Following... These reviews are great! I am planning to use CPO Earth this year, and it's really helpful to get an understanding of how tweakable it is and how other people have used it. I'll be ordering it soon so I can plan each chapter ahead of time this year, instead of winging it like I usually do. There's something that seems so...serious...about middle school! Eek! For you wise veterans, how much writing did you require for this program? Did you have your kids answer/discuss most questions orally or make it more formal?

That looks like a good list! Thanks for sharing!

I think he starts the HTML class every couple months or so, very regularly at least. It's a go-at-your-own-pace program, no live classes to "attend". I hope your son gets the chance to try it! :)

This is where I direct everyone who asks: http://www.forthuntparent.com/academy/HTMLFrontPage.cfm?CFID=2779769&CFTOKEN=14cacbdd56258c23-0FC20000-0FBE-F5A9-54FAF73E381A509B My son started with the (free) HTML course, and has since worked through CSS and is working on Java. All the courses are excellent, as is the instructor. Don't worry if you don't know anything about programming. I intentionally chose NOT to learn alongside my son ( in part, to help foster independence and ownership), and that was probably the best decision I made all year. There is a "help desk" where student can submit their problems, and if that doesn't help, the instructor is always available for assistance. I honestly cannot say enough good things about it! :) I totally understand if your son wants to skip past scratch and the like. My son did too-- he wanted to learn the coding behind the scenes, and wasn't interested in the preliminary steps. At this age, I don't think it matters.

Thanks for the reply, OhElizabeth. I agree! We couldn't stand her, she was totally single focused, had him "diagnosed" immediately, took no note of his other advancements, and asked us zero questions about his development. When I managed to get a moment with her and mentioned that BOTH grandfathers had needed their siblings to translate for the until age 5-6 so was there a possibility of it being genetic, she had the audacity to tell me she had NEVER, NOT ONCE heard of speech issues being genetic. Um yeah, we never went back!

My son was diagnosed with severe speech apraxia when he was 3. He had a huge vocabulary and no problem communicating with us, but his words were all jumbled up and we needed to translate for everyone else. He was already reading, and had enormous intense interests in other areas, and was advanced socially and academically from his peers (he had insisted on learning the alphabet before 2, for example). His certain Giftedness was not considered or looked at by the evaluator, and she did nothing to address him in a holistic manner. We felt very strongly that his speech issues were due to literally having more to say, more going on in his head, than he had the motor capability to get out at any time. We dropped the therapist and by the end of K, no one would have had any idea there had been an issue. Now, he IS a host of quirks, and whether some are related to the supposed apraxia or not I'll never know, but in the end dropping the therapy was the right choice for him. Do your research and trust your mama intuition. I don't believe there's only one right path. :)

I don't know any kids who have spikes for high jump, but some do for running events (definitely not most, in our area). If it's your kids first year, I'd save the money and wait to invest until you are sure he's serious. But good running shoes really are a must (they don't need to be racing shoes)--I second getting him professionally fitted at a running shop.

Currently, astrophysics. I've accommodated by finding challenging online courses, documentaries, books and so on and actually watching/reading/studying them with him. Plus I listen to and participate in endless hours of his theories and discussions, and have largely put aside other schoolwork while this obsession runs its course (that's it's nearly summer is helpful there). Also, programming. This one is entirely on him; I purposefully decided to not learn it alongside him so he'd have to take full ownership of it. One of the best decisions I've made all year. :) And, math. He's downright giddy to start algebra in the fall. My biggest contribution there is to hand over the reins to DH and get out of the way. They are going to have fun. :)

Wow, I hadn't heard the news. We used to live outside St John and have a friend who is an RCMP officer in NS, near the border of NB. I'm sure they are on high alert. Very scary. Best thoughts to everyone in the area.

We used all 6 years of MM and liked everything except these two, especially in 6. My DS found the geometry frustrating because it was inconsistent and lacking in accuracy. Sometimes distances or angles would be rounded, sometimes they were overly precise and sometimes they were just plain wrong. Like CA's daughter, he also started coming to the conclusion that he doesn't like geometry, at which point we just stopped with it. With a different program he'll like it fine, it was the inconsistency that bothered him. Same for statistics--there were so many inaccuracies that we dropped it too. He loves statistics and probability, but the way it was presented had too many issues. This was using the old version, though, before she aligned it with CC, so it's likely very different now. It would be worth looking into, IMO, so you can have an alternate plan in place when you get there.

Thanks Luckymama and Red Squirrel! :)

That's how I felt too. We DO talk about the worlds religions and their effects on history (and present day), but not in the context of presenting stories or religious texts as facts or any other such nonsense. I made up my own program at that age, and used History Odyssey (L2) last year for 5th. It was okay as a spine, but definitely not complete IMO. I didn't use HO1, but you could probably use it a similar way-- as a spine-- and just find your own reading material from the library. There's a ton of fun books for that age (more so for that age than logic stage, I found).

Your blog is fantastic, Luckymama! I hope you don't mind if I refer to it next year! Thanks for the helpful info. I must have been really distracted when I posted, sorry to be so unclear. Yes, by the student guide I did mean the Investigations book. Good to know I don't need to buy that. I'm curious about the teacher guide--from the sample online, it looked pretty scripted and not necessarily something that would be needed for working with just one student. Perhaps there is more to it than that? The book I'm interested in is the regular version, not the "focus on..." version. I've copied the astronomy "skills and practice" pages as a fun end of the year unit, and he's enjoying it even though it's more worksheety than he normally does. It's purely for fun; astrophysics is his primary area of interest right now. I can see how they would just be busywork normally. Hoping others will chime in with their experiences, or other programs they've been happy with.

