@EKS thank you so much for posting this. I had been putting off researching ALEKS, partly because I had wanted to use books this term instead of computer (because my boys spend most of their free time on the computer!), but someone else was talking about how great it was, I was afraid I was "behind the times." I really appreciate that you shared this!

Hello @JennyD! I somehow did not see this post when I was also looking for exactly the same thing the last several days!! I have discovered that the "ancillary materials" .pdf at mathwithoutborders includes the solutions manual and it's only $20!! I came here to share on an ancient post I commented on yesterday and realized I had somehow missed this much more relevant thread haha. anyway the download is here: https://mathwithoutborders.com/shop/algebra-1-ancillary-materials/. the solutions manual included is for the 3rd edition. I have purchased the "classics edition" from prentice hall which is isbn 0-13-165708-9 and as best I can tell it is a 100% perfect match. The classics edition I bought does not say (that I can find) which edition it is based on, but the picture on the cover is identical to the 3rd edition. I then double checked by randomly selecting sections/tests to look up, and even the page numbers were perfectly identified! Pretty nice.

@pgr, I am in the exact same boat! I'm wondering what you wound up doing? Update: I actually found the solutions manual for only $20 at math without borders! I actually found a more recent thread on this topic haha, but since I posted here yesterday I came back to update this thread also. the solutions manual is included in the "ancillary materials" .pdf at mathwithoutborders. the download is here: https://mathwithoutborders.com/shop/algebra-1-ancillary-materials/. the solutions manual included is for the 3rd edition. I have purchased the "classics edition" from prentice hall which is isbn 0-13-165708-9 and as best I can tell it is a 100% perfect match. The classics edition I bought does not say (that I can find) which edition it is based on, but the picture on the cover is identical to the 3rd edition. I then double checked by randomly selecting sections/tests to look up, and even the page numbers were perfectly identified! Pretty nice.

thank you so much for all these great helps! gosh I wonder if I just should have bought the macaw edition. I just saw it was 10 years old and I was afraid I would accidentally mess my kids up by teaching them something outdated. my guess is that if you are a "real" biology teacher or scientist you might know it when you encounter something updated (like if I use an old government book I know how to update things like case law), but I would not even have a clue LOL. so I thought maybe I'd better roll with something truly up to date as much as possible since otherwise there's no telling how I might accidentally mis-teach them. I do remember that when it comes to classification stuff it seems like it was changing all the time, even when I was in college. I recall that my college professor was teaching something different than my high school teacher, for example, about the classification of fungi! that is ALL I remember but anyhoo, that's just to say that my own ignorance is the thing that made me feel like I'd better get up to date materials. Well it looks like I will probably need to just kind of dive in and figure it out rather than just trusting in someone else's plan, or maybe call Pearson and jump through their hoops to see if they'll sell me the lab manual that goes with this book. I'll bet they are a pain about it, as I live in a state where the state government does not give us something. we just send them in a notice that we're homeschooling, so sometimes people balk at my lack of a certification or what have you that I am really a homeschooler. and I'll bet that it's not cheap either to get it brand new from the publisher! but what can you do? at least it's still cheaper than private school!

thanks for sharing! my entire hs journey for the last decade has basically been nothing but one best laid plan after another. sigh. if you could see the amazing things I had planned for my kids! sigh. it's all that experience that makes me usually just take it week by week, but I know I cannot do that for labs. whew I have to say I never ever ever dreamed I would homeschool for this entire time much less high school. it's quite hard! I feel like it's worth it but it truly is a lot of work. thanks for your inputs!

thank you so much for your input and I totally get it. I'm actually not a science person (and neither are my kids I don't think), but I am that way about American government as that is my area (I'm a lawyer) so I am super opinionated and hate everything we read LOL and can't really stick to someone else's curriculum on that. I like to pick out the cases we read/look at. On the labs though I was not strong in science so I don't know that I am knowledgeable enough to be picky for the reasons you are, although I will need to modify for other reasons as mentioned above, so that they will work well with my kid who needs something different. I had hoped for something off the rack just because I literally have no good time for planning but I am going to look at Biology Corner. I totally hear you about the need to get the labs lined up with the material though. that will be extra important for my kid who needs extra support. It will be hard for him to get anything out of it at all if they don't. If you planned out the whole year in advance, and yet you customized it, may I ask how you did that and what kind of time did you have to put in to do that? for some of this stuff I'm likely to need to learn alongside my kids so it's just not plausible probably for me to read through an entire biology textbook before I even start with the kids. It might not be quite so bad if I wasn't so old, but I'm 52 and I believe it has literally been 40 years since I took biology! well, I had botany in college, but you can do that math and see it's been a very very long time ago. Even if I remembered it all, I suspect quite a lot has changed.

