I'm in the early stages of opening a homeschool hybrid school. We're trying to figure out 5-8 grade history. I would like it to follow classical principles. Do y'all have any suggestions?? Some things I've considered include: 1. Joint classrooms with the elementary grades; everyone uses SOTW but the middle schoolers do *more* with it all. 2. Basically follow SWB's suggestions, using the Kingfisher encyclopedia as a spine. The downside is that every student is doing individual work, and I worry that we won't be able to help them enough with things like finding additional books, outlining, and summarizing. My own child needed a lot of help when we started on that level! 3. Maybe something where they take turns teaching for the week? Any suggestions??

Hi there! I feel the need for a switch in our homeschool and maybe you can help me find what I need or we can chat about what you need! My ds11 is entering 6th grade and I need him to work more independently. I want a well rounded language arts plan but don't think I want to focus heavily on grammar. Have you used WWS level 1 somewhat independently? What did you pair it with to round out language arts? We haven't done many projects in our homeschool and I'm wondering if we are missing something. Can you reassure me and help me come up with a plan? What are you using for your 6th grader this school year?

For grammar and writing for my fifth-grader, I'm planning to use Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind and Killgallon's Middle School materials, and I'm trying to decide whether to use both Killgallon's "Sentence Composing" and "Paragraphs" or just "Paragraphs." Would Killgallon "Sentence Composing" be redundant if I'm using Grammar for the WTM? I think it might make sense to use both, but I can't tell for sure looking at the samples.

Hi all, "Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind," the follow-up to "First Language Lessons," will be available on PDF in just a couple of weeks and in physical form by late September or early October. But we know that many of you are eager to get started, so we're giving away the first six weeks of the curriculum here. This grammar curriculum was formerly known as "Advanced Language Lessons," and you may have heard about it under that title. It consists of a Core Instructor Text (used for all four years), yearly Student Workbooks (the first one is being released now, and #2 is in development), yearly Answer Keys to explain all answers for the Student Workbook, and a Comprehensive Handbook of Rules (a handy reference guide for grammar, useful for all writers of whatever age). The free PDF includes: The first 6 weeks of the Core Instructor Text The first 6 weeks of the Student Workbook for Year 1 The first 6 weeks of the Answer Key for Year 1 (which gives all answers AND thorough explanations) The first part of the Comprehensive Handbook of Rules I'll be available to answer questions in this thread. We will also be releasing explanatory videos in the coming weeks. Follow us on Facebook for updates on that. To answer some possible questions: --Yes, this is good for middle-grade students, but could also be used with high-school students --Yes, it can be pre-ordered on Amazon (but their release dates aren't always accurate) --Yes, some of the sentences in the exercises are drawn from "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and "The Princess Bride." --Yes, schools and co-ops can get bulk pricing. Contact us at 1.877.322.3445 or order@welltrainedmind.com Again, the first six weeks are available here. Here's a longer description of the curriculum: Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind takes middle-grade or high school students from basic definitions through advanced sentence structure and analysis—all the grammar skills needed to write and speak with eloquence and confidence. This innovative program, by experienced educator Susan Wise Bauer, combines the three essential elements of language learning: understanding and memorizing rules (prescriptive teaching), repeated exposure to examples of how those rules are used (descriptive instruction), and practice using those rules in exercises and in writing (practical experience). Scripted lessons make it possible for any parent or teacher to use the program effectively. Step-by-step instruction takes students from the most basic concepts through advanced grammatical concepts Extensive diagramming exercises reinforce the rules and help technical/visual learners to understand & use the English language effectively. All diagrams are thoroughly explained to the instructor/parent. Examples and exercises are drawn from great works of literature, as well as from well-written nonfiction texts. Regular review is built into each year of work. Core text is designed to be used effectively with students from fifth grade through high school, regardless of background. The program is easily customizable to each student’s strengths and weaknesses. Description of the Program Each year, parents and teachers go through the dialogue, rules, and examples in the Core Instructor Text; students follow along in the Student Workbook. This repetition solidifies the concepts, definitions, and examples in the student’s mind. The Core Instructor Text provides not only rules and examples, but scripted dialogue that makes it possible for any parent or teacher to use the program effectively, along with instructor notes that thoroughly explain ambiguities and difficulties. There will eventually be four Student Workbooks, one for each year (the Year 1 Workbook will be released first). Each Student Workbook contains the same rules and examples—but four completely different sets of exercises and assignments, allowing students to develop a wide-ranging knowledge of how the rules and examples are put to use in writing. Each Student Workbook has its own Key, providing not only answers, but also explanations for the parent/instructor, and guidance as to when the answers might be ambiguous (as, in English, they often are). All of the rules covered, along with the repeated examples for each, are assembled for ongoing reference in the Comprehensive Handbook of Rules. This will become the student’s indispensable guide to writing through high school, into college and beyond.

Hi all, Just wanted to let you know that "Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind," our follow-up to "First Language Lessons," is now available in PDF on our website. The physical books are AT THE PRINTER NOW and if you don't think we POPPED CORKS when we sent them out the door then you are WRONG. They should be on our shelves in just a few weeks (6? 5?) and we will announce it here and elsewhere. They can also be preordered from Amazon. Also, SWB filmed three videos explaining and demonstrating this new grammar curriculum. See them on our YouTube channel. Thanks for your patience!

