I have done it twice now and we absolutely love it. Their book choices are fantastic and their activities are interesting and dynamic. We skipped a few activities here and there and I added a few things when we wanted to go deeper. I added math and handwriting but that was it. I don't agree with the authors that a standalone math program isn't needed.

Do you feel that your 10 year old is able to remember the words/rules/patterns weeks later?

I completely agree!!!

I am so happy that you took the time to post. I am in the same boat with a 5th and 1st grader. 5th uses TT because she needs it and 1st uses a combo of mm2, rs b games only, and k12 book 2. She thinks it's boring and wants to do fun math like sis. I think I'll let her do tt3 as practice/fun math, but also do mm with her for her lessons.

Moving Beyond the Page might fit the bill. Secular, creative, minimal prep.

I really like Writing Tales. My 5th grader has used WT1 over the last two years and we are finishing up 2 this year.

The point mid-book is to have the student use the outline to write from (you may notice its called "write from the outline"). I have my dd do this orally since she does writing from iew which is enough for her right now. It took me a few chapters to figure this out as well!

We love it here. My dd has done the 7-9 lit units, 8-10 lit units, and 9-11 Poetry and 50 States. My younger dd is doing 5-7 full year. It's expensive so I try to find it used. I love love the projects at the end of each unit.

Moving Beyond the Page 9-11 is a great curriculum for student-lead units. You can just buy a few lit units, a few social studies/science units or the whole program. We did 50 States and Poetry this year from the program and my 9 year old 4th grader loved them. We've done 8-10 lit units and they are parent-led but still very good quality.

I have a dd who struggles to remember things. We switched to TT (spiral) and everything is finally clicking for her.

I countered these same feelings by using unit studies and lit unit based curriculum like Moving Beyond the Page and FIAR. I moved away from memory work and copy work in favor of more variety, creativity and fun. My oldest is 9, so I can't report back success with my method, but everyone really likes the approach here and they are learning a lot. The only thing I kept is the history cycle and SOTW although I alter and add to that even. Let us know if you switch what ends up working for you.

I countered these same feelings by using unit studies and lit unit based curriculum like Moving Beyond the Page and FIAR. I moved away from memory work and copy work in favor of more variety, creativity and fun. My oldest is 9, so I can't report back success with my method, but everyone really likes the approach here and they are learning a lot. The only thing I kept is the history cycle and SOTW although I alter and add to that even. Let us know if you switch what ends up working for you.

Goodwill turns up some finds sometimes. Especially literature picks. Here, paperbacks are 69¢. I also found reference and textbooks.

Moving Beyond the Page has a Poetry unit for ages 9-11 that my dd is enjoying. We are doing it for 3 weeks. It combines learning about poetic terms and writing poetry. It ends with a project of putting on a "poetry night" like a coffee shop.

My 9 year old is loving MBTP's 9-11 year old poetry unit. It correlates with their 50 States unit, so it uses a neat poetry book about America. It also uses R is for Rhyme and Love That Dog, both great resources.