Real Science 4 Kids Focus series has semester units so you could finish before the end of the school year. Their text is very clear. There are ten experiments, but the science is very good. I believe they use IEW in CC, correct? You might consider finishing with them. I also like CAP writing if you want more of the classical progym approach. It's scripted and has a workbook. It's very open and go and is also broken down by semester. I'd include a grammar and spelling/vocab too. CAP has grammar too, but I have not used it to know to recommend. I know many like R&S, and it is thorough, but I personally find it visually unappealing and dull and can't bring myself to use it, although it is affordable. You could also consider WTM's new grammar, although it relies on a teacher script. Easy Grammar is supposed to be more open and go. Is he a good speller? Is he ready to move onto vocab? You might consider Vocabulary from Classical Roots for an open and go program. For history, there a plethora of options. Do you want something more simplified or literature based? Can you just continue to use the CC materials you own?

Perhaps you could supplement with Beast Academy. It has a lot of problem solving depth, geometry and some algebraic concepts that would help boost his skills in a fun way. It meets standards and can even be complete to prepare for pre-algebra. There is a placement test. Don't feel bad if they place your child in level 4 even bc they are advanced. They can be very challenging, but teach how to work through problems in different ways.

I would take the placement test to determine which one. When I was in school, Algebra 1/2 was considered the more advanced one, and 8/7 was under algebra 1/2, but I have heard from others that with more recent editions, 8/7 is considered the standard one, and algebra 1/2 is the extra practice one. I think you will likely be fine with either choice, but a practice test will be more precise about it.

You might look at George Washington's World. I don't know if it is entirely secular for your preferences, but it didn't seem overtly Christian. I like that it ties in all the world history that was connected to George Washington, such as the French Revolution.

We are finishing the first book, and I really like it. My son has been using many of the words in real life and his writing. It gives an excellent foundation. We have done most of the writing assignments, esp. since we use all of MCT, but we also use CAP, so I am starting to back off on the writing assignments just because we have a lot elsewhere right now. Sometimes I let him change the topic from Ancient Rome to a topic from our current studies.

Elemental Science is loosely based on the WTM method, using spines, note booking, and experiments. They spend a whole year on each subject. WTM has recommended them, and then it is more organized for you. We have used ES, but I personally have trouble with implementing a full 36 weeks of science. I have liked RS4K more for its ten week semester units that give me time for supplemental material and science kits. I also like the explanations in their text.

I'd look at some of the 4-h curriculum for science this year before she has to do the formal high school science rotation. They have some equine and farming resources there. If she really likes Latin, you might consider a Latin based vocab program such as Caesar's English or vocab from classical roots and look at the spelling patterns in the vocabulary words. For writing, does it help to have her type her papers? My son gets overwhelmed with physical writing but enjoys typing. Maybe take a creative writing course this year that she would enjoy and find less anxiety ridden. I'd do something literature based for history where she can use some audio cds.

I really found Real Science 4 kids open and go and easy to implement as long as you had the supply list ahead of time.

You don't need to do both 8/7 and algebra 1/2, but if you want to, I'd suggest testing through the review chapters at the beginning. There's always 40 or so lessons of review. You can just give the tests until they get more difficult and then start there. There is so much review built into Saxon that she'd still get review of the earlier chapters in the lessons. Then I'd work through that, and if she finishes it by the end of the year, you could start Algebra 1 in 8th.

I can't stand anything with a super chatty tone. One small audio clip of Mystery of History, and I was done. Reading Apologia elementary science is the same way for me. (I also don't like preachy science, so double strike for me.) Also, I am pretty big on appealing visuals. Memoria may be great, but it looks so very boring that I never even want to look at it. When I stop to look at Rod and Staff grammar, I see the exercises are good, but it also looks super boring. I also reject unprofessional looking programs with poor fonts and graphics. I can't do Biblioplan for this reason. If it looks like a homeschool mom typed it on her computer, it's not likely to happen here.

We like Discovering Great Artists. It introduces an artist, and then it has a project using a technique this artist used.

