My older DS is also wrapping up 8th grade this year. At the same time, my younger DS is wrapping up 5th grade. So, to have a low-key, family celebration, we're simply taking the boys out to dinner at a nice restaurant to mark the occasion. In my mind, the only official graduation (that deserves a party, gifts, announcements, etc.) is from high school. I'm sure we'll commemorate college graduation, too, but probably not with all the bells and whistles as we plan to for high school. But we do want to recognize the transition from elementary to middle school for our 5th grader and from middle school to high school for our 8th grader.

Don't know if you're from Florida, but all courses thru Florida Virtual School (FLVS) are free to FL residents.

The atlases my boys (ages 10 & 14) use most is the National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers and the National Geographic United States Atlas for Young Explorers. They've got enough details without being overwhelming, and the maps and photos are great. I got them both fairly cheap on Amazon. The U.S. atlas has an interactive/web component that links with the book, too.

We've used Writing Strands all along, but I've occasionally supplemented with other resources/programs because Writing Strands seems like such a minimalistic approach to writing. As my DS approaches high school, I plan to continue with Writing Strands but still supplement with various essay-writing resources (like The Elegant Essay and The Lively Art of Writing) because they seem so much more thorough. Do you think this confuses kids, by learning different approaches to writing, or do you think this would actually help kids, by showing them there's not just one "right" way to write?

Well, I can't comment on the other math curriculum, but I can tell you about my experience with FLVS. We've used FLVS for the past year, and we are very pleased with it so far. My 8th grade DS took two high-school level courses in the past year: Geometry Honors and Latin 1. He earned an A in both. He just started Latin II, which will complete his required foreign language credits. He'll take Biology I Honors and Algebra II Honors starting in August. FYI - I believe all the FLVS core science courses--Biology, Chemistry, Physics--include labs (some virtual, some done at home w/ FLVS mailing the needed materials to students). My 5th grader also just began his 1st FLVS course -- M/J 1 Mathematics Advanced, which is basically 6th grade math. He is flourishing, with a 99.6 average right now. He's very good at math, but we used to fight a lot about math because he would get mad at ME (or the math book) when he made mistakes. So, he is now accountable to someone else. (Insert happy dance here.) I LOVE being able to use FLVS because math & science are not my strong points. And, as I finally admitted to myself & my kids this year, I really hate teaching science. (I enjoy learning about science, just not teaching it.) I love that my kids have to be accountable to someone else (an FLVS teacher), so this puts a little more pressure on them to meet deadlines, make steady progress in the course, prepare for tests, etc. It's really helped them become more responsible. FYI - Teachers are very accessible by phone, email or instant messaging. And, for the courses taken so far, each module includes an oral exam. (The 2-semester courses my sons have taken so far have each included 8 modules, so that would include 8 oral exams.) Also, FLVS requires that teachers talk with both students & parents at least once a month. I also LOVE that students get to resubmit most assignments for a better grade. This means they can truly master a topic before moving on to the next lesson. And, to me, that should be the point of education. FYI - there are various resources available to help students with their courses, such as live tutoring sessions (via web/chat), help pages on the FLVS website, other websites, etc. The Algebra I course even included limited access to the United Streaming website for math videos. My older son spends about an hour per course per day on his high school level courses (sometimes less, rarely more). This includes learning the day's topic (thru reading the lesson online or watching a movie/animation or listening to Latin pronunciations, etc.) and then doing an assignment based on the day's lesson. My younger son spends about 30 minutes/lesson, so sometimes he'll do more than one lesson per day if he's feeling motivated. Plus, the added bonus is that FLVS courses are FREE to Florida residents. (I think out-of- state students have to pay about $300 per course.) Keep in mind that FLVS gives students a 30-day grace period to decide if they want to continue with the course or drop it without any penalties on their grades/transcript. So, your kids can sign up for a course, do the lessons for a few weeks to see how they like working in an online learning environment and then decide. This will also give you chance to see a detailed breakdown of what will be taught throughout the entire year. Also, students can choose the regular course or advanced/honors if they think they can handle it. In fact, they can start with the more challenging course, and if it's too hard, they can simply drop down to the regular course. (I don't know if there's a time limit on when you can switch.) If you have any other questions, ask away. :001_smile:

How about "Super Size Me" and "Food, Inc."? Great documentaries worthy of discussion about food, obesity, healthy eating, sustainable farming, the business of agriculture, etc. Also, I haven't seen it yet, but "Waiting for Superman" is supposed to be very good. It's about the state of the American education system. And "Race to Nowhere" was also very good. It's about the intense pressures put upon today's public school kids. Some older ones about persistence and self-belief ("Rudy") and inclusion ("Radio") are also great for conversations.

Just came across this fantastic history website & thought I'd share, in case you don't know about it: http://www.besthistorysites.net/index.shtml. It's like a portable for some of the best history websites, and it breaks it down into ancients, medieval, modern, U.S., etc. There's also a section on art history, online history games, animations, lesson plans, etc. Very cool! I was searching for online history games to use now (for U.S. history) and also for ancient history websites for next year when we begin our Great Books study. I can't wait to explore!

I started planning for hs while my oldest DS was in 7th grade. He took Algebra 1 in 7th grade, which led me to figure out where this math progression would take him in hs. Before I knew it, I had roughly planned out all 4 years for all core subjects by the time he entered 8th grade. He then gave me some input about electives, so I'm trying to fit in what he wants (lots of art, music, theater & digital design) with what I'd like him to take (logic, speech, debate, personal finance, SAT prep). I keep tweaking the schedule and understand it is very flexible. And, as my DS gets older & more mature, he will have more input in what he wants to take. But for now, I like to have a plan so I know what I'm shooting for. We can always change things later, and I'm sure we'll do so each year. Plus, we're trying to schedule some of the things over the summer (like his online Latin course) to lighten up his schedule a bit for the regular school year (Aug.-May).

We belong to a GREAT co-op that offers classes for Pre-K thru high school. We've got 2 sessions (spring & fall) that last only 8 weeks, so we've had a good variety of classes over the years. Here are a few that stand out: Presidential Physical Fitness, Journalism, Dangerous Book For Boys, Geography Fun & Games, Poetry Pizzazz, lots of art classes, Drama, Munchable Math, Tall Tales Across the USA, Speech, Personal Finance, Video Game Design, Ballroom Dancing, History Pockets. Basically, any parent/grandparent who wants to teach any class gets to teach it.

I've read a few over the past year, as my oldest is just finishing up 8th grade. My favorite, hands down, is College-Prep Homeschooling by David P. Byers & Chandra Byers. It covers some of what you'd expect (how to choose high school courses, meet graduation & college requirements, determine credits, etc.). It also includes great info on self-directed learning, critical thinking, & self-discipline. And, my favorite part, it offers great ideas (and specifics) on writing educational objectives, developing course syllabi, creating assignments, using learning journals, & evaluating & grading students' work. It wraps up with keeping records, creating transcripts, writing course descriptions & preparing portfolios. If your student is college-bound, I'd highly recommend this book.

PBS's Liberty! series also has a good website associated with it at http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/.

There's a helpful Teacher's Guide associated with each episode of this series available at http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us.

FYI - If you're a member of Netflix, you can watch all 40 episodes of Liberty's Kids for free thru their streaming video service. My kids (ages 10 & 14) have so far watched episodes 1-36 and are enjoying them a lot. I'm not sure how long the series will be offered for free, but it's been available for free for the last 2-3 months since we've been watching the series.

We do school about 4-5 hours/day, plus my oldest (8th grader) goes to Symphonic Band at public school 1 hour/day. He also spends LOTS of free time drawing, learning Photoshop, & practicing his trumpet, all because he wants to. My youngest (5th grader) is obsessed with soccer and practices 2-3 nights/week. He's also learning to play the drums (lessons & practice take place in the afternoons/evenings). I know school will be harder & more time-consuming in high school, but I still want them to have plenty of time to pursue their interests. In fact, as we plan for high school, I'm already trying to fit in all the "creative" things my DS wants to pursue -- music, art & theater. Some will be actual school classes, others will be thru community groups, volunteering, etc. I value academics and will try to fit in as much as I can during our homeschooling. But as long as I feel the boys have a solid foundation and take the appropriate classes to meet college requirements, I will not force things that, ideally, I'd like them to learn (several years of logic, speech, debate, etc.) but we might not have time for. We'll do what we can do, but I want my kids to have time for what they love. That's one of the main reasons I decided to homeschool thru high school. I see how overscheduled & stressed out so many public school kids are these days. All they do is go to school & do homework & take tests. I want my kids challenged with a rigorous education, but with flexibility and balance.

Not sure if this will help, but perhaps another approach at teaching adverbs/clauses/phrases might help. Try the free archived lessons at http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html .

April, thanks for the insights. I know some of the lit we'll be reading will be epic poems and such, and we'll be discussing more of the big ideas, characters, plot development, etc. I was thinking more along the lines of if we should be analyzing poetic forms, devices, etc., of which I know very little about. I like your idea of reading aloud -- that might help!

