I guess it's so new that no one has used it.

Has anyone here used 42 electronics? My son has an interest in robotics, and I'm looking into a local robotics team and a local company that has classes, but I found this curriculum, too. Curious for some reviews, but it looks new. Only 2 of the 4 levels are out so far.

Getting Started with Spanish

My 9th grader is taking pre-calc, and he uses a Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus CE.

Thank you!

I'm looking for new things for next school year. I just heard of Grammar Galaxy for the first time yesterday, and I want to know more. I've searched here, and I'm mostly finding brief mentions that someone is going to try it, but I can't find reviews or experiences from those that have actually used it. Anyone? My son will be going into 6/7th grade (he's young, so kind of in between). If you've used it, what do you like or dislike about it? Is it solid instruction? Easy to use? Long/short lessons? I did get the online sample, but it's about 4 pages long, so I'd appreciate more input. Thanks.

I've used WriteShop and my son loved it. I'm not sure what you mean by required materials, though. Did you buy the package of stuff that is pre-done for you? It may be called an activity pack? I don't remember. I do think WS is teacher intensive in that I did need to prep materials, cut stuff out, etc., but my son looked forward to writing time. He enjoyed "publishing" his stories at the end of each unit. We had fun with editing and rewriting. I spent a few hours before the school year started putting together the grammar folders. Those were easy to do, and then they were ready for the year. Other than that, I could go by the seat of my pants each day if I needed to, but I'd usually spend a few minutes each weekend cutting out the activity stuff. It was a good writing year for us!

I'm curious, too, so I'm bumping again... sorry...

Have you looked at Writeshop? It is kind of teacher intensive, but my 5th grader loves it. He does not like to physically write stuff, but he enjoys the pre-writing activities, brainstorming, and other activities. He likes coming up with the stories, but not physically writing them down. It's been a good writing year for him.

My 8th grader has read 55 books this year, not including read alouds or smaller non-fiction supplements to history. BUT, only 8 were actually assigned and discussed and written about as "schoolwork." My 5th grader has read 31, but only 2 were discussed thoroughly. I think that what you assign depends on the kid. My older one loves to read at night, and I use the school books to make sure we discuss the more difficult books as curriculum. My youngest hates anything related to reading, so I put very little pressure on the output of reading, and he is just assigned reading time each day. He chooses the books. He needs to develop a love a reading, so I do "suggest" books that I think he'd like, but he has the final decision. I do ask him about his reading to make sure he's understanding the book, but that is very casual.

I did find two books at my library that I've requested. They are short, but I've used the series before, so I'm hoping it will fit the bill. The 1980 decade in pictures, and the same for 1990s. I like things that cover the overall culture and feel of the decades that will give other info beyond SOTW. Thanks for the other suggestions everyone!

I loved The Kite Runner. My youngest definitely wouldn't read it (it would take him forever b/c he reads so slow!), but I will suggest it to my older kiddo...he's my big reader. I've thought of recommending it before, but I do know it has some rough scenes. I don't censor much, but I "avoid recommending." :)

Oohh...ok. We've read Malala, but I'll look up the other! Thanks.

Thanks. I'll go see if I can find them...the Globalization book is exactly the type of thing I'm looking for. My library doesn't have it, but I'm searching ILL. I read Towers Falling for Battle of the Books, and I didn't personally like it. :) I guess there isn't much out there, though.

Not sensitive at all, and ages 10 and 14, but I need something that won't take them forever to read. I found a good suggestion on terrorism, but it was 379 pages, so I know we'd never get through it for that one topic.

I'm noticing that as we reach the end of SOTW 4, there are not as many book suggestions to supplement the reading. Does anyone have any good suggestions for books you've found for this time period? I've searched a few topics in my library system, but they literally have one juvenile book for each topic, and I have no idea how good any of those are. I've requested them, but I'm looking for other options. So, we're talking about The Persian Gulf War, Terrorism, and anything closer to present day. Thanks.

Thank you. I like your assessment. Definitely giving me something to think about!

I have a rising 6th grader that doesn't "love" writing, but he doesn't hate it either. He's currently using Write Shop E, but I don't think I want to use Write Shop F for him. My oldest son did WWS1 in 6th grade, and he struggled a bit that year. Now, he's doing WWS2 as an 8th grader and doing better. His writing isn't great, but I've seen improvement. He also did a brief semester with IEW's theme book All Things Fun and Fascinating, so that's my only experience with IEW. Now that my younger kiddo is entering the middle school years, I'm trying to decide between using WWS1 or trying the student intensive year of IEW. I'm just hesitant to spend that money on IEW when I own WWS and really just need a new student book. What do you see as the pros and cons or benefits and drawbacks of each style of curriculum (just IEW and WWS)??

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Thank you. Do you find that 2 weeks is a good time estimation for each unit? I see that each year comes out to 40 weeks, and we usually only do 36ish, so is shortening units easy to do? Also (sorry for so many questions), are the science experiments relatively easy to accomplish? I don't really see a list of required materials on their site. I'm assuming that's in each unit, but I can't get a good idea of the extras involved. Thanks again!

Since we can't search, I'll just ask..LOL! Does anyone know anything about Layers of Learning? Have you used it? For what subjects (looks like they are integrated, but how is the science??)?? Any thoughts? This would be for a 6th grader.

Thanks for your insight. This is all so new to me!

Yes, prepping for the verbal has been painful to say the least! He uses R&S grammar, but shockingly cannot find errors in the test questions. It's killing me!! LOL!! He's in Algebra II, so he is actually wishing the math would be harder to set him apart from others. He does fine on those sections.

My 5th grader loves WriteShop. Honestly, he asks to do it, so in my mind, I'll deal with the rest if he enjoys writing. Hope you find a good fit!

BTW, I should add that I have spoken to their admissions office about grades. They know he's homeschooled and that we did not keep grades prior to last year. That is fine. Mostly, I think his HSPT results will be the deciding factor in his admission, but I wanted to know if the CAT6 would help or hinder him. His scores were excellent. Is the test "good" in the eyes of a Catholic private school?