I think for preschool and kindergarten, I'd get a good Anthology or collection of short stories, the Velveteen Rabbit, Stone Soup and The Story of Ferdinand For first: Aesop' Fables Peter Rabbit Grimm' Fairy Tales Second: Winnie the Pooh Little House books Hans Christian Anderson stories Third: Narnia books Mary Poppins Paddington Fourth: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The Secret Garden or A Little Princess Swiss Family Robinson Fifth: Anne of Green Gables The Prince and the Pauper The Jungle Book Sixth: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Treasure Island The Hobbit

What about something supplemental to understand the relationships of grammar. Something like The Sentence Family or MCT Grammar Island. Then he could get back into more formal lessons later. When my son was in Shirley and could label everything, I found that he didn't have a lot of retention or understanding of the part of speech. We switched to MCT. It was fun, but it gave him more of a foundational understanding. After three years, we are going to Warriners in seventh grade for more mechanics. The Shirley jingles are great for memorization, but the program doesn't always paint the whole picture.

Birch aquarium is pretty, but small. A much better aquarium is in Long Beach. For something a little different with some great exhibits and wildlife rescue, I recommend the Living Coast Discovery Center in Chula Vista on the Bay. In Balboa, the Fleet science center is pretty cool. Our favorite is Model Railroad Train Museum. Children's admission is very affordable. You can also get a pass for several museums at Balboa and just enjoy the day there. It's such a lovely place to walk around. Moonlight Beach is great for a beach day! You might also want to consider visiting Coronado Island. The beach is awesome there too, but it's so fun walking around the island. Laguna Beach is also a cute beach town with lots of local artists in the community to walk around. Also, in Oceanside, there's a great pier with a restaurant at the end with burgers and shakes over the water. This is a favorite for my kids. I don't know if the extra safaris are worth it. One of our favorite places that is inexpensive is the lighthouse at Point Loma. There's some fun history to tour the Lighthouse, but down below are the tide pools. If it's low tide, you can see some great marine life exploring the rocks and tide pools. So much fun. It's a national park. Look at a Go Pass for admission into several places at a discount. We also did a tour of San Diego Bay included on the Go Pass. One other thing if you're going into the winter months is to consider a whale watching tour off of Dana Point in Orange County. You can see some great gray whales close to the coast. That might be on a Go Pass too. Enjoy!

When my son was in 4th grade, he would spend: About 45 minutes on math including lesson, occasionally longer if he was dawdling. Writing depended on the day and the lesson. We used CAP fable then, so often, it was 15-20 minutes with a longer writing assignment once a week or so that could take around 45 minutes. He could definitely write a paragraph, and he could write a story. His charter would want him to write a five paragraph essay, but he needed help with this simply because that wasn't the type of writing he normally did. The paragraphs and flow was fine, but he needed help with transitions and conclusion. My current third grader will likely need another year to be at the same level of his brother in fourth grade in writing. Science was approximately twice a week with experiments. We did reading and hands on experiments. Some lab notebooking, but nothing strenuous in output. Still in the "science is so cool!" stage.

I agree with RootAnn. I wanted to pull my son at Christmas in firstgrade, and he ended up staying through the end of the year. He is in sixth and a completely different city, and he still talks about his friends at school. You will have plenty of time next year to "catch up" a second grader to where you want. The iPad will go away in May. I understand all of your reasons of wanting to homeschool. but I also understand the importance of those friendships that get even better with all the end of the year parties and traditions and are more likely to last through summer fun outings in the neighborhood if you don't leave right away. This is a city you are staying in, so I think a full year of those friends would be good. I moved a lot as a kid and went to a half year in first grade, etc. I hate that we moved around so much the last few years with our kids. I am thankful we are homeschooling so there was stability in their education. I think educational stability is also important with kids who have moved around. I just want to be settled in a community and never ever move again. So I guess I'm with RootAnn in that I understand all the pros and cons, but I am a homeschooling advocate who is saying I lean slightly toward leaving them there for the year just for stability and friendships. Take the year with your younger kids and enjoy the time you have to plan and get ready for a fun summer and new school year in the fall.

We like the Usborne doodle books, the wreck this journal, and mad libs.

So we have center rotations for my kids. Basically, I have all the extra, fun stuff, such as board games, math manipulative fun, art books, etc. in bins. They rotate which bin they are doing each day. So when I'm working with another kid and they are done, they can do a rotation until we are all done with school. This way, we fit in all that extra fun stuff I would often forget too.

