:bigear: I'm thinking about lit for 4th gr too. We're doing early modern history.

I haven't read all the responses yet and will go back and do so, but I just don't get why it is so hard to schedule more than 1 foreign language. I went to high school in England for several years, back in late 70s and early 80s and did O levels in French, Spanish, German, History, Geography, Biology, Math, English Lit and Lang. I studied those 8/9 courses for 2 straight years and then did quite difficult exams in them - usually two 3 hour papers that involved writing 5 essays, so they were not just basic, easy classes. We also did PE each year, we had to. Our school day was not longer than the current school day in our local school. I just don't understand why students can't fit in more options these days. ETA - I forgot until reading Regentrude's post that we also took Religious Education each year. Also, our language teachers usually taught 2 languages, for instance French and German. They weren't all native speakers but I went on to study German A level for 1 year, before going to an American High school for my senior year, and our teacher was able to teach us German Lit also, we studied a German novel, poems and a play. I think they did a reasonable job with 2 languages I guess. My dd12 is homeschooled but has been taking Spanish 1 this year at the high school, she attended the gifted program (1 day /week) when in school and has continued to do so along with homeschooling, and they allow 7th gr to do this. She has really enjoyed this class and has learned a fair amount, but when I compared what they covered to BJU Spanish 1, they covered much less over the year. This was partly due to the fact that the Spanish teacher had to teach the ps kids English grammar before she could teach them Spanish. Conjugating verbs and DO etc. took a number of weeks because the concept was unfamiliar even in English for them.

I so wish I could go. I just looked at the speakers and I would love to hear them, just what I need. But there is no way on this earth that I could get to PA this summer. I hope you all have a wonderful time.

I like my gravy with lots of onions in it when I have bangers and mash. In comic books the sausages are always shown sticking out of a mound of mash. Beans on toast should be on buttered toast and running over the edge of the toast. If you do make yorkshire pudding, make sure the oil in the pan is just about smoking hot before you pour in the batter - I think that makes them rise better and a lighter texture. You could make toad-in-the-hole which is sausages cooked into the yorkshire pudding and also served with mash ( and baked beans for me). Hope he really enjoys his English day. I'm sure he'll appreciate all the thought you've put in to it.

It's not necessarily that expensive to homeschool though, I still work and I don't spend even $500 a year per child. Now I wish I didn't work and homeschool, but that's another story entirely.

I agree that the BBC is pretty reliable, although not a newspaper of course. I don't think that the Telegraph or The Guardian are very gossipy though. The Sun, News of the World are definitely not reliable and The Daily Mail is pretty gossipy in my opinion.

I've been relearning Algebra 1 with dd13, but she really prefers to self teach and doesn't enjoy me tagging along. However, she needs me to help at times so I'm going to have to try learning ahead for a while and see if this works better. The 2 of us have been enjoying the TC series "My Favorite Universe" together though. I really need to read more classic literature in preparation for lit discussions in the next year or two.

I'm not an English major or grammar expert, but I think it is partly to do with how British English speakers would say this sentence. I know they denied this, but when I think about how I would say this as an English person, I would probably include the word 'there'.

I'm so sorry. Thinking of you and your family.

Thanks!

I am definitely seeing the benefits of WWE with my dd9. She is an extremely reluctant writer. We are doing WWE2 - almost finished. Just in the last month or so I have seen such an improvement in her ability to summarize and do the narrations. I can also see this carry over to other things she writes. She is still very reluctant but can do it. I think the skills taught in WWE are invaluable. My oldest dd13 is working through WWS and I also think this is a great program. However, she is a natural writer, so it is a little more difficult for me to attribute it solely to WWS.

Thinking of you and your family.

You should definitely write the book, you're good at grammar too.

Why don't some of you who are so wonderfully enlightened and unbiased write a history course? It would appear it would be in high demand. I'll look forward to reading it's reviews on this forum.

Good answer Swimmermom3.

