Can you elaborate on the scheduler issues? I usually schedule and entire year too and I anticipate this will drive me nuts. I like being able to ask, "If we take this field trip or 3 sick days, what is the impact on the end of the year?" I don't like operating in a black box. Is there anywhere in the program that says, x days of school year completed and y days of school year remaining? At least at that point I can look at a lesson plan and say, "We have 76 days of school left but 82 days of math left and realize we need to double up or drop the last chapter." Does the rescheduler let us reschedule against the presets? That would stink if it didn't. With 2 in high school and in online courses and the youngest with classes that are only 4 days a week, I seriously cannot keep track of when to schedule what on certain days. Yes, the hang time stinks. I have 3 kids. I'm with you. As far as the reading log goes, they suggested I create a course called High School Reading Log or 6th Grade Reading Log. Then just add an assignment with that book as the resource. The resource list report then shows your book list. It isn't perfect but it covers it without using Excel. My oldest is 10th so I have completed half of her high school records at this point. With as nice as all of the reports are, I still ultimately created a document in Word because I have a Table of Contents, transcript by year and by subject pages, reading list to match formatting of the rest of the document and course descriptions. Maybe HSTO's formatting is nicer than HST+? Regardless, I'm in a groove now so adding a book inside the Word document isn't a big deal though I keep a master list in HST+. I really appreciate your feedback. Thanks!

you can see it on one page if you change the settings to show PLC or change to the Agenda view which is a list of everything for that day.

Can you elaborate on this at all? We still need to purchase the supply kit from Quality Science Labs. Is he doing something different?

The only thing I saw that caught my attention is the Homeschool Tracker Online is half off for a 1 year subscription. The rest of it was a let down.

I have used Homeschool Tracker Plus for over 10 years. I have dabbled with Homeschool Tracker Online. I don't like how the assignment grid isn't "active" in HSTO like it is in HST+ which means I have to double click into every record I want to enter a grade. I do like that it is online so rescheduling is immediate, no more reprinting assignment calendars. It is a little slower online, especially for rescheduling. My kids liked the Assignment calendar report in HST+ that allowed them to see their assignments a week at a time in a nice grid (subjects down the left, days of the week across the top) but there isn't anything like that in HSTO. So I am trying to figure out if it is worth it to make the move because a 1 year subscription is half off (I've never seen a sale like this before). If you were a HST+ user and made the jump to HSTO, are you glad you did? Do you miss HST+? Did you go back? Why do you stick with HSTO? I'd love to read your feedback about your experience.

Thank you! That settles that.

That is what I was thinking too but I am not a college admissions officer... nor did I ever take AP's in high school myself (not offered) so I am seeking to find a balance between rigor, outside activities (swim team), teen social, and everyone's sanity. Your response is appreciated. :)

Our kids usually take 7-8 credits per year of high school, 3 of which are honors level each year. Our oldest will be a junior next year taking 2 AP's and 3 true honors courses (per provider offering each course). When kids start taking AP's do they still take 7 credits or do some kids cut back to 6 credits to help balance out the work load? How many credit hours do your kids take when they start into AP and dual enrollment?

Everywhere my dd is looking which covers state schools as well as private, all say 3. I've only seen more at Ivies. She has evaluated the requirements of about a dozen schools so far? The only common thing we see: 1 year US history, 1 semester of US Govt. One school specifically called out World History. The rest appeared to leave it pretty open as to how the other credit and a half are filled. She skipped geography freshman year because an incredible course opportunity popped up. We have no intention of making it up and she will graduate with 3 full credits of history (1 world, 1 us, 0.5 govt, 0.5 econ). HTH. And the best advice is to check a handful of schools that are even possibilities for your student to be safe.

If your student used DIVE Chemistry, was the student prepared to take the AP Chem exam without additional outside study? If your comfortable sharing, what did they score? My student wants to take the AP Chem exam next year but will need a 4 or 5 to place out of engineering chem at the schools she is looking at. We are debating between ChemAdvantage with the high price tag (yeah, i know, cheaper than college tuition) or DIVE Chemistry. Thoughts? Experience? TIA.

Oh! And depending on your budget, this might work for you too? https://diveintomath.com/clep-ap-prep/ At the end of the day, the real question is why she isn't doing her work for the tutor. Does she not like the tutor? Does she not understand the material? Too many other things on her plate? Changing curriculums or programs may or may not improve her situation.... I'm sorry if I have stepped on your toes saying this... please know my heart is to genuinely help not upset. Peace.

