We had so much fun last year with Big History Project, we didn't get that far in. We dove deep into the science end starting with physics and the Big Bang, then moving onto chemistry with stars forming, and finally physical science with our Earth and solar system. We will be continuing on with Big History Project starting with Threshold 5: Life. This year will be focused more on world history with biology and engineering being our main science topics. 

My kids have been doing core subjects (read aloud, writing, grammar, spelling, penmanship, and math) for most of summer, so we'll continue on with that. I've been training them on time management by giving them a list of what needs to be finished by the end of the week and letting them figure out how they want to work on it. One has been completing one subject at a time trying to get it all done in as few days as possible, while the other has been doing one day's worth of each subject every day. Ugh, they are opposite in every way. 





Science 
Biology, Evolution, Anthropology, Archeology, Environmental Science, Engineering as BHP introduces them

• Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook: The Complete Middle School Study Guide - My kids really like this book. I like it because it covers all of the key science principles they will need to know to move onto high school science.
• Labs from various resources
• MEL Chemistry: I've been saving these up for fun demos. 
• DNA Extraction Kit
• Eldoncard Blood Type Test - Reviews are either 5 star or 1 star I guess we'll see for ourselves, but it's one of the only individual kits I could find. 
• Bacteria Growing Kit 
• Chemistry of Food Experiment Kit
• Sugar Metabolism Kit - bought materials separately because I already had some of the supplies.
• Electrolyte Challenge Sensor Kit - I already have the digital multimeter so I'm just using their lesson plan on Science Buddies.
• Voltaic Cell Battery Kit
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Science Kit - Pricey, but includes a full unit study.
• Plant and Animal Cell Model - already had
• Snap Circuits Extreme Educational 750 Kit w/ Case - already had
• Omnivore's Dilemma Young Readers Edition 
• The Way We Work
• Archimedes and the Door of Science
• Michael Faraday: Father of Electronics

History

• Big History Project
• Everything You Need to Ace World History in One Big Fat Notebook: The Complete Middle School Study Guide
• Crash Course World History with PDF's to go along with BHP. 
• The History of Now: A New Kind of History by Scott Powell

Geography

• The World Game
• Ticket to Ride Board Game - US and Europe versions
• Brainbox - All Around the World
• When on Earth?: History as You've Never Seen It Before! (Where on Earth?)

Writing 

• Easy Writing Level 2  
• Writing Revolution style writing using BHP lessons
• I really want to integrate this into Big History. I have been working on making my own writing companions for all of the units. Unfortunately, it's taking more time than I thought. Easy Writing is a good fill-in while I work on my companion books. It will set them up for solid sentence work and familiarize them with combining sentences, appositives, along other methods WR uses. The main idea for WR is to apply writing to subjects that are currently being covered. Easy Writing gets the structure, but the sentences are out of context making writing an entirely separate subject than Big History. 

Grammar  

• Easy Grammar Plus
• Aligns well with Easy Writing. Easy Grammar Plus is the perfect book to cover all of the grammar bases for around 7th grade and up through high school. 

Spelling 

• Megawords 2 and part of 3

Penmanship 

• The Art of Cursive Handwriting

Vocabulary 

• Rummy Roots Card Game
• Vocabu-Lit - Common Core edition 
• Trying something new here. This is my attempt at covering all of my bases for my 8th grade mildly dyslexic. I like that it's a workbook we can discuss together. I like that it pulls words from all types of sources, fiction, nonfiction, speeches, and primary sources. They see the word in multiple settings - in context, analogies, synonyms/antonyms, shades of meaning, multiple meanings and other ways. It also includes word study of roots, affixes, idioms and sayings, academic language, and figurative language. You can see samples here. 

Math 

• Key to Percents
• Key to Algebra
• Lials Basic College Math (12yo) with Student Solution Manual
• Lials Pre-Algebra (13yo) with Student Solution Manual 

Media Literacy 
A History of Ambition in 50 Hoaxes, Famous Phonies: Legends, Fakes and Frauds Who Changed History, Crash Course Media Literacy, 

Logic - The Fallacy Detective

Read Aloud

• The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott Finish books 5&6