I just signed up for a free membership at Mystery Science and I was able to watch a sample video, but I have to wait a few days until I can actually get into the content myself. From the looks of it, students watch the video, discuss, and do the experiment, but it does not appear that there is any sort of written lab report (or any written component). Is this accurate, or did I miss something? Thanks!

Thank you, this is incredibly helpful!

I love Judy Blume (and plan to eventually offer her middle school novels to my daughters) but they're obviously a bit dated. I'm wondering if anyone here can recommend newer novels in which the characters deal with similar issues (particularly puberty stuff, periods, etc.)? Any titles your daughters have loved? Thanks in advance for any recs!

I'm starting to think about next year. We've been using (and really liking) WWE for years, but I'm thinking of taking a break for fifth grade and doing some Brave Writer stuff (instead of WWE4) before we start WWS in sixth grade. I'm toying with the idea of doing either The Arrow for a year (probably just choosing a year's worth of single issues) and/or doing some online classes such as Kidswrite Basic. We already incorporate Poetry Tea Time into our schedule and I own The Writer's Jungle, so I'm familiar with Julie's approach, but have never actually used her curriculum or taken her classes. I would love to hear some feedback about the course (and/or The Arrow) if your child has taken it. Thanks! ETA: I might also get Partnership Writing. (Though as I look at the offerings, I'm a little confused as to how I might combine them all? Can you combine Arrow and Partnership Writing, or is it more an either-or thing?) Sorry this post is all over the place! Would love some general Brave Writer guidance, I guess. Thanks!

We are working on lesson 7.1 in Lively Latin. In the video lesson, our instructor says that the four principal parts of the verb Sum (to be) are: sum esse fui futurus However, on our printed flashcards and in the answer sheet, the four principal parts are listed as: sum esse fui futurum So...is it futurus or futurum? Can anyone help us out? Thank you!

My older daughter is coming to the end of her fourth grade year. (I can't believe we're already approaching fifth grade! I feel like I just taught her to read, but somehow, that was years ago....) We've homeschooled from the beginning, but in my mind, it feels like fifth grade will mark a shift in our journey--it feels like things are getting more serious, like everything suddenly matters more. I'm so excited about it, but I'd also love to hear how things might have changed in your homeschool (academically or otherwise) as you transitioned into the middle school years. Is there anything that got easier/surprised you/got harder? Did it turn out to be just another year of your usual homeschool? Anything you did that you wish you hadn't? Anything you didn't do that you wish you had? I would just love a peek into what's next from those who have been there before. Thanks for any thoughts!

Thank you all so much for all the responses so far! This is very, very helpful in my long-term planning. You all bring up so many great points and ideas. I want to be able to continue along our path with a clear vision of where we're headed, and I want to have a realistic idea of the financial costs as well, so thanks to everyone who has chimed in!

Hi friends! My kids are still elementary age, so I don't frequent the high school board much, but I'm always thinking ahead and I'm wondering: Have any of you successfully gotten kids into college with little to no outsourcing of high school? It seems like most people homeschooling in my area outsource almost all of their high school academics. (Private classes, co-ops, etc.) Is that normal? Part of me is struggling to understand that approach because in my head I'm thinking...if you're just going to expensively outsource everything into a school-like environment, why not just actually enroll your kids in school? (I don't mean that in a judgmental way at all--I fully support people fitting pieces together to create the homeschool life they want!--I'm just truly just curious about it and trying to realistically picture our path down the line.) So, I'm curious if that approach (tons of outsourcing) is standard for most people homeschooling high school, or if there are people here who DIY most of it. (For example, if my daughters down the line, want to take x, y, and z AP tests, is there any reason we can't just get those AP prep books and study for the tests on our own? Is that unrealistic? Or should we plan to budget for expensive outside classes for this sort of thing?) I used to be a high school English teacher myself, so maybe I'm just not so worried about high school? (Should I be more worried? lol) I mean, I am not suggesting that I plan to keep my future teens locked at home; for extracurriculars and work and interests, I fully expect them to be out in the world and taking classes and lessons in that capacity, but I've been planning to handle the actual academics (except for maybe foreign language) on my own. Is that a crazy expectation? Would love to hear what people here are doing/have done. Thank you!

Cute Girls Hairstyles has great tutorials, if online instructional videos are an option for you. (While I usually learn best by reading, I find this is one arena in which videos are more helpful than books because you can really see how to create various braids, etc. Much easier than trying to follow a drawn diagram.) Disclaimer: I don't know anything about the woman who runs the site; I strictly watch the videos, so you might want to pre-read the blog, etc., But from what I've seen so far, it seems like perfectly suitable viewing content for a tween or teen girl.

