I like Killgallon a lot, but I don't think it is what you are looking for. Sentence Composing is all about modeling sentences using example phrases and not about creating original sentences. I am in a similar situation with Island, and I recently decided to add in IEW to see if that would help us with more writing. I have not been doing it long enough to recommend or not recommend that approach yet.

I think that at that level there is a lot of grammar instruction and not so much writing in the Sentence Island book. (That changes at the higher levels to less grammar and more writing in the writing books.) Since Grammar Island will only take a few months, once you finish you can then spend that time on Sentence Island. I use Grammar Island and Sentence Island as grammar instruction along with a separate writing program. I like CE and the Poetry books, but my kids are not quite as enamored. You may just have to try them and see what your ds thinks.

http://themathworksheetsite.com/

I like the resources on the Friend website. (http://www.lds.org/friend?lang=eng) We spent some time going through the profiles on the One in a Million page. I also really like to use the picture scripture books. Here are a couple of sites with other ideas: http://www.milestonesacademy.com/Site/Welcome.html http://confessionsofaslackermom.com/category/preschool-curriculum/walkbesidemepreschoolcurriculum/ ETA: I forgot to add that one year we did an Article of Faith of the Week (or sometimes of the Month). It was a good way to get the kids to learn them. I think I may use the same idea with Scripture Mastery scriptures some time.

Physics 3 is completely qualitative. I have not seen any math in any of the books or in the schedule.

For Physics 3, we will use Snap Circuits and a Thames and Kosmos Physics kit. We have done Snap circuits before and really like them, but we have not gotten to the point of using the T&K kit, so I can't comment on that. You can search on the boards for information about the different kits.

We are using Noeo Physics 3. I like it a lot. I have really liked the books and having everything scheduled has been helpful for me. We have only been using it since the beginning of the school year, but so far it has been good. I also have RS4K Physics I, and Noeo goes into much more in depth.

:iagree: WWS1 is more about the narration skills. So if your dd11 can summarize, then I would try WWS first.

You might x-post this on the high school forum. Not many of the posters on this forum have high school age kids.

We love Beast, but they are not coming out with the books fast enough for us to use it as a core. We also use SM.

I just started WT2 today with dd9 and here are some of the things that factored into my decision to start with level 2. 1. She can write long stories over a week or more. 2. I think that she will be ready to start WWS1 or Homer in another year, but she is not quite there yet and WT2 is supposedly the level before Homer. (I used WWS and Homer last year with dd11, so I can see that we are getting close.) On the flip side, I have ds who is in WWE 3, but he likes to write the least amount that he can possibly get away with and WT2 would not be fun for him.

But both of us have enough younger kids that I am sure year 2 will benefit us someday.

We are using BA as a supplement to SM because the books are not being published fast enough for us to use them as a spine. I use the SM text and workbook and then BA in place of CWP/IP. That set up is working well for us right now. For the op, are you asking if your dd should learn her multiplication facts or not before starting BA? DS knew them and it didn't hinder him during the skip counting chapter and I think that may be the only chapter where it might make a difference.

We also got most of the way through it last year. DD liked it much better than anything else I offered her. I would go through the problem sets and choose the ones that she needed to do, so she certainly wasn't doing every problem. She spent about 45 minutes a day. I thought that the layout was a nice balance. The problem pages had lots of white space. The other books we tried were PH, which is extremely busy, and AoPS which is pure text, and Lial's is in between.

:lol: Thanks!

The student book is open and go. I don't own the teacher book, though, so I can't tell you what you would be missing.

We liked Lial's for pre-algebra. We didn't use the teacher's manual [is there one?], but it was nice to have the answers in the back of the book. For Lial's Algebra, you can get a student solutions manual with more detailed solutions, so you might look for that for the pre-algebra.

What level is the math in LOF Physics? I see that your DD is in MM6. Could she have done it in MM5 or is she at the right level?

They might be too young for her. I have used More Mudpies to Magnets with my preschoolers with much success. Have you considered other experiment books? My library has lots of Janice Van Cleave and kid's cooking books. Maybe those would be more age appropriate.

I did reports with dd last year. I asked her to rotate between science and history (we didn't do literature reports). I let her choose the topic, and most of the time it was about something we were studying, but sometimes it was just something that she wanted to learn about, which was also fine with me. She likes creative writing, so some weeks we took a break from the reports and she wrote a story. She worked on her reports during her independent time and had a task that had to be completed every day. Monday: decide on a topic, find resources, start taking notes Tuesday: more research, start writing Wednesday: finish first draft Thursday: editing with me Friday: typed final draft due

We used Lial's pre-algebra last year, and I think it could be fine in your situation. The explanations are good and there is review built in at the end of each chapter, so you can see where the weak points are.

My pre-order of Song School Spanish was cancelled by Christianbook this morning. I take that as a bad sign.

DD probably averaged about 30 minutes. Most weeks have an assignment that was longer than the others and she usually spread that out over 2 days.

:iagree: Except that I am not leery of asking for a sample. I will let you know how it goes.

I can't answer all of your questions, but here are a couple thoughts. I was also concerned about finding the specific books that she mentions, because I have a very small personal library. So I have this on my wish list in case I have problems. (Isn't the answer to always buy another book?) I Can Write Like That!: A Guide to Mentor Texts and Craft Studies for Writers' Workshop, K-6 As for spelling, I think that this is an area that shows she is writing the book to the K-2 group. Very emergent writers (think K) can't spell at the same level they can write, but I think that as they grow older, it is more feasible to deal with spelling and writing together. I add misspelled words from their writing to my dc's spelling lists every week, so that keeps everything together without the red pencil.