Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond with your ideas.:001_smile: Our CC does have dual enrollment, but you have to be a completed sophomore and can only take 1 course in the summer and 2 in the regular semester. She is a year behind, so she will complete 10th in the Spring. If we chose to finish high school this route, it would take 1 1/2 to 2 years and she is anxious to do the internship sooner. She must be finished with high school (either diploma or GED) and 18 (Dec. 2012) for the internship and does not want to wait any longer than necessary to start on that. That is the passion that is driving her and the GED will get her there faster. Because she is not terribly strong academically, and has high test anxiety, and mild learning issues, CLEP would probably push her over the edge. The GED and Accuplacer for CC will do enough of that. I'm not sure how ready she is for CC, but if it's her idea I suspect that she will commit and excel. She has friends taking classes at the CC, and, frankly, it's not any harder than high school. In fact many of my daughters' friends who "succeeded" in PS have had to start out in non-credit, remedial math and english at both the CC and 4-year universities. I hesitate to just graduate her myself at this point because the transcript would not back that up in credits. I wonder if she could take the GED, do some CC classes, serve the internship and then I could issue a diploma as if the CC classes had been dual enrollment? They would not technically be considered that by the CC, but could be by me for purposes of her HS transcript? I'll have to check on that. Again, thank you so much for listening ears and willing spirits. My husband and mother are both encouraging me to let her follow her plan. It could be that the best plan is the one that she feels good about and will actually do. I'm just so thankful that God kept her heart and rescued her from a bad situation before too much damage was done. Her missionary mentor is a former heroine addict (decades ago) who dropped out in the 10th grade. He has since gone on to completely turn his life around, and has earned a Doctorate in Divinity and started an international missions organization. So, there is much hope!

I don't post often, but do lurk quite a bit for opinions and info. I just thought I could share my situation and see if the corporate wisdom of the group might give me some insight or quell my concerns. My dd, almost 17, was homeschooled until 5th grade and then went to PS. We withdrew her in October of her freshman year because the peer influences that she chose (or that chose her?) were causing her to make some VERY poor life choices (use your imagination). She was angry, sulking, and defiant about homeschooling; most of her freshman year was a loss. Then she had a major turnaround and was willing to work, but school has never really clicked for her and it was a struggle. She is intelligent, compassionate, well-spoken, mature, but just has trouble with traditional schoolwork. So we made progress, but stayed behind. However, we thought we had our sweet girl back and were willing to work through the school issues. We let her get a job which she excelled at. It boosted her confidence. What we didn't know was that she was back on the slippery slope of bad choices and now instead of boys constantly after her, she had grown men pulling her this way and that. Thankfully, God kept her safe when we didn't know there was a problem, and he kept enough of her heart that she chose to go on an extended mission trip to a missions training school. She's been there for the past two months with my parents as her chaperones and has skyped with us several times with many tears, exposed her mistakes, and asked our forgiveness and help. She got lost for a while, but she is back and we believe it to be very genuine. She has cut ties with most of her friends here at home and has asked to live for the rest of the school year with my parents in another town. She even asked us to sell her car to raise money for another mission trip. So here's the dilemma. At this point, she should be a junior; she has begun, but not finished any of her sophomore classes. She is a "just get school done so that I can live my life" kid who has no interest in traditional academics. Her desire is for Christian ministry, probably on the foreign mission field. The missionaries that she has just trained with see the potential in her, despite the challenges she has had (of which they are completely aware), and have offered her a 1-year internship at their mission base in Nicaragua after she turns 18 and finishes school. She has asked to study for and take her GED so that she can close this chapter of her life and move on. She could easily accomplish this by the end of the spring semester and then attend the community college next summer and fall. At that point, she will be 18 and wants to pursue the missions internship and continue with CC classes online working towards an Associate's Degree. 4-year college is not in her plans at all. There seems to be such a stigma associated with the GED that I'm having trouble with "settling" for this for her. My concerns are not for myself, but for how she will perceive herself and how others will perceive her. I don't think the GED will be the ending point of her formal education, but that's hard to predict. I feel like we are at the point where she needs to find success in what drives her and let go of what doesn't even if it doesn't look like what is societally acceptable. Thoughts? ETA: I forgot to mention that in addition to her personal/educational struggles, she has an older sister who is a National Merit Scholar on a full-ride who is currently studying abroad in Europe. We've always been careful not to make any judgments or comparisons between them, but this can't help her self-esteem. However, the younger, struggling daughter has more common sense, practical skills, and compassion for others in her little finger than older brilliant sis has in her whole body!

My ds10 was a late reader and has difficulty getting words on paper because he doesn't have much of an innate spelling sense. He's in 4th grade, but is on a 3rd grade reading/comprehension level. However, he has trouble spelling even 4-letter words. We were using K12s remedial reading program, Mark12 Reading, through our virtual academy, and it was great! But . . . we've switched to K12 independent because he couldn't keep up with the state's pace and all the test prep was too much. The kicker is that K12 won't sell the special reading program to individuals yet, only schools. So, I need something computer-based, interactive that isn't too childish. I had him work on starfall.com the last two days, but it's way below his level. I'm looking for a comprehensive, self-correcting, interactive phonics/spelling course. Is there such a thing? Thanks!!

Ok Ladies, I'm trying to rescue Algebra for my frustrated non-mathy, non-schooly, just wants to get it over with dd. We started with Saxon last year through a virtual school and bombed--hated it. It's not the curriculum; just doesn't fit this kid. Tried "Key to" series, but it just wasn't enough. I found TT Geometry fairly cheap and so she decided to work with that and Algebra has been on the back shelf. I know! Bad plan. So, I'm following another algebra thread and that sent me to check out Kinetic books, but the homeschool part of the website says that some of the videos are finished but won't be complete until Thanksgiving. Is that really the case, or is that old info? If it's not complete, how are so many of you using it? Help! and thanks! :)

We just finished Driversed.com and it seemed to adequately cover what she needed. Although, in Texas, we are required to log 32 hours of classroom instruction and it didn't take anywhere near that long to go through the computer course so we had to fudge the log sheet a little. Some sections that the paperwork said should be studied for 2 hours could easily be done in 30 minutes. It seemed pointless to make her go back through a section several more times just to get the hours in, so if she did well on the section quiz we just moved on and called it done.

Good Morning! I know this is quite a long shot, but I found Part 1 of this old, "programed textbook" at a rummage sale and would desperately love to get my hands on Part 2. These are from 1961 and were one of the first self-teaching/self-checking materials produced. The course is a TMI-Grolier Programed Textbook--Fundamentals of Algebra. Part 1 is in two spiral-bound volumes, so I assume Part 2 is as well. I've scoured the web and can't find this anywhere. Despite it's age, the approach is perfect for my Algebra-hater and this is something she would do. Anybody have this and willing to sell it? Or have any ideas where I might look? Thanks so much! I know the chances of finding it are slim, but I don't want to start Part 1 if we won't be able to finish it. UGH!! Hate it when I find something potentially perfect for us and then it's not all there. :) Adrienne

Has anyone used or really checked into this program and care to give your impressions. DD (10th grade) is a reluctant and slower reader (learned to read late/phonics never clicked/poor speller/public-schooled for many years). I have gotten much more reading out of her this year than I thought we would by sticking to biographies and inspirational novels. Next year, we need to get into meatier stuff. I thought that Movie Lit might be a great starting place for getting into literary analysis without totally turning her off (we would just watch some and watch and read others).

How do you think a P/F grade will be perceived on a transcript? Our local ps doesn't use them for anything that I know of; I'm concerned that it will be interpreted as "barely passed". When you calculate GPA, do you just leave out the P/F courses?

I'm planning to give my dd (10th grade) one semester of elective credit for the Driver's Ed course that she took online. We did the parent-taught option. My dilemma is how to determine/weight the grade. The online course had about 12 section quizzes and a final test. Then she had the written test and the driving test at the DPS. I'm not sure which of these should have the most significance in determining her grade. I'm also probably not being as objective as I should, because she struggles a little with academics and doesn't test well (misreads questions, knows the material orally but doesn't get it correct for the test), and my mommy heart wants to work it out so that she gets an A. Her actual driving grade was a 94, but her computer final was a 76. With the computer quizzes added in, the online course gave us a final average of 84. I believe that the written test at the DPS for her permit was an 85. WWYD?

Our wayward kitty just had her second litter a week ago and delivered 6, but her first litter was just 1. It can have to do with how many times she was impregnated while she was in heat. Cats can deliver a litter of kittens from several fathers because they ovulate as a result of stimulation rather than ovulating on a regular cycle. With this most recent litter, our kitty was obviously agitated and looking for a nesting place at least two days prior to delivery. Once her water broke, she had all 6 in about two hours, but her belly was quite large all of that day. If you remember from human labor, nursing helps cause the uterus to return to size, so it should be considerably smaller in the next day or two. Since she only has one nursing, it may take longer than with a larger litter. I would make sure that there is a warm blanket kind of wadded up where she is nesting that the kitten can curl up against when mom is out eating and resting. She will definitely move the kitten if there is too much activity. My kids want to look and touch quite a bit, and momma has already moved these twice. Also, she needs to free feed as much and as often as she likes while lactating. I wouldn't worry too much about the fact that she smothered one of them. It's sad, but happens. I think it's good for children to realize that the animal kingdom is not what they often see depicted in storybooks and cartoons. The cycle of life does involve some ugly stuff, and as it is appropriate, this is okay for kids to be made aware of. Some animals do this accidentally; many (particularly rabbits) kill and eat their babies. You might post on your local Craigslist or Freecycle that you will have a cat and kitten available in about 8 weeks. It's not likely to find someone to take them at this point, and probably best to let her nest in familiar surroundings. Cats attach more to their place than to their people; moving her at this point could be agitating. Good luck, Adrienne

We'll start the day after Labor Day here. Son's bday is Sept. 1 and he thinks that school can't start before then!!

Please help me out with this . . . I'm trying to plan the rest of high school for my dd who is going into 10th. She still needs to finish up about half of her 9th grade work (that she should have done over the summer). She says that she wants to graduate early, but she can't seem to get motivated to do the work. UGH. I digress. What I really need to know is if it is necessary to have 4 years each of all of the core subjects-English, History, Science and Math. This is what is being done in the Texas public school, but I am aware that it is not this way in every state. We will definitely do 4 years of English, but I'm not sure about the others. What is your experience/research as to what colleges expect? Thanks.

Well, she's not actually a "babe"; she's my soon-to-be college freshman daughter who is an avid reader. I was discussing curriculum for my ds10, who is also an avid reader, with this wise daughter who asked what the purpose of a reading curriculum is. I responded with education-ease about comprehension, finding details in reading selections . . . blah, blah, blah. Here's how the conversation concluded: DD: "When he reads something, does he understand it?" Mom: "Yep." DD: "If he comprehends what he's reading, why does he need a workbook for reading comprehension? Can't he just read?" 'Nuf said. Thank you Ruth Beechick #2. Marking that workbook off the list. Less to do each day. Sigh of relief. It's too bad she's leaving for college. I could use a good teaching assistant.:D

Wonderful thread, ladies!! Oh, the wheels are turning!! I'm putting together a Christian Apologetics course for my sophomore dd that will cover Basic Apologetics/Faith, the Book of Genesis/Creation, and the book of John/Christ. I'm using: three devotional books by Anne Graham Lotz, God's Story, Just Give Me Jesus, and Pursuing More of Jesus; three Holman Quicksource Guides, Understanding Creation, Understanding Jesus, and Christian Apologetics; and three Lee Strobel books (Student Editions), Case for a Creator, Case for Christ, and Case for Faith. I'm so excited, because I decided to trust the Lord to help me with curriculum choices and this study almost put itself together between the clearance rack at Mardel's and Paperback Swap.

We are also the "kool-aid" house for our dds teen friends and it's a family affair. They spend most of their time in the bedrooms, but they are very comfortable interacting with the family. They tousle with the little brothers and call my husband and me "Mom and Dad". We watch movies together in the living room; often the girls invite me to their room to watch a movie with them and their friends after the littles and Dad have gone to bed. Interestingly enough, I am not one of those "just want to be my kids' friend" moms. I am fairly stringent and try to keep structure, AND they still want me around! Teens get enough of the idea that it's all about them when they are outside of the home; they don't need that mindset inside the home, too! Liberate yourself!!!:lol:

My son wants to try this as well. Are you using it as supplemental material to your main math curriculum or by itself?

