Covenant Home Curriculum has meaty Bible courses for homeschoolers. http://www.covenanthome.com/catalog/5 Children Desiring God has excellent resources for all ages; they're really not geared towards homeschooling, but would be easily adapted. http://www.childrendesiringgod.org/curriculum/

I also would love to have that 5th-6th list. I have to admit my two youngers hate reading and avoid it at all costs. DD has disabilites so that's understandable, but ds 12 is another story altogether. He hates reading because he has to sit still for it and it takes too long :banghead:. I really have to step up the reading for him and have been compiling my own list of books; I need to start at a lower level, because he won't tolerate otherwise. If we get interesting enough material, he will read it. Have had only a few successes, but will keep trying, looking at some of the SL titles for now. Thanks for sharing your list, I'll be on the lookout for it.

Yes, I never thought I'd see any BJU materials at a discounted price, never have seen that before, and believe me, I do look around, lol. Thanks again for the tip; I'll do my order today.

Yes, I was! Thank you! I appreciate that!

LOL! That same thing happened on the high school board thread that Sue linked!

Sue, thanks for the link, great information, I appreciate that. It didn't occur to me to look on the high school board, but, of course! That's just the kind of info I was looking for. It's still early, since ds will only be in 7th, but I'll keep Landry Academy bookmarked. Funny there were a lot of mentions about exercise science -- that's what ds would be interested in down the road.:) Thanks!

Has anyone here done online classes with Landry Academy? Here's the link: http://landryacademy.com/classes.html Wondering what kind of time commitment it involves outside the class, and how you and your kids liked it. Was it worth it? I have this in the back of my mind for maybe 8th, and for high school electives. Starting 7th in the fall, so I have time... I'll be asking them also. thanks!

I started hs'g with my oldest as a preschooler 1993. I made up all my own preschool stuff which was wonderful, I'm really glad I did it, and it worked out very well. It wasn't "school-ish" and it was fun; those are some of my most special memories. I wish I would have worked harder teaching my kids to obey; that one "skill" relates to everything else. My kids don't have real good personal self-discipline as a result. How to feel like a failure. Getting those basic skills down is another area I should have worked harder on, realizing later! Would have worked more diligently on teaching them to write well and to love reading. Only 1 out of 4 loves to read. The concept of the 4-year cycle is such a brilliant one; I wish I would have caught onto the wisdom of that earlier. It makes high school easier, because they've already had some exposure to the concepts, so not everything is new. As a few others have said, following a hunch about a learning disability much earlier -- I should have done that. Signed, A Slow Learner

I wanted to do the entirety of history in two years (6th and 7th) because I had not done the four-year plan prior to this (for various reasons), and because I want to get in position for high school. He's in 6th now, and we're going pretty well. I chose BJU Heritage Studies 6 and World Studies 7 for my spines, but I added in a bunch of other stuff (turns out I got too spread out for my own good, ugh). Anyway, for 6th I added in SOTW 1 and 2 with the map work, some SL books and timeline, Famous Men where appropriate, the Kingfisher and Usborne history encyclopedias, and Netflix documentaries and films from one of the lists that was posted here a while back. That was too much stuff! Mostly we're just doiong the SOTW readings and map work, and the BJU readings and student activity book, and the films. I decided I had to nix the Famous Men b/c it's too much (not that Famous Men itself is too much, it's just the cumulative thing, just too much overall). And I'm not really doing much with the SL either, sigh. I am, however, making peace with my own limitations. But, he and I are learning a lot anyway, even though I am not really doing all the wonderful things I had planned. I'm thrilled at what he has retained, so I guess I can call it success. Although, one thing I am still working on is how to NOT over-plan! lol.

LOL!! My son, too. Paula, what I like best about your schedule is how SHORT your summer is. Around where we live, it's most of the month of June (although I won't be finishing this June until about the 20th), all of July, and all of August, PLUS we don't start back in until AFTER Labor Day. I hate that; it's waaaay too long, but I have not been able to fight successfully against it. I keep trying anyway (hey, isn't that the definition of insanity!?!). This summer I want to do BF's History of Science with him, and some other stuff I never got to this year. Not too much, should be able to do some in the morning before the troops arrive at our house to play, and some in the evening before bed, leaving the bulk of the day for play. Anyway, your summer activities and schedule look really great. Have a blast!! Blessings,

I didn't read every response, but, I like BJU 6 for 6th, funny as it might sound, lol. Not too easy, not too hard, just right. It's a great text for a general science course, and it will prepare the student for the specialties coming up. I'm using it this year (in 6th) and really liking it. I do have the tm and use it a lot. Really like the student activity book also. I never was able to combine science for kids even two years apart -- my brain just couldn't do it. But maybe if you read it aloud to both of them and discuss, that might be a way your younger one could be involved with it. Then your older one could go off and do whatever your assignment would be. Not sure if that would do the trick for you or not, but it was a thought anyway. All the best to you!

[boy this board moves fast.] Thanks, ladies, for the info. Very interesting! Hmmmm... will have to think. But I guess we are erring on the side of leaving it as is, even though it would be GREAT to get a totally different look. Well, maybe some day. I appreciate everything you said, thanks! Blessings,

It's settled, we are leaving them as is. Thanks for the reply, Susan. Blessings,

Oh, hey, Strider, long time no talk. Thanks for the heads up, that is the kind of info I was looking for. Argh, scraping is not on my list of fun things to do. I'm more into low or no maintenance these days; sounds like we should leave the brick naked. It's fairly decent brick, not tacky, thankfully, so it should be fine. Okay, THANKS!!! All the best to you! Blessings,

Our house has a partial brick front. We will be painting the house in a month or two. I'm thinking about painting that brick, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Have any of you ever painted brick on your house? Were you still glad you did it after a few years had gone by? Do you have to prime the bricks in some way before painting? Does the paint stay on? Does the color of painted brick match the color of painted wood (assuming you used the same paint brand and color to paint both, lol)? I appreciate sharing any experiences you have had with this, as I know nothing about it. Thanks!!!!!!!!

