How does unschooling in high school work? I just can't imagine being able to prepare for college that way. My ds is preparing for the SAT2 Bio test now, and it is definitely not something he would do on his own, but I feel it is important for him to reach his end goal. I don't know many teenage boys, especially, that would willingly spend their time studying for all the test and essays required for good college prep, particularly to get high enough scores for scholarships. Is college just not an issue for unschoolers?

I also think it depends on grade level-from what I hear, it is an absolute MUST to get geometry in before SAT. I think that is why traditional sequence is Alg. 1 (9th), Geo (10th), Alg 11 (11th). Now that so many are taking Alg. 1 in 8th grade, you would have time to get geo in either way.

I believe that MFW uses SMARR literature. You can download their critical guide to grammar and writing for free here: http://smarrpublishers.com/smarrbooks.html If you want the whole thing laid out, you can buy the complete program for about $100 plus books. The guide linked above could be used with any lit, I believe, you would just have to come up with your own topics. We used SMARR this year (not with MFW), and I agree, it was very challenging and beneficial. However, if your son has not done much lit analysis, you might want to do the IEW program first. I wish that I would have done that first with my son. He made it through the class, but it was tough. While I really liked SMARR, I did have to find other resources to help my son since he had not done any lit analysis previously. And I would have preferred not to make him write about every book. That said, we will do it again next year because it is offered as a class through our homeschool group and I just don't have time to read and discuss books with him right now. And he loves the teacher!;) (she is just so much more cool and hip than me, ya' know).

My son used BiblioPlan for 8th grade and it was a really good year (modern history). No planning on my part except ordering books from the library when needed. The maps, parent guides, and the Cool History Pages are such a huge help to keep everyone on track. I printed everything out over the summer and put their pages in a three ring binder. They each had their own reading schedule page also and I highlighted what they were supposed to read and made any needed notes on it. It has been years since I saw a TruthQuest guide, but I remember it being just a short intro to the topic (paragraph to a page) and a list of books. BP is so much more than that, it is hard to even compare them. The schedule breakdown in BP is a lot like TOG. We tried TOG the year before doing BP and TOG was too much. BP is very similar but on a smaller scale (no lit questions, philosophy, fewer discussion questions). It was a much better fit for us at the time.

My 7th grader will be using SL core 6 this year (uses SOTW 1 & 2) and will use SL 7 next year (uses SOTW 3 & 4) then start over with the ancients in 9th. Because my youngers follow along with with whatever time period my oldest is on, she is off schedule. This seemed like the easiest way to get her back on track. However, instead of core 7 we might do a year of geography before going back to ancients since she did read SOTW 3 & 4 more recently. Anyway, SL does not require a lot of writing, so I will be adding more in b/c my dd likes to write. Also, I had many of the books so I am only out about $75 for the core. I found the guide and several books used, and the rest I can get from the library.

Keeping a 3 year old occupied on her own without making a mess is a tall order ;) Sometimes you just have to accept the fall out to get an extended period of calm and quiet to work with the others, especially if you are trying to avoid using nap time. The only suggestions I have are play-doh and watercolor paints. They are the only things mine would do on their own at that age that would keep the mess at least confined to one place. Another suggestion would be to put several toys in a box, things like plastic animals and blocks, cars, puzzles-and pull them out when you are doing school. Keep the toddler in the room with you and the play room closed off. Maybe get one of those pop up tents to be his special place. However, I still feel like using the toddler's nap time is the best option. I know everyone hates to lose the quiet time, but it is part of that "stage". We always panic if my 4dd gets quiet. I have learned not to enjoy it but to be afraid, very afraid! She is doubtless doing such things as writing all over her face with a hot pink sharpie or trying to wash her own hair in my bathroom sink! But at least she has stopped trying to scale the bookshelves and swing on the mini blind cords :w00t:

:D

Maybe consider other AP tests instead of history? AP Human Geography could be done while reading through one of SWB's high school books (at least this is what we are hoping to do next year). AP Government and Lit might also work. For 9th we are using SWB's History of the Ancient World along with some other resources, and we will be doing History of the Middle Ages w/other resources for 10th. Hopefully he will take AP Human Geo in 10th as well. He really loves SWB's books, but I am assuming the next one will not be done in time for him to use it, so we may do AP World History for 11th and AP American for 12th. Or we may keep plugging along in history and do other AP classes like the lit and gov. Our goal is to get 4 "test scores", ie AP or SAT II, on the transcript. They will probably be AP Human Geo, AP Gov, AP or SAT II literature, SAT II Biology. Hopefully that will be enough to show he is a serious student but not overwhelm him to the point that he has no free time to explore other interest. I have also heard good things about AP European History. I wonder if you could take that after year three of the WTM cycle and just use a prep book to fill in the holes? You don't have to take an actual AP certified class to take the test, so that may be an option, especially if you use a strong program in 8th to cover the World Wars and other major events. We used BiblioPlan for 8th and my son learned so much. Great year.

I have friends who give their kids credit for everything that can be even loosely considered academic, but I honestly don't have the time or energy to keep up with how many hours they do everything. My son will have 6.5 credits for his freshman year: Biology World History 1 Algebra I Honors English 1 Spanish II Health (.5) Theater (.5) Logic (.5) He also took Spanish I in 8th grade, so that gives him one more credit. I am not counting extra curr. activities as credit. So, my son is in the HS Honor Society and they have been working through the Great Speeches curriculum, but I am just listing that as an extra curr. activity. Am I short-changing my son by doing this? Also, he took a Bridge Math class, which is math for science, but I did not give him credit for it either, because it only took about 12-15 hours to get through it. So I guess what I am asking is if my son will be at a disadvantage if he ends up with 6-7 credits each year, and has everything else listed as extra curr. activites. Thanks!

Yes, I saw that and we are hoping to do Biology, Spanish, and Literature. Maybe World or American History. I thought that would be a good mix across the board. Math is his weakest subject, so I'm not sure how to best approach that. Maybe let him take College Algebra dual enrollment? even if they don't accept the credit, just to give some validity to the transcript. He is also interested in Florida State. This is from their website: The typical student accepted to Florida State has 4.5 units of English, 5 units of math, 4.5 units of natural science, 4.5 units of social science, and 3.5 units of foreign language. I don't even know how we could get 5 units of math. And what would be a .5 English credit? WOuld Logic count for this? Would health count for the extra .5 credit of science (he took this as a coop class and it was great-they did CPR certification and dissected a heart). I'm really wondering about giving him 1.5 credits for English this year instead of marking it honors. He has easily spent the required hours for that-not every day, but when papers were due sometimes he would work on them 2 hours a day or more for a week. And lots and lots of time reading. And watching a performance of Julius Caesar. Thanks for discussing this with me! It is a huge help to work it out with others. Most of my IRL friends have done the typical Abeka or Sonlight course load or are just starting the high school process and don't know any more than I do!

OK, then what would be the best way to appropriately note the rigor of the class? I am especially thinking of the Lit class-my nephew read almost the exact same list his senior year of college. This class is taught by a college English teacher, and she has made it tough! I feel like my son worked harder than just a single credit, but not enough to have a separate credit for English and Lit. Can I give him 1.5 credits for the class? Should I just not worry about it and hope the attached reading list is enough ( I envision admission officers looking at transcripts and putting them in yes or no piles without ever looking at the attached descriptions;)). Take an AP test or SAT II test at some point to back it up? The same teacher has agreed to teach the next time period for us in the fall. My son is looking at competitive colleges such as Patrick Henry and Georgetown, so I want to make sure I am doing this right. thanks for all your help!

Jane, Did you list everything as an honors course on the transcript? If so, how did colleges react to that? Did they feel you were "padding" the transcript or remove gpa weighting? Thanks

just curious for those who do not think it is honors worthy-what would need to be added/changed? would like to implement changes for next year since we are basically on the same course, just different subject (chemistry, medieval time period) thanks

Biology: Apologia Biology text as an outside class (retired private school teacher); going through Princeton Review SAT II prep book to take the SAT II test in June; science fair project; participation in 4H camp (2 days, 2 nights) jam-packed with classes which included shark and crawfish (I think) dissection English: completion of SMARR Ancient English course (outside class taught by college English teacher)-read the following: Moping Melancholy Mad: An Introduction to Poetry The Epic of Gilgamesh The Book of Job Bulfinch`s Age of Fable (Greek and Roman Mythology) A Midsummer Night`s Dream Iliad Selected Play of Euripides Odyssey Oresteia Trilogy Oedipus Rex & Antigone Poetics Aeneid The Tragedy of Julius Caesar wrote several lit analysis papers, three timed in class essays, 1 research paper Also completed Easy Grammar Plus and VfCR B & C at home History: History of the Ancient World by SWB with Josephus: the Essential Works and Tacitus, the Annals of Imperial Rome; also used DK History of the World and Timetables of History. He basically read HoAW and coordinating sections of DK and Timetables and wrote a summary or outline or notebook page from History Scholar. He also used the Knowledge Quest map program for Ancients. For Josephus and Tacitus he just read. If this is not honors level (which I suspect because not enough writing), what could I do to bump it up? He will be finishing it this summer. I have not required a lot of writing thus far b/c of the lit class, but it will be over tomorrow! Whew! if you made it to the end, :cheers2: Thanks for any input. And honors get a .5 added to point, right? so 4.5 for an A? Are they still just 1.0 credit? Thanks!

