Have you looked at Sharon Watson's Power in Your Hands? I'm using it next year in my mini co-op. I am not covering all the chapters. It looks easy to use and structure and cover all types of essays and research papers. You could focus on the Persuasive essay part first and then do the research.

I pretty much typed this and erased it earlier. I think it's an art. One I have yet to master. I am afraid that if I gave any advice about teens it would be "dangerous". Teens seem to defy your best intentions and strategies. Kids are more straightforward.

Aw don't be so hard on yourself. Look at all you are doing with a new baby with medical needs to boot. I once asked dh how all the other parents were doing all the juggling bc I felt like I sucked at it. He replied (from Boy Scout experience ) badly . We are all dropping balls, most of us have missed a pick up time . My Ds is is First Lego league and I kid you not over achiever me is the flakiest parent on the team and I never know what is going on bc I can't keep up with the email . And it is ok. It really is. We are doing our best. We have been careful about our choices and what we can handle, but life throws curve balls . I'm trying to keep things in perspective. You are an awesome Mom who had been through a lot lately. I wish I could help you out and buy you chocolate.

Yes! or very little life experience (lived life in same general area, very little outside work, no kids, no college).

yep, that pretty much describes my feelings. the life coach I know. . . needs a life coach.

Sleeping--yes! When dh talks about me getting a job when our last graduates, I tell him--I'm going to need to sleep first--for about 6 months!

Yes! I forgot about this. I have a dry erase calendar that I fill out each week. This helps me review the week and also lets me say to the child who asks what we are doing--check the schedule. I *love* the color coding idea. And I absolutely depend on my alarms. I am also coaching my teens to do that (ie--you have Spanish today, do you think you should set an alarm for that or will you remember). And absolutely my alarms have reminded me of things I've forgotten.

Sonlight does have a World History Core now, BTW. We have done Tapestry year 4 at the rhetoric (and dialectic) level and really, really enjoyed it. The history portion is great. I didn't *love* the literature portion b/c I felt the books were overly depressing--which I guess comes with a 20th century focus. I also feel like the rhetoric level lit is a bit overcomplicated for even an honors level ninth grader (although I liked it for 10th grade--outsourced). My next year's ninth grader is using Illuminating Literature for Lit instead of TOG. I have friends who have used the HoD geography this year and it has gone really well. I also recommend MFW as something to look like.

(((((Support))))) I have 4--almost age 8-16 (a junior). What's keeping me going is that the oldest will be in college in 15 months (God willing!) It is hard. Mine are not all in one sport with multiple meetings, but we do have multiple activities. My youngest could probably qualify for a travel soccer team, but I just can't. Dh works on Sunday. He's in charge of a lot of the driving, but it is still a lot. (And culturally I am not used to it as I grew up in a city and didn't see my Mom do that--we could walk to everything). I give myself lots of positive messages. I can do it. It's a season. It won't last forever. Since I am overresponsible, I also make sure I keep perspective. If dh is sick and can't help then second grade soccer and music can be dropped without guilt, but 14 year old should get to acting b/c her skit partner is depending on her or 16 year old needs to go to NYLT b/c he is on staff and it's the one activity that truly brings him joy. 11 year old can be late to FLL b/c he's made it to all meetings. That's the kind of thing I do mentally to take the edge off. Food, I have no solution to b/c dh has a severe allergy and I have blood sugar issues. I try to freeze extra portions and have "easy" meals in the house that I can throw together fast. Mostly, you are not alone and you will make it! Make sure you take care of yourself, though--sleep, food, exercise. Ask dh for help and don't try to be the martyr And, no, it isn't the same as for parents of 2. They could cut back w/o sacrificing one child. Just 1 or 2 activities per child can make an insane schedule and to cut one leaves one child with nothing and that is hard when you are the parent. But they also won't understand the level of insane (on top of schooling, housework for a large family, cooking for so many, etc, etc). That's okay. It's okay to say--yes, this is insane. I am working harder. That's why it feels so hard. And then figure out how you want to cope with it and get through. (And before you parents of 2 jump on me--think about it hard. Yes, you work hard, but my work load is bigger and, yet, it is smaller than my friend who has 9--by a lot).

Yes, it is possible. I fully expected to do it and do it well (Both dh and I are cert. teachers--him in high school math, we both went to excellent colleges, etc.) However. . . .. outsourcing saved our homeschool. We probably could have limped along, but outsourcing was sanity saving. 1. There is no way to predict how your child will handle adolescents. The child I decided to keep home for high school when he was in eighth grade was not the child "who showed up" in ninth grade. He needed a lot more scaffolding and supervision than I expected or could give and went from being relatively calm and compliant to being moody and a bit explosive and not prone to working or taking direction. We muddled through ninth, but I threw him in an outsourced writing class at the end and WOW what a difference. Outside accountability was what he needed. 2. If you have a lot of children schooling (and I see you have 2, so you are probably okay) and high standards for having lots of discussions with your highschooler you may burn out or end up cutting corners. This may be okay for you. It made me feel like a failure. 3. Both my teens need social learning and social time for their mental health. Leaving co-op was necessary for me a couple of years ago, rejoining a large one (we are still part of a tiny one) is necessary for them in a very, very real way. YMMV Also, English discussions are way more fun with a group. Writing is fun with an audience. 4. I found that although I *can* teach at least one year of Spanish and probably 2-3 of French, I hate it, hate it,hate it. Dragging my ds, who hates foreign language, through Spanish when I hated it was NOT something I wanted to do if money could be scraped up to outsource. Now I get to say, "Oh, well, you just need to get it done." And the bonus is that his Guatemalan teacher gets lasting results where all I got was cram and dump. Now, we don't outsource everything. I kept what was going well. I arrange a history group and writing class/book club to hold me accountable and trade teaching duties with another friend with limited budget and teens. So, yes, you absolutely could do it without outsourcing, but go into it with an open mind. You may not want to do it. It is worth saving some money now to have to possibility open. When my dd was 9-11 I never in 100 years imagined that going to a co-op would be so necessary for her. She really doesn't thrive with lots of home time--even with 3 siblings and some outside activities. Why not school? Neither teen wants to go to school and the schools around me are not healthy places (way too driven--the kind of schools with tons of homework and pressure to succeed and not supportive of our religious beliefs).

We jumped ship mid year and went to Teaching Textbooks. It just didn't click for my ds, either.

ehen we moved back from Canada, I just called the insurance company and was able to buy a policy. We basically got a catostrophic coverage plan, but I don't know if they are available anymore. I also know that there are insurance brokers who will run different options for you. You could call your local insurance place and ask if hey do that of know who does. Your kids probably would be eligible for state insurance . You could google how to do that.

Oh no!!!! Thankfully the wait for new trends seems so much shorter now that I'm old. And Bethben--I cannot even begin to describe the multi-tiered red with yellow roses worn with a peasant blouse and a huge brimmed hat that I wore all the time as an eighth grader. As my present eighth grader would say. "I can't even!" And she is s much better dresser than I was as a teen.

I'd give the Cogat at level unless they are able to norm a higher level by age. You are most interested in showing how she is compared to others her age for the purposes of gifted camps.

How nice! I went into labor on the way home from the doctor (who wanted to induce, but I'd talked him out of it) too. It was also an under three hour birth. And I'd wanted a home birth but had to do hospital bc of GD. So, your birth story is very very familiar . Anyway, congratulations! I'm so glad it went .

I think so, but it would depend on how hard they work and how far in math they want to go. I would say a 14 year old could cover arithmetic in a year. If that is ninth grade then tenth would be algebra, 11th geometry and 12th algebra 2.

Also, what do you mean by getting them to accept the classes? Does the school require Bio for graduation? If not, he'd just take other sciences at the high school. It's unlikely they'd list Bio on his transcript since it was not taken in their school system. That would be the same if he'd gone to private school or moved into the area. Math, they typically do a placement test. But again, it wouldn't go on his transcript, but that is unlikely to matter.

The only thing I think you would need to have the AP class accepted is for him to pass the AP test. However, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers has an online AP class that has gone through the AP audit. http://www.aphomeschoolers.com/cgi-bin/choose.pl?class=humangeo

How gorgeous!

Praying for you, too.

I'd love to hear your experience if you've done Aleks' AP Stats class. Is it really AP approved? How did your student like it? Was it good preparation for the AP exam? How long did it take your student to go through the program? I am considering it for ds who will be a senior next year. He is doing Calculus this year. He did use Aleks at the end of precalculus for about a month, so we know how it works. Thanks

For your kids I would buy the Student Writing Intensive A. Andrew would teach your children on DVD. You could watch along and learn the method. If your third grader weren't ready for the assignments, you could use sources at his level. Ideally, if you know anyone who as the Parent teaching series Teaching Writing With Structure and Style or can afford to buy it, you could watch that, then you could use one of the theme books. It would give you a framework for feeling confident about teaching writing.

I agree part way. I don't think that the family should be set up or created in such a way that the older children's work is needed (like the Duggars). However, as in the case of families during the Depression, I don't think that it's wrong to ask older children to contribute to the families survival if circumstances happen (like for Farrar, as well). However, in the case of FaithManor's mom, where there was mental illness, I think that that is another thing altogether. In that case, I think the extended family needed to step in or help provide some alternate childcare. It's seems a bit arbitrary, but I guess I'm saying that if the family is healthy, extra work in extraordinary circumstances is fine. If the family isn't healthy, it isn't.

Yes, we have co-oped in many ways. --We did one much like Lori where 1 week the kids taught (on tea or gold--something thematic) and led activities; one week was PE; one week French; one week writing workshop --Then I started a co-op. We expanded to 25 families I taught many things --Then we left and did a 3-5 family small Tapestry co-op. I teach writing, lit and history. I love this BUT --Next year we will probably be joining another big (70?) families co-op that meets every other week for enrichment and a second day once a week for academics for high school. This is purely because my older children need to tap into a new social group for various reasons. I found leading/teaching/being part of our large co-op exhausting and love our small one. I've learned that doing what's best for mom is not always the best thing to do. So, for the next season, we are trying something new.

I think part of this, too, is that it matters if the amount of work is needed. In your situation your Mom/the family needed your help in order to survive. I think you knew that and were appreciated. I would guess your mom also tried not to ask more than she really needed. I think that a child who watches their siblings and does the above while their parents play or do little also know that and it is exploitative In the case of large families where the parents chose to have more children than they can cope with, however, it becomes more murky. Many times their help really is needed. The moms of large families I know, though, are careful to step in when their olders feel too much responsibility. I see older girls who see their mom overwhelmed and take on responsibility they don't need to. Those moms try to look out for that and step in and remind their older sibling that it is the mom's responsibility. So it's a hard balance between needing help, help being good for moral development, but making sure the mom/dad isn't being selfish and that they aren't letting the older child feel over responsible.