Yep, this is about what I do also!

This is my 13 year old also, though he's the stereotypical boy who isn't good at putting all the writing elements (thinking, spelling, handwriting, etc.) together yet. But, yes, if my 13 year old wanted to write that out, it would take him a good half hour to get it on paper, all the while asking every few seconds for me to spell something for him. But we'd probably have to scaffold that first, by writing bullet points of what he wanted to cover. I'm rather impressed yours was able to get all that straight from her brain onto paper sounding like that!

I've had my boys do things like: Given old newspapers and a roll of masking tape, build a freestanding structure to hold a basketball at the height of your waist for at least a minute. Or Given 1 piece of 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, figure out how to have 3 people stand only touching the paper. Or build a paper airplane that carries the most quarters and glides at least 10 feet. If these types of things are what you're looking for, search for STEM challenges for kids or Engineering challenges for kids. And if you're on Pinterest, the same searches will yield a bunch of options. If not, just ignore this. 🙂

This one? http://homeschool-curriculum-reviews.com/math-curriculum-selector/

I saw that when I was searching for information and tools, but just blew it off because I thought-well, yes, sentence variety matters, that's WHY I'm trying to find something to teach him this. However, you bringing this to my eyes again, gave me pause and this time, I thought-Yes, I should show him this to motivate HIM to change. It doesn't tell me how to help the change, but if he sees the difference, that's a start. Thanks. (I'm looking into the other resources mentioned--Thanks!)

My oldest will be 9th next year, so we'll see how that goes! Math: Algebra 1: Finish Jacobs Algebra then move to Jacobs Geometry, probably CTC Understanding Geometry LA: 7sisters Introductory High School Writing and 7sisters Narnia and Space Trilogy lit studies Science: help! Botany with a textbook preferred, but I may have to do Biology with an emphasis on Botany-still researching Friendly Biology with a quick supplement on the botany chapter using DK's Trees, Leaves, Flowers and Seeds? History: Ancient History using the ancient section of Our Human Story with research projects-still have to figure that out, also Foreign Language: ULAT French Electives: 7sisters Health (1/2 year); 7sisters Psychology (1/2 year); Drawing with tutorial videos on youtube and computer animation-Alice with tutorial videos on youtube.

My Middle Schooler is reading the Concise Hakim History of US and really enjoying the text. He says it's a lot like SOTW was, which was the last history he enjoyed-in early elementary. I read a lot of reviews here on the board, and Middle School seems to be the upper end of the age spectrum, so if you read it aloud, it might work for your youngers also. There aren't any review questions or supplements in the book, though-I just have my kiddo tell me 2-3 main people and 2-3 events that occurred and ask any questions I have about his explanations.

My 8th grader's writing assignment today was to take a boring paragraph (example: "Paperclips are the most amazing office products ever invented. Paperclips are useful. Paperclips are easy to use. Paperclips are fun. Paperclips are not like staples. You don't need a special device to attach them......") And make it better, mainly by varying sentence openings within the paragraph. He didn't do that great. Yes, he got the basics-don't use the word "paperclips" too much and combine sentences, but he needs much more work on this topic before we move on. I looked online and found a powerpoint presentation that I liked, but wanted something slightly more in depth than a one day presentation and examples. Can anyone suggest a supplemental unit or something which works on fixing boring paragraphs? I know these are the main ideas of IEW, but we tried IEW a couple years ago and it flopped (the repetition was awful, and he basically retained so much of the original, that re-writing was done from memory rather than the notes (words) that he wrote down). We've also done The Paragraph Book series from EPS, and a creative writing book for the other grades of Middle School. We also did Part 1 of WWS earlier this year. After finishing this book, I plan to head to 7sisters MS Essay Writing, but that seems to be a different area of writing than making your paragraphs "exciting". Thanks!

My DS (also not a fan of scary-or even climactic), while he didn't care for the Baseball Mystery series, loved the Cam Jensen series, and also liked the A-Z mysteries and Calendar Mysteries (both series by same author), Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown. Also are the Geronimo Stilton series, Hank the Cowdog. I've also heard good things about the Clementine series for this age.

I'm not seeing the suggested essay or exam questions-could you direct me? Thanks!

No answers or suggestion here, but I very much empathize with you, as my son sounds an awful lot like yours. Since mine was ahead (like yours), we are taking this year to do real life math. I found some canadian workbooks here: (https://www.nwtliteracy.ca/resources/youth-and-adult-literacy#39 ->Everyday Math Skills halfway down) which have been very beneficial. We've already finished one and are halfway through another and have only had to skip a few pages at an adult level. Not to add another option, because it doesn't sound like what you're looking for, but thought I'd throw it out just in case. I'm not sure what we'll do next year-I'm still looking into that. Will you be switching to a different publisher for middle school math? Or continuing on with whatever you choose to finish out the year? I'll be watching this thread for others' ideas also, thanks for bringing it up!

I've found my tween learns a lot more than I thought by looking at the answer and figuring out what went wrong. Maybe you could have him fix the ones he missed, and then take or re-take the test (not sure if there's another test he could take, or if you have enough math knowledge to alter the probelms or what).