I'm a big fan of formal grammar instruction for at least one year in the upper elementary or middle school years, and I won't work with a curriculum that is not well written. It is too easy to find someone to help with editing to skip that crucial step. If the execution of the curriculum is shoddy, it gives me concern that the concepts might be lacking as well.

and she is so excited. I'm trying not to think about it too much; curriculum planning for the other 3 keeps the brain busy! We've been buying linens and sorting through what to take and what to leave here. The youngers are all claiming her room as it is the biggest; she thinks we should keep it just for her until at least Christmas. NOT!!! It really is a different world than when I went off to school. I've been sitting up late nights with her as we sort and pack and telling her horror stories of standing in line to register for classes, typewriters, long distance phone cards, not knowing anyone, and not having a car or any money to speak of. She registered for classes and bought all of her books online, found a roommate through the school's networking site for incoming students, and already has a group of cyber-friends who will be in the same dorm. They chat everyday and have each posted videos on facebook so that they can see and get to know each other a little. They have a moving-in party planned for the first night! I will miss her terribly, but she has become so darn independent these last few months! I know-it's a good thing, but sometimes I think God built in that hornery, assertive, "I know everything" attitude so that we won't miss them quite as much! ;) Cyber hugs to all those whose nest is starting to empty!! Hang in there, mamas! Adrienne

My just-graduated dd and I were having a similar discussion recently as I plan her younger sister's literature selections for next year. My younger dd is not a strong reader and I was struggling with how to "keep up with the Joneses" in terms of doing 8-10 works a year complete with in-depth analysis and essays. My oldest dd informed me that in her AP English classes both Junior and Senior year they only did 4-5 full works of literature and one of those was read in the summer before school started. Incidentally, some of the works that I see many people including early on in high school were Senior level for her, so there is no one right way. For her Honors Lit class in college next year, they are tackling some works that many hs kids are being given as freshman!?! I don't think that indicates that the university is working below level but rather that sometimes we may be pushing a little too much with our young highschoolers Sometimes I think we are killing ourselves trying to excel at everything. Four or five full works a year plus exposure to several others through audiobooks, movies, and synopses is more than adequate. There are always second chances, because education is not over when they graduate from college. They have their whole lives to read, learn, assimilate, form and reform opinions, and refine or completely redesign their worldviews. I know I often need to step back and remind myself of what the goal is. If my goal is to finish a certain number of pages or read a certain number of novels--that is simple. If my goal is to gain an understanding of how to read and appreciate good literature, I can teach those skills with 2 or 3 good books and then she can carry those skills wherever she will. Okay-I feel better now! Off to find the curriculum that will get it done to the best of our ability despite what everybody else thinks is perfect!!!:hurray:

I'm not sure if it is this way everywhere, but when I considered putting our daughter back into public high school it wasn't really a matter of how I wanted to do it. The only way they would accept the work that she had done was to give end of course exams that she would have to pass. Otherwise, she would have to repeat the grade. They seem to be suspicious of the fact that work is legitimately being done; I'm sure that sometimes families are not working as they should. This is regardless of the fact that most of the students that they educated could not pass these same exams. In fact, Texas administers an Algebra 1 End-of-Course exam that has over a 50% failure rate. I think that I would be prepared to provide proof of assessment like tests, papers, final exams, etc. I hope that everything goes in your favor when you meet with the school. Adrienne:001_smile:

I just graduated a daughter from public high school and she has several classes on her transcript that she took in Junior High (Middle School). On her transcript they are designated with a "J" and count toward the total number of credit hours required and fulfill pre-requisite requirements but do not figure into the GPA. They also do not satisfy the requirement to take 4 credits each of Math, Science, Social Studies, and English and 2 years of the same foreign language. By having a credit for Junior High the student is able to take a higher level or wider variety of courses than normally would have been possible, but must still fulfill the 4X4. However, the electives taken in Junior High can satisfy the high school requirement. Our ps system offers Health, Communication Applications (speech), Spanish I, and Algebra I in Junior High.

We're obviously in TX, and the new requirement here is called the 4 x 4 plan-4 English, 4 Social Studies, 4 Science and 4 Math. This is for the "Recommended Plan". The Math must include Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra II. The science must include Biology, Chemistry, and Physics and must include lab components. I believe I read that the science courses must spend 40% of their time in labs.

