Great ideas, thank you. I asked dd and she said she wants to learn about conservation/natural resources. For space she said she wants to learn about wormholes and black holes....not sure where that leads exactly but at least she came up with something she is interested in.

We are trying to plan out science for the year, I do 4 10 week quarters. I want this to be our earth science year, but I am a bit stuck for what to use. The topics my dd12 wants to study are: Environmental Science (not sure it fits, but she is really interested so we are going with it), Geology, Space. So I need one more topic and some resource suggestions. Secular please.

Meet the Masters has a track for grades 5 and up, I think it works for middle school, but probably not high school.

We use this book and have really gotten a lot of good instruction from it: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Lab-Kids-Adventures-Printmaking/dp/1592537650/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404914604&sr=8-1&keywords=art+labs My daughter also requested to do "Meet the Masters" this year, we did it a couple years ago and now she wants tp do the higher level track.

I had my daughter read them herself at that level. If I didn't think she was ready for the books I wouldn't have used those units.

We used all of 5th, except math, and this year we are using the history and parts of the language arts. I think how you use it plays a large role in how "on level" it is. My daughter loves it, and she has learned so much history and loved doing it. Her writing ability has grown leaps and bounds.

Bluedarling, did you have the MBtP 11-13? I didn't like their science at younger ages, too much jumping around, but I hear the 11-13 is pretty good.

I think what I want is something for our core that has some depth, that is what makes it more interesting for us. Even if we used just a few core books with narrower topics that are earth science related I would prefer that to a skimming the surface general earth science spine.

I was planning to do Earth Science this coming year, but I can't settle on anything because they all look so boring! Has anyone used something and loved it? I prefer secular and am looking for advanced middle school materials. TIA

I usually use journaling once a week and it is the math lesson for that day. I do it when I introduce new concepts or to go deeper into a concept.

We use a math journal and it has helped a LOT! I first read about it here: http://www.rundesroom.com/2012/08/interactive-math-journals.html and I purchased her set and use it along with other things I have found or made up. We do math journal once or twice a week depending on what we are studying. My dd11 loves hers and looks back at it often. I know for sure it has helped a lot with her understanding of things.

Well, Rainbow Resource had a "Bargain Bin" set so I bought it, hopefully it will meet our expectations :-)

Has anyone used this? My dd and I sat down and looked at options for 6th, as I have mentioned before we have been working through the Liping Ma intervention program, and she likes the looks of this the best. I know part of the appeal is the colorful pages and at this point I am happy to go along with anything that helps her be more positive about math. Any input is appreciated.

I purchased from Amazon, used and got the student workbook and the Teacher's Guide. Altogether I think it cost me about $15. I think the teacher's guide is really helpful since it isn't just that you want the child to be able to do the problems, you want them to learn the thinking behind it all and this really is helping us make that happen.

Sorry, I didn't really think about it since Liping Ma is mentioned so often on these forums, but I know the program isn't. Knowing Mathematics is a 12 week Intervention math program to help bring children in grades 4-6 up to their "grade level". It is based on Liping Ma's research and is meant to help with core mathematical understanding. Each lesson begins with an introduction to what you will be talking about, then there is a picture of a conversation in a math class between the teacher and students about the topic. You read through it and discuss it as a way to get the student talking about math and thinking. Then you do some guided practice followed by them doing their own practice problems. There are pauses and discussion throughout. Finally there is a reflection portion which kind of goes back to the beginning. I feel like the nature of the program is closer to Singapore than not, but it is presented more clearly with smaller steps IMO. It seems like this could be a good transition to one of the more Asian style math programs if I end up heading that way. We were working mainly with CLE which is spiral and really helped her to get caught up and over some of her math phobia. She started to hate the repetition though and as I looked ahead I am not as excited about the upcoming units. She wanted to try Teaching Textbooks so we did, she flies through it but she isn't retaining anything. We are working on division with Math Mammoth because she was not getting it from TT. She has only been doing some pretty basic fraction work as it was introduced in TT, and we have worked through the first two Key to Fractions books. I would say that yes, she is at the starting level of various different things like division and fractions and decimals. I would not have any problem using more than one resource, but would like a main spine math program that we could supplement. Not sure this made it any clearer, thanks for any help.

I am looking for something new to use for middle school years. We are currently going through Liping Ma's Knowing Mathematics Intervention program to get up to "grade level". My dd11 is really clicking with it which is a huge relief as we have really struggled through the years with math. She is also currently working on Math Mammoth Division but she does not like it too much. We would like to find something that is scripted if possible, that aspect of Knowing Mathematics has been helpful (it causes less resistance from her if I am reading a script - I know it is kind of ridiculous, but it is what it is). She would really like something that is more colorful and "fun" looking. It needs to not have huge conceptual leaps, math is not her strongest subject and if she gets frustrated she shuts down. She is a VSL. We have used Singapore (this was not a good fit), CLE (was okay, gets the job done), and TT5 (has it's strong points, but overall disappointing for me). I am doing an interactive math journal with her which has been going well. We use Beast Academy way behind grade level because it is still challenging and pushes her to think in a different way. I am hoping there is something I haven't heard about or considered yet like Knowing Mathematics. TIA

We have used some of the books from MM, Division and Fractions. It is okay for practice but it doesn't work for us for teaching. The instructions don't make sense to my daughter and I need more ideas for presentation. We definitely need something with a teacher's manual.

I really want to use the summer to get my dd11 caught up on her math and so I purchased the Liping Ma "Knowing Mathematics" program. I bought the 5th grade set, because she is in 5th grade now, but I am wondering if I should have gotten the 6th grade set instead as our goal is to go into 6th grade math when we finish summer. She has completed TT5 this year, but I am finding that although she did well with it and it eliminated a lot of crying and fighting, she did not get deep enough understanding of any new material and she is still lagging on some of the basics. The problems in the 5th grade Knowing Mathematics books are going to be easy for her, but the way of thinking is different and my hope is that it will help her to understand math more deeply. I am hoping she is more ready for some of the conceptual stuff now, when we tried Singapore in 1st and 2nd grade it was a nightmare. I REALLY like the teacher manual for this program, which makes me think that I should find something similar for when we are done. I like the specific instructions, script, wording for explanations. Is there another mastery type program that has this? Would it be reasonable to try switching to Math in Focus this late in the game? We have used Singapore (too many leaps for my dd, frustrating), CLE to get caught up, and Teaching Textbooks (which neither of us is satisfied with). I appreciate any suggestions.

I have used both. I think that a major difference is that MBtP alternates between units of social studies and science and jumps around a lot more. Oak Meadow has history and science concurrently all year. This year, for 5th grade, I used OM for history and science and MBtP for language arts. I really like both, but didn't like the flow of social studies and science in MBtP. It was too disjointed for us and I felt like we didn't end up covering anything in depth enough for it to be our whole curriculum. My dd really likes Oak Meadow. She loves the projects, even the writing assignments are appealing for her. We will use OM again next year, the English and History portion. For science I am doing my own thing, and then I will add in a few lit units from MBtP. We really like the reading selections from OM for 6th grade so I won't need as many from MBtP as I did this year.

I love the Ecology site and that is perfect! Any suggestions on texts for zoology and ecology?

I have been poring over the many helpful posts from Ruth about how she does science and I am trying to design my dd11's 6th grade course. We have been using Oak Meadow and nothing goes deep enough for her to have high interest at this level. We want to do Biology/Life for 6th grade and I feel a little stuck on choosing topics and scheduling. My daughter has expressed a lot of interest in studying animals/zoology but I don't want to focus all year on that. I would like to do some of Ellen Mchenry's courses, we are doing Botany now and enjoying it. I would like to fit in Cells and the Brain. I definitely want time for a science fair project. We do four 10-week quarters. I am so inspired by these posts and it sounds so much like what I want to be doing but haven't managed to accomplish being bound up in curriculum. Any recommendations for topics, order and books would be greatly appreciated! I feel like I am not real sure where to start, I have never done science without a curriculum before, but am excited to dive in! Anyone done Life Science this way and have some ideas? TIA

We used the Chemistry for grammar stage for about 2.5 months. It was not a good fit. I was excited to use it and wanted to love it, but it felt like a lot of copy work, busy work, and jumping around and not much real science. We switched to RSO which we both liked better and supplemented a bit.

Bumping as I am considering this for next year.

I don't actually find their boards terribly helpful as they are not very active. I would maybe look on the secular homeschool forum as there are a lot of people there that use MBtP. As far as your question, I think it depends what else you are trying to do in addition to MBtP. I personally think you could do two at the same time, but you may want to eliminate some of the activities or it could be too much. You might want to purchase a concept and look at it. They aren't that expensive and then you could really get a feel for what it would be like.

I have used MBtP in it's entirety although this year we used only the Language Arts portion. 1. The social studies and science go with the concept you are using (example: Force and Power), they alternate though within the concept, you don't do social studies and science at the same time. 2. Each concept has 3 units that last 3 weeks each. You finish Dirt and Plants and then move on to Native Americans. 3. No, if you don't use the language arts you don't miss out on science or social studies material. 4. Yes there are science experiments, mostly there are kits for them and the kits are included if you buy the package from MBtP. 5. I think it would be hard to combine students in different grades, not impossible, but not great. I love many things about MBtP and so does my daughter. The reason we don't use it in it's entirety is that I wanted to go more in depth in topics. With only three weeks on each unit we felt like we wanted more for some things. I still purchase some units and we do all of their language arts.