I'm searching for secular options for earth science for my 11 yo, and am interested in CPO. I noticed that they seem to have 2 levels or books of different depths; I would only be interested in the deeper version (not Fundamentals of..., I think it's called). For those of you who have used it, what did you like? What didn't you like? What did you tweak? I'd like an depth study, but one that lends itself to chasing rabbit trails. I am not good at following a script. :) I'm also looking for something with writing assignments--DS is a Big Thinker, but a reluctant writer. I'm also wondering if the student guide is necessary (did you find the projects worthwhile? Why or why not? DS doesn't need hands on projects to solidify comprehension). TIA!

My 11year old prefers his hair past his shoulders. It's dirty blond and wavy, which is lovely except that it dreads up if he doesn't wash and condition it daily. So he does. :). Why he puts up with it I have no idea, it's forever in his face and during hockey season it's a nightmare for him to deal with, but he likes it (and so do I!). He gets confused for a girl all the time--he's petite and has fine features and sparkly blue eyes so it's not too surprising, though you'd think the athletic clothing would be some indication. But he doesn't mind at all. We do have to get it professionally cut regularly so it stays tidy, otherwise the knotting gets out of control and it frays. I wonder how much longer he'll like our "spa days"?

That's good. I wanted to use the old version (knowing DS would be ready for algebra in 6th), but wasn't expecting the issues since there had never been any in previous years. Glad to hear the problems are resolved. It was very uncharacteristic! :)

We used MM6 as his pre algebra program. Unless your child is struggling, I think doing another year of review would just become overly repetitive. DS did find 6 to be very similar to 5, and I think if I could do it over I might have used something else. We haven't been impressed with MM geometry, nor with the statistics in 6. DS found the geometry inconsistent--the measurements IRL weren't exactly what the answer book had, and that drove him batty. After a bit of wrestling with it, we decided to skip it. He will see it again in the future and in more accurate ways. Statistics he got through, but much preferred Zaccarro and playing around with real life examples (he loves statistics and probability, just not the MM approach). We've loved MM so much over the yers it's hard for me to say anything negative, but I did feel like she sort of dropped the ball with 6. Especially in the statistics and probability chapter, the answer sheet was very clearly wrong many (many) times. That was disappointing, as we'd had very few cases of that in previous years. (just remembered that we did use the old version before she aligned it with CC--the new one covers some topics in a different order so what was in 6 is now in 7, I think. All of this might not apply to the updated version).

I'm looking at CPO for next year, too. DS is into astrophysics right now and has been soaking up Coursera classes and heavy documentaries and I need something that will continue to challenge him. Astrophysics I will have to continue to cobble together myself, but for earth science CPO looks good for him. Fwiw they have some "practice" pages on their website. I'm not exactly sure how they are intended to be used, but I printed out the astronomy package (30 pages) for a fun summer project. He loves it, which I think means the program will be a good fit. You can browse through each topic or chapter that they connect with in the textbook.

Switching to mechanical pencils made a huge difference for DS. He writes with his right hand but holds his arm and wrist like a lefty (up over the paper and then down again?) and would get fatigued. He still does that, but he can't grip the pencil tightly anymore so it looks nicer and he doesn't get as tired. The change was immediate.

My son has been mentally and physically depleted for a few weeks. His brain seems to barely functioning and his sports are suffering due to lack of energy. I wondered about allergies too ( I'm quite sure he was like this around this time last year, too) even though he doesn't have the usual symptoms. I started him on Claritin a few days ago and I think he's improving. I'll give it a few more days. So interesting to read about other kids going through ths too. Makes me think we are right.

Is CPO completely secular? I hadn't looked at it before, but their sample chapter looked promising for us!

It was not nearly enough for my science kid either. We started out using it as intended, but like the above poster we soon resorted to just using it as a guide. Biology is not my son's interest, so we went our own way completely with genetics and evolution, which do fascinate him. Unfortunately the reading was so minimal and dry that it didn't spark any new joy for biology at all, but instead reinforced it as a generally boring subject. That said, we don't usually use a set program for science. I had hoped it work well so we could continue with the series, but now I'm thinking I'll just go back to creating my own again. I do think it could be fine for kids who don't want to dig deep, though.

I'm still searching for a really great program, too, but in the meantime here are a few resources we have used: Coursera classes, ESP. astroTech that a pp mentioned Into the Universe series with Stephen Hawking (Netflix) Great Course lecture series: inexplicable Universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson Nova: Fabric of the Cosmos series World Science U: Space, Time, and Einstein course with Brian Greene (hoping to save this for next year so can't comment on it yet) World Science U: Science Unplugged (tidbits of info) Cosmos (of course!) Books: A Black Hole is Not a Hole The Mysterious Universe All resources are 100% secular.

We use Consumer Cellular. You can choose your own voice plan and separate data plan so you can get just what you need. For both DH and I we pay around $50 a month total. We never come close to running out of minutes or data. And, their customer service is awesome, seriously so helpful. You can also change your plans at any time without penalty (there is zero commitment).

We have an only (he's 11). I don't know what having more kids would look like, but our primary reason for homeschooling is so we can tailor his education to his needs and abilities. I don't think we could be as flexible if there were more kids needing different things. He has plenty of social outlets and has never indicated that he's lonely. He chooses to participate only in classes that interest him on an academic level, which tells me the social aspect is far down his list of priorities. I think my biggest challenge is getting a bit of quiet alone time during the day so I can sneak in some chocolate in peace. :). But that's getting easier as he gets older.