We changed things up for the 2019/2020 school year! The biggest change for us this year is that we are not participating in Classical Conversations. For many years we combined CC and Sonlight for our homeschool. CC gave us community, public speaking, and messy art/science projects while Sonlight provided us with lots of reading time as a family. Read more about how we combined CC and Sonlight here.
This year we have chosen to step away from Classical Conversations. The decision was prompted by the fact that there was not a Challenge B group close to our house. Once we started considering other pros and cons we decided it was best for our family to homeschool without CC. For our oldest, the ability to customize her high school years was a big priority for us and once you hit the CC Challenge years your curriculum choices are made for you. Our youngest struggles with memorization and while he enjoyed the social aspect of CC, the academic choices just did not work for his learning style.
We will be using an eclectic mix of curricula from several different homeschool curriculum companies. Here are just a few that we are drawing from:
So here is what we have been doing instead:
Eighth Grade Curriculum
Math
- Basic College Mathematics by Lial, Hornsby, &
- Teaching Textbooks Algebra I
We absolutely LOVED the Basic College Mathematics book as a pre-algebra course. We used Saxon 8/7 last year which is technically a pre-algebra course but we did not get through the entire book (we just don’t love Saxon). Basic College Mathematics helped to fill in those gaps. The layout of the course allows you to easily pre-test various topics to identify weak areas. If your student zips through a pre-test you just move on to the next section. If they struggle with certain problems, it provides in-depth explanation and practice for that particular concept. We finished this in December and moved to Teaching Textbooks Algebra I.
Teaching Textbooks has also been a great fit. To be honest, I have always been hesitant to use Teaching Textbooks due to people saying it is “behind” or students can “work the system.” Ultimately, we have found that it explains concepts well and allows our daughter to do math fairly independently. She is enjoying it but still feels challenged so it is a win-win.
Literature
This is a hefty load but
- Veritas Press Omnibus 1 Secondary Self-Paced- She loves, loves, LOVES Omnibus. We have already purchased Omnibus for her 9th-grade year as well. Read a more detailed review with our thoughts on Omnibus self-paced and live classes in this post.
Bravewriter Boomerang Online Book Club- We only did one month/one book and she adored getting to discuss The Red Umbrella with other students. The class was easy to navigate and the workload was extremely manageable. Bravewriter is all about students enjoying literature and their online classes exemplify that value. Given her busy schedule, we did not sign-up for any other months but definitely would like to do more of these in the future. She has been reading for enjoyment from the Bravewriter Boomerang book list.
- Progeny Press Guides- We have been participating in a small weekly co-op that has a literature component. So far they have used the Progeny Press guides for The Golden Goblet, The Bronze Bow, and The Eagle of the Ninth. Our daughter had already read 2 of the books so this was not too much extra work and she enjoyed discussing them with her friends. At the end of the year they will be reading Shakespeare’s As You Like it (this does not have a Progeny Press guide).
- Sonlight- We will always use the Sonlight book lists. Our daughter can refer to this list when she is looking for “fun” books to read. I completely credit Sonlight books for our family’s love of reading together.
Bible & History
- Veritas Press Omnibus 1 Primary Self-Paced
I absolutely cannot express how much my daughter enjoys this program! She loves to sit and have long discussions with her dad about what she is learning (he loves history too). She is at the age that she yearns for independence and the ability to do Ominibus courses on her own has filled that desire. Parents can be involved in as little or as much of it as they want. I have watched some of the videos with her but typically she works on this all on her own. This gives me time to work on language arts with her younger brother.
Latin
- Classical Academic Press Latin Alive 1
She likes this so much more than Henle Latin and says that things actually make sense. We purchased the coordinating video so she is able to watch the lesson and then complete the assignments. She really likes the teacher in the Latin Alive videos and enjoys doing Latin each day.
Spanish
- Abeka Spanish
This is through the co-op we joined. One of the moms is fluent in Spanish and is teaching the class. We were so excited to have access to Spanish in our little town.
Writing
- Bravewriter The Writer’s Jungle Online
- Bravewriter Help for Highschool
She has written some amazing things using Bravewriter. Last year with CC Challenge A we used Lost Tools of Writing which she enjoyed, but I think having this year to focus on more creative writing has been a breath of fresh air for her.
We found the online Bravewriter class to be helpful and filled with positive feedback. The program is aimed at meeting your child where they are at. The Writer’s Jungle Online class is for the parents- it teaches and supports you through doing writing assignments with your child. You then report back on how the assignment went and submit your child’s written work. It forced me to see all the positive things in her writing.
