We have Duolingo and he's used it but I don't think he'd be disciplined enough to do it on his own (i.e. without a teacher). I would like to have grammar too. Ideally, a high school credit(college credit not required). There are so many that are offered online, that's it's hard to wade through it all and I was hoping for a rec from someone. Cost is also a factor - but even though I consider Well Trained Mind Academy to be expensive since we already pay for school, it is a full year course and offers a transcript that I could use to qualify as high school credit. I'll have a look at Oklahoma State courses. Thanks.

My 11th grader is attending a private classical school for high school (we home schooled through 8th). He would like to learn German but will have to take it after school hours, so I've been looking for online options for him. He's done Rosetta Stone for Spanish before - and I don't love the program, but I know it's an option. I looked at the Well Trained Mind Academy, and If he could participate in the live course, I'd consider it. But, given the time conflict, he'd have to take the delayed course which means watching recorded lessons with no teacher/language interaction. I don't think that would be a good way to learn a foreign language, though I don't have experience with it. Does anyone have suggestions for a good online language course, or some other option? I am starting to lean to Rosetta Stone anyway...as it's cheaper and may be equal to a delayed course option.

Cosmos, you're right. I think they would be open to doing that. Julie, what is MFW ? Have you used La Clase Divertida? If so, how was it? Any feedback or comments would be appreciated. Sebastian - I need to look into that too. We just moved and I am not yet familiar with what is offered here. Lots to do this weekend! I want to choose something soon since the school year has already been going for a month.

Unfortunately, OSU has discontinued the online Spanish course, but, I am still looking at the other options listed above. I agree about Rosetta Stone. In fact my son had taken the regular Rosetta Stone Spanish (2 or 3 levels) a couple of years back and I'm not sure how much he retained. I definitely want something high quality.

I did check BYU and they do not offer what we need this semester. I will check out TTUISD, Homeschool Spanish Academy and Spanish 121- they look like possibilities.

He is in school and will be allowed to take a course during what is normally the Latin class time (and only about 50" long). I am hoping to find an online course that he can take.

After homeschooling my now 14yo all but 1 year of school, we decided to enroll him in a classical high school this year. Unfortunately, I did not keep up with the Latin and he cannot catch up to the freshmen who are in Latin 3. I have the option of enrolling him in an outside foreign language course as long as we can track progress, grades, etc. and they will help me include it in his transcript to get a foreign language credit. He is restricted to taking it at the same time that he would normally be in the Latin class. I've begun looking into Rosetta Stone Homeschool (we are going to do Spanish) which some other kids have done. I just want to find out what else is out there that has a good reputation and will be relatively easy to track for credit.

Just finished this as our nighttime read aloud with both boys (10, 14-who already read it). They loved it and we are now on to White Fang. As a read aloud, we stop frequently and talk about what's happening. I'll throw in another great animal/nature book: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinan Rawlings. Just fantastic!

My son loved all the G. A. Henty books (although he didn't read The Cat of Bubastees) - they are all historical fiction. Sort through the titles to find the ones that match your time period (there are a lot of them. You can get them on http://www.gutenberg.org/

If you're really looking for something to teach math facts, this won't work, but we've been using CalcuRace for practicing facts. You can do either a set number of problems (up to 100) or a timed set (up to 2 min). The problems go up to the 12 tables (x,/) and up to 100 (+,-). It works well for what we wanted and it's not gamey or animated.

We have "Lives of the Artists" by Kathleen Krull and it's really good, but we want more. Can anyone recommend another book with more artists, their profiles and pictures of their works, appropriate for a 9yo. I have been looking at this http://www.amazon.com/50-Artists-You-Should-Know/dp/3791337165/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y and may just get it, although I'd prefer to see the inside first. My 9yo is very art-y. Any recommendations will be appreciated!

The TOC for 7th and 8th is here (thanks DragonflyAcademy) http://sfmsmath.wikispaces.com/Math+in+Focus No look inside, just the TOC.

I guess. I don't know when they came out. They sell them on RainbowResource, but there aren't even any inside pages to view. They offer them as a course through Calvert Curriculum as an alternative to their 8th grade math.

It supposedly adheres to the Common Core Standards, which may be good to get into if I plan to have my ds enter regular school next year. I'm curious about it and have the chance to use it with my ds13 (grade 8 level) in a program now, but know nothing about it. I can't even find samples of the TOC online. I haven't heard of anyone using it in the upper grades. So, if you have used it, I'd love to hear more about it. Is it directed to the student or do you teach it? Is it algebra level or more of a pre-algebra? Any comments will be appreciated!

