Check out the debates on YouTube that are with Dr. Hugh Ross and John Ankerberg. Dr. Hugh Ross is an Astrophysicist but he does discuss the geology in depth in some of the debates (which makes sense... geology is super important in Astronomy). Dr. Hugh Ross is a Progressive Creationist. So he believes the earth is billions of years old, not young. He does not follow apes to man evolution however. Then there is Dr. Francis Collins, who is a Christian and former head of the Human Genome project and current director of the National Institutes of Health. He believes in apes to man evolution and explains the biology of it with an emphasis on genetics. He has phrased the term "Theistic Evolution", which he calls the "BioLogos" and there is now an organization with the same name, which would be a great resource to check out. Those are two scientists I would consider to be experts on the topic, unlike Ken Ham and Bill Nye.

We do 3 weeks on, 1 week off (approx.) year round. We live out in the country so don't have to be concerned about neighbourhood kids knocking on the door asking to play all summer. We're keeping up with our regular curriculum plus doing some extra "fun" stuff like a History of Science unit, Guesthollow's Geography, an Astronomy Unit... hopefully that will include a shiny new telescope, we'll see. The way I've been scheduling our curriculum is using a loop schedule for Language Arts (we use a lot of different resources for LA), math we do for about an hour every week day, and the rest of the subjects we do on specific days. Ie. Mondays are gymnastics, history and Bible, Tuesday-Thursday are for unit studies, science or fine arts, etc. Fridays are music lessons. So we do math first thing, then a few things from our LA loop schedule, then after that we do whatever is left in the time we have. I schedule a "break" halfway through for an educational video and a snack, which also gives me time to set things up for projects. We try to finish school by 2pm regardless of what time we start. We usually don't take a lunch break till after school is done. We like to sleep in though so we don't start too early :) Things like reading out loud, art projects, science experiments, etc. we usually do in the evening after dinner so I don't count that as school time.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is Prufrock Press.

I love love love AAR. We tried four programs and All About Reading really came through for us in a huge way. Now I'm using it again with my second child. Excellent program and so easy to implement!!

I love Hakim's book. I plan to use the books as a supplement, I wouldn't use them as a spine. I've only read the first one so far but I would put it closer to the "History" category then the "Science" category. It still covers a lot of politics, religion, philosophy, math, etc. besides just science. I would probably line it up with Human Odyssey if I were using it with a student older then Grade 7. I had entertained the idea of doing Story of Science together with SOTW but my kid is not quite ready for the Story of Science yet.

LOVE every math manipulative we've ever bought from Learning Resources, so we stick with them (we have quite a collection now - all great!)

Did you try "All About Reading"? We tried many programs that didn't work until we tried that one and had major success with it.

Singapore!

We really like R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, Ellen McHenry and Guesthollow's stuff.

We are following our usual curriculum all through the summer, but keeping a slightly lighter schedule and adding in some extra new things. My "summer school" goals are: 1. Finish Mensa Kids reading list. Most of the ones left are chapter books so that will keep us busy. 2. "History of Science" unit study by Beautiful Feet Books - with some extra books. 3. An Astronomy unit study 4. Swimming Lessons, bike riding. 5. Finish up Story of the World Ancients (I try to go all out with the activities and books - so it's time consuming, but fun!) I had a bunch of extra language arts stuff on the list but now that we started CLE language arts workbooks into our rotation I realize that really covers everything we need to cover and the kids love it and it's easy to do on their own.

Stick with Singapore and follow the Home Instructor Guide. So much of the material is in there that is critical for the mental math aspect. Sooooo many people miss the importance of that guide for some reason, maybe it's cause the levels are sold in individual components and not as a kit? I don't know. If you follow the mental math at the end of the guide in order as suggested there would be no gap or sudden jump. The 17-5 would have been easy. Singapore uses a lot of manipulatives too, you don't need to take them away. Keep using them at the same time as building up the mental math concepts. Things like the Ten Frame are going to be really helpful for doing these kinds of questions (not just cuisinaire rods). There is a chart on the Singapore Math website that tells you which manipulatives to use for each level. They are not talked about in the workbook or textbook much (or at all) just in the home instructor guides. So there are the rods, and the ten frames, place value cards, counters, card games, special dice, 3D shapes, weights, balances, scales, etc.

Setting it up on my computer was one of the worst and must frustrating experiences yet. It was so annoying I don't even want to give the program a chance. They messed up big time with this one. :( There are free programs online that are better.

I would do All About Reading level 3 and/or 4 depending on where she is at (there is a placement test on the site I think). Each lesson is about 20 minutes, you could go through both levels over the summer if you needed to. We also use Explode the Code workbooks (they really work well together with All About Reading) and I love the levelled readers from Penguin publishers.

I've heard CLE math has some similarities to Saxon but it's spiral. I'm not a fan of the spiral approach to math in the beginning, but after doing a couple years of Singapore (which is Mastery approach) I do see some benefits to the spiral too. So we have ended up with the "strange" combination of actually doing both Singapore and CLE. They just both approach things differently and it's nice to have the best of both worlds. I love the format of the CLE workbooks and I like that my kids can do them mostly independently. I love Singapore for how it teaches problems and how to visualize word problems and do mental math. My son actually finds it easier to do math in his head then to use his fingers to count things out.

