DS 10th grade plans Bible: TMITYES NT and Church history Math: Algebra 2 Science: Biology w/Lab History: US and World history Geography English: Jensen's Format Writing, Illuminating Lit, Painless Vocabulary Foreign Language: Korean using many different resources including Talk to me in Korean and Korean from Zero Healthy Home Ec and Nutrition, Health Piano Lessons See the Light Art Projects

In light of the last post #17, I'll mention that my freshman will be 14 if that makes any difference. Also, there isn't going to be a level 8. DD will get through lesson 62-64ish before we stop this year and then finish the rest the first semester of high school. Sadly, it looks like High School English 1 will not be complete until June 2018. :( DD may use Illuminating Literature for second semester.

Yes, it's enough. Especially if you do the extra reading for the reading challenge. I didn't add many extra books to read because dd already reads a many books for history and other books in her free time. We started level 7 halfway through with grade, so she will pick up the other half the beginning of 9th grade and then hopefully, high school English will be ready for purchase at that point. As for writing, dd is around lesson 55 and she's completed several writing projects including essays and is currently working on a fictional biography of Abraham Lincoln. I like how the writing assignments are broken down over several lessons in small increments as not to overwhelm your child. Dd enjoys doing her English lessons and that is a compliment itself.

Sounds like my dd. ((hugs)) :grouphug: She's an disorganized artist, too. My first born is my very neat, focused son. There's been some progress over the years, but I can still tell where she's been just by walking through the house. She still has some work left to finish up before she can call it a year, but I can see some laziness kicking in on the quality. sigh

My dd got her eyebrows and upper lip waxed when she was 12. If tweezing is too difficult for her, you can try these little razors. http://tinyurl.com/n3wceqh

I got my first pair about a year ago. I was 42. My optometrist said he would try to keep me out of bifocals by adjusting the powers of my contact prescription, but I ended up buying a pretty pair of glasses with matching case at a local department store for about $15. I started with the +1.25 and I need them all the time for reading.

Level 7 has 140 lessons.

I second Homeschool Planet though I don't know if there is a place for course descriptions, but fits the bill for most everything else you require. They have a 30 day free trial.

Dd will be 14 and starting 9th in August. MATH: Elementary & Intermediate algebra: a combined course ABeka Algebra 1 ENGLISH: finish The Good & the Beautiful level 7 then Illuminating Literature vol. 1 HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY: Streams of Civilzation Vol.1 with Map Trek (maybe) TG&TB History 1&2 for US & World History, ABeka Geography SCIENCE: ABeka biology with lab ELECTIVES: Bible: The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study - Old Testament ABeka Life Management and New Testament Foreign language: Korean using several resources Total Health (one semester) ABeka Home Economics/Nutrition (one semester) Healthy Home Economics and Light Speed Nutrition Piano updated: 8/14

I believe it means "Just Agree with Me"

off the top of my head...I consider changing light bulbs to the LED instead of incandescents if you haven't done that. LEDs use less energy. Also, consider unplugging anything that is not being used. Appliances still use a low amount of energy when plugged in. Our TV, DVD, XBOX, etc. are all plugged into a power strip and we turn that off when we are not using it to cut the power to those things. Lower the temperature of your hot water heater. If you prefer to use the dishwasher, you could turn the heated dry setting off to save your hot water heater from having to heat up.

sure :001_smile:

Yes, we are! We are using level 7 and I recently started the K, but then ended up switching to the Pre-K book for my youngest. Here's a link from K-8 board about it. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/639723-the-good-and-the-beautiful-for-la-and-history/

We recently redid our master bath and replaced the jetted tub with a soaker. The jets were a pain to keep clean, we hardly ever took baths, and it was expensive. The tub requires an access panel to get at the plumbing/heating elements or it would be a fire hazard. It was difficult getting in and out of it, too. I like the soaker and I get more use out of it than the other tub. I'm trying to destress these days, so I try to take an epsom salt bath a couple times a week to relax.

I haven't done it, but I think there is certainly room to do that. The geometry credit comes from doing 2nd or 3rd edition Saxon algebra 2 book with the first 60 lessons of the Advanced Math book. This can be titled "Geometry with Advanced Algebra". If you get to lesson 90 of the advanced math book, you can also count 0.5 credit for trigonometry.

Have you heard of The Good and the Beautiful language arts. It's mostly independent from 4th grade on up aside from sitting in on lessons as much as you want and assisting with sentence dictations. There are samples on her website and you can download the PDF version for free if you want to try it. http://www.jennyphillips.com/good-beautiful/

I also thought MapTrek would work. Just scroll down and click on Curriculum Integration guide. They also have a timeline app, but I haven't tried it. http://knowledgequestmaps.com/Try-MapTrek.html

I had Megawords in my hands briefly and then sold it, but it was a long time ago. I've tried many programs over the years. Here are some in no particular order; AAS (level 1), Phonics Road (levels 1-4), SWR, Sequential Spelling , Simply Spelling (flop), Building Spelling Skills (used this a couple years), Phonetic Zoo, and a few others that I looked at and then passed along like ZB Spelling Connections. :blush5: Looking back, I was frantic trying to figure out what to do to get my children up to speed, but if I could go back, I would definitely use some sort of OG style spelling such as Spalding-The Writing Road to Reading and Spelling (4th edition), Phonics Road, SWR, and some sort of dictation like in TGaTB. Thankfully, we have plenty of choices for spelling. I hope Megawords works out for you!

You're welcome! I only noticed 2 reading "quizzes" probably because they are done in the style I mentioned earlier, note taking practice to use for a quiz. Otherwise, comprehension questions are in the daily lessons. I know CLE usually has 2 or 3 quizzes and a test for each LU. I don't see any tests in TGaTB. I had to pull our books out to answer some of your questions since we haven't gotten in to it far enough to know off the top of my head. Going back to spelling: Spelling dictation covers spelling rules and patterns, list of words that are rule breakers and commonly misspelled words, grammar and punctuation rules, homophones, and commonly confused word pairs. I also noticed a section on editing in the course companion. Large writing assignments are broken down into small assignments and connect writing with other learning in the course such as geography, art, and lit. DD says that she is writing about every three lessons. I've used lots of spelling programs trying to get my kids spelling skills to match their reading skills, and the the Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading had the biggest impact with a lot of hand-holding. Unfortunately, you need to start at level one to use that program where as you can start further along using SWR which I learned about later. TGaTB level 8 is not out yet. Jenny's website says it should be released sometime in 2018. If it comes out soon enough, I will definitely continue with it. I wish it was complete so my oldest could use it, too. He is currently using the MFW LA with AHL. I may add to the English next year for him. I think there is room for more to solidify the basics since we already read most of the recommended books that are suggested to be added to reading time. Also, she suggests that the course takes about 90 minutes when including the reading for the reading challenge. Everything seems to take dd about 40 minutes, but we are not counting the reading challenge. We've used Figuratively Speaking, too. I'm not sure how it is covered in TGaTB yet. I do know that there is a literature analysis essay coming up in dd's course book, but haven't had the time to read through the assignment yet. I have to head out for now, but hope this helps a little bit.

I had a similar experience with the K set, so we decided to go back and do the Pre-K first. The lessons are short and there aren't as many lessons in pre-k. There is lovely artwork and discussion questions as well as poetry. I was surprised how they introduced b and d together right away and have exercises distinguishing between the two. This is something that even older children struggle with.

We were using R&S6 since I already owned it. R&S is a very thorough grammar and writing. It is also very dry. I didn't feel that the instruction was sticking unlike the dictations which work very well and cover many topics at one time. I probably should take WWS down from my sign because she only did a few assignments before we stopped using that. It looks good and I know many people have had great success with it, but it didn't click well for her or me. She is currently writing a research paper for state history along with any writing that comes along in her English, so we are good in the writing department. We used CLE LA up through third grade. I love the independence of it, but we didn't use the spelling or handwriting, so moved on to something different after that.

The Good and the Beautiful LA is so much more than just grammar and writing. In her last assignment, she needed to listen to the author talk about the story she is reading in the reader and take notes. She is able to use her notes to take a quiz and needs to get an 80% on the quiz to pass it, or she needs to listen and take notes again until she passes the quiz. (Learning by doing) When a vocabulary word is introduced in a lesson, the word is used in all the sentences in the grammar lesson, so they can practice the grammar assignment and see the vocabulary word used in many ways. It’s just very efficient and effective. I can’t say enough about it. *How long does it take, typically? It’s different each day depending on the assignment. She likes to take more time with her art lessons. The memorizing is only for 5-10 minutes. Sentence dictation takes about 5 minutes to complete the three sentences. I would say about 40 minutes for everything for level 7 unless she wants me to test her for mastery on any of the things she’s been memorizing then it's a little more time. I think the spelling is just dictation which isn’t much. The dictation sentences are grouped in sections and you work through a section for mastery. Each section will incorporate specific homophones, grammar rules, punctuation, and spelling. The spelling part include words that end in -ible or -able, whether to drop e's to add suffixes, and things like that, so those rules are addressed. They write the sentence you dictate and you immediately check it and explain to them anything they got wrong and they attempt it again during the next lesson. They continue to get the same sentences until they get it correct. I make a check mark next to each sentence mastered. If your child is a poor speller, I would add something for spelling. My children used to be poor spellers, too. We worked really hard for years to improve spelling using OG methods. She has the reader for her lessons. The lessons have comprehension questions in the course book, and dd says that sentences are pulled from the reader and she has to punctuate it correctly. I didn’t pick nine more books for her reading challenge yet because she is doing lit-based history, so she has plenty to read at the moment. I don’t feel I need to supplement TGaTB in any way. It is complete LA and more. We used MFW Adventures all the way through to AHL so far. Love, love, love MFW. Wish I had used it for 1st grade, too. Creation to the Greeks is one of my favorite years. I liked it so much more than the American history packages. The object lessons for Bible really helped for understanding. There were so many memorable activities that year. Don’t miss out on CtG. I think TGaTB history looks interesting, but I’m not sure I would want to do an entire sweep of history each year with different focus. I would rather have concentrated study of a time period globally. I think it helps make connections since each country does not exist in a bubble. The nature journal does look lovely. ;)

My dd is using level 7. It is so well-organized. She is able to follow the checklists and complete it mostly on her own. I love the memory work and spelling/grammar dictation. She studies geography and grammar flash cards, and there are state capital memorization ladders as well as poetry memorization. These things are studied on alternate days. She loves when there is an art lesson which is mostly drawing and looks forward to them. I've seen great results with the spelling and grammar dictations. I started my ds4 on the Pre-k book and he enjoys it very much. He often brings me the book and does a couple lessons at a time. We haven't used any other subjects by this author.

Just seeing this now...The student text is necessary. You'll need the textbook and teacher's guide.

I haven't used this yet, but the teacher's book has discussion questions, vocabulary quizzes, the answer key to the exercises in the student book, and more. I would get it for those reasons. The book quizzes are online, so you don't need that book and the novel notebook is a free download.