I'm so glad I'm not the only one! I'm hoping I'll REALLY understand those percent problems my next time through! And I have the HIG's. I found the HIG's to be very helpful. I liked the mental math exercises in the earlier grades and I really needed some of the solutions to the word problems along with the explanations on the SM approach in the later grades. I bought them all beginning at level 2 when I used Singapore with first dc. Good investment for me since I'll be reusing them. Mary

It's hard to believe the CC has no policy for this. You really need to find someone else in your situation or look to home school support groups in your area/ state to find out what has been required of other home schoolers attending CC. Also, it occurs to me if you spoke to a secretary/receptionist you need to go higher up the food chain... dean of academics? Make an appointment and go in person with your transcripts. Good luck! Mary

So sorry you are dealing with this. I found it comforting to read fun read alouds with dc gathered around (got my mind off things for awhile.) Made sure we all got out some. The olders did some by themselves. Made sure the youngest got out to play. It takes some time. Mary

I reread this a couple of years ago when ds was reading it and felt the same way about it. When I first read it as an 18 or 19 year old I thought it was riotously funny as did ds. Guess it's an age thing. Mary

We don't have a community college, but ds took dual enrollment classes and his freshman yr at a small university before transferring to a large, very competitive university. Definitely made a difference. I think he would've died a quick academic death and immediately lost his HOPE scholarship without prior college class experience! Mary

I just "discovered" a 9 dvd set of those concerts that my mom had sent us, and I apparently set aside and forgot! Shame on me. I'm going to get them out for music study when we start back in Jan. Thanks for the review. Mary

The Chosen and The Promise by Chaim Potok Pride and Prejudice (for the 100th time!) Mary

URGH. Didn't even come close to finishing it. Picked it up after my sis left it at my house on her last visit. Mary

I have never used a reading program, and for years I second guessed the decision. Dc have always scored really well on standardized testing though, so I've become more at peace. Mary

Yikes! That's frightening!

:iagree: I have graduated one so far from home school. I'll add to the dorm comment, though. Ds stayed at home and commuted his first 2 yrs of college. He is in a dorm now at a different university and it is working well. The school takes great care to match transfer students of similar credit hours together as room mates. His roommate is a very serious student, as pretty much anyone who transfers into this university has to be! However, we NEVER. EVER. would have gone for this dorm thing when ds was a freshman. That's when you get so many kids who just go nuts b/c they are suddenly "free." Oh, and despite being home scooled ds doesn't have any problems compromising with his roommate! Mary

When we use TOG (and even when we're not!), we almost always have a read aloud going that all the dc can listen to. I say all, but with 6.5 yrs difference between each successive dc, the littlest was left to do some other activity! Now she's old enough that she listens when I read something aimed more at her older sister. I often try to choose read alouds aimed a little higher than oldest schooling dc but not always. My ds, now 19 and living at college, sat in for read alouds even as a sr in high school doing dual enrollment and freshman in college! Read alouds are great family bonding time. Oh, and I'll add that dh sits in for read alouds too before he has to get ready for work. Enjoy! Mary

I agree with this. My state reqs are 180 days 4hrs/day. We only have to show attendance for the day, however, on our attendance forms. I never worried about the 4 hrs/day req. I don't believe formal academics should take up 4 hrs for K and early elementary. They do a lot of informal learning as well at home. Enjoy your homeschool journey. As one poster has already said, I too had no clue what home schooling was when my oldest was 18 months! Mary

Kristin, in your case with all those dc I think CLE would be a great choice for you and it is thorough. I didn't mean to sound like I was trying to dissuade you! My dd (she's 7th IDK why I said 6th earlier) is using it for the reasons you want to use it. I don't have time right now to do oral lessons as much with her. Next year should be different. I like CLE, but R&S is my personal favorite. And I recognize that for DD the explanations in R&S 7 and 8 get pretty long, dry and tedious! She likes CLE. My main point in my rambling on in my previous post, is that if you wanted to look up a grammar concept addressed in CW or how to diagram something in CW, it would be hard to do in CLE Light Units. An additional resource for you might be helpful.:001_smile: Mary

