Did you give her the 300 placement test yet? See how she does on that. FYI the first light unit in every level is a review of what was learned in the previous level, so, light unit 201 will be a review of level 100, light unit 301 will be a review of level 200, light unit 401 will be a review of level 300, etc.... With my artsy dd who claims to hate math, we were actually able to skip light units 306-310 and start in 402 (but this was after we had done light units 301-305). As you see, you can skip whole light units, or only work on the new material in light units, or just have her do the problems that you know she needs work on and skip the rest. Such as, if I know my dd knows how to add and subtract multi-digits, I cross them out, so she knows to skip them. You'll also want to keep in mind that CLE is a bit more advanced than some other programs, but, IMHO, not by that much. My 11 y.o. 5th grader is doing CLE 400 Level work, this is not uncommon. My 10 y.o. 4th grader is finishing CLE 300 Level this month - I hope!

Look up the Book Samaritan online. Located in OK. They try to come as close as they can to what you need. Free!

These are big, heavy books, and there are three volumes of them. Character Sketches from the Pages of Scripture Illustrated in the World of Nature. You can usually get them rather cheap on ebay, just wait for the good deal!

Oh, yes, how about Japan - samurai, shoguns, and the like???

Even though I haven't used it yet, I do have the 6th grade year (for next year). Because your children have already had grammar instruction, the EIW grammar will be plenty. It's ususally the first half of the instructional DVD, with the second half being the writing instruction. As another has said, you could just skip the grammar part and go straight to the writing portion. If after writing, you think your children need more grammar, then you could go back and do that.

Love all the advice here. I'd mix it up! My ds7 is in AAR2 right now. It took us 1 1/2 years to get through AAR1, and we will be finishing AAR2 in 5 months!!! What I did with him was take it slooooow. We did maybe half a page or one third of a page a day sometimes, which means it would take us one or two weeks to go through some lessons. I have actually had him do all the reading pages because the practice for fluency is important. But, I didn't make him do AAR everyday, nor have I had him do all the activities. I'm using AAS1 for writing practice, in cursive, but not really for the instruction because he already knows the sounds, and most of the words he can spell, but he writes slowly, so we're focusing on that. I mixed in progressivephonics.com (it's free online!!!) - which he loves! I think we're at level 13 in the intermediate stage with that. It's just fun and helps to reinforce what he's learning elsewhere. And, I had him read RLTL Level 1 (we did not do the spelling part of it) which can be much more fun than AAR. I did teach him all the phonograms and all the sounds of the phonograms right away ala SWR, because I have that program too! He is now at a stage where he can read Splat the Cat and the Elephant and Piggie books. These are the books he prefers to check out at the library. May you have success on your journey!

Just found this site. Don't know why I have never found it before. Read books online for free: read.gov/books/ I was pre-reading chapter 13 in CHOW and he mentions fe-fi-fo-fum, and I realized that I've never actually read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to my children ! , so I searched online for a free reading book and this website was one of the ones that came up. Perhaps many of you already are aware of this site, but I just wanted to share with those who may not know of it. I searched the forums here, but didn't find it.

36 years ago....hmmm....free reading at home included Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Sugar Creek Gang Series (this would be good for a boy), Trixie Belden, The Little Prince, The Little Princess, Heidi, Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield (my Mom read this to us after supper and it made a huge impact on me, still does today, I'm always super cautious around firecrackers!). Lots of those stupid tween romance novels. But, can't think of anything that was assigned in school, except maybe Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, but I honestly think that was high school when I read those. Who remembers Zoom!? I had their book of jokes and crafts, etc. Loved to read through that over and over. I also had a "Spin the Tale" book, which had a little spinner on it, which helped to tell you what part of the story to go to next. Also had a Norman Rockwell Picture Book which I loved to look through over and over. Oh, how could I forget, "Alexander, and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!" Read that one over and over again too!

AAR

A Living History of Our World by Angela O'Dell sounds like it would fit what you are looking for. It is a stand alone curriculum, but you could easily use it as a spine and add a book or two when you want. It is CM style so she has narration breaks (discussion prompts) printed in the book. There are journal notebooks to go with each volume if that's something you would want to do. My kids don't like journaling, so we don't use them. She also has geography places already underlined in the book, so you know to find them on a map.

Has anyone used these math books? Learn Math Fast Books? Thoughts? http://learnmathfastbooks.com/index.html We were searching for a free printable of a paper cube and this site had one, so then I had to look further into the site, and I thought, wow, wish I had known of this curriculum before.

I also agree with what others are saying. The Common Core is not necessarily the problem, just the way in which it is implemented. I actually put my oldest dd back into public school this past February, and I have been very pleased with the types of math problems that come home for homework. But, the school system she is in gets a rating of 10 out of 10, so I think it's the parent-community involvement and excellent teachers that make the difference.

If you're looking for something which teaches grammar through diagramming, then I would highly recommend English Grammar Revolution http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/ You can print everything from her website, or buy the books. She also has online videos to go with her books, so that you do not have to do the instructing (of course, that costs more, but sometimes things go better if the parent is not the one teaching!).

I've almost come to the conclusion that no matter how hard I try to get my kids to hold their pencils correctly, they will just fall back into their old habits. So, I'm not one to give advice, but, the only thing I can see with your ds is that his pencil is too straight up. The eraser end should be slanted back toward the crook of the hand and resting more on the fleshy part between the thumb and first finger. Sorry, I'm not techy enough to know how to get pictures on with my reply.

Two different ideas come to mind. The first is Cursive First https://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=048762&subject=Handwriting/9&category=Cursive+First/9804 - although developed for SWR - it can be used as a stand alone. The second is Cursive Connections https://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=037610&subject=Handwriting/9&category=Cursive+Connections/2046. You would really only need Book B. Even though it says "Modern Style" it is a lot like D'Nealian. Very straight forward, and you can't go wrong for $9.00! You do NOT need to spend a lot of money on learning cursive, so don't go with a pricey program.

I just remembered that there is a thread regarding Strayer-Upton like math books that you can download for free. You could try those and see if you like them. Just search for "free Strayer Upton."

We use CLE also. This summer I'm going to try Beast Academy (BA) for fun and enrichment. We'll start at the beginning with BA 3A. You might want to look into it. It will review concepts they've already learned, but then stretch their minds a bit further.

I was thinking of combining my two dd for math just for the summer. We use CLE and the thought going through my head was to have one dd do the even numbered problems, and the other could do the odd numbered problems. (This also helps me save money, because then I don't have to buy two sets of workbooks for them!)

Bumping, I'd like to know also.

Synge would be suitable. Guerber might be if you have children who are really interested in history. They would be a little tougher read, but should be fine for an 8th grader, or advanced 6th and 7th grader.

I was going to suggest MP also!

Although I have not used TOG, I would not recommend it for a first year homeschooler. Another program which has everything (and I mean everything) laid out for you, and which also tells you if something is teacher led, student led, or a combination of both is Heart of Dakota (HOD). It is Bible based. Even if it is swayed one way, it would be a great place to start for your first year.

If you have children who love history and are advanced readers, then you could do these as early as 4th grade. Or, read them aloud. But, I do think they suit middle school age, or older, better. Christine Miller from nothingnewpress.com has all the books on her site for sale, and I think you can find them on rainbowresource.com.

Classic Starts and Great Illustrated Classics. We really like Great Illustrated Classics because they have lots of drawings (black and white), short chapters, and are great for read alouds (especially for getting a book done quickly - I, myself, can't stand a book with loads of descriptive sentences that go on and on), but also simple enough for a child to read.

Definitely put them in at grade level. It repeats every year. It may go a bit faster, and not have as much explanation every year, but grade level should be fine.