Excellent, excellent, and excellent! How's that for a review? :D Seriously, though, I love Marrin's books, and have quite a collection of them. He writes in such a way that sometimes difficult subjects are easier to understand, without writing down to anyone. I used several of his books this year for American history, and will be using at least three next year for 20th C history.

Okie-doke. I'll just wait, then. Thanks!

"There's a new online study starting tomorrow, April 6th, for Wheelock's Latin." Beth, for the new Wheelock's group, do we need to do anything besides sign up at the latinstudy list? I mean, how do you receive the specific assignments for the Equites group? Am I missing something?

Dear Gwen, We're praying for your daughter and your family!

Susan, I think this may be confusing you because it looks like libertas is accusative plural, 1st declension. It's a feminine noun of the 3rd declension, in the nominative case (libertas, libertatis), and so deleta agrees with it in case and gender. Their endings don't need to look the same in order for the one to modify the other. :) (brought to you by my 5th-year Latin son)

I don't know about most people, but my son took AP Vergil last year and is taking AP Latin Litearture this year. Maybe because Vergil is usually done in the 4th year of high school most people stop with that--but if you begin earlier, then it stinks!

My oldest son took it twice and raised his score 40 points the second time. Youngest son took it in March, and was hoping to take it only once, too. He was aiming for a particular score or above, and he exceeded it by 70 points! So, only once for him. The score that's "high enough" depends on what you're looking for. My son wanted to score at least high enough for Hillsdale College's top merit scholarship, so that was the benchmark for him.

Paul Johnson's Modern Times is fabulous, but I wouldn't call it an "easy read." Johnson quite thoroughly chronicles the people and ideas from the 20s through the 90s, but he doesn't shy away from the brutal and sometimes complicated political side of things. I highly recommend it for older high schoolers and up, though. I'm using it next year for 20th C history.

You are definitely not the only one! My youngest will be a senior next year. When his older brother reached that milestone, I kept remembering those old commercials that featured a Harry Belafonte song called "Turn Around." I think it may have been for Kodak? Anyway, just thinking about it now makes me cry, and oldest graduated 5 years ago.

I don't know if there is anything anyone can say to reassure you completely. Everything anyone says is purely anecdotal evidence. But, I have heard all the negatives over the years about Saxon, and we stuck with it and are pleased we did. Neither of my children are math/science guys, but they both did very well with Saxon, loved its incremental approach, and both did very well on the SAT math. I have a good friend whose husband is an engineer at Intel, and he chose Saxon over Foerster for his children. My son had a good friend in college who was a physics major--he used Saxon through Advanced Math, scored a 780 on his SAT (without additional study) and tutored people in math at college. As I recall, Janet in WA's boys used Saxon and went on to scienc-y majors at college and have done well (perhaps she will chime in, too). I even printed out a message from someone over at Vegsource from 2002 who wrote about hearing the (then rather newish) criticism of Saxon. Her children had been using Saxon since Math 65 and had gone through Calculus. She said, "both kids learned math so very, very well that indeed they COULD (and did) utilize their "Saxon" math in ever higher and more creative/critical-thinking forms. Both conquered not only their SAT I, but also SAT II tests in math/sciences with absolutely flying colors. Dd (now a college junior) has cheerfully gone on to choose a double major in mathematics and nuclear physics at her chosen college--and it is an intensely science/math oriented school at that. Younger brother ds is thrilled to utilize his higher math for a double major in mechanical and electrical engineering at his very science/math oriented college. Saxon not only prepared them wonderfully well, but taught them without much input from me." I will say that Saxon may not be right for everyone. But it certainly is a fine program, and we absolutely love it.

Tapestry of Grace, Paul Johnson, and WTM are all wonderful ways to go. I am not familiar with Biblioplan enough to make a judgment, and though I have used Sonlight in earlier years, I'm not keen on their upper level history. With TOG, there is a writing plan built in, so you wouldn't need to add in papers--they're already added in. With Johnson's book, you need to read ahead and prepare writing assignments, discussion questions, and exams. I am doing that right now for Johnson's book Modern Times, as I will be teaching 20th C history and literature next year. It's somewhat of an arduous process for me, but I'm learning a lot and really enjoying it! I am developing a literature program, too, though I'm certainly not doing anything from the ground up. I will be using lots of othe resources--Sparks Notes, Progeny Press Guides, and some others. Again, with TOG, this is already done for you. I have to say that I really love Paul Johnson's books, and highly recommend his A History of the American People for a study of American history (using other sources as well--primary sources especially).

Do you mean from WWI? Many of your selections were written before WWII, and even To Kill A Mockingbird, though published in 1960, is about events before WWII (which may still work for you, of course).

Congratulations, Michelle! What a relief, huh? It's neat that you get the feedback right away, too.

Hey, just curious Beth. My son is taking AP English Lit with PA Homeschoolers this year, too. Any chance your daughter is in Mrs. Green's class? I noticed there is one girl in the class from Ohio.

There is no audio component at Scholars Online. It's all text, but it works very well! My son has had both audio and text only, and he actually prefers the text only (although he didn't dislike the audio). If you scroll down a bit on this page, you'll see their rationale for not using audio.

It's been a long time since I used TOG for high school, but I graded my son on his papers and his discussions and other evaluations (essay questions and so forth for history). He was an excellent writer and thinker, and I gave him A's in all his humanities courses (history, literature, etc) because he did excellent work. I can't comment on Yr. 2, because the only year I used TOG for high school we used Yr. 3 (in my son's senior year). It's a great program, though!

I was referring to www.scholarsonline.org, not the Veritas Press one.

If he is amenable to taking another year (counting this one as 9th grade), I wouldn't hesitate to do it. Another year of maturity in some boys makes a huge difference. My youngest son is 17 and a junior--he'll turn 18 right after graduating from high school, and enter college at 19.

None of the schools to which my older son applied, nor the ones to which my younger son will apply ask for the names of textbooks used. I would think that even if a college wanted a course description that the textbook name doesn't need to be mentioned (unless they ask for it specifically). Of course, I don't think there is anything wrong with Apologia or BJU materials, so I wouldn't hesitate to name them if asked.

I think it probably depends on the class. There is always a transcript of the discussion, and if the student still does the work (reading literature, translating Latin, whatever), it should be okay. I would simply contact the teacher for the class and discuss the situation. They are quite easy to work with.

Yes, my son has taken numerous classes with them (literature, writing and Latin). It is a top academic organization, and highly recommended. Do you have any specific questions?

I don't know if there is a lower age/grade limit, but certainly 9th and 10th graders can take AP courses/tests. My son took AP Latin Vergil last year in 10th grade. He had no problems with it.

Sorry, Robin! I didn't see this until today. My son has studied Latin with Scholars Online since Latin III. Latin IV was AP Vergil, Latin V (this year) is Latin literature (Catullus/Horace), and next year will be medieval Latin (he's very much looking forward to that!).

He was actually happy with the idea. He does well at math, but doesn't especially care for it, and the chance to really "get" algebra II was good for him.

We were up against this, too. My youngest son was studying algebra 1 in 7th. He did fine with it, but since I knew he wasn't going to be a math or science person, what to do to make sure he had at least three years of math during grades 9-12? So, he did algebra 2 twice, in 8th and 9th grade--same book. It did wonders for him in solidifying the concepts, plus he gained the maturity he needed in mathematical thinking (or whatever it is). Since we knew he was only going to study through precalculus, I even had him use Aleks for geometry for part of one year (he had geometry through Saxon). I think this made a huge difference for him and is one of the reasons he did so well on the SAT math (he did do focused study for that as well).