Anyone know which text Classes for Teens has used in the past for Geometry?

My rising 10th grader LOVES all things Spanish language and Latin American. She's taking a Spanish course she loves. She uses Spanish in her volunteer activities. She's a dual citizen - Brazilian and American - as her father is an immigrant from Brazil. She's traveling to El Salvador this summer. I want to fan the flame of this passion in her and am looking for input and ideas. Anyone have experience shifting literature to a focused course like "Latin American literature" and history to "South American History." Or any reasons to not go niche with this stuff? For history/social studies: I was thinking maybe a combo of a Great Course called "Lost Worlds of South America" plus Guest Hollow's Geography curriculum for Latin American countries (we already own that and all the books). Other resources? For Latin American literature: I took a Latin American lit class in college, but that was back when the years began with "19" so it is fuzzy in my mind. I remember reading works by Gabriel García Márquez and there's the Spanish classic "Don Quijote." Other titles/authors/historical fiction set in Latin America or other ideas? If I can pull something together here, I might lead a book club with a group of middle/high schoolers. For context: She'll go to college, but doesn't want to get into a competitive school. She wants a degree for the least amount of money. That to say, she doesn't need to be competitive for the sake of college admissions.

We used some of Dr Callahan's videos for Jacob's Algebra and I found them to be mediocre. They were a restatement of a process of HOW to complete a problem, but didn't add much conceptual math instruction or WHY we do things. I picked the Jacobs text because it has a conceptual bent, so we eventually skipped the videos and I just provided instruction myself. That to say, I think it depends on the kid and on the goals you have for the course.

Would Experience Biology fit? https://journeyhomeschoolacademy.com/experience-biology/

I am a Minnesotan. Are you asking whether you need to file an Intent to Homeschool Form for a 17 year-old? You do need to submit that for a 17 year-old. Maybe this info from MACHE's website would be helpful: https://mache.org/homeschool-reporting-forms-faqs/ Does that help?

In browsing by topic, I have found the the MEP Jamiaca books have more complete student instructions and these books go a long way at introducing the concepts in ways similar to what the lesson plans do. I may make a doc that aligns the Y9 concepts with these and maybe just use the Jamiacan materials (?) or use the front matter for each concept. https://www.cimt.org.uk/mepjamaica/

I hadn't quite thought about the materials as self-directed, but maybe that's because I have always instructed some (aka followed MEP's lesson plans - although I certainly skip a lot nd move at our own pace). I am just not as sooth or adept as they are and I am looking for some practical input on guiding a student through this material.

Yes, I am aware of those Outline Lesson Plans, but up through and including Y8 they also have these detailed lesson plans: https://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mepres/book8/y8s17lpd.pdf I would like something like this that scripts lessons for Y9.

Up through Year 8, MEP includes detailed lesson plans that hae been fabulous in guiding me as I have instructed my kids in math. However, starting in Year 9 I don't see detailed lesson plans on their website. I did email the staff at MEP (they have been responsive in the past), but am wondering if anyone here is aware of any resources - made by MEP or someone else - that could serve as that type of detailed lesson plan?

Farrar - could you please PM the password to me? I cannot find it in my email from years back when I had contacted MEP directly to get it. Thanks!!

Do you know which levels of MEP's traditional program are rearranged int he Jamaican program? I know I could cross-check myself, but thought you might be familiar. Years 7-9?

I am looking for podcasts to include in our morning time for high schoolers. What do you and/or your kids listen to that has short episodes (15 minutes or less)? I'd love some about music, but I'm open to science, history or others that would fit in the school day.

Here's what I have decided for now - granted, it isn't as embedded into global history as I'd like, but I do know it touches at least on developments in Europe... Great Course called "Before 1776: Life in the American Colonies" followed up by the Great Course called "America’s Founding Fathers." Now - this really skips over the details of the actual Revolutionary War in terms of specific battles, etc., but I am comfortable with that because: 1) we have covered that in cycles past. 2) we have traveled to many Revolutionary War sites so I know some of the details are familiar from those trips 3) my kid isn't into battles/war 4) I think she'll get the themes of the war through the Founding Fathers course which is loosely chronological and goes through the War of 181812-ish

Anyone aware of a series of videos that cover US History from the founding of each colony through the Revolution, but in the context of world (or at least European history)? I know many books do this, but we need a series of videos for a semester this upcoming year.

