I own workbooks A and B and they are different. I haven't used them yet so hopefully someone with experience can explain better or provide feedback. From comparing the two, it looks like Workbook B is the "Reading Foundations" workbook and seems to be geared toward helping students understand the reading, master vocabulary, and build understanding. Workbook A seems to be a bit more in depth with lesson summaries and comprehension questions. Flipping through it seems like Workbook A would be more challenging, whereas Workbook B might be a bit remedial or for a student not STEM focused. These are just my first impressions, but I thought I would share. I'm not sure yet which to use.

I know which FB group that is. I used to belong to it, but I ended up leaving. The mods are anti-Dimensions in a way that became a bit confrontational when people would ask about using it. I have used several levels of Dimensions and found it to be very thorough. This year I used all of level 6 with my 11 year old, as well as parts of 7 and 8 with another child. My son who completed level 6 is currently doing a couple of chapters in AoPS Prealgebra and will start AoPS Intro to Algebra next, so I would say it prepares children very well for high school math.

We also crashed and burned in 6th grade with my first child. I am waiting until 7th with my second child. I'm sure there are 6th graders who can handle it, though.

My 8th grade son used Oak Meadow English 8 for the first half of the school year. We may get back to it, but our reasons for moving a different direction had nothing to do with the program itself. I'm a big fan of Oak Meadow. This level requires a lot of weekly writing, however my son actually enjoyed most of the assignments. In a typical week he would have assigned reading in a novel or short story collection, a vocabulary assignment, a writing or creative project assignment, and then shorter writing exercises out of a workbook. Examples of short (1-2 page) papers he wrote include a persuasive argument, a descriptive essay, and a comparative essay between The Giver and A Wrinkle in Time. I would say on average he spent 4 hours a week on the course including reading time.

Yes, exactly! I would have to basically write out all my son's lessons for him separately. I may end up sprinkling bits of the curriculum into his work throughout the year, but it is definitely not an open and go for an independent child.

Another thing -- there is no way I could hand this to my 8th grader and expect him to figure out what to do. I don't think it is designed to be that way, but it makes my eyes cross so I know my son lose his mind trying to work through it. I definitely see this as the type of curriculum that you work through together, though I am sure there are some extremely independent and mature older students who could do it.

I purchased it, but haven't implemented it yet. I am not sure how I will use it. It is a massive wall of text to read through. From what I have gathered so far, a typical schedule would be to do one lesson per week with the readings and activities done over the course of the week. There is a gentle, standard and advanced pathway with assigned spines. Additionally, there is a huge list of additional books for those who want to dig deeper. As you go through each lesson you will find assigned readings, suggested additional readings and suggested read alouds, links to multimedia such as YouTube videos and websites for more information, and activity suggestions. Activities seem to be things like craft suggestions from the A Kid's Guide to Latino History and A Kid's Guide to Native American History, mapping, recipes, further research topics, etc. The student also keeps a notebook. Overall this curriculum mainly seems to be a curated list of resources on the history of the US, however the resources suggested are less Eurocentric than those in many other US history curricula out there. The way it is presented is a bit overwhelming because it is trying to be a one size fits all curriculum. That said, I can definitely find a place for this even if I don't use it as scheduled because there are just so many good resources linked throughout.

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but my 3rd grader loves Mosdos Opal. The way we use it is he reads one of the stories in the text and then works on some of the activities and graphic organizers in the workbook. A lot of people seem to skip the workbook, but my son likes it. I don't take it too seriously, but I know that he's getting exposed to a variety of wholesome stories from around the world.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! I have saved this to keep in mind for later. I actually think this style eventually will work perfectly for my 3rd grade son (plowing through Beast now!). Also, I think you are right that ODS is a child who needs more practice. I also realized that he was in over his head and needs to review some things. AoPS Prealgebra is just not a good fit for him, right now. Thank you for saying this! It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking there is one best way. ? We tried out Saxon Algebra 1/2 today and he is really enjoying the straightforward style. He has previous experience with Saxon, so I do think this will be a good way to go for now.

My son likes the book, but I don't think he's really getting it or retaining. I don't know. I feel like it is ME doing the discovery and demonstrating what to do over and over and when he gets to the exercises he still doesn't know what to do. We're currently stuck in the middle of exponents and while he knows what exponents are and has lot of previous experience with them, he cannot solve any of the problems in the book without my help. He does love Alcumus and watching the videos of Richard, but even after watching videos I don't think he remembers what to do when he returns to the book.

Just last week I decided to start tearing out the page we need each day and it was so freeing. I don't really care that the lines are a bit big. It has saved me time and having yet another thing to have to print off or write out.

That story was the worst and the assignment really frustrated my son because it was so long and full of unnecessary details to weed through. He wrote at the end of his summary "This does not make sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". ? I would just skip that day, or pick a different passage from a book you have to replace it. A few of the passages in the book are awful to be honest, but the program itself is working great for my 6th grader. Like others we are taking it very slowly and ignoring the breakdown of weeks/days and just doing 30-45 min at a time.

Yesterday my 6th grade son surprised me by announcing that writing is his favorite subject, so how well WWS fits a child probably does have a lot to do with personality! He enjoys writing as long as it is on a computer and not by hand. Last year when I was debating over using WWS someone here posted that she went through the workbook and made notes and highlights to let her child know exactly what to do. It was an excellent idea and I think that has been one reason my son is doing so well with it so far. I mark the lessons up a bit to let him know the expectations and we also discuss it together if he has any questions. I know this doesn't answer the original question as to a replacement for WWS, but I wanted to add this tidbit for anyone else using or considering WWS.

Do you mind sharing how far you've gotten? My 11 year old son is only about 4 weeks in and we are taking it very very slowly, but I did find that having him type rather than hand write has made a huge difference. I don't personally have alternative suggestions, but I am interested to hear what others have to say.

I posted asking a similar question last year. My 11 year old did Kilgallon last year and started with WWS this year in 6th. So far it is going well, but we are taking it easy and only doing about 30-45 minutes, 3 days per week. I find that this pace keeps him feeling confident without overwhelming him and he actually is enjoying most of the book (with the exception of some of the passages which are dense, boring or a bit ridiculous).

I'm currently using Mosdos Pearl with my 5th grader and I will continue it next year as well as use Mosdos Opal for my 3rd grader. Here's how I use it: We read the selection together out loud and then I ask him to "tell it back" to me. I have the teacher's manuals that I read from and as I read along I can see hints and suggestions for literary elements to discuss, but for the most part I just have him narrate to me. He doesn't write it down and I don't criticize what he says. We always read the blue-print for reading info before we start the selection and it helps give him an idea of what to look for and pay attention to as we read. It's working beautifully. I do have the workbook but haven't used it (he's not a workbook lover anymore, sigh). I don't think it is necessary though! The literature selections in Mosdos are just so beautiful and give a wide representation of the world, and that is why I love it. This is the easiest and most enjoyable part of our homeschool day.

I think doing a short (3-5 min) break every 25-35 minutes is fine. It's basically a pomodoro technique. It is enough time to stretch, grab a snack, or go to the bathroom. But it does sound like you are doing a lot of work! My ODS was doing Reflex, St Math, and My Math gr 5 through his very challenging public school and it nearly drove him over the edge. Too much! I would only do that for a kid who just loves math and wants to do it all the time.

I do believe that Tech wants all of their students to be successful and they have made changes to increase freshman retention. Tech is not for everyone, however I will say that a motivated student can be successful there. Just looking at your son's course load for his senior year he seems better prepared than I ever was to matriculate at Tech. I took higher level maths (goodness, I cannot even remember now what level I got to) because I was a CE major for my first year. I did have to take a programming course and a statistics course as a liberal arts major, but I don't remember them being particularly challenging. Regarding the Ivan Allen College, my experience there felt very intimate and I formed a bond with others in my major and received a lot of support from the faculty. It is harder to get lost in the sea when you're one of a hundred verses one of thousands. After Tech I also had no problem being admitted to the highest ranked graduate school for library and information science. Tech more than prepared me and grad school was a breeze. Living in downtown Atlanta was such a treat as well. Good luck to your son in whichever school he chooses! I do think that if Tech admitted him, they know he can be successful there.

Congratulations to your son! My DH and I both graduated from Tech ages ago (I'm HTS '02, he's CS '03). I will say that while the school is heavily focused on engineering, my experience as part of the Ivan Allen College was incredible and I had many opportunities and loads of support.

I really enjoy the "studyign" YouTube channel as well! I find her very motivating. I've learned a lot myself from her YouTube videos on topics such as how to annotate a novel, how to take notes from a lecture, how to take notes from a textbook, and how to study vocabulary. I plan to implement some of her techniques with my DS next year.

I really love the look of this series, but it is very pricey: Basic Spanish by Arnaiz and Intermediate Spanish by Wilkie. I do speak a little Spanish, and it looks like these would be easy to teach from and build at a slow and steady pace without too much vocab all at once. I'm still trying to decide what to use next year with my 6th grader. I have GSWS which I think we could blow through quickly while learning some basic vocab and then jump into the series above (if I can pull the trigger) or maybe the McGraw-Hill text that YodaGirl mentioned which also looks very good.

This has given me a lot to think about! I'm leaning toward having him mark up, and then having him read through it with me as I rewrite the sentence to keep a copy of the story going. I am pretty go-with-the-flow so I could have him write a sentence himself every few days to work his way up to doing it himself eventually.

Thank you all for the feedback. I used The Nose Tree with my older son and I remember the tears about writing it out each day. I love the idea of writing or typing it for him! Unfortunately, he has severe computer/device addiction issues so I cannot let him type it himself until we've worked through that. :-\

I'm still working on it, but so far it looks like this: ELA: WWS1, Grammar for WTM, Vocab from Classical Roots, Mosdos Pearl Math: AOPS Prealgebra History: History Odyssey 2 Middle Ages Science: CPO Life Science (and will follow along little brother with RSO Physics) Spanish: GSWS plus beginning Spanish lit w/ Mom

My son says he loves grammar, but he also hates the physical act of writing. I am planning to have him use Fix-It next year and I'm toying with the idea of just having him mark up the sentences and not physically write them out. He will be doing plenty of other writing and copying of quality sentences in his other work. Is this a bad idea? Does it take away too much of the value of the program?