Our home school year runs Jan-Dec, so we might do another evaluation in Dec. to check and see how their Spanish progressed between now and Dec. Our schedule is fixed, school has to be able to get done within the alloted hours, so as their Spanish grows, I'm just going to increase the percent of Spanish language course books that they use. Their English isn't going anywhere, they're fluent and it's firmly and permanently on "auto pilot" and will be maintained because living the US, there are always going to be more English language books than Spanish language. My plan is to simply switch their academics into Spanish at the 7th grade (Jan 2020), we are searching out books to use for computer science/technology, social studies and natural science. They'll read, take notes, and present on the subjects in Spanish and school won't take any longer than it already does (hopefully). Of course Japanese is still it's own beast to tame, but I wouldn't mind getting a precalculus and/or a liberal arts math book in Spanish, but there isn't a pressing need. They can do all their core math in Spanish as well as English, but I do I want them to be as comfortable unpacking and solving "wordy" word problems in Spanish as they are with them in English.

We did it! Their evaluations actually went better than I (we) had hoped/expected. Very happy and excited with the results.

We're doing The Boys academic portfolios in Spanish this year. It'll be interesting to see how they do. I'm trying hard not to expect anything and just keep an open mind. We found a teacher who taught in Central America for a few years before coming to the states as a teacher and he's going to do their evaluations this year. I'm trying to decide if I should also get an evaluation done by our usual teacher too, "just in case" but I'm leaning towards just doing Spanish language evaluations.

I want to get a calculator for heavy duty usage and exploration. I was going to just get a TI-89, but then I realized that they have calculators with built-in CAS features and others with cull color screens and fancy GUIs. Should I just get 1 of each?

I have no idea if it's too closely related to separate. Families who've handled or seen similar will probably be able to better advise you as to best resources that might be available to you as a home school parent/teacher.

I think that you might get better responses if you post on the Learning Challenges board. Does he have any other issues? Or is his only weak spot sentences?

Well, quality control and editing consistency/quality tends to be very low for Japanese resources made/produced in the US.Many times "series" that are just built around generically and have different langauges applied to them tend to be hit or miss. The standards for quality/accuracy for "For Kids" Japanese/Chinese resources seem to be laughably low, so I"m extremely skeptical and wary of (US Made) "Japanese for Kids" resources, but the most promising source I've found for actually learning Japanese in the family is this book, which--according to the reviews--contains errors in the transcription: Use Japanese At Home. We haven't used it. Locally, I'm looking for a native and fully fluent Japanese speaker to review the Use Japanese At Home book for me in depth before I give it to The Boys, but it certainly looks the most promising out of everything that I've seen. As for easy to use workbooks, if you're not ready to jump into a more expensive and expansive resource there is Teach Me Everyday Japanese and a couple of Japanese Picture Dictionaries made by US/English publishers. Additionally there are DVDs out there for kids who want to learn Japanese like Little Pim and Dino Lingo. Personally, I disdain 99.99% of all edutainment ever created, and The Boys are in 6th grade so it's not really appealing to them to even try, so we've never used these things either and I can't recommend them personally. Berlitz Kids has some Japanese materials. Again, I'm not recommending ANY of these things and I have reason to believe that they're of poor quality and may contain (several) instances of incorrect Japanese language. The Boys use a select few adult-learner materials, that are (from what I can tell) are excedingly well done and fairly niche in their approach, but I can't recommend the Beginning Japanese series to you for your early elementary students. 5th is probably the earliest that I'd start the series, and even so halfway through 6th or even 7th grade would probably be a better age. In your shoes, as a USABLE resources for your crowd I'd recommend that you go with the Teach Me Everyday Japanese and maybe import a Native picture dictionary. We'

But what kind of seat work? It seems like everything you listed in meant for an adult student or intensive university audience so I'm just confused. How many kids do you have learning Japanese? Do they have the maturity to productively complete boring/sloggish materials in pursuit of accomplishing a goal? Are you or your husband able to teach/correct Japanese? What is the goal of your crowd studying Japanese now instead of later?

Is this what you're talking about? We own a copy but The Boys don't really think it's too useful, they haven't used it much. We got it for pennies and it may come in handy to look things up down the line. This book is a black/white/greyscale grammar manual with wordy explanations, followed by examples from a wide variety of manga and a few exercises/quiz questions at the end of each "Lesson". The Manga cited aren't likely to be well known to kids in the US since the book is 15 years old and doesn't use the "big name" Manga series known in the US. It's not really a course, more of a manual. Each "Lesson" is very wordy and only about 3-7 pages, there doesn't seem to be any review of any kind built in, but there is a dandy little glossary in the back and the answer to the exercises are in the back of the book.

