I haven't used SOTW past about 5th grade, but we only ever did those orally. 🤷

Guesthollow maybe. I used their chemistry one year and it was well loved. Bite-size Physics from Science Jim was a good one. Never found an earth or life to be very excited about. I never did find an elementary science program we could stick with for multiple years. We started strong and ended up on piles of real books halfway through most of them 🤷 My 6th grader is doing chemistry this year with a pile of books, many collected from that Guesthollow year with her older siblings. No experiments at all so far. She was horrified at the schedule breaking all those books into small pieces, but her older siblings loved it. 😄 The 3rd grader gets his through Adventures in the Sea and Sky from Winter Promise, and being insatiably curious about everything.

I have, but it's been a "hot minute." I remember loving With Pencil and Pen. And Progressive Composition (Braughtigam?). This old thread has loads of options.

Here's some good info on the newer separate volumes of the Boorstin Landmark book. I'm still running on the old combined version. https://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/history-and-geography/u-s-history-core-curricula/the-landmark-history-of-the-american-people-volumes-i-and-ii#

Hakim? Might be too long.. but an 8th grader could just read it on their own to fill holes between books. Landmark History of the American People by Boorstin is pretty fat, but it would be casual, light reading for an average 8th grader. My voracious reading 6th grader has read it.

You're welcome! I was looking at that thread and book a couple weeks ago. 😄 (Fwiw I'm sending my current 6th grader to Cover Story instead this year; I'm not convinced her maturity is ready. Her biggest sister beta tested WWS 1 in 5th and used it through 6th. It really depends on the kid.)

Yes, 6th. Scroll down to post 4 here -

Cover Story? No book reports, but that's not a format that's ever needed in high school writing anyway. (My graduates never did a single book report.) It does cover many different forms of writing, from a haiku to sort stories, and it's entertaining. Based on my experience children who find creative writing difficult and/or a chore may not be good fits for it.

Adventures in the Sea and Sky from Winter Promise?

My youngest has been using Writing With Ease a grade behind and First Language Lessons (on grade), both from www.welltrainedmind.com. They've been a great fit for him. His hand and thus handwriting are behind his other skill levels so WWE builds his endurance and confidence, even if the questions are easy for him. FLL is mostly oral. They're both easy peasy to operate, just open the book and go.

An average 4th grader with no grammar experience can start with Rod & Staff 4. It starts at the beginning with nouns and builds up from there. The 3 book would have value too. Fix It is more low key and based on proofreading. I found it better for kids that pick up grammar fast and don't need much practice. (It's not going to give you "which one" and "how many" either.)

August version isn't TOO far off. Adventures in the Sea and Sky from Winter Promise will cover history, science, geography, lit, and some quality time spent with his 11th grade brother. He could wait a year or two, but big brother is really looking forward to doing parts of this with him as time permits and 12th grade will have even less extra time. (Big brother did this program in elementary too.) He'll do world history through the development of ships, aircraft, and space craft, with ocean science, weather, and astronomy aligned, along with literature and more. The rest of English is continuing what he was already doing. First Language Lessons, Writing With Ease, and Writing Road to Reading (spelling). These are working too well to even be interested in the WP coordinated LA. Math is mostly Singapore, occasionally Horizons, and Beast online. Spanish is just 15-20min of Duolingo. I don't push it. He just logged on one day and started doing it because everyone else was.

We had a good "Hey look, the school year is STARTING now child" discussion. 😂 She's a good kid! She's just wound differently than her four older siblings. She's a good worker, kind, stubborn as all get out and prone to a bad attitude. LOL She and I put together a big pile of real books for middle ages history and a vintage Landmark medieval times book. Then we dug out every living book we could find on chemistry. It's good to be the fifth kid and have a library in your living room. If she can demonstrate mastery of everything in Junior Analytical Grammar I'll give her Fix-It Grammar back. And we're going to take a quick spin through Writing Road to Reading for a spelling capstone. Cover Story writing pile of high quality literature (I'll start intentionally using more proper lit terms in our discussions, even though she thinks it'll just be stupid.) math is still to be determined She'll continue notebooking through Training Hearts Teaching Minds for religion. Spanish is just the apps for now and a couple times a week we'll read from Madrigal's Magic Key together. Basket Time with little brother rotating through poetry, art, science, etc She has piles of books all over the school shelf and she's happy as a clam about it.

OP, your initial comparison of SM and MM seem accurate to me. You can order some of the supplements for SM if you need extra practice though. I'm a big fan of not fixing something that isn't broken so I'd lean SM if it's still working well. I've used plenty of the MM subject books over the years. We were so -done- with it by the end of one of those that i never tried a whole grade. It really is clear and efficient and it works wonderfully for some families. 🤷‍♀️ (I only ever used the fractions books with the 6th grader mentioned above when she needed some extra practice.) You can do Beast online for $15 a month and cancel anytime if you want to give her a feel for it. It's a think smarter not work harder type of math, so it can be challenging even if they've already covered the concepts. My youngest is near the end of SM 4a and finding BA 3 online plenty challenging.

I'm pretty sure yours is why mine has two math books! 😂