My daughter is interested in some of the online courses at https://www.redcross.org/. Does anyone have experience with any of their courses?

Educational or not! Thanks!

Any and all suggestions welcome! Websites, apps, games, books, toys, etc . . .

None of them look familiar but I'll check them out. Thanks!

I remember learning about a site that sells affordable science materials but I can't remember the name! I don't remember if it was for homeschoolers or not but they had things like geodes, owl pellets, some woodworking kits, woodburning, honeycomb kits?, maybe candle making materials too. It's been some years and I just can't seem to find it in my searching. Anyone leads would help!

I don't need to have testing done but I am am interested in testing my 11 and 9 year old for myself. Are there any standardized (or standardized-like) tests online I can use or order to check myself?

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Do you think CAP Book 1 would be too young for her? I was wondering if she and her younger brother in third grade could actually do it together because they like working together sometimes.

Biographies, sure. Thanks!

I'm looking for narrative non-fiction or any true books for grades 4-7. Do you have any good recommendations? I've made this list so far. The Finest Hours (Young Reader's Edition) A Long Walk to Water The Elephant Whisperer The Land I Lost Dolphin Adventure In The Heart of the Sea Hidden Figures: The Young Reader's Edition Stolen into Slavery The Distance Between Us Shoe Dog: Young Reader's Edition Finding Gobi Samurai Rising A Storm Too Soon The Boy Who Harnassed the Wind The Omnivore's Dilemma I Am Malala Lion, A Long Way Home

My DD10 will be going into 5th grade next year and has very limited writing experience. She does some very very basic writing on her own and basically has told me she needs to know how to spell more and write better. I think she needs more independent work too. For the last three years, she's been going to a second language school in the morning. So we homeschool in the afternoons or on weekends. I thought WWE was a good fit since lessons were short and some years, we could do two lessons a day on weekends or it was easy to do a lesson a day in the afternoons but we're growing bored of WWE and wondering what to do next or add in. We also homeschool year round. So now that it is summer and she's on break, we will be working on a few subjects together, writing being one. I knew we'd have to lag behind in some subjects since we were working on two languages simultaneously. But now, I think I need to pick up the pace with her writing. She is working to finish WWE3 and FLL4 this summer. She loves grammar (though I'm feeling like she needs something more independent since she does many of the lessons on her own before we get to them) and we have a few weeks of WWE3 remaining that I feel like we're doing just to say we did it but everyday, I'm thinking of shelving it for a while. Maybe we just need a break. After reading through some posts, I've jottted down Killgalon as an idea but wondering should I start with the elementary level or with the middle school sentence composing. And I've seen some people switching between WWE4, Killgalon and CAP. Switching between programs might help with how we're currently feeling about WWE. So, any other ideas, suggestions for a 10 year old who hasn't written much?

I don't know how much more of WWE we can do. My DD10 has done three levels and I am just unsure if I want to go to level 4 with her or use any more levels with DS8. It doesn't seem like it would work as well for him. Would they both be able to start in CAP Book 1 and could they do it together? As I see it says for grades 3-5. Or should DD10 start in book 2 after WWE3. Other suggestions are welcome. I'm trying to figure out where to go from here.

Thanks!

I'm looking into switching to another spelling program that's more independent and just read an old thread about R&S that got me thinking maybe I should make a switch since we just finished level 3 today. I'm wondering which level I should go to after going through AAS Level 3 and how it compares? Or are there any other good independent spelling programs? I haven't looked through AAS4 yet but I'm starting to feel like it's too teacher intensive than they need (though we do our own modified version.) and we already do too many other teacher intensive things. The last steps, I felt like we could have done in one or two days but maybe that's a good thing. Especially since our time is limited (we afterschool in English subjects b/c they go to school in the am in a different language) They like spelling but I' wondering if they just like AAS and also because it's short. They LOVE the writing station portion. Anyway, any experiences with either, ideas, opinions will be helpful for me to think this through.

We're overseas. Are the WTMA classes on US time?

I'm looking into options for what to do after WWE3 for my dd's 5th grade school year. Please share what you did or used! Thanks!

I like our curriculum choices though they are a bit teacher-intensive (WWE, FLL, AAS, AAR, Singapore Math) and with teaching third and first in a limited amount of time afterschool, I feel like I am holding my DD9 up from learning more. I am sure she could breeze through some of her subjects but me having to do them with her or me not being able to schedule maybe as effectively as I could is more than likely holding her up when I can't get to certain lessons some days or some parts of the year even! We recently finished WWE2. I don't know if WWE3 is more independent or not. I've been holding her off from AAS3 til her brother completes AAS2 so they can do AAS3 together. I'm starting to reconsider since she said she needed to learn more words and write more but he's halfway through and I'm wondering should I just be patient and wait. Will it be worth it? I just felt this would make better use of our time to do it together (it was their idea actually) and then I'd have to time to work with them independently in math which we're slightly behind in now (1A and 2B) or another subject they're not close in. I recently started both of them on FLL2 and she said she loves grammar. I was considering getting level 3 for her and holding off my son til third grade but now I'm wondering if I should just get her a program she can do all on her own or if FLL3 is more independent or just as teacher intensive. My first thoughts were grammar and cursive that are independent but really, any suggestions in any subject would be helpful for first or third. Anything she (or he) could possibly be doing while I'm busy elsewhere. As long as she's learning . . .

My soon to be DD8 and DS6 will be starting school in a second language school and I was wondering if anyone had any good advice or suggestions or could share their experiences with this. They've been away before but only in more relaxed short programs of 3-4 hours. I'm concerned about the long day, among other things. How did this go for your children? What were the struggles, frustrations, the good and the bad? How was the adjustment?

Can you all share what your children's day is like with school and afterschooling? Thanks.

Wondering has anyone done AAS2 afterschool or on weekends? My DD7 will be starting school in a second language this year. She complained last year that she doesn't know how to spell enough words and wants to learn more. So I'm keen on continuing with Spelling and WWE2 to work on her writing. But I'm not sure how much time in the afternoons/evenings we'll have for homeschool.I think WWE2 will be easy for us on weekends because we've combined two days into one before, it's written for 4 days and she likes listening to the passages. Not so sure if we can do AAS for two days and be successful since it seems most do it 3-5 days a week. What do you think? Any experience with this?

Thanks Kalusginan and Tiramisu as well. Definitely will be keeping all this great advice in mind. I'm so glad I can come here and have youa ll as a sounding board. Makes me feel more at ease.

They have some background in the language as they had/have a tutor the year before and can read in the language but still. It's not enough, we felt, for fluency. Hence the reason we're looking to put them in. For the full immersion. Based on what I've heard, the homework shouldn't be so much but we'll see. She will also be a grade level behind in the foreign language which I hope will make it easier and reduce the time spent on homework. I think so many hours in school is enough! I hope it won't be too much work outside of school. Thanks for the advice!

My children may go to a full time school in a second language this year and I need help figuring out what to plan for us to continue homeschooling in the afternoon/evenings and on the weekend. I'm mainly thinking of my eldest, in second grade based on our home state grade level ages (we're overseas). For language . . . she's about a month or less away from finishing AAR4 now. We're pretty flexible with schedules. Last year, we ended up doing AAR3 part of the year and AAS1 part of the year partly because I just couldn't stand doing both along with DS5 also doing AAR2 (too many rules and cards for me!). She just read and read in between, so when we picked up AAR3, we flew through the remaining lessons. We also doubled up on our WWE1 lessons and condensed them to two days instead of 4 (my DD preferred it that way, she was always eager to listen to the excerpts). Right now, I know I want to continue AAS2 and WWE2 with her. I thought before to delay grammar til 3rd grade. We haven't done any so far but we have FLL1 and 2 already. Thoughts on that? What else should I focus on for language? For math . . . Though we're not sure what their math instruction will be like in the school, my dh is keen on them continuing with Singapore Math at home. I'd say last year was pretty easy since we started on the later side (I could've started the year before with her). I'm wondering should I make weekdays something more hands on and do things like science, history, etc and save the language for a block on weekends or vice versa?? I don't think they'll do very much hands on in the school. I'm sure we'll have to tweak our days once we get everything going but I'd love some thoughts and feedback on this! Help me think out loud!

Longer readers??? Oh gosh. Thanks everyone. Very helpful. I'm going to go ahead and order it thanks to you all and have a look see if we can complete it over the summer. That would be lovely.