I have used it this past year with my 4th grader, as his intro to French. We did not used teacher support. He has really enjoyed it and has been very willing to do his lessons. This summer he is in a small French class (4 kids) with a teacher and although he is the youngest child in the class, he is significantly ahead of the other three kids (his sister, included.) He also has a much better accent than his teacher who is not a native French speaker. I don't know how it would be for more advanced students, though. Middlebury has been a great introduction. I think if I were going to commit the extra expense of teacher supported learning, I would just hire a private teacher.

My 4th grader has done Middlebury Interactive, and has developed a great accent. I do have my kids watch educational French videos on Youtube because it really helps their "ear." There is also a French Disney channel on Youtube, but I find that the screechy cartoony voices are hard to understand and do not give them a feel for the true language.

We have used Middlebury Interactive for my 4th grader (French.) He has loved it, and is very willing to "do his French." Meanwhile, 3 of my other kids have been doing Rosetta Stone Spanish, which is NOT appealing to any of them. It really is not designed for or directed at kids. Also, like someone above mentioned, I have had many glitches with Rosetta Stone. Middlebury interactive has been great. The downside is cost. My son blew through his first $100 session in about 6 weeks...so that adds up to a costly year! After two sessions, I switched him to Duolingo, and put him in a small group class (4 kids) with a private French teacher.

Hi folks, I am having the worst time this year with our math! 5 kids at 4 different levels with different learning styles is killing me. The ages for which I am considering Redbird are my 9 year old (very black and white, mathematical kid) and my 13 year old (average in math, I suppose.) I would use it for all of them if I thought it would work for all of them. Both of those kids are very kinesthetic. Currently, I am teaching my 9 year old from a 5th grade text (Math Connects - MacMillan)) and my 13 year old (plodding along) from Algebra 1 (Brown). My questions are: 1) Can I use it as a stand-alone program? 2) Are the teaching videos engaging? 3) Do kids understand concepts as well as method? 4) Does it actually adjust to the child's needs? ALEKS math is supposed to do this, but in reality, all it does is keep track of what the child has mastered, and presents material the child has not mastered...with minimal teaching. 5) Can it be used with normal kids, or is it too advanced (ie. is there too little explanation?) 6) is it a good program for a strongly visual learner? 7) Any other thoughts? Successes? Failures? Thanks so much!

Oh, and my 5th, 7th, and 8th graders do Rosetta Stone Spanish. The 4th grader who does Middlebury studies French.

My 4th grader does Middlebury Interactive and loves it. I can't comment on the middle grades, but for his level, he flew through the first semester in about 6-8 weeks. He only does about 10 min/day, 4 days a week, so it's not like he spends an excessive amount of time on it. This means the program ends up being really pricey because we will end up going through 4 semesters this year. $400 is a lot to spend on one year of a program that I can't even use with my other kids! But...he does love it.

I had looked into MMM awhile ago but decided against it for some reason - I will take another look, and will check out Usborne also. With my 13 yr old DS, I have now adopted that "you don't have to love it, you just have to learn it" approach. But math comes easily to him, whereas my daughter just will not engage her brain if she isn't interested or motivated.

Hi All, I am homeschooling 4 of my 5 kids ages 9-13. My DD12 is a visual learner, a very artsy, literary kid who is very smart but has zero interest in math. She started HS'ing after 5th grade (so last year) and came with some big deficits in her math background. We have tried teaching her from a textbook (she spaces out and does not pay attention,) MM, Khan (she loves but too scattered), did a Thinkwell trial (she didn't like the guy,) Life of Fred (worst program ever,) And Catch-up Math over the summer (great.). Currently she is still doing ALEKS which she doesn't mind, but it's not strong enough for her as a stand-alone. She really likes the computer, so I think a computer-based program would be best. I was all set to start CTC but then read some comments here that made me doubt whether it would help her understanding. Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

I agree with the others. One of the beauties of homeschooling is the freedom to change something that isn't working for you. I have found MM to be erratic, although I do still use it for extra practice. I would say that it really did some damage to my 10 year old son, when we used it for his first year of homeschooling (before I knew better.) It belabors some simple topics endlessly, yet goes into extreme depth in other topics prematurely without adequate explanation. After that debacle, we switched to Thinkwell (online) which was much more sane. This year, we are doing Algebra 1 with me teaching him straight out of a text, and it's the best fit for both of us. I do still use MM for my younger boys (9 and 11) but I am very selective. I think the program can be confusing so you have to be careful.

I was about the age of your daughter when I started riding with the large animal vets during their calls. It was hard for me because I was very shy, but I loved animals so much and was so fascinated by veterinary medicine that I did it. I would have done anything to just be close to the animals and the people who knew how to help them. Is there a way that your daughter could spend time volunteering at a veterinary hospital or animal shelter? There are also volunteer opportunities for citizen science type events, such as bird banding, oceanic topics (if you live near the coast), and many others. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has lots of resources too - my son participated in a very interesting citizen science study last year in which they were studying the nesting of tree swallows to determine how light scatter (from buildings, etc) affects their nesting. He had to chart his observations and transfer the data to Cornell's website. I actually learned a lot about not only tree swallows, but also about astronomy during that study. Hands-on experience around animals and those who work with animals is a great and lasting way to learn. (And in case you wondered what ever came of my early veterinary exposure...I am now a vet myself.)

My son (13) used Thinkwell 7 last year. Prior to that we had used MM as our main math and supplemented elsewhere (Khan, etc). Thinkwell worked great for him (aka was fairly painless, much fewer tears than the year before.) Just as a frame of reference, Khan did not work well for him, so it's not as simple as a computerized program vs a mom-taught program. Thinkwell seemed to be the right amount of teaching and a manageable amount of practice questions. The teaching is not as dry as it is with TT. There were times when I felt that he needed more practice, so I would have him do additional practice from other sources. You can try a sample of Thinkwell and see if you think it would be a good fit.

I second the recommendation for Reflex math. It is an online game program that identifies what facts you are fluent in, and which take you longer. The games adjust specifically to your needs based on that info. I have used it with my 3 younger kids, and they are completely fluent while my two older, middle school aged kids still have to think about math facts!

I've gone from having one homeschooler and 4 in school (2 years ago), to next year having four homeschoolers and one left in school. Previoulsly, I pieced together what I thought was a brilliant eclectic curriculum in which everything was interconnected. When we studied the physics of light, we read about light, we studied chiarascuro in art history, we learned how to do shading in art, we learned Greek and Latin roots involving light....you get the idea. It took MOUNTAINS of time to plan everything and to find the resources to go with everything. No more! With four at home, ranging from 9-13 years, I have to seriously simplify. And I have to plan. Which I hate. I announced to my kids just today that this coming year, we will be starting a new homeschool schedule. We will be schooling all year. Yes, we will take time "off" this summer, we will not officially school when we are on trips, or when cousins are visiting. But we will be schooling this summer. During hockey season (5 hockey players in our family) we will not be schooling on Mondays, although this is when I plan to schedule their music lessons, and we will probably do read-aloud. Does this sound crazy?