Ugh, I feel you! We spent 4yrs overseas. It was amazing in many ways & I miss it terribly... but I do not miss having to pay full price + exorbitant shipping for curricula. We used to return Stateside once a year & would bring back suitcases full of books, because we could acquire them so cheaply here!

I find it very interesting that nearly every content-related complaint I’ve seen about BA has to do with Pirate Numbers. We were living overseas when 2nd grade was released & couldn’t get our hands on them, so we started with 3A. I will say the online platform was a complete flop here. ADHD + a million possible directions to go in + no requirement (or even prompting, really) to read the Guides + SO MANY BRIGHT COLORS = 🤯

We used MEP, Miquon, RightStart, LivingMath (history-aligned projects), Singapore Intensive Practice, & Beast Academy. The only thing that has ever quenched DS’ thirst is Beast Academy. He loves it enough that he is willing to struggle through hard problems / sections for the thrill of defeating them, which is a mentality I really wanted him to develop! We play a ton of games in our homeschool (30-60min daily) & I create my own resources when DS needs extra practice with a topic & for a change of pace between books, but I like having a spine that takes over the day-to-day, week-to-week progression so that I can focus on adding in fun extras. We’ve done a unit study on graphing, created a city (lots of area & perimeter), & a few other things. This summer we’ll be working through Didax Pentominoes while reading Chasing Vermeer. I’m sketching out a “gap year” between completing BA & beginning AOPS, just in case he isn’t ready for the jump to a formal textbook style. I’m not afraid of building something myself if I’m not content with what I can find pre-assembled. I’ve done so at various times for history, science, language arts, mathematics, & other subjects. I don’t prefer to do it all the time, though. It gets tiring & I find I’m not left the mental energy to add in anything additional.

The spelling errors you pointed out are all phonetic, which is a good sign. He clearly understands which phonograms make which sounds, but isn’t sure when to use each one when faced with several options for a single sound. AAS is exactly what I would recommend. It doesn’t have to be expensive - for a 9yr old the Spelling Interactive Kits are unnecessary. All you need is the TMs (which have been around forever, so are pretty easy to acquire second-hand), the student packets ($23 per level on Rainbow Resource) & a dry-erase board.

How precise do they have to be with this for the explorations to “work”? I think my DS would enjoy it, but he’s not the tidiest.

What will you be using for this? I had hoped to use Burning Cargo, but they’ve discontinued it. Typing.com won’t run on my laptop. TypingClub looks thorough, if a bit dry. DanceMat looks cheesy (perhaps DS would find it cute?) & doesn’t track speed or accuracy. Handwriting w/o Tears looks okay, but I’m not sold on it & it’s the only one of the lot that costs. I just haven’t seen anything that really looked GREAT, kwim?

Holy guacamole- thank you for this comparison! Marking that one right off our list of possibilities for down the road. DS won’t even read DK books because they are visually overwhelming; no way he’d be able to maintain focus with that.

I’m over Spelling. I like the program we use; it’s succinct & translates well to outside compositions. I’m just tired of it. Fortunately we only have 3 lessons left in this year’s book.

I’ve been digging on this topic myself & found a free resource that might be particularly useful to you during Units 3, 5, & 7. It covers plot elements using Pixar Shorts. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Plot-Chart-Diagram-Arc-Pixar-Short-Films-Study-w-Answer-Keys-912822

Not yet. Maybe some addition / subtraction of fractions for later. Same- or mixed-denominators are fine so long as they’re pretty straightforward.

Sure; I’ll take some division crosswords. Remainders or no remainders are fine. Maybe I’ll make codes to break with the remainders 🤪

Unfortunately, not much. I found some one-off things for Morse, Roman numerals, Mayan numbers... but that’s about it. I think if I want any code breakers for binary, base-12, etc I’d have to make them myself & he is off to other things already so 🤷🏻‍♀️

We really enjoyed W&R Fable ☺️

Yes, that is all this is. My major brain dump. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve hashed things out, so it was overdue.

In digging through the upper levels of MCT, it certainly helps to see that the Literature Level alone is more direct grammar & vocabulary instruction than I ever received, and that was perfectly adequate to complete AP classes in high school & enjoy classical literature in my free time as an adult (though I’ll grant I occasionally find it arduous). If we take 2-3yrs per level because we are spending the bulk of our time working on other things & that’s as far as we ever get, I’d be content.

Yes, this is me. I have absolutely no qualms with my plans changing completely, but not having developed them & used the process to organize my thoughts in this way would leave me very, very anxious.

I’m not sure on the literature, but am taking a “wait & see” approach. He loved Alice, Hobbit, & The Sword in the Stone as read-alouds in 1st. This year he’s enjoyed the first trio of George’s Secret Key & NatGeo adaptations of 1,001 Arabian Nights & Norse Mythology. He couldn’t read these himself, but he enjoys listening to them.

