He has trouble with all topics honestly! He just doesn't seem to absorb math at all. When I homeschooled him in 1-3 grade I had trouble getting him to anything higher than a 2nd grade level. When he went to public school in 4th grade they put him into a small class for extra math help and he was doing OK with that. Basically he and a few other students went with a teacher and got a lesson on what the rest of the class would be doing and then also did the same lesson with the whole class so he got a double dose of the math concepts. I think he is still a grade level below his age math-wise but I don't really stress about grade levels, just want him to have a less frustrating math experience at home this time and try and get him geared up for algebra in a couple years.

I have skimmed through the website, will need to look at it more. There seem to be a lot of different options there, is there a different Saxon math for homeschoolers? I might be looking in the wrong spot because I found "classroom" packages that appear to be for public schools?

Hi, Not new to homeschooling but my son did a few years in public school and is now back home for the foreseeable future. He struggles very much in math and I need to find him something that will repeat concepts over and over and over and over... he might even benefit from skipping back to some 6th grade topics to re-learn because I found that with him being home for remote school learning at the end of this year that he didn't truly "master" these concepts like his report card said he did 😕 in the past when home schooling we used BA and MM but I feel like there is something else out there I just haven't discovered yet that will be the perfect fit for him! Does anyone have any recommendations that might be what I am looking for 🙂 Thank you!

so much awesome advice and feedback! thank you all for the input, it helps to pour this out and see what it is I am actually saying and thinking. I totally agree, and now see, that letting her quit PS would not be the bad thing for her that I was thinking it would be. Choosing how she learns best is really the priority and if PS isn't working then it is the right choice to get her back home. In regards to the online charter school- it really wasn't those courses in particular that she was balking at, it was any school work. I was teaching her history and science myself and it was just as much a struggle as the online stuff. And I was usual present when she did her assignments and gave help when needed. I am a single parent who works full time (nights/weekends mostly) so it is hard for me to keep a full MS curriculum going on my own without the help of the charter school. I would definitely change it if I find it is still going bad but would most likely give it another shot...at least for math and ELA. Thank you for this validation! This is what I have been so tempted to do! I get stuck in my head thinking she needs a certain amount of "school time" but really this is where she is the happiest and most productive! She is like a different tween altogether when she is with the horses and working at the barn. It calms her down and teaches her so much about everything! The school quarter ends Jan 25 here and I am thinking of letting her leave then. Would there be any benefit to having her wait to the end of the year? I know for a fact if she leaves PS this time it will be for good, I don't see her going back for HS and if she did it would just be if they let her take some electives there like AG science or art. Thank you again for all these awesome replies, it has been eye opening and very helpful, just what I needed!

I am looking for some advice on what to do about my 12 yo daughter. She is currently enrolled in PS after homeschooling for 4 years and hates everything about it! She asks me every morning to take her out of school again and home school her 😕 My number one concern about listening to her and going back to having her home is will that teach her that when things are hard it is OK to quit? Here is the back story- She went to this same school for K and 1st grade then I home schooled her for the past 4 years. Last year was rough. I had her enrolled in an online charter school for math and ELA and it was a great program but it was a fight EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. to get her to do any work. and it wasn't just the online work that she fought me about it was any school related work at all! we fought constantly and I seriously probably took 5 years off my life with the amount of stress she caused me! I made the decision to enroll her back in school so she could have a different person teaching her and maybe help her gain a little perspective. So now it's almost halfway through the PS year and she begs me everyday to let her try the charter school/home school again. She promises she will be a better student for me and claims she now realizes how good she had it! haha. She hates the way PS school run;, the distraction form other kids in class (noise makes it hard for her to concentrate), the fact that everything is so timed out (5 minutes to do this, quick get over there, hurry up and eat your lunch, ask to use the bathroom, etc), the kids have been alright to her but some of the girls do little things to show that they don't accept her (getting up and moving seats when she sits next to them, nobody picking her to be partners for class assignments, etc.) and the one best friend she does have isn't in her homeroom so they only get about 20minutes together at school for lunch and "get up and move" time. She also gets easily flustered and stressed and is way hard on herself! The littlest things can throw her off and she has had many episodes of breaking down and crying during class or lunch or anytime during the day when she feels stressed 😕 The good things about school are it is a great school! all her teachers are wonderful and she is getting straight A's in all her subjects! she even skipped a grade (she should be a 6th grader according to her age and was in the class below when she was there before in 1st grade). The principal is great and has said we should meet up to see what can be done to help her feel better when I expressed concern for my daughter and told him she wasn't loving it. My son also attends this school (he was HS from K-3 and went back last year as a 4th grader) and has learning trouble and anxiety that have been addressed wonderfully and he is thriving! So great school, great community just can't get my daughter to love it! Another pull to take her out is she is a very serious horse back rider and this has become such an important part of her life that it honestly will most likely be her career one day. Home schooling her would mean she could have more time at the barn she rides at. the trainer/owner there has taken her under his wing and every chance and day off she has is spent there helping him train horses and work at the barn. The idea of her being able to get her school work done and then go there for the rest of the day is very appealing to me because she learns so much there and it is all stuff she will no doubt use one day! not to mention she will most likely miss a couple weeks worth of school this spring traveling for horse shows 😕 So as I re-read this post I can see how it looks like I have already decided I want her to home school again! But really is it the right call? If i took her out of PS I would most likely enroll her full time in the online charter school. Will she really be better about being self-motivated and getting her work done or will we just be fighting everyday again after 2 weeks! Is it teaching her that when things are hard you can just quit? Please help, I need advice from other parents who have had similar experience with PS to HS to PS and back to HS! Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for any suggestions and advice!

