We pretty much do all of our homeschool work in the afternoon and evening. We also do work on the weekends as well. I have a toddler that is at the age that makes it impossible to do any school work in the morning. I focus on giving her one on one time in the morning and then when she takes a nap I can switch gears and work with my older daughter. Since she is more independent now I usually just give her assignments at that time and then throughout the evening she can ask questions. A couple of days a week we sit down and go over everything and if there is anything I need to teach like math concepts or history topics then we go over that as well. My dh gets home fairly early in the afternoon so once he is home then I can have him watch the toddler as well. I think there are just different stages of homeschool and sometimes you have to switch things around to make things work, but that is the beauty of homeschooling! BTW, my oldest dd is a night owl so it would not be unheard of for us to be doing school at 9 or even 10 pm at night!

I bought the DVDs and texts off Amazon and Ebay. They are all pretty easy to find with those ISBNs. I just got the older editions on the texts and they are perfectly fine. I don't think there are that many differences in the new vs old edition if it is only 1 edition earlier. I need to check my DVDs to make sure they work okay, I only tested out one of the DVDs and it seemed to work fine, but now that the glitch issue was brought up, I will go and check them. One piece of advice when buying on Amazon/Ebay, try to buy from someone that has a better description of the item or a higher ranking. Don't always buy the cheapest one listed. I bought one text off of Amazon that luckily the inside was in pretty decent condition with no writing, but the cover was severely worn. I was planning on removing the pages from the cover anyway and putting them into a notebook, so it worked out for me okay, but the seller did not describe this in their listing...they just listed it for $1 or so. So, when you see those really cheap listings, there is a reason for those. I am sure there are some honest sellers on there, but not all of them.

Amazon has samples of the texts: Aufmann Prealgebra Larson Algebra

I own both Key to books and Math Mammoth. I find there are a lot of problems on the pages in the Math Mammoth books that tends to be overwhelming to look at. I like the concepts that it teaches, but it just seems like there is too much of a busy look to the pages. I find Key to books easier to look at and they seem to get to the point faster, but in some of the books there is a little bit of endless drill. I feel that either one is a good choice, you just have to decide which one fits your style more. Both of them are so inexpensive you could easily get one book of each just to see the differences.

Just to throw another suggestion in there, if you decide to go with SOTW 2, you might want to look into using Biblioplan. They have everything scheduled for you and it would allow you to include different ages a little bit better. They have book suggestions for each age group. On another note, I did use WP years ago, used the Animal Worlds one and we loved it, although we did not use it as scheduled. We really loved the chapter books that were included in the program. I think the only real negative with WP is the poor customer service.

I would consider Key to Algebra more of a prealgebra level. Also, for that level I would suggest Derek Owens. There are free online videos at Lucid Education. For my dd, for 8th grade prealgebra, we decided to go with Chalkdust Math. I found a pretty inexpensive older edition of the math text (Aufmann) and there are videos if you need them (also can find these inexpensively) but that is not a requirement. I am thinking of also using the Key to Algebra books along side this text. Not sure how I am going to combine them exactly. Maybe do a unit in the Chalkdust text and then do a book or two of the key to algebra books. My dd just needs lots of practice in math, so every bit helps and she is familiar with Key to books so I kind of want to stick to what works. My idea for including the Chalkdust math text is so my dd can get used to using a math text as she approaches high school. For when you get to Algebra you might want to consider Algebra A Fresh Approach. It is a simple presentation of Algebra in a workbook format. They also have Algebra II and Geometry. Algebra A Fresh Approach

We will be starting 8th grade in a few months and still undecided on a few things: Math: Chalkdust Prealgebra Science: Holt Earth Science and Life Science Writing: Undecided but might use IEW Literature: Literary Lessons From Lord of the Rings and TLP guides Vocabulary: Undecided, might just continue to study word roots History: Trisms History Masterminds, Beautiful Feet guides, or EpiKardia Foreign Language: Latin Alive

Here are the ones I know about: Biblioplan Sonlight (they use for some of the cores) Truthquest History Easy Classical History Odyssey (Level 1) Ambleside Online Classical House of Learning Resources for SOTW Combining SOTW1 and MOH

Here are two others to consider: Giggly Guide to Grammar Caught Ya Grammar With a Giggle series Also you might want to consider Galore Park's Junior English series: Galore Park Junior English

I have to agree with the excuse to buy books! A few other reasons: so I can customize the education of each child, I don't think I could ever get up early enough to get the kids to school on time, we have more time for extracurricular activities and traveling, and I love spending time with my kids.

I am partial to Texas since I am from here, but I think we have pretty friendly people and out of all the cities I have lived in around Texas I think Austin is the friendliest.