I'm following a condensed (2-year) version of a Great Books study next year when my DS begins 9th grade. We'll be covering many of the classics from Ancients to Modern, but I wasn't planning on doing an in-depth study of any poetry. He likes to read a little bit of poetry, but not much. And honestly, I don't see much value in studying it. But I'm worried he might need some poetry analysis experience for the SAT or similar tests. Will poetry analysis (in any form) be covered on these type of tests? In 11th grade, he plans to take an AP Lang. & Comp., and in 12th grade, he'll take AP Lit. & Comp. Will either of these AP courses include poetry study? If so, is that enough to satisfy any college requirements? (I'm guessing if he learns poetry analysis in 11th/12th grade, it will be too late for the SAT or similar tests.)

I'm following a condensed (2-year) version of a Great Books study next year when my DS begins 9th grade. We'll be covering many of the classics from Ancients to Modern, but I wasn't planning on doing an in-depth study of any poetry. He likes to read a little bit of poetry, but not much. And honestly, I don't see much value in studying it. But I'm worried he might need some poetry analysis experience for the SAT or similar tests. Will poetry analysis (in any form) be covered on these type of tests? In 11th grade, he plans to take AP Lang. & Comp., and in 12th grade take AP Lit. & Comp. Will either of these AP courses include poetry study? If so, is that enough to satisfy any college requirements? (I'm guessing if he learns poetry analysis in 11th/12th grade, it will be too late for the SAT or similar tests.)

So then how will you title your course(s) to truly reflect what was studied? English I doesn't usually cover Great Books, and Great Books sounds more literature-based rather than covering grammar, writing, & vocab. But I do expect a lot of it to overlap. I'm thinking Great Books sounds like a more reflective course title based on what we'll be spending most of our time on. I guess I could just include the "language arts" stuff we also cover in the course description. Is that how you'll handle it?

Just when I think I have this high school thing figured out, I find myself totally confused about how to assign credit for what we plan to do in 9th grade. We plan to study Great Books I next year, covering Ancients thru Middle Ages, adopting a condensed version of TWTM. In 10th grade, we'll study Great Books II, covering the Renaissance thru Modern times. We'll study both history & literature, and we'll probably spend about 1.5-2 hours/day doing just this. We'll also still be working our way thru grammar/writing (Writing Strands)/vocabulary, probably about an hour a day. So, do I incorporate this into a Great Books class, or would this count as a typical English I class for 9th grade? I was assuming that Great Books would BE our 9th grade "English" class, but the more I read, the more I think they need to be separated. Does it look like overkill to have 2 full English credits in both 9th & 10th grades? How have you all handled this in terms of assigning credit on a transcript? :confused:

I'm not a math/science person, and neither is my artsy DS. However, I'm following the newly revised graduation requirements of FL, which require 4 years of math (Alg. 1 & higher) and 3 years of science (must include 2 labs and biology, chemistry & physics). Ugh! My DS will be taking these online, since I can't (and dont' want to) teach these. And a good, solid foundation doesn't hurt. I'm just not thrilled about it. :001_rolleyes:

I have the 2nd edition of TWTM, and I believe they recommend Spielvogel's Western Civilization. It comes in a variety of editions, such as one brief version or split into 2 or 3 books, with each book covering different time periods. I decided to buy the 5th edition split into 2 volumes, because we're doing only 2 years of world history in high school. I bought them used on Amazon for less than $4 each. There are also other Spielvogel editions, such as World History, Human Odyssey, etc., and I'm not sure what the difference is in terms of content.

My DS is a talented artist (loves anime/manga/cartooning) and is probably heading toward a future in art in some capacity -- illustration, digital animation, video game art design, graphic design, etc. While I'm planning a solid high school education in all the core courses, I'm trying to work in lots of opportunities for DS to explore art (self-teaching books, co-op classes, public high school classes, summer classes, etc.) Does anyone have any advice on what opportunities to pursue throughout high school (i.e., class/curriculum suggestions, extracurricular activities, entrepreneurial ideas, contests, volunteer work, etc.)? Also, any comments on pursuing some kind of art-related degree at an actual art college vs. a regular 4-year college?

Our homeschool group recently had a meeting featuring a panel of homeschooled kids now in college. They had varying experience with both AP classes and DE. Some of them said the AP classes were harder than the college classes. Some said they initially took a DE course online, as a gently introduction into the college experience while still in high school. One of them said something quite interesting -- when you take AP, you get college credit as long as you have a qualifying score on the AP exam, but your class grade doesn't count toward your college GPA. But, when you take a college course thru DE (and these courses are usually the easier/entry-level courses), your class grade would count toward both your high school GPA & your college GPA. Not sure if the same applies in your state, but I had never considered that aspect of DE. Food for thought.

Thanks, Julie. Good to know. I like the idea of alternating parts while we read. That might make it more fun. :001_smile: