7th-9th grade? I just sampled their elementary and Omnibus levels. My children will be 13 & 15 when the new school year starts, although I've held both of them back a year, so they will be in 7th and 9th grades. The Veritas Press elementary levels are probably too simple for 7th and 9th grades, but the Ominibus is probably too difficult. My oldest child (22yo) used the Omnibus 1 book for 7th grade when it first came out (I put in my order before the book was actually published), and I thought it was too demanding for his age (he's my smartest kid). If the self-paced course is anything like the original book, I know my kids won't be able to succeed with it. Also, they did the ancients last school year, so they probably wouldn't be too happy to do it again. I would love for them to have courses like the VP SP for all of their classes except math (we're happy with Teaching Textbooks), but I can't find any online courses like the VP courses. The Alpha Omega Monarch courses don't look nearly as good as the VP courses, and the interface (is that the right term?) looks like it's from 15 years ago. Dew Learning is too new and hasn't even finished creating their middle school classes, and they don't have high school. I don't think my kids would do well with online courses through The Potter's School or similar online schools.

Thanks, Myra! Now that you've mentioned it, I remember the brouhaha about Mimi and her academies from years ago. I don't remember what it was about, but I remember that I didn't want to have anything to do with them.

I'm actually not in need of a math course. Dd is doing an automated grading edition of Teaching Textbooks, and that is working very well for her. The instant feedback on her answers and the ability to immediately see a problem worked out when she gets it wrong has greatly helped her. She needs that constant reinforcement of material. I already have the automated-grading editions of Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. Dd's success with TT is one of the reasons I'm considering computer curriculum for each subject. I have no problem using products from different publishers. I've always done that, anyway. I found Liberty University Online Academy and Grace Academy. I've got a lot of research to do before next school year. Thank you all for the info.

My oldest two children did online classes. The oldest started with an online classical school, while doing The Potter's School science. The classes went well, and I eventually had dc doing all TPS. I was so pleased with how well dc#1 was doing with online school that I started dc#2 in online classes a grade earlier than dc#1 started. Dc#2 did all TPS, except math, from 8th-12th grade. I was so looking forward to putting my other children in TPS when they reached the age for middle school. However, dc#3 has always struggled with learning. I have to go over the same things with her repeatedly. I would love to put her in TPS classes, but I'm sure she wouldn't be able to pass the entrance exams for most classes I'd like her to take. I'm so burnt out from homeschooling, especially after years of working with a struggling learner (my oldest is 22yo, and he never went off to school, so I've been homeschooling for a long time). So, I would like to find a Christian computer curriculum for her, one for which I'd have to do very little to no checking of work. Dd will be in high school next year. Any suggestions for good ones that aren't too easy but aren't too difficult? Anyone have any experience with Monarch by Alpha Omega? That's one I saw when I did a quick search a few minutes ago, and I think it's just Switched on Schoolhouse online instead of on discs.

Try the Angels Praise site. It has oodles of music. The samples I listened to sounded like typical contemporary Christian music, except with Spanish lyrics. Steve Green has some CDs of his music in Spanish, including a kids' CD. He was raised in South America by missionary parents. I bought a couple of CDs from Rejoice Music. I love the Jimmy Alonso CD, although a lot of the music sounds alike. CBD has a sample that includes all the songs. CBD also has a lot of other music in Spanish. To find all of the Spanish music, go to the home page of CBD. Select "Spanish" under "All Products." Then pick "Music." You can then narrow it down to children's music. There are quite a few CDs for kids.

Margarita Madrigal wrote another book for learning Spanish: See It & Say It in SPANISH. It has a lot of line drawings. It starts teaching sentences from the beginning, as you can see from the sample at Amazon. It's much simpler than her other book (I have both). My younger children use it. I bought it for them, because I liked her other book so much.