Well...I own the entire R&S series from previous dc, so usually we look up new grammar and diagramming in the 7th or 8th grade book. We do have a couple of handbooks, R&S (and I can't remember the other.) The handbooks don't cover the grammar in depth so I've found it easier to understand the new concepts using a text book. This is our first year with CLE LA, and it would be really hard to look up how to diagram something in it! There is no index, only toc in the Light Units. I don't have the TM, just the answer key, so maybe there is more organization in there. CLE has a lot of good points. Students can use it independently more easily than R&S. CLE is fairly incremental and gives a good bit of review through out. CLE is fairly rigorous, but I think R&S is more in depth and more rigorous. I like the organization of R&S. IF you go with CLE, you could get an R&S 7 or 8 book for you to use as a reference. They're pretty inexpensive. Grammar and diagramming are explained in the CW core manuals, but I really preferred explanations and examples in R&S. This is the first year we have really begun looking up the grammar we didn't know-mostly because I feel like we now have a good enough background after having completed R&S 6. When dd was working on Homer, I did a lot of sentence simplifications! I never bothered with trying to coordinate our English with CW-too much work for me. I always viewed CW as reinforcement and practical application. Have fun with CW! Mary

Dd, 6th, is doing Diogenes this year. We have never used Harvey's. We have been using R&S and this year CLE. We have always used the CW workbooks, and if we came to grammar we hadn't covered yet sometimes I modified the sentences that were given for diagramming practice if they were just too complicated. Sometimes, and more so this year than in the past, we look up the parts that we don't know to diagram and that is the English lesson for that day! Mary

Have a blessed Christmas and enjoy the time with your dc! And if any of your dc are like my ds on pins and needles waiting for final grades to come in, they are still in my prayers! Mary

My ds now 19 was like this throughout his home school career- dedicated to excellence in what he enjoyed, did the minimum to get by in every thing else. I was never successful at motivating him to go the extra mile in a subject he didn't enjoy. Dual enrollment at the college and now the threat of losing his scholarship and co-op job at the university are excellent motivators. I talked to him about motivation and studying recently, as teaching good study habits was something I have always felt like I failed to do. He told me that there was nothing I could've done and he would never have done these things until they really counted! Your ds is obviously bright, I would bet if he has any bit of competitiveness in his nature he will "pull his socks up"! Mary

This is what I do as well. I've used all 4 years of SOTW, and I think for me, the problem with SOTW 2 is just the time period. I felt like of all 4 books, 2 was a bit lacking in flow compared to the others but I chalk it up to the time period covered. I struggle with Middle Ages whether I'm using SOTW or TOG! Mary

The answers to many of your questions vary by university. In most high schools an AP class such as government or econ may last 1 yr, but are only 1 semester class at college. My ds attended a small university for dual enrollment (we are in GA). Anything under 30 hrs and the dual enrollment student was considered a first time full-time freshman for his first semester of college upon completing his senior yr of high school. The next semester the student's classification would change to what the number of credit hrs would normally be. Also, in my state, dual enrollment students receive funds for their college classes under a subset of the HOPE scholarship. Their tuition is treated as public school. I suggest you contact the dual enrollment adviser where your ds would attend and ask him all these questions. He schould be able to answer your credit hour and financial aid/scholarship questions for dual enrollment. Our adivser was great. As far as other scholarships are concerned, talk to the financial aid office at the college and other prospective universities your ds might want to attend after dual enrollment about what is available and who qualifies. I spent a lot of time on the phone! HTH. Mary

Great idea. Joining belatedly. Praying too! If ds falls below a 3.0 after I don't remember how many hours he stands to lose his HOPE scholarship and his co-op job. No pressure!! Thanks! Mary

The Home Instructor Guides for Singapore teach mental math techniques and contain mental math exercises. Mary

Not sure what levels you're looking at, but in Homer and Aesop the student has models in the workbook where he is supposed "mark" parts of speech or the beginning and ending of a scene. In Poetry the student marks stanzas and meter for example on the model poem in the workbook. HTH Mary

Well, I use both. I used Singapore with with 2 older dc, but decided to try RS with last dd because I thought it would be a god fit and also I wanted a change too. I struggled with the scripting of RS for a while and found it stilted, but I stuck with it and found a groove and I really like it. I preread lessons and don't do them as scripted. I also look ahead in the RS book because I've found sometimes I needed to condense esp. in the earlier lessons. None of this takes much time. Once I got into the groove, I probably spent about 15 min per week looking over lessons. We use SM half a yr behind chronological grade level. We are in 1st grade and finishing EB 2B and will start 1A after Christmas. This wasn't a "plan." It just worked out that way. We SM about twice a week and RS 4 days. This is my first time doing things this way and we will probably go year round. Siloam (I think!) on this board also does something similar. Maybe she'll chime in. HTH! Mary

Do you think this would be good for a student already in college? I had thought about getting this for ds before he started his dual enrollment classes, but never did. Now that he's in a bigger more rigorous U he is struggling more with organization and time management. He has always made pretty decent grades, but he knows that many times they could have been better. He says he's thought of things he'll need to do differently next semester, but if the TTC video would help I'll get him to watch it with me over the semester break. Thanks. Mary