We're using Mr. Q Science, which it totally written for the child to read. I'm not sure what the Apologia books are like, so I can't compare.

This has been an essential resource for our homeschool that we use in several subjects every week. We actually use it every single day for our Spanish program, and rely on it to supplement everything we learn in science and history and at times every other subject. The quality has never affected me, there are 5 streaming settings to choose from, we just choose the highest. We're not huge tv watchers here, although the few times we watch Amazon/Netflix streaming, it is in HD on our tv. But we are more computer people than tv watchers, so we're content with watching non-HD stuff on our computer monitors just as well. Outdatedness is not a concern either, there are just as many amazing, modern videos and I find more everyday. But I use this resource for the educational aspect anyway, so dated videos that show their time do not bother me as long as it does the job of teaching the concept. I've used Discovery Education Streaming for many years now and yes, at first it was difficult to navigate and find good stuff. They have revamped the search interface in the past few years. I log in with my teacher account, find stuff to watch, assign it to my daughter for a particular day or week, and she logs in, views what she likes, and then "Marks Complete". She can search through her own simplified student interface as well. I made this page on my blog about DES options a few years back. I know much more content has been added, maybe I'll update that list. Anyway, through the Homeschool Buyer's Coop, Discovery Education Streaming has been invaluable for our little homeschool. If we didn't get the discount through them, I would probably find a way to swing the cost every year, but I'm glad we get it as a discount.

Yeah, it was hard for me to implement. I bought the whole she-bang too and now I have huge MPH teacher guide, HOTS, etc... Sounds like you want something more open-and-go and I don't blame you, that's what I wanted as well. You might want to check out RSO Science, which is easier to use and secular, and I could see using it with all those ages, maybe supplement with extra books/videos for your older children. Your 4th grader (and maybe 2nd grader) might also like Mr. Q. Science. You can download the first year free. That's what we've ended up using, we've been learning a lot from that and it's so easy to use.

We've happily used five years of Growing with Grammar. Retention was great and my daughter loved using it. I do see what people are saying about it being easy, but as long as my daughter understood and retained the concepts in the lessons, I was fine with that. FLL unfortunately did not work for us (we made it a year and a half), MCT wasn't a total hit either, although I'd love to try it a third time, heh. So I am grateful for having used GWG as an independent, secular grammar option in an accelerated manner for our first few homeschooling years (used it up through grade 5). She has been asking to go back to GWG, however this year I wanted to try a few other grammar programs, as I'm a curriculum junkie and I'd love to explore something more rigorous and challenging. Hake Grammar was definitely not a good fit for us, my daughter nicknamed it "Hate Grammar". It was solid text with no room to write in your answers, very uninspiring. We settled on using the new Sadlier Grammar Workshop which she started just a few weeks ago and is very excited about it. http://schoolstore.sadlier.com/productslist.aspx?categoryID=75 Because grammar is so important to my language arts loving daughter, we're doing Junior Analytical Grammar together as a review for .. um.. fun. :) Also just started this a few weeks ago. I'm giving it a few more weeks before I blog about our new grammar program endeavors.

Oh yeah, I need to renew our Kids Discover sub...

I'd choose from the Cricket magazines. You can always switch your subscription to another magazine or age group once you out-grow one. http://www.cricketmag.com/

I got off to a late start with some of our newer stuff, but I know ourselves well enough to predict a success or failure. My daughter is 8, turning 9 in a few weeks. CAP Writing and Rhetoric: Fables has been wonderful for us, especially since we haven't done a writing program in forever. Sadlier has released new curriculum on grammar, word study, and revamped their vocabulary so it's all appealing and colorful, with online games/activities. We picked up Vocabulary Workshop, Grammar Workshop, and Word Study. (What can I say, my daughter likes language arts workbooks.) Mr. Q. Earth Science - Finished the free Life program last year, and then promptly purchased everything else that he makes. She is totally eating it up. Elementary Spanish - something we've used for a few years, but it seems this year her interest has been revitalized. I think it's the fun songs we sing together and the fact that she's just learning more Spanish lately. Satori's really getting into her extracurricular activities (the first time we've gotten to take classes since we moved down the mountain): Gymnastics and Piano/Voice lessons. Plus our usual suspects are all still great. For both of us, SOTW, LOF. For her, logic workbooks and any other fun workbooks. For me, Singapore math stuff, BA... We subscribe to four of the Cricket magazines (Cobblestone, Odyssey, Calliope, Ask), but I think I'm the only one that reads them from cover to cover. My family will read them if they're sitting on the dinner table at least, so it makes it all worth it. Does spark interesting dinner conversations. I'm thinking of getting changing our Ask magazine to Spanish version for the practice.