I agree with what everyone has suggested on here. I shop at all the usual places garage sales, Half Price books, Amazon used, WTM board, homeschoolclassifieds, etc. There are also library book sales you can find from time to time in your area. Ebay sometimes has good deals, although lately not as much as been posted on there because of the high fees. I even see stuff in my area posted on Craigslist. I have to say the number one way to save money on curriculum is once you buy what you need for the year, quit coming on this board and reading about new stuff! That always gets me into trouble!

For 6th-7th grades we have been using Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals and Percents along with Key to books in Fractions, Decimals, and Percents. For 8th grade this next year we plan on doing prealgebra and most likely we will be using the Chalkdust Prealgebra text (Aufmann) along with the DVDs, but we may only use the DVDs for confusing topics. The only other prealgebra books/curriculum I have had on my radar were Derek Owens (love that they have the free prealgebra videos online) or Lial's Prealgebra (I actually already own this book, but I was not in love with the busy way the pages look and spacing between problems). I love the idea of something like Kinetic Books, but my dd does not like computer based instruction.

There is also Easy Classical. They have a science schedule for the grammar stage that goes through the four cycles of science. Easy Classical Science Schedules Also, Living Books Curriculum has their complete curriculum guides on sale (not sure how long) for $27. It is more of a Charlotte Mason approach to science with lots of nature study. They do weave all the science topics together each year though rather than a separate year for earth science, chemistry, etc. http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/category/EBooks.html Noeo Science Not sure how experiment heavy it is. Mr. Q There are these websites, but not sure what ages these are for: Chem 4 Kids http://www.chem4kids.com/ Biology 4 Kids http://www.biology4kids.com/ Physics 4 Kids http://www.physics4kids.com/index.html Cosmos 4 Kids http://www.cosmos4kids.com/ Kids Biology http://www.kidsbiology.com/ Here are a few WTM threads about science curriculum: Meaty Science Science Focused Here is another one: Aha Science

Maybe consider Trisms History's Masterminds or Beautiful Feet guides or maybe even Biblioplan. Biblioplan and Beautiful Feet have been making a lot of changes to their guides which I think makes them a little bit more involved, but still simplistic at the same time.

We might do some strawberries dipped in chocolate, not sure yet, since I am on a diet! I also have a gingerbread house leftover from Christmas (has not been opened yet) and I think it would look cute as a Valentine's Day Gingerbread House!

If anyone needs to know what books to order when, here is the order the books are used in the medieval guide: Books Used: The European World is used throughout, so you need this right away (by Barbara Hanawalt) Weeks 1 and 2 - Beowulf (Michael Morpurgo) Weeks 3 and 4 - King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (Roger Lancelyn Green) Weeks 5 and 6 - One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Geraldine McCaughrean) Weeks 7-9 - Queen Eleanor, Independent Spirit of the Medieval World (Polly Schoyer Brooks) Weeks 10-11 - The Adventures of Robin Hood (Roger Lancelyn Green) Weeks 12-14 - Magna Charta (James Daugherty) Week 15 - Cathedral (David Macaulay) Week 16 - Castle (David Macaulay) Weeks 17-18 - The Kite Rider (Geraldine McCaughrean) Weeks 19-20 - Adam of the Road (Elizabeth Gray) Week 21 - Morning Star of the Reformation (Andy Thompson) Weeks 22-23 - Crispin the Cross of Lead (Avi) Weeks 24-25 - The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer) Weeks 26-28 - Joan of Arc Warrior Saint (Jay Williams) Week 29 - Fine Print A Story About Johann Gutenberg (Joann Burch) Weeks 30-31 - The Trumpeter of Krakow (Eric P. Kelly) Weeks 32-35 - Columbus and Sons (Genevieve Foster)

I guess the time spent on the guide could vary depending on how fast a reader your child is or whether you are doing some of the books as readalouds. The first week involves reading one chapter from a spine, 40 pages of Beowulf, there are 35 locations to label on a map as long as labeling trade routes, websites to check out on Charlemagne, 34 vocabulary words to define that are related to the Beowulf reading, and 7 questions from Beowful to answer (I guess these could either be discussed or written). So, it could take a few hours or maybe more depending on the child. I did not buy the literature pack because I have so many of the books already scheduled in the guide, however, I was not aware of the spine that was used when I first purchased the guide, European World, so I would definitely either get that one or something similar.

I bought and have in my hands the new medieval guide for advanced intermediate and junior high levels. I love that it has colored pictures throughout the guide. It just looks a little more "beautiful" in its appearance. There are suggested activities, books, websites, etc. There are mapping activities throughout the guide. Besides the literature that is read (there are several, Adam of the Road, One Thousand and one Arabian Nights, Adventures of Robin Hood, and many more) and the discussion questions, there is also a main spine that is used called The European World (Barbara Hanawalt). Previous to picking up this BF guide, I tried to use History Odyssey and found it to be very dry. I also did not like that History Odyssey did not specify what chapters to read when. My dd needs more direction than that. BF guides are broken down into weeks and then there is a list of items to be completed for the week (the medieval guide is 35 weeks). Here is an example of week 1: -Read European World - intro and ch 1 -the guide gives a long list of countries, rivers, and locations to mark on a map and gives suggestions for making the map -the guide gives background info on Charlemagne, do report on Charlemagne and put in portfolio (gives helpful websites) -intro to Beowulf and define words from Beowulf -read pages 1-40 of Beowulf and then lists questions to answer related to the reading -lists a website with hands on activities related to Beowulf week 2 then continues with further activities, questions, and readings from Beowulf and European World There are also some historical notes throughout the book that give further information for the time period being studied. There are answers to the discussion questions in the back of the book and vocabulary definitions can be found in the back of the book. My only complaints: -there is not an adequate table of contents in the front of the book that shows how much time is spent on each topic -I wish there were more writing assignments Also, here are examples of a few of the projects: -build a model castle out of sugar cubes -make your own Chinese kite -write your own Canterbury Tale -draw three common ship types

We probably won't be starting on 9th grade officially until next January or so, but here are some things I am considering for 9th grade: Math: Algebra 1 with either Chalkdust or Derek Owens Science: Either Physical Science or Biology with Kolbe History: We will be doing the four year cycle of history starting with Ancients, so not sure yet we will use, maybe TRISMS or TOG Latin: Latin Alive 1 Writing: Possibly IEW, need to research this more. Literature: Junior High Literature guides (I heard these are actually quite advanced) from Kolbe and/or Literary Lessons From Lord of the Rings Art: Possibly an art elective from Oak Meadow

We have never been worried about grade levels, just keep moving with what curriculum we are using, however, this is easier to do in the younger years. Now that my dd is 13, it is time to get prepared for high school so I do have to worry about grade levels more. If I could go back in time and do everything all over again, I would have made sure to keep more on grade level starting with 6th grade so I could get a better idea of where we were headed.

I would definitely try doing math at a different time of day. I have the exact same problem with my dd, she is a total night owl and gets revved up after 9pm. She gets really creative and alert at that time and starts drawing pictures, reading, etc. I am not a night owl myself so I try to meet her in the middle and I will give her math assignments in the afternoon for her to work on on her own anytime in the afternoon/evening and turn into me the next day. My dd tends to get bogged down with the repetitiveness of math problems as well so I try to change gears every now and then. Here is an example: we were working in the Key to Percents books and about 3/4 of the way through the book I could tell she was getting bored and overloaded with working percents problems, so I took out a different Key to book, Key to Geometry and assigned her some problems from that book. So, I try to change topics if possible, use different workbooks, occasionally we take a break, just to give the math topics a chance to sink in and her not to be so overloaded.

We are currently using WWW 6, although we just started it and have not gotten too far into it yet. I have a 7th grader and I was not sure where to start either. I decided to go back down to the 6th level since we have not covered that much formal writing instruction. I feel like it is a bit simplistic too, which I guess is not a bad thing. I am sure as we get farther into the book there will be more challenging assignments. You might be able to go ahead and start with level 6 because I think there is a bit of a slow introduction at the beginning of the books or if you start with level 5 than just go through it with a quicker pace. In the book, there are assignments for each day and I found that because my dd was capable of much more I could have her do most if not all the assignments in one day. With WWW, I like it, but I don't love it, but that is just me, super picky when it comes to writing curriculum!

We had a couple of years where we had to cut back on curriculum spending and it was kind of hard, but we managed to survive through it. We used the library, used books, garage sale finds. I would find used curriculum on this board, homeschoolclassifieds, Ebay, or Vegsource. There are also a few yahoo groups that have used materials as well. For math we used cheaper workbooks from either Math Mammoth or Key To books. For grammar, we used either cheap workbooks or Growing With Grammar. Science, we mostly just watched videos and read science books that we already had. For history, we got books at the library, but other inexpensive options would be getting a guide such as Beautiful Feet, Truthquest (great option if you have multiple ages), History Odyssey, etc and just getting books from the library to go with them. For writing, we did not use a formal curriculum, just did more journaling and creative writing. For spelling we used either Sequential Spelling or Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary. If you are really set on using MFW, then maybe just get the guide and try to get the rest of the books from the library or used. You might still find someone selling MFW for a good price if you keep looking around. Also, see if there are things you can sell around the house. I did that for a year, found books, curriculum, movies and would either sell them on used boards online, Ebay, or had garage sales. You would be surprised how much money you can raise.

If anybody wants to just save it on there computer in PDF rather than printing. Click on the link, then in Google docs right under "Book List" click on File, then click on Download Original. That will allow you to download in a PDF format.