This sounds like a LOT to me. If this is a fun year for math, why are you spending an hour a day on it? And isn't Crossing the River with Dogs for high school and college students? Isn't the AOPS book post-algebra, not pre-algebra? These seem like really challenging books, not fun books. Maybe consider Life of Fred instead? It seems more age-appropriate. I do like the Murderous Maths idea. Personally, I would alternate grammar and writing. Spend a week on grammar, then a week on writing, and back to grammar the following week. Especially if it's an area of struggle, it would be a relief to have a break, and also maybe just allow things to "percolate." I would also add in very short copywork assignments every day, just a couple sentences, to be typed or handwritten. It's amazing how helpful copywork can be. Your science seems very ambitious, what you want to complete in a day. I'd split that into a couple days at least. Just some thoughts. Obviously, you know best what would work for your dc.

Critical Thinking Company is secular. They have a lot of good stuff. I also found a website, homeschoolcurriculumshop.com, that sells full secular curriculum packages for each grade, from a variety of publishers. I don't think that there's an exact secular equivalent to Abeka or BJU, really. There are lots of secular publishers for all the different subjects, but I don't think anybody is like Abeka or BJU where they offer everything, and in a similar format. I think you have to piecemeal it from a variety of publishers.

My dd did not understand some of the archaic language in CHOW. She much preferred SOTW. It's written in more contemporary English. There's a lot to it, though, and it jumps around quite a bit. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't use either of them when my dd was so young. Maybe SOTW in middle or high school.

Teaching Textbooks would probably be a good solution for you. He can do it independently on the computer.

Songs of America by the Cedarmont Kids. Most of Abeka's Songs We Enjoy cds also contain folk and patriotic songs. Check out Songs We Enjoy 1 cd.

No, I don't think SM is designed to be done independently. If I needed an independent math program, I'd go for Teaching Textbooks.

I buy the textbook, workbook, extra practice, and the CWP. The IP looks way too hard. We don't buy IP. As for scheduling, the textbook actually tells you what pages to do in the workbook. I throw in Extra Practice if my dd needs extra practice. When we finish a section, I try to do most of the CWP problems related to that. Then we move on to the next section of the textbook. HTH

Yes. That said, I don't think you have to manhandle them into loving their country. Just teach them, as part of their education, the Pledge, the National Anthem, US History, the "we hold these truths to be self-evident" part of the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble and Bill of Rights in the Constitution.... Attend fireworks on the 4th of July. Probably all the stuff you would do anyway.

If it's your commute to take your dc to school every day, definitely pick the 5 minute commute. 25 minutes four times a day (to and from in the morning, to and from in the afternoon) is quite a lot of time AND gas to use. With the 5 minute commute, that's only 20 minutes out of your day. So almost 1/4 of the total time and gas from the other commute. Do you drive a Prius, perhaps? Then I guess I wouldn't care as much. Still 25 minutes both ways twice a day. That's a lot and would get old real quick. Plus extra trips for extra curricular activities or ball games or open house. Mmm. My vote is definitely the 5 minute commute.

The Horrible Histories Book "Angry Aztecs and Incredible Incas" has some great stuff about their gods and religious practices and such. Chock full. Mayans are mentioned also.

Perhaps your oldest could do her computer work while you work with the younger one?

No, I have never used a TM for ARFH. We're starting our third year with it.

For prek, Abeka. For 2nd grade, Abeka. Beyond 2nd grade, either Christian Liberty Press or BJU Press.

You might check out Christian Liberty Press. They have great American history books. I really like their American Pioneers and Patriots and A Child's Story of America. I also recommend BJU Heritage Studies 1, 2, an 3. One and two do US History to the American Revolution. Three does 1776-1876. They are very colorful and interesting. They have some neat supplemental materials, too, if you like that stuff.

Science Wiz Electricity kit comes with a great, colorful, informative book, plus all the fixings for the suggested experiments. Love Science Wiz! I also bought the Max Axiom graphic novel about Electricity, plus some graphic novels about Samuel Morse and Thomas Edison (Capstone Press). They work nicely with that subject. The Magic School Bus Electric field trip book was really interesting, too.