I've worked with most of the secular science programs out there. BFSU by Nebel is great, but just not my style. Here are ones that have worked for us: Mr. Q Science - the one we've settled on using, as we've learned so much very quickly. The first year is free, so it's worth a download to take a look. In this, the child reads a chapter of several pages, then does a few activity pages of questions. My daughter just loves Mr. Q, but I waited until she was already reading very well before we started this. The parent book is helpful too, although I don't use it much. RSO Science - We also love this program. You read a page related to the topic and then do a few activities which were easy to prepare for and accomplish. Our most memorable science experiences came from RSO. My blog has several of our activities, tagged RSO. Singapore My Pals Are Here - I got the whole she-bang of materials. Could be expensive, but if you've got them, I feel it does a great job going into depth about the topic. I don't use it currently because it is an effort to use, hehe. Evan Moore Daily Science - workbooks that my daughter loved. We'd do a 2-5 days worth per day. Inexpensive, quick, easy and fun. We did 3 years worth in one school year and will likely resume with the 5th grade book next summer. I'm probably missing a few, but those are the secular science programs that stuck out that we enjoyed.

Another Beast Academy supplementer here. :) We also read a few Life of Fred chapters a week (on Edgewood). I just add these to add fun to math, as my daughter wouldn't sit and do math all day as she would reading/writing. I setup a Khan Academy account but we haven't used it yet. Also thinking of using Hands-On Equations and other iPad apps. For Singapore, I use the HIG and she does the workbook, tests, and IP/CWP (one year behind).

I have a degree in Spanish, but it's just been so long. So I'm giving myself the ultimate refresher (along with learning Japanese and Mandarin)! For Spanish, here's what I'm doing: Duolingo (love this free, motivating site that I can use on the computer and my iPad, Android phone!) Mango (free through my library, quickly getting up to speed on conversational Japanese and Chinese as well) Practice Makes Perfect workbooks (have a ton of these) speaking to my Spanish friends online Destinos Con mi hija, we are both learning with: Elementary Spanish via Discovery Education Streaming (love singing the songs with him) Getting Started with Spanish After reading this thread, I will probably get a subscription to News in Slow Spanish. Looks great. :) I'm dotnetdiva in Duolingo if anyone wants to add me as friend.

I've tried a lot of these, as I'm a curriculum addict and science programs always tempt me (I guess along with everything else). For our current favorite open and go, I'd have to say Mr. Q Science hands down. We used Life Science which was free and so effective that I bought the rest of the series. Started Earth last month.. Most of the time we just use the student book but I look through the Parent book now and then and to read the end-of-chapter questions, print the Unit Tests, and do a few activities now and then. Everything else is a chapter a day in the Student Book, including the quizzes. We learn a lot from Mr Q and retain much. Before Mr. Q we used Evan Moore Daily Science, which my daughter loves, but it just isn't as meaty as what she's learning in Mr. Q. Even so, we went through four years of EM Daily Science before shelving it for awhile. I'd have to give it another vote for the best Open and Go if your child prefers less reading. I also use and like RSO Science, Singapore's My Pals Are Here, but I wouldn't tout them as the our favored open-and-go programs. When we used those science programs, we tended not to get to science every week, although they do have their advantages and I anticipate still utilizing them in the future somehow. With everything, once a week we fire up BrainPop, Discovery Education Streaming, Happy Scientist etc... to reinforce what we're learning.

