Has anyone here used Saxon Calculus and then taken the AP exam? Did you do the AB or BC exam? If you did the AB exam did you complete the entire book? Did you submit a syllabus to the College Board? Trying to figure out how to pace out the course. DD has completed about 60 lessons in the book so far and want to see if I think she can realistically do the AB exam in May.

In many states the requirements for homeschoolers differ from the public school. In NYS a homeschooler only needs to complete 2 units of math and a public school student needs to take 3 units. You would need to do what is minimally required for homeschoolers. If your child is planning on attending a community college then the minimum standards should be fine. If they child needs more math they will have the opportunity to take courses there to bring them up to where they need to be for whatever certificate or degree they are pursuing. I would check with the local community college to see if they have any admission requirements and talk to the admissions department.

Our 4h is very casual. Our group does not focus on project sheets. The only time you need to turn in project sheets are animals for the fair or horticulture (and I do not think for every division). Our girls mainly focus on horse related things but some do small animals too. They will do some group projects but not many. Our big things are usually the horse bowl and hippology contests. Dd is going to states for the 3rd year in a row for hippology.

I just got a almost new Fusion and had to bring it back to the dealership for a recall. Gotta love vehicles!

I have done both Royal Caribbean and Carnival. You do tend to get a lot more of the party folks on a Carnival cruise compared to Royal Caribbean. Another option that we have not done is a Disney Cruise. I know several folks who have been on Disney and absolutely love it, even with teens. The one thing is that Disney tends to cost more. I would look first and where you want to go, when you want to go and where do you want to depart from. We are going on a New England/Canadian cruise (Royal Caribbean) this summer. We wanted to leave out of either NYC, NJ or Baltimore so that limited our choices. The one itinerary I really wanted did not match up with our schedule but that is ok, hopefully it will for a future trip.

We actually just went to a local event called Fair Godmothers. They have dresses (mainly used) in all different sizes. The girls get a personal shopper who helps you find dresses in your size. They do minor alterations there although this year they were running behind and did not have time to do the hem or add straps for dd so we have to get that done ourselves. Last year her dress was brand new with tags and they were able to hem it and take a bit in. They also have them shop for accessories: necklaces, earrings, purse, shawl. Dd got her dress, earrings, necklace, purse and a brooch for the dress and it cost us $8. They then gave out $10 gift cards to Payless for the girls to get shoes. Well worth the few hours we were there.

We are going out to Pi Craft for pizza later. They are doing the $3.14 thing for an individual pi sized pizza.

This is similar to our co-op. Anyone who is part of our larger homeschool group is eligible to take part in the co-op. The way our registration works is that the co-op board gets first registration, then the teachers and then the general population. We do have many classes that close during teacher registration but those coming in under general are usually able to find something if they are flexible. We normally have around 70 families who participate some only take one or two classes while other are there for all 5 periods.

Pi Craft $3.14 for their Pi sized pizza ( 13x6 oval). We are doing that for dinner.

You might want to find someplace to do the PSAT when she is in 11th just so she may be eligible for a National Merit Scholarship. The public schools should allow the kids to take it there but if not just call some of the private schools in your area. I know we have a couple that regularly allow homeschoolers to take the test. As for the ACT/SAT you may not need some intense practice for it but you might want to do a couple of practice tests just so you can see how she does with the types of questions they ask. If you see she has issues in a certain area you can have her do more practice on those types of questions. The higher the SAT/ACT score the more scholarships she will be eligible for.

I would also suggest the PASS Test. It was designed for homeschoolers to administer at home. They give the best breakdown of results that I have seen too.

If he was close to 87 I would use that instead of 1/2. You can do 87 and then just move into Algebra 1. 87 will move a little slower and there will be a lot more reinforcement for him so you can make sure he has a good grounding before Algebra. If you feel he needs more review after 87 you could do 1/2 and then Algebra 1. It is better to go a little slower and have a solid base rather than move too quickly.

I would highly suggest a United Methodist, a Free Methodist or Church of the Nazarene. All of those would be a good place for someone who has been spiritually hurt. I would stay away from any independent churches or churches labeled Baptist at this point. They maybe very good churches but you also tend to find some of the legalistic and judgemental churches under these two labels. ( I am not saying all independent or Baptists churches are like that, far from it but this person does not seem like they are in a place to risk it).

Ours is beating the odds too then. Our co-op has been around for more that 10 years. It started out (before me) with around 30 families and this coming session we are going to have around 74 families involved. When I started with the group 9 years ago there were 40-50 families and it continued to grow. We have hung steady at around 70 families a session for the past 2 years. Same as with other co-ops some families leave and then we get some new families. We keep thinking that we are going to loose families and get a bit smaller but that has not happen. It helps that there is a strong homeschool community in our area and this co-op has a fairly good reputation. I know there are several different style co-ops in our are one that requires everyone to teach, one that does not require any help except set up and clean up, a drop off program with paid teachers and other co-ops small and large although ours is one of the larger ones. I think having a strong dedicated core is central to the longevity of a co-op. We have an administrative board that helps organize everything and a solid group that keeps coming back.