So glad to know it's still available new; didn't realize she had a site since I bought my copy new on Amazon a couple years ago. Now I can send friends there when they ask! Thanks for the link! :-)

We did something very similar to HomeAgain. Here's what we did, which worked well for us: I taught my older daughter cursive in second grade, as a separate subject. (So, she would practice cursive during her cursive lesson only; all her other school subjects were still written in print.) Then, as soon as we formally finished the cursive curriculum, I had her do all her schoolwork in cursive from that point forward. (She was really eager to write cursive exclusively, so this was a fun/smooth transition.) If you teach your son cursive over the summer, he could then start the cursive copywork book in the fall. (In other words, I would order the book in cursive, but work up to using it. Our cursive program taught cursive letter by letter, slowly adding words and then sentences.)

Teaching Cursive: This Method Works. Cannot recommend highly enough! Simple and straightforward. (Looks like it's only available used at this point, but it's definitely worth tracking down.) It's just a single spiral notebook, broken down into like 56 lessons or something. But she teaches "like" letters together (so, lowercase a and d are taught in the same lesson, for example). There is plenty of copywork and plenty of examples. (She shows common errors and things to avoid, etc. also.) I did this book with my oldest when she was in second grade (took a semester) and then as soon as she finished the book, I had her write only in cursive for schoolwork from then on. Will start it next year (or possibly over this summer) when my little one starts second grade. Couldn't be easier to teach and all you need in addition is a pencil and handwriting paper.

She is a creative maker! This is a wonderful thing! But it does take up space. (My girls are absolutely the same way. They are never not creating something. I sew, quilt, knit, etc., etc., and professionally teach those things as well, so they come by it honestly, lol.) Some ideas: -Spend the entire year making Christmas gifts for friends and family. (Say: "You want to make a bracelets/quilts/doll dresses for your cousins?! Awesome! If you start now, you can complete one for each of them. Let's make a list of ideas and a list of names. I will save each finished item in a box as you go." So, she makes the items, but they will eventually leave your house in the form of Christmas gifts. Also great for friend birthdays, etc. You can make this as involved as you like, with budgets and such, etc. This also teaches the art of planning ahead/long-term goals.) -Things are possibly just "slapdash" because that's all she knows how to do at this point. Chances are she has big ideas and wants to become skilled in one or more of these areas, but just doesn't have the instruction or resources to grow and actually improve her skills. I highly recommend Creativebug.com. For $4.95/month ($4.95!!), she can watch an unlimited number of videos that teach every kind of art imaginable - sewing, knitting, cake decorating, painting, paper crafts, jewelry, etc., etc. It's amazing and the quality of the videos is incredible. Cannot recommend highly enough. Everyone in my family uses the site and we have learned so much, both together and separately. -If you are in a co-op, you can offer a maker class of some sort (or start a similar club, etc.) where the kids work on projects together. The kids can pool resources, share materials, and swap or sell their final products (or at least have the opportunity to display them). -A few times a year, we go through everything. I photograph creations for posterity, and then we toss or donate what is no longer being used or played with. -There is dedicated space in our homeschool room for making. Helps keep all the materials and supplies organized and contained to one area of the house. Hope this helps!

Hi friends! Is anyone willing to give me an overview of Mystery Science? I'm scanning over the website, but I'd love to hear some reviews from members here before I invest too much time researching the program. My initial questions: Is this program secular? (I need secular.) Does your $69.00/year membership allow you to view all the lessons? How many years of elementary science can you get out of this program? (How many lessons did your family typically get through in a year?) Is it really almost no prep? Basically, I've tried BFSU in the past, and while I loved it in theory, in practice, it just never got done--too much prep and and mental planning/figuring for me. When I saw that Mystery Science is billed as open-and-go, I thought I should find out more. Maybe this is what I've been looking for? Would love to hear your honest thoughts about the program. Thank you!!

We're in the middle of our first year of Latin (with my oldest, the 4th grader) and we are using The Big Book of Lively Latin (#1). We absolutely love it. Very manageable and easy to understand, but I feel like we're learning so much. I highly recommend! (I can't speak to any other programs, as this is the only one we've tried, but so far, it's awesome.)

Ah! Okay, thank you so much!

I have this version for Hans Christian Andersen and it's gorgeous! It's a beautiful fabric-like hardcover that comes with two ribbon bookmarks, gilt-edge pages, and amazing illustrations from a variety of artists. Highly recommend! (I didn't pay $30.00 for it though...would definitely look around for different sellers on Amazon. I think I paid closer to $20.00.) As for Grimm, I have this version by Philip Pullman and we have enjoyed it a lot! Good luck!

Hi! All through the fall, I was following Julie's Facebook videos (she was reading daily from her book A Gracious Space Fall). Life got busy for me this winter and I haven't been able to follow along every day. I logged onto the Brave Writer Facebook page today and I see that there are some videos there, but it doesn't seem that every day from A Gracious Space winter is there. Is she putting all the videos elsewhere (on YouTube maybe)? Just curious if I'm missing some or if she's posting them somewhere else. Thanks! :-)

Thank you so much for the update! Added them to my wishlist!

