All of those options are great and look like things my son would enjoy--thank you so much!

My son is interested in learning more about Hitler/Nazi Germany. Does anyone have recommendations for high school level/perhaps college level books and/or textbooks? Thank you! (Accidently posted in K-8 so moving the question over here 🙂)

Oops! I'm so used to writing on this board, that I actually didn't notice that I put it in the wrong place. 🙂 Thank you!

My son is interested in learning more about Hitler/Nazi Germany. Does anyone have recommendations for high school level/perhaps college level books and/or textbooks? Thank you!

@Zoo Keeper--I'll check out those other options as well. Thank you so much!

I am looking for some independent worksheets for my 5th grader (who has completed FLL 1 & 2) as she needs a bit of a refresher and some practice. I'd really like something simple that will basically be used as a review. Has anyone every used these before? Would these work for my purposes? https://www.milestonebooks.com/item/1-129-3/

My son is currently in 8th grade and I am working on planning out history for his 9th grade year. I am having the hardest time and would love to reach out and see if anyone had any better ideas. Background on son: Has some reading comprehension issues so reading takes a long time. Ideally, I would want something that has some reading but also relies on video or audio. My current idea is this, though I'm having a bit of a hard time pulling the trigger: 1. Oak Meadow's World History. It says that it is a "textbook-independent" course and that any textbook and/or other research methods can be used. 2. Used with Notgrass World History as the "textbook." 3. He would be allowed to search for videos on topics in order to answer the questions--probably looking at mainly Ted-Ed videos and I might purchase the audio of World History: Fertile Crescent to the American Revolution. Is this a completely ridiculous idea? What am I missing?

Right now the basics (English, science, math and a tiny bit of history) are taking up all of our day and not leaving any time for other interests. Is it necessary that I add in other subjects?

He'd prefer to write/type himself. I'm looking at what I had planned for this year--I had such grand plans. I'm struggling a bit with trying to figure out what is necessary and what is just fluff.

Thank you so much for all of the replies. I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to reply. We had some computer problems and, honestly, I think that I just needed some time to think everything through. This has stuck with me (almost brought me to tears) ever since I read it and is what I have been thinking about the most. I fear that I have been rewarding his hard work with more work. YES! The evaluation does mention this! This knowledge has caused me to look at our schedule and evaluate a bit. I realized that all of our core subjects (English, math, and science) are super heavy as we outsourced a lot of things starting last year. We have decided to drop the outsourced math class and move to something that will still move him forward but maybe isn't quite as intense and exhausting. Since several people mentioned this, we have been trying a weekly schedule. He looks at the assignments that are due and then determines how long he'll give himself to do that task each day. I'll admit that he's been a bit resistant. I'm hoping that will change soon. 🙂 I've been having some guilt about how long it took to get the evals (we live overseas and I couldn't find anyone that could help) so I really appreciate your encouragement.

I’ve looked through the main board for this question but the information isn’t entirely helpful in my current situation. Recently learned that DS13 has a low working memory and slow reading comprehension. The report basically said that he is capable of work at his grade level but that it will take him longer than most. Sooo, how many hours per day is normal for an 8th grader? Should I just expect to add an hour or two to that due to his challenges? I’m trying to find a balance between what is “normal” but also won’t wear him down completely. Thank you so much!

OP here. Thank you so much for all of the responses--I really appreciate it. I'm sorry that it has taken me awhile to respond--I've been processing and changing things around. As some suggested, I started to watch my son to see how he was using his time. He was wasting SO much time! Getting up to get a drink. Sitting down. Getting up again for a snack. Sitting down. Changing the font on a paper instead of actually writing the paper. You get the point. 🙂 For 3 days, I called him out each time I saw him wasting time. And then all of a sudden, he was done one day at 1pm. And that has continued! 🙂 We've been able to add in history (which he really likes), grammar (which I think he still needs a bit of), and some stuff on reading comprehension and he has still been done at around 2/3pm! Plenty of time to still play and have fun. I took to heart what many people said about maybe not needing some subjects and decided that his spelling is actually pretty good so I probably don't need to add it as a separate subject. We'll do daily typing this summer to work on speed instead of adding it now. Thank you so much! I honestly don't think that I would have thought about time management without it being mentioned. 🙂

I'd say that he is spending around 6 hours (that does include our morning Bible time), but there is definitely some dawdling so I would say that it's not all focused time. Sometimes when he's finished, he's pretty spent. Maybe I should give him a short break (1/2 hour or something) and then expect another 1-2 hours for my other subjects?

Thank you for the input. Outsourcing is new to me, so I had no idea that it might take so much time. And yet, I know that the material is engaging him (right before bed I found him reading the science book that he doesn't have to start until next week). I had also planned on history, spelling, grammar, typing, and computer. Do I just abandon them completely? Do some stuff over the summer? Make sure that he does 1 hour of something extra per day just get some of it done?

How many hours per day should a 12 year old (7th grade) being doing? I don't think that there is a lot of busy work. He was definitely not used to this level of intense, of which I feel badly about. I feel like most of this year has been learning how to manage his time, which he still struggles with. The math has been difficult, but I have worked with the teacher and they have been helpful in adjusting his schedule a bit. We outsourced because ds needed to be around people more. He's grown in a lot of ways and I can see that it's been a good thing.

Update below. This is the first year that I have outsourced any classes for my ds12. He is currently taking Math, Science, and English (which includes reading, writing, and some public speaking). They are intense. Getting the work done for those 3 classes is taking up most of his day. I was planning on working on other subjects with him, but I can't seem to fit everything in. I'm a bit at a loss. I was planning on working on other subjects with him, but I can't seem to fit everything in without making it into a super long and stressful day. Feeling super guilty because I've dropped so many other things. Any suggestions on what I should do?

What about holding back in later grades? I've heard this for early elementary, but don't know anything about holding back later elementary.

*Please do not quote* The co-op is something new, for people who live in remote places so it is pretty small. Our son would be in the "2nd" year of it's existence. The program works so that the kids fly to another location for 1 week out of the month and then do their work at home the rest of the time, so there is really only social time during that week. They have said that there could be some flexibility in the future--he could repeat pre-algebra when in the 8th grade. If this year of math proves to be too difficult. he could do a "study hall" math time and work on his own math (that we would teach otherwise). He does have local friends in our village, but they are few.

Unfortunately the co-op is only for 7th and 8th grades.

*please don't copy* Thank you for much for your replies. Our big thing with wanting to try the co-op is that our ds doesn't have any English speaking friends. We live in a remote area and he speaks the local language well, but we see within him the need for friends who also speak his native language. The co-op only offers 3 subjects (math, science, and English), but he would get to do it English with some kids that are already his friends (though he doesn't see them often). There are no other options as far as friends/co-ops where we live.

Edited to add "keepsakes" as I also have a few non-toy items (old piggy bank, necklaces, etc) that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. I have packed away some of my old favorites from when I was a kid--mostly stuffed animals and a few other random things. A few children have mentioned wanting things. I don't think that it makes sense to just keep them in a box, but how do I decide who gets what? Any suggestions? Advice? Anyone else distributed their old childhood favorites amongst their children?

I've heard about CLE, but never really looked at their products. Honestly, I've always felt a little confused by the light books. Do they do grammar every day? Every year? Diagramming or just application? Do they have a placement test?

Okay, so my title might be a bit dramatic. However, I am coming to the conclusion that my well thought out plans are not going to work for this particular child. The problem is that I don't know what WILL work. Ds is 11 years old and so far we have done FFL 1&2 and R&S 4. I thought that we would continue with Rod and Staff, but I can see that it is not working so well. I really don't want grammar to be something that causes stress. Ds is not very interested in most things school related. He needs lots of repetition and a workbook seems to work pretty well. I've discounted JAG or AG because they say that a child needs to be ready to dissect a language and I really don't think that he or would enjoy that. I've looked Easy Grammar, MP's English Grammar Recitation. Any suggestions? Honestly, I'm not even sure what my goals for grammar are or SHOULD be . . . Edited to add more information

Ds and I have talked and have shelved it for now. However, I will start researching more so that I can figure out what I'm going to decide on in the future. Thank you, everyone, for your input/advice/wisdom.