Just how mature and disciplined is the young crowd?

Update: A few months ago, I listed the "Primary Objectives" for this year, so far so good. A few of these, we're doing really well with. 1) Making steady progress with this. I've taken all of the dictionaries and the "____ Words in Spanish" picture books from the shelves. Any bilingual dictionaries that could be split into two, were cut into two parts (The SPN-ENG section and the ENG-SPN section) and we have them all over the house for easier reference, though the long-term durability is not exactly a plus, but a resource worn-out from being fully-used is better than a pristine resource that is under-used and handicaps the development of the skill it's support to teach or develop. I keep a monolingual dictionary in their school table and I gave my eldest a Spanish thesaurus, because he writes a lot lately and I want him having words at his fingertips. 3) By focusing more on a smaller amount of Spanish resources much more intentionally, this is kind of working itself out. A part of their 1-1 studies with me include intentional word work, and while Buddy had an "aha!" moment a few months ago and is really able to make/invent correct Spanish words when he needs them, Pal has been trekking along still but he's getting better at making the connections between words on his own (ie, linking leñador(a) (wood-cutter)--a word he knows from fairy-tales--to leña (wood) or leñoso(woody or woodlike) in other reading to understand instantly these "new" words. Buddy made this connection a while back and used to it write something along the lines of "El hombre sintió algo rigido y leñoso en la oscuridad..." in his stories. (The man felt something stiff and woodlike in the dark) 4) We have a book of idioms and use it to do a "El dicho de la semana". It's fast and easy and we try to use that saying as much as possible throughout the week, whenever it would be appropriate. They get excited when they see/hear the sayings in real-life either through conversation, videos or in their reading because they understand them. 7) With the extra dictionary usage, some of it is inevitable that they still get the english equivalent, instead of the Spanish definition when they look words up, but in I encourage them to use the Spanish definitions as much as possible. As he feel more capable in Spanish, Buddy will try to get the word without English, which is good. When Pal looks up words and gets the answer in English he has began to illustrate the word instead of writing the English equivalent. As for their Japanese taking over Spanish, that has not come to pass and probably wont for a long while if ever. They are still very much in the learning stage for Japanese. They love having little conversations in Japanese, and sometimes when they want to speak "in private" they'll use Japanese so that we don't know what they're saying. I've been told that their accents are really good, but I have no idea how to judge. They're watching favorite anime (that they've seen in Spanish) in Japanese now and its very much a slow-but-steady process. They say that they can hear the Japanese a lot better, after having made it through so much of the Beginning Japanese program. But they still have to finish the program *mwa-ha-ha* and will eventually need a native teacher/language model that doesn't fight dragons or shoot lightining from their hands.

I like(d) books that are useful so I suggest that you compile a list of nonfiction self-development type books that are useful to young adults and have re-read value. Read and discuss those books and then cycle back to them in a year or 2, when he's a bit older. Books like How to Win Friends and Influence People Rich Dad, Poor Dad (they have a For Teens version, but I don't have it) Eat the Frog Magic of Thinking Big Boundaries Lean In etc.

Well, as usual @Lori D. has beaten me to the punchline 🙂. I was coming back to report that I'd searched for Blooms Taxonomy Literature Guides and found some things that I will probably be able to use to make something worth while.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm wondering if there are secular literature guides for regular modern young adult books not just for "classic" books It seems like this kind of website should exist already, but more often than not, when I search [TITLE] "Discussion Questions" or "Lit guide" then I get web articles or reddit... I've searched through TeachingBooks and TeachersPayTeachers and haven't found anything either. It may be that the site doesn't exist.

Maybe I just don't know where to look, so I'm asking here. Is there a company that makes and sells study guides for tons of regular young-adult books? Who are they? This seems like a concept that should exist.

I have 2 kids working at the same level in various subjects. I just get 2 copies of the student textbook because for us, it's easier AND more productive for both boys to do the same subject, at the same time, for roughly the same length of time. I don't know that Saxon has a workbook for the numbered versions, but if they do and you want to use it, I'd compare how much it'd cost to make copies of a workbook, vs buy two copies and make my decision based on that. I *think* the test book is MEANT to be photocopied, not written in. The only reason to consider buying TWO test booklets is if making copies is inconvient/difficult/unlikely and you want the kids to write in the test booklet or on the original test itself. In my opinion, it's better for kids to not have access to the solutions manual if you own one, so I'd buy just one if I (the parent) needed it and keep it where the kids can't get too it freely. I have no idea about one set of DVDs vs the other.