cintinative, thank you for sharing those TOCs! I'll do that! J-rap that sounds really wonderful. the thing is I actually have found LOADS of helpful stuff for this book but most of it is for those older editions. I wound up buying hte most recent edition and now I'm nearly regretting that because I don't know if all those great materials out there will match with the newer book. sigh. of course I'm just trying to save myself time so having to go through and compare everything feels like such a chore! it's just because I'm already overextended, but you know sometimes that's just the way it is. I actually have to do a deep dive regardless due to the one kid needing differential instruction, but normally I can do that on kind of a day by day or at least a week by week basis. the problem with labs is that they require SO MUCH MORE PLANNING! (purchasing supplies and what not) and it feels like I practically need to have the whole semester figured out just to start.

thanks BusyMom5! Yes I realize I can do that and those are wonderful ideas! at the moment though I'm so stretched you can't imagine as I am also trying to work and on top of it my mom's developed dementia and it's just a lot. I will probably have to do a lot of that already as I have twins but one of them requires extra supports (A LOT of extra support) and a differentiated curriculum, so ... anything I can do to simplify will help me out enormously. I was hoping that for the twin who can handle things as they are written it would be so much easier for me to just roll with someone else's plan if at all possible. I'm just exhausted and there is no money at the moment for paying to outsource it unfortunately, as we've spent it all on other things. I found this other mom's blog which I skimmed and it seemed helpful but she used that 2010 version with the parrot (maybe I should have bought that book instead?!?). I wish I knew if it will easily match!

thanks for your perspective cintinative!

[this is an edit in which I totally rewrote this, I hope it didn't confuse anybody! but my prior post became moot and I have a different question!) mountains 27 what did you wind up doing regarding labs etc.? I just bought the 2019 textbook as well but cant' find lab manual except for older edition. I wonder if it's possible that the older edition lab manual will work

Yes, that is a shame, although honestly I'm not sure if I could do it. I would have to hire a cleaning crew first 🤣

I wish I knew something to share, but having not done a college application since my own over 30 years ago I cannot be much help 🤣. good luck though!!

As a ps, I should add that the Georgia Accrediting Commission actually has a separate category for "non-traditional education centers." For example, all of these definitely fall into that category -- i.e., they are "accredited as non-traditional education centers" and thus will definitely not work: http://gac.coe.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NTEC-3-11-2021.pdf. in the past, the GAC also actually accredited home study programs, if you can believe it. They would come to your house and do that! but they do not do that any more.

Hi, that is true and a good catch! However, the definition of "accredited school" says that that it doesn't include entities that are "accredited as home study programs or non-traditional educational centers." In other words, what they are getting at here is the nature of the accreditation. When I checked -- and I should double check this -- it appeared to me that Clonlara is in fact accredited as a school. So although it's a bit razor-thin, I think it ought to work. but I will double check and I will report back if I'm mistaken about it!

Hi I came to thank everyone for the help while I was making up my mind! I personally found it so helpful to be able to search this forum for informatino I wanted to come back and close the loop in case anyone else every comes back and is interested. Despite the FAR higher costs (!!!), Husband and I've decided to go with Clonlara instead at least for this year, partly due to hopes it would mean an easier time with the documentation and also because we were a little nervous about NARHS having to renew their accreditation next year. Of course, it shouldn't matter as long as they are accredited when you earn your credits, but I think where we live we might have an annoying time of it if for some reason they were no longer accredited by the time we tried to transfer them in to the school. If Clonlara doesn't work well this year, I am definitely going to keep NARHS in mind for the future! it may also be that he would be a better fit for my special needs child later, if we decide we want to get him a diploma, but with fewer excess requirements. anyhow, thanks again to everyone here for all the help.

Hi everybody, I appreciate all your input. I'm actually a lawyer so I have researched this pretty hard. Although this is not my area of expertise, I believe that it is a matter of state law that the school will have to accept it if I comply with the regulation that was adopted by the Georgia Department of Education, which I have done. The regulation is extremely narrow, and I think many people have varying experiences because they usually are not complying with the regulation, either because they have used a nontraditional education center, or because the accrediting commission was not on the laundry list set forth in the regulation. I am in a homeschooling group on Facebook, and after chasing down many recommendations there, I saw for myself that this was the case 95% of the time. For example, there is a place called Compass Prep that seems very popular, but it does not comply with the regulation. Just in case someone reads this themselves and wants to follow up on it, the regulation in question is here: https://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/State-Board-of-Education/SBOE Rules/160-5-1-.15.pdf. However, since it can be amended from time to time, you should confirm that you have an up to date version at the time you look it up. Although it is not the legally official copy of the regulation, in theory you would hope that the version available from the DOE website will in fact be up to date. You can check by going here first, if they don't rearrange their website: https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Pages/Home-Schools.aspx. This is a very convoluted rule, but I am making use of (2)(g) of this rule. If you read this for yourself, take note that "accredited school" is as defined on the first page, and that half of the definition is a cross-reference to the statute that governs the HOPE scholarship. It's basically a list of regional accreditation agencies. Note that the definition of accredited school here does not include nontraditional accredited centers, as many of them are. Also Cognia has a weird category it's giving accreditation for that just says "Corporation." A school may or may not accept that. What you'll see in the regs is that if you don't meet the regulatory requirement in (g)(2)(1), THEN it's up to the schools, so that's where you will get a lot of variation. Hopefully we won't ever need this. For us it is mostly insurance. I turn 52 this year, the same age my father was when he died. I think we are fortunate in our ability to homeschool, but circumstances change. If I become ill or of course die, homeschooling will be off the table. Anyway, thanks to all of you for your help. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for the follow up @Hilltopmom! I'm glad you got a silver lining out of this terrible mess! ❤️

