, for 4 kids right now.

Grades 3-9

In the past, my kids have used CLE with great success, and have recently made the move to using Saxon. Believe it or not, Saxon is taking *less time* than CLE, and my kids have been finding a good fit here. ;) My question comes from a desire to add a more conceptual supplement to what we're already doing each day. They say if it ain't broke, don't fix it, so I do want to keep going with Saxon, but also desire for my kids to really get what's happening in math...the conceptual side of things. Can anyone recommend a good supplement to add this, without overwhelming my kids with math each day? Eta: Fixed a typo. :)

Thank you for the replies....they are helpful. ;) Looking at Derek Owens courses, they look great, but unfortunately it isnt an option right now. Ds won't get through Pre-Calculus before testing as it'll be this spring. He's working through Algebra 2 now. It hasn't been very challenging at all for him, and he hasn't hit new material until just recently. That concerns me a bit. He's headed for a field in mechanical/engineering, and I want him to be as prepared as he can be.