@Ohdanigirl Wow. Thank you. I"m literally struggling with words, but I couldn't just hit "like" or "thanks". I sent you a PM, but I also want to post here to say how immensely grateful I am that you even are willing to help us with actual texts and that you offered! Any text in the 4th-8th grade range would be super helpful and much appreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I PMed you and Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I've seen those online. They looked pretty good but eBooks just don't work for us too well and I'd rather find something in hardcopy if its possible. However, we've decided to delay formalized writing/grammar instruction until at least Jan 2020, but possibly summer 2020.

Oh, wow, thanks!

Manual Education Electronic Technology Make: Electronics and Make: More Electronics, with the pre-assembled kit, and How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic Machine Sewing Still looking for a book of projects that's a good fit. Cardboard and Duct-Tape Construction Financial Education Financial Literacy -- Investing Reading List is still being compiled Personal Finance -- Managing their personal expenses with supervision No book necessary. Technology Education Hardware: Tablet Repair + Modifications Project Driven, no set book. Hardware: Vintage Game Consoles Hacking Video Game Consoles Software: Continuing Programming Home Brew Video Games / Project Driven, no set book. Typical Academic Education Composition and Communication Reading: 45 minutes a day. *Bi*Monthly Presentations In the past I've always given them WEEKLY presentations, but I think that going forward they'll be better served by presenting every other week. Public Speaking Open Mic 1x a month Attending Youth Events at City Hall Intensive Japanese (it'll be their 2nd year) Science Undecided Mathematics Possibly... We might not do math next year. I think we'll take a 6month break, with the possibility of taking the whole 12 months off. General Knowledge Continue the group reading, discussing and notebooking of the encyclopedia

The "daily activities" that can be done to practice penmanship, yet are practical are daily Reading Log Quote of the Week - written 1-5x each day, depending on the length of the quote. Word of The Day Signing/Dating each assignment in Cursive (even math) once a week, have him write a paragraph in his best cursive (a summary of a book he's read is fine) OPTIONAL but BENEFICIAL: Setting a timer for 2 minutes and repeatedly writing 1-3 of the most common words/phrases. Seriously, building muscle memory and fluency in the words that occur most boost writing speed tremendously. Do each of these every day and through the summer--the goal is for his cursive writing to become fluent. Starting next year, ONE content subject is done in cursive writing each year

Critical Thinking Company sells a book called "Algebra Word Problems" with lessons, examples and 100+ practice problems grouped together by type--it's perfect for kids to get proficient at tackling basic algebraic word problems and learn to set them up, and solve them. I think it's doable for a kid who has done PM1-5 with understanding and has support from a teacher/parent. Additionally, there are Various Math Contest Papers such as Mini Mu, Sunshine Math and Math Stars. which can offer fun/novel problems to mull over. For variety, you can get a used edition of a "math for liberal arts" text book and go through some of the chapters in it. We used Thinking Mathematically (aka The Cow Book) and Mathematics: A Human Endeavor and they were fun diversions. You don't have to do every section, but pick a few chapters that seem doable with your kid. The Number Devil was a repeat-read at our house. One thing that The Boys really enjoyed was doing the math for (imaginary) buildings or construction projects. They were really into that for a while. They'd look up materials, and price lists, etc and make up their own numbers and talk about how much/long/many XYZ project would cost/take etc. Numerical word riddles were one clue at a time is given are a favorite past time. Learning to perform advanced mental calculations was pretty fun if you develop the skill to high levels. If he's already proficient at mental calculations, then as his algebraic skills grow, it can be fun to look up the various number "tricks" and examine them to see how/why they work. The Arithmetic portion of the GRE has some fun brain-teaser type problems that are really accessible to any body who knows their elementary math really well.

Bumping this in the hope that someone has quizzes or tests for some of the AoPS books that they'll be willing to sell/share.

Bumping this in the hope that someone has quizzes or tests for some of the AoPS books that they'll be willing to sell/share.

Based on the remark about his handwriting/fine motor and the forgetting what sounds letters or digraphs make I think it's possible that you may have started spelling prematurely. I suggest that you pause all spelling instruction until the little dude is able to write by hand correctly and at a reasonable pace (maybe copying words at 10 wpm) without getting worn out. In addition to his physical writing ability, I would wait until the child is fluently reading on a 2nd grade level and able to break down multisyllable words in print. In my experience, spelling is made artificially more difficult until you are able to read and write without straining to do either.