We did our first year (Ancients) trying to do at least one activity in the Activity Guide but that lead to burnout and procrastination for history. The second year (Medieval) we did SOTW about 2x a week in which day 1 we'd read the chapter and do the questions. Day 2 we'd review, do the mapwork and then the test. Every now and then we'd read a related book or view a video. This year for Early Moderns is very similar, but doing history approximately 3x a week, doing one reading passage and related questions in one day so that takes us an average of 2 days. We never skip the mapwork, as it's pretty quick and painless. She then does the SOTW test on the 3rd day, along with any Brainpop/Discovery Education videos that are relevant to the chapter. It's working out great. No more indepth crafting projects anymore though..

I was also considering Analytical Grammar, was hoping to hear more mention of that one. We're happily using GWG, starting GWG5 this month, but I feel the need for something more for my daughter is advanced in language arts. I've had Analytical Grammar in mind for awhile, or maybe Junior Analytical Grammar, as she's just eight yet.

We're finishing up chapter 19 - (A New Kind of King) and starting 20 - (The Diaspora) on Friday. We don't stay on a strict schedule, but spend just two days on one chapter. We go on Christmas vacation soon, but I'm seeing SOTW 2:23 - The First Russians scheduled for the first week of January 2013. According to my online scheduler, I'm seeing sometime in April as a finish to SOTW2, but we might stretch it out until May.

We kicked it off with Pianimals for the first few months - super easy. We only started this year, I wish I had started a year or two ago. Now we're using Piano Adventures, slowing down a bit, as there's so many books to juggle for me. But I like the series, so that's what we're sticking with.

My 8 year old daughter loves SOTW! We're on SOTW2, and I read from the book and we listen to the audio for review. It's her favorite subject.

We use our one Brainpop subscription and can view it on any computer (or ipad). If I'm logged in on my desktop looking up videos, and then I move to my daughter's computer and log in on hers, it will say that there is someone already logged in. I have the choice to log in anyway and boot the first computer out. So you can't have more than one computer/laptop/ipad running Brainpop at one time unless you purchase multiple users. But they both can watch on their laptops, just not logged in at the same time.

I used to let my daughter explore on her own (she loves Annie and Moby). Every now and then I'd show videos related to what we've been learning in science and history. Now I've set aside a day a week to catch up on a few related Brainpop videos, and have her do the quizzes. I printed off the Brainpop Jr listing and mark them off as they're watched, not sure we'll ever watch them all, as she's past many topics in level. We also watch the regular Brainpop videos, not always doing the related quiz though. She's always free to explore on her own.

I asked my daughter yesterday, and she said History, so that would be SOTW. For myself, I am so happy that Singapore Math exists. We also just started their science (My Pals Are Here) and that is going pretty well too. Easy enough to open and go for us, yet we get to work together and dig deeper into topics. Hmmm... sounds just like Singapore Math.

We're doing EM's Daily Geography and I was just thinking of adding the continent-specific ones. Good timing for this thread! I have the Evan Moor Africa continent workbook, they seem to have two different versions. Good to know another young one (zoo_keeper's dd7) is using these, that is motivating. We've been sailing through Daily Geography and slowing down and going more in depth sounds appealing right about now.

We're doing their online subscription now, but it's the same as when we did the workbooks. We strive to finish one lesson per week, 3x/week. Day 1: Pretest and Word list Day 2: 4 Exercises Day 3: Reading Passage, Post-test (and with the online thing, a retest of any that she got wrong) We just started Level 4, been using Wordly Wise since Kindergarten.

Same here, thanks for the head's up. :) Can't wait to look through it today.

Same here, we keep ours upright and we've also had them for probably three years now. I keep thinking of changing their storage container so they lie horizontally at a little tilt up, but so far they are fine.

We're using EMDS now as our daily science spine, after a year of doing almost no science. We'll add in videos from BrainPop and Discovery Streaming and various books. We've also been using Singapore My Pals Are Here science a few times a week - the text, Homework, and HOTS. But I'm so grateful for EMDS, as my daughter also loves working independently in workbooks, and it gets done every weekday.