Also not on your list, Jamestown Best Short Stories and Nonfiction - Middle Level. Here's a link: https://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/Materials/mItem.aspx?id=2948 Hewitt has a syllabus for the Jamestown Best books for 7th and 8th grade.

We have used several - American (both), British (both), Medieval, and British Christian. And will be using Shakespeare in the fall. Think I would recommend the American Lit sequence for 9th grade. Do you have more specific questions? Feel free to pm. Susie

Latin Alive is what my youngest used too. It worked nicely for his Latin 1&2 during sophomore and junior years. I have German and French language background but no Latin. I learned quite a bit too! haha

My youngest DS is a rising senior. Should be interesting!

Our 2010 graduate has had a wonderful 2 years and still quite pleased with his college selection. Ds has plugged into a wonderful community of friends and faculty. He is a math/cs/humanities major in the honor's college and sticking with it. haha Ds has done undergrad research both years and presented his research to state's MAA section this spring. Tutoring with the academic success center has been his side job both years. Next week, he is heading to Massachusetts for a summer research project at another college - nice stipend, travel, housing included. Then back to his school in the fall, after a quick week at home, for his junior year. We cannot believe that 2 years have flown by either! DS has been a very hard working student making the most of all his opportunities but the school selection, in the end, has brought out the best in him. Now to find the "right" school for ds #2 who is a rising senior!

Exciting! Guess sometimes it just takes some exposure to the (endless) possibilities to find out where one fits.

What a wonderful invention! Think that might be a great gift for ds. Thanks for posting about it. Susie

Check with the college is the best advice. Even for academic scholarships, the college may require students to file the fafsa yearly.

Bumping topic to hear how everyone's search is going. :bigear:

Does the school have an "in-house" math tutor that he could go to during study period? I have this job at a local high school near my home and see lots of teens in the same situation.

I think the ADD/ADHD information helps explain this situation much more. Meds just don't fix all the problems though they can be a big help with the focus. Sounds like he has some bad "coping" mechanisms that he is using - probably left over from "school" days. In the end, those bad methods are not really helping him now and he needs new methods. But he probably doesn't know how to change his thinking. If you couldn't see past the next 3 seconds in your life ... you might be "stuck" too. ADDers live in the now. Seems to me that is where he is - pleasure/now over work/future. So hearing someone "talk" about his future when he doesn't see a future is not motivating. Think he needs to catch the fire by seeing, tasting, feeling, and doing as much as possible. Also it should be noted that ADDers are less mature in comparison to their peers. Learning more about ADHD may be a good key to unlocking this guy. Just my opinion - Susie

I am not sure that my youngest has a clear vision of where his animal passion fits so we are really trying to give him exposure to that this year - his junior year. It is wonderful to hear of others on this thread with such specific goals. His only request to date is a southern school because he cannot weather cold winters - tall, skinny so picture no body fat. (His older brother is in college on Lake Michigan. haha) Ds has loved his work at the zoo as an interpreter and his official animal care there has been minimal so far. That is why he is pursuing an animal care internship. But he can tell you so much about any animal - zoo or not. So that is why we are exploring the "Naturalist" avenue too - he seems to want to "share" his love for animals and nature with others. Exploring all options at this point and love hearing about what others are doing in this area - Susie

I haven't been on the board in a while but I just have to get into this thread. My 11th grader is also very interested in either zoo science or naturalist type of major. He has worked as a zooteen at our local for 2 summers and is currently applying for a 'school year' internship. So Paz - Is your daughter still in high school and visiting or going to this program as a college student. I looked over the program and was very impressed. Like that the program also has partnerships with other colleges for BS degree if student cares to go on to that. Please update info as you know more. Another program we are looking into is Tusculum College in TN, Smokey Mtn area. They have a "Naturalist" major. Also they are interestingly on the block schedule - one class a month basically. We have not visited yet but I will update as I find out more. Would love to keep this thread going...:bigear: Thanks, Susie

Hi all - I am in Franklin - south end of town. Since I only have one left at home, I am doing more and more tutoring this year - math is my main subject. Elementary (with lots of hands-on) thru high school specializing in Algebra. Coached MathCounts for several years in addition to teaching at the college level. Positive and patient. Feel free to contact me.:) Susie

We are using Latin Alive and are quite pleased with it. I am learning along with my youngest ... I like the mix of dvd, exercises, and readings.

I promise to only bump once and this is it. Taking him back to college tomorrow.

(the plug) ... my "WTM" oldest ds who is now entering his sophomore year in college has written a clock droid app this summer and it is available today. It has a $1 cost. So if you need a clock app, please consider it. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.watchmaker.kinetic (mama's brag ;)) He worked all summer at a local engineering firm and worked on this app in his spare time. He is a math/computer science double major and also in the honor college because he loves humanities. But mostly, he is just an enterprising guy trying to pay the balance after his scholarship moneys are applied. I hope I haven't offended anyone nor broken any rules posting this info. Susie

I would like to know more too! My youngest just turned 17 and I could see some benefits to this type of program for him. Susie

Yes, Chalkdust does have calculator instruction along with a grouping of calculator specific problems in most sections starting in Alg 1 and up. But this site is my favorite reference. http://mathbits.com/MathBits/TISection/Openpage.htm

I think that this section on Chalkdust's website is helpful for your questions about scheduling it and such. You will need to scroll down to the "Homeschooling with DVDs" heading. Note working 25-30 problems per section is recommended. http://www.chalkdust.com/howto.html

Throwing in my KUDOS too! Definitely a proud mama moment!:001_tt1: Susie

Success, no matter how small, breeds success! Perhaps looking at the GED as a goal is just a beginning.;)

I don't see many people here using this one but we have used it from 6 - 12 grade with both ds. It is put out by the Great Source people. Vocabulary for Achievement Both of my guys liked "warming up" each morning by doing it first thing.

This class morphed so much over the year - started off as a lab situation to go with Apologia Chemistry for a bunch of "liberal arts" teens. Then as we got going, I started adding math helps (my background) and study skills because I saw a great struggle in this area. Somewhere along the line I started supplementing occasionally with the GPB Chemistry video series in areas where I thought the text got cloudy for these teens or they didn't have the basics needed to understand the text. I provided as much hands-on as possible with lots of experiments – all kinds - Apologia labs, MicroChem labs, and think I even have some other experiments from another source too. We did several class sessions with the wonderful molecule model sets and took photos. We did a lot of white boarding equations were I got everyone up and working. Had group study sessions promoting “study buddies,†and took time to come up with "cheat" sheet for each module (great study skill). The best thing was the group of teens – very accepting of each other, no big egos, and lots of good memories made. The growth in these teens is very visable too - along with a good understanding of chemistry (the goal! haha). It this point, I need to go back to my syllabus and update the changes and diversions I made. Oddly enough, this class was for my youngest … Hope that helps, Susie

HITS: Latin Alive! - We are learning Latin together... pretty fun. Vocabulary for Achievement - Wants to warm up his brain with this every morning. Used it for many years now and ds has a great vocabulary. Running out of books though. Chemistry Enrichment Class - I am teaching this class for ds and a couple of friends. Biggest compliment yesterday - "I don't want Chemistry to end!" Never heard that about chemistry before!! But chemistry has to end for PHYSICS (my love) to begin. haha Will do a similar class for physics next year. Chalk Dust Alg 2 - has worked for mathie and non-mathie alike. Lows: Online Literature Course - Wonderful teacher and class material but ds couldn't keep the pace. He found "realism" depressing. Also found out that the online format, isn't for this ds - small group in person situations are better. Thought an outside class would inspire him since he really does get literary analysis and can verbally express it. But in the end, knock down his confidence - bad thing. He struggles with consistent written output. When he is able to write, it is really good in form and substance (scores in upper 90%). But for some reason, he isn't always able to pull it all together in order to write by a given deadline. This problem seems to be related to his ADHD - it is not laziness or lack of want.