This is what I use to teach my kids to draw all the countries in the world and the 50 states. I recommend it to all my friends who do Challenge A. It is a very simplified way of drawing the countries/continents, and for Challenge A I think it would take about 15 minutes per day at the most. http://map-of-the-whole-world.weebly.com You can try something for free (I don't know what they have as their free download right now), and you can buy the whole program (PDF's) for $14.99. It has been a great program. I did it together with my eldest, and now we both can draw the whole world.

p.s. Burning Cargo is a very fun free typing game. My daughter and I played it tonight. Thanks for the rec!

My 7th grader used to know how to type, but I just realized that she has forgotten because she went back to hunt-and-peck without me noticing. So don't feel so bad. LOL

I check out audio CDs from my library. They have a fairly good collection.

This week my eldest started B&M high school (which was our original long-team plan), and it has made me exceedingly thankful that we homeschooled him through middle school. Yes, I am glad he was sheltered from some of the social aspects, but I am mostly grateful because of the academics. I see that he has gotten a better foundation than his peers in grammar, writing, math, history, science, and public speaking. Our "good" local middle school wouldn't have prepared him well at all. I haven't read all of your posts about this, but choosing homeschool so that you can provide better academic instruction is a solid reason to overrule your child's wishes. He can't see the future that way you can and know how important a good education is for his life.

I would recommend that your children be at grade level with R&S English for the grammar component. As for your writing question, that is a more complicated topic.

The IEW book is my favorite.

Ditto above. I think IEW-SWI B would be a good fit.

If your son is only thirteen, then I would not spend time and money on any kind of therapy yet. Many kids are not ready to understand algebra at that age. For the next year I would spend time drilling and solidifying arithmetic and perhaps working through some pre-algebra.

How old is your son?

I would recommend the BJU Science grade 6 with the DLO (distance learning online). Don't get put off that it is "only" a 6th grade course. It is a high-level, in-depth basic overview of general science. It is well-taught, and if your daughter studies and takes the tests, it would provide her with a solid science foundation for high school.

My kids did Horizons math through grade 6 which prepared them exceedingly well in arithmetic. If you are interested in testing arithmetic skills, you could use the Horizons 6 quarter tests and the final exam. That should cover all essential arithmetic. I don't have it with me at the moment, but I think the Horizons TM has these test masters as well as the answer keys for them.

My favorites: Mystery Science through 5th grade. The videos are engaging, well-taught, and creative. The activities are simple yet very effective at teaching concepts. My youngest child not only enjoys the program but has also discovered an interest in science. This is something I never managed to accomplish for any of my children when I was trying to teach them this subject, even though I have an advanced degree in a science field. BJU 6th, 7th, and 8th grades (using distance learning online). BJU middle school science online instructors are excellent. These courses have helped my kids learn how to read a science textbook, take notes, and study for difficult exams. They have provided excellent preparation for high school. High school science will be taken at our local high school.

That is why we switched to Mystery Science. Feel free to join the Post-BFSU Club!

I had my kids do a Notgrass history program last year. I don't know what they have for 4th grade, but the middle school program was completely open and go.

Mystery Science is very easy to implement. My 4th grader did it almost independently last year, but she is an independent sort of kid who can print out her own worksheets and plan the order of how she wanted to complete the lessons. All I did was help her find some materials for the experiments once per week. Mystery Science is a great program for 4th grade. I can't say enough good things about it.

I bought many lessons from Mr. Raymond's civics academy. He has a YouTube channel with civics and social studies lessons which have corresponding materials for sale on TPT. I was able to put a good 8th grade civics semester course together using these materials.

Word Wealth Jr: There are usually twelve new words in each "unit." Each unit has a theme with related words. There is a short introduction activity to try to match the new words with a description. Next each word is defined using several synonyms and example sentences with the new word in context. Next are two or three sets of practice exercises. One exercise is to copy the new word and write the appropriate definition of that word considering how it is used in the sentence. Sometimes an exercise is a story with blanks to fill in with the new words. The student does the exercises on a separate piece of paper. A spelling unit is mixed in every few units. I thought the book was our best resource for vocabulary because of the excellent word lists and because I was forced to discuss it all with my child. Since there is no answer key or teacher's manual (at least I couldn't find one), my child and I figured out the answers together. This lead to a lot more talking and use of the new words in sentences, which is the best way to learn new vocabulary.

Re: medical school in the Caribbean The students who go to medical school in the Caribbean do so because they didn't get in anywhere in the US. The quality of the education is lower, and everyone knows it. This causes them to have a more difficult time passing required board exams. This also affects where they will be accepted into residency, which determines what kind of doctor they can be. Their choices of residencies will be severely limited because they attended medical school in the Caribbean.

I was frustrated because my 7th grader understood grammar very well and could do the R&S excerices, but he was continually making grammar errors in his compositions. I always pointed them out and made him correct them, but he still kept doing the same things wrong. He had even been doing Fix It for about three years, but that hadn't helped at all. For 8th grade, I quit Fix It and added in Daily Paragraph Editing. I think this workbook greatly helped my son to finally apply a lot of his grammar knowledge to his own writing. There was something about correcting someone else's paragraphs that made things stick for him. It was quick and mostly painless, and it really helped! ...or else maybe he just turned 14 and his mushy brain began to get smarter. LOL

I generally agree with the negatives you listed. However, most people who do CC don't experience much of that. I was part of a group of four years and used only the segments that I needed to fill in my curriculum goals. It was wonderful and worth every pemny. So even though the corporate policies may be bad, many of the local groups function well and are a good benefit to their communities.

If you are buying paint, then you should also get paper for art projects. I like the thick watercolor paper which I buy from Michael's or another art store.

I do Word Wealth, Jr. (out of print/oldish book) over 6th, 7th,and 8th grades. We recently finished it with my eldest who just completed 8th grade. It had been my favorite vocabulary resource.

Haha. That was really funny that your sentence had a coma it. The rule is that you always put a comma in that situation when there is a [city, country,] or else [city, state,] in the middle of the sentence. I don't know the reason for it, but we learned that in R&S English.

I like the ideas others have already shared. Personally I don't do Bible study or devotionals as part of school because I don't want my kids to think of these in the same way that they think of school. There are certain aspects and subjects of school that my kids dislike, and I don't want God and His Word to be lumped into those negative feelings. Therefore our time in the Word and prayer have always been separate from our school time. One aspect that I don't think has been mentioned is helping your kids develop a heart for the lost. Teaching them how to share the good news with others is an important part of discipleship. Various ways to accomplish this exist, but you should include basic instruction on how to share the gospel as well as opportunities to have real life conversations with individuals who don't know God.