Thanks for sharing! I do think it would benefit many to get a clearer picture with a gap year and yes they do need a plan! :) It will be interesting what he decides but want to be very well knowledgeable in all areas so we can see all that is out there. Thanks again!

Thanks Lori for the threads~ will check out, I always fall short when searching! :tongue_smilie: You're the best!

I listened to Susan's talk on high school lessons she had learned...great advice...:) Anyhow, I am curious as to my oldest is just now getting near the end of HS and we are a bit in a panic mode. He will have about 50 some college credits when he graduates HS and is close in SAT to getting close to full rides at several schools we are looking at HOWEVER he is not sure as to what he wants to major in and is all over the place and I don't want him going to school without a clear idea of his major and wasting time and money! SO....the gap year talk sounded very interesting and I know he might be interested so how does that work when you have scholarships lined up? Will they be there when you get a deferral for the next year coming in? Hope I am making sense...thanks for all of you veterans chiming in and for those who have crossed the roads before us.. ;)

Great ideas, thanks....any other thoughts anyone? :D

Anyone know of a good way of getting info on summer internships for highschoolers without knowing someone? My son is not definite on a career choice but has a few in mind and we want him to explore them some before starting his major. He is a junior in HS but will have his AA before graduating from HS and want him to explore options. His interests now ranges from music (which he has an internship lined up for his senior year) to physics, engineering, astronomy, to a pilot. Any ideas would be great!! Thanks!!

I prefer MP but that is just my choice. My son really liked MP but like previous poster said we added more free reading along with it. Another idea, that I have used that I really like is: A Mind in the Light lit guides. very simple and laid out and we have used them this year. Really have enjoyed the simplicity yet fullness of the program you can look at samples on her website. :) HTH

I agree, I contacted Wilson Hill on my own to see if they could help us out any. They informed me that I would have to pay the full $600 for a half of a semester! :eek: I declined! Thankfully, our current teacher came through for us. Just fyi thought that was pretty steep for a class already in session, too much for us!!

