I have the same understanding as Linda. I also have both curricula on hand (8/7 homeschool Third edition and Algebra 1/2 Third edition). 8/7 continues to drill basic math facts and has daily mental math, whereas those are dropped from Algebra 1/2. My oldest son is in 6th grade and went from 7/6 last year to Algebra 1/2 this year - he is very math-minded. My second son, who is not as math-minded will probably do 8/7 instead of Algebra 1/2, because I imagine he will need the continued practice with drills and mental math that my oldest does not require. The 8/7 book has the same layout

I have used Saxon for all four of my kids. I have started each in Saxon 1 in Kindergarten. My oldest is now in Algebra 1/2 in 6th grade.

My sixth grader has been using Mavis Beacon Deluxe. I've been very pleased at how he's progressed this summer, just doing it 15 minutes a day, most weekdays. I tried introducing a game-like typing program last year (something like Typing Island or something like that) but I found it very ineffective. I like how easy it is for him to use Mavis Beacon, and I like how easy it is to gauge skill improvement. I would call it at no-frills program, but haven't had any negative feedback from my son about using it (even though he's having to do it through summer). He's typing a pretty accurate

I printed my son's pages a week at a time (there are many exercises they work right on the pages), and I worked from the teacher's guide on the ipad. It worked well for us, and I plan to do the same for WWS2.

Yes, I have the one that Dialectica linked to also. I believe I ordered mine through CBD. The price was the same.

Our 6th grade plans are mostly complete. I just need to finish my tentative corresponding history reading. I won't know how Spanish/Latin will shake down until we give it a go. We have about 2/3 of the BBLL to finish. Math - Saxon Algebra 1/2 Writing - WWS2 Grammar- R&S 6 Spelling- SWO H Literature- (see History) Science- Earth Science/Astronomy - Tarbucks' Earth Science 13th Ed. plus Applications and Investigations in Earth Science. History - OUP Middle Ages - Still tinkering with the corresponding reading list. I'll update with it later. Foreign Language- So You Really W

How it looks right now: Math - Saxon Algebra 1/2 L/A

AK-Mom4 - Thanks for your response. :)

If you've used Saxon Algebra 1/2, when did you schedule the Topics A-J in the appendix? Did you wait and complete them after doing all the lessons and tests? Or, if you scheduled them during the year, after which lessons did you schedule them? It seems to me that in previous years, the topics were introduced during certain lessons, but I don't see any references like that in the Algebra 1/2 student book. Thanks for any suggestions!

They do get longer at that point. However for the most part, what we did was just stretch the week from four days to five days at that point. I don't know that you'll be able to "plan ahead" for exactly how long it will take- but do plan to be flexible. If it helps, the "thinking exercises" are really the prep-work for writing. In many cases, they are thinking through (and jotting down in an organized fashion) what they will write in the paper. When you get to the writing part, it's just a matter of physically typing out what you've already thought about and taken notes on...ordering the

I think the very best place to start is to get familiar with the seasonal constellations - and the best book I've enjoyed for that is Stargazer's Guide to the Universe by QL Pearce. In order to look at anything deep-sky you'll need to know where to look for it, and the way you learn where to look is via the constellations. I would do that before buying any telescope, especially if you're not looking to invest much. Telescopes are fantastic and really interesting, but can be extremely frustrating to try to locate what you're looking for until you are familiar with some of the anchors in the

I work from PDFs whenever possible, so once a month I print everyone's assignments for the next month. Each of my four kiddos has two accordion files (they're each about an inch thick). Each file holds two weeks of assignments -separated by day of the week. Printing once a month seems to take 2-3 hours. I can easily make adjustments if we have to slow anything down. I have 12 x 12 cubes that I keep their core books and those accordion files in. Each kiddo also has a bin on the desk. Either the night before, or in the morning I pull the day's assignments from the accordion file, and put

Peace Hill Press has evaluations for placement in the WWE series - http://wtm-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/wwe/wweevaluations.pdf You mention they need work on the narrations- the evaluation would give you an idea of how they're doing. As sixth graders, even if they need work on the narrations, they probably won't need an entire year to get there. We did WWE 1-4 and then started WWS in 5th grade. The first few weeks were easy (because they were a review of narrations), but after that it was definitely challenging. I would plan to work on narrations in WWE (whichever one you pick) and then tra

The first one I bought was DIVE which I thought was a waste of money. The examples were basically the same as in the book - but with no additional explanation, it was just being worked on the screen. I also have Art Reed's CDs which I bought with the intention of using like the mom above. My ds 11 works almost completely independently, so I haven't really needed them yet - though we did watch the chapter on compound interest (7/6)- which I was having difficulty explaining well. It did the trick. That said, I just recently bought Saxon Teacher for Algebra 1/2 - I like the idea that all the

Been wondering the same thing :)