I thought I'd pop into answer the question about handouts - I talk about everything that I want for the students to know in the videos (2-5/week, 10-25 minutes each). My recommended approach is to take notes from the lecture and then re-write your notes, using the book, the discussion thread that I set up so that students can post messages to me or each other, or emailed questions to fill in any gaps. From experience with my in-person co-op students, I know that some carefully read the book, others skim, and others just look up sections that they don't understand or figures that I can't draw in detail during lecture. For most students, the homework questions help them to figure out what they understand and what needs more work. I also post links to other videos (animations, etc) for students who want it. You can message me if you have any questions - I don't want to veer into 'promoting my class' territory!

One of our splurges last year was Pin-It maps - it was pricy, but can be used for years for geography practice,

If that's meant to be a single-year budget, you have a lot of wiggle room. I'm not going to offer specific curriculum suggestions - we enjoy Singapore and have been eclectic with language arts, science, and history. Since you probably won't spend that much on this year's work, I thought I'd suggest a few 'stock your shelves' books. You might enjoy ED Hirsch's core knowlege books to get some ideas for history or science topics. Several years ago, somebody recommended that, when I buy a curriculum (like Singapore math) that I go ahead and get an additional workbook for my next kid. That way if they change the book, I don't have to re-buy the text. If you decide to re-sell, you haven't invested much more and can usually get the workbook cost back. Find some reference books - animal encyclopedia, illustrated history, Steven Biesty's 'see inside' books, or 'The way we/things work' etc. Depending on your preferences, DK, Usborne, etc, have good 'stock your shelves' books that you'll come back to for years. SOTW was the same way for us - we didn't ever do it straight through, but we've referred to it for years. The hardest thing for me is that I want to buy too many books - we have lots, and I have to figure out what we need to have on our shelves and what we can check out from the library.

My student found SM6 to be a lot of review, or at least not a lot of hard new material, so it might be a good fit for a kid who needs more math confidence. We moved to AoQS pre-algebra after that, but if I had it to do over I'm not sure that I'd make the same decision. I might supplement with some of the interesting problems, but I might choose a curriculum that is less time-intensive. I found that my student is willing to do math, but not interested in putting in a lot of time. This year we got through about 1/2 of AoPS algebra, but the amount of time it took was making my kid not like math. I decided to spread out the challenge problems and also do work from the Jousting Armadillos series (right now, Chuckles the Rocket Dog) a couple of days a week to reinforce concepts and also give us a shorter lesson on busy days. The new series has been a hit - my kid works on math with no complaints and likes the puzzles scattered through the book. It will make algebra take 3 semesters, but my student is young, so I'm not worried about fitting it all in.

We move through Singapore with no problem finishing each course in a year, with not a ton of time spent on math to get it done. My child was young when they started AoPS and weren't used to that much challenge, so once I saw how frustrated he got, I slowed down with it. It took a little less than 3 semesters to get through pre-algebra. I had thought we'd do the Algebra in a year, but I recently realized that we're pushing ahead too quickly - there are some things that aren't as solid as they need to be - so we're stopping to work from another book for a few weeks to get those concepts settled. The thing about AoPS is that the problems are often very challenging conceptually, so they may (or may not) take a lot of time depending on how quickly you see what you're supposed to do to solve the problem, but there isn't necessarily a lot of repetition/practice of a new idea before you start using it with harder problems. This can make it hard to see where your student is confused. So, we'll probably take close to 3 semesters for algebra, too, but some of the time will be spent on other practice. My kid sees a lot of concepts easily and doesn't alwasy find the challenge problems to be challenging, but can sometimes assume that they understand something better than they do and then start making mistakes once the problems get complicated and you HAVE to understand all of the different approaches to 'see' the correct solution. ETA: we do all challenge problems - this is a huge part of why it takes so long. But, my student needs the challenge, or at least the puzzle, to make him think about what to do with the math once he knows it. He's young, so I'd rather move slowly and do it all. That will vary depending on other needs and the age/interest of your student.

When I saw 5A, I at first assumed Singapore math so I solved it with bar models. First, I made same-sized boxes for Reena ® and Pauiline (P). Then I gave R 56 more, because if she gives P 28 they will have the same number - she'd be giving P half of what she has that is more than what P has. Then it says that if P gives R 35, she will have 1/3 of what R has. So, take 35 from P's 'box' and give it to R. When. you take 35 from P anhd give it to R, there's a new difference of 70 more between P's small box and R's total amount. So, 126 is the difference, and equals 2/3 of what P now has. So, the remaining 1/3 is 63 - that's what P has if she gives away 35. So, she started with 63+35, or 98. R has 98 + 56.

At that age, math is/was every day. We also do 'reading and', which depends on what the child can do. If we were still working on phonics, we'd do 'reading and spelling', where we read the words and then spelled them back orally. Maybe they'd read out loud to me for a bit. Once reading was fluent, we moved on to doing reading comprehension some days, with grammar and/or writing, possibly with this tied in with vocabulary. I didn't see any point in doing true grammar or writing until reading was fluent, and once reading was good, then everything became less mom-intensive and they could do a spelling, vocabulary, or grammar workbook on their own if I felt that they needed it. We also didn't do writing until handwriting was solid (5 minutes/day of HWOT). We don't do both history and science every day - I do blocks that are 3-6 weeks, depending on subject. We start every year with a few weeks of geography, them move on to world history, then a science unit, then art history. The new semester has science, American history, and music history. The methods and length of the unit vary based on the topic, age of the student, preference, and abilities. This is often fun - I may read aloud, or they read independently, or watch a video, or do a workbook, or build or draw something, or we make a chart together.

This is intersting because at my house we frequently have converstations about it being difficult to understand how other people are thinking. My husband and I both have STEM PhDs, but he is far more driven than I am. There have been times when I've earend awards, but I've rarely pursued them in a 'driven' way - they've been the result of me spending a lot of time on something that I enjoy, often with the goal in mind, but not in a 'driven' sort of way, if that makes sense. There are times when I don't really have anything that I'm working passionaltely on, and other times when I'm focused on something. When I was post-doc-ing, I decided to switch to teaching. Part of it was that I had realized that I had more passion for teaching than research, and part of it was that I couldn't summon what I had come to think of as the 'fake stress' that everybody in the university/industry/lab world seemed to have. The stress is real, but it's not about the kind of things that give me a sense of urgency - no life or death problems. People were alwasy running around in a panic over deadlines, wondering why I was calm, and I'd say that I put my talk together last week. There seemed to be a feeling that if you weren't stressed, you weren't busy enough. I hated it. I probably read as much primary literature now (to prepare for my Bio II class) as I did then, but I teach in an environment where chronic stress is something to be concerned about, not something to celebrate. :-) I wonder if, based on your descriptions, if your son will wind up with something that interests him but is avoiding the 'frantic-ness' or stress that he may associate with high-achievening academics. If that's the case, letting him do just enough to be successful academically while encouraging outside interests, volunteer work, etc, may lead to something that he cares enough about to pursue.

My kids aren't that old yet, but I've been teaching biology (with a lot of 9th graders) for 5 years. I've seen everything from parents who say 'You're in high school - you're responsible for talking to the teacher if you need help' to a parent who got upset when I added some material that wasn't in the book (it was written out on the board for them to copy, and I added explanations) because the parent learned along with their student to answer all of their questions (I sent a link to some websites - these days I have videos from my online section available for my in-person students). Some parents have to modify their approach - either they let the students handle it themselves and then see that they need to provide more structure after they see the grades on the first few quizzes, while other parents drift away once they see that their students can manage their time and be responsible for the assignments themselves. Many parents check in every week or 2 to make sure that assignments are getting done and quizzes are being passed. I think that it varies a lot by student - some of the parents who needed to be most involved had students who were 16 or 17, and right now I have a 14-year old who is doing a fantastic job and I haven't heard from the parents at all, but I do get occasional messages from the student to clarify an assignment or concept.

I second the Kay Arthur suggestion for Bible. My 5th grader has been doing them this year and likes them. They take around 6 weeks if you do them 5 days/week (we do Bible as a school subject 3 days, so they last longer for us), and there is't a ton of writing.

My kids have done Singapore math fairly independently - they look at the textbook and then do the workbook. i'm happy to teach it when they need it, but often they don't. Even when I do need to teach it, they stick with the same topic for a few days so that they can work independently once they 'get it'. They also have a placement test - my kid started a few years ahead.

They're finding links between vitamin D and lots of different things - immunity, energy/mood, cancer (which is in many ways a failure of the immune system)...and apparently one explanation for there being so much vitamin D deficiency is th at people stay out of the sun so much now. Depending on what else runs in your family or is in your personal history, it might be worth getting some low level sun exposure.

