My oldest self studied with CompuScholar way back when they were called Homeschool Programming and (along with using a test prep book) he got a 5 on the AP exam.

W&R was a big hit for my 5th grader who is a natural writer. She loved the stories and the background info and the challenge to write the same thing in different "copious" ways. 9th grader loved her online biology course from Berean Builders and discovered that she loves plants and might want to make them a career someday. Win!!!

Who else is a college educated adult who learned a crap ton about history from listening to SoTW cds with their kids? *sheepishly raises hand* Disclaimer: I wouldn't consider it appropriate to use it for a high schooler either. But I'd bet money that the majority of people in the US could learn a lot from Story of the World. Anyway, OP - I would just give your 6th grader Human Odyssey and not worry about lining it up with the younger kids. Although I do really, reall like Miss Tick's idea of doing timelines and discussion together.

I don't know anything about GCSE or the UK system, I'm only familiar with the US. If your kid can outline and summarize and write a good paragraph, then he should be completely ready to write across the curriculum. You can have great lit discussions a la LToW without the writing component, although the folks at Circe probably think it's heresy to say that 😉 I've used Argument Builder and my kids needed more direct instruction in writing than it provided, but it was very good at developing their thinking skills. All of that to say, that I don't really think you could go wrong with using any of those programs or with using bits and pieces of them and crafting your own writing assignments.

Oldest DS did an internship in Seattle a couple years ago and we went to visit him for a long weekend. Silver Creek Falls near Silverton Oregonand the Hummocks Trail around Mt St Helens were both beautiful. He also took several friends to Olympic National Park when they came to visit him.

We're in the exact same situation, except we still have 3 kids at home too. 215,000 miles and needing repairs. We ended up replacing the brakes and the spark plugs (~$2000) to make it driveable for another year or so 🤞 and we're going to make it limp along til used car prices aren't quite so crazy. Definitely getting another Odyssey after this one, I love it.

He did Video Text for Alg 1 and 2 and Geometry because I hadn't heard of AoPS at that point. But then he did AoPS C&P and NT and Precalc followed by the Calc. So yes, he had experience but not for his whole high school math sequence.

I don't know anything about ULAT, but I've used Destinos with my 3 oldest. If you're getting good grammar practice somewhere else, then I think Destinos would be a fun supplement to listen to and get some practice hearing Spanish conversations. But it will be very difficult to understand those conversations without some Spanish instruction and practice already under your belt. We always did Destinos after they'd done a couple years of online Spanish with Visual Link. When I used Destinos myself back in college in the dark ages 😉 we started right in on it the first day, but that was in the 2nd semester class so everyone there had already had a semester of college level Spanish or a year of high school level Spanish at that point.

I don't know if AoPS is your kid's "thing" or not, but my oldest self studied Calc with the AoPS book and solutions guide.

For my natural writers, the old Writing Strands was great. As is W&R, which I am using currently with my 5th grader. For my kids who needed a little more guidance we have used Wordsmith and IEW successfully. As a natural writer myself, when I first started hs'ing I found it difficult to teach my kids step by step how to do somthing that is intuitive and easy for me to do. IEW helped me to break down the process for them better. Now that I know that process, I can use other curricula with that knowledge in my back pocket. 8filltheheart had a curriculum called Treasured Conversations that was really good at that too, but I don't think it's available anymore. Maybe worth checking out?

@cintinative Year 3 starts post-Reconstruction with AO chapter 20 and GC USH video #50. We don't get back to Human Story til Ch 27 on imperialism.

No problem! I also use Great Courses (History in the Ancient World A Global Perspective, Foundations of Western Civ I, and United States History) and American Odyssey to make a 3 year cycle through history. I have roughly lined it all up in a spreadsheet if you're interested.

FWIW, I do think Our Human Story is relatively easy reading. But that's fine with me, because for me the point of reading it is to understand it easily and see the broad themes and happenings of history. We save our "hard" reading for literature 🙂 This paragraph from a sidebar scored an 8th grade reading level: In the medieval realm of Christendom, Jews formed a visible and distinct minority. Until about the year 1000, most European Christians lived in relative peace with Jews. Although Jews could not own land, they could make a living as merchants and were allowed to lend money at interest, a practice forbidden to Christians. During the Crusades, however, Christian intolerance of Jews spiked sharply. Crusaders marching to Asia slaughtered whole Jewish communities on the way. Some nobles and kings began persecuting Jews as well. In 1290, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England. A few years later, King Philip IV expelled them from France. In 1492, Jews were ordered out of Spain. Many fled to Muslim North Africa or into parts of what is now Turkey. As they fled the lands from which they were expelled, many Jews lost their possessions or even their lives. This paragraph scored 11th grade: Sometimes the prejudice against Jews turned violent. Waves of pogroms - organized massacres of Jews - swept parts of Russia and Poland. Faced with such oppression, Zionists worked to establish a state in Palestine where Jews from all over the world might find refuge. The Jews' desire for their own state received support from the British. In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported "a natinal home for the Jewish people," while also insisting that the "rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" be fully respected. After World War I, Palestine became a mandate of Great Britain. Hopefuly Zionists encouraged more Jews to move to the area. By 1922, Jews made up just over 10 percent of Palestine's population. Tensions rose in Palestine as various interests began to collide - Jewish nationalism, Arab nationalism, growing Islamism, fervent devotion to the Holy Land, age-old prejudices, and anger at old imperialist powers. As you'll read in alter chapters, these tensions would lead to ongoing bitterness and violence. I just randomly selected two paragraphs, one from closer to the beginning of the book and one from closer to the end ... the fact that they are both about the Jewish people is a coincidence. Hope this helps!

