Middle school is so ripe with transitions, child to teen, hormones, the works. Sometimes I can't help but wonder why anyone who ever spent time around that age group thought putting lots of them together in a somewhat confined space for many hours a day would ever be prudent.

My system: Step One: Pot of flavored coffee and turn ringer off on telephone. Step 2: Start with a blank planner and the table of contents for any texts (or equivalent pacing guide, topical listing, book list...). Step 3: Mark the holidays and breaks I know we want or need to take. Estimate time needed for each activity. Where I am uncertain I flip to the middle of the material do the assignment myself and add fifteen minutes or so. With it all spread out on my desk, I am able to see a flow develop that matches our other weekly/daily obligations (outside classes, appointments...). The first year I gave my daughter one subject area for her to plan out her progress weekly. It usually takes a weekend to get the initial plan in place and then about three weeks into the year, I take a weekend a see how it is going as compared with the plan/adjust. The first year was the hardest. Once we had some experience under our belts it became easier to predict/plan.

This is our third year of homeschooling and I spent more in the first two years than I will in the 4 remaining ones. Why? It took a great deal of expensive experimentation to repair too many years of public school. Fortunately, we did!:thumbup: For a while, it felt we would never finish paying for years of free school.

I saw the post about the Blue Book. We had it around this year and plan to keep it dipping into it.

I had the same reaction. 45 minutes a day seems like a rather large chunk of the high schooler's day to devote exclusively if it was well covered in middle school. We also did AG in middle school and my thinking is with Latin, another foreign language and plentiful high school writing it doesn't make sense to devote the time exclusively. I am looking at Jensen's with the thought that what might be useful is proofing and editing practice. That said, I am in your spot and curious to see the responses which follow.

Planning done? Accepting reality of teen and high school? :willy_nilly:... in progress...maybe...sorta...maybe not...is it the weekend yet? Algebra 2 = Saxon with Art Reed DVD Biology=Miller and Levine - labs outsourced (she plans to do Advanced Biology in 11th grade using Campell and Reece and wants to do labs again with it...) Chemistry Raymond Chang and Zumdahl texts - labs outsourced Spanish 2 = Rosetta Stone and lots of written work + reading World History = Western Civilization Spielvogel plus assorted Teaching Company lectures and miscellaneous books for Asian and Central/South America survey World Literature = Assorted Anthologies, WEM, How to Read a Book Like a Profesor by Thomas C. Foster (focus this year reading, next year written analysis) Composition course = outsourced --supplemented with various Latin - Easing into it with William Linny to go into Wheelock's later **Had planned to begin with Physics, but as it turned out she covered a great deal of it and decided to wait till 10th when math skills catch up for further exploration Arts and Extracurriculars ---plate too full

Upon reading in your post "...he does a fine job. Orally." I recalled once tutoring a student using a voice recorder. He struggled with a blank piece of paper and vague instructions, but given a typed list of general ways to get started and a voice recorder he found that bridge to beginning. After recording what came to mind, he would replay it and begin to type. We would print this initial "draft" and he would build from it to meet the objective. Something about not having a blank screen or page did the trick for him.

We use Wordly Wise 3000 and would give it a thumbs up. Doing one subsection a day, the 20 sections per book fit smoothly into the schedule and I do see the words creep into writing and conversation. We used Word Roots (Critical Thinking Company) along side Wordly Wise for 6th/7th. One benefit I noted was the bit of practice in spelling that goes along with filling in those blanks.

I am one of those moms who would not have chosen Saxon but given the choice, my daughter did. I am growing to appreciate it more and more all the time. We did Saxon Algebra 1/2 for 6th and 7th grade (looking back I am thrilled we did). Along the way I bought and strongly considered/evaluated other options (Jacob's, LOF, traditional school texts...). I sampled areas from them with her along the way and the whole process was great for building confidence for both of us in the road ahead. Algebra 1 Saxon in 8th has gone very well too. We like the Art Reed DVD's and have chosen not to go with the "newer" Saxon products. We purchased the texts, tests and solutions manuals to go thru Calculus. From time to time I will buy one of the others on Ebay or at our local homeschool book shop, when a great deal presents (example $10 for Forester Alg/Trig including a solutions manual) and continue to compare. Spending two years in Alg 1/2 built a very strong foundation and gave time to dwell here and there as we found interesting or necessary. I see the pay off with this year in Algebra 1. Practice seems to build confidence and confidence encourages exploration. As I watch her confidently approach the problem solving for Chemistry and basic Physics, I have to give the program due regard for helping create it. It wasn't my choice, but I am happy with the results so far.

The good old traditional game, Life. Actually it makes a great conversation starter with teens.

You can find very inexpensive clear frames at many stores. Then at craft or fabric stores you can find themed button or small figure sets that can be glued to the frames. We have done them for someone doing Tae Kwon Do, dance, one with a dog theme, a swimmer theme, soccer theme and so forth. The key will be using a good bonding glue and some very cheap brushes to apply the figures to the outer surface of the frames without your younger one having to touch them.

One thing I am far more grateful for in retrospect than I would have thought at the time is doing a variety of outsourced science and tech classes and camps during middle school. Museums, colleges, community colleges, private organizations offer them and some have been very good. The other thing in retrospect that I have found paying off now has been keeping a well stocked set of various books and magazines around. Popular Science actually can stimulate some fun rabbit trails. I am still amazed by how much she absorbed from various almanacs, special topic books and so forth. We changed out things on the coffee table every couple of weeks and I often found them in piles in her room where she had chosen them. On the tech side, I found it useful to have her create power points, animations, spreadsheets. Anything I was not comfy with myself, she seemed to figure out and teach me...which was fun. The For Dummies books are terribly underrated as well.

I would be curious if people generally attributed the increases to test familiarity, a year's maturity, or some specific content area focus?

Biology has two pretty good options. I actually use two simultaneously Miller and Levine Biology published by Prentice Hall and the Campbell and Reese Biology (the college version). I chose this route because we will be doing Biology twice, once now in 8th and again later for an advanced version. Shopping a bit you can get both plus some extras (lab books..) for under $100. Math wise if she liked Saxon why not do a placement test? There are so many math options. Depending on where her Algebra is Harold Jacobs or Forester. I think TeachingTextbooks also has a placement text and doing both of the placement tests might help focus where to start? Logic wise we found the Art of Argument from Classical Academic Press has been a good entry point. Hopefully something of help in all this.

I encounter a lot of stressed out parents while waiting in various lobbies to pick up DD. Guidance counselors say the parents are demanding more AP classes, parents say they feel the pressure to demand more just to keep their child in the "game" as compared with peers. Then it seems the content is being watered down, colleges citing the need to remediate more and more. Graduation rates overall don't seem to be moving higher. The whole thing just makes me grateful to set goals, execute on them and know what my child is learning.

Thank you for an interesting thread.

This is not so much a craft, or maybe an edible craft.... Ghost Graveyard Bake a pan of brownies, cut them into rectangular grave shapes (spread any crumbles for extra dirt) Melt some chocolate to use as glue Glue those white marshmallow ghosts (the peeps ones) to some graves Use flat cookies as tombstones , write funny sayings on them with melted chocolate and tip decorator or buy the decorator frosting Use the mini pumpkins here and there with some green dyed cocunut Use shoe string black licorice to make fences Each year we wind up adding some extra to our edible ghost graveyard

I wonder if the gobble box works for DH stuff?

Unit Multipliers: If you check the Donna Young site, under the math tab, there is an explanation of Unit Multipliers that worked well to clarify it for Dd.

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees Maybe a bit controversial for some but Alice Walker The Color Purple

Remember how when they were 6 months, then a year, then 18 months and the changes were incredible and very visible/tangible? I often try to remind myself that at these middle school ages they are changing just as significantly although maybe not as visibly or tangibly. I can really see differences between 13, 13 1/2, 14 in kids, but usually more in retrospect than in the moment. One thing I do is try to be aware of how vague a statement like "elaborate" may seem at these stages. When I spot it in a question, I change it to something along the lines of give four examples, or descrbe with three detailed features....something more specific in the request. The other thing I try to do is provide a model/example. Say they have a question asking for comparing/constrasting a republic and a democracy. I would not give the answer but I would illustrate what a comparison of two concepts might look like from another content area.

Have you looked into the Thinkwell courses?

One way I have considered costs/budgeting is by comparison. I looked up the cost to take a course at the local community college and made sure to add costs of textbooks, lab fees... D will not be able to take courses there for a couple of years, but it gave me 1. info for the budget ahead and 2. a guide of what a credit hour would cost if she could. Sometimes, it is far less, sometimes it is about the same. I also remember there are cost I would have either homeschooling or in public school. (For example, testing fees, lab fees, dues, activity fees, gym uniforms.) I noticed the amount we spent on clothing dropped a large amount when we pulled her from school. Lunch actually came out a wee bit less as well without the expense of buying things that packed well and so forth. It makes me sad to say it, but honestly we have spent the most in the areas where we have had to either remediate or catch up from the time when she was in school.

I allowed D to move on into pre-algebra without total automatic recall of multiplication/division facts. When I did, I resolved there would be no use of calculators until she was late into Algebra 1 and only then sparingly. I can say I am very glad I held to that resolution. As she works with chemistry and physics I am allowing it in those settings at times. Number sense, estimation skills, basic application and logic can erode without practice in a manner similar to the way foreign language skills erode when not used consistently over time.

Some odd things that have wound up in the stocking; A wooden spoon with her name on it the first year I started allowing her to mix her own cookies to bake. Another year she got her own oven mit. Keychain Flashlight when she started staying up to read on weekends. Funny buttons or bumper stickers. And then nuts of any kind (especially pistachio or cashews) are a big hit with everyone here.