You have to be careful when you say "singapore math", because, that is both a style and a brand. As SilverMoon mentioned, the curriculum, "Singapore Math" (singaporemath.com) has 2 branches of the elementary program-US and Standards. Each has 1 workbook and 1 textbook per semester, plus any teacher manual (there is a homeschool one, and a regular one-both very expensive from what I remember), and any supplemental workbooks you choose (challenging word problems is the most popular). However, the style of singapore math can be found in other curriculums such as Math Mammoth, Math in Focus and probably others, as well as Singapore Math.

I really liked Balance Math teaches Algebra (Critical Thinking Company).

Just an update, I filled out the contact form on the website, and the author got back to me within hours to verify that I was an adult, and not a student, then sent the answer solution right away. He was very helpful, and asked for both feedback if desired and any errors encountered as we use the material. Seems to be a very caring, professional person who was a pleasure to work with.

I never found a workbook that was good on labeling the geography things (state, oceans, etc), but we do love sheppard software or seterra, both online programs where it says a place and you click on it. My 1st & 2nd graders handwriting never would hold up to that much writing, so we saved their writing power for the actual subject of writing. Also, unless the words they needed for fill in the blank were actually in a word box, they would be calling every couple seconds for help spelling stuff: "Mom, how do you spell mountains?". 🙂 We did enjoy Evan Moor Daily Geography, though, but did it mostly orally, so I can recommend that one. Since this suggestion won't work for the handwriting practice you want, something we sometimes enjoy is a scattergories type worksheet. Where I have certain topics (color, something you eat, something in the garbage, etc), roll or choose a letter, and they write something they think of to fill the topic that starts with the letter. (They still call out for spelling help on this, though). Other handwriting practice ideas would be making lists: Make a list of all the colors of cars you have or doll dresses or whatever. You might also add tallying into this. Or fantasy grocery list, or whatever you can come up with. (We don't do spanish, and I've never found anything that works for spelling, so Geography is the only thing on your list I have ideas about.)

That looks really cool. But am I reading it correctly, that you have to email him for the solutions pages?

Some notes from my experience. I love Lori D's list! As always, she is so insightful and helpful. (Thanks!) So, first I would add to her second section: word building + affixes-you can get a little of that in the megawords books. This series first starts with compound words, but I found it very useful in building words including learning how to use and spell affixes. Also, the Critical Thinking Company Word Roots series builds on the root word. What I mean, is they study a (latin) base word and then add prefixes and suffixes onto it to make into words. That didn't work well for my boys. (We prefer to study a prefix or suffix and add IT onto words.) Another option is Dynamic Literacy, which studies one pre- or suffix at a time, and has some fun-ish workbook pages. I also always liked what I saw of Red Hot Root Words workbooks, but since I was able to make what we had work for what I wanted, I never did try them out, but just another to add to your list to research.

Since LA has been taken care of by the above posters, I'll add my experience on some of your other options. Latin: If you really want to have a Latin, I would suggest Song School Latin. We did that from a young age. However, like Lori D mentioned above, I've found that at 5th and 8th grade, my boys are DONE with it (and have been for a few years). I wish I'd waited until later to start. Logic: I'd like to suggest hands on games for Logic/Critical Thinking. Mindware, Thinkfun and Smartgames.eu have some great ones. (See timberdoodle.com for tons of options).

Both of my boys are like that, as they get older, it gets better. When you mentioned the screaming at the "scary" parts--I could relate! 🙂 Anyway, for nonfiction, I would recommend the Holling C Holling books, Realistic Fiction: Frindle and a few others by that author, HOmer Price and others by that author, That's about all I can recommend. I have a fantasy lover and a mystery lover, so most of my recommendations would be things I've found that work for them.

How much time is appropriate for an 8th grader to spend on math? I know there are threads on here, some even recently, that have this suggested information, but I just don't seem to be searching for the right words to find them. We're trying out using a timer/time frame for math instead of completing an entire lesson and starting with 30 minutes, but I want to know what to shoot for. Thanks!

My 7th grader is reading 10 chapters a week, and then on Friday, spending 5 minutes telling mom what they read about that week or explaining some of the pictures.

Hi! This is my first foray into the High School Board as I"m researching for next year when my oldest starts 9th grade. I'm looking for 9th grade level Ancient History course for him. I've found Beautiful Feet which is literature based, the SWB History of the Ancient World, though not sure how to use that one, or Dave Raymond's Antiquity (which has way too much writing for this child). Are there any others you know of that I could look into? I'd like something with minimal writing, as that's a huge struggle for him. Secular or Christian-doesn't matter, but I don't want it based on the Bible (meaning I want to get away from what is covered in the Bible, if that makes sense). I don't want a literature heavy course (BF is about the most I would want). I'm ok with some non-fiction mixed with some fiction/literature, but not quite sure how to put it together. This is for a child who loves ancient history. We've already read SOTW Ancients (multiple times). Not sure what other choices I have-minimal hands-on stuff, no busy work (word search/fill in the blank worksheets). Anything else you'd need to know to make recommendations? Thanks!!! (He's also requested British History, maybe for 10th grade, if you know of anything for that.)

We have enjoyed Winston Grammar in a little writing way. I wrote the sentences on the whiteboard, he marked it with the cards, then the marks. It's a very hands on approach which my boys loved. It doesn't teach much in the way of punctuation, though. Other than that, everything we've tried was only ok for us, not recommendable.

Thank you!