I have used both Fix It and Analytical Grammar and I definitely wouldn't use Fix It for this issue. I don't know how the new Analytical Grammar is set up, but in the old version you would start with Season 2 and it would be exactly what you're looking for.

This is my experience as well. All the hs families I know irl are very interested and invested in their kids' educations. Maybe their idea of a good education looks very very different than mine, but none of them disdain education or think it's a waste of time. This next part is not directed at Jean but at the thread in general. I do feel a little uncomfortable with some of the comments that seem to imply that there's a certain number of children that is ok and acceptable for a woman to have, but having more than that undefined number is just asking for poverty and mental health issues.

We came home from our Cancun trip with many of the same feelings. We tipped well, and we hoped our tourism dollars contributed to the resort employees having a steady source of income. But it was an odd feeling to be waited on hand and foot and it made me feel vaguely uncomfortable. Missions trips can do a lot of good, but they can also do a lot of harm. Our church youth group is going to a long-established village for deaf people in Jamaica this summer. The long term missionaries there are very appreciative of people coming to visit, as it is encouraging to them to fellowship with other believers and to be reminded that they are cared about. It fosters good relationships. But they do warn against some of the common mistakes short-term mission groups make and asked the group to read and discuss the book Helping Without Hurting and watch the related videos before coming. The videos/book have been very eye-opening for the students and the parents as well.

Yeah, I knew it was a unpopular opinion 😂 And seriously, I'm glad for your family that it works and you find fulfillment in it! I just wanted to push back a little bit on the growing idea that the standard of normalcy is to be sooooo busy and have little kids in sooooo many things from a young age. It doesn't have to be normal if we don't make it so.

DD did H&R Block for free pretty quickly on her own. I was on hand for questions, but it was pretty painless for her.

Totally agree. Quality family time is exponentially more important and valuable than any EC.

Prefacing this by saying I am not slamming people who choose differently than I do. We all find fulfillment for our families in different ways. You do you, and I sincerely hope you rock it! Now for my unpopular opinion: EC's for children under age about 10 are more about what parents want than about what kids need and most kids are in waaaaay too many. Their purpose should be exposure and physical movement, both of which can be done at home and/or recreationally. The purpose should not be "what can get us to the next level". There are a few exceptions/child prodigies but those are few and far between and chances are very high that your kid - as well as my kid and probably all the kids we both personally know - are not one of them. So, with that in mind - we did what seemed doable for me as a mom and what didn't wreck the family schedule/routine as a whole. Having large amounts of unstructured time and figuring out worthwhile things to do with it on their own is one of the joys of childhood! Edited because pronouns/antecedents are important

I'm not sure ... maybe? I think you could safely skip Module A if he is rock solid on arithmetic, fractions, etc. I'd have to check the manual again to see if there's anything else. Not sure on Module B. You'd definitely have to watch with him (which I recommend anyway) and see if he understands the underlying concepts and the VT "lingo" so to speak of how they explain things. They are explained a little differently and if you jump in a little bit later it could be confusing. Honestly I'm so used to the lingo by now after 4 times through the program that I might not even realize at this point that it's unique to VT lol! You could maybe have him do the quizzes and tests from Module B to see if he can pass those.

I've told my kids that I don't care if they go to college, as long as they have a plan. I also tell them that it's my job to prepare them in high school to the best of my ability, and that means college prep classes whether they decide to go or not. If they don't go to college, then they will still have a great robust education as their last formal schooling. If they do go to college, then they'll be prepared. If they are interested in trades/apprenticeships/certificate programs then that's great too, they can be worked in as electives and they'll be set for that possibility too. AP classes aren't necessary and SAT prep can be done at the last minute if they change their mind and they want to go to college after all.

Honestly, a gifted kid is often going to thrive better on their own and self selecting and directing their learning than they are going to in any school setting, gifted or otherwise.

We start school at 9 and take a break from 12-2 for lunch and outside time, then do school some more until done, usually around 5. The high schoolers work pretty much that whole time. Once they're in 3rd or 4th they have a little bit of afternoon work to do, but not a lot, and it ramps up from there til high school. K-2nd starts with about .5 hrs in the morning and then works up to about 3 hrs. That includes reading on the couch with me and oral subjects and music, not just seat work/book work.

We do it in 12th, because there's just so much meat and depth to it that I want to be able to do it justice. I was assigned to read it in 9th or 10th and I remember being mystified about what/who Boo Radley was. The rape and the racism part went over my head completely that first time too. I wasn't all that impressed. So when I became an adult and realized it was on everybody's "great books" list I figured I must have missed something as a teen. I was right 😉