The K12 History Odyssey is one of the most high interest history curriculum that has been very highly recommended on the WTM forums for middle school grades. The text is very readable and the art work in the text is fabulous. There is a separate Teacher's guide with lesson plans and the answers to the student pages. The student pages give the student their classwork as well as writing help for how to write a quality research report for history. I definitely think that it helps prepare students for high school level work. Check it out here: http://www.k12.com/courses/textbooks-products#.UsvssMIo7IU Annette

Ds 14 is having trouble with WWS Week 12 Day 4. This involves organizing your material from several references as well as picking what things you are going to talk about from the diagram. In a confused fog here, please help! How did you get started? Thanks! Annette

:hurray:My WWS arrived via UPS yesterday! I live in NC so shipping from VA isn't too far. These are thick, heavy books -7lbs. I can't wait to start using these after the Holidays! Good-bye PDF's. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012 :party: Joy and Peace, Annette

Susan and Moderator, I just want to say what an awesome job your executive assistant, Patricia Kirkland, has been doing with catching up with the requests for both the extra weeks for WWS and the ALL. I am thankful for her very thorough efforts to make sure that no one gets missed. My e-mail address had apparently filtered her out initially but she managed to succeed in the end by getting my request to me. This is a truly awesome program. I wish it would have been possible for it to have been published years ago and save me from years of stumbling around and working with products that cost a lot and took up a lot of time. Thanks so much and hope you have a wonderful weekend! Annette

Is it possible to get the Derek Owens Physical Science course used? $172 is quite a bit but I like the look of the course. He teaches it in such an approachable way. Thanks

I still haven't had time to use my demo, but I wanted to mention K12 had indidvual class discounts of 10% through August 29 for those interested.

I just wanted to report that K12 was more than happy to set up a Demo account for me yesterday. Not sure what it'll have in it but I'm glad to have it.

Thanks, Sue for your xpost. Is there History Odyssey components you would add to K12 to strengthen It? Can anyone tell me what type of writing skills K12 develops in their assignments? It seems to me (please correct me if I am mistaken), that History Odyssesy develops outlining, narration and some essay writing. All of which I believe would be usfull in developing/or continuing to develop especially during the logic stage . I do like the oral discussion component of K12. But I think the WTM skills listed above would be really helpful to do as well even if it meant cutting out some of the other activities from the K12 curriculum. Would anyone be willing to share what K12 activities they might consider non-essential or expendable?

Thank-you for everyones' thoughtful answers. I'm amazed by how well other people can summarize opinions and list pros and cons. They are truly helpful. I am really impressed by both the K12 and the HO programs. I will most likely start with the K12 and use that with the sample HO pages to start as I really want to do the outlining, mapwork and notebook. (My poor 13 (soon to be 14) yo son). To make matters worse, I really like the Literature selections as well as the literary helps from The Classical House of Learning http://www.classicalhouseoflearning.com/logic.htm#Middle_Ages These literature selections look awesome. I love how it can tie in with the K12 approach of starting with the 4(?) major river valley cilizations and then progressing into the major religions. There is just too many awesome choices out there. But my main goal is to use great materials and let them inspire my son.

I am trying to decide between these 2 programs, but I can't really get a good feel for the difference between them. I can't see samples of the student and teacher pages for the K12 program. I want to combine History, Literature (including beginning literary analysis) and writing. I liked the mapwork in The Story of the World AG as well as the outlining , narration, and comprehension questions that made my job as a teacher much easier. Can anyone give me an idea of what the K12 program using the TG and Student pages would be like? Also, does the online component of K12 really add a lot to the curriculum to be worth the extra $30/month? I just don't know what to do.:confused:

Thanks, ladies, for all your help!

Which edition of Foerster's Algebra 1 is everyone getting or does it matter?

Has anyone had experience using the K12 Grade 8 Literary Analysis ? I'm actually considering using it because so much is covered. I was considering Rod and Staff Grammar, IEW Writing, and mish-mash literature. My biggest challenge is tying it all together in a reasonable schedule. Please comment if you'd like. Annette

Does anyone have a website that would let me look at samples of the Foerster's Algebra 1 or any other of his maths. I can't seem to find any samples. Also, is a teacher's edition necessary to teach the course? Thank-you, Annette