Another vote for the K12 HO books. I am on the first one with my daughter and will probably use the others too. I have a feeling this first one will take us more then a year to get through but that's OK with me. I find it easy to make her some worksheets from just reading ahead of her or I just have her give me an oral explanation of what she read. Her favorite is when I have her make me a Power Point about a certain topic, kills 2 birds with 1 stone because she gets to play around with Power Point and learn how to use that too! She made a pretty good one about how mummies are made and one about the Hanging Gardens.

Thanks for the replies, I updated the OP with a link to what I found :)

I would like to start introducing civics to my 11 yo daughter and hoping to find a rec. for an easy to use workbook she can do 2-3 times a week to just get started on learning about government and all that jazz. She is doing some ancient history right now but I feel like I should start teaching her some things about how government works. Does anyone have a book or workbook they have used and liked? Thank you for the suggestions. I am updating the original post to add what I ended up finding so that it may help others who do a search in the future- http://www.civiced.org/wtp-the-program/curriculum/textbooks this is just what I was looking for and started with the upper elementary book so that it would be easy for her at first and not discouraging. It seems like a good ease into a subject that can sometimes appear a little dry for an 11 year old :) I found a gentle used copy on Amazon for about $9

Our elementary school has an outdoor adventures group that is for kids in 5th-8th grade. My home schooled daughter was allowed to join this year and went on her first hike this past weekend. She loved it! I have always hiked in these mountains and took my kids out as soon as they could walk so she is no stranger to the trails. There seemed to be a good amount of kids on the hike and I'm sure a good amount of noise is heard! The teacher who runs it is a hiker and I'm sure she instills good trail etiquette and makes sure the kids leave no trace. I feel perfectly fine letting my daughter go off on these outings without me and think it's a great thing for the school to offer. We live in a national forest with mountains all around us, these kids should be out exploring their backyard :)

I haven't taken any steps with the school yet on this matter, i'm just starting to think it through myself at this point and wondering what will be the best direction for her. I have a strong feeling the school will opt to keep her with her age group but would also be accommodating to keeping her challenge if she found the material covered too repetitive to what she already did this year in her online charter school classes. We'll see, I'll probably start the conversation with the school sometime in the early spring and at that point she will be close to completing her online classes. Thank you for the helpful replies :)

My son who was home schooled from 1-3 grade just re entered the local PS and they just started using Bridges in Mathematics this year https://www.mathlearningcenter.org/bridges It looks tricky from what I have seen so far and my son is struggling with it. Although he struggles with math in general so I can't say for sure it is the program. I will say a lot of parents (some of them teachers) I have talked with say they are not thrilled with this math program. It's still new to us so I'm giving it a chance.