and I want to teach my two younger kids. I took three years of Spanish in high school (approx 30 years ago). My two older kids took/take Spanish for high school, and I've had to check their work to provide grades to their teachers at The Potter’s School. I started studying Spanish some when my oldest child was taking a class, but I hadn't done much until last summer. I slacked off on my studying once school started. Things I've found very helpful are: Reading from a parallel Bible. I have the NVI/NIV by Zondervan. Since I'm so familiar with the text anyway, I don't need to look at the translation nearly as much as I would with an unfamiliar text. I started reading it in February, and I've made noticeable improvement. Reading various books. I started with Spanish for Reading. Then I went on to readers/novels for students. I really like the ones by Command Performance Language Institute. They are at a good level for an advanced beginner or maybe a beginning intermediate. Amazon sells them. They are eligible for the 4-for-3 promotion. I also have read from various old, free books online. I've read some children's books from the library. Watching movies/TV shows with either Spanish soundtrack or subtitles. I actually started this when I noticed that Smallville Season 1 DVDs had Spanish subtitles. They were my entertainment and education while exercising. Even though my family really enjoyed the shows, they got tired of my watching them over and over again. LOL! I know seasons 1 & 2 quite well (I haven't seen any episodes beyond that, so please don't "tell" me any spoilers.). If Smallville had Spanish soundtracks, I would have used them. I've now moved on to the Spider-man movies. Spidey 1 only has the subtitles. My family watched the whole movie in English without subtitles. Then I watched a second time with the Spanish subtitles on. I was surprised at how easy the Spanish was, so I started watching it with the sound off. Now I'm watching Spider-man 2. After the family viewing in English, I watched it with the Spanish subtitles a couple of times, and now I'm watching with the Spanish soundtrack and the English subtitles. I don't pay much attention to the subtitles anymore, though. I'll soon go on to Spidey 3. I've also watched some Disney movies with the Spanish soundtrack and English subtitles. Most (if not all) Disney movies (at least the animated ones) have Spanish soundtracks and subtitles. The Barbie movies also have Spanish. BTW, I tried watching a couple of movies with both the Spanish soundtracks and subtitles on at the same time, but the written Spanish was so different from the audio that it was irritating. So, I don't recommend doing that. In March, I loaded up two Mp3 players with music, audio New Testament, sermons, and podcasts in Spanish. I typically listen to Spanish several hours per day. On Saturdays when I’m doing housework, I listen almost all day long. My listening and reading comprehension have increased greatly since February, when I started trying to immerse myself in Spanish as much as possible. I’m enjoying it immensely and finally think that I probably will be able to become fluent in Spanish. I sure wish that 30 years ago I had had all of the Spanish resources I have now. Cody’s Cuentos – Classic fairy tales and children’s stories in Spanish Sermons by Henry Tolopilo of Gracia a Vosotros and a pastor at John MacArthur’s church

Yes, it's just a paraphrase of what we just read. I often correct misinformation but not always. It just depends on how important I think it is.

I agree about slowing your younger child down. I guess that wasn't clear in my first post. I advised you to do a lot more review, but I didn't actually say to slow your child down, even though I thought that. My 9yob goes much slower than my 11yog. He started AAS at the same time as dd, but he just did phonogram cards until dd was finished with book 1. Ds is currently in book 2 and dd is in book 4. DD usually does a lesson in two days. Ds usually does a lesson in three or more days, depending on how many extra words there are and how well he's spelling the new words. Ds#1 & 2 were voracious readers and were reading kids' novels in first grade (ds#2 read Hardy Boys in first grade and G.A.Henty books in fourth grade). However, their spelling was awful. So, even though they read and read and read for years, it didn't help their spelling much. So, I agree with MerryAtHope.

We use AAS and do extra review every day. After we do review cards in a section, I pick cards from the mastered sections so that dc is always reviewing old stuff. When I put word cards from one lesson in the mastered section, I mix them among the whole group of mastered cards so that the sounds aren't grouped together. Also, there are lots of extra words in each lesson that aren't on word cards. I make a new word card for each word that my child gets wrong, and after he can spell it correctly, I add it to the mastered section so that he'll review it later. Often when my child gets one wrong that he's supposed to know, I make him write it five or ten times on the white board. AAS is a fantastic program, so I don't think you should switch. I think you should incorporate a lot more review. When your ds gets a "mastered" word wrong, tell him it's wrong and get him to try to figure out why. Then he'll have to think about the rules. If he's having a problem figuring out what's wrong, you can give him a hint. If you aren't already a member, you should join the AAS Chatterbee community. You could probably get a few tips from AAS users there. If you join a forum for a particular AAS level, you'll be able to print blank word cards to use for making your own when your child misspells a word from the extras list.

We use Apologia Elementary science. I read a section, have one of my kids narrate, read another section, have the other kid narrate, etc. After we've read and narrated enough (however many sections I think are enough that day), we do lapbooking. In order to narrate, the kids have to pay attention while being read to, and then after the reading, they have to think about it enough to put it into words and in a good order so that it makes sense. That helps them retain the information. My dd used to struggle with narration, and she used to not remember much of anything I read to her. We literally had to start narration with two sentences at a time, and she struggled with that; she gradually over the years worked up to longer and longer passages. She has never been much of an auditory learner, unlike her older brothers. However, she amazed me with what she was telling me about sea creatures approximately a year after finishing the Apologia book on them. The stuff she was telling me definitely came from that book. And we did the sea creatures book before we started lapbooking, so all we did was reading, narrating, and an occasional experiment. I didn't think she had retained anything. Boy, was I surprised!

I do the same thing. My kids don't mind it -- actually, they don't usually know I'm giving them extra. Dd sometimes asks for more spelling words. My kids enjoy writing on the white board, so when we're reviewing sound and word cards, they write on the board. We fly through the cards quickly.

We used TOG for about 9 weeks before I ditched it. It was the only thing in all our years of homeschooling (we're in our 14th official year) that my kids have begged me to sell. Dc were in grades 8, 5, & K. My kids love history, but they hated TOG. I couldn't keep up with the reading of the teacher's notes each week. They were so incredibly boring to me, even though I love history. Just an amusing bit from our TOG days: There was an architecture book on the TOG list, and ds#1 read some of it. I asked him if he learned anything from it. I was surprised by his answer. He said, "Yes. I learned that architecture is incredibly boring." LOL! That shocked me, because ds#1 has always been a bookworm and will read anything. He read science encyclopedias for fun. He would read anything I got from the library and put on the bookshelf. He would read anything he found lying around. He can't sit down to breakfast or lunch without reading something, whether it's a cereal box or a piece of junk mail on the table. We started TruthQuest after dropping TOG, and my kids liked that. Dc#1 used TQ for the rest of that school year and started online classes the next school year. Dc#2 continued with TQ until grade 8, when he started online classes. While he was using TQ, I heard many times from him things like: "I love history!" and "History is my favorite subject!" He didn't have to do much of anything with TQ except read, read, read, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. :D He learned a lot of history, since he learns easily through reading. He reads a lot of history books for fun, only now they're almost all books that were written for adults.

The Spelling Power instructions were so incredibly boring to read. Even the Quick Start instructions (or whatever they were called) were boring and far too long. I think the basic instructions could have been written on one page. I just couldn't keep up with all the reading for TOG. I love history, but I thought the teacher's info each week was so boring to read. And my sons hated TOG. It is the only thing that they've begged me to sell (and my oldest is 19yo, homeschooled since birth, so we've tried oodles of curricula). Spell to Write and Read instructions were quite difficult to understand (that's why there are classes that teach how to teach it). Fortunately, I found a site online that explained it clearly, and the program caused my two older boys to do a complete turnaround in their spelling. My two younger use All About Spelling, which teaches almost identical stuff as SWR/WG but is so much easier to use. Although it doesn't make my "eyes glaze over," I, like others have said, also wanted to like Writing Strands and bought four levels. I've tried it with three different kids, but I've hated it every time. One of these days I'm going to try to sell all of it.

Both sets of grandparents live nearby. My mom used to spend one weekday per week with us before she passed away six years ago (my dad worked, so he couldn't come during weekdays). Dh's parents used to spend one day per week with us until three years ago when FIL had a major medical incident and could no longer get out of the home much. I sure do miss the old days! My in-laws and my mom were all helpful. They were especially helpful with keeping the younger kids entertained while I was working with the older kids. They read lots of books to the kids. They played games and assembled puzzles with them. They painted and colored with them. FIL was especially helpful with the older boys. He taught them how to do things. He had lots of conversations with them. He took ds#1 to his music lessons, which was a great blessing to me, since that freed up nearly two hours per week for me. They fixed lunch and washed dishes. They would have done even more work around the house if I had asked them to. They often bought supper (usually pizza or Chinese food). I think weekly visits could be a blessing to you if you explain to your parents that school has to be a priority and ask for their help in educating your kids. And perhaps you can make the schedule a little lighter on visit day. Having a schedule doesn't mean that everything has to be done each day and at the same time each day.