In our co-op we only charge for the cost of supplies for each class. One of the perks of teaching is that your registration is processed before non teachers. We require that everyone helps for at least approx. 1/2 the time they are in the building(our co-op is a la cart so some come in for 1 period some for all 5). We do a point system to try and make it fair for everyone. 5 periods - need 3 points 3-4 periods - need 2 points 2 periods - need 1 point 1 period - need 0 points Positions that Qualifying for Teacher Registration Teacher - present in the room teaching, prepping for class - gets 2 pts Co-teacher - present in the room, part aide part teacher - gets 1.5 pts Facilitator (class with no prep such as Lego Lab, Veggietales, Snack and Play…) - gets 1 pt Positions that do not qualify for Teacher Registration Aide/Hall Monitor - present in the room, assists teacher as needed, gets credit for being in the room - gets 1 pt Nursery - 1.5 pts

Free Methodist would cover everything but the Calvinist/reformed part. We left United Methodist Church because parts of it are becoming very liberal and we can see a split forming in that Church. The Free Methodists are a better fit for us. I definitely lean more towards Wesley than Calvin.

I do not mind baking if I have the time. I am not fabulous at it but I can get by. Problem is our kitchen is constantly a mess because we are so busy that I have no desire to bake nor do I really have the time to do it without it being stressful. My solution: I go to the bakery and buy cookies! Yes it is more expensive but as dh said today some times it is worth it to pay more if it keeps your sanity!

So far this year dd has read the Iliad and the Odyssey with one of her co-op classes. At home she has read Gilgamesh and we did some of the questions in Veritas Press's Omnibus (not sure which number). Right now she is reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and we are using the literature guide by Memoria Press. This spring she will probably be reading Canterbury Tales and using the Memoria Press literature guide too. I try to tie my literature with what we are doing in history if possible. This year we are doing ancient through renaissance in history so that has been our focus in literature.

Box might be a bit big (It would still fit in a stocking) but Five Crowns is a favorite. Sushi Go is another popular one with the kids around here.

It really is nothing. I do not even think about the state regs they are so below what I require from my kids. The 108 minutes a credit really just comes down to 3 hours of work a week for 36 weeks, for a high school level class that is nothing. As for the required courses NYS requires 4 credits in English (well I would do that no matter what) 4 credits in Social Studies (1 in US and the 2 1/2 credit courses plus 2 electives...the economics and the government are not my favorite but it is minor and I can teach it however I want. ) 2 credits in Science (we do 4) 2 credits in Math (we do 4) 1 credit in Art or Music (we normally have more than that) 2 credits in Phys Ed 3 credits in electives (we do way more than 3 electives) You as a parent say what you cover for each of the subjects. If you want your English course to be a drama course, you can or if you want it to be focused on writing you can do that too. One year I did Movies as Literature with our eldest. I will probably do that for dd too since it was a good course. Many homeschoolers take courses at the local Community Colleges and those one semester courses are considered the equivalent of one high school credit. So it is very easy to complete the official regs early.

The state does not tell you how to cover Fire Safety or what topics in Fire Safety to cover. Yes there are a few required subjects but the state does not dictate the content or the length of time on them especially in 1st-6th As for the 7-12 requirements they are a lot less rigorous than the state requires of ps or private school regents students and the hours are less than what most colleges look for when determining a credit. The state does list the subjects that need to be covered and the most restrictive is in the area of Social Studies where a credit of US History, 1/2 credit of Economics and 1/2 a credit of Participation in Government are required along with 2 electives. The state does not tell you what topics to teach or when to teach them in high school. You could choose to do all your Social Studies credits in one year once you get to 9th grade if you wanted. The rest of the requirements are just general credits in math, science, English.... It is very basic. As for the hours NYS only requires 108 hours for a full credit where many colleges look for a Carnegie credit which is 120. So as a parent I can determine what the content of any of the courses my child does. I can choose the amount of time spent on these courses. Even for high school I can choose to have my child do 1/2 credit course, 1/4 credit course or a full credit course as long as it adds up in the end. So even though there are some regulations to follow the parent is the director of the content the student learns.

In NYS there is no publicly funded school at home program so the distinction is fairly easy. You either go to a brick and mortar school or you are homeschooled and follow those regulations. To me the difference is not so much as to where the curriculum comes from as to who controls the educational plan or goals. If a student is doing a school at home program that is directed by the state and has deadlines to meet by the state program then they are not homeschooled. A student using the same program but where the parents can say I choose to use this subject, all subjects or I do not like the way this is going so we are going to stop using it and do something else that is a homeschooler. The parents direct the education and can choose what grade level, what courses and how the work is done.

Since I like things planed out I do a year master schedule over the subject. I plan out each of our separate curriculums based on a 4 day school week (we have co-op one day). Laying it out this way allows me to see how long it will take if we do everything in that particular curriculum Now this schedule is not rigid. Every week I cross out what we have done on the master list and then write up a weekly schedule based on what is going on. So on my master schedule I may be on week 14 day 3 in one subject I may only be on week 10 day 1 in a different subject. I may also cross things out on my master schedule as we go. For example one curriculum has additional practice sheets, I schedule them but may decide as we are working that we really do not need to do those sheets so i just cross them off. Just know that you can schedule and still be flexible.

A lot of the school districts are doing this. There is nothing in the regs that say a superintendent can not delegate the paperwork to someone else. I would not put the hours per subject even if BOCES asks for it. Just continue to do your quarterly the way you always have. If you are a member of HSLDA and BOCES gives you a hard time about the listing of the hours as one lump sum then call HSLDA and they will take care of it.

Ours went up a little over $100 per pay period. The company used to do various incentives at sign up that they say they have moved to happen through out the year that will save us more money but they do not tell us when or how much. I am just praying it is not too big of a hit in the paycheck.