Looking ahead to next year I am considering putting my daughter in public school. The school is k-8, on the small side and from my experience a good one. My 4th grade son is attending now and has transitioned extremely well from homeschooling 1-3 grades and is loving every minute! The school was super helpful with everything and overall there is a really good group of kids and parents in the community at the moment. My daughter is currently home schooling and taking an online charter school math and LA class at a 6th grade level. I am covering her other subjects which could be comparable to 6th grade as well. The problem is the schools cutoff for kindergarten is 5 before Sept. 30 and she has an Oct. 27th birthday so technically if she went to PS she would be a 5th grader. She went to this same PS for K and 1st grade and was the oldest in her class. She was often bored with the work and could have easily gone ahead a grade then I believe BUT the class above her is huge and requires 3 classrooms just to accommodate all the extra kids in that class. they really didn't want to be moving anymore kids in that class then necessary which i understand. My problem is that if my daughter returns to this PS next year according to her age she would be put in 6th grade but if this year she is covering 6th grade courses she should probably move to 7th grade, right? She has friends in the now 6th grade class through sports and knows a lot of those kids. She does know some of the kids in her age-appropriate class but doesn't really have any friends there like she would in the other class. She is a very social kid and can get along with any age, for example the kids she calls her friends range from age 3 to age 13 currently :) My question is does anyone have any experience moving from home school to PS and having their kids advance a grade? is it a good idea? Should I push for it with the school when the time comes or settle her into her age-appropriate class first and see how it goes? This wouldn't be until next fall so I have plenty of time to get ready for whatever happens, just thinking ahead and wondering what I should do.

thanks for all the replies, it really helps to hear first hand experiences! I called the school today and they wanted to get me in for a meeting right away (going tomorrow morning to meet with the principal and guidance counselor) so he could start this Monday, like 3 days from now!!!! I think he will be fine to jump right in, he is excited, but I don't even have a lunch box for him! :) I was thinking they would want him to start mid-year after Christmas but I guess we will just rip that bandaid right off and see what happens :)

I did think about putting him in school at the beginning of the year but at that time he was very against it and then all of a sudden it was the first day of school and so we just continued the homeschooling :) He went to this same school for Kindergarten and we are there a lot for various reasons so I know the school fairly well, I actually went to school there too! So we have that advantage anyway. He just took a CAT standardized test and scored pretty high for 3rd grade so according to that he is 4th grade ready but I do worry this school might try and put him a grade behind. I had testing done at the school for him last year to check for learning disabilities and they thought he seemed behind (this was last October). Since then he seems to have moved forward at a more rapid pace so I am hoping he is caught up enough to be at the level they would expect a 4th grader and place him in that grade. If they were going to say he needed to start in 3rd grade this would all be a no-go for me and I'd just continuing his home school. The main reason he is excited about school is the idea his soccer teammates are all in 4th grade and would be in his class so i'm pretty sure he would hate being in 3rd grade. He's also as tall as a 5th grader so he would stick out pretty good in a 3rd grade lineup! :)

Hi, just looking for some advice and experience from people who have transitioned a kid from homeschooling to public school. My 9 year old who has been homeschooled since 1st grade has expressed interest in going to our local PS. He is a shy kid but recently he has become very social and made some friends at soccer. I told him those kids all go to the school he would go to and be in his same grade and he was all about it! He has never had any friends to speak of besides his sister :/ We live in a rural area that doesn't have homeschool coops or any kind of homeschool organizations so his only time with other kids is through sports which is about to end until spring time (we don't have a lot going on in this neck of the woods!) I have always wanted both my kids to feel they have a say in how and where they get their schooling so I am on board with him giving this a shot. I also have felt a little overwhelmed having a 4th and 6th grader this year while working full time and being a single parent so I think it's a good time to try this out. He would be joining 4th grade and I am really not sure what they are covering right now at this school in this grade but am hopeful he could adjust to the pace and curriculum. Does anyone have experience or advice on this that they could share? thank you :)

Just looking for a quick idea about what home schoolers in the state of Kentucky need to do to homeschool. Thank you :)

I have discovered very quickly into this new school year that I need a second computer! My oldest is taking 2 online classes and is totally hogging the one desktop that we have :/ I have found that I need to keep interrupting her so I can get on the computer for other homeshool related matters. also the desktop we have is on a smaller computer table (space in our house is terribly limited) so she can't really spread out and use a notebook to take notes like she would be able to on our kitchen table. Anyway long story short I think I need a laptop! Looking for something she can save assignments on, browse the internet and stream video. I don't want to spend a fortune but am willing to pay about 200-300$ less would be better but I want decent speed and storage. Anyone have a homeschool laptop that they love and want to share a review? :) Thank you!