Sell it! Do not save it for your dc for when they grow up and homeschool, unless they specifically say, "Mom I want to use that when I grow up!" (I only mention this because I once read a review where a boy said that about KONOS. Don't know if it's true.) My dm gave (foisted upon) me a bunch of old textbooks and they sat on my shelves for years and stared at me. I finally gave them away (hadn't discovered the joys of ebay yet) and felt so much better. Who wants to use 20 year old textbooks? Science for sure would be too old. Literature you could keep, I suppose, if you love it. Only keep stuff you love. All others, sell.

If all of your problems are stemming from her attitude and her character, why don't you just chuck regular school for now, and focus on those? Once you get her attitude all straightened out, then the other stuff should follow more readily. Seriously. Spend as much time obsessing over character education as you have been on her academic education. The shaping of her character is truly more important.

I don't like D'Aulaire books either. :) The hook that got my dd interested in Greek Myths was Michael Townsend's Amazing Greek Myths of Wonder and Blunders. It's a hardcover comic book version of several myths. Quite funny, yet educational. Then I bought her Usborne's Greek Myths for Young Children, and she literally read through the whole thing in one afternoon, side by side with her Michael Townsend book to compare. I now own The Children's Book of Myths and Legends retold by Ronne Randall published by Barnes and Noble books. It has nice illustrations, but it covers more than just the Greek myths. It does major myths from many ancient cultures. It seems to be chronological, which you had mentioned.

Looks like I'm in the minority. I would absolutely switch to Standards. You could sell the US editions and make back some of what you spent. My dd struggles with math, and she needs the full-color that is in every level of the Standards editions. US stops around level 3 being full-color. I also like the review in Standards. We buy the Extra Practice books, too. We also buy the CWP but never the IP. Never the test books either. For that matter, I believe level 2 is still full-color in both editions, and the content is VERY similar except for a small probability section. You could keep your US edition levels 1 and 2 and make the switch for level 3 on up. That's my two cents!

We use Standards! The dealbreaker for us was that Standards is full-color all the way through, whereas US edition goes to two-color around level 3. I don't see it used much. cbd carries it new, and I think they may carry even more than singaporemath.com does, as far as different books go, tests, CWP, etc. in the Standards edition. We have been using Standards since 1A. We are in 3A now. Love it!

Be nice. Use good manners. No whining. Be respectful. That's all I can think of, but that pretty well sums things up. By the way, the first two rules "officially" came into being due to the neighbor children. I have a well-behaved only child, so being nice and using good manners was a way of life in our household. It was interesting that we never had to spell it out before the neighbors came along. lol.

I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for. Time4Learning might be what you want, if you're looking at school online, although I've heard it's light. It does math and language arts and some science and history. Critical Thinking Company has lots of educational software, on thinking skills and math and punctuation and logic.... Need a little more information on what you are looking for -- full scale, independent stuff or specific subjects or what? Teaching Textbooks is math on the computer. It's gotten good reviews. Switched On Schoolhouse covers all the subjects but I haven't heard very good things about it.

My dd was never able to do the dictations within the prescribed limitations. She's a visual spatial learner, and auditory is NOT a strong point. I don't think there is a "should" for that. Skip it and move on. We stopped WWE after level 2. We still do copywork almost every day because it seemed the most effective. Around third grade, I had her learn to type with a fun program, and now she does all her copywork by typing it. It's still only maybe 3 sentences at at time, and we just finished 4th grade. Do what works for your kid. I think SWB has programmed for the super left-brained budding young rocket scientist, and I personally don't know anyone's kid who is capable of doing everything she suggests. Certainly mine is not. That doesn't mean there is a problem. We figure out what works for my dd's learning style and go with it. The information and skills will get in there, just not the way a particular curriculum dictates.

I do little unit studies on each part of speech with the Grammar Tales. We'll read a Grammar Tale, maybe do some activities listed in the back of the book, watch a Schoolhouse Rock video. Maybe do some worksheets. We also like to read the Parts of Speech Tales (also by Scholastic) and the books by Brian Cleary. If you buy the Grammar Tales as a set, they do come with a Teaching Guide which has more ideas for lessons.

Another vote for Science Wiz kits. They have them for most of the topics you mentioned. The books are great and colorful and explain things clearly. All of the equipment is included. They have fun activities that kids like. I own most of them and they are fantastic!