Thanks so much for all of your replies! I was debating between Jacobs and Arbor; I think we will jump in to Jacobs with my eldest. She needs something a bit more linear than AoPS I think.

My two oldest are just finishing up Beast Academy (sob!), and I'm looking for what comes next. I like the looks of the Arbor Algebra, but it seems that much of what is covered in Jousting Armadillos was covered very well in BA. Has anyone transitioned from BA to Arbor? Thanks!

My dd is just finishing up Beast Academy (sob!). We have all loved our time with the Beasts, the graphic representations of all math concepts, the sneaky review games, even the corny jokes. But she is not a math whiz and needs a fair amount of support with the more advanced problems in the text. So I'm just not thinking that she's going to be quite up for AOPS. I'm wondering about taking the leap from Beast to Elementary Algebra by Jacobs. Has anyone done that? How did it go? Or any other suggestions for post Beast?

We are using Build Your Library grade 8 at half pace right now and loving it. There were a couple books which we swapped out (I don't mind a secular program but there was at least one anti-religious polemic included), but overall the books are great and I love that it combines world history and the history of science together so we can see how one influenced the other. It is a lot of books (I think I counted 47) so we slowed it down to make the workload more reasonable and to allow for the kids to dig into topics they were interested in a little more.

My favourite series right now is Gerald Morris's Squire's Tales. There are ten books in the series which retell the legends of King Arthur. The characters are likable and great role models, the books are really, really funny, they stick fairly closely to the earliest versions of his stories, and each book has a great moral included in it without being at all preachy. I have read all but the last two with my kids (the last two are about the end of Camelot so are a bit darker), and they are favourites with kids and parents alike.

I'm just finishing up my third using Miquon...love, love, love it. We use just miquon, and the kids have such a great understanding of how math works by the time we are done. My first two just finished up to the end of green and then my eldest went to Math Mammoth, which she found borning, and then over to Beast which has been a huge hit. My second went right from Miquon to Beast, as will my third when he's ready. He may be my first to completely finish miquon, as he really enjoys it and I don't think is quite ready for the jump to Beast yet. I feel like of all the math curriculum I've seen Beast is the best continuation from miquon. It has the same focus on really breaking down math so that the kids understand why it works and how it works. And for most kids starting Beast in grade 4, after finishing up three years of miquon would be a good fit...it's really advanced for the grade level it's listed at. My eldest is in grade 6 and finishing up 4D and it still way ahead of our province's standards for her grade in math.

For my grade 7 girl Math: BA 5 and on to LOF intro to Algebra History/Literature/Art: BYL grade 8 world history through science, half speed ('cause there are 47 books to read!!) and weekly reading of articles from the Economist L/A: MCT level 4, Apples and Pears Spelling for remediation Latin: Latin For Children 2, set two of English from the Roots Up flash cards Science: All Lab No Lecture Chemistry Logic: Thinking Toolbox Religion: N.T. Wright's "For Everyone" series P.E.: swimming and karate Music: Piano

We love BA here...I homeschool with another family, so we have five kids in total. Four are using BA as their only math curriculum (well, a bit of Hands on Equation supplementation as well), and are thriving and love doing math. My youngest (grade 2) is working on Miquon prepping for BA :) There are incredibly advanced concepts in BA that are explained beautifully explained...I find myself finally understanding math concepts, and I definitely need to read the guides to get what the kiddos are up to. The material is also ahead of most math standards...we have a grade 7 girl working through 5A, a grade six girl (who has never liked math before) using 4C, and two mathy boys in grade 4 doing 4B. If you are going to do a trial level, I'd actually recommend 3B to start; 3A has some fairly abstract (and frustrating for younger kids) geometry work in it.

I will have two boys in grade 5 next year, both with significant delays in reading/writing but who love math. And my littlest will be in grade 3 and doing most of this with them Here's the plan... History: Build Your Library grade 3 (covers SOTW 3) LA: MCT Island level, WWE level 3, readers from BYL Science: Finishing RSO Chemistry level 1 Math: BA grade 5 level and prodigy Language: song school Greek Logic: fallacy detective Our resources certainly range in grade level, but the boys are doing well with them so we'll keep on supporting them where they are at!