Thank you for the link. I wonder why it's $56??!! that's more then I paid for the text book! It think I'll look at the maps you recommended and maybe just wing the rest of it for now

I just bought this book for my 6th grader to use for history this year and wondered if anyone else has used it and what you used for workbooks or maps to go with it? I think I heard there are workbooks made for it but I'm having trouble locating one for the Volume one book :/ thank you!

I need to find a standardized test to administer to my two kids (3rd and 4th grade). I live in NH where I have the choice of having an evaluation of a portfolio done by a certified teacher or giving a test. I have done both in the past and find the testing to be a little easier since we can do it whenever on our own time. Last itme I used the CAT untimed test from this website http://www.academicexcellence.com/ but im wondering if there are other test I should try out. I want to make sure I'm using a test that is comparable to what the schools use in case my kids have to attend PS one day, I want them prepared for a challenging test. I guess I'm wondering, Does anyone know if different standardized test have different levels of difficulty?

Yep! "Pretend she said..." Pretend you said..." Pretend my guy was really sad..."Pretend we both fell down..." "Pretend this guy was really mean to your guy..." It goes on and on! then is eventually followed by "No! my guy didn't sat that!" "Just pretend he did" "NO!" "Well then I'm not playing with you ever again!" Then Me: "do you guys even hear yourselves right now and how ridiculous this argument is??!!" My oldest (the girl) can get a little bossy about who says what and not letting her little brother have much say in the script so I do have to intervene sometimes and let her know she needs to let her brother make up some of the story too then they work out a compromise and all is right again. All in all they play well together which is nice

I had Spellwell once too. I can't really remember the exact reason we stopped using that but we did. Megawords is all exercises and they vary lesson to lesson. Each lesson (or list) starts with a piece about a the rule that will be covered in the the list and reinforces it throughout the section. Then there are about 10-12 worksheets in each list that is full of fill in the blanks, crosswords, vocabulary work, etc. basically a lot of different activities that make the kids write the different spelling words over and over without making it feel really repetitive. The list of words at the beginning of each section is long but I just have my daughter pick 10-12 words that she will be responsible for knowing how to spell at the end of the section. It takes her 1-2 weeks to finish a section depending on how much school work we are getting to in a given week. I have been really happy with this book overall but my daughter is getting a little grumpy about it, she's a 10 year old girl though so lots of things make her grumpy! I might let her take a break when she finishes this book and have her do ETC 6 or 7 as review, her brother does ETC so she seems to think she would like that better :/ I will be buying the second book anyway and will probably be buying the first book again for my son to use eventually.

Maybe look at Megawords? I find that it teaches rules but I don't know how it compares to AAS b/c I've never looked at that program. My daughter did Spelling Workout and when I wanted something a little more I went to MW. She only started book 1 this year though as an older 4th grader so I'm not sure if it would be at the level you are looking for or not? my 3rd grader this year is doing explode the code as his spelling/phonics and that has worked well for him. He is a great speller and I like how the workbook is organized and is easy to assign, he does 1-2 pages of it daily.

I'll suggest Explode the Code though I'm not sure how it compares to the other programs mentioned because I haven't used those. I have used this program steadily with my son from 1st grade on and it has worked for him. I noticed this year that everything about reading, spelling, sounding out words has really clicked for him and he is reading like crazy now and able to spell out words he doesn't know by sounding them out. I did buy the Reading Lessons Through Literature level one book last year and used it a bit so have to give that book some credit too, I think it helped him out with sounds even though we didn't use it more then a few weeks, and also used Making Words and Climbing to Good English here and there but ETC has been his steady spine in phonics and I've been very happy with it. It's easy for him and he never complains about doing it. He is finishing book 4 now and I will continue using it right through to however many books there are :)

Yes they do, I have the PDF versions for 1-3 and 5th grades and they all have links at the beginning.