My 12 yo is taking a coding and robotics class at the local school and they use Scratch. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Go with Plant Therapy or Eden's Garden. Reasonable prices and great products - with no MLM markup! Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Yes, he plays basketball. He's on a city league team and I just signed him up to play at the middle school, too, so he'll have a few more afternoons a week of physical activity. That definitely helps.

Yes, there was a significant ramp up in work this year. He's in the midst of a major growth spurt, that's for sure, and is much more irritable than usual. It's not like him at all. He's usually very even-keeled. He also used to be very close with his sister so it bothers her, too. She and their 10 yo brother have now banded together. This is why I hesitate to send him to school full-time ... middle school is such a tough time socially and attitude-wise and I can't help but think it will only make things worse. Yes. This is my plan for tomorrow. :) This is great. I plan to emphasize this with them tomorrow.

No. He's happy taking his one class a day there (robotics) but thinks she's the problem and she should go to school instead.

I have 4 children, 3 of whom are homeschooled. (The youngest is in early childhood special ed preschool.) My 7th grader has turned seemingly overnight from a sweet, easygoing boy to a teenager who can't stand his little sister (age 8) and is constantly fighting with her. He can't stand being around her for school and is angry and frustrated with her most of the time. I don't think she's being intentionally obnoxious ... but she is a little sister. He asks frequently for a break from her -- preferably a week long -- and says he can't be expected to get along with her when they're together all day long. He does take one class a day at our local middle school. She goes to an all-day drop-off co-op every Thursday. Two to three nights a week, he's in activities that do not include her. And yet it's never enough for him. I've tried having them do their schoolwork in different parts of the house but that only helps a little. I'm seriously considering putting him in school full-time because the attitude and constant fighting are not good for any of us. I don't WANT to put him in school; I know that he's getting a more rigorous education at home but maybe he needs to stretch his wings and have more independence. Or maybe it will make his attitude even worse, being around a bunch of other hormonal middle school boys. He does not want to go to school more than he already is, but I really don't see any other solutions. Thoughts?

I'd consider going deeper with a curriculum like Beast Academy - rather than going faster.

Derek Owens has physical science. We've been very happy with his math classes.

This is pure insanity.

I use Mystery Science for my 2nd and 5th grader and sometimes, I need to beef things up for my 5th grader. I often have him read the relevant material in the encyclopedia and give an oral or written narration. I'm also using it to teach him how to take notes from a text.

Are you a Spanish speaker yourself? That would make a difference in what programs are recommended. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

We spent about $500 last year for three kids. That includes one season of basketball for one kid, summer and fall soccer for two kids and one session of homeschool gymnastics for one kid. We don't do traveling sports.

I can see how that would be difficult. We live a mile from the school and just do 6th period at school so that gives us the whole morning and part of the afternoon to do our core academics. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I have a 5yo with Down syndrome who had a congenital heart defect. An ultrasound at 11 weeks showed significant abnormalities and I was told he'd probably not survive. An amnio confirmed Down syndrome - it was the best of all possible scenarios as the other possibilities were quite bleak. His heart repair was relatively easy -- it was a simple repair and he's now thriving. He's a super happy kid, adored by everyone and doing very well. If you have more specific questions, I'm happy to chat by pm. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Can they take just one or two classes? My 7th grader is doing that, and it's going well. He prefers homeschool but needs some time away from siblings and the class he's taking is a fun change of pace (robotics.) Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Shirley

Myrtle Melva Dorothy Helga Roberta Glenda Alva Geraldine You can find more by reading the obituaries. ;)

We started using it last year and continued this year. My 7th grader is doing 2 sentences a day and my 5th grader is doing one. I also have them type at the end of the week and that works well. They both have excellent applied grammar thanks to years of CLE Language Arts so I feel comfortable going lighter this year. We also do Latin and there is some grammar in Writing and Rhetoric so I feel like they're getting plenty. As always, I'll re-assess for next year but for now, it's going smoothly for us!

I was really drawn to it this summer, so I purchased language arts for grades 2, 5, and 7, the history program, handwriting and a few of the science units. We didn't even start the history and I quickly resold it. The fact that it jumps from one time period to the next just didn't work for us. We'd already deviated from the 4 year cycle to do a full year of American history. The previous year, we'd done SOTW 2. About 1/3 of the year would have been review for us. We used the language arts for a few weeks. I stopped it with all 3 kids for a few reasons, the main being that it is an all-in-one and my kids are all over the place when it comes to the different areas of language arts. For example, my 2nd grade daughter was doing level 2. The reading was way too easy and the grammar about right but she needed a different approach with spelling. I really liked the integration of art but not enough to keep it. We also had writing programs that we wanted to continue using and so I was skipping the writing anyway. And my older boys didn't need the spelling, so we were skipping that, too. I decided to separate out the language arts for each child based on their individual needs. As for the handwriting ... my boys learned D'Nealian cursive and struggled with the G&B's font. It has more loops and swirls. We dumped levels 5 and 6. My daughter (grade 2) loved the coloring sections interspersed in the lower level handwriting books, but she needed more of a Handwriting without Tears approach, so we went back to that. The science is the only thing we've kept. We are just finishing up the Space Science unit and my 2nd and 5th graders have really enjoyed it. I do add in additional reading for both of them. I plan to keep using the science since the kids love it and it's easy to teach. (They do say that you can use the science for up to grade 8 with some extensions, but I don't think it is enough for the older grades.)

We tried fifth grade and yes, they were too long. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Spelling Workout?

My boys are 10 and 12 and have done CLE Language Arts for several years. We jumped ship this year to Fix-It for grammar, knowing it was less intense. I'm perfectly okay with that. They have an excellent grasp of grammar and don't need heavy-duty instruction every year. I am focusing this year on grammar as it is applied to writing and Fix-It is a great fit for that.

My son did CLE through 6th grade and then we jumped ship because we wanted a one-year prealgebra program. He is doing Derek Owens Prealgebra and is very well-prepared. He will probably finish prealgebra ahead of schedule and move onto algebra.

How old is your child?

I bought a bag from the Read Aloud Revival just for this purpose! I love it!