They did okay with the lesson length. There was a bit of complaining at first but not much. I think the variety of problems really helped keep it interesting for them. We broke up some of the earlier lessons to make things easier for my older ones. We still sometimes break the lessons up if they take too long. I did place them a bit behind, but we do year-round math, so I'm not too concerned. I used the first light unit to teach a few concepts that we hadn't covered. One of my kids had done most of Zeta, so it wasn't too bad. I put her in CLE 700. My other had only done half of Epsilon, but he's very math-y and had no trouble learning decimals and mult/div of fractions very quickly. In fact, he'd done quite a bit with decimals on his own through computer programming! I put him in CLE 600, but he probably would have been fine with 700--there seems to be lots of overlap between their lessons. The first light unit was a lot of struggle with teaching new concepts and adjusting to the workbooks, but the 2nd & 3rd ones went fine. Part of the struggle was the strange format of the 101 light unit! Both programs have their pros & cons for sure! I love how MUS teaches with the blocks, but I love the constant review of CLE and all the extra concepts they cover. MUS often seemed too focused on their focus topic. My younger ones struggled with telling time, fractions, and money as we hadn't covered it very much in MUS's books. Most of the geometry was unfamiliar.

We are currently going through the Physics 101 videos. It keeps everyone's attention here (ages 15 down to 4)! We are also using Physics Workshop from Thames & Kosmos.

We just switched from MUS to CLE last January! We used MUS for several years. What you are describing is one reason why we switched. I felt like some things when so slowly (long division & dividing fractions). He has an extremely incremental system. Sometimes it was painfully slow. It was great for my struggling DD, but so is the constant review of CLE. I finally gave in halfway through dividing fractions and told her just to flip & multiply. He spent several weeks with a long drawn out method before teaching the standard method. I get that he wanted to make sure they understood the "why", but my DD was already behind where she should have been. I just wanted her to know how to do them at that point. When we did division, I had to cut the problems way down for one of my kids. She often did only 1-2 problems in a day!

We have to do this for grammar! I get so lost flipping back and forth between the answer key and workbook. It's so much faster! I try to grade as they finish. Usually they don't finish all at the same time, so it works out great. The only time it doesn't work is if I'm helping one with their work or they take forever and we need to move on. We use CLE math.

I remember reading somewhere (maybe on one of the "Sabbath Schooling" blog posts) that they would use their off week to fit in fun projects and extras. I could see this working well for younger ages. My older kids all have their own projects they want to work on during our breaks, but my younger ones could certainly use more direction to keep out of trouble.

Have you looked at Timberdoodle for ideas? I picked up the Robotis Pets set and my younger ones really enjoy it! They have some really fun hand-on kits and art sets that he might enjoy. I plan on using some items from here for my younger ones to do after their schoolwork is completed. Right now they want to get on the computer when they finish early. For math, Simply Charlotte Mason's Mathematics DVD & book sound like what you are wanting. They do mostly oral problems and the book gives you a scope and sequence to follow. They use Rays & Strayer Upton. Or they have a new more "open & go" book, but I'm not sure what grades it covers. Have you considered Writing With Ease? It focuses on oral narration, copywork, and dictation. We love this program! I started my 2nd grader with Book 2, but I think either book 1 or 2 would be appropriate. First Language Lessons also has lots of recitation and oral work. For science, what about just picking up some hands-on science kits and adding library books? We love the ones from Stratton House for elementary ages. The Magic School Bus ones are pretty good too. We are using Elemental Science for the Grammar Stage next year and it includes experiments, as well as copywork or narration for their notebook pages. They have a couple different elementary programs, but I think they all include copywork or narration.

We did it several years ago and I keep meaning to pull it out for my younger kids--those science detective pages were so fun! It's funny how homeschool curriclum falls in and out of fashion. I also think you should go for it! We still talk about many of those lessons (4 or 5 years later), so they definitely stuck with them.

