Yes, we attend church and yes we have a faith. But we aren't adding any bible based classes to home school. So what I'm wondering, is what curriculum are you using? Our choice to home school had more to do with academics and peer pressure than anything else. So we're trying to continue with a similiar curric but not the 'same'. For instance, this year he's finishing out on Saxon math...BUT I'm hoping to replace that for seventh grade. It's too all over the place and switches concepts throughout each lesson. He doesn't like that. Is there another one that 'flows'? Also science, which text book is the best one to 'teach' from...meaning it has more in depth detail? I'm doing my level best to get him into sustainability or agriculture etc...home designs that don't use too much energy etc..I'd like him to be able to actually have a job someday. My oldest is at college and she keeps dropping her classes and switching them out for things like pottery and karate....I'm not even going to go there! She things college is a playground, naturally because it's not like SHE is paying for it! Did I mention her hair is PURPLE right now????? :shock: Funny thing, her boyfriend is a physical trainer for an NFL team and in about a year he's transferring to a California team. They have been talking marriage. I told her, how is a man who will more than likely be traveling and wearing a suit for appearances, going to look with a wife with PURPLE hair, on his arm???:lol: I'm hoping he'll talk some sense into her at some point. Right now...I get it, but in a year or two...no...she'd gotta grow up sometime. See...there I went off topic again! LOL Any curric ideas would be great. Also does anyone know of any great books about sustainability? Energy conservation etc??? Something that a 12 year old would understand?
IDK, but have you tried doing a search for "middle school agriculture" or "middle school horticulture" or "middle school ecology"? I'd be interested to know what turns up. Or you can try used textbook sites for titles from Delmar on those topics. Delmar is a good vocational-focus textbook company.
Wow, I didn't realize there was a textbook company called Delmar... that's the name of the business that my hubby works for, and it's a grain trading company, lol!
I would check out Oak Meadow, I think it will give you everything you are looking for....... Especially with Science and Math.
I do not homeschool for religious reasons either. I've used Singapore and now Teaching Textbooks for math. Science is a real bugaboo for me. I've used library books a lot. In later grades, starting around 7th or so, I end up using textbooks unfortunately because there just is not much for homeschoolers that I would trust. We tried Noeo last year and really did not like it. Spectrum Chemistry was good - it's by a Christian guy but except for the last chapter (which we avoided) it's good. I would not go near anything Christian for Earth science or biology, but that's just me. I wish there was something else for science for folks like us. I hope someone here has some suggestions for us.
Keeping in mind what you have said I would say completecurriculum.com might be something for you to look into. The one thing I liked about them is the Language Arts had everything all in one (writing, handwriting, reading, grammar etc...) but I have not used them I have only looked at the Table of contents. Cathy Duffy did review it on her web-site. As for the other I would say builditsolar.com That is the place I would teach from. The bottom right of the page has solar projects for kids. Wish I had some agriculture sites to help out. Good Luck!
I have a 6th grade Scott Foresman Science text you could have for the cost of shipping. I've some other science books, but am not sure where they are right now. Scott Foresman is a public school textbook company.
Thank you all It's been a weird start since it's already March. I'm hoping having the whole summer to plan will help. We just jumped into this. While we'd been considering it for years, it was literally an overnight decision after his last incident at school. I picked him up and never looked back. So it's been weird trying to find the best approach. We're getting there. He picks up more than I think he does. Usually I'll give him pop questions throughout the day to see if he was listening and I find that he was. And I think it'll be easier for him down the road if we stick with a curric that goes along with what the schools are using. Mainly because if he wants to re-enter someday, he'll be on track. But outside of the actual PS, finding the right curric seems overwhelming. I even thought about asking the school if we could purchase next years books, however they are rather expensive. BUT DD is going to be in 6th while DS12 is gonna be in 7th and she takes advanced classes, so maybe alot of her textbooks will have some stuff that we can use. If nothing else, for review. It helps that they're so close in grades. I'll look into the companies you all recommended. It's just so unnerving because now it's like his future is dependent on me and for some reason that's rather intimidating!
OhioMom, one thing I've found is that whatever you use, as long as you're covering the same territory (English, math, science, history), on re-entering (if he does) he'll be just fine and might even be somewhat ahead in some areas. So use whatever you LIKE, and whatever he LIKES. Only one example: I had one kid who had been back and forth from public to homeschool to a little private school to my little private school and back and forth "forever". Her mom was trying to "make her happy". When she was with me, by test results I had to put her in my 6th grade English (CLE, btw), but then her mom took her back to public school once again (and she finally stayed). When public tested her, they put her in 9th grade, then bumped her up to 10th in English! I've also had other kids who went back to public who were "behind" their grade level with me, who had no trouble getting into their right grade when they went back. All that to say, don't worry about being "on track" by using the same books. Use whatever you like and that fits with his learning style -- even if that means NOT using textbooks at all! If he wants to learn he'll absorb it.