BW Help for Highschool is simple to follow and really breaks writing down into very doable chunks. She loves it and is writing more than any other year of her life. She writes a ton for enjoyment now and that is definitely honey for this mama’s heart.
Cursive
- Memoria Press Teach Yourself Cursive- New American Cursive workbook
Requested by my daughter so she could improve her handwriting. Her cursive has always been legible but not extremely neat. She has taken the initiative to improve this! She works on her cursive for about 5-10 minutes each day and I must say her cursive has become lovely.
Spelling
- Word Roots Level 1 by The Critical Thinking Company
Spelling does not come naturally to this child despite her love of literature. We are chugging along trying to improve her spelling as well as learning how to use spell check and dictation to assist with independent work. Installing Grammarly has been extremely helpful to her. We have tried lots of spelling programs, but Word Roots is one that she actually enjoys and it gets done! We are definitely seeing improvement!
Typing
- Touch Type Read and Spell
Both of my kids are using this program. I like that it reinforces typing, phonics, and spelling. It’s a win-win. Check out TTRS.
Science
- Exploring The World of Chemistry by J.H. Tiner along with the Memoria Press guide
- Exploring The History of Medicine by J.H. Tiner along with the Memoria Press guide
For 8th grade, I let her pick what she wanted to study for science. I decided that it was ultimately her last year for free choice since she will need to follow some requirements over the next 4 years to meet college entrance expectations. Next year for 9th grade we are considering a physics first approach to her highschool sequence.
Third Grade Curriculum
Math
- Math-U-See Gamma
While MUS was not a good fit for our daughter, it just makes sense to our son. See my review of Math-U-See vs RightStart Math here. He also enjoys Life of Fred books and Right Start Math Games, so we add those in when we can.
Phonics
- All About Reading
- Explode the Code books
- Spelling You See
Why so many programs? Reading is tough for this kiddo and coming at it in multiple ways has helped him a lot! All About Reading is our main program but then the Explode the Code books reinforce what he is learning and give him something that he can do independently. He really likes the satisfaction of completing pages on his own! Spelling You See has been a very quick and efficient way to practice both spelling and handwriting.
Literature
- Sonlight HBL C
- Bravewriter Arrow
It doesn’t matter what curriculum we use- we will always read through our Sonlight books. We love Sonlight and use their booklist every year for read-aloud time. With our son, we have also added in some Bravewriter Arrow selections. We had so much fun reading The Wild Robot and The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street led us to read the entire series. We even baked chocolate salted caramel chip cookies- a favorite in the Vanderbeeker house and now in ours too!
Handwriting
- Memoria Press Simply Classical Writing Book 1 Step-by-step sentences
- Memoria Press New American Cursive book 1
I really like the simplified strokes and look of MP’s New American Cursive. In addition to completing the book, we also spend lots of time “air writing” letters, making letters out of clay, writing in a salt tray, etc. Anything that adds additional movement helps him learn.
MP Simply Classical Writing gives him copywork practice along with very explicit explanations for basic grammar rules and sentence composition.
Science
- MEL Science Chemistry Kits
Our son LOVES these kits! With a subscription, we get a box that contains 2-3 experiments each month. All of the experiments have been extremely easy to complete but interesting and fun! Our son loves science and these kits have led him to love the subject even more. Head over to MEL Science to see for yourself.
Typing
- Touch Type Read Spell- as described above.
Another sneaky way to get some phonics practice done!
PE
- Homeschool PE class through our local recreation center plus swim team and soccer.
Lots of physical activity for this boy!
Co-Op
So what are we doing instead of CC for social connections? We joined 2 co-ops! I mentioned the small one that covers literature and Spanish under our eighth-grade curriculum because only my daughter attends that one. We also joined a new co-op in our area that is strictly enrichment. It is twice a month and so far we all love it! The kids have made new friends and I have been able to connect with an amazing group of moms!
A co-op for enrichment has definitely been a better fit for us. We can pick our favorite curriculums for use at home and then do fun group activities with our co-op.
We have been homeschooling for a long time and have tried LOTS of curriculum. The choices above are all excellent and I like the eclectic mix we have created. If you would like to know more about a specific curriculum above please let me know in the comments below! Or if there is another curriculum you are curious about- ask away. It just might be on my shelf!
Happy Homeschooling!
~Melissa