Thanks @Farrar, I have also seen mostly negative reviews of their courses! Although in fairness I saw a few who were very happy. there are truly several things I dislike about them from the outset, including what in my opinion amounts to a major lack of transparency about this program. I only figured out through extensive researching that when they say they give you a "full year" worth of services, they actually mean 300 days. I mean they defined it to mean that in their fine print. I am not a fan of that type of business practice. In addition, they sell something they claim to be a "healing therapy" for children with learning disabilities. As a mom with a special needs kid, I get so sick of snake oil. I have seen so many families bilked out of their money through the years and it makes me angry. I don't want to say that I know it doesn't work when I'm not an expert and I've never used it, BUT ... my autistic kid is 14-1/2, and I know enough to know that there is no therapy that can do what they claim there. So I just find that gross. Sigh. but then sometimes we can't be picky about our service providers! there aren't that many. But for all these reasons, I am tonight leaning towards Clonlara. However ... Bridgeway is (on the face of it, at least -- who knows about possible hidden fees) less expensive, and with my local schools I think their Cognia accreditation might actually have a slight edge. this is really not very important to me but I've learned that fascinatingly, in my county they've declared that only Cognia-accredited transcripts can be applied for any sort of academic award. The state regulation that lists more accrediting agencies only guarantees you transfer of your credits. But I don't think my kids are really academic-award types anyway, so I'm not TOO worried about that. Still. I had to pause over it. The whole thing is actually pretty crazy. But then again, there are more crazy things in the world today to fret about.

Hi there - I have been looking into using an umbrella program to get accredited credits for my children's customized courses. Before someone says anything, it's not for graduation / college. We've homeschooled forever and I know I don't need accreditation for most purposes. However, my kids are in high school and I need to make sure that if they decide to transfer to public school they won't have to take a bunch of tests or repeat a grade. However, I don't want to give up our flexibility, so I'm planning to invest in a service that will be accredited by a regional accreditation service. I have gotten very good information already about multiple schools, but today my husband and I are looking specifically at Bridgeway and Clonlara for this purpose, and we are wishing we had a clearer idea of exactly what the transcript will look like. If anyone has ever gotten a transcript from one of these places that involved customized courses, I sure would appreciating hearing from you! I'm of course wanting to know if there is anything about the way that it is presented that would set off alarms at our school. Will it just look exactly like any other school transcript? As an fyi, we have also looked very hard at NARHS and I've gotten great info about them from folks here. But we are leaning towards the other two because we are hoping that they may require less paperwork / documentation on our part, and also because NARHS's accreditation is set to expire next year so we are only a tiny bit worried about what might happen if they didn't get that renewed on time. Thank you! EDIT to say I actually just got a sample transcript from Clonlara directly! However, Bridgeway told me they cannot give me one. Well, they did send me one They .one, but it's for a student who did the online program, and they said that's the only one they can give me, which was disappointing. So I cannot see what it looks like if you do customized courses there.

well at least you don't have to take attendance. but I think it's just wild that every individual district just makes up it's own rules. so hard in this day and age when people move so often!

As a PS -- I should add that of course all my plans are worthless if we move out of state! So the regulation I am looking at here only helps if we stay in Georgia. Just in case someone else comes along and reads this later. If you move around a lot or think you might, none of this is any guarantee!! but in our case, moving out of state -- while always possible I suppose -- is a very unlikely scenario.

@MamaSprout, that sounds awful. I am curious if you are completely sure, though? State regulations are extremely hard to locate. Is it possible that there are some but you just were not aware of it? Based on the Georgia homeschoolers FB group I'm in, I can tell you that most Georgia homeschoolers seem completely unaware of the state regulations. Also, based on the one time I have interacted with a principal and a registrar at a local school, I can also tell you that school officials also seem to be ... either unaware of the state regulations, or they are not facile with them. That's for sure.

Hi @MamaSprout, your point is well taken. I am blessed with being an attorney, and while this is not my area of expertise, I am looking at the precise laws in my state (Georgia). While it is really hard to navigate, there is exactly one regulation which mandates transfer of credits, and it's this one: https://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/State-Board-of-Education/SBOE Rules/160-5-1-.15.pdf. If you do it correctly, it will be non-discretionary for the school and the local board. but only if you do it 100% exactly right. The accreditation in particular must be an exact match, and there are oodles and oodles of supposedly accredited institutions that have the wrong sort of accreditation. If you have the wrong type of accreditation, you are correct that you will wind up in the category that depends upon the school district. They definitely don't make it easy for anyone to figure this out, and to be honest I think it might be almost impossible for a non-attorney to navigate these rules. It's ridiculous. but if you turn to page 5 of this pdf and read (g) it will start you on the right path. But the school must be "accredited" as per the definition on page 1, it has to actually be a SCHOOL, and accredited as a SCHOOL, and this is where many people get messed up. It cannot be a non-traditional education center, even though many of these are accredited and even count for purposes of the hope scholarship. It cannot be accredited as a "corporation," as I have seen at least one highly popular place promote itself. There are SO MANY traps for the unwary -- it is ridiculous. The accreditation agency also must be one of those listed or their successors. You have to go chase down a statute to find the entire list. And because it's old, you have to figure out who the successors are, because half the list have changed names or merged. It has been very exhausting. I want to share also that I have not 100% completed my diligence on NARHS, but they are indeed accredited by the correct sort of agency, and also as a school. I am still confirming that they are accredited as a "secondary school," as the agency doesn't use that nomenclature, but I expect to find that it is fine. If for some reason I find that it isn't, I will report back. what concerned me more is that their current accreditation is set to expire at teh end of 2022 so they will have to renew soon. I know that previously lost it for a little while. For Georgia purposes, it must be accredited when you earn the credits, so I'm not too worried for this year, but it will be something to watch out for next year. Also I would not look forward to having to deal with school personnel who don't understand that if I come in later and have to explain "they aren't accredited TODAY, but they were when we EARNED the credit." honestly, I don't like to lawyer in real life LOL. But I do like to be prepared in case I have to. I don't want my kid to have to repeat a grade if I die! Or take a bunch of subject tests (shudder)

@maize thank you so much for all of this information! I have been so obsessed with making sure my kid(s) can transfer in credits as credits in case they go to our public school later (i.e., I just wanted to make sure they wouldn't have to repeat a grade, which would be AWFUL), that to be honest I have paid zero attention to grading, grades, or GPA! Oh my, it's all so very exhausting LOL. no wonder so many parents just send their kid to school! I keep finding myself wishing I could travel back in time just a couple of years. homeschooling for the first 8 years was so easy! I wish i could just keep doing it like that forever.

@maize what I have been trying to imagine now is what it is like to create a customized class with them. What I had been hoping for was someone who would let me lay out some substantive content goals (so if it was math, I might have "quadratic equations" or something like that) ahead of time, but not have all the details about how we would get there filled out in advance. My experience homeschooling through the years is that when I start with somebody else's materials in anything whatsoever, I always hit a patch where it's just not working / just not enough. I find it so much better, especially with my special needs kid, to be able to switch gears. occasionally this might even require a detour substantively when I suddenly realize that he has a "gap" that I have to stop and focus on for a while before we dive in to the bigger topic. I am wondering if any of the umbrella services are flexible enough for me to keep working that way, but for my kid to still get credit for the work he's putting in. It seems like it's very easy to deal with them if you use a textbook, it's super clear! but then what if we don't finish that textbook or decide it's not a good approach so we go hop over to somewhere else for this bit or that bit? so then I'll be back in the "customized" bucket with them! I guess I'm hoping for a program that doesn't care how you "get there," but will give you credit for where you get -- but without making me create a bunch of lesson plans in advance! and somewhere that if I start with a textbook, I won't have to worry that they won't let me change gears in the middle. I realize that I am to some extent trying to have my cake and eat it too LOL. I have gotten the impression that Clonlara -- which costs about 3X as much (!!) -- is extremely flexible the way I'm hoping for -- but oh the cost differential!! I'll just add, in case anyone else in the future is researching these things, that if my kids DID stick with this mode until graduation and we decided we wanted the diploma, Clonlara has layered on some graduation requirements I personally find a bit annoying, although livable. so I do like the "bare bones" of NARHS, including the lower hour bar and the lower number of credits to get the diploma. (although, we would not really be doing it for the diploma as I explained above.) But I have worried that NARHS may not be as flexible as Clonlara when it comes to actual course design and implementation. It's tough.