http://www.bbb.org/nashville/business-reviews/computer-software-publishers-and-developers/home-educating-family-association-in-nashville-tn-37076337 I plan to file a complaint when I have a bit more time.

I am really sad after reading some of the facebook posts and the replies from the company. It reminds me of another homeschool publisher who polices their site. I am wondering has anyone turned them in to the better business bureau or other agencies that could look into the fact that they are still selling an incomplete product, refusing refunds, and basically holding hostage people's money in order to finance the revamping of the product. The whole when we believe it is a complete product is such a load of crock that I can't begin to describe how I feel about wasting my money. I never asked for a refund during the first 30 days over a year ago b/c they promised these new updates that would do everything. When they finally admitted they couldn't do what they wanted to do with the program, it was too late for a refund. I am not upset about my money as much as I am upset that they are still selling yearly subscriptions to an incomplete product when they know it is incomplete and unusable to truly plan a year in advance. I think that is beyond wrong and that they need to be reported for intentionally hoodwinking new customers. When they had to get a new programmer and start over, they should have shut down sales for the online planner and given refunds or offered the free year accessible when the new planner was available, but it should have been a choice.

We had Calvert for 6th grade and I too was excited by the science until we used it. The books looked so pretty from the outside....it was dry and boring.

:toetap05: Really? We must wait until it is perfect. No screen shots, no info, but they are still selling it in a yearly subscription that doesn't function and you can't properly plan for the year.

My oldest just basically skipped 8th grade due to choices by our cyber school. It is going ok but I would recommend doing it earlier if you are going to do it. Jumping into a high school system has been good and bad for us and there is a big adjustment. So if you feel she is ready to do the work for the grade she is age appropriate, I agree do it before high school.

I agree with the pp-check your state laws. A co-op is something done with multiple families outside the home as an enrichment to your homeschooling. This is just me, but I would be hesitant to turn over so many subjects to someone else or to take on so many core subjects for someone else with traditional homeschooling. The only thing I see that you have put her down for teaching is religious studies to older kids while you tackle 4 subjects with her kids and your kids with a wide range of ages. I am going to be honest and tell you co-ops have the good, the bad, and the ugly. Homeschooling someone else's kid is not always easy. I am using that term b/c you used that term but I agree this sounds like a co-op situation with just 2 families. There may be specific laws for certain grades or ages with the subjects you are teaching. Here for example state history is taught in 3rd and 8th and we have to cover the Federalist papers in high school in depth. So you may want to think about those type of issues. It didn't say you were teaching her kids reading or math so I do not see a need for you to evaluate them in those subjects. I have taught in a co-op over the years and it can be quite frustrating and has all the pitfalls of a regular classroom-children are all over the place in capabilities, maturity, and the like. This isn't something I would take on in our homeschool as it takes away from your children. This is our first year ever in 5 years not doing a co-op and we are on track with school for the first time. I am tutoring a student in math 2x a week that does the same pre-algebra as my 7th grader. It is still hard to keep my littles out of the way to tutor. I took on 1 co-op class our first year homeschooling and it was a pre-k class with about 8 kids. It was hard and it wore me out to prepare for the class and deal with the class. That was one day a week. If you are teaching science, history, art...and she isn't doing something comparable in home then you will be meeting several times a week. This is your first year homeschooling. I would get my homeschool in order before I took on someone else's kids and their studies and I would make sure that if I took on someone else's kids that the work would be evenly divided amongst the adults in charge. I would set a trial period up so you don't feel obligated to teach that many children all year in case it becomes overwhelming. Normally in 3rd or 4th grade some states have to test. Is your state one of these states? Will the 9 yr olds have to be assessed at the end of the year? You will be taking responsibility for a huge chunk of their courses while it seems she is only teaching religious studies. This is just me but it sounds terribly unbalanced and like she is getting the good end of the deal.

K12 math is really good for the middle school years. My 7th grader is in their pre-algebra and my 8th grader is in Algebra 1 for a high school credit. I love it. It is totally different than the color math in the younger grades.

Red shirting is a crazy phenomenon. Here it isn't unusual for a boy to turn 7 in kindergarten on purpose without having failed. I am with the person who said their child was ready for k with 5 year olds or maybe young 6 year olds. My ds (now 10) was not ready for k with 6 turning 7 year olds and he has a Dec. b-day and turned 6 halfway through the year. By the time my girls with summer bdays made it to 3rd grade, they were 8 years old with 10 year old boys in the class who had never failed. They were red shirted. It makes no sense. Here is the thing....are you going to need to report this grade to your state? I have heard it is very hard to adjust grades if you move up one year and decide you should move back another year. Will you be able to utilize in the future any programs from your state which will require a grade level designation for your child? I think as long as you are a traditional homeschooler who doesn't have to designate to the state the grade of your child, then you can call your child what grade you feel comfortable with at the time. We went with an umbrella school last year and it was a big change and I do wish that I would have started one of my children a grade lower than what they were doing when we traditionally homeschooled. If you ever think you may utilize something similar, then I would think long and hard about what the grade level number really means b/c there is a big difference in certain grade levels in certain states. It is not easy to change once you have designated a grade level with the state. If that isn't an issue for you, then choose what you feel works best for your child. :)

Like the facebook page-it tells about a lot of features that are coming soon like student log-in, sync with other calendars on mac/iphone, and reports.

Well, I have waited for the new interface or a date on the new interface besides in the next few weeks. ;) I did check out homeschool planet but $65 a year is steep. My mardel has an online planner and they say they are going to have student log-ins. reports, and sync with iphone/mac/other calendars....and it is free and I can start actually use it bug free now. http://homeschool.mardel.com/Intro I wanted to like WPD. I wanted to use my free year this year. I wanted to see the new interface or at least hear that it will launch on a specific date. School starts Wed. and I am going to start using the free planner. It may turn out to be everything I need for free. I just really don't want to spend $65 yearly on a digital planner.

I think you should go with your instincts. This isn't your first go around...you have older kids you successfully schooled. If you feel that your current path isn't getting your desired results, make a change. Test again next year and compare.

What test did you use? We use the CAT test every year and my children always score low on math computation but high on math concepts and applications so their overall math score evens out. We have not used math programs that drilled math facts but they understood math. I do not know much about CLE at all, but I would look at what sections within math that they scored poorly and see if it is facts or concepts. I find that spelling scores in those grades depend greatly on a child's understanding of phonics rules and if you have a natural speller that can spot that a word does not look right. I have only had 1 child that was a natural speller and could spot misspelled words that they hadn't' been exposed to previously. We have also used the IOWA test and I like it better b/c it breaks it down much smaller into more categories so you know the exact weak area. The CAT test from Seton does not break it down much at all. The CAT test from CLP breaks it down a little better, but the IOWA or ITBS breaks it down the best I think.

We have used TT in the past when we were schooling independently. It has pros and cons to it as do all curricula. I really like the blog post linked above b/c I do think that is where TT becomes a crutch. In the rush to take math instruction off our hands and to free up time (with 4 kiddos-math takes a long time), we often skip over reading the whole intro and just pop in the disc. It is very easy to not delve deeper and just look at the gradebook page which can be deceiving b/c of all the 2nd chance options with TT. If I take the time to watch over the kids and double check it all, what am I gaining by using this program? You also have to look at how long TT has been around and assume that some of the students with better SAT/ACT scores completed their lower level maths with another program. Thus they may have had a better math foundation before starting TT. I saw one mom expanding on her dd's ACT scores with TT but when asked how long she had used TT....it turned out that her dd only used it for 2 years which means the majority of her math instruction was from other math curricula. In order for TT to have been productive (stand-alone) for our family, I would have needed to take the same amount of time with it as with our much cheaper math options so I would not have gained time and only gained an expensive math program. It is very easy to fudge your way through TT with high scores as the blog post reveals.

I definitely think curricula can make a difference in testing in certain years. Tests are based on particular scope and sequences of what is expected knowledge in certain grades. I have no clue what curriculum you are using so that isn't a factor in my reply. Certain curricula even out over the years if you keep going with them. So you may have poor 3rd grade testing but by 8th grade it has all come round and they test as well as their peers. Do you like your current choices? Are your kids learning with these choices? I would look at more factors than just testing before making a switch.

We enrolled with a charter school last year specifically to get our evaluations paid for my ds. We weren't in the school 2 weeks when he tested at risk. All it took then was a phone call to the pediatrician telling them that the "school" referred ds to have an evaluation after testing at risk. Within 1 month, we had our evaluation and diagnosis all paid for by our insurance.... I don't know what to tell you b/c testing and evaluations are expensive out of pocket. If you can sign up under an umbrella or charter school, you should be able to get a referral so your insurance will pay.

When my 5 yr old (at the time) finished The Reading Lesson, we began the Emerging Readers list from HOD. I had used Beyond with other kiddos and had the schedule. It is not sold separately though. You can get their catalog and go through the books in order though. We also started MCP Phonics after The Reading Lesson with book A. We just do the Phonics A to keep up phonics skills while we read the readers. I personally wouldn't jump into a full-fledged bells and whistles heavy parent phonics program after finishing the Reading Lesson. We haven't needed it and ds tested grade 1.9 on reading on the IOWA test at the end of his k'er year last year.

I have had 2 kids who loved any type of phonics/reading instruction back in the day. It was fun to them. Then I have my 2 boys. Boy #1-my oldest....taught me a lot about the difference in learning styles between kids. We must have done 5 or 6 phonics programs by the time he was 6 and I was so worried that he was just not picking up and wanting to read books and we seemed to start over again at the very beginning with each program. He hated any kinds of flashcards, basal readers, or charts. Finally, when he was 6 turning 7...I bought The Reading Lesson. The concept was simple we worked on 3 pages a day and from the very first lesson he was reading. He finally did not hate "reading" time. I realized he actually could read better than I had given him credit for with all the other programs with the systemic phonics and all the bells and whistles. Before we ever got to the end of the book (it is an all in one book with 20 lessons that each have about 20 pages to them), he was reading Goosebumps chapter books. Boy # 2-started with The Reading Lesson and it was so much easier than any of the complex phonics programs. All that to say, sometimes less is more. If you like ETC, stick with it.

Yes, I do think keyboarding is something that should be taught as you can type a lot faster if you know how to hold your hands on the home row and know the keyboard by memory with your hands in position. I would liken it to someone fingering the piano randomly and figuring out a song to someone who learns how to play piano and can play any song. We use fun game style keyboarding programs beginning in 4th grade after they learn cursive. I have used the same Disney program, "Timon and Pumba Typing" with 3 of my kids. They have a spongebob one too. That made it fun. Then they move to using Mavis Beacon to shore up skills. By the time they are in 6th grade, they type written essays and save them all on the computer. It does seriously help their typing skills and ability as well as increase their wpm without errors to use a program.

We have done at home from the school speech therapy and private therapy. Private therapy wins hands down. Use whatever your insurance will pay for and get homework. They do have to offer it to you but only if they have the space and the evaluator deems it necessary for your child. In our experience, with children that needed speech and OT....the school will say yes your child could use some therapy but there are children that need it more attending our school. It is part of the reason we went with a charter school last year. We finally got ds diagnosed with dysgraphia/dyslexia and got OT. We used what our insurance would pay for as well as what the school provided. Your school district may be different, but they aren't obligated to give you services. By law they have to evaluate your child, but often they will just deem your child not severe enough for school services.

I was wondering if anyone else has found themselves and their student in the predicament of skipping 8th grade courses. We use a charter school and dd13 8th grade is going to be taking all high school courses for high school credit except our state history course. She just turned 13 too. This was not planned in advance and came about quickly. Her grades are there and she will be academically challenged. However, I am trying to make sure she is set up for success in "high school". She has an assignment agenda book, we are going through a study skills pdf we got when we used Calvert for 6th grade, she has a weekly binder to set up with her work, a binder to keep her quarterly work in and a 3" binder for all her quarterly work to shift to and hold all the work for the year eventually. I guess I am worried that we didn't get that 8th grade year to prepare for the feeling of these courses are for real now and they go on your transcript. She is a smart student and normally does very well, but she is at that age that things other than school are starting to be big priorities for her. I have read the thread about preparing your 8th grader, but what do you do when it needs to be a crash course b/c she is basically skipping 8th grade? I have no teacher materials for her this year. It is totally different than last year for me as well. Has anyone else had their 8th grader pretty much do a freshman year and how did it go?

I've looked at most of the other planners online too and I am wondering how tablet friendly they are too. Does anyone know if they are tablet friendly? My girls both use their nooks and that would be what they would have on the go. They do have jellybean on their nooks as well. I have toyed with Homeschool Planet today as well. I haven't done too much b/c I really don't want to invest a ton of time into a program and then have something similar be free to me for the year. I would love some screenshots and a true release date from WPD. I wrote them and will let others know what they tell me about both the date and the crossover transition of info. It does give dejavu from last year.

I've sort of crash landed here quickly as my 8th grader was put in almost all high school classes. It was a sudden jump and I am not quite sure how ready "we" both are for the transition. I thought I had another year to get both her and I ready for high school. I am definitely downloading the lecture...

Ask for a placement test so that she can be placed properly in her level on reading. We are not with Calvert, but K12 and we have the option to test out. So my ds who read on a 2nd grade level in k last year just took all the k end of unit tests and then they sent him the next level. You could ask your teacher if Calvert does something similar.

Well, I had emailed them a question about custom school year calendar set up and I got a reply today. The reply I received said they are releasing a completely new iteration of their software (WPD) in just a few weeks. It sadi all existing subscribers will get an email with screenshots as the date draws nearer with updates on the launching date. While I am happy they are making improvements and such, school starts Aug. 7 for us. I don't want to spend hours putting in all our supplemental stuff and lose it when the switch happens either. I am torn. I did go ahead in the middle of the night and sign up for the free trial of homeschool planet. I was liking the idea that WPD was going to be extended this year for those that bought early last year, but I am scared of losing info during the switch. I am going to write them again and see if they have any kind of exact switch date and if my info will make it safely through the switch.