I don't have anything to add about curriculum. I just wanted to give you a small round of applause. You are obviously doing something right, and far too often people don't tend to acknowledge that when homeschooling. Bravo mom!

Would you be willing to post the link to the class. My son might be ready for this in a few months. He is really liking the library book club, but wants more advanced books.

People can be mean. Not your family, but the Internet. If this is something you pursue, I would set up comment moderation where you can personally view the comments before they go live. Secondly, pornographic spam is rampant. If you monitor comments then both concerns are moot.

We chose the curriculum just for the reason you mentioned above. My son tended to meltdown/panic when he didn't know the answer right away. If you didn't tell him how to do it, he didn't want to. He flat out can't do that with AoPS. It wasn't as much about math, as having to think for a bit. The math of the program isn't difficult; it is the critical thinking that is difficult. Once he finally got that he had to forcibly slow down and step his way through the process, revise and go again, he took off. It has curbed his protectionism quite considerably.

The Roman Mysteries are about a girl and her friends solving mysteries in Rome. They are wonderfully accurate historical fiction.

Fair warning, some kids hate Saxon. Some kids LOVE it. You may want to consider a back up plan if you find your kid reacting more than a little adversely to it. It is just one of those curriculums that is either awesome or horrific. I had a horrific kid. Personally, I was in awesome camp....not so much him. It is kind of like Apologia that way. Some love the conversational tone, others hate it. Nothing wrong with the resource just preference.

I think it also matters what your kids respond to. I have always enjoyed learning, and (ahem) had a few authority issues. I am an unschooler at heart. Hands down, no doubt about it. When we implemented that with my son he was an anxious wreck. He actually came to me at 6 and said, "I want a schedule and workbooks." Seriously hard for me. I was bound and determined to not be one of those parents. He is like homeschooling Alex P. Keaton. This year he asked for an alarm clock and a formal wake up time. He gets up early to play Minecraft so he "won't interrupt school." I mean really. What the hell is that?! The stack of curriculum books works well for him. He wants to finish the books. He wants a progression. Occasionally I can stretch out something like showing him the Nottingham University periodic table videos as an interesting tid bit that he finds cool, but it isn't long before he wants a daily quiz on memorizing the elements. Long story short, though I don't believe it is every kid, but some kids get seriously obsessive about an area of learning and how it should be done. Don't drag your kids, let them drag you. We found a spelling curriculum that rocked my learning world. We found an initial grammar curriculum that blew my mind. We all have room to throw out what we think is the way to go and go with something totally different. He is willing to let me show him cool stuff, and sort of loves listening to information now. I am looking up curriculum for his various subjects and thinking quite a few of these humanities things are fabulous with a little structure behind them. Why don't you ask your kids what they want if they could have anything? What would you want if you could have anything. Maybe if everybody sat down together you could hash out something.

This is great info! We haven't heard many positive things about Koine unless it is for personal faith. More power to anyone trying to better their faith by learning its heritage! The current rule is that he can add a new language every two years, as long as he still reads the older ones. Currently we study Spanish and Latin, because I could initially help in those when he was younger. He has Japanese, Arabic, and modern Greek In his sights. Occasionally, there is talk about Russian. I don't know if he will ever get there, but I have learned not to under estimate him.

When I transferred to public school, I learned really quickly that no one likes the smart girl. Kids hated me for "having everything be easy" and teachers could have cared less because I "had everything under control." I started failing my homework and doing my brother's high school homework for him. Not only was it more challenging, but I got to have teacher's comments and write back and forth about it. I could be secretly smart and it was fantastic. My son has learned not to be "weird kid smart" (as he calls it) with kids his age. "Mom, why don't they want to talk about Latin, or the trials of great heroes and how they relate to life? All they want me to do is just run after them all crazy or make fart sounds." Explaining that fart sounds and unregulated tag-like games were how many 7 year olds play was difficult for him to understand. He did it, but it was so soul crushing we decided to leave the homeschool group. More than anything, many boys don't dig smart. Even those who say they do, don't dig gifted - asynchronous - wacko smart. I have to hide many things I'm into from my husband, even. Last year he finally admitted, "I used to think of myself as academic, and I liked that. Then I met you." It doesn't mean he doesn't love me or want me to get geeked out, but it is hard for people to relate to someone who enjoys esoteric subjects obsessively. It isn't that he wants to be married to a bimbo, but it feels like that sometimes. This is hard for me at 30 just as much as it was hard at 12. Just a thought about what your daughter might be going through.

