Well I have sang its praises alot but I am happy to do so again ? It is different but not too different from the list. The student on Monday-Wednesday (or day 1-3) will take a passage that is given and analyze it for different vowel chunks, r controlled words, and so forth which they mark up with specific colors. They will also do a copywork of part of the passage each day. On day 4 they have a creative day essentially where they do a bit of creative writing. It is light and we have skipped that day from time to time. Day 5 is dictation of the passage they have been copying and studying all week. So it is a bit like taking a test over a list of words it is just strung together in a paragraph ? I really like it alot and my kids have all used it and have gotten alot out of it. With that said, my one caveat to you as an MP user is that it might lead to too much writing. It depends on how much you have your kids doing in their lit guides. 3rd grade MP ramps a bit in writing with guides, mythology, geography, cursive, Latin, Christian studies, science, and IEW. Your student might feel bogged down. MP uses SWO later and while I have ragged on it in the past, it actually isn't too bad and kind of fun. So that is my only hesitation to recommend it to an MP user. It is great really, but if you are planning on using the whole core then consider how much your student likes to write ?

Rod and Staff is a good fit for CW and like SilverMoon said, it can be done orally too. We are planning to use Analytical Grammar along with our later levels of CW.

I would not let him quit since the lesson of following through on obligations even when we don't want to is powerful. My conversations would be with DS. "Wow, this guy is intense. It makes me wonder his motives but my sense is he believes taking a hard line is being helpful. It may be that his social skills/constructive criticism approach is well meaning but not the best method for you. Here's the silver lining; this experience, though probably a bit painful and embarrassing for all of you guys will give you an experience in grit and how to push through. You may have a boss like him someday and you will be able to recognize it and steer clear or know how to handle it...." that general discussion. Help DS to see that not all personalities work for everyone. Ask him if he would like to talk with or would like you to talk with the coach. If he says yes then get his back on this one but follow his lead. Try to strike a balance between enduring an annoying personality and not letting him be ridiculed. I know it is a bit of a dance so helping DS see the difference between someone being cruel or just being tone deaf to how to encourage 12 year olds is important. Anecdotally I had a science teacher at the exact same age who did this. One time I was out of town and didn't do an assignment. She had my male lab partner stand up and tell me that he cares about me and wants me to do my work. It was horrifying. I wanted to drop the class. I did. She came and pulled me out of my class a few days later and told me that if I quit everything I would never amount to anything and would be a loser (no joke...she was a gem). She also was the only teacher for physical science and I would have to take her the following semester regardless. The 2nd semester I went in with dread. I really wanted to switch schools to be honest. I buckled down and found humor in her odd way of being. While she still made me and others uncomfortable all semester, I felt focused to embrace it and roll with it. I ended up learning so much about my strength as a person and how to build more grit that year. I still think back fondly of her all of these years later. Not because she was a great teacher but I feel like without that single life experience I may have missed an opportunity to build that life skill. So that was long winded but I guess what I am trying to say is that these experiences can serve a purpose in a positive way.

Can you work in high school completion credits to a bigger overall interest or goal like the gym or YouTube? Doing research and writing about a business plan, a day in the life of someone with this job, steps to getting a business license and starting your own business, making a video about lifting...whatever could motivate to finish credits while meeting the needs of someone interested in these paths. He could use applied math for a faux business model and bookkeeping or applied math for running a household budget and bills. You may need to think way outside the box on this one but I wouldn't let graduation be negotiable if he isn't yet over 18. If you still cannot persuade him or force his hand then the discussion about his adult life choice should include how much money for rent, food and utilities he will be providing. You can take that money, without telling him, and save it for when he launches and needs move in money or start up money for his goals. It isn't about money but teaching accountability at this point.

This is the gold standard of treatment and he should be in a program with some level of exposure therapy. It is the only treatment that truly works long term for most anxieties. I feel for your tough spot. It isn't fair to the kids and his anxieties can be transferred on to them and create similar health anxieties which will impact their lives in more ways than this. Is there anyway you can join him for a therapy session to discuss this? Does he understand that his over the top response is part of his illness or does it feel rationale to him? Does he take the attitude that you all should understand and except his struggles or is he trying to overcome in these moments? If you see him making attempts that is such a different situation than him not owning this as an anxiety struggle and taking steps.

One of the first symptoms in a kid of a mom over functioning is entitlement and your description of your son highlights this. He does not feel that sense of urgency or responsibility because he doesn't seem to have experienced consequences for some of these things. Forgetting something? My goodness you need to not bring things to him. Just imagine adulthood for him if he does not learn this now. Being his taxi? Bus, bike, feet, another friend's parent but you need to say no more. In fact, it will be hard so start setting a goal of saying no atleast once a week to begin getting comfortable. He is going to freak out on you, be prepared. Kids that are entitled do this to bully their parent back to where they want them. Again, imagine his future marriage and do your future in law a great service now. You will not get authentic appreciation if he does not know what to be appreciative for. If he hasn't had to walk or bus then he won't know the luxury that mom taking him truly is. He needs the full spectrum of experiences to have something to compare it to. You will launch a grown up version of this exact same person into society if you don't start setting limits now so I think your initial post sounds perfectly sensible. You need to stick with it. He will try to call your bluff by taking the teen version of a toddler fit. "Verbal vomit" on you will happen. Ignore, hold steady, don't engage.

This has happened to us on and off quite a bit over the past month. I actually put my account on vacation hold because I didn't want to pay for intermittent service. I am hoping they fix it over the next few weeks because it is obnoxious.

BJU is a solid choice. I would say they are right between Abeka and Horizon. Slightly more advanced than Abeka but does not move as fast and as much as Horizon. My kids started with Abeka when they were in school and moved to Horizon when I pulled them. I settled on different maths for different kids but outside of Rightstart, BJU is my favorite by far.

Oh my goodness there are amazing! I love what I learn about on this board ?

We usually have no issue with UPS but we had one incident where I was waiting for a package and greeted the guy at the door. I took the package and tore it open. I was surprised to see things that were clearly not mine as I watched him start walking with a box that had a Childrens Place sticker on it to my neighbor (definitely mine). I motioned him back and told him he mixed them up. He laughed and said "guess it's that day" and handed me my box and took my neighbors package which was now open. I watched him go put the opened package on their porch and leave. I decided to go walk next door and explain what happened. So frustrating.

I can really relate to this. We actually received somebody's garden bird bath that was pretty huge. The box was beat all up and I could hear rattling inside. We were having alot of package theft during this period and I asked FedEx to pick up but when they hadn't shown for 2 days I drove it to the correct house. When the FedEx guy showed up a few days later to get it I told him it was gone. I didn't even tell him I delivered it. I just said "it looks like it is no longer on the porch since it took you 5 days to come get it" he literally just shrugged and left. It is truly astounding. The only other delivery company that even comes close to being as bad as FedEx is DHL. I could start a whole other rant thread on them.

FedEx is a hot mess here. I often get other people's packages, they have misdelivered mine three times, said they attempted with no knock, but the most painful was when my husband was part of a time sensitive committee that read medical research that decided what could go to human trial. They were suppose to deliver said documents but it never arrived. They delivered to our neighbor who was on vacation for 2 weeks so we didn't know. My poor husband got in so much trouble. Gggrrr FedEx...they are my nemesis.

Yes, absolutely Saxon 3 is grade 2. Many homeschool families (mine included) as well as Veritas Press, uses those early Saxon levels a year back.

Bju 3...if it is the purple workbook with the boy and squirrel (that looks like a cat lol) is fantastic. It starts out with alot of review or regrouping, place value, borrowing and then covers everything a 3rd grader needs and then some. Time, fractions, geometry, long division, multi digit multiplication, decimals...it is so great because it has good story problems, it is manipulative based like Singapore but colorful and there is constant review. If you look at the end of the work pages you will see review from previous chapters along with those applied skills throughout in story problems. At the end of every unit is a review and then a cumulative review. I love it so much. My now 3rd grader finished that workbook last year and my 2nd grader will finish it at the end of December. I have them doing it while working another math program. One BJU page a day has worked well for us. My DD does Beast Academy currently with it and one of my sons does Rightstart with it. We love Singapore too and have used it in the past but BJU offers everything Singapore does and teaches in a similar fashion. My favorite part was when DD got to long division. I had told her it is often a tough spot for kids so not to worry if it is confusing. BJU taught it so flawlessly she was like "when does it get hard mommy?" ?

I agree with everyone else here. Learning to take notes is fine and a worthy skill. However, if you are not doing it in a low stress, interest-based way he not only will never take ownership but he will learn to really dislike learning and studying. It will kill the potential for joy in learning. I recommend taking a deep breath, finding out what science topics interest him and letting him pursue those. Design some learning objectives around the topic and let him have say in it. What you described would have killed my desire to do science and I am a scientist. I am going to say this with alot of homeschool mom love and comraderie...you need to back off now and stop owning his stuff. Seriously. What you describe is really over the top. Part of the reason he probably won't step up and do it is the "no sense in both of us worrying about it" syndrome that happens when a child has had a helicopter mom their whole life. He needs to learn what his interests are and SLOWLY work toward independence with gentle scaffolding and coaching...not owning. There is nothing wrong with loving and helping. You just need to find a balance there. I thoroughly recommend reading "Yes, My Teenager is Crazy." It is a really fun but incredibly insightful parenting book that lays out a great trajectory for handling this. If you are Christian then I also recommend "Boundaries with Kids" or "Boundaries with Teens" which I consider the absolute best. I do encourage you to not begin blaming the class. I promise you your son will happily latch onto that and externally blame all future classes and teachers. I also would shrug, laugh with him and say "well, I guess we couldn't have predicted that huh? At least now we kind of get how the tests will be so YOU can start taking some notes or recording lectures for study." Then let it go. Neither of you will remember the test 10 years from now. If you fixate on it he will definitely remember the test as a turning point for when he became anxious about exams and learned to dislike taking them. Avoid that trap. Yes, it is completely normal for some classes to test more on lecture and use the reading as supplemental. It happened all of the time to me in college science classes. Part of taking tests is learning professor testing style.

