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SilverMoon

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Posts posted by SilverMoon

  1. $50 a month for gas sounds ridiculously cheap. That would assume a good school very near my home, which is not our reality. One more district down the road crosses a magical line that means no bus option. 

    One of mine would not be able to eat school lunches and would need to bring his own. His health would depend on other families following the no nuts policy and we'd definitely need more epi pens. The not homegrown kid (who has gone to public) hated the lunch line chaos and would only eat if I sent it with him. That leaves the very picky eater who'd much rather bring his own, so I'm 3:3 not getting free/cheap lunches. 

    Then there are fees for performing arts, sports, etc.

    They'd all need more streetwear clothing than they own now. 

     

    I didn't include the extracurriculars they'd be doing regardless. I could potentially earn more than I do now but I'd still be working from home.

    What we spend on curriculum isn't that bad in comparison. 🤷‍♀️😄 

  2. I've used that level. For 9th grade I'd break it up like this. 

    English: I'd add literature guides for a handful of the lit titles. Only basic comprehension questions and a list of vocab words are included; no analysis work at all. It has report style writing assignments but no actual writing instructions and I don't remember any essays. (High school English is generally half literature and half writing.) 

    Social studies: western civ history of science

    Science: general or physical science if you add better labs

    Math: nothing, that math book is just a fun history supplement and doesn't require any calculations 

     

    Fwiw BYL 9 is also a general science year but a little more mature. 

  3. 1 hour ago, Malam said:

    What does the title stand for?

    Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. It's an intro lit analysis course that went through the trilogy and had units for other works as well. Not secular. If I recall correctly, if you don't mind skipping religious bits it wasn't difficult to do so. Best for strong 7th or average 8th-9th grades. The last kid I used it with has graduated so memories may be rusty. 🙃

  4. Fwiw, I pulled in a basic Holt McDougal literature textbook this year and it doesn't suck. 🤷‍♀️ It's definitely secular and has far more lessons than we'd ever get through in a year, but it's not like I ever finished one when I was in school. 😄 But it has all the little things like poetry, speeches, short stories, etc that I might overlook, there were even Own Voices stories for minorities, and most of the correlated writing assignments were solid and worthwhile. I've added more modern/diverse authors on the side and cherry picked sections from the textbook. It's kept me on track and my 10th grader has had a solid year. 🙂

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  5. We used lots of the Science in Ancient ____ books in elementary too.

    Build Your Library level 8 (roughly 8th grade) uses the Hakim science books if you're looking for ideas. Fwiw those books and that level are super eurocentric; if you want more than western civ science you'll want to supplement. 

  6. Megawords. Starting with level 1. It hits syllabication right off the bat, and then the rules within syllables. Learning how to spell a syllable at a time was so much less intimidating for my spelling struggler.

    They're working directly with the rules on every page and they don't memorize lists of words. And it was written with older learners in mind. It won't feel babyish at all. 

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  7. Build Your Library level 7 is easily doable by an average 6th grader. If they're particularly sensitive you should probably pre-read some of the readers/lit. I'd just do the geography and readers/lit. The science was underwhelming and very light, that art book was loathed by my older kids, and the "language arts" is narration and dictation. Mapwork sheets are included, and they suggest Seterrra and other online "games" for practice. 

    My 7th grader is using the geography spines and most of the lit and readers this year. It's counting as his social studies and a good chunk of the lit part of his English. Readers are meant as independent reads and lit is intended to be read aloud; he's read them both independently and we discuss them. The guide has basic comprehension questions for one of them that I've not used. 

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  8. For real for real. 🤐

    Where I live the only people I know homeschooling "old school" with piles of books, are the ones who'd already been doing it for years before the all online trend really took off. 

    The local fb groups are full of ads preying on insecurities, so your don't have to teach science, basic social skills, etc etc. 

    Asking for a book suggestion anywhere will get online course recs every time. I just want a good workbook for one specific thing. The recommendations will be Outschool and Dayla. 🙃

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  9. I'll have one too. I'd like him to take at least one course from someone besides me this year but he's being rather resistant. 🙃

    He's neurospicy and on the fence about life after high school.

    English: diy literature, Patterns for College Writing, They Say I Say, writing across the curriculum

    Social Studies: government and economics, curriculum tbd

    Math: He's doing well with the Burger textbooks, so I'll order the alg 2 when he's ready for it. 

