I signed DD up for Sparkers. I hope she likes it!

Christmas break for everything except tumbling and gymnastics. Next week will only have one tumbling class, with the rest of the week off. I should maybe start planning next semester.

King Arthur and a World of Other Stories (also Robin Hood and AWOS and St. George and the Dragon and AWOS - personally I prefer the St. George book, but Arthur seems easiest to find) (McCaughrean) My Book House series (Beaupre Miller) The Light Princess and Other Stories (MacDonald) Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages (may not all fit your criteria, but you can skip those) (Bloom)

Maybe the Bravewriter expository essay classes? He could take a couple and be covered for the semester.

Calvert has a great schedule. I've heard good things about their elementary and middle school curricula. (We only used Pre-K, so I can't speak from firsthand experience about your grade levels.)

When DD was about 3rd grade-ish, we used OIS (edited a bit while reading), Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History, several lit books - Peter Pan, A Child's Garden of Verses, The Moorchild, The Children of Green Knowe, Little House in the Highlands (about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother), Robin Hood (plus the movie, of course!), Stories from Shakespeare, Questing Knights of the Faerie Queen, The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. DD also watched the British Isles episode of Little Travelers and a lot of Horrible Histories (on YouTube), plus The Secret of Kells (does have one scene that might be scary for your youngest). They also have Song of the Sea now, about the selkie myths. She ended up deciding to be Boudicca for Halloween that year. :001_smile: She also took Irish dance around that time, too, but that wasn't planned as part of "school". For an older child, I'd add the Galore Park books, Canterbury Tales, The Sword in the Stone, Kidnapped (preferably an audio book for the accent), and some others I'm forgetting. :laugh:

Don't forget to read the Aeneid, too. In Search of a Homeland is a pretty good adaptation.

They look neat. I'm considering Sparkers for DD next semester. I've been looking for something with literature and civics/social studies.

Happy Thanksgiving! DD and DH are out repairing her go kart, which keeps them out of my nice, clean house. :laugh: We're doing some of the advance prep for Saturday, but not a lot. And the dog is getting a bath, and knows it. He's hiding somewhere.

It's a light week for us. I work Monday-Wednesday, so DD will be doing math and English those days, plus an art lesson because she likes it. She finished her last MBtP social studies unit last week and I forgot to order the next one until yesterday, so I decided to give her the whole week off of science, too. Thursday and Friday are completely off, but I'm making her do an hour of free reading over the weekend because she'll spend all her time on her phone or computer if I don't. It will be weird only taking her to 2 days of gymnastics instead of 4 or 5. We are FINALLY getting our carpets professionally cleaned today, so yesterday was nothing but cleaning to get ready for that. Then I have to make sure nobody spills anything on them until Saturday, when my family comes over. I'm SO glad to have our old ratty couches gone from our living room. I've wanted to get rid of them for years (we already have a sectional that we actually use, these were just taking up space along the walls) but I couldn't get DH to agree. I finally got him to drag them to the burn pile yesterday so he wouldn't have to put them back in place after the carpet is cleaned.

Does stuff with DVDs at home count? If so, DD will be doing MUS Algebra and Geometry (she should finish the first half of Algebra this year) and the One Year Adventure Novel. I'll plan her literature. Art is online, but not a live class. If we don't go with science at a friend's house (they're doing chemistry next year), I may do Oak Meadow biology at home. We're doing their Environmental Science this year, and Health in the spring. I really like the content of Moving Beyond the Page, but getting DD to actually DO the work is a nightmare, so I'm considering outsourcing history and geography. She does better for other teachers than for me, I've found. :( She usually spends an hour a day at home either on the trampoline or tumbling in the living room, in addition to the 8-10 hours per week she spends in actual gymnastics classes. I'm not sure if that counts, since it's entirely self-motivated, but I could probably count her home practice as PE and let the rest be extracurricular and she'd get a full credit.

Favorites here, that haven't already been mentioned: Un Lun Dun Momo (by Michael Ende) The City of Ember (the sequels are good too, but we didn't read them aloud) Watership Down

Maybe. It introduces Eastern philosophies in a very light way. I actually wish it were a bit meatier, with suggested resources (I suspect that's what their online class has, but I can't justify spending $350 for a 1 semester course, personally). But it's a good introduction, I think. It's hard to find eastern philosophy courses that aren't college level, because even if you find a philosophy course, it's nearly always based on the western school of thought. Now I'm looking for high school level philosophy courses that don't cost an arm and a leg, so DD can participate and discuss with other people than just me. She LOVES discussion.

Good morning afternoon! It's been awhile since I joined this thread... Everyone in my house has had the flu, since one of my coworkers got sick from his flu shot and came to work anyway, so that's been less than fun. School has been a slog recently, so I changed a couple of things (it is October, after all, and we really need changes/breaks in October and February). DD finished her vocabulary book today, and we started Eastern philosophy (The Circle of Happiness from Royal Fireworks Press), which she really likes. It asks her to try to answer questions she would ask, and got a kick out of our discussion because we think differently and there is no "right" or "wrong" answer. It should only take 2 weeks if we do one lesson a day. Oddly enough, it was kicked off by our watching The Good Place on Netflix which cites several Western philosophers and their philosophies throughout the show. (Good show, but not for those who are particularly conservative, or children). Now I'm considering replacing history this year with philosophy. We did the history of science last year, so maybe the history and study of philosophy would be interesting? Also, I got a book on the history of Halloween for her to read starting next week, instead of the rehash of world history that she's been struggling against since August. We're gearing up for tumbling and trampoline competition season, so DD is in the gym or out on our trampoline (self-motivated!) almost every day, except the end of last week when the flu hit hard.

We did Build Your Library 8th grade last year (History of Science), and I'm trying to find something more than what we already have, which is Word History Detective by the Critical Thinking Company. It's ok and gets done, but it's nothing new (we've done Ancients at least 3 times already, and middle ages at least once), and it stops there. So I'm looking for something for next semester. Maybe late US history, since DD is interested in that. It may be a combinations of Moving Beyond the Page (their social studies for 12-14 is US history) and the Exploring America books. I don't want to make it too heavy though, because DD is already doing high school level science, and will be doing HS level English and Health next semester, along with algebra.

What happened just before he was on the verge of tears? Was it something he was struggling with? Talking about friends? Sitting too long? Maybe if you can pinpoint what he was doing, or thinking about, etc., it will give you a clue.

I blame optimism intoxication. It usually happens when on vacation or otherwise unhurried or unstressed, leading to wild promises of later productivity and rosy visions of planning and execution that would never happen if the idea had been settled in mid-February, when everyone is sober and tired.

I guess you could do school as usual in the morning and surprise them by taking the afternoon off and doing something fun. Or giving them new outfits or backpacks or something. We usually take pictures with DD and all her school books in her "school uniform" (a khaki or navy skirt and white polo, like the uniforms most schools have around here - not that she ever wears it for school, but she might wear the pieces with other outfits). It's neat to see how much she's grown and she has something that looks schoolish for the relatives. I got DD a new backpack this year to replace the "embarrassing" Hello Kitty backpack she's had since she was, um, 4. (It was still in great shape until the end of last year!) It'll probably only get used for packing for sleepovers like the last one was, but she did get to help pick it out and I got it at a Back to School sale, so that counts, right?

Writing Magic is really good, and it's just a little book. OYAN might be a bit advanced since it's designed for high school, but you could always make it the "Two Year Adventure Novel" if you need. They also have a follow-up curriculum that addresses writing science fiction and fantasy, if she's interested once OYAN is done.

We used it. DD was a little younger and it got to the point it was going too fast for her, but it sounds like your kids could whip through C and do D with no problem. It only requires 2 books (workbook and TM) compared to some of the myriad parts and pieces of other curricula (I've used more than I'm willing to admit). Both books are required, though, because you can't do the dictation without the TM.

Last year we used Build Your Library. This upcoming semester I'm using MCT literature (Fog trilogy). Other years I've just compiled a list and had DD read and discuss.

Yeah...13 isn't a whole lot better. I'm still getting flak because a few months ago I told DD she probably wouldn't be an Olympic gymnast (in artistic gymnastics - I said if she worked hard she could probably be one on trampoline) since most of those girls are at an elite level by now and she is nowhere close (she started gymnastics at 10). I have "crushed her dreams" as she likes to tell me when she is the slightest bit frustrated. (I guess that's better than "I hate you", which my friends seem to get from their kids). Frustrated with a math problem? Dream crusher. Mad at the dog? I have broken her dreams and stomped on them. Honestly, if there was a drama contest in my area, DD would be a STRONG contender.

I know I've answered on this thread before, but I think I finally, finally have everything nailed down. Unless DD decides she HATES something I picked... Doing a semester of 8th grade, then re-evaluating. DD may be ready for 9th at that point. Math: Pre Algebra (Horizons) English: The One Year Adventure Novel, MCT Lit: Fog, MCT Vocabulary of Literature, Spelling You See History: World History Detective (Critical Thinking Company) Science: Environmental Science (Oak Meadow) Art: The Secrets to Drawing (The Virtual Instructor) Other: Dyslexia Games C (The Thinking Tree) PE: Competitive tumbling & trampoline - trying out for the Junior Olympic team this year, recreational gymnastics, horseback riding when she has time I was actually looking at Cover Story for English, but DD saw OYAN and went "That, that, that!" and it was the first curriculum she's been really excited about so we'll do that instead of my original plan. I want to use this semester (or year) to really shore up DD's writing and math skills for high school, but she's generally been advanced academically, despite her dyslexia and loathing for math.

Maybe Human Odyssey? I read A Picturesque Tale of Progress a couple of years ago and learned a bit about other ancient and medieval cultures. The books are dated (written in the '20s) so some mentions of yellow skin when talking about Asians, for example, but nothing horrifically derogatory. I learned more about Russian and South American history reading those books than all the other "world" history texts I've found (they mostly focus on western Europe).

I can't recall the details of all of these, but I think they're ok. Mama's Bank Account Momo (Ende) The City of Ember Ballet Shoes The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself The Inquisitor's Tale