It certainly can feel overwhelming, we've all been there. ((Hugs)) As for common core, no worries. I homeschooled my children through elementary school. They both went to public school beginning junior high years, and I was concerned because I had not followed the public school scope & sequence at all. To my pleasant surprise, they not only met the standards, but surpassed their peers without issue. My daughter is now in high school in honors classes. My son will be in eighth grade, but he has asked to return to homeschooling permanently. Like you, I felt a little overwhelmed. We are coming up on high school quickly & this is all new territory for me. Before choosing any curriculum, the place I started was with looking at the big picture. Why are we homeschooling? For us, my son has lost his zest for learning and is not happy at school (not to mention, he is learning bad habits). So before I even looked at curriculum, I knew that we needed something he would enjoy learning with. My son is an avid reader, it's his absolute favorite pass-time. Therefore, I knew a curriculum heavy on reading was important. However, he doesn't love textbooks, so I wanted something that would require great literature (or "living books" that bring the subject to life). My son struggles in math, it's his worst subject. Likewise, it is the subject we argued about most during homework time. Therefore, I knew I wanted a lot of hand holding in this area & our curriculum choice reflects that. I agree with the previous posters that said focus on the 3 R's. I would take a little extra time & look over the various styles of homeschooling though (Sonya Shafer from Simply Charlotte Mason has a great video on youtube called the "Five Flavors of Homeschooling". In fact, all of her videos are amazing). I've found, every curriculum is influenced by a style & knowing the different methods will help you understand what you are actually buying. The worst curriculum choice is the one that doesn't get used or ensues panic or tears. This next year, my sole focus is to foster a love for learning and to develop good character in my son. With that in mind, it will continuously guide how we learn and what curriculum we use. No worries. It will all work out. Have fun together & enjoy this next school year with your son! :)

I have spent hours looking over this curriculum. It's really lovely! Thank you for sharing it. I ordered the level 7 LA for my son just now & Im considering Year 2 History as well. This is totally and completely not at all what I was planning, but it looks so good! I wasn't even tweaking anything in my mind while reading it!

Scroll down to Level 7-9 (this is for history Year 1) http://www.jennyphillips.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Student-Explorers_Samples_Year-1.pdf Here's Level 7 for Language Arts: http://www.jennyphillips.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SAMPLE-PAGES_Level-7-Course-book.pdf Does anyone know when History Year 2 comes out if you can start there instead if Year 1? Does it matter if you go out of sequence?

I really hesitated to answer because I'm by no means an expert. But I will gladly share with you what worked well with my children. I hope it helps you. In lieu of a curriculum, we simply use a method. To teach a sentence, we focus on turning a simple, boring sentence into something better. This is very similar to where we start: http://mrshuffsstuff.blogspot.com/2011/03/turning-boring-sentence-into-exciting.html?m=1 I would write several simple sentences & have my children rewrite them a few times, not repeating any words used previously. Each child had a writing folder & at the front we kept a list of adjectives, verbs, adverbs etc. that they could reference. We specifically liked this: http://www.herne.hants.sch.uk/_site/data/files/documents/60D1192E662EA002E78E5B74A5C530BA.pdf Now this method doesn't work with every style of writing, but it will certainly benefit the beginning writer. Once the sentence was mastered, we moved onto a very basic introductory paragraph. I'd usually ask them to write about something simple in the beginning, just to make it easier. So, for example, I might ask, who is your favorite person? We would number the page 1-5 1) Answer the question 2) reason 1 3) reason 2 4) reason 3 5) restate your answer So, it may look like this 1) My mom is my favorite person. 2) She is nice. 3) She takes care of me. 4) She is funny. 5) My mom is great. Now, those sentences put together create a paragraph. However, we would turn those simple sentences into great sentences before writing it all out in paragraph form. My children would stay at this stage until they could easily write a paragraph on just about anything (books they read, historical events or people, etc). To go from a paragraph to a five paragraph paper, we simply added to our method. So looking at the very simple example above, it becomes: A) Introduction 1) My mom is my favorite person. 2) She is nice. 3) She takes care of me. 4) She is funny. 5) My mom is great. B) Paragraph 1 1) My mom is nice 2) Example 3) Elaborate 4) Example 5) Elaborate C) Paragraph 2 1) She takes care of me 2) Example 3) Elaborate 4) Example 5) Elaborate D) Paragraph 3 1) My mom is funny 2) Example 3) Elaborate 4) Example 5) Elaborate E) Closing Paragraph. 1) Just a couple of lines restating that your mom is your favorite person Anyway, this is all very basic. And this post is now very long :-) Once you've mastered the above, I'd recommend Seven Sister's Homeschool ebooks for middle school students on writing. They're cheap & self explanatory. Here's a link to the essay one: http://7sistershomeschool.com/products-page/writing-3/middle-school-guide-to-essay-writing/ My kids are 15 & 13 and both learned this method & write quite well. It served as a nice beginning point for us. Hope this helps you!

