I don't know that I'm qualified to post as I don't have an over-arching, well thought out K-12 educational priority. In our homeschool, we decided to focus on life a phase at a time, so for elementary (because we haven't gotten farther than that) our end-game is to have our middle schoolers ready to consider and pursue different educational tracts that interest them, we want our kids to be superb-people and academically at the head of the pack so our educational priorities are Solid Childhood -- lots of free play, lots of experiences, lots of interactions with people from all walks of life, lots of time with extended family, lots of time to just be, lots of making things, lots of being a member of the larger community and meeting/interacting with adults Orientated towards Daily Life Skills -- able to competently engage with and participate in home life and basic errands American Cultural Education -- robust knowledge of games, songs "old fashioned" activities/hobbies from my Generations childhoods Handicraft Skills -- Its important to us that they're learning to use their hands, eyes and minds in-sync and simultaneously for joy and exploration so they learn to sew, knit, carve, shape, fold, and make things. Physically Competent and Skilled-- able to perform calisthenic routines run, jump, bend, lift, flex, hold, flip and control their bodies joyfully and intentionally. Competent in the basics in the foundations of parkour, soccer, racquet sports, gymnastics and a martial art Visually literate -- strong drawing skills, able to use drawing in the acquisition of knowledge, skills and as an act to express themselves. Knowledge Acquisition A solid-knowledge base in geography, anatomy & physiology, US civics, history, science and sports that allows them to listen to and understand/take from the news and adult conversations High Quality Academic Skills able to read fluently for knowledge, joy or instruction neat penmanship cursive manuscript mastery and fluency in arithmetic of whole numbers, rational numbers as well as polynomials we tend to aim at 3+ grade levels ahead in math To be able to Share in the family joy of Mathematics and Science discussion and exploration physically and symbolically

1) Get those math facts down cold AND drill the multi digit calculation of all the operations that she's been taught via RS so far. We aim for fluency in the execution of the algorithm s once they've been introduced and explored. 2) FAN Math Process Skills Problem Solving 3 and 4 to get a grounding in accurately and capably using BAR Models to solve one- and two-step word problems at the "Singapore Level" FAN Book 3 introduces all four operations. Aside from that, I would preview the TOC of MiF 2-3 to see if there are any skills that she's missing. Kumon sells workbooks called Decimals and Fractions 4 (adding and subtracting like denominators and Decimals to the hundredths) Decimals and Fractions 5 (Multiplying and dividing decimals, and adding and subtracting Mixed Numbers) Fractions 6 The four operations with unlike fractions.

Spelling by Sound and Structure SRAs Reasoning and Writing DK's World Atlas History Extreme Use of our Library Cards Runkles Geography

Runkle's Welcome to the Wonderful World of Physical Geography is a gem.

I think the We Both Read series is what you are talking about. Our Library has them.

Which math facts does the child need to master? All 4 operations or only some? With my older students, I find that they benefit greatly from daily-drills as they learn their math facts.

I think you are wise to shore up Algebra rather than press on with such a high frustration rate and error rate. When she worked through Algebra 1 -- did she do all of the problems? When she worked through Algebra 2 -- did she do all of the problems? As she used MUS Algebra, did she use the program fully and as prescribed, or did she modify the program so that she was doing only some of the work?

Sloths can be found in city parks due largely to habitat loss and habitat encroachment by human development.

My one true love for writing instruction is a 30 year old series designed for public schools but usable in a home school setting. There is a placement test and you will have to get the Teachers Presentation Book and the students Textbook for the level that you need, but SRAs Reasoning and Writing has been a godsend for our family. We go at the kids pace and through writing it masterfully covers grammar, composition, logical reasoning and argumentation. It teaches a few sentence patterns, so we do intentionally teach additional sentence patterns throughout, but I'm so happy with the guidance and framework that it gives the teacher and the student. My kids could write and proofread their own writing within a few weeks of using RAW C. I've written a long explanation of level C before, so I'm just going to link to that. https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/710466-during-the-first-few-weeks-of-the-preschool-i-distilled-a-general-rule-about-the-relationship-between-problems-and-solutions/?do=findComment&comment=8995962

How was his oral reading at the end of Sign of the Beaver? I'm not familiar with All About Reading, but it does have a 4th level. If that's not a good fit for you, then I found that after getting the basics down, focusing on building fluency at the syllable level and loads of easier readers for a concentrated time really helped to develop fluency. Both the old fashioned Open Court Basic Readers and Ultimate Phonics can be downloaded for free off the internet--I've used them to remediate reading and improve spelling and confidence in my older nephews (11-13 years old) over the summer as an Intensive. It was a big success for them. There are also programs like REWARDS and MEGAWORDS that are targeted at remediating and improving reading for older students if you want something open and go.

Personally, we love SbSS and have used it for each of our kids. We teach SbSS 2-6 directly from the Teachers Guide, use a regular notebook and whiteboard and I swear by the program and gush on it often. However, my kids have learned phonics and handwriting prior to starting it. So SbSS does reinforce and flesh out their phonics skills--it especially helped them with spelling more complex words. I love and use the Drills and practices in the TG for 2 and 3, even with the later levels. Which level of SbSS did you begin using? Do you use the Teachers Guide? Do you directly teach the course to him and guide him through the lessons, or is he using the Student Workbook just as a series of work sheets?

The rose was going to bloom until his 21st year?!! I never realized that the Beast was a teenager at the beginning of the animated film.

We taught cursive early (not first) and practiced to fluency in the early years and it's paid off nicely for the kids to be able to write neatly in Print or Cursive with fluency.

No. No way. If your family doesn't balk at 20K tuition for an 8 year old child, then fine, but time is irreplaceable and especially while young. She can do loads of labs and hands-on stuff at home. But I'm biased, we value visual literacy and invest a lot of time, energy and effort into developing our students ability to draw skillfully, sew, play music, build from cardboard and recyclable type products, etc. There's no way for STEM-skills to thrive without manual skills. It's not chic to say, but kids have to be able to communicate in drawings, numbers and writing. I wouldn't try to artificially specialize an 8yo by sending them to a STEM School. Instead, I would continue to give them a broad and joyful education that fit them, who they are and who they are becoming. For $20K per annum, surely you can find and hire skilled tutors and mentors in various STEM or STEAM related fields that don't consume her time and take time away from your family.

Use it to gradually pay for a variety of domestic services so that I have more time/energy for "fun". For example, I'd pay for a maid service to come clean my home a couple of times a month and use that time to do something "fun" with my family. I'd take the family to nice restaurants or outings that are outside of our usual budget. Or use the money to do a cheapy tour of North America.

We used Spelling By Sound and Structure 2-6 with great success. Probably could just do levels 3-6 and not really lose out on essential instruction and practice for the students. We do use the various techniques and exercises found in the TM for 2 and 3 throughout the program. What about SbSS is not working well for you? Which level(s) are you using? How do you exercise his spelling skills outside of the workbook itself?

I was deleting some digital clutter and remembered that I have this particular globe on a list of Potential Globes--it's only got the outline of Continents, but I never got it because I want a globe that includes land features. If you decide to get it, please let me know how you like it.

Our "fun geography stuff" are largely just globes (we have several) and popup books and jigsaw puzzles --GeoPuzzles are nice in that the puzzle pieces are shaped intentionally as countries and there is one for all 6 of the inhabited continents-- and then we also have some cool Geography themed books and popup books. In our home school, we study geography very intentionally before starting history. We use lots of maps (both store bought and printable) and markers and trace, label, id, etc. So they learn a strong visual map anyway. ETA: This particular globe is a smooth globe that has the outline of Continents but no country borders. This globe does not seem to contain land features or coloration aside from land/water. After I spent over a year looking for a globe with only land-features labeled and could never find one, I contacted a globe making company and got a special quote. I was looking for a textured globe with labeled land features, but no countries on it. I was told that it would cost several hundreds because they'd have to stop production, set the machine specifically to label land features only but no countries or borders and then run off a small batch of globes (can't make just one) and then reset the machine to resume normal production.

Hey, where can I find an audio-library of tons of different genres of poetry? I am looking for audio of Classic Poem Readings/Recitations and I'd like to find a wide variety of poets / performers not just in the style of Spoken Word/Slam Poetry. Youtube seems to have a bunch of Nursery Rhymes (obnoxiously produced and crazily sung) and Spoken Word Artists. I've been able to find a few other poems that are simply read, but I'm terrible at searching online for simple things. I can't seem to find CD's of poetry anthologies on Amazon.

We love ours too! We've also found that assembling it (and portions of it) has really reinforced geographic knowledge as well as.

It would depend on whether or not I'm comfortable letting Son or Fiance drive my car. If I wanted to drive, then I'd drive and they could get anywhere they wanted to. ETA: Oh, and how comfortable is the back seat? If it has reclining/adjustable seats, then I might relax in the back and let them sit wherever and however they want.

Really? Which level/semester teaches averages and has the sentence frames/stems in it.

Thanks for both the mnemonic and this idea. Any chance that you can find and share a picture or chart for this? I did a few searches and couldn't find anything.

Ooh, what an interesting idea. I think that this is a great component that's missing from a lot of math books. I'd like to design good questions, fill - in - the - blanks statements to familiarize students with how to interpret the various averages of mean/median/mode.

Spelling by Sound and Structure 2 (its the first level of the program). We teach it from the TM and like the program. SbSS teaches alphebetization, has activities in the TMs at the early levels and has been highly effective for our kids.