I want my 9th grade daughter to have a very easy peasy history credit this year as we've done Tapestry of Grace history for many years and she's got a solid foundation so history is not our priority this year, but we will use this easy peasy, plus some work in other years to make a full World History credit. She is doing Tapestry Year 2 literature so I'd love for our DIY history to loosely follow that history progression which is Byzantine Empire up to 1800. My ideal is a series of videos covering this timeframe that are engaging enough that my kid will actually watch them and get something valuable from them. All I will ask her to do is watch the videos and do an oral narration on them. Any video-based history courses you've personally used that your kids found engaging?

I think what I hear you saying is that anatomy might be too much alongside the DE Bio. I was thinking we'd drop anatomy and writing during that 8-week period to make space. She'll do Bio in Jan/Feb and writing in the fall, then in the spring. Is this sort of what you were suggesting? Or were you saying to make Logic just a .5 credit instead of beefing it up to a full credit. I'm a verbal processor so typing this all out has helped me to see that scaling back Logic could be an option too.

This is my youngest and she's been homeschooled since the beginning. She doesn't love school, but she's very bright and a hard worker. My main concern is that this is simply too much. I am wondering where/how to cut back without leaving holes in her core studies. I'd love gentle feedback. ENGLISH: She'll do the Rhetoric level of Tapestry of Grace's Year 2 (middle ages-colonial) lit in an online co-op we're part of + 2 Lantern English courses HISTORY: We're opting out of Tapestry for history for the first time since kindergarten because it is just too much time. I'm thinking I'll find a couple Great Courses that loosely follow the Tapestry history progression and she can watch the videos, then orally narrate to me. I need this to be easy peasy and she's had a very strong history background to this point. Any Great Courses y'all have loved in terms of being an engaging presentation of the information? Or maybe a Crash Course would be better? MATH: Jacobs Algebra 1 with me. SPANISH: She will take Spanish 2 through MyFunScience with MRs. Mac. This is by far her favorite class and I can't say enough good things about it, but it is a decently heavy workload. SCIENCE: She'll use Arizona State University's Universal Learner 8-week, 3 Credit Biology class that I have read decent reviews about. This gets her a full HS credit without sucking up time the whole year. We'll also supplement in our morning time (yes, we still do about an hour together every morning) with a read aloud anatomy book and some anatomy coloring pages along with a couple dissections with 1-2 lab reports. LOGIC: This kid is likely to communicate and lead people for a living in adulthood so I want her to be a strong thinker. I am teaching a group of kids online using Nance's Intro to Logic .5 credit course, but adding in a few things to beef it up to a full credit. MORNING TIME: We watch CNN 10 and the BBC 1-minute world headlines, we'll listen to music that loosely aligns with history because she's a musical kid, we do sentence dictation to reinforce and practice grammar rules and spelling, and we'll read from the anatomy book I mentioned above. Extras: she's in a community choir, serves in the children's ministry area of our church, and is seriously considering the local NCFCA speech and debate team as a way to put her logic studies into practice and make connections with other local homeschoolers.

A very different approach might be to have your student do the BIO 100 course called "The Living World" from Arizona State University's Universal Learner program. It's $25 upfront, then if you want to actually transcribe the grade to a college transcript after the course is complete, then you pay another $400 for that. But, just as a high school Bio course it would be $25. https://ea.asu.edu/courses/ My student is planning to take the 8-week instructor led asynchronous course. Since it is a 3 credit college course, it is considered a full year of HS Biology; I deeply appreciate the efficiency of 8 weeks versus a whole school year. I have heard that this Bio 100 course is taught in an engaging, non-traditional way with applied learning opportunities like you design a space mission to Mars or something like that using principles about life that you learn and your goal is to keep all the astronauts alive. It is not the same as a Miller Levine-type Bio course, but I laid it next to my state's science standards and it covers everything a kid in my state learns in public school Biology (not that I need it to, but I wanted a benchmark). It doesn't cover human anatomy so I am going to supplement anatomy with something Charlotte Mason style in our morning time using something like this guide and recommended book https://sabbathmoodhomeschool.com/downloads/hs-biology-anatomy-part-1/ OR I am picking up library copies of the anatomy spinmes recommended by Guest Hollow to see if they would be a better fit for a long, slow look at anatomy. I am a science person so we will do a handful of dissections and some microscope work alongside our anatomy studies so I feel like my student is prepared for future science courses. We did RSO Bio 2 a couple years ago too so our kids may have a similar biology background.

I am going to teach Nance's Intro to Logic as a one year class in an online co-op to bright and academic 9th graders. What I know is that kids will all watch the videos at home, read the text and do whatever problems from the book I assign, then we will meet for one hour each week. Yes, I will want to discuss homework and reinforce ideas that might be challenging or difficult, but I am also hoping to use the class time for some real-world type applications, but as I've never taught Logic I'm coming up short on clear ideas which is why I'm turning to the hive. For instance, I would love a midterm project where kids need to select a short YouTube video (the kind of videos that teens scroll and watch) and do some sort of logic analysis/commentary on it. Or, kids find an op/ed article online and do something similar. In theory that might be a good idea (is it?), but I would need to actually write out a real set of instructions and guidelines for this kind of thing, but I don't have a good grasp on how high schoolers might be able to USE the logic they are learning both mid-year and at the end of the Intro course (which will be year-end for us). To be clear: I am looking for ideas for larger Logic projects/reports/presentations, but am also interested in engaging things to do in each class - like watch a TV commercial and discuss fallacies or something. Can you'll help me brainstorm ideas?

Please, please look at Mrs. Mac's Spanish classes! https://myfunscience.com/courses/spanish-1/ She uses the Total Physical Response System for teaching a second language - it gets the kids speaking, translating, and working with more complex language more quickly while she instructs in grammar and such as they develop up through the years. The 90-minute classes are engaging as she does a ton of different activities during each class period. Note: she does assign a lot of homework so decide if you are okay with that. We like it because she wants the kid working with the language 30-45 minutes per day on their own plus the 90-minute weekly class. My oldest daughter is going to the public high school next year and about the only thing she's thinking she'll miss from homeschooling is Mrs. mac's way of teaching Spanish. (For a kid who is ready to burn the ship, that's saying a lot!)

Have you looked into Excelerate Spanish? It is a different way to teach Spanish and it has been a good fit for us. My kids are now taking classes from Mrs. Mac through My Fun Science (I know, what does Spanish have to do with Science?!?) https://myfunscience.com/courses/spanish-1/ Mrs. Mac uses all kinds of non-traditional stuff like songs, TV commercials, Sr. Wooly (look into this!), the Mi Vida Loca video series (free on You Tube), plus they read TPRS novels from this bookstore and translate pages from them: https://www.tprsbooks.com/shop/

Which books of The Republic does it cover?

Answering my own question - I had done a bunch of previous Google searches, but saw something in the boards here that gave me new search terms. I came across this open source commentary on the Republic that looks really good. https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0229

Hey all - I am teaching a class to 4 very bright, philosophically-minded high schoolers entitled "Ancient Political Thought" that pulls from readings suggested in Tapestry of Grace's government thread for Year 1 (Ancient). I have also been watching lectures from Yale's Open Course "Intro to Political Philosophy" class. In the first semester we read sections of Old Testament law, Hammurabi's Code, Confucius Analects', excerpts from The Apology, The Crito, excerpts from Aristotle's Politics and we're about to slowly read Plato's Republic. I just love learning as much as I can to equip myself to lead strong discussions that follow really strongly written homework questions that help the kids come to class equipped to chew on the material we're reading. My question: has anyone found a set of really good (translation: meaty, deep) lectures that walk through the Republic book-by-book? Or, any literature guides that really help a teacher look at this work from a literary perspective? I welcome any and all input. I've searched the boards, but couldn't find any previous discussion that answered this question.

We did RSO Bio 2’s labs a few years ago, but I hadn’t thought to look at Ellen McHenry’s stuff - which I might already own 🤔 I have been thinking to add some virtual labs since we have done a lot of actual hands-on microscope labs and dissections .