I should first say that I know nothing about Derek Owens or his physics course, but have been reading this thread with interest. I just looked at the pages linked above and thought I would just mention that it looked like his time teaching at a Christian school was teaching a Calculus course. I wonder if he did not include this on the Physics page because it was a math course and not a science one. He does mention going to church on the Physics page bio. I read them both and to me it did not appear that he was trying to pull a fast one.

How about making and painting a salt dough map of his chosen country.

Dh woke youngest dd up telling her that there was a skunk under the deck and she needed to go out and help her sister get it out. He previously got oldest dd with the same thing. Dd started complaining about not wanting to get sprayed and was pretty upset about it but took it well when told it was April Fools. I have to say that before she realised she did get up and start to go outside to help - brave I thought. Some years ago, when oldest dd was 3, dh called her and told her a truck full of monkeys had crashed at the bottom of the hill and the monkeys were running up the road. She rushed to the window to see - that was a pretty good one.

Glad to know you're using these 2 also, they sure look like good programs. I'll have to get her to try Alcumus. I didn't know you could try for free. AOPS sounds great but I wasn't sure it would be her style, so this will be a good way to find out.

Thank you all for the advice. I can really see the need to go at her pace and I think that's what we've been doing. I think this most recent uncertainty on my part was brought about, in part, by thinking we were definitely not heading in a STEM direction and then suddenly being not so sure due to her increased enjoyment of science, especially robotics, and math this year. This uncertainty, coupled with her scores on the test, made me fearful that our choices were going to limit what she could study at college by being too slow with math. Anyway, I'm going to think through all your advice, so thank you.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. As math was not her favorite subject in years past, I thought Algebra was going to be more difficult for her and she would need plenty of time to cement it. She has done better with it than I thought and it's a bit of a surprise that it's her favorite right now. This new interest in science has also surprised me so I just want to make sure my old plans aren't going to limit things for her.

Thank you for those links. It is good to think that what we have been doing has been working for her and I need to keep this in mind. We are about half way through the Algebra book as we have been going fairly slowly. My plan has been to cover Algebra as thoroughly as possible but I don't want to limit her in so doing. It's more difficult to plan when you don't have a real clear picture of what their career choice will be, but I think most 12 year olds are probably undecided. Would it be possible to start Geometry next year but still keep working some on Algebra or is that too much to cover?

My dd12 who is in 7th gr took the ACT this Feb. and scored a composite score of 24. I'm trying to decide what she should take next year and also thinking ahead to high school. It seems like she might be ready for more high school level material rather than middle school so I thought I'd ask for opinions on this board. Some background - she has been home schooling since 4th gr - before that was in PS. She has been interested in teaching as a career for the last few years, however this year has been part of a robotics club and has become more interested in science topics. We are doing Algebra 1 this year using Jacobs. She has not really enjoyed math much in the past but this year she says it is now her favorite subject. My plan has been to do another year of Alg 1 next year using, maybe, Foerster's Alg. I thought that she probably wouldn't go into a science career so, therefore, would not need to go too high in math and so thought we might as well wait to do Geometry in 9th gr. Now I'm not sure what she will want to do and don't want to limit her by our choices now. I should add that her math score was the lowest one - 16, but she did score 23 on the science section. I was also thinking about Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings for lit. For science I was thinking about the Science Shepherd Life Science course. We are doing the ACS middle school chemistry course and some physics using How Things Work and the Tiner book - Exploring the World of Physics. I should add that we don't want to finish high school early. Also, the local CC is not a great option for dual enr. but we may be moving in a few years once my husband finishes his PhD and hopefully gets a job, so our options then might be better. I guess my main questions are: Would you think that this score means she is ready for more challenge? Is it a good idea to take 2 years for Alg 1 or will this set her up to limit her options in the future? Thanks for any ideas or opinions you may be able to give me Trenna

Thanks!!

You're right about this being the way to go. I am learning more and more and slowly feeling a little more confidence in my ability to teach writing. But it's one of those skills that I really don't want to mess up, and I think that's why I second guess myself so much. It's not the slogging through it I mind so much, it's the uncertainty that the way I've chosen will lead us where we want to go. Do you have any particular recommendations for self education?