I don't think that you can take stock in everything that is written on these boards. I want to give you two examples of what I mean just to help you to understand. To start, I have been on the Well Trained Mind board for years. I began homeschooling in 2001 and I believe Susan Wise Bauer came to my state's convention the following year. I remember when I started to use Singapore Math, the big complaint was that the problems were not enough. It does not provide enough drill, etc. People could see it was a good math program, but still complained that it would not help their child along in math. My sons have always scored very high on their standardize test using Singapore. Next, people have complained on these boards about Math-U-See. Yet, I know a child who got accepted into an excellent technological university and all she ever used was Math-U-See. She scored very high on the math part of her SATs and she is going to a good university. There will always be complaints and complements about curricula. I think that you have to assess how your own child takes in information and determine if that program is right for your child based upon how it teaches the information. I always believed that homeschooling is about teaching to suit your child's needs (learning style) not going with what people are saying. Please understand, it does help to read what other people are using, but if a curriculum is meeting your child's needs don't second guess yourself because it did not meet other people's needs. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I wanted to suggest Daily Grams. It does punctuation, capitalization, etc. Every day for a few minutes. Maybe that's all he needs! Just a thought for next year! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I wondered what was wrong with Rod and Staff. I mean, I have to admit that I just love the way it covers a topic in its entirety. If the topic it verbs, it tells every way a verb is used. You do not have to do the writing part. A lot of people on these boards use something else and skip the writing part. I like it because I think it does a very good job of explaining the parts of a paragraph. What R&S did you do? My older son stepped into Rod and Staff 6. I never did R&S prior to 6. The reason I ask is you stated that it had a lot of busywork. I did not find that with 6,7, and 8. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I have an 8th grader right now. He is currently doing Exploring Creation with Physical Science. It has been a challenge in some areas and it has been a joy in others. Last year in 7th grade, he did General Science. It was very easy. We thought that all the Apologia books would be this good, but we were wrong because this year has been so hard. I am incredibly nervous about next year with Biology. I am shaking in my boots, literally. I have no idea because in the past I have used different programs for science. I have used Apologia, Christian Liberty Nature Readers, How and Why of Science, Sonlight science, nature studies, etc. I have even allowed my children to study their own topic on science. My sons have studied technology and science through FIRST Lego League robotics competition. I feel that if they picked up a text book now, they would understand just as much as if they had the hands on. So, personally, I think that whichever you choose it will enhance what your child does for next year. Oh, one odd thing, in Exploring Creation through Physical Science, he spends a lot of time on the weather. I mean more than half the book is about the weather. The last 4 or 5 chapters are actually devoted to physics. It's weird. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen

It says on the website that the product, Write 4 Today, is a discontinued item. It says that the product is unavailable. I am confused. I wanted to see what is all about, but it does say it is being discontinued. Did I miss read something in your post?:confused: Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I have a weekly report up. My children have been suffering greatly with the flu. I hope everyone can read my story of what happened to us! My blog is: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony Thank you to all who read! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I beg to differ here. I feel that Story of the World is geography. I know one of the activities is a map exercise. My children have done all four books. This is how they learned geography and how the political lines were developed. For the first four years of my sons education, we used Story of the World as our main spine for geography. It worked out perfectly. I mean how can you learn about a country and not identify where it is on a map. I never even knew where New Zealand was until I was 19 years old. My sons know where it is and the names and locations of towns and cities in New Zealand. Just my experience! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

yes, I did use a reading program for my children. My older son did learn how to read by 4 years old on his own, but I feel that teaching my child phonics help a lot with spelling. My children won the spelling bee when they were little without a spelling curriculum because I taught them phonics. For example, my younger son was taught that the "tion" makes the "shun" sound. So, at the spelling bee, when he was in first grade, he got the word "mentioned." He heard the word he sounded it out and figured the "men" in "mentioned." Then he remembered the sound "shun" is "tion." So, he breezed through the word and spelled it correctly. I like the idea of teaching phonics to help with spelling because what you hear is not always how it is spelled. So, I would teach phonics because I think it is the best way of teaching a child how to spell. It is better than spelling rules. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

People may think that I am crazy, but I try to complete every single page in the book. I usually finish by the end of May, but I take no breaks except for Easter and Christmas and if they are sick. Our summer consists of reading books and math. I have once or twice had to go past May, but in general, I try to get it done. By the way, I calculated that at the rate my son is going we will not finish reading SOTW by the end of May. So, I have decided to double up on some readings during the Easter break and the week after music is finished. We can concentrate more and that will get us to the end of May. We are almost done with math and grammar.:) Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen

Right now, my older son does Progamming C on it. So, I would think that is next. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I used an incredibly horrible phonics program with my two sons. I cannot and would not recommend it to anyone. No one knows it or has heard of it. It just is not worth mentioning. I picked other. If I could do it over again, I would do Samuel Blumfeld's book, Alpha-phonics. Blessings in your homeschooling journey. Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

That's the whole premise of the program is to teach a child how to write well based upon a good model. You will see your child will start to write like that because that is what they know. I knew the author well. I met her when we were at the same co-op together. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Mine's up! You can read about it here. Thank you everyone! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Just to tell you, my son finished Essay Voyage by December of this school year. It went by very quickly for him and I needed for him to do some writing so we added Elegant Essay to the mix. Essay Voyage focused on writing well based upon correctness, structure, unity, formality, wordiness, content, quotation, conclusion, meaning, and finish. He talks about how to punctuate, have good vocabulary, and excellent structure. He uses great pieces of literature for the child to read and then we analyze it for how it is a good essay. We would fix bugs (or errors) in paragraphs in each chapter. We ended the book by December. It is a strong program. However, I see Elegant Essay as a different style of teaching essay. Some of the lessons are similar to Essay Voyage, but some of it is a little more specific than Essay Voyage. I feel that Elegant Essay is slowly putting together the essay for you. You have to write some thesis statements and supporting paragraphs. Each chapter focuses on a different step in writing the essay. It is more practical and hands on, which seems to be the style of IEW. Overall I would say that the two tackle essay writing different ways, but with the same ends. I would compare them to different math programs. Essay Voyage is the mastery approach as oppose to Elegant Essay would be the incremental approach. I feel that Essay Voyage talks about essay writing in general using rich literature sampling to support his topic, but Elegant Essay offers more practical work. I hope that makes sense. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

If you have WWE 1, is there a difficulty with it? I have seen such rave reviews about it. Is it not a good fit for your children? I ask because you did ask for a program that fits well with kids. Second, a writing program that I would strongly recommend is Writing Tales. It is a simple yet fun program. I did that curriculum both 1 &2 with both my sons. It brought out the best in them and they enjoy writing because of it. It teaches the child summarization one week and their own creative touch the second week. They learn a little bit of grammar and application right away. The first one gets the child going and the second one makes them soar! The most important thing is it is extremely user friendly. The creator of the program offers lots of grammar games to go with the book in the teacher's manual. It is wonderful. You just won't be disappointed with it. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Just to comment on the bold, physical science is physics. Learning about about weather, one learns chemistry and physics. Isn't there a chemical reaction when lightning strikes the earth? I thought it was due to negative and positive charges. Also, aren't different rocks on the periodic table of elements? I am looking through the Handbook of Nature. That's the book that I use and Handbook of Nature website. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

A child with ADD would do perfect with a nature study as a science. The child can go out and explore their world and then they can draw pictures of it. Going on a nature walk is an excellent way to learn science. If you need help with that her is a wonderful blog: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ It is by Barb-At-Harmony. She will get you started. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I know that it is late in the evening. If you see this reply, I just wanted to tell you that anything can be found on the web for free. I love an old fashioned education: http://oldfashionededucation.com/ That's the website. Hope that helps! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

:iagree: with GrammarLand. You can google this book and do it with your child. My younger son struggle with grammar also. It is the next step in school with him. Whenever we come to a milestone with one thing, there is something else to make us stumble. Lately it has been grammar. We are doing KISS grammar for now and seeing how it will go. I do love the flow of a story; however, if you do Charlotte Mason at all, she does not agree with teaching children concepts in a story format. I love those the cute titles for the parts of speeches and stuff. My younger son always asked to hear the story. Personally, grammar is a very difficult concept to learn. I feel that math is much more concrete than grammar. It is tough to touch and feel a dangling participle. :) I was looking at Easy Grammar the other day. I tell you it is very simple. I like that. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

This is the first time that I am hearing about a zillion repetitions from Life of Fred Algebra. I am currently using Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. My older son finished Saxon Algebra 1 last month and has been doing Life of Fred this month. I did last year Pre-Algebra Biology and was so impressed with this program and how he correlated Biology with math. I am loving Life of Fred and I can't get enough of it. I might just purchase the zillion repetitions just for the fun of it. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I had my 8th grader do Essay Voyage this year. I like how he explains how you should write and essay. We did finish it early and now we are doing Elegant Essay. Definitely, I feel that Essay Voyage is more appropriate for an 8th grader. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I wrote it a little different, but you can read about it at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony We had a crazy week because there were people in my house all week. Blessings to all who read! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Why not teach your child how to read a newspaper and in doing so teach world history that way? I would start by using National Geographic. I tell you I have learned a lot of world history from that magazine. So, your child can learn current events and world history from periodicals, etc. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

OO, thanks! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Have you heard of Kronos? or Biblioplan? I'm not 100% certain of what you are looking for, but I thought of those two programs when you ask. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony