I loved the Elegant Essay Writing Lessons by Lesha Myers! It is recommended by The Institute for Excellence in Writing. Very easy to use!

I used the 7th edition hardcover (ISBN 0673995755) for ds 2 and used a student solutions manual, 7th edition (ISBN 0673995410) which had solutions to the odd problems. The solutions matched up fine even though the chapters were in a different order in my textbook....almost made me panic, but it worked out, fortunately. I would recommend using a solutions manual, especially for Intermediate Algebra.There are also Digital Video Tutor discs that you use on your computer for this. I am going to be selling mine but haven't posted them yet if you are interested.

Lingua Latina recording is good to use with the text.

I actually used Discovering Geometry with my middle son and really liked it. We used the Geometer Sketchpad too. It was not proof heavy like the Chalkdust Geometry I used with my daughter this year. The two are very different approaches to Geometry. My daughter does not like Geometry at all. I like the Chalkdust lectures and hate the textbook which was the newest one. I had used Chalkdust Geometry with my oldest son years ago I liked it but the textbook was different from the current one. To compare the two, I would say that Discovering Geometry is very hands on and construction oriented and Chalkdust is proof-heavy.

I was also going to suggest Lingua Latina especially if you have already done a couple of years of Latin.

I wanted to add that I used the redesigned TOG. I do love the teachers notes and discussion notes....extremely helpful.

I have used TOG (Rhetoric) for 2 years and love it but, it took months for me to figure everything out. I tried to do everything....impossible, but now use it as a guide, which is much easier. I would suggest downloading the free samples and reading through them to see if it is doable for you. I would also suggest getting the latest copy of "The Well Trained Mind" and try that instead of TOG. It is also separated by the same levels as TOG and everything is laid out. Trust me, you will have to spend a lot of time and money with TOG. I wish it was simpler to use. I have only used Year 1 and Year 2 of TOG and am not familiar with the American History part of TOG. I did not like the writing part of TOG and found it hard to fit in. I don't know how hard it would be to start with a Year 3 or 4 TOG. Maybe someone else can chime in here.

The "Great Books" for government SWB recommended were The Declaration of Independence, The Federalist, the Constitution of the United States, "On American Taxation" (Burke), "The Rights of Man" (Paine), "Democracy in America (de Tocqueville). These are supplemented by "The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government" or "Holt American Government". This is only for American Government, not History or Literature, which would have another list entirely.:tongue_smilie: I think that having "The Well Trained Mind" book is the best way to see how to put it all together. I just got my copy last year and wish I would have purchased it years ago! It takes the mystery out of the study of "Great Books", along with a list of the "Great Books".

SWB recommends "The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government" or Holt's American Government as a supplement to the great-books...The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Federalist, "On American Taxation", "The Rights of Man", and "Democracy in America".

We quit using the DIVE and just use the Apologia text, skipping the chapters we covered in Bob Jones. I did not like the DIVE at all and it was confusing to use.

I used the DIVE biology at the beginning of the year with Bob Jones and really hated it. We switched at semester time to Apologia and are much happier.

This summer we did math 3 times a week for an hour or a bit more, maybe 15 minutes. (My daughter held me to that) Day 1-We would watch a video for 30-45 minutes depending on how many times we paused it. She would take notes and pause when needed. Then we would try to get through the first 1 or 2 easy sections in the text, even if it went a little over an hour. Day 2-we would work as much of the rest of the sections. Day 3-finish the rest of the lesson. On days 2 and 3 we would try to stick to the hour limit. If we didn't have too much left on day 3 we would go ahead and watch the next video lesson, then finish the previous lesson. This seemed to keep me on schedule or a little ahead and probably won't be necessary during the school year when I have more days to work with. Last year we repeated the whole chapter on slopes so that's what put us behind. On day 1, I felt it was important to do the first couple of easy sections on the new lesson because it seemed to give her confidence and it usually only took about 20 minutes. There were times we repeated the video lesson when I felt we needed it. I also split up long lessons by watching half the video, doing the first 2 easy sections, then watching the rest of the video the next day. I always watch the video with her because it saves time when she needs help. (It's too hard wading through the text)

Mommy, Something I learned this year is that the problem sets are very advanced in the last part of each section and usually the test questions didn't cover this advanced stuff. (I'm not talking about the story problem portions) Chalkdust suggests "self-pacing" which means to me that I don't need to require the super hard parts to be mastered. The Larson text has wayyyy more than you need to do. Keep that in mind and make sure your student understands the basics of the lesson and require mastery of that. Don't go beyond what Mr. Mosely covered in the lesson. I went a little overboard last year and will try to simplify when we do Geometry this year. Less is more, concentrate on the basics... my mantra this year.

Great story, Lori. Susan, we didn't do precalc. but we did do the College Algebra course with Chalkdust. You will find Mr. Mosely's lectures to be enough to do the problem sets. Make sure student takes notes. You can refer to examples in the text as needed but I found it very tedious to wade through the Larson text when my son needed help and I didn't watch the video. Lesson learned, watch the video with the student, save time later when student needs help.

These pizzas look great. Would this work on a gas grill? What kind of pizza stone do you have and where did you get it?