I think either approach is good. Get the activity book for SOTW if you go that route. She includes several extra optional books for each chapter. We often rabbit trail for a couple weeks on a topic of particular interest, and she encourages it. I like the flexibility of SOTW. If you want, I think it would be fine to go through VP in first with the cards, etc., but just adjust your expectations of writing,o etc. What a rich place to be as you study this! I used to live near all of our colonial history landmarks when we studied medieval history, and we moved the next year when we got to the colonial history portion. I wish I had known to take better advantage of those places!

If you are wanting to keep up with public school standards, which is entirely reasonable, you would likely seek a more traditional approach. While some may like other programs more than Abeka, it does have a more traditional writing approach integrated with their LA, and across their curriculum. By fourth grade, they are writing one page essays as they form a state notebook in the history program. This doesn't mean you need to use their history or other content subjects, for you can easily add writing assignments into other subjects as you see fit. If you start to feel their writing is lacking, it would be easy to supplement with something. Their grammar instruction is very strong, and it would be worthwhile to use it just for that. FWIW, I was a student of Abeka LA from 2-8, and I did quite well writing academically through college and beyond. One caveat: Abeka works well with students who have a natural proclivity toward language and don't mind all the busy work. Not every student is a good fit to their approach. No program will be a good fit for everyone. But if your child is enjoying it and doesn't mind the busywork, I don't think you have to change just because. Their second grade and third grade LA will be mostly focusing on good sentences, and then they will build into paragraphs and then short essays by fourth grade. This is on par with a lot of public school programs. The writing prompt sheets are great. You can google and find free printable for the size handwriting your child has. There are lots of inexpensive workbooks too where they have suggested writing prompts on Rainbow and even places like Barnes and Noble or Learning Resources. You could just add one per week to get more practice in.

There are many different approaches to writing. Is there something specific you are seeking? You will find that the classical educators focus mostly on narration and dictation at this age, which would be something like WWE. When he's a little older, I highly recommend CAP. In second grade, you can have him draw something and tell a story about his picture if he likes or have him write silly sentences for fun. There will be some sentence writing in Abeka in second grade too.

We loved RS4K chemistry for middle school. My only issue was the experiment to make the cabbage water litmus test papers. There are only ten experiments/lessons. There's room to do two books a semester or supplement with science kits (we like the Science Wiz kits for this age.). We loved the explanations in the books and the chemical reactions. The first experiment, however, was boring. We have used Elemental Science biology. It is definitely more involved and a full 36 weeks with writing assignments, etc. The readings are mostly out of the encyclopedias. My kids want to get more hands on, but I struggle with getting it all done. rS4K was more doable for me, but we may use ES again for biology grammar stage. Both are solid approaches. Which one looks more fun to you? Do you want to do chemistry for a full 36 weeks or do some other projects or another subject too?

I wish I did Abeka phonics, and that is now the plan for my 5yo. Grade 2 is when it starts to get into more grammar, but it is still tied to their phonics. Most other companies do not really have a strong grammar program until third grade. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Abeka is very strong on skills. The biggest issues are seatwork burnout, but it sounds like you have that figured out. The other issues are Spelling and composition. If you do not have a natural speller, Abeka isn't always a good fit, but it sounds like your child is doing well. Their composition in upper grades is different than the classical method. I learned to write just fine as a child with their approach, but it differs from SWB's approach, for example, with narration and dictation. You can easily supplement with WWE if you like. As they get older, you can easily add a more robust writing program and omit some of Abeka's composition lessons if you like. CAP or WTM would be good additions. I'm planning to return to their grammar with my middle son next year. Their lesson plans, in general, tend to be more scripted in younger years for all subjects, but there is a lot more explanation on the student pages as they progress. I really don't think you are "missing" anything else significant, especially in grade 2. I'd include lots of quality literature instead of just relying on their readers and possibly supplement some writing methods. Abeka grammar was even a recommendation in the first edition of WTM, and it's a top 100 from Cathy Duffy. It's a solid approach. Don't change it just because others like something else better.

Just looking at it, I noticed that while they use SOTW, it's used with the chapters slightly out of order. I find this is why I don't use several supplementary programs. I like to read the book in order as there are transitions from chapter to chapter. Now some say SOTW skips around too, and that's fair, but I prefer not to skip around too much within my spines.

I haven't used History Odyssey, but we loved SOTW at those ages. The activity book is wonderful. It's just enough to add as much as you want and not feel overwhelmed.