You've had advice that goes in both directions - get more involved, and take a break. At different times, I've done each. Sometimes I've gone 'bare bones' for a few days - just check math and grammar, and then we watch videos or read. Other times, I've found that if I try to 'revel in it', in whatever way that happens (maybe a field trip, or 'cooking a new cuisine to match a geography lesson' project) I get more enthused. Sometimes I take a break, and then do a project. :-) But, to keep from getting this way, we really try to get up and get it done early in the day. Other times may be better for you, but I try to mentally set aside a part of the day as 'my job' of teaching. For us, I grade as they go, so even if they are using something where they can work independently, I'm grading the subject that they just finished and we can go over corrections while it's still fresh in their mind. I'm available to explain confusing things, call out spelling words, and otherwise help and teach, and in between I do other prep or, if I'm caught up, read a book for fun (which gives me incentive to get the work done!). And, we all finish at the same time. Hang in there - sometimes life makes you weary and the joy goes out of schooling for a while. Good luck!

I don't have any suggestions for tying it in to geography other than finding places using an atlas, but we've enjoyed the 'One Small Square' series for ecology - there's a lot of information in a way that's easy to wrap your head around.

When I started teaching, I started passing along some 'what worked for me when I learned this' tips. Over the last 10 years, I've read research on how to study, and both it and my own experience recommend something other than skimming or scanning - it may be that it doesn't work for your kids. I've found that skimming is usually too passive, and either I read every word or I just see the parts that I already know. What really helps me and most of my students is the work of making the study guide, in whatever form that takes - usually something with as few words as possible, like a flow chart, list, timeline, etc. The act of making it is where most of the work happens, but when we refer back to it, reading every word is OK because each word should trigger a memory of what we read and shortened to get the phrase that we wrote down. Once that is done, have them test themselves. Some people like flash cards, others make up tests for each other or write practice questions (harder than it sounds, since they have to know both what to ask and the answer). My favorite study method, which got me through the last 2 years of college and all of grad school, was to get an empty white/blackboard and start writing what I knew. Once I was done, I'd compare it to the study guide that I had made and see what I missed. Your kids are probably too young for this, but it would work in high school. I didn't mean for this to turn into a 'how to study' post, but if your kids are like me it may not be a technique that works for them, so I wanted to suggest an alternative. I try to read for comprehension the first time and after that stick with the notes that I've made for myself, which are very abbreviated. I'm capable of skimming to find information, but don't find that it helps me to review when I'm studying.

Could you do a daily planner (like what kids use in school) for each kid and just write what they did that day? It's how I keep up with our schooling - it's quick because it's already got blocks for each subject, so I just jot down the name of the book that we read for science or the pages that we did in math, or if we played a game of sequence numbers or went on a field trip. There's also an 'after school' block, and I write down play dates, ball practice, music lessons, etc. You could use that to make a list of outings and interactions if that's something that you need to keep a note of. I can imagine that it's a pain to keep track of 'life', but maybe having boxes to fill in would help keep it organized. As for pictures, I think working with phone pics is a pain, too. :-) Could you use a cheap camera and print out some pics (or even get a polaroid-type instant camera - didn't they make a comeback recently?) or upload digital pics to something like shutterfly? If you uploaded them each week, you could put them in folders labeled with the week date as the name, so that somebody could see what you did in a week. Also, I stick all of the work that each kid does in a bankers box as they finish it - if you stick dates on papers or put them in folders by month, you'd have a physical record of what had been done for somembody to look through. You could stick in pictures of anything that didn't go in a box - a field trip or big craft project. Good luck - I'm sure that the addition of 'more work' isn't helping your stress levels.

I second the idea of getting used college texts. Having taught from a book that was updated every 2 years, there was very little difference between editions - you could go back 5 editions and still be fine for what a high schooler needs to know. I've found used old editions very cheaply on amazon. In the sciences, books for the general education requirements (science taken by non-science majors) are at the level of a high school class. I would also see if it was possible to get books that we being de-accessioned by the school system, private school, or library. Years ago when I was in elementary school, teachers would sometimes give away really old textbooks (we used them to play school). A few years ago, somebody showed up at our co-op with stacks of elementary school reading books that a local school had been going to throw in the trash. A retired/retiring teacher might also have stuff to give away. One thing that really frustrates me about these discussions is that I don't see any good way to link up students who want to learn with people who want to help. At one time, I was interested in volunteering, and my husband worked at an organization with a lot of STEM folks with advanced degrees. I contacted their volunteer coordinator, and she said that she'd add my name to their list, but they had a hundred names of people willing to help tutor and they couldn't get anybody from the schools to take the help. Some of these folks would have been happy to have a long-term relationship with a homeschooled student, answering questions by email or meeting a couple of times a month to help, but there's no good way for them to get in touch with each other. So, I might also suggest contacting any local company or organization that has people with the knowledge that you need. I know that this isn't available in some communities, but other high-poverty areas are in cities with a college, industry that requires engineers, etc...and also retired schoolteachers and other folks like nurses who have a good knowledge base in fields that they had to learn. In some places, high schoolers need volunteer hours to graduate, so a good high school student might be able to help with a younger student.