OK, so which of these online classes do provide grades/transcripts? I know Derek Owens does, and I'm considering that one heavily right now for Algebra I as I really want to have that feature, but it really can be expensive especially if you take 9 months to finish it. I prefer TabletClass price and I've viewed his sample videos which are good, but he doesn't provide any kind of grade/transcript, does he? Which ones do?

Melissa B, I see that you are using several of the FLVS classes - how do your kids like them? Is this your first year using them?

Well, I messed up. Melissa B you are right - it's not FLVA (which is k12 associated) but FLVS that I'm talking about.

8th

I've read through a few comments I've found on here, but looking for some recent comments. If you've used FLVA, what courses did you take and how did your dc like it? I've been thinking about history and maybe a language

Thanks for that detailed review CalmingTea. I am in the process now of doing a placement evaluation with Calvert and I understand they do custom placement for spelling, grammar, writing and math (although I thought the s/g/w were all integrated). Writing is not his strong suit, but he did WWS1 last year and we started WWS2 (which he loves)- I'd love to use it, but it's hard to commit so much $$ into a whole curriculum and not use it all. I am also not looking forward to dry/boring science - when it should be so fun! Maybe 8th grade is better than 6th...I guess that's the problem I find with Calvert - I like the sound of a lot of it, but not all of it, and it's too expensive to just swap out what I don't like. 8th grade is over $2000 with ATS and math - I just missed a 20% discount that ended (ouch!). I am curious how much time your son spends on school in an average day. I've looked through the sample schedules, do you find you can follow that? If it takes longer, do you have your ds work until the lesson is done, or do you let it carry over into another day? Is it five long days a week, or is one day lighter? One of the problems I have right now with my ds, is that he has a hard time concentrating for a long time, we'd both dread 5 long days.

I want to here from Calvert users on their likes and dislikes of the curriculum. I am considering it for 8th grade. At this level, from their website I gather that they will evaluate your child's reading, writing and math ability and then recommend the appropriate level. I probably wouldn't use their math but I'm wondering how this worked for your dc. Do you use any of their teaching services (ATS)? I wasn't planning to, but would like to hear about it if you do. What is the strength/weaknesses of this curriculum? Do you use all the curriculum or do you add or substitute some? Do you think someone coming into Calvert at 8th grade would have an easy transition? I am thinking the structure of this curriculum may be helpful to my oldest. Any comments will be helpful to me. Thanks!

MathMammoth has 7/8 grade prealgebra worksheets. If you don't need the explanations (these are just worksheets), this can serve as a good review. http://www.mathmammoth.com/worksheets/grade_7.php It actually covers more than we did in Lial's PreAlgebra an Integrated Approach (which we didn't find busy or distracting). I'm also going to look at Jousting Armadillos for more review (we need it).

Sebastian - I also like your idea #1. His last test was polynomials (+,-,x) and he does tend to miss those signs. Maybe if he uses a note card/check list he will eventually, automatically do those checks (one can hope!). As far as #2 - I do usually give him more to do, but it hasn't made much difference yet other than making him a little more resentful. mothergooseofthree - I do have him correct his errors (sometimes I have him re-do the problem usually with me, sometimes without). If he gets them wrong a second time (yes, that happens), we do it together. When I'm watching, he always seems to find his error!

Thanks Regentrude. Tough love is right. I think I've been worn down with the constant battle we seem to face with math, I have to remember who the parent is here! Back to the battle stations for me, I'm not doing him any favors by going easy on him. And I will look at other preAlgebra texts (I have MM 7th grade worksheets - that might get us started). I also like your idea of different colors for the signs!

Yes, I check all of his daily problems and he doesn't get them all correct (ever), and they are usually the same types of careless mistakes; but he seems to get more wrong on the test. I suspect part of that is due to him being able to look in the text during the chapter problems, but not during a test. I do tell him to write them all out and write neatly, etc. but he doesn't always do this (very frustrating for me!). Even on the most recent test, he had done some problems in his head even though I've told him they all need to be written out, no matter how simple they seem (and one of those was wrong). On his most recent test, I would say 6 out of 8 errors were careless mistakes (multiplying, adding,signs, not copying correctly). I would not say that his conceptual understanding is rock solid. Maybe I should do more problems with him - having him show me how he solves them step by step. I know I am not comfortable sending him on to algebra with the way this math year went. Thanks for the ideas.