Hi there, I have two girls, 14 years old. I wrote about our unique situation a few weeks ago. Yesterday was our first day back to school and we started CK-12 Life Science for Middle School. We worked on the first section. We read through the lesson, took notes, created a foldable for scientific law versus scientific theory and made vocabulary flashcards. Today I asked them to answer the questions as best as they could in the workbook. One of my girls breezed through it and got 5 incorrect answers while my other girl had 12 incorrect answers and complained that it was too hard for her. Any suggestions on how to go about teaching her from here on out? Should I let the girls use their textbooks to answer questions? Should I be teaching them another way? She was pretty down on herself being that it was only the second day of school. My girl is a perfectionist and is usually very hard on herself to be better than her twin sister. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks

We do Hake Grammar 6 and the writing portion is it's own book. The schedulle tells you when to use each writing lesson but you can skip over it for sure. :)

Hi there, How detailed are your lesson plans? I have 14 year old twin sisters and we have a unique homeschool situation. I wrote about it in another section on the forums (I don't know how to link it here on my phone :s) I am trying to have the kids work more independently but it will take some time. When you plan do you take notes from the textbooks to teach them? When asking them to outline, do you outline as well to have something to compare theirs to? I want to be familiar with what they are learning so that they don't lose confidence in me when they ask a question and I don't know the answer to it. Thanks

Hi there, I am curious if this program includes the drawing of the countries within the continent or if it just shows the shapes of the continent. I am interested in all the continents but specifically Africa at this time. I only saw Mesopotamia, Greece and the Nile as samples. Thanks!

Do you think that having 14 year olds write a chapter summary for each chapter once we read the chapter aloud is too much? They don't do much writing except from their grammar and math books. Just realized I overused "chapter". Thanks!

Definitely following this thread! I have been searching the forums for a couple hours now :)

Hi! I homeschool my young sisters (14) in Ottawa :)

I buy staedtler ones for my girls. They have a white ring around the lead that is an "anti break system" and they rarely break when sharpening them. I dunno about being thrown around as my kids are older but they do blend very nicely.

Hi there, I am in Canada and I am having a hard time finding the recommended textbooks. Did anyone use other textbooks besides the ones that the course recommends? It can be individual books for each continent. I am starting with Africa. Thanks!

Hi everyone, Thanks for all of your lovely responses! I have been quite stressed out lately with this year's planning and catching them up to close to where they "should" be. I never thought about read alouds for school books. We do read aloud our fun, fiction books and they seem to enjoy that, so I think I will implement alot of read alouds this coming year to also gauge their comprehension. That was an excellent suggestion! I will also keep a reading log of what we read and have them keep a log of what they read by themselves. We are huge readers in our home. Very important to us. I may drop history for this year as the program "Around the World in 180 Days" does have a bit of history in it as well. I would like to incorporate some of the classic literature readings based on the continent we are studying. They have expressed an interest in explorers and the wars, so I am thinking to incorporate those into the geography program as well based on the continent we are studying. I appreciate the suggestions for other math programs but I think I am going to stick with Saxon. I did part of it with them last year and that is how they learned what I have taught them so far. It works for them and they are not too fond of change as their has been alot in their short lives and I am trying to introduce as much stability as possible at this time. I found a youtube channel that the girls love of another homeschool mom that records her Saxon lessons as she teaches her children. I am not too worried about the practical life skills as we take care of that on a regular basis. I have taught them to weigh our wants with our needs, how to budget so that we can save for something we really want and for emergencies. The girls have alot of input into our meal planning and then they help me price match, grocery shop and cook the meals. They are in charge of cooking one meal a week and they are very happy to try out new recipes. Their has been alot of adjustments in all of our lives recently and better habits in regards to healthy eating and exercise and less screen time have been implemented as well as a tension-free, quiet atmosphere. Thank you so much again for all your responses! They have put me in a lot better frame of mind :)

I have what I believe is a unique homeschool situation. I have my 14-year old twin sisters who now live with me (a whole other story!). They are VERY far behind. They started school in a PS when they lived with our mother and their attendance was very scattered until they no longer attended. When they came to live with me in May of 2014, they could not even add. They could read, thank goodness and they always have their nose in a book which I always encourage as I do the same thing and we all know the importance of reading :) Over the last year, I have taught them how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, use fractions for baking and tell time. I believe we have come a LONG way! My concern now is that this is ''supposed" to be their first year of highschool and we are not even close to being ready for that. I am still trying to work on spelling and putting sentences together. They still do not know nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. I started last year with Hake Grammar and it was slow going but I am sure they can do it. My plans for this year include : Saxon Math 6/5 Hake Grammar 6 (I believe. Continuation from last year) Around the World in 180 Days Mapping the World with Art Homeschool in the Woods - Explorers, Colonial Times, World War CK-12 Life Science for Middle School We also use virtual instructor art classes Should I be worrying about high school or just about getting them caught up? Would you add or take anything away from this years curriculum? All advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Perfect! Thanks so much!

Hi there, I haven't had any experience with art programs yet but I will be starting one this year at the virtual instructor online. Since I haven't used it yet I am not sure if it would be too advanced for your needs but it does teach line and form and shading etc etc. Something to look into :)

Hi there, There is a sample of this program on Lamp Post Homeschool and I am wondering if anyone knows if this is a complete sample of the first continent? I would like to try it out before I buy the whole program! Thanks!