CathInfo.com

Good luck with it, Simple Man.

Thanks.  We will be doing American History next year (Grade 10), and we have been using the TAN The Story of Civilization books (Philip Campbell) as our "spine".  I usually skip over the "imaginary" narrative stories in TSOC, which I find rather puerile and after the fashion of how the books of James Michener blur together fact and fiction --- I want my son to know what actually happened, not some cute, contrived story of something that could have happened --- and supply my own lecture interspersed with the text.  We dug far deeper into Luther's errors and problems than the TSOC text did.  We will finish TSOC #3 (Renaissance to present day) with much time left over, after which we will get a head-start on American history, and we will need additional materials.  The book cited here might fill the bill.

We have always done a self-chosen curriculum, rather than relying upon something packaged by this Catholic homeschool or that one.  Right now we are using Sadlier math (Saxon only works for a certain type of student) and Holt science.  Religion so far this year has consisted of a quick review of the Baltimore Catechism (the TAN edition without commentary), and I am hoping we can start in on Morrow's My Catholic Faith after we are done with that.  The BC review won't take a whole school year.  Self-chosen curriculum can be very inexpensive --- literature books can be had at Goodwill for a couple of dollars.

Sounds good! We always followed the "bits and pieces" approach as I don't believe any program satisfies a particular family's needs. And it can be economical, accepting hand-me-downs from other families, as wll as op-shop bargains.

About maths, are you aware of Singapore Maths? You don't really need trad maths. One of my family is doing and recommending it.

 
I've heard of Singapore Maths.  We used Saxon in Grade 6, but by the time we got to Grade 7, my son begged me to stop using Saxon, so we got simple math workbooks for basic skills for Grades 7 and 8.  Sadlier seems to be working out okay so far, though their explanations are very vague and convoluted --- I have to read the lesson, then adapt it into something easily comprehensible.  Our state forces us to do math every year.  I actually have an information request out to HSLDA's legal department, sent it this morning, as to whether we can do simpler, more practical classes in the three remaining years.  Accounting would be one possibility.