We used The Elements last year with our 13 and 9 year olds together. Our 13 year old got a lot more out of it, but it was not above the 9yo's head at all. Our 13yo is a huge chemistry buff, and we added a lot of other books and resources that he still reads just for fun. We used Fizz, Bubble and Flash, Atoms and Molecules, The Usborne Chemistry book, a really cool visual book on the Elements (can't exactly remember the title, but it shows up on the list from the post above about Guesthollow. He loves the Basher science books, too. If it's truly an interest of your student, don't worry, they'll find more things that they like, and won't forget!

Elemental Science is great, and the middle-grade books have a list of books in the back to use for younger students studying the same topics. I used it last year with a 6th and a 2nd grader.

I also would recommend that you take a look at Life of Fred. We have been using it with our 12yo ds since 4th/5th grade, beginning with the Fractions book and are now in the second pre-algebra book. He knows much more math than I expected him to, and he understands what he is doing--not just mindless problem solving. We gave a standardized test this year, and he did extremely well in the math portion, having used nothing but Fred for two or three years now. He doesn't complain about math anymore! He also is very good at math, but really disliked it in the past (we used Math Mammoth prior to Life of Fred).

I have a copy of WS here, and I was thinking the same thing as I read through it. But I also thought FLL was going to be torture, and my kids all liked it a lot! But, it's good to hear that feedback. I think I may bite the bullet and buy the IEW stuff, knowing I can always return it.

I am trying to get my plans in place for next year, and I just can't seem to make up my mind about writing for my 11yo DS. He is a fantastic reader, very creative, loves to write, but doesn't have a lot of structure when he does. I want to encourage his love of it, but refine his abilities. We have been using MCT (finished Island, and most of Town), but I find myself at a loss of getting him to do more actual writing, and I want him to be able to write a good non-fiction report along with improving his creative endeavors (which are plenty!). So, I find myself torn over reading all the reviews of other writing curricula. Here are the ones I am considering (probably continuing to use at least the grammar portion of MCT along with whatever we choose): Writing Strands IEW TWSS and SWI B Kilgallon Thoughts? I'm not usually so indecisive!

The title pretty much says it. We're going into 5th grade with ds. We've finished the Island level, and are part way through Town and will continue it this summer. Do you use a separate writing curriculum or not? I haven't up to this point, just assuming we will get to more writing as we progress through the levels. Is that right? Or do I need something else? Thanks in advance!

I started my ds on the Phonetic Zoo from the Institute for Excellence in Writing this year. He had completed the first three levels of AAS. It's pricey (I found it used), but he loves it and I love that it's a self-paced program that he does on his own. It seems to be working well for him, too. He is not a good speller naturally, but this program seems to be great. It teaches the rules along with some really challenging words to illustrate them.

I also just purchased the complete set from them. I could not find a cheaper way to do it, and I knew that I would have everything I needed when I needed it. The peace of mind of that was worth the $. The books are so nice, too...and we'll use them for more than one child. However, you could probably just buy the spiral-bound planning book, the kits, and then get the books from the library each week. But, we just saved up the money and bought the whole thing.

We tried it for a couple of months, but never found it to be as in-depth as I wanted. DS enjoyed the videos and experiments, and I didn't mind them at all...as extra lessons. However, we went back to using the Noeo curriculum and haven't looked back. With Noeo, the kits contain all the stuff you need (minus a few things you need to buy at the store, but the list is there and nothing is very expensive at all), and I like the books they have chosen to go along with it. I thought that Supercharged Science was just too expensive and didn't do enough in-depth study of the subjects. (A year of SS would be over $300, and we spent right around $200 for Noeo, including all the books we needed and the kits...just for a comparison of cost.)

That's what I do, too,

We just use a wagon...but we are within walking distance to the library. I don't know what we'd do if we had to drive them.

Here is an article from the last Memoria Press catalog that I found really helpful as I was deciding whether to continue with Latin. It renewed my passion to teach Latin and keep our curriculum classical. http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/2010/Winter2010-LetterEditor.html

I like that I can print what I want, whenever I need it. My son gets math concepts quickly, and while there are a lot of problems, I often just have him do half of them. I like that it's simple and not too involved. I also love her emails with links to fun math websites, etc. You may still be able to sign up for that without using the curriculum. We liked Singapore and used it through 2b, but I like MM better because all the stuff is in one place...not in three separate books. It's pretty easy for me to give the sheets to ds and have him read the instructions, explain them back to me in his own words and then let him do the problems on his own.

We don't have to have an official name, but ours is called Hagia Sophia Academy (Holy Wisdom). It's what I pray for every day, so I thought it was fitting. :)

We are first-time users, here. DS8 is in the Island series, and we are using the whole set. Finished Grammar, in the middle of Sentence Island and Music of the Hemispheres and he's doing wonderfully with the practice sentences. I would say that we both love it, but I'm not a groupie (honestly, the email list kind of drives me nuts...I'm thrilled with the new bulletin board format for that!). :)