No idea how they do it with upper level math but you can create a khan Academy account for free and play around. For younger grades it showed a video and had practice problems. The student had to get 5 correct in a row before they could proceed to the next lesson if I recall correctly. It might be worth creating an account and having your daughter give it a whirl and see what you both think. If nothing else, it is one more curriculum option out of the way? :)

Khan Academy is free and teaches Calc 1. Everything else I know of has fees of some form.

Ahhh.... a fellow mom of a budding civil engineer.... or is that mechanical.... depends on the day and what has her excited. lol. Okay, so I am 1 math year behind you but have been researching the Precalc / calc issue a lot lately. I have a few options for you, one I think was already suggested: Derek Owens has AP Calc to prep for the Calc AB exam. $59 per month for his curriculum, video teaching, and grading. He has a half price option if you want to do your own grading. LeTourneau has a Calc 1 class as distance learning. $270 plus text. And if your daughter is interested in attending there, they offer a $16,000 scholarship just for doing a dual credit with them. :) Cedarville also offers a dual enrollment calc class for engineering calc. Too many questionable reviews of Thinkwell for engineering students: lack of applied math practice. Great for non-engineering / non-math / non-physics majors. It has its place in the curriculum line up. Out of curiosity, what did you do for physics. We need honors physics that isn't AP physics. This class is killing me. We are leaning toward Derek Owens honors physics class. I am open to other ideas if you had success this past year. Thanks!

If you want to be safe, DIVE sells a CLEP Professor program for cheap with assessment to determine weak areas, study materials, video instruction, and practice questions. It might be worth an investment to ease you mind before you invest in the test?

Grantmom, I don't know if she knows what she wants to do. She knows she loves science, math, Legos, problem solving, building things out of anything she can find, and working in groups (she is very social). Her dad is an engineer. On the flip side, she attended a class about Data Science at Yale and loved it. The high school cannot expose her to data science or any programming language beyond java at the moment. Yes, we can offer her an abundance of STEM classes at home through online resources, community college classes, home based curriculums, and co-ops. Our homeschool offerings have a wider variety which I think is good because she hasn't honed in on 1 discipline of engineering which intrigues her, let alone know for sure if engineering is for her. I spent 2 years in engineering before I realized I didn't like it and switched majors to data science and was in love. Do you mind sharing why you decided against the program being offered by your local high school?

Raptor_dad, We have the same situation here as you do: our local, PLTW sponsoring university will award credits for the classes taken; however, those credits aren't required credits for their engineering degrees and are used to fill in general electives. A few universities who award these credits, like RPI if I am not mistaken, also require the family to pay a nominal fee for the credits. The PLTW credits are only partly useful. And 2 of the schools my daughter is looking at don't award any credit for PLTW. For all of these reasons, college credit isn't the primary motivation. Thank you for chiming in again.

LoriD, Thank you for both of your replies. First, we are not studying health right now. We plan to cover the delta 25% from our 9th grade honors biology class on breaks, but not as a formally scheduled class. The only classes we were carrying over from middle school were Algebra ! and French 1. She is slated to do Honors Biology in 9th regardless of where she attends school. Second, the school has a swim team who has been trying to recruit her since 6th grade so that isn't a concern. There isn't a golf team; however she would finally have the opportunity to do robotics again. :) The school was clear that her foreign language would have to start over which disappoints her because she has thoroughlyenjoyed french this year (using a high school text and attending a weekly french lab for oral practice). The school has a reputation for being open to dual credit and outside resources when they can no longer meet the need of the student. On the other hand, since they have more than enough foreign language available, they don't allow outside resources. If she wanted to study Italian V, they the college is an option and those pathways are already created. I hope that makes sense. Finally, yes, I have looked into the graduation requirements of her top 3 schools. What you posted is right in line with what we learned. One delta between the high school requirements and our homeschool plan was the fine arts. All 3 colleges had no issue with her satisfying the Fine Art credit with a CADD Architecture course because of the architecture study involved with the class. The high school offers the CADD Architecture but won't count it as fine arts, rather only a tech credit. This was allowing us to satisfy a fine arts credit with a STEM interest. This option isn't available at the high school. And I couldn't agree more than she needs to trim a few of those extra curricular hours but that is part of the growing up / time management lesson and for her to decide when the time comes. Thank you again for posting.

abcmommy, that is great to know. With the program just kicking off, we have no way of knowing which specialties will be brought in or implemented for her senior year. We have the plain vanilla engineering program being kicked off. Biomed wouldn't interest her but I could see the civil architecture track intriguing her. Thank you for posting.

