What is the difficulty level of the vocabulary class, Witty Wordsmith versus the Classical Mythology Alpha class? And are the difficultly levels for the companion spring classes similar to the fall classes? I was thinking of registering my dd 13, an 8th grader this fall, in both classes (Witty Wordsmith and Classical Mythology Alpha,) but want to make sure there isn't a large discrepancy in level/requirements between the two classes. If there is, which would be better for an 8th grader with well above grade level reading / creative writing abilities, average grammar / academic writing abilities and a flighty disposition (a budding film / drama / music major that dreads academics in general?)

Kolbe offers lesson plans for Anatomy & Physiology as a science elective using the text Hole's Essentials of Human Anatomy & Physiology by Shier, Butler and Lewis, McGraw Hill.

They work really well together as both have 36 scheduled weeks. WWS is scheduled at 4 days per week and CW can be done once per week. We do Creative Writer on Fridays so that my dd (7th grade) can continue her creative writing into the weekend if she so desires.

ETA: Sorry, meant to put this on the high school board! Any recommendations for an at-home sociology or psychology program. It doesn't matter whether it is high school or college (AP) level. I am not looking for an online class. I have looked at the semester long Oak Meadow program for psychology. Any others?

For 1st-5th we are using Singapore (I teach) along with Saxon (kids do on their own) and Life of Fred for fun on Fridays.

Thanks for stating this. I didn't even realize this was something that I needed to keep in mind. Somehow, I was under the impression that a student could earn as many credits as he/she liked so long as the student was listed as 'dual-enrolled.' I thought the accepting university could decide what to do with the credits. So now the NCAA may have a say in how many credits a dual-enrolled student can earn? I'm tempted to encourage my younger children to look more closely at sports/activities not regulated by the NCAA. I really dislike the idea of limiting their high school education for the sake of maybe playing a sport in college. Especially since the trend seems to be more requirements/limitations each year. :glare:

I think the books are fairly advanced. My girls used them at grade level, but my son will use them a year behind. He will not be ready to start Jr. English 1 this fall as a 2nd grader, so we will wait and begin in third. I don't forsee any problems with that. My dd 13, 7th grade, has done the first six books (finishing the sixth book this year) but I am thinking that I will hold off on the 8th grade book (English Year 9) and use it in 9th. There is a bit of a jump between those two books and we aren't there yet. The following year it should be a better fit for her.

Yes. :)

We'll start 2nd grade the middle of August. Math - Singapore 2, Saxon 3, Life of Fred A-D Science - Elemental Science Chemistry, McHenry's Elements English - Primary Language Lessons, Pentime 2, Hooked on Phonics 5, Explode the Code 5-8 Literature - Memoria Press Storytime, More Storytime, Beatrix Potter, Mr. Potter's Penguins World History - Galore Park Jr. History 1 American History - Pearson's History & Geography 4, Memoria Press States and Capitals Foreign Language - Skoldo French 2 Outsourced - art classes, swim lessons and maybe tennis

Thanks. That does help! I don't really need the books until this summer, so I can wait a bit and see if free shipping comes up again.

I've about finalized everything, as I want to order books soon. :D Foreign Language - Memoria Press First Form Latin, Skoldo French 2 Math - Singapore 4, Saxon 65, Life of Fred G-L Science - Elemental Science Chemistry, Ellen McHenry's Elements and Carbon Chemistry English - Galore Park Jr. English 3, Writing Tales 2, Sequential Spelling 2, Pentime 4, Kolbe Elementary Lit, finish Practice Island World History - Memoria Press Book of the Ancient World, Connect the Thoughts Prehistory - Phoenecians American History - Pearson's History and Geography 4 (American Revolution - Reformers,) Memoria Press States and Capitals Outsourced - art classes, gymnastics, swim lessons, maybe adding acting and tennis

Before I go ahead and order next year's books, does Memoria Press ever run sales or free shipping days during the spring or early summer? :001_smile:

I think Beautiful Feet and Biblioplan both combine world and American history.

I have a 2001 edition and it does not include Fahrenheit 451. It includes A Separate Peace, Huckleberry Finn, Anthem and several short stories.

I've really lost the fun of planning in high school, but at least it is easy as most subjects are outsourced. Dd is doing six credits plus volunteer hours and tennis. English (outsourced) - Topics in Composition, Poetry Writing Latin (outsourced) - Latin III, Reading Latin Literature Science (outsourced) - Principles of Biology I w/ Lab Electives (outsourced) - Introduction to Philosophy, Informal Logic Math (with me) - finish LOF Geometry, LOF or Chalkdust Algebra II History (with me) - my own plan - resulting in CLEP exam for History of the United States I Geography (with me) NO credit - done w/ sister over three years - first ten weeks of Oak Meadow World Geography and Mapping the World with Art

We use only the grammar portion. I have a grammar teacher's edition (grammar island, grammar town, grammar voyage, magic lens 1, 2 and 3) and I have a teacher's version of the practice book that accompanies each level. We usually school 40 weeks so we spend the first 15 weeks going over the grammar book together. Then we parse 4 sentences a week for the rest of the year. I dictate the sentence to the child and s/he writes it on a white board. This way we get spelling/dictation practice out of the lesson too. MCT also has notes at the bottom of each sentence that we go over. The notes include vocabulary, poetry structure, etc. We generally spend 15-20 minutes twice per week throughout the year.

5th grade should have a science book available separately in the bookstore. K through fourth grade science is not separated from the main syllabus. You would need to purchase the whole syllabus to use the science portion.

Perhaps it's the weather? I've never had a prime shipment take more than the 2 days, the latest arrived just this morning. But I live in the south, so weather is rarely a factor.

I think your schedule looks fine for a FL state uni. I think the issue came up when you listed your son as a STEM student. On this site, that has people thinking engineering schools and such. But most BA Biology degrees (including the UF Zoology degree) are given through the College of Liberal Arts and not the more competitive math/science schools within the state universities. However, getting into the state schools here is becoming more difficult. The most important things to focus on are your son's GPA and ACT/SAT scores. Last year's stats were just posted and a 4.0 has become almost a necessity. UF just released their acceptances for this year earlier this week and the stats look to be similar this year. A down economy and the Bright Futures scholarships are definitely upping the transcript requirements. From what I have heard locally, solid extra-curriculars and lots of volunteer hours seem to be determining factors more so than added AP classes (for general admittance.) As to your schedule, I would drop one of the electives from 9th grade down to 12th grade to give a full 6 credits and if you are taking Driver's Ed add it to 9th grade. It is almost a requirement in FL and on nearly every transcript so it won't look like a filler class if added to a 9th or 10th grade year. (If you aren't taking driver's ed, just disregard :) ) Hope that helps.

Thanks jhschool. I've told my dd that she is going to have to meet the state requirements, same as everyone else - just to be safe. My dd is quite bright and a wonderful young woman, but she is not academically motivated and wants to wrap up her academic classes as quickly as possible. I think this has been her goal since she was about seven. :) The state of Florida has a predetermined list of how much credit a dual enrolled student can get from each college class. So dd is going to have to take 4 math classes, 4 science classes (with lab,) 6 English classes, 8 social science classes and 4 Latin classes minimum in order to meet the 4x4+2 core in high school. The university only allows a dual enrolled student to take a maximum of 33 classes (actually 110 credit hours) and dh and I have already lowered that to 30 classes maximum. So she will have 26 required classes and 4 elective classes. I feel bad that she doesn't have more electives, but do feel she should meet the high school requirements. I've also told her she can CLEP any social studies classes she wants to study from home in order to open up more electives.

It is already available. (I just posted that question myself a couple of weeks ago. :) )

We are still working through the short story section, but I like it a lot. Dd13 has always been a fiction/short story writer, so she is using the book to hone more than anything, She gives each assignment quite a bit of thought and turns out pages of work. I've only used it with the one child thus far. We do plan to move into book 2 next year.

There's also Breaking the Barrier: French.

As stated above, I was already allowing one high school credit per semester of math/science. :blushing: I think she is going to have to take a minimum of four classes each of math and science. College history classes only count a half credit for high school, so she will need to take at least six classes in that area.

Florida already has a state wide system in place that states how much high school credit is given for each college class. Her latin classes each only count one half credit, so she will need to take at least four classes to meet the two year requirement. But she plans to take more than that anyway, so that isn't a problem. Most math and science classes (with lab) do allow one full high school credit per college semester. She is wanting to take only College Algebra, Precalculus, General Biology with lab and General Chemistry with lab and no other college math and science classes over her four high school years. So when I say two years I am really only saying two college semesters. :001_unsure: