Beast is a lot of fun and requires a lot of creative thinking but I found that my 4th grader needed more review than it provided. He forgot quite a bit so we're back to CLE as his primary math and BA is now just a supplement.

Ditto the recommendation of CLE.

My kids don't love math but they protested when I tried to switch from CLE to Math Mammoth.

I've done it and other Beachbody programs but I don't drink Shakeology. I use Vega One instead (available at Target) - but you could just as easily not use any kind of shake. I really like the workouts. I'm not super coordinated and I found them easy to follow and effective. I followed the eating plan loosely but found it difficult to calculate container usage when using recipes. I follow more of a Whole 30 approach instead and focus less on portion size. I'm not a coach but participate in an accountability group on Facebook with other Beachbody users. I did buy a couple of my programs from Amazon because I didn't want to be linked to a coach. Now, I have a great but low-pressure coach so I'm not concerned about it any more.

If you were to outsource one 7th grade class, which one would it be and to where would you outsource? I am feeling the pinch of trying to meet all of my kids' needs and want to outsource at least one subject next year for my middle schooler. I'm looking for ideas!

We've tried both SL and MFW and we're just not all-in-one kinda folks. I like to piecemeal our subjects to fit our family's needs and preferences. I do frequently consult their catalog for book ideas, though!

My 4th and 6th graders love CNN 10 (formerly CNN Student News.)

Have you looked at CLE's prealgebra (7th and 8th grade) program, condensed to fit into one year?

I homeschool my school-age children but my 4 yo is in special ed preschool at the local school.

We are required by law to test yearly starting at age 7 but we don't have to show the information to anyone. I've used the Stanford and the CAT.

I'm using it for my first grader. I wish it covered more of American history (it's mostly early American) but I like what they have!

I give 80 mg of caffeine in the form of a pill. A cup of coffee typically contains between 80-100 mg of caffeine. As I was thinking more about this, I realized that my husband and I have vastly different responses to caffeine so it makes sense that our kids do, too. My husband and oldest son both can drink caffeine at any time of the day or night and not have trouble sleeping. It's this child for whom caffeine is actually sedating. On the other hand, I can't have caffeine after noon because it will keep me awake at night. I haven't ever given our second son caffeine at night so I don't know if he responds similarly to me, but he is the one that finds the caffeine helpful for focus.

I've heard that, too. It's interesting that you post this because I've started giving my two boys a small amount of caffeine in the morning to help them focus for school. One child finds it immensely helpful and it indeed does help him focus. It makes a big difference in how engaged he is with his work. My other child complains that it makes him sleepy. Neither have been diagnosed with ADHD, although I strongly suspect that they both have ADHD tendencies.

We have a son with Down syndrome who, due to very serious medical issues his first three years, is also more developmentally delayed than most kids with his condition. One book that has been really helpful for us is The Boy Who Was Just Himself. Our older kids were 7, 5 and 2 when he was born and this was a really good book to help them understand that their brother is different but comes with his own unique gifts and abilities. https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Just-Himself-Noah-Book/dp/0874866820/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486840327&sr=8-1&keywords=prince+noah

You can drop-off at the parking lot at Magic Kingdom and get on the monorail from there. https://disneyparksmomspanel.disney.go.com/question/drop-off-pick-kids-magic-kingdom-80540/

I got mine a month ago! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We did it the 24x7 thing for three years (and continue to do it to a lesser degree as DS' health issues have somewhat stabilized) and it is indeed exhausting no matter how much you love the child.

What a beautiful story. Having had a child who had a trach, feeding tube and was very medically-fragile and needed in-home nursing care for 3 years, this hits especially close to home. (Said child still has feeding tube, but is doing well now.) What he's doing is a wonderful thing but so very hard.

We have 6 in our family, but one is tube-fed and his food is provided by insurance. Kids ages 12, 10 and 7. We have a monthly budget of $600. It gets really tight sometimes!

This is very preliminary, but it's what I have so far: Math: CLE 5 supplemented with Beast Academy 4 Language Arts: CLE for grammar; combo of Natural Speller and Spelling Wisdom for spelling. Handwriting/Cursive: Character Cursive Writing: Writing and Rhetoric Fable and Narrative Literature: Mosdos Press Coral (but their site has been down for some time -- are they still in business?) Science: Mystery Science supplemented with living books and science kits History: SOTW 3 + activity guide Spanish: Middlebury Spanish

My 4 yo has Medicaid based on his diagnosis of Down syndrome rather than income. In our state, we access it through a program called TEFRA. Maybe it is called the same in yours? The hospital was very helpful in assisting us with this; could you check with them?

I'm so very sorry for your loss.

Ditto Mystery Science. My kids all love it, although I do beef things up for my 6th grader.

I often leave a box of books near the entry at co-op and whatever gets taken, gets taken. If I know of a homeschooler who might be in need or could use whatever I have, I ask them. We have a thrift store nearby run by a church that has a large number of homeschoolers. I've donated and purchased plenty there, too!

This is the one I use for all three of my school-age kids. I had a really hard time finding one that had blank space to fill in the subject names; all of the others I saw had things like "Social Studies" whereas we do "History" and we prefer "Language Arts" vs. "English." https://www.amazon.com/Secondary-Matrix-Planner-Academic-2016-2017/dp/B013GVDVW8/ref=sr_1_6?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1484878187&sr=1-6&keywords=student+planner