Based on your needs I'll vote for MiF too. The textbooks and teacher books are cheap used since so many schools use it. I only bought the workbooks new.

My 10th grader is using the World History this year. It's an older one that schedules a specific textbook (I'm not home to check; blue with Tutankhamen on the cover). She's not the biggest fan of history, but it's painless and she enjoys it. I bought it awhile ago for my graduated daughter, for pretty much the same reason. 😄

Yay! Ideas! 😂 I'll look them up. 🙂 We have H.A. Rey and she's already read Tiner. From her older siblings I know I have a few biographies, and the Stephen and Lucy Hawking series. 365 Starry Nights. From what I can remember it's going to last her a month at best. Kid #5 and she's reading me out of house and home. 🤷😄

Fwiw my youngest is "ahead" everywhere but writing and spelling. He uses Writing Road to Reading, which is very parent intensive, but it keeps him moving in a forward direction. All his siblings used the R&S series through the grade 6 book but he needed super explicit.

R&S will pick up more rules in the 3 book, and then it picks up heavier in the 4 book. 2 is just a gentle introduction. 🙂

Swallows and Amazons! I read the first one to my crew last year, littles and highschoolers. It's mostly just the kids, but only because it's summer vacation. Nothing bad happened to the parents.

From my understanding it's just like the duckie version, just with crayons replacing the farm animals. I've ran the duckie version through a few kids but it's been a few years. Days start with the TM. There's a thorough plan to teach new concepts and review others in an oral presentation, scripted for you if needed. This meeting is not optional as this is the core of the program; concepts are taught for a couple/few days before they're even found on the student pages. Then there's the speed drill for some lessons for kids that could use some extra drill. And by the time they get to the workbook they can complete it themselves (at your elbow!) because you've already taught it all.

My little dude came from Writing With Ease behind level before starting Adventures. The actual pencil to paper writing in the Captain's Log and God of All Creation are enough that adding WWE would be too much for his hands. Adventures includes narration cards in the IG that we skip. He can (and will) tell me about what he's read all day long. 😂 So he's not getting direct writing instruction right now, but he's still practicing and building endurance. That's okay for this season. 🙂 The only book that could be textbooky is The Ocean Book, but he's rattled off plenty details from it. 🤷 Maybe the sea monsters book? But don't skip that one. I think it's his overall favorite. I don't consider any of it busywork really. The only work he's skipped are some of the experiments/projects. He enjoys a good project now and then, but not just for the sake of hands on. I let him decide on those. It would be easy to add more readings but this is plenty for him. There's an Older Learner schedule you can get if you're concerned about it being light. I used it with my teen when he used Adventures in... 6th grade..I think. (He's a junior now; it's been a hot minute!) He also does grammar (mostly orally), spelling, math, and Spanish (through an app). The WP correlated LA wasn't going to be a good match for him.

Anyone have suggestions or a good booklist for earth/astronomy at a middle school level? 🙂 Real books, living books, non-fiction, book books. Not so much curricula unless it's a gem. I'm trying to build a solid set for my book dragon and most of what I'm finding is lower elementary or high school. She'll be 7th grade by age and strongly averse to the typical science schoolbook and experiments. The "read through this large pile of books and discuss it with Mom" method is her jam.

Same. That algebra is coming has been said since my graduates were around the 6 or 7 book. Don't put any eggs in that basket unless there's a real release date with it. 😄

R&S worked fabulously for five of my six. The grade two book is pretty gentle and not heavy handed on the rules. The three book steps it up a notch and really gets into spelling rules. Most of them used it through the six book before we dropped the subject. (The youngest is in Spalding/Writing Road to Reading, which is very teacher intensive. He is 9 and just now really breaking into spelling. In 1st and 2nd I may as well have been asking him to spell a language he's never heard.)

My youngest will be in 4th this fall and I saw the thread was missing, but I couldn't come up with enough to be worth posting. 🙈 He's rather asynchronous, ahead in most areas and struggles with writing and spelling. Currently he's in Adventures in the Sea and Sky from Winter Promise, which is listed as 4th-6th. The content has been fabulous for him and the very gentle writing lets his hand keep up with the rest of him. 😄 (This could be a fabulous choice for someone's 4th grade too.) Build Your Library grade 4 is looking like a top contender for next year at the moment. I'm totally comfortable winging it with SOTW on my own, but having that schedule with all the great books tied in really helps when there's so much teenager/high school/jobs/CC sibling stuff in his daily life. BYL 4 would cover history, science, lit, art, and poetry. Math: continue Beast Academy online, the books and some SM on the side as needed Spelling: Writing Road to Reading/Spalding Writing: back to WWE Grammar: realistically, on the fly through his writing or Daily Language Review, he picks it up easily and next year is looking to be a busy daily lifestyle (And he's my sixth run through elementary grammar; I can grammar at a solid Rod and Staff level in my sleep 😂) Language: Spanish through apps, but I'm considering pausing it for some Latin (My Marine got on me about not having him in Latin! "He really needs at least a few years, Mom.") Extra: he's a competitive dancer

I've used both. My creative writers LOVED Cover Story. I don't think there's a forum option, but if I recall correctly there is a monthly contest on FB or email. Best questions, haiku, etc. I'd decide between the two based on skill level. OYAN is definitely more challenging and really written to a high schooler. It's just about writing a novel. CS I'd say 6th-9th depending on ability, and it covers many different forms of creative writing, from various poetry to short stories. It has the daily journal which seems like an extra, but I wouldn't skip it. It was a great stretching exercise for mine. I wouldn't do either with a kid who doesn't already enjoy creative writing.

Me TOO. She'll use BYL's year 7 for world geography but we don't want the chemistry it schedules. (She's doing chemistry now.) She's a serious book dragon; if a science isn't very engaging it needs to have a pile of really good books or there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 🥴 Basically I have nothing to add but a bump and I'll look at the suggestions. 🙈

I tried a few with my older ones, and my younger ones will go straight to Art of Argument, then Argument Builder. If they want to go farther we'll continue the CAP series but otherwise I'll drop it after that. The puzzle ones are fun for 5th-6th, but they grew tired of them past that.