I'm still having some of these issues with my ds15/10th grade. I've graduated from chocolate to margaritas. :D

We are one month into AP Environmental Science with PA Homeschoolers (a new course for them this year) and we are pleased so far.

My sophomore is typically doing school work for 8 hours a day. Edited to add: I should mention that he tends to be easily distracted and he is trying to improve his ability to focus so that he can work more efficiently.

Yep. Me too.

Mad Charity, do you mind if I jump in on this thread? I also just found out that we will be going to San Francisco for a long weekend in September. Could anyone add suggestions for things that 11 and 15 year old boys would enjoy? (sadly, not an anniversary trip for us - the kids and I are tagging along on dh's business trip)

Thank you Creekland! My oldest is starting his sophomore year, so I am still fairly new to all this homeschooling high school stuff. Sounds like our time would be better spent this year on shoring up weaknesses in writing and math, than on AP Environmental Science.

I'm reviving this thread, in part because I have found it helpful, but also because I am hoping some people will weigh in on the bolded comment above, because I am struggling with this same issue right now.

But if you aren't worried about getting accepted, but definitely want merit aid, don't you really need AP classes? We will get very little, if any, need-based aid. Yet we don't have a college fund, and we aren't willing to dip into our retirement fund, so we really don't know how we will pay for college without some merit aid. Can you get merit-based aid without AP classes, if you don't have super high SAT or ACT scores?

:iagree: And I edited my original post to say I no longer recommend My Well Planned Day for this school year. It could be great in the future, but I am requesting my money back and plan to go a different direction this school year. They just don't have enough of the promised features in place. :(

:iagree: This is not Beta testing. And features I want to use, that were supposed to be available July 16th, still aren't ready. I need to get my school year planned, and can't wait around any longer. I too plan to ask for a refund. I'm really disappointed.

I think you would like the new My Well-Planned Day software. User friendly, and in addition to your lesson plans/assignments, it will also organize your chores, menus, and bills - if you want it to do all of that. http://www.homeschoolconvention.com/mywellplannedday.html I take back my recommendation. Only a few of the promised updates/features were added yesterday. I think this has the potential to be a great product some day, but not for this school year. You should look elsewhere.

Analytical Grammar

We did the same and it worked out very well for ds15.

I agree. I would definitely allow him to return to homeschooling.

Thanks for the tip. :thumbup: My boys love Legos. I went to Target this morning and got the notebooks and folders. They are cute!

Our coach feels that 6-7 kids is the ideal team size. When she has more than that, she has trouble coming up with things for them all to do at a meeting. Our team meets twice a week for two hours at a time. And we take a couple of field trips, and the kids do some research outside of meeting times. As we get closer to the competition, they usually add a third 2 hour meeting per week. The week of a competition, they meet every day. We find it to be a pretty time consuming activity.

Normally I really enjoy planning. This year I can't seem to muster any enthusiasm for it, so I haven't started. I've been homeschooling for ten years, and I'm a little burnt out. And, I am considering switching to an online planner (My Well Planned Day) so I don't want to start writing it all out on paper if I'm going digital. Maybe the real problem is a serious lack of chocolate! :D

:lol::lol::lol:

I also think you are light on literatuer and composition. For 9th grade English my son did the Lightning Lit American Literature courses, plus Analytical Grammar and a vocabulary program.

Veritas Press Scholars Academy online course.

Thanks so much for this recommendation. I love a great, free resource.

Enriched rice milk and orange juiced fortified with calcium.

:lol::lol::lol: Me too!

Have you looked at Elemental Science? I don't think she will have the logic stage chemistry and physics levels done in time for your oldest, but all the younger levels are written.

Our homeschool group teen nights include Euchre Night, Monopoly Night, and Bunco Night. All of these are played tournament style so that the kids keep moving to different tables and interacting with everyone there. We also have a murder mystery night. That is a favorite with our teens. Everyone is assigned a role ahead of time and comes in costume.