We are actually using Biblioplan with SOTW as our main spine. I have ages 15 to 4, and I wanted to keep us all somewhat on the same page, but needed more of a challenge for my oldest. She listens to SOTW since she's never listened to volume 3 before, but adds Bibliplan's Companion textbook to her readings. We generally have 3 days per week of history. Here is our general lesson format: listen to SOTW (read by Jim Weiss or me), AG coloring page if they want, they usually do discussion questions, we usually skip narrations complete map from AG If we have time, family read aloud or independent reading (we use the BP booklist because it has booklists for my older kids too)--We have another family read aloud before bed, often from our history time period my oldest reads the BP Companion textbook, sometimes I read aloud a section to the younger kids or show them a few pictures from it--we also use google images for anything that needs more of a visual (Great Wall of China, Stockades, weaponry, etc. I often consider doing a project, but we rarely (almost never) get to these, I also am terrible about getting to our timeline or Book of Centuries Some days we watch a video instead (Drive Through History, History channel or PBS videos, historic movies, etc.) If we have no SOTW reading that day, we just read from BP's independent book list, watch a video, or continue our family read aloud. We are currently working on Johnny Tremain and Amos Fortune. We just finished Where the Mountain Meets the Moon--I try to find something that appeals to a wide age range. I hate projects or anything too fiddly so we don't do many of them. We don't currently do tests for history, but we are working on incorporating BP's Cool History books and discussion guides. We've only been using BP for the past month or two so I'm still figuring out how to best incorporate their extras for each of my kids.

Having homeschooled just over 10 years, I voted that we've changed quite a bit. We seem to be on a continuous pendulum between Charlotte Mason and classical for the most part. We went with a 100% CM curriculum this past year, and mid-year my kids were miserable with most of our books. It occurred to me that our most successful homeschool experiences have been through classical curricula (or CM/Classical hybrid programs like ELTL). So for term 3, we completely swung to the other end of the pendulum and are all much happier!

Family Math & Family Math: The Middle School Years Everything You Need to Ace Math in One Big Fat Notebook

We just started GftWTM. I think we're on week 3. I'm actually not sure how much we're spending, but I'd guess it might be close to that. My kids are in the "jr high humor" stage of their development, so everything turns into a joke. We could probably finish much earlier if they were a bit more serious. However, a little humor does brighten our lessons. lol I'd ask how much time do you want to spend on grammar? I think the book covers everything grammar related! I'll be okay if we don't get through one workbook each year. If you want to spend 20 minutes on grammar, stop after 20 minutes. My experience with homeschooling is that it's better to get to something daily for a short amount of time than to keep putting a lesson off, because you can't devote __ minutes to finishing the lesson. We've actually progressed faster in books after cutting back on the lesson length!

Those look amazing! The MUS fraction overlays have really gone up in price since we got ours! I see no reason why those wouldn't work. In fact, I think these look better than the MUS ones.

I did stained glass votive candles for a co-op. Cheap votive candle holders & battery tea lights from Walmart. They used tissue paper & glue to make their own design. It was a hit with the kids & moms. My kids loved making cardboard box castles. The kids could bring their own boxes, so it would be essentially a free project.

And now we are going to use Timberdoodle Pre-K because shiny new curriculum. I'm hoping to still use some of the things on my previous curriculum list or save some of them for K. We'll be using AAR pre-1 and holding off on OPGTR until K, unless I really like AAR and choose to continue with it.

At this time I don't see my oldest going to college. However, I am encouraging her to at least go to the local CC. I am choosing a lighter course load for science & math, but I do want it to look good on paper. So we are making sure to cover biology, chemistry, math through algebra II, etc., but we are using publishers like Power Basics or Pacworks that are a bit lighter for some of these subjects. She is my artsy child and will likely focus on arts or humanities if (when) ;) she gets a degree. My next oldest will likely go into a STEM field, so I plan on choosing different science books and getting him a bit farther down the math road.

5-10 minutes a day worked for my kids. We did ETC ABC books. After they were finished, we spent a week (more or less) on blending using a white board or letter tiles. Finally, we added McGuffey readers (one lesson per day). At some point we added in books like Frog & Toad for variety. It's super simple and was effective for my kids.