FYI, for Latin this is the email I got from the teacher Mrs. Thomas. If you need her email address and have not heard from her directly you can PM and I will get it to you. I haven't heard anything since Sunday when I got this but if anyone needs more info can post. :) Hope she can pull it off! Dear Families & Students of Latin IA, IB & II, Thank you for your patience and kind emails (and some phone messages!) It was my son's 7th birthday and I tried to keep it as normal as possible (while trying not to panic!) This group email list was retrieved for me and I am very grateful to be able to send some sort of communication to you. I have been trying to salvage my saved pages of assignments and assessments. I had downloaded the class grade books, so I can send Fall semester grades to you. Some students were still in the middle of finishing assignments. I am not sure if anyone is still able to login and interact with the class pages at this point. I may have to send midterm makeup assignments by email. How to continue for the Spring semester: I am willing to continue teaching the Latin classes, right where we left off, and I hope to be able to start the week of 1/9/17. I am hoping to keep to the same Tuesday and Thursday schedule as well. I have been trying to put together classes for my oldest daughter, so I am sensitive to the fact that parents had already paid for classes and now have to pay more money to continue them. So, I am looking at the best options for continuing our classes at the most affordable choices. (I have been working without pay, like other Landry teachers, but realistically the electric and internet bills still need to be paid to stay online. The real reason of course is the wonderful students.) So, there have been several options offered for Landy families. A problem specific to our Latin classes is that NONE of the options use the same textbooks Latin Alive I and II, and it would be very difficult for students to switch half year to another curriculum (vocabulary, grammar, translations.) I am looking at the hosting platforms to see who can host our classes reliably, at the best cost, and still have control over using our same textbooks for continuity. I read on fb that Greg Landry approached Veritas Press Scholars Academy as an alternative. Veritas has an excellent reputation, but they are expensive. Students would be enrolled in Veritas classes with Veritas, not Landry teachers, and using Veritas curriculum. For Latin, they are not using the same textbook Latin Alive, so that would be a significant problem midyear. Personal note: I know a mom whose son was in Veritas online for algebra and loved it, but again, she said it was very expensive. Potters School uses their own system (not Haiku Super Power Learning), but they generously offered Landry teachers free space to teach with a reduced enrollment fee for families. The drawback here is that teachers seem to be concerned that we can't recreate a full semester on a new system in a week's time, and that once the semester is over those classes stay on Potters School site (which is not yet hiring Landry teachers. It's on an as-needed basis. And like everyone else, they do not use the same Latin textbooks.) Personal note: I know a mom whose daughter took French with Potters and loved it, midrange on pricing. Some teachers have joined Excelsior Academy as independent contractors, and they are using the same classes as they taught at Landry (so I am hoping this means Haiku Super Power Learning.) Excelsior seems like a solid option because it was started by a Landry teacher (Jodi Guerra, you'd see her name at the bottom of the class powerpoint slide template) and has Susan Gleason, who was the chair of the Foreign Language Department, and other Landry teachers. They offered a reduced fee of $120. Big River Academy is a start up for some teachers (not sure of their learning platform) and I think they are asking $150. Virtual Homeschooling Group has generously offered free classroom space with recordings (I think it's the old Blackboard collaborative we used before Adobe) linked to private teacher Haiku Super Power Learning accounts. The fee is by donation to VHSG and some payment to the teachers. The rest is free. This may be a good enough option for Spring semester, as some teachers are already setting it up and it could be ready in a week for classes to start on time. Our classes would be the same with Haiku weekly pages and assignments, and a weekly live classroom meeting, and a saved recording. VHSG is run by dedicated volunteers, so with their other classes, you get out of it what you put into it. My oldest daughter is signed up for the 'at your own pace" Saxon algebra, so this requires significant parental involvement to keep students on track. Classical Learning Resource Center and Scholars Online posted that they offer Latin courses, but with their teachers and different textbooks than Latin Alive. There are a few smaller sites like funcation academy ($25-50 per month), classesbybethplus ($42 a month, I think and they could host), open tent academy (starting up Spring 2017, offering 50% off their classes, possible hosting) and homeschoolworks4u (they posted a need for a Latin I teacher and they might host Landry classes.) I just got the link for Virtual Homeshooling Group, so I am trying it out this weekend. I am waiting to hear back from Excelsior. I will email as soon as I can with more information. And for those of you who are getting the information in drips and drabs, here is what I know: The last official emails I received from Landry were about enrollment (my children) and encouragement for the Spring semester, and then an abrupt cancellation notice for teachers, saying that Landry had reached the end of their resources. In November, teachers' weekly pay was reduced to 20%, and then it simply stopped, and we were emailed that it would catch up to us in January. We were encouraged to plan for the Spring semester, and that everything would be running smoothly. I rarely spend time on facebook, so I was a little slow to read the news. Landry has closed, the main page is down, our gmail accounts are closed, and teachers have little or no access to the class pages. As far as I have read, Greg Landry had to pay a large tax fine to the IRS for having teachers as independent contractors instead of employees, and his legal representation thought the case would be settled in his favor, but it was not. The Landry farm and property is for sale at auction. He is not returning emails or communicating. Some of the long time teachers have set up a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1519089804771785/ and it is called Jeremiah 17:8 Homeschool Online Cooperative, so that families can connect with teachers. My email inbox has been very busy. I appreciate all of your emails and encouragement. God is sovereign over all things. Blessings for a Happy New Year, Elizabeth Thomas

Thanks! It's keeping me in the know particularly since I am not on facebook. :)

For those of us using Latin Alive, not sure who can help. I have reached out to WHA, Schole Academy for those who use that curriculum but not holding my breath. Any other ideas I haven't thought of? VP is not going to work for us and the other mentioned in previous posts use Wheelocks too. :( Anyone else out there looking to figure out Latin? Might end up having to switch but to what? Other options are Henle and going MP route...but how do they compare? Uhh!! Any thoughts would be great for those up on their Latin more than I. :)

My son's Latin teacher never got back to us. :( Anyone heard from her, Elizabeth Thomas? Or anyone looking to replace Latin 2? So stressful, with school starting back in about a week! :( So much for a nice break off!

My son is in one of her classes this year and yes she makes them show EVERY step. No skipping, which my son hates but I have been trying to drill that in them for years and well he has to do it for her class or she counts off so yeah for that! :) Can those who's kids have taken Jann in Texas math classes share your experiences including any pros/cons? In regards to rigor, I can compare the two this year. My oldest went through Derek Owens from Geometry-AP Calculus and I have been VERY pleased with his rigor and completeness. My husband is a math major and was very impressed. However, this format is not for everyone my middle son wants interaction and live participation so we were wary of using DO for him. So with others recommendations we have tried Jann's math online this year. I am giving very honest feedback just because I would want it in making a very important decision in which way to go in math. I feel that she does not give enough homework my son averages about 3 hours of work not counting time in class. They rarely use the math book she gives most worksheets to complete for the week. He is doing really well, has an A in the course but I don't feel its thorough enough. If your child is not very mathy than she is perfect for that child. My son also complains that her voice is trying at times...:-/ We are trying to decide how to make the shift next year and struggling with the decision as well! Tough decision! HTH :-)