We never use MCT alone, so in order to stay synchronized we’d likely need to continue using the levels across two years as we have in the past. If the levels become repetitive then I’d rather do that than endlessly shell out for only marginally different material. He tends to be ready for the grammar, poetics, & literature selections before he can tackle the vocabulary or more challenging writing assignments. I’m unsure about CE for next year, for example, as it appears to be such a large jump from Building Language.

DS8 is a fluent reader & writer currently wrapping up 2nd grade. He’s previously completed MCT Island, AAS 1-4, & cursive. He participates in NaNoWriMo each year & this year we combined two of IEW’s Level A theme books for composition. I’m working on sketching out our path going forward & would like feedback from anyone who is familiar with the programs I’m looking at. Currently I’m thinking... 3rd: Complete IEW Level A Theme Books Units 5-7, NaNoWriMo, MCT Town (GT/PT/Prac T), AAS 5, Typing 4th: MCT Town (CE I/BP/Lit) NaNoWriMo, possibly BW Arrows x1-2, AAS 6 5th: MCT Voyage, NaNoWriMo, BW Boomerang x1, AAS 7 6th: IEW Ancient History (cusp of Level A/B), NaNoWriMo, BW Boomerang x1 7th: IEW Middle Ages (Level B), NaNoWriMo, Lit from HO Level 2 Middle Ages, BW Boomerang x2 8th: IEW Modern (Level B), NaNoWriMo, Lit from HO Level 2 Early Modern, BW Boomerang x2 9th: MCT Magic Lens I, NaNoWriMo, History-Based Lit from HO Level 2 Modern, BW Boomerang x4 10th: MCT Magic Lens II, NaNoWriMo, History-Based Lit from HO Level III US History 11th: MCT Magic Lens III, NaNoWriMo 12th: Wrap up MCT / DS’ choice * All BW Boomerangs would be for books already on our literature list for history or the given level of MCT Should we try to fit the MCT Literature level in during Middle School? We could do Voyage across 5th/6th & Literature across 7th/8th. Any other tweaks? Anything you’d add? Drop? All of this is subject to change, of course... most likely it will... but I like to have a path in mind regardless.

I plan to teach DS8 to type beginning in the fall. He is getting into longer writing assignments, enjoys coding, & by middle school will likely be ready for some online coursework. I want something with a true keyboard that can support his learning programming languages, is compatible with LaTex, & provides MS Office Suite or similar. It doesn’t need to be portable; we have space in our dedicated classroom for a desktop if that’s the best option & I’d like to keep an eye on him as he works anyhow. What would you recommend?

This is our approach, as well. During lessons, DS8 reads aloud to me for 30min daily from any of a variety of books at or above his reading level on our classroom shelves. Otherwise, books are made readily available (& new ones checked out from the library with frequency) but he is not required to engage with them. He goes through phases of reading less or more; often he doesn’t have the attention span for it, except at bedtime or in the car, but we nurture the love however we can.

Mine is the same way - I love this idea! You could even make different color or sized cards to indicate if something would take closer to 15min, 30min, 60min, etc.

My DS is only in 2nd, but we switched to a workbox system this year & it’s working really well. He has a rolling cart with 10 drawers where I put his daily tasks. The tasks range from 5-45min in length & from easy to challenging. He is in control of selecting the order of assignments / activities, with natural consequences if he front-loads the easy stuff & leaves harder tasks for the end of the day. He caught on pretty quickly & generally does a great job balancing his days. Obviously as he gets older the tasks will change, but it’s working well as a gentle intro to time-management for now. Perhaps later (in middle / high school) we’ll switch over to each box being a day’s work, rather than a single task.

The structure of his response (topic, example, example, conclusion) is excellent & it is well-stated. I’ll admit I’m surprised by the amount of time you say it took, but I don’t yet have a child that age with whom to compare. Was he actively working for the full 35min? What process did he follow? Did he begin with any notes? Does he have experience answering questions like this verbally? Now that he has the structure down, I’d expect that with some practice he’ll be able to formulate his responses more quickly. I would work towards a goal of 10-15min per response. By high school, probably half that. In general I find the writing expectations of homeschooled children are much lower than their publicly/privately-schooled peers in terms of speed and length, in part because many homeschoolers delay routine handwriting for one reason or another & in part because we don’t typically have the same degree of standardized testing hoops to jump through. ETA: In poking around online, it seems a general rule of thumb is to answer the question yourself, then multiply the time it took by 3 (rounding up, if applicable) to determine an appropriate timeframe. By high school, the assumption appears to be ~5min.

Tweaking things a bit, as it looks like some materials will last longer than I initially anticipated. I can’t remember how to format strikethrough, so I’ll just make the changes below: