I don't have any experience with Vocabulary Vine, so can't comment on that. We've used EFRU and VfCR and definitely prefer EFRU. My oldest used VfCR last year (8th grade) and found it very boring and nothing was sticking. We switched to EFRU this year and now all my dc are working through it together. We learn a new root everyday about 3x per week. I begin by writing the root word on the white board and they try to think of English derivatives. We discuss these words together and try to come up with the root meaning. Retention is excellent and we're having fun too. I found lessons plans, work sheets, review crosswords and word searches as well as tests from www.cyncesplace.com.

:bigear: Curious about this as well. My 6th grader is halfway through pre-algebra right now (Dolciani). I was planning on starting him in Algebra 1 (Jacobs) after that but now I will look at other options mentioned here. He is strong in math but not a big fan of it!

This looks wonderful! I've been lamenting that I didn't spend enough time on geography this year and making plans to include it more in the fall. This will be a great way to keep things going over the summer and transition into next years studies. Thanks for posting!

I understand the "incremental" approach of Saxon. In fact, I love it! It makes perfect sense to me and I can make the connections between the lessons and the fact they build on each other. But! And it's a big "but"! My son doesn't. He's so used to the "chapter" approach where the connections are made quickly and made for him that the Saxon way just frustrates him. Many times I've tried to point out to him that the beauty of this program is that it gives him the concepts in small, little bites and lets him work on each one before putting it all together in one big, complicated problem. And that it is always giving him small, little bites of previous concepts so he doesn't forget when he see it later on. While this makes sense to me, it totally frustrates him. He wants to practice the new concept til he gets it and then move on rather than (in his mind) waste time doing 20 or more problems on stuff he's already learned. And, yet, if he can't remember how to do things from previous lessons he thinks he's stupid and can't do math. :svengo: This discussion has really helped me hone in on the root of my dilema here. It's not so much about Saxon anymore, and is it a good program and will it work if done correctly but rather is it the best way for my ds? In talking it over with dh last night, he made a comment about one of the reasons we decided to homeschool being that we could tailor the instruction to the needs of each child. So, while I love Saxon and (deep down) want to continue with it, I now have to ponder is it the right way for ds. In the meantime, I'll try the index card idea. Sounds like it will save us some time instead of me explaining things again or having to look back through the book. Ellie, just for clarification, when you said go back to the beginning and start over what do you mean by the beginning? Of Algebra? Or further back in the Saxon series? Thanks so much ladies for taking the time to help. I don't post often, but I'm constantly lurking and gleaning lots of gold nuggets of wisdom!

Yes, this is his first Saxon text. Mine too!! I didn't realize I shouldn't have started with Saxon with Algebra. Honestly, I was overwhelmed with choices and curriculum and what was best for which child and all the other stuff that comes with deciding to pull 4 children out of public school and start educating them myself! From my research, I figured Saxon was one of the best programs out there and closest to what he was used to. So we went with it. I can't remember if he took the placement test. I don't think so. Again, it was all so new to me. I thought if he had done pre algebra already then Algebra 1 was the next logical step. We worked on lesson 41 today. We went over all the examples in the lesson together on the white board and I assigned the 4 practice problems along with the problem set. He did the practice problems without too much trouble. But, by the time he got to #20 and 21 (which were from lesson 41) he got all confused and forgot what to do. He says its because he had so many different types of problems from previous lessons in between and that confuses him. I try to make him do every problem in the set, but he usually resists. So, we compromise and he has to do all the ones from the most recent lessons, along with the ones from that days lesson of course. Today, I didn't make him do the ones from, say, lesson 4 or 5, but he did have to complete the ones from lessons 25 and up. I keep telling him that this amount of review and constant revisiting old concepts is the best way to insure that he understands it and really "knows" it. We've had many discussions about the way he was taught in the past (ie learn it for the test, then never have to worry about it again) and how we don't want to replicate that type of learning at home. However, he is the type of boy who's very easily distracted. He can't keep a lot of steps or directions in his head. He needs to be in a quiet spot to read or do his work. So, I can see how, to him, the review questions could seem to be an sort of interruption into the new things he's trying to process. Does that make any sense?

Traditional textbook is actually what I was looking for because I thought it would be the easiest transition for my ps educated child to being a hs child. I thought that's what I was getting with Saxon. Silly me! I've never heard of Jacobs Algebra ... will def check it out. Thanks for the suggestion and the link.

This is our first year of homeschooling and my 13 (almost 14) yr old is in 8th grade. He completed a pre-algebra course in 7th grade in ps and after much debate about exactly where he was as far as placement goes, learning style, mastery vs spiral, and many other things, I started him with Saxon Algebra 1. He is not what I would call a strong math student (like my 12 yr old 6th grader), but he does well once he's had lots of time to absorb and practice a new concept. We hit a real slump in late Nov-early Dec when I was ready to throw in the towel and try something, anything! else. I did some research tho' and found this was very common, since the review aspects of the program were over and now we were dealing with the real stuff. So, I decided to stick it out and make changes where I could. It got a little better at first, but not anymore. Here are some of the things I'm talking about. My son thinks Saxon goes too fast by introducing a new concept in each lesson every day so I've really slowing things down and often do a lesson over several days. In fact, at one point, we went back 6-7 lessons and started over til he "got" it. He also thinks there isn't enough practice of the new concept in the problem set, so I've made up my own problems and added them for extra practice. And, finally, I love that Saxon reviews concepts taught in previous lessons in each problem set. My son hates that! He wants to learn something, practice it, be tested right away and then not see it again. But what else can I expect from him after 7 years in ps? So, my question is, what should I do? Do I continue to tailor the program to his pace (and take 2 years to finish it) or should I look for something else that would be a better fit? If so, what? I'm not crazy about switching this far into things, but I'm even less enthusiastic about dealing with his complaints and frustration every. single. day for the rest of the year! Oh wait, he's still a teenager right? Guess that isn't going to go away completely no matter what math program we use!

Thank you so much for this awesome list! It's raining here today, we finished our last read aloud on the wknd, off to the library we go!

For my ds13 and ds11 who both love science. They are currently in PS and we will begin our homeschooling journey in Sept. I've considered SWB's suggestions in TWTM and I have the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia and The Us borne Internet linked Science encyclopedia to possibly use as spines. But, I'm concerned about a couple of things. One is the expense I'll run into buying the basic and supplementary resources throughout the year. Secondly, since this is our first year of hs (and I have 2 younger DC) am I better off finding something more open and go that doesn't require a lot of prep by me? Finally, DS13 has had 2 years of "life science" (basically he had it in 6th grade at one school, we moved to another town and they covered it in 7th grade at the new school) so I'm thinking we need to cover earth or physical science Or would general science be better since I want to combine both boys in this area? I'm also trying to keep high school in mind for ds13 and lay out a good course for his next 4 years too. Oh, and a Christian perspective would be preferred, but not absolutely necessary. I've looked at Apologia but I'm not strong in science so I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking at! Any suggestions?

I have the text WWE The Complete Writer but haven't had time to read it yet (spending all my time on this forum instead! :001_smile:) so I didn't realize there were evaluations for each year. Thanks for the link too. Very helpful! I will do these with each of the older boys to get a feel for where they are. I have FLL 1, 2 & 3 as well, so I will start DS6 with level 1 and DS8 with level 3. I can always backup a bit or go slower if he has trouble. If I find the 11 and 13 yo need to work in WWE 3 or 4 after they do the evaluations, should I hold off on starting R&S 6 with them? It's my understanding that R&S mostly for grammar, so should I start it too and just leave out the writing exercises? Thanks for suggestions for SOTW for the older boys as well. I do have some mapping materials on order as well as a time line for them. I hadn't thought of checking out other curriculum for reading suggestions/book lists though. Thank you so much!

I hardly know where to start! I have 5 boys ages 14 to 6 and will begin homeschooling all but the oldest in Sept. (He's going to a agricultural/technical high school...a good fit for him) I've done tons of reading and have settled on a classical approach but it's so different from the way they have been taught in public school that I'm having trouble knowing where to begin. Let me start with what I think I will be doing with them and ask my specific questions at the end. DS6 - 1st grade : Spelling Power, WWE 1, FLL 1, MUS Alpha, SOTW ancients and not sure about science DS8 - 3rd grade: Spelling Power, WWE level ?, FLL 3 (not sure, is this OK for a beginner?), MUS Beta or gamma (depending on placement test results), SOTW ancients and not decided for science. DS11 - 6th grade: R&S English 6, MUS epsilon or zeta (again, depends on placement test), SOTW ancients (or is this too young for him?), science not decided yet. DS13 - 8th grade: same as 6th grade except math is Saxon algebra 1 None of them have done any copy work, dictation or narrations before. No problem for DS6, but what about DS8? Should I just begin at the beginning with WWE1 and FLL 1 wth both of them? TWTM recommends R&S 6 for my 6th and 8th graders.Is this enough writing or should we add WWS, wS (if so what level) or IEW? Again, they have NO experience with narration or dictation. Should I start them in WWE 3 or 4 so they learn these skills along with outlining (or is that covered in WWS?) Regarding narrations, how do you do this with multiple children? If my 2 youngest listen to a read aloud together, do I make 1 leave the room while the other narrates back to me? Otherwise, doesn't one just copy what the other said? I have so many more questions about science and history, but they require a thread into themselves, I think! I'm so glad I found this forum. I've learned so much already. Thank you!