We have had no trouble at all using the Textword Press anthologies for high school. Couldn't be easier to use independently by a student, with touching base with mom and perhaps having mom/dad grade/read the reading responses. The educator can be as involved as they elect to be. We read some together, mainly because we enjoy reading together, and I send him off to do 2-3 selections on his own. Glad you liked it! I was certainly thrilled to find it after using Mosdos so long and loving it.

I want to chime in on this one for high school suggestions for Mosdos lovers! We used Mosdos and are SO glad we did. It is everything mentioned above, so I won't go into it further, but I wanted something equally good for high school. Oh boy, did I find it. It appears to be done in almost the same style as Mosdos, without the full page illustrations. We are using Textword's Implications in Literature series: http://www.textword.com/about.html It has the same high quality literature, terrific student work at the end of each selection, great introductions to each selection, awesome vocabulary work, all you need really for writing practice and a full language arts course for high school other than additional writing instruction here and there as needed. I have been thrilled to find it, as it partners beautifully with Mosdos, and if I didn't know any differently, I would have assumed it was the same publisher, it is that similar. Hope this helps someone!

We use Connect the Thoughts for history, some science, and some current events. I think you might find that with that much supplement, she will be a little overwhelmed. Connect the Thoughts is deep, very rich, and well done. Here is what I might suggest, based upon our experience: Skip trying to fit in geography. It may sound corny, but his simplified way of teaching geography by having a student look up the places listed before each lesson every.single.time. really works. In no time at all, our kids were quite knowledgeable and oriented in the world. I had planned geography in depth, but realized quite quickly that it would be unnecessary. Math go with Saxon, or perhaps Teaching Textbooks if she finds it too dry. I also don't think you need to do the Critical Thinking Co. products, as Connect the Thoughts is amazing in this area, and Critical Thinking Co is quite expensive for what you get. The way he builds a child's thinking skills seems simplistic at first, until you follow along for a while and see he is creating a foundation, then building on top of it. Our kids absolutely think differently because of this specific curriculum. We recently had a teacher who works with them say, "I don't know what you've done or how you've done it, but your kids really know how to take apart a concept. They also know how to spot bias and opinion." We wanted more Lit ourselves, but you may want to be more casual with it because CTT has a lot of lit built in, but in my opinion not enough with analyzing. I would use a lit curriculum as a supplement, recognizing and accepting you won't finish it, but skipping through it here and there would be a perfect fit, I think. I wanted to mention you might want to check out Quality Science Labs for homeschool lab kits to accompany the science. They have great all in one kits with lab books, as CTT does a poor job with labs, but a good job in explanations. You also might consider making sure to have discussions about the material covered. I know you are pleased with it being self-directed, but the materials are PERFECT for stimulating wonderful, deep conversations.

I may be the voice of dissent here, but I often find in reading the posts that parents are too concerned about learning being "exciting", especially at the young ages. While I do not advocate at all sticking with something that is clearly not working, is head bangingly boring, or is rote work, I tend to be in the camp that feels I am doing my kids a disservice if I lead them to believe that everything in life is going to be exciting, interesting and engaging. Truth is, folks, life is just not that way. There are things in life we just have to do. Grocery shopping has to get done, and no one has ever shown me a way to get excited over it. Laundry has to get done, again, not exciting. The lawn needs mowed, the oil needs changed, the dishes need washed, etc. When we give our kids the impression that this is not a part of real life, is it any wonder that hitting adulthood is like a smack in the face? What??? The daily tasks of living are not always entertaining? I have to actually WORK and not play at it?? Don't get me wrong, I think the younger years are indeed special, and where we can we ought to try and offer interesting curriculum and use engaging materials,. but I see nothing wrong whatsoever with having something here and there that simply has to be done, exciting or not, and if it is not absolutely despised, then I think it is a learning opportunity of a different kind. Oh...and yes, I have switched curriculum mid-stream, more than once, but it wasn't because it was "boring", it was for other reasons offered above. All of us pick a zonker once in a while, and I always reserve the right to try something else. But simply because it is not "exciting"? Not so much... Perhaps I could sum it up as "In every life, a little 'meh' must fall!" Hahaha!