i think she is referring to the high school/adult book which does not have an activity guide. Have you looked at the SMARR english program? We used that this year along side the Ancient book and it was perfect. We will be using the Middle Ages SMARR program in the fall with SWB's Medieval book.

We purchased it before they started creating the HS versions. I wish we had the HS version as there have been times I needed to explain more or figure out problems that didn't have included solution (standardized test questions at end of unit). I don't know if that is old news or not on the website, but our experience has led me to wish we had the HS version, if that helps any. Perhaps you could email them? They have been great about getting back to me when I've had questions.

Just want to make sure before I finish my plans. Even if we have to use downloads of the first few chapters, that is fine. We start school Aug. 1. Thanks

We have several friends that love to travel on educational field trips-really educational places like 4H camps, D.C., Europe. We would love to participate more but money is always an issue. Has anyone ever started a travel club to raise funds for this type of thing? We would not want to be affiliated with the homeschool group for various reasons, but all the members would be homeschoolers. Any thoughts? Thanks

hard to tell from the samples! Thanks

I suggest you read the section about why to study Latin in WTM. I told my 10ds that he would be starting Latin next year, and he wanted to know why in the world he needed to learn Latin. So I read directly from WTM. He told me SWB was a pharaoh and we were her minions. :glare: He runs every time he sees me pull out my dog-eared copy of WTM! Alas, he will not win this battle! There are so many great programs out there with video instruction that you don't need to know it yourself. We have not carried through with Latin as far as I would have liked. My oldest, 15, took two years then went on to Spanish. My 12dd just had her first year, and she is also taking Spanish. She is finishing up Lively Latin and then will start Latin Alive in the fall. My 10ds will do Lively Latin. My 4dd asked to do Latin today-weird! I guess I will be getting Song School Latin soon! In today's job market, I think knowing a foreign language is huge. The sooner you start, the better chance you have to become fluent. My goal is for my kids to be fluent in at least one other language before they graduate high school.

Is 78% for core a decent score? My other two (that tested) scored 98% and 89%, so my 10ds is feeling a little bummed about the 78%. I keep telling him it is not like getting a C ;) Just curious how other WTMers kids do on the ITBS. On another note, my 12dd, that scored 98%, scored 99% last year. Should I bump her up a grade level? I feel like school is pretty easy for her, but I'm really not sure how to challenge her more. She already does Latin and Spanish. Maybe adding formal logic next year, instead of Fallacy Detective as planned? She is about half way through Horizons 6 and will work through it over the summer to start PreAlgebra around November. Apologia Physical Science will be offered at our coop in the fall, but I was afraid it would be too hard for her-now I wonder if I am wrong. Thanks a ton!

I tried the contact button on the website, but have not heard anything after about a week. Does anyone have a direct email address? Thanks

No workbooks or study guides. I believe you can find some discussion questions someone on here wrote if you do a search, but they were not for the whole book (that would be Ancients, there is nothing that I know of for Medieval).

I believe for a world history credit, you would need something encompassing a broader range of years rather than just the Ancients and/or Medieval periods. We use SWB's books (Ancient this year for 9th and will use Medieval for 10th next year) and the classes will be titled Ancient World History and Medieval World History on the transcript (He will then take AP World History and AP American History). Of course, I'm sure there are more ways to do it, but for a one year world history class I think it would be better to use a different resources, probably a text book. I will be happy to share the syllabus I made for HoAW, but there are no questions or tests. I have him summarize or outline each chapter.

Lori, Did you use Teaching the Classics as well or is WttW stand-alone? For some reason I was under the impression that you needed TC also. My son is taking a coop class using SMARR Ancient Lit, and he is having a hard time fleshing out his papers. His teacher consistently tells him he has a good skeleton, but needs more meat. I just don't know how to help him. Would WttW be of value for this? Thanks