Reminding myself to reply later... 🙂

Use that inter-library loan as much as you can. And many books are available to read free online at archive.org -- you have to make a free account, but then you can "check out" books and read them online on your phone, tablet, computer, etc.

I'm doing a Hero's Journey theme with one of mine this year (under the umbrella of a world lit credit)-- we are examining what each of the heroes did with adversity, and how it shaped them. He's reading/will read The Odyssey (Fitzgerald translation), Beowulf (this cool version w/ illustrations by John Howe--LOTR tie in!-- and then reading the Heaney translation), Robinson Crusoe, and Jane Eyre. There is sooooo much free online stuff for the these books, since they show up on many high school reading lists. The hard part is wading through it. Here's an awesome thread on lit analysis and Jane Eyre... And Jasper Fforde's book The Eyre Affair would be a fun sci-fi, genre busting to read after. Connie Willis is a great sci-fi author who doesn't go too heavy on the sci. Doomsday Book is one of my favorites. Dune (by Herbert) would be good to throw in the sci-fi category-- nice move to watch as well.

You deserve a very large dose of congratulations!-- passing that test on the first time is an achievement, doing it while working FT+ is another achievement, doing it after mess that Covid has made is also an achievement, doing it while being a wife and mom FT+ is yet another achievement. Well done - many times over! 🙂

PeterPan used it with one of her children (who had some learning difficulties), and her thoughts on using it may be helpful. I researched SWR and WRTR a while back when one of mine was seemingly stuck and just not moving forward in reading/spelling/writing, and her thoughts on both programs kept popping up. https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/search/?&q="SWR"&author=PeterPan&search_and_or=and ^ I did a search with her username and "SWR" Happy reading!

Congratulations! Wishing your whole family many snuggles. 🙂

Some good (free!) cursive links were posted by Hunter in this thread.

Two years ago, when my homeschooled son applied to our local CC (not for DE, just average senior applying to college thing), we had to provide a one page transcript (no course descriptions needed), SAT or ACT scores, and take the Accuplacer. The admissions office said they would wave the SAT/ACT requirement for some adult learners, but high school aged applicants were strongly encouraged to provide SAT/ACT. Especially in a home school situation.

Especially for your average K-8 student, I would prioritize keeping consistent in math & LA skills, and let history/science and other extras happen as you are able. Documentary watching is great for getting content in a way that requires not much from you or other involved adults. Or library books on history/science topics. Or read alouds (done by you as you are able, or some other involved adult, or librivox or...) When one of my elementary aged kids had a chronic illness (and all the labs, testing, scans, dr visits involved with it), he spent the better part of a year "treading water" academically with lots of read alouds and a big ol' pile of Spectrum workbooks. He did well with the consistent format and easy to haul to the doctor's office format of the workbooks. His end of year testing was fine the next school year. No great gains, but no great losses either. Which was wonderful considering all he had been through. Hugs and prayers for you as you go through all this.

I really like K-12's spine for world history (the high school one) Our Human Story You could read the needed chapters at your own pace, and answer the key questions at the beginning of each chapter in a short essay or two. ^ That paired with activities from Stanford's Reading Like a Historian could be a low key as you needed it to be. You could also watch Crash Course world history ... and utilize the corresponding fill-in notes found on this school site. Or just use the Crash Course World history curriculum-- pdf's here. (disclaimer-- John Green talks waaay too fast for my kids to actually absorb anything, we have to slow down the videos to .75 speed in order to understand him. Also, sometimes all the jokes can be off-putting, especially when my teen didn't have the context.) But they are secular, and a decent way to get content that doesn't have to drain you dry in the process. Khan Academy also has nicely done world history videos. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins

My deepest sympathy and continued prayers for your family.

I found something like this...https://www.readwritethink.org/sites/default/files/resources/printouts/Essay Rubric.pdf to be a good starting point when I began grading writing (high school for mine). A few of mine have needed Very Specific Guidelines for much longer than you think they should need them... ^ This advice is excellent. It is the only way one of mine has been able to make *any* progress in writing. Too much to correct and he shut down.

Praying for you and the family at this difficult time.

