The recruiter may ask general questions about classes, grades, or test scores, and you could take with you a copy of his transcript to this point if you want, but the main thing is that your ds can articulate why he wants to go to West Point. Good luck! My ds is just finishing his 3rd week of Cadet Basic Training. It's a wild ride!

ACT has a process for evaluating test day problems. I think I would be filling out a test center complaint form. http://www.actstudent.org/faq/answers/testcenterproblems.html

I can't help with the Spanish curriculum questions, but in general it is accepted to have some "early high school credits" listed on the transcript. My older son has Algebra I and Biology with lab listed there, for example. I didn't actually count the credits because he didn't need them, or the grades toward his gpa, they were there more as a "fyi" for anyone looking at the transcript.

I agree with Dana. Making sure the algebra and trig are really solid is more important than having a calculus course in high school. I took calc my senior year and struggled, retook it in college and did much better. I was on track with my peers, not behind, and many of them had not had calc in high school at all. Also, if she is going for a secondary teaching certificate and not a technical field she can do a BA in math instead of a BS which demands fewer higher level math classes.

That's great news, Tracie! Congrats to you and your son. :)

agreed--I found the comments interesting and enlightening

I use/have used two others--Foerster's Algebra I and Jacobs' Elementary Algebra (but not at the same time/with the same student).

Ds is taking a class at our co-op using the book Our Northwest Heritage by Richard Hannula. It is written from an overtly Christian perspective. Ds likes the book but to be honest I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to what all they are doing in class. I think the book has some vocab, comprehension questions, and/or essay suggestions at the end of each chapter.

It's definitely possible to move up a few points. My ds took the ACT 3 times from spring sophomore year to fall senior year. His composite scores went up from 29 to 30 to 33. He did a little prep from a book but not much. Mostly I think it was testing experience and continued learning.

My ds, now 15, has read all of HOAW and most of HOMW. I only read about half of HOAW. I do remember the phrase mentioned above re: "plowing", but as Kathy B said, these books are written for adults. They are not high school textbooks and are not recommended for young children as a follow up to SOTW. I am pretty relaxed about what my ds reads, so a few sexual references were not offensive to me, and he passed them by without comment. Sometimes sexual relationships do have bearing on history, and I didn't feel the sentences were out of place in the context of the chapters. Ds enjoys Susan's writing style and is looking forward to HORW. In fact he gives her his highest praise--she writes so logically and without unnecessary fluff!

No publication date yet that I know of--I've been keeping an eye on Susan's progress, too, but I don't know if ds will get to the Rennaissance World before graduation. In February she posted that she was about 3/4 of the way through writing the manuscript, but then there are revisions and rewrites and footnotes and maps and Norton's stuff that takes months to do. Follow the progress here if you want. http://www.susanwisebauer.com/blog/ :-)

We've used Alexandria Tutorials--ds has done Great Books II and III as online classes (we did some local classes before that). I highly recommend Mr. Turnbull--Socratic discussion is the strength of these classes for sure. http://www.alexandriatutorials.com/

The past few years there has not been a September test date but the October one should work for early action, and November and December dates will work for regular application deadlines. If I remember correctly it is usually the first Saturday in October. HTH!

Lol, I find them useful for exposure to different hobbies/interests/fields for my introverted child--it makes him step out of his comfort zone and try things he wouldn't ordinarily choose.:001_smile:

Math are the easy ones--just look at the table of contents and make a quick list. :-)

A co-op, in my experience, is not necessary and may even distract from your goals, but I think the option of some kind of outside class(es), whether online, group, and/or a private tutor is probably beneficial for most people.

Geometry Text: Geometry, 2e, by Harold R. Jacobs. This course covers a full range of Euclidean geometry topics including: points, lines, planes, rays, angles, congruent triangles, inequalities, parallel lines, quadrilaterals, transformations, area, similarity, the right triangle, circles, regular polygons, and geometric solids. An emphasis was placed on writing proofs. Similar here but without the chapter numbers, just a list of topics. :)

Thanks for the suggestion, that looks like fun.

Thanks, these both sound good, and used copies are pretty cheap on amazon--yay!

Something more narrative than textbooky--like SWB's History of the Ancient World but for US History. Any suggestions?

:iagree::iagree::iagree: I REALLY agree. ;) My second ds in particular is so math/logic bright that the "hard stuff" was handwriting and writing. I wish I had followed TWTM more strictly in the early years--they would both be better, more confident writers today.

This is a great core but I would encourage you to add some electives--maybe one per year or a couple 1/2 credit electives per year. I would look to add at least a credit of art or music, and maybe something computer-related (programming or software such as Powerpoint). My kids have done speech and debate, economics, journalism, painting--classes offered at our co-op or based on their interests. What are your student's interests? Can you use them to craft a course? Some of these might even count as a 4th "social studies" option instead of history the senior year. Lee Binz has a great article about delight directed learning in high school--you can recognize it because it is the thing that drives you crazy. :D "All this kid ever does is play chess! or work on his car, or ???"

Sorry no info about Cook but I just wanted to say it's nice to "see" you again. Enjoy the college search!

Yes, hire a tutor! I teach up to pre-calc at home and then have my kiddos take calc at the local cc where they have a couple of really good calc profs. However, I'm not too proud to hire a tutor for those subjects that are not my forte (my kids have had a writing tutor since 8th grade).

I'm not sure I can be much help but I will encourage you that a lot of homeschoolers in my town do this because we have a cc prof who teaches biology and A &P labs for homeschoolers--one year of each. My kids have only taken the biology (he uses the A Beka Biology text and lab book and does LOTS of dissections) and then for a second year students can take Anatomy & Physiology. I'm pretty sure he doesn't use another text other than the Grays Anatomy coloring book and maybe also another coloring book. Of course he brings many years of teaching college-level A & P to the classroom. I think any of your choices sound fine, and I would just encourage you that there is certainly enough material to study to make it a one-year course if that's what you want to do. :-)