I realize this is an older post but in researching Guest Hollow and it's American History, I had the same issue with the spine. I am adding my post to share the response I got from them in addressing it as it was a recent experience. I emailed Charles and asked if there was an alternative to use as I liked the set up of using different sources but would not use that book. He said the book was the best fit for the curriculum which I understood to mean they had built all lessons around what the book teaches. He was clear on this and that was huge red flag. I pointed out how I had read a bit of the book and along with reviews had noticed it was very much leaning to conservative propaganda. He absolutely ignored my comment and said well you can still buy it and use another spine and rework it (admitting that would be a lot of work). It caught my attention as the other person from Guest Hollow mentioned in this thread that they do take comments seriously. It struck me that when I addressed it, and certainly not the first person to do so, it very much felt like it fell on deaf ears. I did not purchase their AH but had purchased their Geography to give it a try. I decided against and honestly did not want to go through it and take out any other problematic videos, books or other sources. I'm glad I didn't use any of it and have no plans to use this company at all in our homeschool as we have quite a few years left with younger children. While I understand we all use what we determine is best for our families, I feel anyone who creates a curriculum should be forthcoming with what they are putting forward and not dance around the glaringly obvious.

She does know how to do it with simpler problems. We've tried it several times and it make sense to her when we substitute similar problems but when she sees the problem in the book, it's another matter. You may be right, it just make take lots of review. I'm being patient and not pushing so we'll spend more time reviewing and practicing problems. Thanks!

Problems 22-24.

My 8th grader is currently completing Saxon Algebra I. The spiral approach has worked well for her this year and she is able to get through all problems well throughout the lessons. However, we are stuck with distributive property with exponents and it's various problems. We're a bit more than halfway through the book and we've taken some days to use youtube, Khan academy and other resources to help her figure this out but she's stuck. She uses Nicole the Math Lady and Saxon Dive with her daily lessons but it's not helping with this particular section. We have gone over it more than a few times (it's pretty clear to me to at this point) but she still has days where she's looking at the problem like it's the first time she's seeing it. Alternatively, there are days where she will only miss one problem (argghh!!!!). Does anyone have any advice on what else we can use that will help get through this? I'm hoping someone has had this issue and was able to resolve it with a resource I can look up.

I am so glad your comments led me to research this more. The code itself does not state any days or hours but I think I saw this at some point and took it as part of the homeschool requirements. Glad this is dislodged from my brain now. As per National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 2018 report, public school attendance requirements for California are: 180 days consisting of 3 hours for Kindergarten, 3.8 hours for grades 1 to 3, and 4 hours for grades 4 to 12. (Unless otherwise noted, home school requirements are either the same OR are not specified by this state.) I found it on on a California homeschool facts website.

So much insightful help! I feel I'm on the path to that balance. We do finish all of our work every day we count and we definitely focus and go back and work again on work that they may struggle in . This has been incredibly surprising to me that we work on it for a few days and it clicks to where we move forward and it's not an issue again. I struggled with that when they were in public school as I didn't know exactly what the issue was and identifying it took a bit. I do know I have loosen up a bit. We do a lot of days that I have not counted that include many of the activities many of you mention. I also take days when I can see mentally they need it but, again, I don't count those days. So this is what I'm still learning.

Thank you for including that. I need to go back and read it carefully because 180 days is what I wrote down to make sure they were covered. Maybe I incorrectly did that. My upcoming 9th grader is planning on dual enrollment and then transferring to a four year university so it gives me a better perspective to focus more on learning and stop stressing about days.

Very encouraging because this 4 regular/1 light school days is what we are very close to following but I was counting the light days as half 🙄 you gotta learn I suppose.

Oh my goodness you are so right! This is what I need: to plan it, put it in my binder and then move on to our everyday homeschooling. I really like the way you consider you homeschool September to August and also take into account the informal learning. We actually do a lot of learning outside of our sit down work because I find so many things that I have the kids watch just for fun and to continue learning. A lot of science and history shows end up in our queue this way.

Thank you for the insight. I understand the 30 vs 3 kiddos and hope to get into my groove as you have.

I do have 180 days to keep in CA. And going into high school in the fall so I want to make sure I do this right.

This is my plan too 🙂

Love this!

Thank you all! This is so helpful as it gives me insight to how to approach it. I think part of my thinking is like a lot of you, get it done and if we have extra time in the end that's great to use as we please.

How much flexibility do you give yourself? We're newer to homeschool and in the last 8 months I have been pretty strict about making sure a homeschool day is a full on day of work. I think that's just the way I am wired, I couldn't count a day unless it's a full day of all subjects. I would have a really hard time counting it if that wasn't the case and maybe feel like I'm cheating a bit. But this question has been bugging me because in the blogs, Youtube and forums that I follow, I see other moms being a lot more flexible with sick days or days where other stuff happens or even taking mental health days. I feel like I will get there but at the same time I'm hesitant to do that. The few days we've taken that were unplanned I've tacked on to the end of our year. But seeing so many viewpoints and opinions, my brain understands it should be more flexible but my hand is saying don't you dare!