What about grabbing a couple of lit/social studies units from MBTP? They rotate lit and science/lit and social studies. I find them really independent because the child can do the reading and activities typically on their own with some minor direction. The lesson part goes pretty quickly. Just a thought. I have gotten them from Ebay super cheap. I throw in a couple during the year just to provide us a break or freshen things up.

I found Abeka 1 to be mostly independent. It took me 10 min a day to give the super quick lesson and then there was workbook pages that the child completed independently that were straight forward.

Also, the way neurons code memories is not binary. Neuronal firing in hippocampal cells sum (called mini excitatory potentials and you can gave mini inhibitory potentials...typically called endplate potentials). You get stronger connections when you continually sum these potentials into neuronal firing. The more firing, the stronger the connection. Makes sense, and in this situation, the more drills you do the better. However, our brain works in concert with other parts so the more parts brought in and firing/coding for a type or learning, the more permanent and flexible that recall will be. This allows you to "pull" from different encoded schemas to recreate understanding if necessary. It is why people a who like and understand analogies are often more intelligent. They can synthesize information and make connections across content to deepen that coding for that particular concept. The more you use something flexibly, the more firing for different scenarios take place and that concept gets woven and connected across multiple memories.

It can be quite common. If he is having struggles with being detailed oriented (as assumed by his challenges with copywork) then he will just need more practice at seeing capitals and punctuation as the brackets of a sentence. Over time kids get the feel that something isn't quite right after seeing sentences again and again in reading and writing. Some kids have a super sensitive radar for filing away those things. Often seen with natural spellers. Some kids just don't have that honed radar for being sensitive to see that. Just keep working on it. Use one of his run on sentences as a grammar lesson. Start working on breaking those apart. My DD who is in 3rd is, what I feel, a solid writer for her age. Even she this morning strung a sentence together with commas in series that really didn't work. We sat and talked about why and broke it down into individual sentences. Do that for a while and he will get it ?

If you want to try it (and truly, their lit guides for older grades are great) just watch Ebay for a bit. Don't buy new. You can get a steal there with them. I wish I had just gone to Ebay originally for them.

Oh man, that is not fun ? I always wince for sure at the cost but I also wince at the time wasted planning it out and getting super excited about something. I am pretty stubborn so even if something ends up not being great enough to use as is, I will still try to utilize it as a resource or tweak/pull aspects of it into what else I decide to use. This year my only partial bust was Bookshark. It was definitely a poor choice for us that I quickly shelved. I say partial as I may pull a few things from it. When I first started homeschooling I would say my biggest bust that was horribly expensive was MBTP. Resell of it is not great so no way to even get close to how much it originally costs. I swallowed alot on that one but learned my lesson about trying full boxed curriculum. Love the idea in theory but I am just too picky. I did find I like the lit guides in small doses sprinkled throughout the year but I don't like it as a full curriculum for my kids.

For my DD Classical Writing Aesops is what she uses. For my DS he will use Writing and Rhetoric Fable and for my other DS I will probably use Writing Tales 1 but possibly Writing and Rhetoric depending upon how he does with All Things Fun . I much prefer Classical Writing Curriculum but I know my individual children well enough at this point that there is some curriculum that speaks to them more than others.

Here's what we do. Since BJU rotates 2 weeks grammar and 2 weeks writing while we are working grammar in BJU we do IEW All Things Fun and Fascinating. Very good program and not intimidating to implement. It is great. You don't need to have done the full program to use it. Then when it is writing time in BJU we use Fix It! Grammar. We just rotate back and forth like this in 3rd. In 4th I stay with BJU and will use Fable I during the grammar weeks. This way we still get the foundation that BJU provides along with being able to implement progymnasmata without bogging them down in two writing programs.

I will also throw my vote in for The Paragraph Book. I really like the clearness of the program. I also really love Killgallon elementary books both the one that works on sentences and the paragraph one. Good stuff. I also want to say 10 is not a bad place to start writing. Many writing teacher friends I have don't start their own kids on paragraphs until around this age.

I am late to the game but I too thing staying as a consumable pdf is ideal. We do use dry erase boards daily but they are easy enough to implement. If I want to make a worksheet dry erase I slide them into plastic pockets that I bought for a buck at the dollar store and they are instantly dry erase.