I need to figure out what "grade" to consider my middle schooler, and am grateful for help in figuring this out! I am thinking: 6th or7th? There is -- of course -- a long story about where we are now, but the shorter story is that I have homeschooled this child since PreK. He is precocious/accelerated, sensitive, not 2E, and is difficult to teach; and he grew up in our household with my husband's parents living upstairs from us. About two years ago his grandfather died, and shortly after that my son's academic abilities sort of just melted down. He went from being able to do AoPS algebra to having trouble with multi-digit arithmetic; he couldn't write grammatically correct answers to questions; his reading comprehension from IRs was about nil; and so on. I did not make the association with his grandfather's death, which was an incredibly stressful event for the family for many reasons, at the time. In response, and also in order to make sure that I could provide educational growth during a time when my husband's mother needed a good deal of attention and support, I moved him to Memoria Press as a rigorous educational option. I had to put him into their 2nd grade materials in order to avoid stressing him out; for math he began in 3rd-grade equivalent work. We've worked at our own pace and tried a lot of things, and this June saw him finish their 6th grade (corresponds to the work done in their 5th grade at the brick-and-mortar school). Here's where we are now: Reading: is a skimmer. He reads well above grade level and tests high, but does not read classics on his own. He can do, without stress, the reading that corresponds to MP's brick-and-mortar 7th grade. I would have to make him read their literature (at the level of Treasure Island) out loud to get him to read it carefully. Grammar: fine. We've done FLL, Grammar Island, MP's grammar, and are dabbling in Grammar Town. I am liking the looks of ALL!!!!! Spelling: Still remediating: we're in All About Spelling 5, having started in 2 or 3 at the beginning of the year. He is moving quickly and easily through AAS. Math: Nearly finished with Math U See Algebra. Please be kind about MUS :). Also drills; this year read Mathematicians are People Too. Science: been backburnered, can do Novare's middle school books (Physical Science, Earth Science) without stress. Strong knowledge base. History: we've done the Famous Men of Rome and Middle Ages, and we need a better balanced history. I trialed him on WTM methods and he can do decent summaries and 2-level outlines, he'd need a bit more practice before doing 3-level. Latin: finished 2nd Form Latin with online class, will do Third Form this year, summer work is some Familia Romana + review. Greek: finished Greek Alphabet, doing First Form Greek 1 page per day. Penmanship: totally legible, neat cursive. whoo-hoo!!!!!! ETA Composition: largely informal this year. He can write across the curriculum WTM-style at 6th grade level, and can do the writing in Classical Writing Maxim -- this is what we're doing, at a very light pace, over the summer. He is 11yo, turns 12yo on August 30 of this year. I started him in 1st grade at 6yo, which would put him in 7th, but I am unsure about his maturity. Well, I know he is "immature" -- he still carries his favorite stuffy around and in the car (but only around family members, not friends). But I am at a place where the work I plan will depend on how I think of his grade level, and if we are 2 or 3 years from high school, and so on. Especially if we move further from MP and closer to WTM methods and/or materials. He doesn't care what grade he is "in". thanks so much for your help!

I could use a little help here. We started out unschooling and when I realized that that was going to takes to a dead end I turned our ship and we've been trying to catch up since then. Both my 13yos are neuro-typical kids. What I've been doing is I've been assigning them about a weeks worth of work and then when they finish it they get a day of free time (plus regular chores). The next day is then a chore day and then we're back to another week of work. Because they're motivated to get their free-time day this usually gets done in about 4 days. They're managing to do school work 3-4 hours per day. We don't do M-F because dh's work is all over the place and so this has been a more accommodating schedule. Here's what we've been doing per "week" (this is embarrassing - go easy on me please :blushing: ): *Bible devotions and memory work with singing (including voice training) and some light music theory daily *WWS1 - 4 lessons (we're currently on wk 15) *MEP Y5 for one and Y6 for the other - about 5 pages each, sometimes I skip stuff depending on the child so then we get through more pages. (MEP is a little accelerated so this is more like grade 6 and 7) *A chapter or so of Science reading from a 1950's public school text - no labs or any feed-back besides me asking some comprehension questions. I've been reading Crucibles out loud to them and I've assigned them some living books like Uncle Tungsten and Napoleon’s Buttons in the last few months. This isn't weekly though. *Geography country study - one country per week, fill in a generic worksheet *Typing- 1 hour per week *R&S Grammar Y4 at a very accelerated pace - like 15-20 lessons/wk *They read plenty of lit at about their expected reading level so I don't assign any. We talk through what they've read *History- they have a pretty good knowledge base from read-alouds but I feel like we need to get into a little more meat *Some weeks dh does a few hours of electronics and electrical physics with ds and I spend some time with dd teaching her to sew. Unfortunately this tends to eat into our other school time. Obviously we're behind but I don't know exactly know how to move on from here. Just this week I wanted to have them write a summary of the history of Korea because they both floundered on the history of Korea on last week's worksheet. I realized though that they are just not able to do this yet. I reassigned them to doing an outline of the World Book encyclopedia’s history of Korea article. This was do-able. This frustrates me because I know that they're able understand the reading material but they don't have the writing skills yet (stupid unschooling philosophy!) to get their thoughts out. How should I plan for them long term? What's next? I feel like I'm lacking some vision here. I don't want to just get a history and science textbook and then answer some questions every chapter. I want them to be able to explain what they've learned in written form. Ultimately, I want them to be able to understand anything they set their minds to, without me holding their hands, and then be able to teach it to others in written or verbal form. How do I accomplish this? Some compounding factors are that we have a slough of littles that are always interrupting so any suggestions need to be fairly hands-off from me.