:bigear: Me too!

that will allow us to complete World History, U.S. History, and a year of Gov't/Econ. in 3 years. :confused: My dd transitioned out of ps midway through 9th grade this year (not by her choice), and I am pleased to say that we have pulled her back from the edge of disaster. We were seeing a rapid increase in disrespectful attitude, immoral choices, immodest dress, and inappropriate language-all coupled with a disinterest in academics and flagging grades. Well, all of that has changed; she has done a complete turnaround, and it is very genuine. So this has been an extremely successful year in that regard. However, we are behind in school because we had a period of anger and refusal to work. Her ps education was marginal, at best, and I had to remediate her back to the beginning of Algebra 1 and back to middle school in grammar and writing mechanics. She wasn't solid on parts of speech, was calculator-dependent, and had no study skills. She is also a slow reader (possibly mildly dyslexic), although her comprehension is excellent. She is a very creative writer, but has no grasp on writing mechanics. So, as much as I would love to do a 4-year history cycle and some of the more innovative writing curricula, she doesn't have the time or the inclination. She has told me that she doesn't want to just read a text, fill in answers, and take a test. She wants it to be more "interesting" than that and she is willing to work. Here's what works well with her: *audio books (both fiction and non-fiction) *dvd's like Standard Deviants, documentaries, History Channel *narration/discussion She has college aspirations, but I think that she will likely get an Associate's Degree when the time comes. This is my very practical, likes to get out and do life rather than read about it kid! She already has a pt job at 15, volunteers in the community, and has a good head on her shoulders. Is there any curricula that is heavier on audio/visual materials and lighter in reading and writing, or do you have suggestions for putting several things together that will not require a great deal of planning on my part? I am also homeschooling two ds who will be in 3rd and 5th next year (and have a dd going off to college). I just used the library to put together a Romeo and Juliet unit for her with two Standard Deviants videos, an audio dramatization, and a side-by-side original and modernized text of the play. When she finishes these, we will cover both factual and analytical questions orally and then watch several movies including both an actual dramatization and adaptions like "West Side Story" and the new "Letters to Juliet". This will also serve to finish out a 1/2 credit in Analysis of Visual Media that she began in ps. This is how she likes to learn, but it's a lot of work for me!:tongue_smilie: Thank you for reading! Adrienne

I hope this helps a little. I know that my daughter gets frustrated when there are too many remarks to deal with, so I tried to be judicious. Editing for teenagers is always a bit of a conundrum. If you tweak too much, the writing loses the author's voice and becomes the editor's work. If you leave out useful criticism, the young writer does not benefit from the powerful learning that comes from correcting mistakes. Blessings, Adrienne Conclusion My hypothesis did not support the results of my experiment. (The results from an experiment either support or debunk the hypothesis. So this needs to be turned around.) I found out that adding larger nucleation sites for the carbon dioxide to go (Is there a more specific word you can use here? Is it going, attaching, bonding, reacting?), did not make the geyser any higher or better. It actually was a smaller geyser with the larger nucleation sites I put on the Mentos. I found out it worked better if I left the Mentos the way they were and not adding (verb tense here needs to agree with "left") more nucleation sites. I ended up with a geyser(should this be plural?) of 11 ½ feet and 12 feet with the plain Mentos. As with the ones (This phrase is a little awkward. Could you just say "The geysers with ...") with the larger nucleation sites added were only 4-5 feet in height. I also did three more experiments using Mentos and other kinds of soda.(Check your punctuation here. Try using a colon between "soda" and "Sprite") Sprite, rootbeer, and orange soda. I found out you get a geyser from all sodas when adding mentos (Always capitalize a name brand product). Yet I did find out that the Diet Coke and Mentos mixture did cause the highest geyser of all of them. The sprite (capitalize) was the second best at six feet, the rootbeer third at 5 feet and the orange soda only doing 3 feet. (Use a consistent style when listing these-"The Sprite was", "the rootbeer was", "and the orange soda was". From my research and experiment the reason the Diet Coke and Sprite did (did what?:confused:) higher amount of carbon dioxide in the sodas. This causing (needs past tense) a larger geyser. The more carbon dioxide means more nucleation sites once I put the Mentos in the soda. The Mentos caused the first nucleation sites for the carbon dioxide to form bubbles. Once a bubble was formed (needs a comma) more bubbles could be formed off of that bubble. This happens at such a fast rate that it causes pressure in the soda bottle causing the soda to erupt out of the bottle in a lot of force causing the geyser. I've seen the Diet Coke and Mentos videos, but was not familiar with the scientific principle behind the geyser. Your explanation of the experiment and data made it more clear. Keep experimenting and writing!:001_smile: