I am about to embark on a working vacation and need a few fun but intellectually engaging reads. Movie or T.V. suggestions welcome too.

Do you have a local homeschool FB page or group? I would ask there if anyone had what you wanted available to borrow. I have often loaned out expensive curriculum/equipment and even given it away. Kahn Academy/YouTube are excellent resources as are NOAA and NASA. Nat'l Geographic (at library) could easily cover Geography, in conjunction with map blobbing/drawing.

I think it does save on organic produce but other than that it's not a savings.

I would notate it at the bottom along with extra curriculars as "Work/Study" with the number of hours listed per year.

I personally don't like EG- it didn't "stick" when we used it. I love First Langauge Lessons and Writing With Ease. You could start with Book II and work quickly through. It will build a solid foundation. FLL will cover grammar more comprehensively and dive in to simple diagramming and parts of speech- it's a broader base than EG and more comprehensive, like R & S, without the pedantic flavor. We've had great success with Spelling You See (review here). Reading- do you mean reading comprehension or reading aloud? Narration is an excellent tool to use- WWE will incorporate this. I'd have him read aloud a bit each day too. And don't forget read-alouds or books on CD.

Personally, I would skip the journal prompts at this point if you really want to focus on basic writing Frode Jenson's Grammar would be a good place to start. I like Jenson because he starts simple and builds sequentially. Or R & S 5th gr. Is it basic sentence structure that he struggles with? I would build in sentence diagramming then, because if you learn how to diagram, you'll learn what makes a sentence, what makes a good one and how to modify it. imho, "English" (which is such a broad subject area) is best taught in a group. Is there a CC Essentials program near-by? If so, I would highly recommend CC's Essentials program- last year we had 5 kids in our Essentials that were in high school. It goes over the 7 sentence patterns, diagramming and really digs deep into grammar. The class does 45 min. of Grammar, 45 min of Writing (IEW theme-book- takes the guess work out of "what do I write about) and 1/2 hr of math games. Fun, fast with the added accountability of positive peer pressure and a place to READ what one's written.

With my oldest 2 (3) we definitely were more of a literature/ great books approach. With my youngest 2 (3- my poor middler!) we have taken a much stronger classical approach. With our older kids we did a zillion field trips, classes, traveling, reading, reading, reading, etc. With our youngers we have traveled less, worked on skills more, memorized TONS, read probably as much. In the beginning we focused more on content, now we focus on skills. I would say that our youngers understand and have as much content, but are also much stronger on skills than our olders.

My sil, who worked as an editor, loves Analytical Grammar. I've used Our Mother Tongue and it's more basic, for those (like me) who started out with weak or non-existance grammar. Have you seen Mary Daly's Whole Book of Diagramming?

I have used and taught WWE/WWS in group settings. LOVE WWE as it's THE best, gentle intro to good writing on the market, imho. WWS is excellent for more academic writing, but doesn't hammar home some basics (like topic sentence). Not a big deal if you know what you are doing. Does an excellent job of teaching kids how to think critically about readind and writing. Add in FLL to WWE and your k-4th graders will have an excellent foundation for good writing and good thinking. IEW-great teacher training if you are not sure about what good writing is- watch the TWSS, take notes and you are set for life. I don't like videos to teach writing, but the theme books are quite fun (though they need a good history fact checker to edit some of them). Lost Tools of Writing- excllent structure for essay writing and strong critical thinking. LOVE this! EIW- I reviewed it here. Grammar of Poetry- excellent foundational study of the ryhme and meter of word crafting. I reviewed it here and will be teaching it live, on-line here.

There's a sticky note with this I think but check out Roman Roads Media as well as Bridgeway Academy live, on-line courses.

I don't think "writing papers" comes easily for most people either, because it's so vague and undefined. We used Lost Tools of Writing this year for our CC Ch A program and the 10 kids (of varying abilities and skills) all wrote 10 essays of 2-5 pgs each in 30 weeks. They all also wrote a final apologetics paper- the longest was 6 pages. Our Ch 1 group (mostly 9th/10th graders) wrote 8 essays of 2-5 pgs each and then a 15 pg research paper for science. The research paper was very challenging because it was less defined and their Director is more of a science type vs. lit type. But they did it. I highly recommend Lost Tools of Writing. It takes ALL of the questions out of writing and follows the 5 Cannons of Rhetoric. These kids will never wonder what an essay is again- or how to write one.