BlueGoat, I apologize. You are right in that they aren't ridiculous credits. But when she is swimming 12 hours a week on the swim team, playing on a girls golf team, rowing, and hiking, the credits seem redundant to me (assuming the point is to teach physical fitness), preventing her from taking 2 credits classes that intrigue her. Yes, she would love to continue French so that is a true loss for her. She would be completing health with us but our biology course covers 75% of the material allowing her to complete a class by studying just the differential so it is redundant to take a separate class to repeat the biology material and learn an additional 25% content. You are right, the credits in themselves are sensible credits, we simply had found a much more efficient way to meet those credits so the 4.5 credits seem like a waste compared to how we would have completed those credits homeschooling, especially since the average school year is only 7 credits to begin with.

It was suggested I post this on the high school board. Our town is kicking off Project Lead the Way (PLTW), the pre-engineering program that *seems* to becoming the gold star standard for students applying to engineering schools or STEM degree programs. Our 8th grader, who has wanted to be a "science girl engineer" since she was 4 and homeschooled since Pre-K, applied and was one of the 15 students accepted. I can't find one bad thing about this program other than it requires her to attend public school to participate in the program. The school has APs and a robotics team but also requires *2* years of PE to spite the state only requiring 1 credit, won't recognize her year of high school french because they don't have french (only Spanish and Italian) requiring her to start her foreign language requirements over (STEM colleges only want 2 years but they want 2 years of the same language), and we were creatively meeting the state's fine arts requirements but she would have to meet it in the classroom. Let's add the health requirement we were meeting in other ways and we are at 4.5 credits just in ridiculous credits. Does anyone know enough about PLTW to help us decide if the program is worth giving up the endless benefits of homeschooling to attend public high school to participate in this program? Thanks in advance. Laurie Beth

Our town is kicking off Project Lead the Way (PLTW), the pre-engineering program that *seems* to becoming the gold star standard for students applying to engineering schools or STEM degree programs. Our 8th grader, who has wanted to be a "science girl engineer" since she was 4 and homeschooled since Pre-K, applied and was one of the 15 students accepted. I can't find one bad thing about this program other than it requires her to attend public school to participate in the program. The school has APs and a robotics team but also requires *2* years of PE to spite her being on the swim team year round, won't recognize her year of high school french because they don't have french (only Spanish and Italian) requiring her to start her foreign language requirements over, and we were creatively meeting the state's fine arts requirements but she would have to meet it in the classroom. Let's add the health requirement we were meeting in other ways and we are at 4.5 credits just in ridiculous credits. Does anyone know enough about PLTW to help us decide if the program is worth giving up the endless benefits of homeschooling to attend public high school to participate in this program? Thanks in advance. Laurie Beth

Hey Ladies! I just wanted to point you to a thread I put on the For Sale board. I am having a MASSIVE clean out my bookshelves sale. Most, if not all, of the books are half price or less. I am only charging your actual shipping, mostly between $3-$4 for a good number of books. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3506505 I also have WWE4, FLL, R&S Grammar 4 (text & TM), and R&S Grammar 2 for sale. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338938 I need to clear my shelves. If you know you'll need something for next year or want something and don't see it, please don't hesitate to ask - I simply may not have posted it yet - or forgot I had it. Let's help each other out. Thanks! Laurie Beth

R&S will teach a new concept and MOST lessons have a few review questions from previous material. It is gentle, reinforces itself and I found to be very effective (I've learned a ton too! - I can actually tell you the difference between a direct object and a predicate noun now - I hadn't even HEARD those terms before last year... Lol). Then half way through and again at the end of the chapter, there are more reviews to continue to help reinforce. And don't hesitate to hollar to the back of the car on the way to the grocery store, "Hey, what is the definition of an adverb? Do I lay down or lie down?" M&M drills are great (you ask a question, if they get it right, toss them a M&M). Drill questions while shooting hoops. Faithe, relax. It WILL be okay. The boys are going to do fine. Really. NOBODY cares about their education more than you do. I want to just sit down, drink a cup of decaf, and eat some cheesecake or something with you, give you a hug, just sit until you feel better. Of course, we can follow SWB's therapy plan: eat chocolate until we feel better, get up tomorrow and remember it is a new day and we can do this. I can't think of a poster on this board who hasn't admitted to anxiety with their kids' education. You have a HUGE, worldwide board coming along side you ready to cheer you on, many have already started. We've been there. We are there. Take tomorrow off if you can and write down your tweaked plan, ideas, etc. If you are a faithful person, pray for peace, wisdom, and guidance. If you are a Christian, I really like Homeschool Enrichment magazine. Every month or two I receive a lot of encouraging articles, fresh ideas, reminders of why I do this. If you aren't a Christian, then please pardon my suggestion and forgive me. Regardless, I would definitely look at R&S.

Try Discovery Streaming. Another poster on the board has had great success with it for teaching spanish for a few years now. Discovery Streaming is 47% off right now at www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org Good luck.