Sixth grader you say? Fantasy fan? Restless reader? Hmmm...

You’ve picked some great books! You might consider pre-reading the No Fear Shakespeare modern retelling. A lot of Shakespeare has innuendo that goes over kids heads, but the modern retelling spells it all out. Also, check out the Shakespeare Arkangel audiobooks - I’m listening to them with my 10th grader this year, while following along in the book (Folger Shakespeare edition). Salt to the Sea was one of my favorite summer reads this year. 😊

I am seriously debating doing this with my daughter who hates math. We are struggling so hard through Saxon 8/7 and she's going into 9th grade. Is your 8th grader just doing 1 lesson/day?

Can you share what you use to listen to audio books? Which gadget and which app?

I have gotten so many great recommendations for my early readers after watching these videos. Thank you!

4:50 from Paddington was my first Agatha Christie and therefore also my favorite. It was wonderful 😊

I just recently found out there are TWO more books after When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit! I can’t wait to read them!

My girls also will not pick up What Katy Did though I've suggested several times. Every Woman Theologian is on my desk currently! My 9th grader is very into mysteries and historical fictions, but she doesn't like murder mystery. Any suggestions? I have StoryGirl on her list for this year and she's reading her first Austen novel for her historical fiction, she also is reading lots of biographies- our family book weakness. ;)

Thank you both for the great recommendations!

I'm revisiting these old ones to make a list for my son!

I loved this! Thank you for sharing. We just printed Level 3 of theirs for Dani (9). That's basically South Africa's Gr 4 (if not 5 and 6, considering the shoddy school standards here these days). It is SO much colour! But with shipping fees here, getting the printed versions really isn't worth it. So we just print and bind. I still need to make a reading list for him so I'm going to search through some of your old videos for age 9 and 10 books, you have some great recs!

The no fear book looks really cool!

Wormwood abbey is fantastic!

I wish my reading list in 9th grade had looked this fun! The Giver is another one I know is popular to assign around that age, if she hasn't already read it.

Like how you give her options vs just assigning. I have been doing a little more of that each year.

I, too, had to read Romeo & Juliette in 9th grade.

Great book list!

I read that Jen Wilkin book this year....soooo good!

I read Romeo and Juliet in grade 11. I didn’t read Shakespeare until grade 10 English - merchant of Venice

Love it! I was an avid reader at that age, and my mom was trying to widen my reading horizons. I think she’s going to love Christie - I loved Poirot first. She introduced me to classics like Jane Eyre and Dorian Grey. And I loved Janette Oke.

I got my teen boys Graphic Shakespeare this year but I'll check out No Fear that looks awesome. Salt to the Sea looks awesome!

Fun story about Agatha Christy, her husband was cheating on her, so she went to the silent pool (a beauty spot) and staged her own murder! Exposing him as the possible murderer. She was found in Scotland having a holiday.

i love agggtm, they both die at the end, one of us is lying and the folk of air series. Same age btw

My 6th grader is currently reading the Vanderbeekers series (she is on book 2), a "Dear America" book, Nancy Drew (I don't remember which one), Marie Antoinette (the Royal Diaries), a non-fiction on Marie Antoinette, and "Freedom Crossing". These are her Free Reads

I haven’t read a lot of these, but I loved The Faithful Spy, Mona Lisa Vanishes, and Book Scavenger!

Can I recommend the fantasy book I wrote? It's called A Nightmare at Witching Hour

My similar aged son read Tristan Strong Punches A Hole In The Sky last year and really liked it.

Would love a list for Grade 1 and 2, your recommendations are great thanks so much 😊

We loved Song for a Whale!

Mona Lisa Vanishes is based on a true story and is a wonderful book! Get your son to read the physical book if you can since it has a lot of fun illustrations. I hope you and your kids have an incredible school year!

Chasing Vermeer is a fun art mystery book. My 6th grader is currently loving Spy School series.

My boys listened to The Girl Who Kept the Castle this week and loved it. They're disappointed there are no more books.

I was really curious to how work will get in the way

Yes i am 16 and still in school but why do i suddenly want to plan home schooling my future kids 😻 the educational system is so complex and tricky and it can be really dangerous to trust other adults to educate your kids and not to mention all the kids who can badly influence your child, i feel like this would be the best option if only i didn't want to be a vet and i know vets are busy at work all day

For your daughter that will be doing the human body, something I found that added some extra practice but didn't involve reading is a human body coloring book. It really helped me remember different systems of the body.

I just came across your video as I’m looking for recommendations for my daughter in the YA genre. You should read a book called Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey. If you like Hard Hitting, this will satiate.

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We used this curriculum for most of our first years of homeschooling and my oldest did the the 3 yrs of high school. She did well with them. My youngest hated this curriculum so we won’t be using it for her. I feel like their books are hit or miss. The company has changed a lot over the last couple of years and I’m not as much of a fan as I was at first. As far as the lds stuff. Having been ex Mormon (and was both current and ex while using the curriculum) at the beginning there were lds things in it, but as it has grown I haven’t seen anything specific to lds theology, However having been Mormon I do see the lds influence over everything they make. So if someone was really worried I wouldn’t recommend. But as far as actual theology I think anyone can use it. I think the high school language arts are really strong but we did find the writing and spelling didn’t work well for my daughter so we did other things for that, but she came out of it with really strong grammar and geography skills

I think you will love and appreciate the poetry and art study inTGTB

We love TGTB. We use it from grade 3 through highschool!

As a teen I homeschooled with a curriculum that had a bunch of smaller books instead of one big book. I found it very encouraging! You feel so much pride every time you finish a book and get to move onto the next. Also, the big giant book can definitely feel a little daunting

I loved A Place to Hang the Moon!

I've never used TGatB before, though I have bought their craft book and may buy their nature journal when the kids get a bit older and can fill them out. I'm wondering if high school Language Arts only has 3 years worth of curriculum because some schools (if not most) in the US only require 3 years of English to graduate? That's just a guess though. Looking forward to hearing more about your homeschool plans!

My daughter is doing tgtb 4 math this year and enjoying it so far. I’m enjoying that she can do the video and be more independent. We use their language arts as well. My son did 5 last year and it’s been his favorite year so far because of the actual books vs a reader. This year he is doing the book studies since they haven’t come out with the new 6 or 7 yet and I don’t love the old. Overall I enjoy that tgtb is solid without being overwhelming with all the things. And you can always shorten and cut where need be. Will be curious to see your thoughts on high school. Hope y’all have a great year!

We really enjoyed Just David as a family read aloud

Hello, so I know that this isn’t related to the video but I’m a young writer and I’m wondering where did your daughter write her book? I’m getting serious about writing it and I’m trying to find somewhere to write it!

each unit is supposed to take about a month to complete for the high school units

I've used TGATB for a couple years now and honestly have not personally found anything alarming. We did level 5 last year and loved the art part. We also really like the math. For my girls that need that different approach all the time.

Each LA HS unit usually takes about 14 days to complete, from what I remember when my now graduated boys used them. My youngest actually spent more time on each booklet because he used another curriculum along with it to help out with his writing and such So he did all three years in the four years of high school. Wherever he left off one school year, he'd pick up the next year.

Good and the Beautiful LA works really well for me as a teacher because the lessons are changed up each day. Keeps me from getting bored with it as the teacher and then skipping stuff because I just want a change haha. Oh and my kids love it too. Last year was our trial run to see if we could make it through a whole year without ditching it, and we did!! Hope you enjoy it!