Has anyone taken a French class online with Carole Adkins through Aim? I'm considering her French I class for next year, but I would love to hear some feedback on her class before signing up.

I finally found both Spelling Plus and Natural Speller at a used curriculum sale, but in the end I didn't use either one of them! My youngest dd seemed to need something more, so I put her in AAS. My 6th grade ds asked if we could move on from spelling and just correct his spelling errors as we find them. If you want to take a word list approach to spelling, I do think that both resources look very good!

I've used K12' s Human Odyssey series for the middle school years. Very engaging texts that my kids enjoyed. The 3 volumes will take you through the entire history rotation, but we also add in Hakim' s Story of US so American history is covered as well.

:lurk5:

Another vote for Writing and Rhetoric. I'm even considering taking my 6th grader through Book 3. Although he may find it a bit easy, its approach to writing is pretty incredible. My 3rd grade dd is wrapping up Book 1, and we are both in love with it!

I agree - take a look at the Fable book. I used it with my 3rd grade dd this year and it is by far my favorite elementary writing curriculum. I've used WWE and IEW with my older dc, but I SO wish the CAP program had been around for them. It takes the positive aspects of those programs and combines them with creative, fun exercises to build a very solid foundation for writing. Love it!!!

Thanks!

I would go with SSL for next year. My 3rd grade dd loves, loves, loves the program. I had attempted PL and LC1 with my oldest dd when she was in 3rd and it was a total bust. My younger dd regards SSL as her favorite school subject. After SSL2 you can then move on to LFC, LL, or LC. In the meantime, SSL gives your kids a fun intro to Latin!

We will start with the Island level. I've had kids in all levels through Magic Lens, and the levels really build nicely on one another. By far the Town level is my favorite, but I think she would benefit from going through Island first even if it may be a bit easy for her. We were never able to really get into the MCT poetry books, so I stick with the grammar, vocab, and writing books (although we do not do the writing assignments, I like the kids understanding his approach to writing).

We are using FLL 3 with Fable this year which seems to work well. My plan is to move into FLL4 next year while we do the Narrative books followed by MCT.

This has been my experience as well with W&R and SSL. You could get by without the teacher book for W&R, but I appreciate having sample essays to refer to when doing the writing exercises with my dd.

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting to take a look at Book 3 of CAP's Writing and Rhetoric series. The sample is up and the release date is April 22nd! :hurray: http://classicalacademicpress.com/writing-rhetoric-book-3-narrative-ii/#.Uzx1RMe63sU

You can buy it through Kolbe Academy - they only sell the teacher's manuals with answer keys to registered families, but I haven't found a need to have the teacher's manual anyway.

I agree - we are plowing through Elegant Essay right now and finding it a real mess to teach. I'm not entirely confident that it will truly benefit her in the end, so my plan is to move into Lively Art of Writing next year.

I love Vocabulary Workshop - the exercises are terrific and the kids' retention is great! We've also used Caesar's English, English from the Roots Up, and Vocabulary Cartoons at various points in the past. Really liked all of them. The only programs we've tried and didn't care for were Wordly Wise (not exactly sure why my dd detested it so much) and Vocabulary Vine (the kids preferred English from the Roots Up instead). Honestly, I can say that one of the biggest influences on my kids use of more "sophisticated" language is my own use of it. The more I incorporate higher level vocabulary into my own conversations with them, but the more likely I am to hear those same words being used in their writing and conversations.

I think your dd's plan of weather/animals/human body work fine together. Maybe some habitat study with climate would mesh well with the animals and weather? This is the first year that I strayed from the WTM plan for science and allowed my younger dd to be part of a science co-op that did a sampling from different areas of science (some physics, earth science, and biology were covered). She absolutely loved it. I think part of the reason it worked so well for her is that she didn't become tired of focusing on just one area of science. By changing to a new focus each quarter, it was kept fresh and interesting. I also think there is a lot to be said for science to be interest driven to some extent. I know that next year my dd really wants to spend a lot of time focusing on animals and nature. I will probably throw in some physics topics in the final quarter of the school year, but otherwise I'm inclined to let her lead the way toward the areas of science that interest her the most!

I'm using it with my 6th grader this year. I think it can totally work for logic stage.

We use Vocabulary Workshop. I like the vocabulary exercises, and the kids have enjoyed it enough to request it again for next year. Good retention as well!

:iagree: This is exactly the approach we take. Since the lessons can sometimes vary in length, I just adjust as we go along where we may spend 4 days on one lesson but only 3 on another. What I love about the program is the variety of writing experience gained - the narration, dictation, sentence play, creative writing, etc. It just does a fabulous job of giving kids experience with writing structure, style, and substance all at once. Having combined multiple writing programs in an attempt to piece together all of these areas of writing for my older kids, I am just so thrilled to find all of them in one book. :hurray: If the upcoming books build nicely on this one, I anticipate taking dd through the series.

Another vote for Writing and Rhetoric! Sounds as if it would be a perfect match for you. My dd loves it - wish it had been available for my older two!

I used AG in 6th and 7th followed by MCT Magic Lens for 8th this year. I think she is solid enough in grammar now to just focus on literature and composition for high school.

Rosetta Stone (totally frustrated my dd) Winning with Writing (WAY too simplistic) Spelling Workout (such a waste of time - lots of busy work but never really taught my kids to spell)

I also used to run two math curriculum until I dropped MUS and just stuck with MM. I sometimes still pull out my MUS blocks to illustrate a concept, but the scope, sequence, and problems are all MM now. We are happy with it!

Here is my tentative plan for my ds - subject to change a half dozen times no doubt! Math - MM pre-algebra if available by next fall; otherwise we'll go with Lial's Grammar - Analytical Grammar or MCT Voyage Writing - WWS Vocabulary - Vocabulary Workshop; English from the Roots Up Religion- Seton Latin - Finish Lively Latin then? Science- ES Biology History - Hakim' s Story of US French - SYRWTL French Logic - Fallacy Detective Music - Piano

I used Sentence Family with my 8 year old at the beginning of the school year. She absolutely loved the story and still mentions the characters. It really made the parts of speech "stick" for her.