We've always done Growing with Grammar because it's quick, my kids were willing to do it without complaining, and it addressed the details of where to put quotation marks and commas. To help my reluctant 'writes like an engineer' kid, we added MCT's series late this fall. We flew through the first one, which was below grade level (my younger child will use it in a year or 2) and will be starting Town level in January. I think that the vocab that comes with it will replace wordly wise, and I'm planning to skip sections of our usual grammar to avoid duplication.

The way that we do AoPS is that I let my child work until they get stuck. Sometimes it's on an intro problem, and sometimes it's not until they get to the challenge problems. Sometimes I'm just checking answers, and other times I'm pulling example problems from other books because we need more practice. We find that usually we can do a unit a day (although not always!) but reviews take a while. This year I finally figured out that we do better if we do the end-of-chapter challenge problems gradually. As soon as we start the review problems, we do 1-2 challenges that day. We continue to do a couple each day once we start the next chapter. I realized that my student could easily do some, could work through others, and would have a few that would exasperate them because they are tedious. When we tried to do several as a lesson, it was awful, but with a few each day, it's managable and sometiems fun.

If you want something of similar consistency to put in a bag, you might try shaving cream or, if they have some equivalent where you are, cool whip or redi-whip (whipped cream substitutes - one comes in a tub from the freezer section, the other comes in an spray can).

We actually do a little bit of spelling starting in K, although it's very informal. As we work through phonics, I had my child spell the words that we'd worked on. It helped emphasize the repetition - CAT, BAT, RAT, etc. We'd often do it verbally while jumping, or use magnetic letters or letter flash cards, so there was no writing. The magnets really helpded emphasize the endings, since all that would need to change was the first letter. Once they can read, we sometimes use spelling books and other times take words from vocabulary lists. Every few years once they get to 4th grade, we make a pass through the 'Spelling Works' book, which teaches a lot of useful spelling rules.

Kids with apraxia will say the same 'nonsense' word for a particular item because they can't wrap their mouths around the correct pronunciation. Leaving off beginning and ending sounds also goes with apraxia. It could be something else, obviously, but, speaking from experience, if you get an apraxia diagnosis you want to get started ASAP. Good luck!

We did pre-algebra and are halfway through algebra, and there is very little involving units so far...and other than a bit of metric with exponents, nothing where it mattered what units were used (you find area the same way whether it's inches or cm).

One thing that I did when mine were younger was to do 'continent books' and 'ecosystem books', but you could modify this for countries, musical instruments, historical periods or characters, or anything else that is interesting for your daughter. I would hole-punch cardstock, but you could use a notenbook. Write, or have her write, the 'title' at the top of the page (Rain Forests, South America, Finland, etc) and then have her read about the topic in kid books or magazines and draw, write words, or cut out pictures from magazines that fit the topic. It's fun, educational, and easier for younger kids who aren't up to writing reports.

She could definitely try to get in touch with faculty over the break - some are out of the office, but others are around and a little more relaxed once they get a break from teaching. I would suggest waiting until grades are due. She might try to make an appointment over email - some profs will respond, and others will ignore it but respond to a knock on the door. During grad school and my postdoc I supervised a bunch of undergrads, and while most were upperclassmen, there were a few who were freshmen and I seem to remember a high-schooler or 2. There may be a minium age due to some of the rules around chemical safety, but 16 is probably not a problem. I hope that she's able to find something - hands on experience is really helpful for research fields. So many of the things that you learn about make more sense once you actually do them! And, for a lot of students, the time in the lab is useful for either confirming that they love the subject and the work or for helping them decide to go another direction (or find another application of the subject, like nursing or pharmacy) before they've invested too many years of schooling going in the wrong direction. Good luck!