    Science: tbd, something lighter and box checking

    Electives: Korean 1b, maybe art appreciation, maybe something quirky in the anthropology world

    Extracurricular: allll the dance classes

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  10. Fwiw Build Your Library level 7 is a geography year and fully scheduled. It's super easy to just do the geography without the parts you won't use. The art and Charlotte Mason stuff isn't our thing, and the science seems mismatched and was not middle school level. My kid is just using the lit/readers, and geography. 

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  11. I'm shopping for medieval this year too. We're leaning toward Curiosity Chronicles. The biggest pull is it's actually world history, including civilizations all around the world rather than the western civ path most homeschool courses take. It doesn't schedule the extra literature but does provide lots of titles to choose from, which suits us well. 

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  12. It seems this one was updated but most of the threads I can search up here are pretty old. 

    Anyone know where the sweet spot for using it is? 

    How gentle vs rigorous would you call it? 

    Know of a secular alternative that's super clear and at least mostly written to the student? I'm looking for more baby steps than Lively Art, for example. 

  13. When they were little we read until they seemed spent, either tired of reading or not able to focus.

    As they grew out of learning to read and into reading to learn, I started assigning pages or chapters for science, history, and often the literature book too. 

    By middle school I could hand them a literature book with "aim for a week" and let them pace it. I was scheduling specific chapters and pages for history and science. It's basically still this way for my highschooler. He's perfectly capable of spreading out a history chapter but prefers it if I assign chapter 7 to Wednesday. 

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  14. I'd look into dysgraphia regardless of what the school said. Struggling with writing, penmanship, and spelling at that age is a big red flag. 

    I'd use Growing with Grammar and Megawords spelling. They're both super easy to use and explicitly teach rules, which a kid like that really needs. For writing my dysgraphic kid was most successful with Winning With Writing and was nowhere near ready for Writing With Skill in 7th. He absolutely despises Killgallon. This year he's been rotating through several "light" books and it's been going really well, like Nonfiction Writing, Daily Paragraph, Outlining, 6 Trait Writing, etc. For someone new to homeschooling I'd probably just grab Winning With Writing though. 

    For penmanship I'd go through a letter at a time working on proper form. When he's done ask him to look closely and circle the best letter or word, and then I'd share which one I'd pick and why. This starts training the eye to be more critical. 

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  15. My youngest is here. 👀 

    Science: astronomy, underwhelmed by the curricula I've looked at so far

    History: Curiosity Chronicles medieval, adding more mature reading

    Math: Thinkwell 

    English: ... crickets... He was horrified by the idea of LLLotR. For writing, basic essays is the goal. I'll push more talk to text usage. (dysgraphia)

    Language: light dabbling in French

    Electives: It's an election year so we really should cover some civics and fallacies. A couple cards a week from The Thinking Shop will cover the latter. I'll need to look around for light civics. 

    Light strand to do with older brother: ... ? They're doing Power to the People (Mint&Bloom) this year and we've all enjoyed it. Maybe something for civil rights? 

     

    ETA Extracurricular: alllll the dance classes, he's on two company teams

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  16. When everyone was little that worked for a few years. When the oldest one hit upper elementary/middle grades it crashed and burned. At some point it became less work and more peace for everyone to have their own that was best for them. Some years a particular pair of kids would share a course, but it was a case by case basis. 

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  17. My youngest read these in fifth grade. 

    Sees Behind Trees

    The Kidnapped Prince

    Game of Silence

    Dreams from Many Rivers (poetry)

    Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge

    I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly

    How I Became a Ghost

    Coolies

    Sugar

    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

    Esperanza Rising

    Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom

    Ninth Ward

    Towers Falling

    Finish the Fight

    They Called Us Enemy

     

    An Indigenous People's History of the United States for Young People would cover westward expansion. We read this one along with the young reader versions of Different Mirror and A People's History of the United States, and the kids Stamped. 

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  18. We're homeschool co-op/group dropouts. 🤷‍♀️ We have a whole metropolis at our fingertips so there are loads of options and we've tried many of them over the years.

    My kids' closest friends are all from their extracurriculars. The normal, afternoon/evening kind that everyone else does too. Right now it's all dance studio for the little two. That's what feeds them and they're both thriving with a busy dance life. The older kids had swim team, scouts, martial arts, etc. 

     

    ETA: We do have one fb group that's just field trip oriented. We're there for the group discounts. At least 90% of the kids are younger than mine anyway and the vast majority do their own thing once in the zoo, museum, etc. 

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