I can't believe this....I am definitely nervous and out quite a bit too if they don't continue. I hope they let us know soon so we can have some time to figure out what we will be doing the rest of the year...always something! :confused1: Thankfully this year I only have one kid in one class (Latin 2), but know so many who are in many classes...hugs to you all! How stressful! I am just shocked, they have been up and running for so long I felt safe. :(

Because I love both and don't want to abandon one or another...:-P We did Shurley English from 1st-6th grade. I then switched to R&S but unsure of where I should place him I did a year lower grade 6 in 7th grade (probably a mistake) most everything we go over he already knows so most is review but hey, there isn't alot of new stuff when you get to this age. So for 7th grade we did: IEW Fix It Levels 1-2 (because I wanted to make sure nothing was lacking so we doubled up and went pretty quickly since he already knew the stuff) and we did R & S Level 6 8th grade we are doing: Fix it Level 3 (Frog Prince) and R&S Level 7 (Building Securely) (HTH) :)

After 76 and she is doing well you have the choice to go from Algebra 1/2 OR 87. All of my kids were strong and ready for the jump to 1/2. The differences are that 87 looks just like 76 and goes a bit slower pace than 1/2. From my understanding most can move to Algebra I from either one.

So I am not her but.... I do use both curricula with my 8th grader. This is how I do it: I have him do Fix It IEW (one day - days M-F) then I do R&S orally with him the other four days. We do it all orally unless written work is involved and we also do not do the writing assignments as we integrate them into his assignments during the week. I have done this the past two years and has worked great. HTH

I agree with others depends on the school...the one school our son is interested in says no more than 63. HTH

I totally agree with this! I had a son that learned to read at 3ish by himself. I did not do any "curriculum" with him just read to him ALOT! He is now 5 and can read really any book, comprehension is good as well. But I still worried about not going through any "reading curriculum" with him. So this year since he is now in Kindergarten I have worked with him some on memorizing all of the phonograms for "spelling" only. He already knows how to read them and has for quite sometime but I wanted him to understand it from another angle. This is working well and he is seeing parallels. I have been using RLTL (for spelling aspect) and also Logic of English game book. This has been a life saver for me! Who wants to constantly drill phonograms; and since my son LOVES games this has made learning them so much easier and fun! Highly recommend with a stack of cards. As of now since your child is only four I would just let them read anything they want and read to them. Don't worry about all of the other. Dive into other interests and let her be a kid! :)

Very true! Particularly on this board! Seems to be many smart, "gifted" kids! We wouldn't even have a shot! :p

Thanks for the info! Well rats! Even though he is in the 99% and had an awesome score his nmsc index was only 211 so that doesn't cut it for our state. :( Wish we lived somewhere else! It seems unfair to base it on your state. They should have overall scores for the whole country! Still proud of his accomplishment though...good luck to the rest of you! Just curious does commended do anything for ya since we didn't make the number in our state? I am new to all of this...

Anyone know the scores for the merit cut off this year? I am on pins and needles! He is very close but don't want to get my hopes up too soon! :001_unsure:

Me too!!! :) Now on to the scores! :hurray:

Same here... :-(

In regards to writing and grammar integrating into it may take some time. I would think more reading exposure and just pointing out things you find in a casual way here and there when reading with him would help more with this to make it click.

My two cents... :D is for Shurley and Rod and Staff you can't go wrong. My two older boys used Shurley from 1st grade through 6th and then switched to Rod and Staff and Abeka for upper grades. They are very grounded in their writing and grammar and are great writers which I owe partly to this curriculum. :) Granted they didn't really enjoy it or found it to be fun but hey it WORKED! Shurley - pros love the jingles and helped my kids learn all of those things they needed to memorize and it stuck for years later! It gets the job done! cons: Do not like the writing part and omitted that part and we mostly used IEW for writing. R&S- works well, easy to follow, teaches diagramming! cons: lot of "work" written so I started doing mostly oral and we get done in half the time and it still sticks and it doesn't show what really needs to be memorized in an easy format. What can I say, if you are not real strong in grammar both curricula will guide you. I am at the stage of deciding which I'll choose for my younger one coming up. I am steering towards using Rod and Staff because it teaches diagramming more and then I am adding in the jingles for memorization. :) A win win! :) HTH!