BJU math is more rigorous than Abeka. Abeka does arithmetic okay, but by the time you get to mathematics BJU is much, much stronger. In elementary, Abeka is spiral (lots of mixed review in each lesson), but BJU is more topical (chapter on fractions, with review at the end of the chapter). Which is fine-- not all students need all that review built in. (But some do...) 😉 BJU uses more mathematical "language" in its teaching (proofs, properties, postulates, set terminology, etc.), even in elementary. I really like their Pre Algebra text; I've used it with a quick-to-get-concepts kid who thrived with it. I've also used it at a slower pace with a struggling in Algebra 1 student. I also like their high school geometry text. FWIW, BJU would not be my first choice for a student that struggles with upper level math. A good teacher would probably know how to adapt the text, but I was not that good teacher for my struggling student. 🙂

Next year's 6th grader... Math: R&S 6, with Khan Academy for fun Grammar/Spelling: R&S Lit (wth a geography/ world cultures focus): my crazy quilt version of Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere core, adding in Hungry Planet, Material World, and Halliburton's Book of Marvels because I can. History: Abraham Lincoln's World, then the first half of SOTW 4 Latin: either Latina Christiana, Latin for Children, Getting Started with Latin, or Latin Book One (Scott and Horn). Or maybe Latin Prep. Because I have them all. (insert maniacal laughter here). 😉 Science: finishing up an older version of Sonlight's science E (our older version has a few more books, he is doing about 1/2 the books this year)... Fine Arts: drawing/painting from life (pencils, watercolors) -- some for nature study, some just for fun. music/composer study from the AO site -- I almost never stick to AO's schedule, but I like the convenience of having it all right there with links and everything... Cross country/track at local middle school

27.5 and 28, so far.

Next year's junior-- If he gets accepted at the Technical High School (1/2 day classes there...) 4 credits in Law Enforcement 1 and at home taught by me... Math-- Algebra 2 using Tobey and Slater's Intermediate Algebra Science -- Conceptual Physics (Hewitt text) with lab History & Lit -- Twentieth Century World History, using a mish-mash of Sonlight 300 and Ambleside Online's Year 11 and whatever I deem best. First half of the year will have a grammar refresher using Warriner's, (and some lit essays thrown in), and the second half of the year will have a research paper or two tied to history topics. and at the local high school... cross country, indoor track, outdoor track. Arrrgh! SAT's this year!! Need to go find a testing site and date that works... I think we'll shoot for a spring test, so he has more time to prep. He will also be working part time throughout the fall and spring.

Yes-- every one of my high school aged kids have had part time jobs, sports teams, and other outside activities that cut into their evenings and other free time. So sometimes weekend work has to happen in order to get it all done. I assign the amount of work *or* the time expected on the subject in order to fulfill credit in that subject, and sometimes we have to get creative in how that all happens. I do see a difference between kid-who-can-do-the-work-but-just-didn't-care, and a student with LD's who really is working hard but just needs more time on task to get it done. The former would get his free time cut into (as a wake up call), and the latter would get his free time protected, so he can have the energy to work hard again. But even my current high school student with LD's knows that he has to put in more time than his NT counterparts if he is going to get ____ result. He's been doing this long enough so he knows that it takes him (literally!) hours to memorize something that his NT siblings could memorize in a half hour of work. That's his reality, and he is figuring out how to make it work. So he probably spends a couple hours (20 minutes here, 15 minutes, there) every weekend working on memorization (science terms, foreign language vocab, etc.). I'm pretty fierce about no summer school, though (unless some extenuating circumstances). Summer is too short. They need the time off, and so do I. 🙂

Thanks for the link-- nice find!

and just found another site (public high school Spanish class) that has some files... https://www.senoritaharris.com/destinos.html I don't remember if it has some of the same content as the link I posted above, but I think some of the scans might be better quality.

I found this blog to have helpful files for using Destinos... https://destinostelenovela.wordpress.com/

I've tried some good ones from Budget Bytes... https://www.budgetbytes.com/?s=sheet+pan

This thread may give you some ideas for scheduling Jacobs... Or this thread... Ask Dr. Callahan has a syllabus/teacher guide, but it is for the 3rd edition, so check which edition you have. https://www.askdrcallahan.com/product/elementary-algebra-teacher-guide/ ETA: Callahan also has a PDF syllabus that goes with the *2nd* edition (or it does on the 5th edition of the syllabus that I have, copyright 2012.)

Some TOPS units might be fun... TOPS Radishes TOPS Corn & Beans

^Had to quote all this because it is so true, so very, very, true. ...and I'll mention the sad but true fact that catching up on weeks of grading is no picnic for the parent, either. BTDT. More than once.