Yes. Even when ds complains that I am really mean because I keep giving him B's in math, then he goes off to take dual credit classes and - lo an behold - he gets a "B" in math!!! (wiping smug smile off my face)

I'm not sure what I should be doing with this child. He squeaked out an "A" in Saxon Alg. 1 (my first A math student!) he loves math & science, but he also loves reading and debate, so it may be too early to determine that he's on a STEM track. Isn't it too early to start him in Alg. 2? We could move slowly through it, but could he spend 1-1/2 years on it? I've considered having him work through my Jacobs Geometry until next year, but, not only do I loathe geometry, it seems a little pointless to me, especially since Saxon covers geometry in the Alg. texts. I'm am liberal arts-minded, and so are my first two children, so I'm at a loss here. Is there something I'm overlooking? Should I use something different to reinforce what he's already learned or maybe something to make him look at math from a different angle? I should also add that I'm not comfortable teaching math past Alg. 2 (I still don't know how I passed calculus so long ago), so he'll need to get on a regular school-year schedule after that point to take classes at a local co-op or community college. Thoughts?

Ah-ha! Not Hippo Campus. Thanks so much!!!

This whole open source thing is new to me. I see the UC website. The Monterrey Inst. link takes me to HippoCampus - is that right? I don't see quizzes on either site, just lectures. Are they hiding somewhere?

Faith, what are you using to study for US History?

Lisa, I'm so sorry you are going through this. I won't preach at you because I certainly wouldn't have taken on this homeschooling task - at this level of diligence, anyway - if I thought there wasn't going to be a return on my investments... brilliant, mature, loving, productive adult children. I now know that was naive, but most of us didn't realize that when we signed up! We were just discussing today how we tend to do the right thing for what WE get out of it. I don't know if you're a believer or not (we were reading Ecclesiastes) but, either way, it is much easier make the right choices if you think you will receive a reward for it, whether that reward comes from God or from another person being influenced by your good/kind/loving behavior. I know I need to look at what I am pouring into my children as something I am doing for THEM, not for ME. But I really don't want to look at it that way because, again, I didn't think that was "the deal". As sad as it is, it sometimes helps me to remember that I was the most thankless, disrespectful, self-absorbed teen that ever walked the face of the earth and I made some really stupid decisions. I did eventually grow up, become semi-respectable, and thankful for what I have, but it took until well into my 20's. Life is messy and I HATE THAT!!! I am a perfectionist... maybe you are a perfectionist, too?

Well, I know what you mean, but that feels like reading the test answers before you take the test. Vandiver certainly knows more about Homer and the ancient Greek world than I will ever know, but I wanted to force my kids to THINK about what they read before she explained it to them. That is what they will have to do in college. And, honestly, literary anaysis is usually your own personal opinion combined with a decent amount of hot air. You can easily list Homer's literary techniques, those are black-and-white, but WHY he chose to use them or WHY they work or WERE Odysseus' actions moral or immoral - those are personal opinions. They need to be defended by referencing the text, but there are no right or wrong answers to those questions.

He doesn't need the AP class on his transcript, just a score of 4 or 5. Ds took the AP Lang & Comp at PHC. It took 2-3 hours/day for a B. I kinda expected to hear from moms telling me their kids did US History on their own.

My son really wants to take the US History AP exam this spring. We've hit history hard in our schooling all along, so the material is not foreign to him. We also focus a great deal on writing and he is very comfortable with limited-prep writing assignments. So, have any of your children had success studying for this one on their own over just one semester? Is that doable? And if so, what did you use to prep? Ds is thinking about studying the College Board book and listening to our Great Courses History of the US (we've never made it past the third lecture) and, of course, practice writing assignments. Will that be enough? He prepped on his own for the PSAT and made an excellent score. Last year, he took a year-long AP Engl Lang & Comp class but only scored a "3", so he's hesitant to invest in another year-long class.

16-17 years old. It took a little over a semester.

I've had my son work through Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. Not a curriculum, but SWB recommends it! I had him read, outline, and give examples - he could either write his own examples or find them in literature, a newspaper, speech, etc...

Lori D. has some great suggestions. My first thought was to drop health if possible. If your family deals with health issues, your kids probably already know a great deal more about health than the average child. Couldn't you just give them credit for the knowledge they have gained in real life? Vocabulary is hit pretty hard in the SAT prep books; that was sufficient vocab. for us. And 30 min/day is plenty. I think each timed section takes 30 minutes, so dd could take a section one day, then spend 30 minutes the next day going back over to determine WHY the correct answer is the correct - that's the most important part of prep. This is how my son approached the PSAT over the summer, and he made a great score. Could you save literature or history reading for car rides or waiting rooms? Maybe find audio lectures to listen to in the car? The Great Courses are on sale right now. My biggest meal challenge is planning. If there is food in the house, I can mindlessly throw something together. But I hate the mental effort of planning meals for the week! There are several software apps and website that help with this; many of them are free. I use one that I had to pay for, but since this is my biggest hurdle of the week, it was worth it for me. (I should say, it was worth it to my husband :thumbup1: ) But I should also tell you that we still struggle with fitting it all in every day. I do not have it all together, so I feel your pain!

We also tried to discuss the text before the lectures. If I didn't do that, my kids wouldn't form any ideas of their own, they would just adopt whatever she said. Here lectures were very good. After the book & lectures we watched Oh Brother Where Art Though (we have a bluegrass band and the movie was popular at the time) and I had my oldest write a compare & contrast essay. That was great fun for us both - we discussed all his ideas before he started writing.

Before.

Never considered this with my older two. Dumb question... what are they looking for?

Yep. There's a whole electric current unit available. That will keep him busy for a little while. Thanks!

Just today I contacted our local university's (Univ. of Texas) rhetoric department and and asked for a grad student that would like to tutor writing. I sent them all the details of what I wanted and they quickly found a grad student that wanted the job. We'll see how it goes... We've used Write at Home in the past, but it went way too slowly. They would make 2-3 small suggestions, ds would correct & sent back to them, they would make 2-3 more suggestions, and on and on. I even emailed the tutor and asked them to push my son a little more, but it continued to be very slow going. I also had a bad experience with the other suggestion; however, it was a class she taught through Veritas Press, so private evaluations may be different. Please let us know if you find something you like!

I've given up on Conceptual Physics - I'm having trouble keeping up with the material and so is my 15yo. I'm moving him to a co-op physics class for the spring; he's my liberal arts guy. My younger 13yo son is my science-minded student. He's made it half-way though the CP book with me and I'm thinking about just having him do physics videos in the spring and maybe keep reading CP. Is that too lame? He loves science and is naturally very curious, so he isn't passively watching. He will take high school physics again after trig (he's just starting Alg II now) so this isn't his HS physics, just an exposure to it. Any suggestions for videos? And maybe a readable text to go along? I'm looking at The Great Courses: Physics and our Universe, but I'm not sure it is anything special. I wish I could watch a sample lesson. Has anyone used this? I do want something that sticks with the basics - motion, light, electricity, etc... We used the Georgia Public Broadcasting physics videos with CP and the kids weren't crazy about those... but they were free. :D I would expect Great Courses to be better.

I had one in the same boat. We decided after 9th grade to give him another 9th grade year. We joke that he is the only homeschooler we know that failed a grade! It has been very good for him and he would agree. I don't think it benefits anyone - especially a boy - to try to keep up with kids that are older. He was ahead in some areas, but not all. Now I think he is doing much better all around (except, ahem, math) and has much more self confidence.

I think that's the perfect age for Notgrass. If I remember correctly, American History was significantly harder reading than World. Each are one year courses. We didn't really use their literature suggestion, I don't remember why except that I really like to plan my own curriculum. The history books are great and come with a separate book that is full of original source documents.

One more thing. Keep in mind that even though many dual credit courses will "transfer" to a university, they may not fulfill your students' degree plan requirements. I looked into several courses that Baylor accepts from our local community college, but discovered that they either weren't required for my son's degree plan or were considered remedial classes. Either way, they would only transfer as electives. We discovered the same thing with AP's.

Baylor has a page (here) where you can check transfer credits. It looks like math is the only course accepted from Bellhaven. That doesn't mean they won't accept anything else, but if it isn't on this page it is a case-by-case basis. I would consider them for outsourcing high school subjects, but I wouldn't count on dual credit unless you verify it at a particular university ahead of time. I constantly face the decision between having my child take a course that will transfer to a university (probably Baylor for my oldest) verses a class in which I think he will receive a better education. I choose educational value over credit for his area of interest (humanities/pre-law) but will choose credit over education for courses he just needs to get out of the way (sciences) or classes we have already covered really well at home (government, US history)

I have two neighbors that have done this. One girl has risen to the academic challenge - she's taking lots of AP's - and loves it so much that she has decided to stay in PS. The other, a boy, is having a difficult time keeping up with all the work and can't wait to return home next year. Here's a couple of things I learned from this mom... You are probably starting your child too late to receive an official class rank. Also, you might have some trouble with your curriculum choices. Our local PS tests the kids that transfer in. The girl also studied Apologia biology at home; she couldn't pass the test and had to take biology again. Same problem with Rosetta Stone. I agree that transferring mid-year is going to be difficult. What about dual credit classes? That will give your child a taste of PS, force them to get organized and be held accountable to someone other than mom. Also, if they take a DC class they will most likely get credit when they move to a university. Sitting for an AP exam is riskier; the child could prep all year for the exam then score a "3" on test day, and most universities won't give credit for that. I am speaking from experience. :glare: I prefer DC over AP classes. Studying on your own for an AP is a different matter because, hopefully, you haven't given an entire year to prepping for the test. AP's are very trivia laden. I would prefer to have my child study what I think is important, then quickly study for the test and be done with it.

I would love to feel comfortable letting him back off a little. But, unless I'm misunderstanding something, he isn't doing university level work. His DC classes at ACC are high school level Trig, Pre-Calc and Intro to Chem; only the Chem was a compressed schedule (1 semester for a 1-yr high school course). I would say his Arabic study is at a college level since he is using our local CC syllabus, but he is studying on his own and has the option to slow way down if necessary. The only reason he is moving at this pace is because he wants to test into Arabic II this summer for study abroad. I will give him credit whenever he has finished level I even if he doesn't test into level II. He isn't taking any AP classes. He is sort-of studying on his own for the AP Government exam, and thinking about maybe studying for the US History as well. I certainly don't mean to "threaten him" if he doesn't take the test, but if he never gets around to studying & taking practice tests, I have no idea how to give credit or a grade. He has already earned a US Gov't credit from me (he's been very involved in all things government related) and from his online Con Law class. He doesn't need the high school credit, but just wants to get an AP score that college will take. Same thing with US History. He could probably pass both right now, but needs to study up & take practice tests to get a 4 or 5 for college credit. I have looked at these AP's as optional extra credit: if he does the work, he gets credit; if he doesn't do it, he doesn't get credit. I am not requiring them. Lori D., my panic mode is concerning literature, history, and writing, all of which tend to fall through the cracks. I think those are more important for his goals than sciences and math. All of his speeches and scholarship contest writings are considered writing assignments by me, so he isn't doing those in addition to regular writing assignments. It's just such a struggle to get him to do them on time instead of at the last possible minute. I put them on his school planner 3-4 weeks in advance so he can spend one week discussing & outlining, 1-2 weeks writing, and another week editing. But it never really happens that way. I can't tell you how many times he has wanted me to proof his papers at 11pm when they are due (online) at midnight! We've done the study skills thing several times. He just doesn't get in a hurry until the deadline is drawing near. I think you are right that he is feeling stressed. He really struggles with wanting to keep up with his overachieving friends (that's where Arabic came from) and wanting to go to all the social events that his other friends go to. I encouraged him to stick with Spanish instead of Arabic and stop math at Pre-Calc instead of moving on to calculus, which he plans to do next year. I am glad he wants to take more difficult subjects, but not at the expense of classes that he is taking from me. I think that is the real problem - he works harder for outside teachers. That's why I would like to outsource literature and writing, but if I do that his teacher isn't going to let him work on speeches and scholarship papers instead of their own assignments. Jann, I'm going to look into 1301. Do you remember the instructor's name?

Well, I've had to set rules: If he isn't caught up in school, he can't go to a friend's party or whatever. If he knows an event is coming, he can get caught up (usually). But most of the time, a friend calls at the last minute and he has to tell them "no" because he has homework. This happens all the time. You would think by now he would just get it done so he could be free, but he doesn't do that. And I'm really tired of missing things as a family because the kids have homework. That's why I want to outsource. I would so love to be able to smile on Saturday morning and say, "Let's go do something fun!" Instead of, "You need to finish your homework."