This is where I have been leaning as well. My son does not know about the National Exams, and he is not ready for them yet, but he loves that sort of thing. The third party recognition he just thrives on. Secondly, I don't think he realizes how little he can actually do with modern Greek. He does want to visit Greece, but he's 9. It isn't like that is going to happen in the next the next 4 years. Thanks for the info about Athenaze. I think it would be a good fit. It sounds a lot like our Latin curriculum.

Biblical Greek is a sell I just can't make. My son wants to major in either Classics or Linguistics. He has Biblical schoolwork he does, but has always framed it as a current set of cultural beliefs which have molded Western Civilization. I can't tell if it is a place of rebellion (since there are very few things in our family that aren't optional) or if it is him forming his own belief systems. At this point, I don't push it. Either way, I don't want to create a power struggle. Which is a bummer because I have heard good things about Andrew.

My son originally wanted to do modern, because he wanted to visit Greece. But then he thought about Percy Jackson, and Percy Jackson is hard to say no to. Google recommended learning Ancient before modern, as it was much easier to transition to less complexity than to add the complexity in and "unlearn." After looking at both languages, Ancient also looks more "Tolkien-ish" than modern, apparently. That was another big complication for him, because anything Tolkienish is by definition cool. As you can see, my son's criteria for which languages to learn (Percy Jackson and Tolkien) are slightly different than mine. We have had trouble finding a good fit for Spanish as well. Lots of piecing together sources. It has been rather annoying for me because we found an awesome fit for Latin right away. It spoiled me. ETA: The 123 Greek looks Awesome! and is really well priced. I'm going to have to remember it for the future. Thanks!

My son has dragged me into the humanities. I have been adamantly math and science since I was very small; not him. He is all about mythology, geography, and languages. He is all about travel and classical cultures. He wants to teach abroad, or be a naturalist all over the world drawing what he sees while immersed in other cultures. I thought my undergrad work was brutally unfair to require 15 credit hours in Hum classes and thought Western Civ cruel punishment. So we have exhausted just about all the juvenile versions and the appropriate graphic novels in our little library, and moved into more advanced stuff. We are currently listening to Beowulf being read by a classicist at Oxford. It is about the coolest thing. He reads the English in the pacing of the Old English as much as possible. So. Fantastically. Better. Than. Plain. Reading. Heanley. I am actually excited about The Great Courses versions of Iliad and Odyssey that are coming from ILLs. It is slightly obnoxious how I have been sucked in. Latin is way more fun now, and Anchient Greek begins next year. Who knew this homeschooling thing could turn out so well for me too!?

Grades work in school because there are 25 kids in a class and the teacher needs to be able to teach all of them. It would be really hard to remember where every kid was at if they didn't just say that all of them were in [whatever grade] for everything. At home, there is only one of you (or however many kids in the family) so you can be anywhere that works well for you, because I can remember.

We use the Apologia Chemistry book, and haven't found the issue to be much of a problem. We are planning on using the Advanced Chem too, and in looking through it has very little Biblical referencing. I refuse to use the Biology one for the "thumping" and have Science Shepherd for that. Having only looked through Physics peripherally, I can't comment there. I know the middle school Apologia series is significantly filled with Biblical ideology and we couldn't handle it.

My son has chosen to study Greek next year. Languages are not my strongest subject, so I am hoping some of you other fabulous homeschooling parents out there can help me a bit. Is Ancient Greek a foundational language for any other foreign languages? I understand it's foundation in English, but the language goes through the transformations of Latin first. Is it the direct predecessor of any other languages? Does learning modern Greek lend itself to learning any other languages (in the same way Spanish helps learn Italian, Chinese and Japanese lend themselves to learning each other)? Lastly, any good curriculums out there for modern or ancient? I have heard Athenaze is very comprehensive, but then also heard it is difficult because the curriculum jumps and is muddled. This is not his first language, and he prefers a grammar based approach over narratives. Any thoughts, whether I have asked the right questions or not, would be very helpful. Thanks!

My son has always been into languages and we are doing well with Latin and Spanish. The deal was he could add another language next year. He has chosen Greek, but then decided (with no research, in like 15 seconds) that he wanted to learn modern instead of ancient. After perusing the Internet, my search for direct information has come up a bit lacking. I realize they are pronounced differently, and the modern version is simplified in its vowels, accent/breath marks, and declinations have been combined. However, it is a spoken language. A "dead" language isn't a problem. I chose Latin for my son because of his direct interest in languages and the foundational part it has played in the Romance languages. It was a building block leading to Spanish and many other Romance Languages, as well as English. Is Ancient Greek foundational in any other languages in the same was Latin is to the Romance Languages? The foundations of English did begin in Greek, but then passed through Latin. Less than 10% actually come directly from Greek. Is it in this way that Ancient Greek is foundational in its structure or vocabulary? Any info from veterans out there would be great. Thanks!

Yep. That's it. I checked Netflix and I was mistaken. There are only 7 there too. It is well worth watching. We pause frequently to discuss, so it can take a bit more than the directly allotted time.

East to West is an incredible survey of world history. I think the series has 10 episodes which are an hour long.

Our charter in WA only listed the subject for grades 8 and under. He was listed as taking "math" or "language arts." Only if the school was to look at the advanced breakdown of his specific learning plan would they see that he was really taking Pre-Algerbra. Even then, I had to push really hard to have then accept an individualized learning plan and not provide a generic common core style breakdown for the average 3rd grade student. This is one of the reasons we left; they were fine if my kid was gifted, just as long as he showed up on paper as average because it required nothing of them. When we wanted differentiated instruction to show, it started to be a problem. As far as the school was concerned, they had no gifted program and no gifted students. Third grade was third grade was third grade. Every student looked the same.

Haven't used it, but I'm pinning it. Thanks!

YouTube has some great mythology animated videos. I know those aren't books, but my son gets excited about YouTube the way I used to about the giant AV cart being rolled into class. Ramayana- The Epic by BollywoodNirvana Chinese Myth I, II, III by Lampo Leong Confucius Cartoon Series by Cherid Confucius The Legend of Buddha for Kids by TheBuddhaCenter There are also many lectures and documentaries. These are just the ones I remembered from our Mythology studies. We used them to lighten the mood without lightening the content.

We are in WA and had the same experience. Testing was just the annual testing everyone did (MAP) and then differentiation came from us. He was called a 3rd grader regardless of what he produced and test scores didn't much matter. It was a problem for me to some degree. His transcript would never show how far ahead he was. In reality, no one would ever look at it, but if we transferred to a more traditional program we would have had a major battle on our hands. The subject which would have been the hardest was math. We could have had him read different novels and he could write openly, but his transcript never reflected middle school math. I would begin looking at outside testing or programs if you know you are wanting to transfer. Anything that is 3rd party and shows another individual feels he has completed advanced work. Depending on how close you are to high school, you might want to go in and ask them how they handle the situation or what you might need.

When we were with our charter, I would always use left over money on either fancy science kits or art supplies. Neither had to be given back, and we could stockpile them for the future. Thames & Kosmos have awesome science stuff.

When we were in a similar situation, I started giving my son a checklist of a few school things that needed to be done by himself. When the list was given I would even ask things like, "Am I going to tell you to do these things?" or "Whose responsibility is this list?" so it was stone, cold clear. The list usually had about 3 items in the beginning. It contained things like a section of math review (nothing new), a chapter of a school book, and grammar worksheets. It wasn't crazy. Slowly we started adding a few new things on the list like try reading the math chapter or just outline your essay. The provision was always offered "If you are stuck, it is okay, just let me know tonight." Then we had Spelling happen first thing in the morning so that I could read the list with him and do it together for 15 minutes before he started his day. I created a big list of Netflix or YouTube supplements which were added in for him to watch in history, science, etc. where he had to do a small write up about them. Over the course of a year, it created a system where he could get over 60 percent of his schooling done without me, and another 20 percent started pretty well by himself with me there to fill in bits, and only about 20 percent where I actually needed to be directly involved. It was a bit scary at first, because both of us were having to grow a lot, but it has really shown me that we can continue homeschooling through quite a bit. If something were to happen (Heaven forbid) he could self manage really well with help in the evenings. It will be okay. Flexibility is an important lesson, too. We don't like to think of it that way, but kids need to see parents and family helping each other in times of need. Community is sometimes the most important lesson, and it rarely happens perfectly when everything is okay.