I actually agree in some respects. Yes, there are careers that require higher levels of math, but I think if we are being honest, the overwhelming majority of careers do not. Our insistence that every young person must do higher level math is indeed one cause of a higher drop out rate, I have read studies on that from a couple of different sources I can't recall right now. I am not saying drop math altogether, but I think exchanging Algebra 2, trig, calc and maybe deeper geometry (I think every kid ought to have at least some moderate exposure to geometry, as that might actually be used more in ways that they don't imagine) for business math, consumer math, personal finance, and even logic is a far wiser use of academic time for a large number of students. We don't want to think outside the pre-determined academic math path box though, because it scares us a little. I am not sure why, but we tend to fear different paths. Instead of saying, "Well, what if they change their minds and take up a different career than expected?" I wonder why we are not saying, "Let's prepare them well for the career path they are more likely to take, and they can always take additional math courses later on." One could just as easily argue either side, and have a valid argument...there isn't really a right or wrong answer here, and maybe seeing it as simply a different approach is wiser. And I think we all did just fine in the world, and I know when I was going to school a very large number of kids did nothing more than algebra, with some electing to do trig and calc. It's not the end of the world, either way, nor do I see it as "dumbing down", but merely tailoring an academic path that is individualized for each student. Just as every learner doesn't need British Lit (and there are no heated debates about that one!) not every kid needs advanced math.

We did it online this fall through Brewer Testing (who were wonderful to work with) and found it to be just about right for us. We did it all in one day for 5th-9th grade, and had the results emailed to us withing an hour. I found the info to be on par with other standardized tests, pretty thorough, and categorized nicely. We learned a lot from it, and will take it again in the spring...then every spring thereafter. Our fall test was our baseline.

Yes, I do grade more than vocabulary. We don't do every question in the guide, as we would spend a year on a single book if we did :-) But I look specifically for well thought out, well structured and organized responses to the more thought provoking questions. I guess I don't have hard and fast rules for grading them.

I don't know the first thing about web site design, but a couple of my kids and I would all like to learn. Is there a really good, preferably free web site that explains it all from the very basics on up? Any suggestions other than Code Academy? I mean, we don't even know what html is from all those other things are, so we'd really need something that explains it from the ground up.

Thank you so much, all of you, for every single post. I am looking at all your suggestions, and really like the idea of using an abacus. Making it concrete/visual might help. There were lots of great ideas here. What helps most is hearing we aren't the only ones. This can be so discouraging.

I am very discouraged, and am struggling to find good guidance about how to move forward with our daughter. I sure hope someone here can help me! DD is 14 1/2, adopted at age 10 1/2 from an orphanage in Kazakhstan, where she had been since about age 3. There is a possibility of alcohol exposure in utero. She has learned English amazingly fast, and is doing quite well at almost 4 years home in most other subjects. We consider her to be in 6th grade, and her work is on par with an average 6th grade student. When we adopted her, she had only had 2 years of school, and she was labeled a poor student. She has proven to be incredibly diligent and hard working, very organized, etc. While she is doing well in all other areas, though admittedly well below grade level for her age due to lack of prior exposure to content and learning English, it is math where there is clearly a major problem. I am worried not at all about any other area, but math is just not clicking at all. We took her all the way back to 1st for math upon arrival home. We used Saxon for 1-3, and Teaching textbooks for 4 and 5, which was just completed a week ago. She did fairly well on all work in both curriculum, but we did end up switching for 4th because we could see trouble coming and thought a visual presentation might help. Here is what we are seeing: 1) She tests at only mid-3rd grade level 2) At times, she still struggles with place value. Just yesterday she said that 365,000 was "thirty six hundred thousand and fifty", though that was the most "off" she has ever been, and often she gets it correctly. 3) She can't deal with analog time well, getting it right with simpler questions, but always getting it incorrect with harder questions about time. 4) Timelines and number lines throw her off 6) She knows her math facts but often her processing speed seems quite slow 7) Reading graphs can throw her off, even the most simple 8) She doesn't know how to approach a problem. She basically seems to have no real grasp of numeracy, but can do some functions reasonably well. I realize she probably has Dyscalculia, but a diagnosis of that does us little good. She is not a child who is likely to go to college, as though she is a very solid student in every other way, she is just not all that engaged by the learning process. I do not want to move on to Teaching Textbooks 6 unless we shore up all the prior material. In a basic workbook with double digit multiplication, she missed 6 of 10 problems this week. She doesn't always do that, but clearly, we have major issues. It has been recommended to me by a trusted learning specialist that at this point, due to her age, we keep working on the fundamentals but start focusing on practical real life math applications, and allow the use of a calculator. I do feel we are running out of time, and that there appears to be little out there for remediation for seriously challenged kids who are/might be Dyscalculic. I am torn. I feel like a little like going this route might mean I am giving up, but I also don't want to lose precious time to gain real life skills that might take years to master. I don't know what materials to use, I can't even envision her solidly learning fractions at this stage, and would be thrilled if she could add, subtract,multiply and divide using decimals by the time she graduates. Does anyone have any suggestions, other than the usual MathUSee, Saxon, etc? Does anyone have a child this severely effected who has found a useful curriculum or tools to work with? I don't want to take the easy way out, but I also know this may be something we can't really "fix", and I don't want to delay moving in a more practical direction if that is what I should be doing. I just feel like I am really fumbling about with her, and I want to do right by her as her teacher, let alone as her mom. I am open to any and all suggestions, and hope someone can offer something concrete we can use! This goes beyond "slow learner", this is mroe like "I can't conceptualize math AT ALL!" Thanks so much,

What a great way to put this!

We are using a combination of Progeny Press (I agree with Margaret's comment above 100%), and an anthology when not doing a book study. I am enormously pleased with a lesser known textbook series called "Implications in Literature". It is NOT like a standard high school textbook these days and is more like the anthologies of old. Excellent selections, meaningful discussion and essay questions, has grammar and vocabulary review built in. We are still doing an additional writing course, but if one has a solid base you might not need it with this textbook, because it has a lot of writing options. http://www.textwordpress.com

Connect the Thoughts has an entire series of courses to explore various current events. Titles such as Poverty, Current Wars, Terrorism and more help guide exploration of what is going on today, provide some background, and stir conversation.

This is a terrific thread, and I am learning a lot. I'll admit, since we started high school with our son this year, I have found myself not visiting this particular board too often. It's too depressing, and it causes me to be judgmental of myself and our homeschooling, which will absolutely never look like that often talked about in this forum. We are far from a traditional family, and while not Bohemian by any stretch, we are working with challenges others are not. We started homeschooling later (5th grade for eldest)...heck, we didn't even start PARENTING until much later with 3 of our kids, who were all non-English speaking upon adoption at ages 8, 10 and 11. We have learning disabilities up the wazoo, we have giftedness with two, we homeschool eclectically because we have an eclectic family! Hahaha! When I read the word "rigor", when I read all the incredibly difficult work many of the high schoolers on this list are tackling, it leaves me doubting every single thing we do. It feels like it is never enough, and I don't want to head to our kitchen table each day living in doubt. So I stopped comparing, it worked miracles. We are doing a GREAT job with what we have to work with! We tailor things as best we can, we stretch our kids' minds, we focus on gifts, we present challenges, we have high expectations for character and work ethic which is paying off in huge, huge ways...even at 11 years old our youngest displays more adult responsibility than many adults I know. I have an 11 year old 5th grader starting TT Pre-Algebra in a week, but I have a 14 year old 6th grader who just completed TT5 and still needs remedial work due to math disabilities. I have a 14 year old 9th grader reading at a college level, but a 15 year old 7th grader who is barely reading at 6th grade. I have all five reading an ELL high school American History textbook which is lower reading level, but watching and discussing in depth the college level Great Courses in American History. And you know what? It works for us. The whole idea of homeschooling is to meet our kids where they are at, and help them get as far as they can. Some of our kids might prove to be college material, some won't. My job is to focus on getting them ready for life as #1 priority, to make sure they grow into terrific adults who are responsible, capable, sincere, loyal, loving, compassionate human beings. My job has nothing to do with crafting PhD students. We have taken a different route, we are paying less attention to college, and more attention to fundamentals. We are making sure that by the time they graduate, they can write very well, read at a college level (except for one who will likely not reach that...although he keeps surprising me!), and do math through at least geometry and Algebra 2. Science will be far less rigorous because there are not enough hours in a day when half a childhood has been lost, and I needed to let go of rigor in one area so I could concentrate on the most used skills in life...reading, writing, math. History will be strong, because it has built language skills more easily than science can with its uncommon vocabulary. Overall, though, if they can read and write well, they can attend college and do fine, should they decide to do so. Would it be Harvard? Haha! Nope, but then, that wouldn't be happening for other reasons anyway. But we will be keeping doors open by keeping a laserlike focus on those fundamental skills. We will have no AP's, we will have no SAT's, we will do community college, trade/tech, or entrepreneurship. We will use the time we have left to explore life and careers/avocations because we never got to explore as younger children who were institutionalized. And you know what surprised the heck out of me? Even with this less rigorous approach (which is still actually far more rigorous than public school, in my opinion), even with not fitting in on this board, even with being years behind in some subjects, when our kids took the Stanford 10 online this fall they rocked it in ways I never would have imagined...not in a million years. It gave me confidence to see how they tested well above the norm in many areas...even if they would look like they were lacking against the norm here in this forum. We are providing a far better education than they would have in our local schools, and that was one of our goals. We have caught up in some areas, finally found explanations and answers for learning disabilities in others, and we are soaring...by our own standards, if not by others. "Rigor" is subjective, it is also different from child to child. Our kids will function well in the world by the time we are done, they will be capable and confident. Will they go to college? Who knows? I am not homeschooling for college, I am homeschooling for life...that may or may not include college. And I decided not to beat myself up for not teaching a standard high school biology course, and instead going for a strong Life Science course. I decided to stop feeling like a loser because we are not going to have Statistics under our belts, or foreign languages. Heck, we are working on a foreign language every single day already!! Let's get English solid, shall we? And no, we will not force it upon our children to retain a language left behind just so they can test out of it when it would be detrimental emotionally and they have begged not to keep it. I have decided to not teach to a test, be it SAT, ACT or CLEP,which is one strong reason we left public ed. We will instead learn, grow, and enjoy. From what I am seeing in other ways, should we decide to eventually take a Big Test, I'll have little to fear anyway, with or without obsessing over it. I guess what I am saying is that I have decided to enjoy our homeschooling adventure with our kids, I have decided to celebrate our many, many victories, to laugh our way through our days, to loosely keep an eye on grade levels and performance but to work super hard every day on what is before us. I have decided to let them explore who they are, pursue activities and classes that intrigue them alongside the fundamentals we will pound fairly hard. And at the end, when every textbook is closed and the last paper is written a few years from now, I'll still be able to look back on our homeschooling journey with great joy and pride in what we accomplished together, my kids and I. We will have beaten the odds, whether there was an AP class taught or not. We will have increased the great abiding love we have for one another, we will know each other intimately, we will rely on each other, encourage each other, and watch as their adult life becomes whatever it is meant to become. Knowing us, we will stand often with arms around each other's shoulders, grinning, probably starting new businesses where Mom will help teach again how to keep books, pay taxes, hire staff. I will be grateful, and so will they. The rest is all gravy.

Our son has participated for two and a half years now, and it has been a rewarding, and character reinforcing activity that has stretched and matured him in ways we could never have done at home. His squadron is a composite squadron as well, the adults have been fabulous and dedicated. He also attended encampment in Colorado Springs two years ago, when the brutal fires near the Air Force Academy cut short the experience and the cadets all had to be evacuated to a nearby Air Force Base where parents often couldn't reach them for a day or two due to how far away we all lived. At no time was I concerned about my son's safety, they were well supervised every moment by his own description, and there was nothing but professionalism at all times by all staff during an unusually stressful situation. Sure, there are the benefits of flights and training in all areas of aeronautics, but the character, safety, and leadership training is of the best quality...so much so that my son has urged me to get the leadership manual to go over with all the rest of our children. It is that good. This is the one child in our large, gregarious family who is on the quiet side, prefers not to approach others, and is a bit introverted. The changes in his willingness to now approach social situations or speak in public has been profound, and it is all due to the continued practice in CAP. This past Christmas party, as a 14 year old cadet, he was recognized as the Cadet of the Year. He has no desire to go on to the military, and would be unable due to a physical condition that would keep him out. He has been excused from the physical training which is unsafe (broken back vertebrae) for him, but as he has said, the training he is receiving is invaluable, he will use it throughout his life. I think it all depends upon the local and state leadership whether the program is solid or not. I second the vote for checking out all surrounding squadrons. We didn't but that is because the closest one other than ours in town is an hour and fifteen minutes away. However, if anything should happen to our squadron, it has been important enough in his life that we have already said we will drive him that far each week so he can continue to participate. Hope this helps a little!

Now that's the kind of brag everyone loves to read! Thanks for sharing this, it really warmed my heart.

I was going to offer a second for Starline Press, or you might check out Connect the Thoughts.

Prime is the best deal I have ever had. Bar none. We live rural, and use Amazon more and more for products because we just can't find them here, or if so not the right size, item, etc. I find that with Prime and the free shipping, I look at Amazon for small inexpensive items I might not have considered before. I order at least a couple times a week. Even printer paper is nice to have delivered right to my front porch! Oh, we use the movies, but that's not why we have Prime...though lately we seem to use it more than Netflix and might give up Netflix because of it.

I took it subject by subject, and through trial and error found curriculum to use eclectically in each topic that met the following criteria: 1) Was not overly complicated for me to teach with. 2) Was rock solid in teaching foundational skills 3) Was NOT project heavy (Who was I foolin',it wouldn't get done!) 4) Didn't bore the kids to tears I then tried to mix it up with a little video, a little computer, a little Mama Teach, a little independent, etc. so that we were not all textbooky all the time. Somehow, by thinking more globally then breaking it down into parts, I found my happy place. Just keep working at it, and maybe back up a few paces to see the bigger picture, and how you might work with each subject to fit the big picture.

I've tried Noeo twice, and Nancy Larson as well. Noeo just never got done, and we found the chemistry projects NEVER worked, even with hubby doing them. That is not a knock on Noeo, but the kit they use with their curriculum just isn't solid. We ended up using Nancy Larson, from 1-4...it got done, retention was awesome, it covered ALL the major science topics in a logical way, and...did I mention...it got done. The best curriculum in the world is useless if it doesn't get done. Sometimes I have fallen in love with the approach of something, but found that for one reason or another, we never got around to it or it was awkward for me as the teacher or just too much hassle to work with. Sometimes, streamlined is best, and NL Science is that, streamlined. You don't have to get anything, you don't have to worry about what to teach or what to say. It was easy to work with, it was all in a box, and it got done. Need I say more? Haha! I had no more science guilt!

Have you checked this out? I have looked at it in person and it felt pretty even handed: http://www.amscopub.com/economics-for-everybody

For 8th grade we use Mosdos Press literature anthology which does an excellent job of exposing kids to a wide variety of "classic" literature and great authors as well as working through various literature tools, etc. We also do 2-3 book studies a year. Additionally, we use Essentials in Writing for writing which does a good job (inexpensively!) of teaching all the skills of various kinds of writing.

And I obviously didn't scroll down low enough to say thanks a second time! Had no idea I had any blog readers here :-) Warms my cotton pickin' little heart!

Jackie, What a sweet thing to post. Thank you for your kinds words, and your suggestion about Code Academy! I thought it was just Matt who wanted to code, but everyone seems to want to try it out, so we might have a couple of evenings a week where w all try it out! Merry Christmas to you as well :-)

You might check out www.educationportal.com which has some high school English courses. Also, Essentials in Writing has a combined grammar and writing course, with DVD instruction.