Have you looked at the homeschool supercenter grade level packs. They have one that is standard that isn't too expensive and uses good texts. I especially love their grammar. Everything would be covered that way and if you look in the secular electives there is a lot to choice from including agriculture. Just google homeschool supercenter and it should come up.
Have you looked at connectthethoughts.com? It is secular and not too expensive. I can't give you a review of the materials, but I thought I'd throw it out there!
Us too! OhioMom, we too are Christian but homeschooling secularly....I find many of the materials not suitable for us for a variety of reasons. Here are some suggestions I have for you that we have used...I have a 7th grader, 2 5ths, a 4th and a 3rd. Science: Rainbow Science from Beginnings Publishers (also has Spectrum science, I think someone else mentioned it earlier). It is not secular, but the Christian focus is only in a couple of spots that can be worked with easily...the entire rest of the book is secular in my opinion. Not cheap, but really, really well done and student led. We have tried a couple other programs and like this the best. Literature: Mosdos Press covers through 8th grade and their textbook is phenomenal. Has a workbook as well, we find it to be the best we have seen and we are not a textbooky family. It explores many different high quality authors and is well suited for grade level. Secular (actually a Jewish publisher, but you wouldn't know it by content...but not "worldly" either...a perfect fit for us) Language Arts: We have used the secular Growing with Grammar/Soaring with Spelling/Winning with Writing series and found it to be quite solid, without arduous lessons that bore a kid to tears. History: I see someone else mentioned Connect the Thoughts and we use it as well, it is fabulous! You could also look at Walch Education's "Power Basics" which are secular and well suited for middle school aged students. Hope this helps! Cindy
Don't worry about the purple hair they out grow it. Mine has been pink and then we went to extensions of colors that she can add in and out, she just uses this to give her some flare I am okay with it. She has donated her hair twice before adding color she had to graduate so I figure now its her hair lol. She needs to think on a plan for herself that will support him and follow him around mom, don't let her be a stay behind wife of someone in NFL. Okay enough of that advice lol you can msg me if you want reasons lol. For the curric, I understand because my ds is also asking for some "non bible" classes next year. We use Life Paks because we enjoy the way its set up, but I added Bible to his lessons as a class of Life Paks this year and he is noticing the extra stuff in the other classes like Language arts and History. Now when he was younger he liked that, but now that he is older in High School, he said he enjoys the learning things about how it fits with normal stuff but that he is wondering why I bothered getting him a bible lesson lol. So I am going to follow your thread and see what they have. I have been seriously looking at an online Science course ... have questioned if I can get the subjects I need for High School Biology , the lady is awesome! SuperChargedScience is the name, check it out she has great deals but I am not sure if it is going to work for us yet. I am also looking at other science lessons that have disecting things, BJU and I forget the name of it lol! there is one that has the disections all there on a dvd and I can watch with ds but also do somethings that I want.... earthworm, fish, etc, just not gonna do a cow eye, they did that in hsgroup and it was messy squirty! lol, I could do many things but I refuse to do a turtle, frog and pig lol My neighbor is a butcher though so I may have him do some disecting with ds! ha!
What I have done in the past when living in a state that would not supply the textbooks, was ask the school district for a list of the books they use. Then I've looked on eBay to get them (or even a slightly older edition) cheaper.
BE CAREFUL!!! Carl brought home a series of high school math, thinking it would be wonderful to get it for free. Well, THERE WAS A REASON they got rid of that textbook!!! You had to have a PhD in math to be able to teach it!!! I was having fits, Rachael was having fits, and Carl kept telling me MY bad attitude about math was the problem!!! Then one day, they had a REALLY STUPID problem. And the answer actually had NOTHING to do with math. The answer was, "Well, if you did the math correctly, this is the answer you got. But, because an airplane must maintain a speed of (X-mph) to stay airborne, and that answer is too low, we're going to totally disregard it!!!" I might add that nowhere IN THE PROBLEM did they tell us this; it was in a caption on a cartoon picture that very few people pay any attention to. ANYWAY, poor DH really heard it when he got home!!! We got another (older) math textbook, and the problem was solved!
I use Holt for Science. They have packs at Rainbow Resources for Homeschoolers. (We are working on the Life Science and Tech. with my 11 and 13 year old. They have no issue understanding it.) I also like Singapore Science but the kids didn't like it as much. We are using Saxon this year but think I will switch to TT next year.