Most high school texts are simply College Prep- not honors, but you could write an addendum that you do in addition to a CP course to create an Honors course. Here's a place to start. There is a list at the top with the 5 objectives of an honors course.

Bridgeway Academy offers DE through Pillar and Calvary but they are also part of the ACE consortium -over 1000 colleges and universities have accepted the credits. They are reasonably priced and run from 1 mth to a semester in length. See the list of courses offered here.

I'm not sure why SOTW would not be a good fit. We are conservative Christians and love SOTW, HOTW and Hx of Science. I say that only to ask you to re-consider. SOTW is a sweeping overview of world hisotry that will give your kids an amazing scope of understanding. Throw in memorizing a timeline and you are set. Also, Roman Roads Media Old Western Culture is terrific! For Government, I would recommend TeenPact, as well as Richard Mayberry books (Whatever Happened to Penny Candy, et al.). They also have an econ book= Classical Conversations Challenge I does an excellent job of government/econ. MUS And Notgrass both have Econ now, too. Dave Ramsey has a good personal finance for youth. You will find as you homeschool resources, books, curriculum that are simply amazing (and probably not yet published)! If you are going to use WWE / WWS- check out First Language Lessons. Much more "vibrant" than R & S (though I love their grammar, too). Check out Lost Tools of Writing by Circe Institue. LOVE it!!! BEST writing program- super straightforward. For LIt analysis begin by reading outloud and narrating and discussing. Simple, effective and inexpensive.

I would pare down English right off. Do they NEED spelling? if not, skip it. If you already have IEW, do A for both. (you could do B for both, too). fix it is good. Pick one Math- the beauty of choosing one author is you get to know thier style without having to learn a new way of doing things for every kid. Mapping the World with Art is fun! I'd add in SOTW cd's to play while they are mapping. Will YOU do the science with them or are they on their own. There's a real difference between how good something looks and doing it- esp. with littles. Skip the extra geo- if you want more, put maps and globes around, use Google Earth, get on the NOAA or NASA sites. Fallacy Detective is fun to read. I'd carefully consdier the co-op- they have music and Scouts alreay - if the classes aren't a great fit, skip it for now. I'd add in some memory work- poetry or grammar (MP's Grammar Recitation), or even CC Cd's.

"Weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Then wash your face. Trust God. And embrace the life you have." You are not a failure. You are re-calibrating. That's what functional, successful people do.

My youngest is 13 but our first grandson arrived (this week!). We have saved Brio train and playmobile and American Girl Dolls (some from before Mattel aquired them) Ds 16 still has the Legos in his room. Everything else is gone.

This morning at 9:30 we will be cleaning our house and making lunch for 2 WTM friends who will be coming over in a bit. Normally, I would be working at the computer and getting the kids going on music and tasks.

Lost Tools of Writing. Fantastic program that teaches the essay with ease and mastery. Worth every penny.

I taugth FMFT to a small group a few years ago. We had a blast. LOVE that theme book! (so that's my vote, obviously).

I've worked from home for the past couple of years, Direct a CC Challenge program and my last 2 are in Jr and Sr High. My kids are pretty independent, but I do have to keep up with where they are at on stuff. They do hang out at dh's office occaisionally, but not regularly. We do weekly planners and then go over the days work together- and we often have a weekly family meeting just so everyone knows where everyone else is at- how to coordinate cars,etc.Scheduling and planning are key. My 13 yo is naturally organized but will avoid certain subjects if left alone with them, while my 16 yo will naturally tackle stuff he doesn't like as much but is not naturally organzied- haha! So, really, staying on top of the schedule and their personalities. I did a short blog series homeschooling and working here.

My youngest two did America the Beautiful a year ago and loved it. We read it outloud together- good times. You could do that as a group and have your older kiddo do the gov independently.

Here's a bunch of resources we've used to study Shakespeare.

Seconding Old Western Culture.

Very interested in your thoughts on this. tia.