When my kids were younger we used all of the Christian Liberty Press nature readers & owned most of the "Lets Read & Find Out About" books. That was our science spine for elementary, and we would add library books and magic school bus videos, nature walks and journaling, etc

Thank you!!! I really appreciate your insight!

Thank you! Do you have any expectations (like compare and contrast, expository, etc) or use a rubric of sorts? I was thinking an essay or two throughout the month based on the people or events we are studying. Does that sound reasonable?

Next year I'm really leaning toward no writing curriculum. I was considering EIW, but I really think treating it as a separate subject will just add more work than is needed. My son is 13 & will be in 8th grade. He writes decent, and I'd like to use history as our main subject for his writing. I'm creating our own American history with living books & we will add map work, geography, projects, a time line, videos, and writing. Having said all this, I've not actually tried this though -- it's all an idea still just rolling around in my head. So I'm curious, if you do this already, what it looks like in your day to day? How often does your child write? Do you only ask for narrations or do you focus on different writing styles? If there is an existing thread on this topic or a blog you'd like to link, that's great too! I didn't see anything when I searched. I've been reading all day & still can't find a good peek into how this would look as far as assignments and expectations. Thank you!

I would let her write with no corrections. However, I would keep track of misspelled words for future spelling lessons.

My son will be returning to homeschooling after being in public school. Here's our plan: History - Creating our own LA - Good & The Beautiful Level 7 Math- Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra Science- Apologia General Science, one day with co-op & other days at home Extra Curricular - Monday - co-op (Science, Bible, Drama, Study Hall) •Electric Guitar, weekly lesson & daily practice

"It's Recorder Time" by Alfred D'Auberge was our favorite. Very easy to understand & by the end of the book you're able to play "The First Noel". I used it when my children were elementary aged.

When my daughter was little we used Happy Phonics alongside Explode the Code. Happy Phonics is learning phonics through playing games. ETA - it's available in PDF

Thank you, Sweatpea3829. I love this idea too! I appreciate you sharing!

That is helpful, thank you! I like your idea of creating your own program. I want to incorporate literary analysis, but I'm not sure that I want it to be 5 days a week... Just something that is fairly painless but reviews literary terms and comprehension. EIL is kind of pricey so I'm not sure which route to go. I appreciate your reply. Amy

I didn't look. They said all experiment stuff is either in the home or at the grocery store, so I figure I'll just get it as needed. Lessons are 2x week so I've got the other days as a cushion to run to the store if need be :-)

Maybe Christian Kids Explore series? https://www.brightideaspress.com/product-category/science/ The curriculum is about $30 right now at CBD and you can see sample pages. It includes experiments and it's fairly open and go. The reviews for it our good, but I've not personally used it. However, I bought the Chemistry book for my son, and plan to use it next year along with the resource CD that's included and adding in topical books and films.

For common core, I would not use a curriculum but rather teach the PEEL method. Every paragraph has: P- point you are trying to make E- examples that support your point EL - elaborate (some schools call this expand and link) I would google 1st grade writing prompts & start off with one sentence answers, building over the next year to PEEL. This method is used here (in FL) from elementary through high school, becoming more complex with each grade. However, the premise on which every paragraph is built remains the same. This isn't my preferred method, but definitely falls in line with common core standards.

If you have used (or plan to use) both Essential in Writing, as well as Essentials in Literature, how did you schedule these two? Both daily? Rotate? Did you finish both within the school year? My son is 13 and will be in grade 8. I'm just trying to figure out what will work best for utilizing both & still complete each within the school year. Thanks for any help!! Amy

Oh, and it's computer based (CD-rom) so the child can do it independently. There are four levels, reading cards, and 4 books that go along. I left that out, sorry.

Master Reader (by hooked on phonics) focuses on syllabication in long words. It's really excellent. It sounds like she needs help sounding out words correctly & master reader solely focuses on that. The program already assumes your child can read fairly well.

https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/77421/ http://www.sploder.com/ And there is a website that offers gaming/programming classes. It looks awesome, but it isn't free. I can link it if interested... I just looked it up, it's youthdigital.com - my 12 year old is saving his money now for this

When my kids were little we liked Making Math Meaningful (cornerstone). I found it gentle and would be perfect for a struggling student. We also liked CLE.

My son is also previously homeschooled and entering 7th grade. We are thinking about returning to homeschool but are undecided, so I've been poking around looking for curricula ideas for 7th grade. My son's public school math coincides exactly with Khan Academy. It was a huge supplement with his homework assignments in 6th grade. So that's what I'd use as summer review. My daughter is entering 9th grade & is in honors math. Her teacher also used Khan Academy frequently to reinforce common core. Hope this helps.

Thank you!

My son is entering the 7th grade. We homeschooled previously, but he has been in public school the past two years. We are thinking about brining him home again. Would love to see what others have planned, (or if there is an existing thread feel free to link me). Thanks!