I am busy planning next year for a grade 7 and grade 8 girl who work mostly independently...I am loving the look of Build Your Library's grade 8 year of science and world history. If you added that to Teaching Text books math you'd have history, science and literature all wrapped up. I priced out the books used and it's about $400 US, but many are available through the library.

We are doing some advanced chemistry with my grade 6 daughter and a friend, but supplementing with the Usborn science encyclopedia and I'll probably order the Kingfisher one soon as well. Here is the book we are doing: https://www.amazon.ca/Illustrated-Guide-Home-Chemistry-Experiments/dp/0596514921 ...the girls are excited because it is "real science", but the concepts are easy enough for them to understand with a bit of explanation and some supplementary materials.

I have the same situation as you...I have a six year old (almost seven) who finished level B earlier this week. He can sound out most words, but still doesn't think he can read yet...he has the tools, and I feel like he just needs lots and lots of practice. I've decided to wait to start level C until next September, and in the meantime we will review the frequently used words from level B and just have him read every day. I pulled out the "I Can Read" books from Sonlight I bought a few years ago, and he's enjoying those a lot. I love LOE for introducing the skills kids need for learning phonics and how to put words together, but my guy needs more practice to get his skills up. So we will pause and then go back to C (or maybe even repeat parts of B) when he's ready.

We like ours after breakfast too...kiddos wake up slowly and I have breakfast ready at about eight, we all do our chores from 8:30-9, and then have our morning time. We do a bible lesson, read our history from SOTW on Monday and then read whatever resources I can find that relate other days, talk about them a bit, and then I read some MCT aloud and we talk about that. What I have found is key for our family is to then have a break before we dive into school work...the kids need 20 minutes or so to run around and grab a quick snack (we just ate!! why do they need food all the time!! but life is better this way). After that we settle down to work from 10:30-12 and get it all done. It's working for us, for right now...

Our spread is a little different...grade 1, 3 and 5, but I like to combine as much as I can. We are going through MCT Island level as a group; my oldest does the writing assignments, my middle guy does them orally and my littlest guy just kind of hangs out and listens but he's picking up some of it. The story format means that we can all enjoy it together. I've just started using Brave Writer type copywork/dictations and freewrites as well; my oldest chooses her own copywork from her reading and I give my younger two sentences from our current read aloud. My boys each need independent reading and spelling instruction, but I like that we can combine some elements of it. We read aloud books together as well; often I read to them while they finish up lunch and we always have an audiobook in the car. I've learned to be careful with that though...I turned my youngest into a Harry Potter Hater by listening to the audiobooks in the van when he was only 4...he just remembers being bored to death! But we have found quite a few that the whole family can enjoy.

Busy thinking about next year, and I thought I'd write things down here so I can't possibly lose my plans :) DD will be in grade 6, she is a highly motivated learner, stronger in reading/writing, weaker in math and spelling, who likes her independence. History: finish up SOTW 2 and start 3, with WTM Logic add ons...timeline/outlining and lots of supplements (crash course history, library books) L/A: MCT Island level (doing this with two younger brothers), and Brave Writer free writes, copywork and writing projects (possibly Arrow subscription). Apples and Pears spelling level B for remediation. Reading classics at a grade 6-9 level on her own; listening to family read alouds Math: Math Mammoth 5, or possibly BA 4 along with her math whiz little brother Latin: Big Book of Lively Latin book 2 Keyboarding: KWT grade 6 Logic: possibly fallacy detective, continuing on with Mind Benders Logic problems which she loves Science: Novare Physical Science with a friend co-op style PE: Karate, swimming, family activities Music: continue with piano lessons Other: Zones of Regulation Curriculum with siblings Also, many discussion about current events, financial planning and home organization That looks like a lot now that I write it all down! We'll see what gets done in real life.

I love Miquon, and have used it for all three of my children, though differently. My daughter was in school until grade 3, but came home hating math and not really understanding most of the operations. So we started with the orange book and worked our way through all of the books (with the exception of the last one, I think!) in that year so that she could gain a better understanding of math. She transitioned very nicely into grade 3 MM (which meets the grade 4 standards for our province) the next year; the only gap I saw was that she had no experience with word problems so we had to work on those a bit. My son we pulled out of school midway through grade 1, and he jumped into miquon and did the first 4 books over the next year and a half, and he switched to BA at the start of grade 3 with no problems. My youngest in in grade 1 now. We started the red book last year and took our time with it, and he's most of the way through the orange book this year. I'm actually taking it very slowly as I feel like the work he's doing right now is pretty challenging for him, and I don't feel like first grade is the time to push learning multiplication :). If I were to supplement miquon, I would add some word problems to the mix, and some work on multiplication tables. But I love the simplicity of the program, the lovely clean pages, and the way that kids really play with math. It worked well for my hands on math learner (she used the rods) and my visual spacial guy who didn't like using them. It's pretty quick...math often takes only 10 minutes, but my kids seem to learn all they need to know in that time. I wish it went another grade or two!

So I have an 8yo son who defies all logic and reads only by sight words. I have done three phonics programs with him, read to him since birth, and we were getting no where with reading until I printed off Fry's list of 1000 sight words. In four weeks his reading has gone from a K level to a grade 3 level as I'm finally teaching him the way he learns. Lesson for me!! Anyhow, I'm just wondering if there are any resources out there for teaching more advanced reading for kids who are totally visual. I'm going to continue with AAS so he has the tools for phonics and syllable division (he gets all the rules and can spell well, he just finds decoding words phonetically excruciating), and I was thinking of adding in English from the Roots Up for some of the more challenging words. But what else is there out there? Should I be looking at vocabulary word lists? Advanced sight word lists? Any thoughts from people who have done this would be so appreciated! Thanks!

My kids have used it and enjoyed it...what I love about it is that is assess your child constantly and changes the material presented based on how accurately and quickly they are answering. This was great for my little guy who loves math...it bumped him up two grade levels withing a couple of days to the point where he was being challenged. Only downfall is that he decided to "help" his little brother out and soon the math was too advanced for the little one. A quick phone call to their very helpful customer service and we had him reset :). There are some odd bits, some of the exercises befuddle me (invasion of "new math" I think...I'm sure it would make sense if I'd done the exercises leading up to it!), but overall it is a hit here, and it's fantastic for when I'm busy with one and another one needs to do math.

My Son is loving Chris D'Lacey's book The Fire Within...it's a book about dragons and squirrel rescue :) He has a series about dragons for even younger kids as well...the Dragons of Wayward Cresent where nothing scary at all happens

Thank you all for taking the time to reply...I will go ahead and order level B. Am feeling very reassured by all of you that I won't have level A remorse :)

My 10 year old daughter and I have been plugging away with AAS, she's enjoying the lessons and understanding all the rules, but there is no carryover when she is actually writing. I'm thinking of finishing up level 3 and then changing over to Apples and Pears. My concern is that the methodology seems so different...do we need to start right at the beginning or does level B have enough review in it that we could jump in there? I've had a look through the book samples online, but would love to hear from someone who has used the program. Thanks!

My most successful read-aloud time with my kids is in the car...we live in a city which requires 15 minutes minimum driving to get anywhere, so we always have an audiobook going in the car (thankfully our library supports this habit!). Otherwise I read while the kids eat breakfast.

So many great replies here! Most of what we love has already been mentioned, but I wanted to add a plug for Barefoot Books. This little publisher produces beautiful retellings of many myths and legands from all over the world. Written by (wait for it) actual writers...award winning writers and storytellers. There are a great selection of myths from all over the world for the younger set (great for read-alouds in the grammar stage) such as Tales from India, Jewish Tales, etc. And for the Logic stage there are beautiful retellings of the story of Achilles, Odysseus, 1001 Arabian Knights, Greek Myths, and on and on. They aren't available on Amazon (they were, but got tired of being undersold, so pulled out), but you can buy them on book depository. Otherwise, thanks so much for all the work you and your team put into updating WTM...I am a fairly new homeschooler and was kind of stumbling along until I came across it last year and read it in exactly what my heart knew I wanted to do but couldn't express to my head :). This last year was a great one and we're all excited to dive into the middle ages this year (Knights!! Vikings!! Ninjas!!)