I've recommended my printer on here in the past, and it's because I SUPER LOVE it. It's the Canon Pixma MX922, used with this super cheap ink. I swear by this combo! I print a bazillion things for co-op and our homeschool and it has never failed me. This machine is wireless. It prints (double-sided, if you like), it scans, it copies, it's awesome. And the ink--I just buy 3 or 4 packs of this inexpensive stuff at the start of the school year and it lasts and lasts and the quality is great.

Hi all! I'm doing a massive house clean-out and I would love to clear some space on my (eternally overstuffed) bookshelves. I bought the 4th edition of TWTM this past fall. Is there a compelling reason for me to hang on to my 3rd edition copy? (It's a big book, so letting go of it would clear off a nice space, but I don't want to regret getting rid of it if there's something in there--that I'm not remembering right now--that I might need later.) The 4th edition is all I need to keep, right? Can you think of any reason I shouldn't let the 3rd edition go? Thanks!

Little Women (1994 version) is one of my favorite movies ever, but I'm not sure when to introduce it to my daughters. (They are 7 and 9, and both mature for their ages.) Content-wise, there's nothing objectionable in the film, of course; I guess I'm mainly worried that the sad scenes will be too sad. (And/or that the Amy-falling-through-the-ice scene might be frightening.) Thoughts? I'm in no rush to show it, but it's Christmas and we are just about to begin a Civil War unit in history, so it feels like good timing in that sense. (But of course I can always wait until the next time we do Civil War.) Would love to hear your thoughts and/or reports about how your own children responded to the film. Thanks!

I'm not sure if you mean over the course of a day or over the course of the year, so I'll explain both. (And again, I'm still only a month into this system, but it's working great for us and I really don't anticipate any major issues. But below is a description of how I've planned for pacing.) Days: Basically, I'm fine with school taking as long as it takes each day. (Our schedule allows that.) So, some days turn out to be unexpectedly easy days. For instance, there may be a day where my first grader just happens to speed through her assignments and the school part of her day is done in 35 minutes. I say...Hooray! and enjoy it! I'm fine with that because she then goes on to use the rest of her day productively. (If every day was a super easy day, though, obviously that would mean she's not being challenged enough and I would reassess my whole plan for her school year.) On that other hand, some days turn out to be tougher and take longer. Maybe my fourth grader is learning a new math concept that takes 20 minutes of practice with the manipulatives before she can even start the assigned pages. In my view, that's just fine, too...that's just life! If school just takes an extra 20 minutes that day and we're not done before lunch, no big deal; we just keep plugging away until we're done. (If I ever find my child is overwhelmed or legitimately overburdened, though, then I can make a decision on the spot. Maybe she's done enough practice with the manipulatives that I'm comfortable with her doing only the odd problems on her sheet. Maybe I throw out one of the sheets altogether, etc. Either way, I don't sweat it. I'm trying to learn to let curriculum be a tool and not a master.) School years: I consider a subject "done" for the year when we finish the book or when we got as far as whatever it was I had planned/hoped. So, with Math U See, for example, there are only 30 chapters, but a school year in this system has 36 weeks. What to do? For me, I built six weeks' worth of "fun math" into our schedule. In other words, every six weeks, we don't do any MUS pages, but instead do a week of review including math games, math drills on the computer, math facts flash cards, and/or something else fun and different such as doing math in sidewalk chalk in the backyard. (On the assignment sheet for those weeks, I just wrote "Do 30 minutes of fun math.") So, Weeks 1 - 5 on my assignment sheet are filled are regular MUS pages, and then Week 6 is "fun math week." (Likewise, Week 12, Week 18, Week 24, Week 30, and Week 36 are also "fun math weeks.") Alternately, you can just be done with math at Week 30 of your school year and go on your merry way. Or, you could begin next year's math curriculum at Week 31. Or, you can just do occasional review for the rest of the school year. It's up to you! Either way, I wouldn't sweat it at all. I don't fret about all my curricula lining up perfectly into a 36-week school year. In fact, I know we will not be done with grammar "on time" this year because we are only doing grammar two days per week. But...no big deal. I will just pick up wherever we left off on next year's Week 1. (We do "light summer school" in the summer--just quick math, spelling, and reading every day, so another idea is to keep doing one of your programs beyond 36 weeks until you are done. So, if at 36 weeks, you are done with all of your curricula except history, then you can keep doing history every day until you finish out the curriculum.) I hope that makes sense and answers your question! :-)

Oh, yes--forgot to mention that part! Each child has a 3.5-inch binder (divided by subject) that I file the completed papers into. I save that binder for my end-of-semester review with the county, so it's all ready to go. (I also will be saving and filing the weekly assignment sheets, which will be great for review purposes to show what we've done.) After that, I scan things I want to be "keepers" and toss the hard copies.

Oh, I see. :-) I just read through the entire conversations and jotted down the ideas that I loved. I found the entire threads super helpful!