We have used SCM (Egypt, Middle Ages, & Early Modern guides). We currently use Biblioplan. One issue I had with SCM is that I wanted more in depth for my high school student. We enjoyed Stories of America/the Nations, but we wanted more stories and more depth. With BP, my younger ones (7th & under) use SOTW for their spine and my oldest is going through the BP Companion. It's been a good amount of reading for their ages. We've really enjoyed the recommended books and there is tons to pick from (which could be overwhelming for some). One thing we've done is separate out the ancient history. We are doing a multiple stranded history approach. So we have Biblical history, ancient history, and modern history spread out over a 4 year cycle. A Delectable Education has some information on one way to do this. We love our history broken up into multiple categories! Here is what we are currently doing: Bible (evening devotion time): We are reading through the Bible. We are up to Romans, and I'm not sure what we'll do after this. We may just start back over or we may find a Bible program to use. Ancient History (this is scheduled as part of our daily literature time): 2nd & 5th grader are using MP's D'Aulaire's Greek Myths book & guide and my 7th & 9th graders are reading MP's The Story of the Ancient Greeks and will follow that with the Iliad & the Odyssey. We are loving these books! We plan on continuing with MP's Classical Studies books for ancient history. Modern History (3 days per week): I plan to use BP Year 2-4 over four years. That gives us an extra year for more readings, videos, and projects when we are interested in a topic. I hope this gives you some ideas!

We also have a read aloud at bedtime. I read for about 15-20 minutes from a chapter book then we read a chapter of the Bible (on Sundays we read a different Christian book like Trial & Triumph or Missionary Stories with the Millers). We read another book in the afternoons, usually based on our historic period. One day per week we read or listen to Shakespeare (Arkangel cds). We tend to spend our mornings on 3Rs, but we often throw in a poem at some point.

We are just finishing Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and it's fantastic! There are pictures and smaller stories within the story.

I have a couple friends doing Jacobs Algebra & Geometry together based on recommendations from Richele Baburina (author of the SCM Mathematics book). They haven't mentioned any issues, but I'll have to ask them. I'm wondering if Jacob's was specifically chosen because they worked together okay. I just noticed Shoremann Math covers a half credit of geometry alongside Algebra and the remaining half credit alongside Algebra II--I'm thinking I like this arrangement better anyway for her situation! I feel like my DD would benefit from having two streams of math going. I also like the idea of jumping into Algebra II right after Algebra I, so she doesn't have a year to forget things. Either way, it will probably best to get a head start on Algebra first!

We are just getting going with this program, but I remember just reading that diagramming can be a bit subjective. I was wondering what that meant...now I think I have some idea! lol

10th grade Math: Jacob's Algebra & Geometry--I think we'll be doing these side-by-side. Math is not her best subject, but I'm hoping we can get through Algebra II before graduation. English: WWS 2, GftWTM, assigned books for literature, Harp & Laurel Wreath for poetry, we also do 3 Shakespeare plays and 2 Plutarch Lives as a family each year. History: Biblioplan Year 4 Science: Pacworks Biology with Biology 101 DVDs and various science experiments The Art of Argument Power Basics American Government MP's Book of the Ancient Greeks/Iliad/Odyssey Artistic Pursuits Book 1 and hopefully some local art classes, she does lots of digital art, painting, and sketching on her own. First Form Latin or Henle--I keep going back and forth on this. FFL would be easier for me to keep up with since my younger ones are doing it, but she's only got a few years left. Rosetta Stone Spanish

My high schooler said she likes it, which is always great! The different blocks of color bothered me at first, but I’m getting used to them, and the color coding is handy. Overall, I think we are pretty happy with it.

Compass Drawing is a fun book.

I learned a lot of grammar from ELTL (as did my kids)! I'd definitely consider it a full grammar program. They read whole books, but we had hard time keeping up with them, so I'd say it's optional. They really just pull sentences from them for diagramming. The writing assignments are based on short folk tales.