Thanks for posting last summer's thread, maybe I missed it, being away several times, who knows, but it's going to be a keeper I'm sure. It's valuable for me to be reading these kinds of threads. I have trouble with this issue. I'm kind of a depth person by nature, but my "want to do" list is always long, and I think everything on there is really important, lol. I want BOTH!! Depth AND breadth!! Reality has shown me over and over again that I absolutely can not get it all done, and I know that, yet I stress over it. When am I going to learn?????? Combine that with a son who consistently asks to do "speedy school", as in, rush through what absolutely must be done, skip the minor subjects, and then get on with life; that is neither depth nor breadth. As a result, I'm not feeling too good about school these days. So, right now I'm thinking through alternative solutions to sit-down school; there are some books I should be reading, like the Grace Llewellyn books: Teenage Liberation Handbook, Real Lives, and Guerilla Learning. I don't think I can adopt a wholly un-schooling approach, but I probably can figure out some things I could be doing that would qualify as alternative learning. At the same time, ds needs to learn to focus and work hard. Yup. I get to train him on that. Oh, the joy. I have no more excuses; after several years of outside stresses, family situations are better, and starting next year he will be my only student. I should have done better with him this year, but it turns out that I didn't. All this to say, aaaarrrrgggghhhh! and, I will be reading with interest. Blessings!

I'm considering this as a possibility for 8th (we're in 6th now), so I'll be interested as well to hear the replies. Thanks!

I'm going to finish up some EPS targeted writing skill books, then it's either going to be IEW or Write Shop next, I will decide later. Our writing progress has been really slow, so I'm not as far with ds as I had hoped to be by now (6th). We will keep on going, though.

Greta, I totally understand what you're saying. My youngest is quite sensitive as well, with a tender heart. I agree with you that it's God-given. I need to work with him through things I didn't have to spend that much time on with the others. It can be confusing at times for us moms. At 12 years old now, things are a lot better than they used to be, although he is still "him" and that's his personality. I just want to encourage you that God will guide you through. And I think the biggest help may not be so much the curriculum you choose, but you yourself :). Blessings!

A couple of years ago I had looked at both Apologia Physical and BJU Space & Earth (8th) side by side, and I found there was quite a bit of overlap. As I remember, anyway. Has anyone else found that? The thing about BJU being challenging is very true. For me, it would never be appropriate to use their 9th grade science any earlier than 9th. But I'm not mathy/sciency in the least, maybe you are and maybe your kids are. That would make the difference.

I guess my suggestion would be to choose whatever materials seem good to you, but when you're planning the lesson, make sure you edit out the details that cause melt down. Wow, she does sound really sensitive. Some kids are like that. They do get over it to some degree sooner or later. As I remember, ABeka books don't elaborate on many of the gory details. Just a thought.

Maybe SL Core 7? Or BJU World Studies? SOTW 3 & 4? How far did you get in the chronology? If you wanted to start with the middle ages or thereabouts, these suggestions would be fairly appropriate in terms of where in the chronology to jump in. Another thought, if you wanted to just start over from the beginning, you could certainly do that. For this year, I'm doing BJU 6 which covers the beginning to the middle ages, and I'm planning BJU World Studies for next year, 7th, which picks up from there and goes to modern times. I needed world history in two years, not 4, so that's what I chose. We'd never done ancients before, and it's been a blast. I added in some Sonlight, and some SOTW, and, as usual, I bit off more than I could chew, so I'm behind where I wanted to be. But for us history is fun, so we will have no problem going into summer with it. Well, some thoughts anyway. Hope you find just the right thing! Blessings,

Aw, thanks, I really miss them.

My senior in high school daughter is working with a writing/literature tutor (also doing grammar and vocab w/roots) and having an excellent year!!!!! It's someone we knew for a few years, but she lives in another state, so my dd gets together on skype with her. They meet 60-90 minutes a day, 5 days per week, and I would say that she is getting AT LEAST two years worth of complete English instruction. I could not be more thrilled. This young woman was home schooled herself, and, in her mid 20s, is doing a few different part-time jobs. She uses a combination of IEW, Stobaugh, English from the Roots Up, and maybe other things as well, and she is doing a wonderful job. Dd is also doing one-year world history 4 days a week via skype with a different friend in a different state, using a secular textbook, and we are totally thrilled with this arrangement as well. The tutor is on maternity leave this entire school year from full time high school history teaching. Great timing! This is the only year our history tutor will be available. And we got a math tutor for her too!!! Also someone we know. They meet in person 3 days a week for 45 minutes. That is going great too. When my youngest ds comes up, I'm going to keep our math tutor in mind for him. I was not planning to have dd home this year, but last summer she asked if she could home school this year. She las learning disabilities, and I bounced her around a few different schools lately trying to find a fit, but there was no fit to be found. I was happy to have her back home but didn't feel I could do it all (understatement!). Had to immediately get going on making arrangements for these tutors. They are all very well qualified and trained in their fields. We are very blessed to have them. Also blessed to be able to afford this, as we could never have done this without some money left to us by my parents. I hate being without parents, but they are still blessing us even after they're gone -- they'd be happy to know that.:001_wub: