Unfortunately, we have co-ops here, but they are full. They fill up very quickly, so getting into one at this point in the game is not likely. We don't have a great network yet of friends outside of CC to consider building our own co-op. Many of our homeschool friends are lower elementary who don't feel comfortable with teaching a co-op class and especially one that involves older children. I've heard of online classical schools, but we can't afford that, and I also know my son does not learn best in a computer format even if that class is a teleconference. He just spaces out in front of a screen. He needs the interaction with a real flesh person, whether that be me or a tutor in a CC format. I guess it really boils down to when to switch. I don't see CC in our high school years at all. It just does not meet our needs in any way. I'm considering having DS1 do Challenge B but scale tremendously to accommodate our needs and do MFW with DS2. We do a one-room schoolhouse so he would at least be familiar with how MFW works and then have him pick up MFW in high school. I'm sure he would want to do some of the activities with us next year because we would be doing Exploring Countries & Cultures which is what he did in Challenge A, so he would be the "resident expert". It would be a way to exercise rhetoric and (I hope) boost his confidence and willingness to switch.

Thank you for your reply, Lori D. You are correct in your assessment of Challenge A. He will be in Challenge B this year or the equivalent of grade 8. DS2 will be in Foundations and Essentials this year, the equivalent of grade 5. There is a three-year grade gap between the two. I only have these two kids. Challenge is an excellent program, but it requires a lot of time. He is an unmotivated learner. I see progress, but most days are still spent keeping on top of him. As a result, DS2 isn't getting as much attention as I would like. I am hoping for something that I could use with both of them while I still have a chance. I'm aware of the high school requirements and need to find something I like. Challenge is an excellent program! I love everything about it but the science portion. Classical Conversations uses Apologia for most of the high school years, and I've never liked Apologia. I've been looking at Novare Science for about nine months now and have fallen in love. However, the order in which Novare does science is different than Apologia. Novare does 9th-physics, 10th-chemistry, 11th-biology, and 12th-anatomy & physiology. It makes much more sense to me to teach science in that order than the traditional physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics order in Challenge. I'd like to be free to use my own science curriculum, but that would leave him doing something completely different from the class on community and unable to contribute to discussion. I've been told to "trust the CC model", but I can't do that. I've not been one to blindly follow a model. I'm sure CC gets excellent graduates with stellar test scores, but this portion is one about which I am passionate and want to see something different. Regarding grammar, DS1 never had formal grammar in elementary school years of public school. When we started homeschooling after his 5th-grade year, he couldn't spot the different parts of speech in a sentence. He couldn't write a complete sentence. He still doesn't capitalize proper nouns, forgets appropriate punctuation, and often turns in papers to me with run-on sentences and fragments. He wrote a series of research papers during Challenge A, so we took that opportunity to work on the mechanics of writing and how to dress up his writing with strong verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, but he really needs more intensive work. He has now learned sentence diagramming through Latin instruction and can pick out parts of speech and tell the functions of nouns and verbs as they appear in the sentences. LTW is an amazing writing program, but it is a logic-based approach to writing with no emphasis on mechanics. Do I just let the mechanics of writing go and hope someday it will all make sense? I don't know if he doesn't understand the rules or if he's just too lazy to care to do it correctly. If we continue with CC, I have agreed to be the tutor for the Essentials class (grammar and writing), so I can hope he is catching some of that from listening to me work with DS2. I have a tendency to really feel as though I missed the boat with DS1. I regret not pulling him from public school sooner. He was really a struggling student even though he was making honor roll most semesters. We had a quick discussion in our family last night about what our homeschool would look like without CC. DS2 is such a chill kid. He just sort of shrugged his shoulders and said, "Whatever." DS1 insisted he wants to do Challenge B and continue on in the Challenge program. He struggled very much during year 1 of HS in his ability to see me as his sole educator. He still has a tendency to see his tutor in CC as his teacher, but he's getting better. He is a child who is very resistant to change and can become a behavior problem if he is displeased with his situation. In addition to all of that, we are a military family. We only have a guarantee we will be at this duty station for one more year. We can try to stay here, but the army seems to like to move us a lot. If we end up moving at the end of next year, we might be moving to a place where there is no Challenge program. I know CC says I could start my own program and direct, but I'd rather not do that since I already have reservations about the science in Ch 1-4. I'd rather be on my own at that point and comfortable in a program. A change to MFW this year would afford us a year to become acquainted with the program before high school years hit. I also do an evaluation at the end of each year to see if we are meeting our homeschool goals as a family. One of our major goals was to have flexibility to work at our own pace and have freedom to travel. Having a community day once a week and a prescribed syllabus does limit us quite a bit in both of those aspects. We don't want to become a slave to the curriculum or the establishment, but I can see us slipping into that which is probably why CC felt like a good fit last year. Many in CC say to scale back in the areas we need and make it work for us, but at what point to I decide we have to tweek it so much for our specifications that it's time to scrap it altogether? Continuing in a Challenge program would mean swapping out science and adding grammar which would completely change the face of a community day. Community day is the only reason we were really doing CC in the first place. Any thoughts on any of that?

This is our second year of homeschooling. My older son (age 13) just completed Challenge A and my younger son (age 9) did Foundations only. While CC has been great for us and has helped us succeed in so many ways this year, I feel like we are becoming slaves to the program and its curriculum which is one of the major reasons we left public school. I'd like a little more freedom, especially in the upper Challenge levels, to choose my own curriculum, especially for science. My older son also needs much more help in grammar instruction that he will not get in Challenge if we continue. The Challenge schedule is so full that I feel there's not really any way to piggyback on top of it and still be successful. I've been looking at MFW for awhile because the Charlotte Mason approach appeals to me. I'm not a strict classical homeschooler and tend toward Charlotte Mason ways. Has anyone switched from a strictly classical program like CC to something like MFW? Pros? Cons?