I didn't start AAR 1 with my eldest till the end of Grade 1. He's in Grade 3 now, just finished AAR 2 but he is reading at a higher level. Most of the readers he reads state that they are Level 3 readers, but he is on the verge of being ready for Level 4 readers. We are going to go through AAR 3 and 4 still anyways, just good reinforcement. We'll probably go through level 3 pretty quick so he can start level 4 at the beginning of Grade 4 in the fall.

I had the pre-reading set and sold it. It's over priced. I didn't like it. I much prefer the level A, B, C books of Explode the Code workbooks ("Go for the Code", etc) and after that she was ready for AAR 1. We've used AAR 1 and 2 with my older one so I knew what to expect and knew she was ready for it. You could start AAR 1 even before a kid knew all their phonics sounds as there is a lot of review and you can go slower if you need to.

We use it as a supplement for practicing handwriting, then the "how to do draw" part is just a fun bonus which we save for the end of school work (they love to draw, so it's motivating).

They are still there: http://www.drawyourworld.com/books/

My kids are really sciencey and we are using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey by Pandia Press next year. I checked out a lot of different stuff and when I tried out the (generous) sample download I thought this will be the winner. I bought a couple of them and am very happy. I'll be adding some themed read alouds to go with most of the units. The labs are all really good. Easy to get the supplies together and they actually *teach* stuff in an interesting way. I should mention I'm using it for both my kids, an advanced Grade 1 kid and an advanced Grade 4 kid. It's not too boring for my Grade 4 kid but he finds *anything* science related very interesting even if it's something he's learned before. Even so, flipping through the Life Science I don't think it will be redundant. He'll be doing other science too though, this is just a little supplement for him. We're also going through the "Let's Read and Find Out Science" book series, and the "One Small Square" book series by Donald Silver which complement the Life Science unit nicely. We also watch Bill Nye and Nova, etc. but I don't count that as schoolwork as they do it in their free time.

Next year will be our fifth year homeschooling ... and second time having a first grader, this is what works for us: Language Arts Phonics: AAR and ETC Language Arts Reading: Penguin Young Readers Guided Reading books. Variety of read alouds. Language Arts Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting after HWOT. Language Arts Creative Writing: "Just Write" by EPS Language Arts Spelling: Spelling Workout, supplement with AAS as needed. Move on to Spelling Power after Grade 2. Language Arts Poetry: Variety of resources. Language Arts Supplements: Copywork for Animal Lovers, CLE LA, Evan Moor Literature Pockets, audiobooks. Math: Singapore U.S. Edition, Singapore Intensive Practice Workbooks, supplement with Jump Math workbooks (Canadian). and CLE math workbooks. Montessori math manipulatives. Canadian Social Studies: Read alouds and themed colouring books. History: SOTW Middle Ages (just read alouds and projects) and "A Child's History of the World" by Hillyer Geography: Apple Press Mapping K-2 or Evan-Moor Beginning Geography workbook Science: R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Life Science Biology 1, TOPS lentil science, rock collection, DK First Encyclopedias. Nature Study: journal, dover colouring books, "One Small Square" books, naturalist kits from Acorn Naturalists, Burgess nature books for children (animals, seashore, etc.) Art: "Drawing with Children" Monart Method, Deepspacesparkle .com projects, maybe HomeArtStudioi DVD's. Phys Ed: Swimming, gymnastics, recreational ballet. Biblical Studies: "Telling God's Story" Year 1 (maybe), A Beka flash a cards series, Jesus Storybook Bible. A few homemade unit studies: weather, dogs, horses, Canadian animals, ocean life.

I love ETC. In my experience starting around book 3 or so it becomes completely independent. We are almost on book 6 now.

We like loop and block schedules. You can google "loop schedule" for an explanation. This works really well for us for juggling subjects that have a lot of resources, like language arts. On a full school day we usually pick about 4-5 things from the langauge arts loop schedule. For math I use the schedule that is provided with the curriculum. Currently our schedule looks like this. Canadian socials, health & careers are done done within a unit study. Day 1: History Day, Biblical Studies & extracurricular activities (gymnastics) Day 2: Math, L.A. Loop schedule and one block of art, science or unit study Day 3: Math, L.A. Loop schedule and one block of art, science or unit study Day 4: Math, L.A. Loop schedule and one block of art, science or unit study Day 5: Math, Shortened L.A. Loop schedule & music lessons

We like "Just Write" from EPS for reluctant writers. It's intended for Kindergarten through Grade 4 though. EPS also has a curriculum for Grade 5-8 called "The Paragraph Book". It's described as being an intervention writing program for students who have not had success with conventional programs thus far.

I love R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey but it doesn't include lots of different stuff in one book. It focuses on one area per year (ie. Biology). That said, you could always get three different ones and go through them consecutively over three years. I went through lots of different science resources, including some that you mention you've tried, and I think this is the best fit (my science unicorn!) I've found for us for elementary. The experiments are easy to prepare for and not silly - they actually teach! The rest is just some reading and worksheets.

We do AAS together with the Spelling Workout workbook and the Sequential Spelling App. It's my older kids weakest area so he needs lots of reinforcement. I like AAS for the scripts, the letter tiles, and when they stick to the rules they can write sentences even pretty quickly ~ but I don't think it teaches enough words, so the other curriculum helps with that. Spelling Workout takes hardly any time and the Sequential Spelling App is almost like a game to him. I also think AAS is overpriced.