My average middle dd did fine in apologia physics this year while also in Saxon Alg 2. She took Jacob's Geometry the year before this, so there was enough trig in geometry to get started in apologia and then it was fine with alg 2. mileage can vary. What do you want to know about the Physics 101 series? We got that dvd for fun viewing (supplemental to our apologia) I could look through the pdf file for more info and see how much math is needed and try to have more to say. It is not math heavy and is overall intended as light course in conceptual physics.

some other numbers popped in my head based on location, goals, etc. My oldest dd's college has average of 24. that 25th percentile is at 21. The 75th at 27. She was above that because we wanted as high as possible to get most money of course and she's our first born super genius. There's a homeschool cover school in my state that gives honors diploma at score of 25 or higher. National Home School honor society wants to see 26 or higher for that.

First number in my head? 21 composite. It is enough for the regular state grants in my state. It hits in the average range. I think it is respectable to have Average and college readiness benchmark. so that's our goal for middle gal who took it this weekend and is average.

We did not get a paper score in 2012. We had to print our own scores from online. The college received their copy electronically as well. Some colleges will not require ACT for transfer students who have minimum number of college credits or are over a certain age since the score was more than the 3 years ago. sorry that was not the case for you. bummer to hear. I'm thinking the colleges will want it straight from the source. But it's always possible a specific college would be ok with copy of student report. The reports sent look different from what students can see. I printed a copy in our home files. The cover school got theirs electronically. For Honor Society, copy of student copy was enough. But for college, they wanted it from ACT. What I can't remember is how it was handled for Hope scholarship in the state where you and I live. I don't think we paid for that. But don't remember what we did do.

Maybe the Child Nutrition and Cooking course from coursera would work if you're watching it with them? it's self paced. I don't know what you'd do to prove you did it for portfolio purposes (and not pay). maybe screen shot of quizzes after you get them? https://www.coursera.org/learn/childnutrition It might be too much for some children. But it's not intended as college or graduate work either.

Although it is published by MFW, it is a reprint of selections of a public domain history book from about 1920's. It is a condensed version of Exploring American History that is published by christian liberty press that is more for 2nd/3rd grader instead of 4th-6th. I'd call it "information text in narrative or story telling format" (similar to something like sotw kind of book) oh, the public domain book is The Beginner's American HIstory, by DH Montgomery. likes: quick to read. good for getting some basic info at this grade level. dislikes: some parts were a little too much for me in terms of rah rah rah history person. However, I found it easy to change a word or sentence here and there and it wasn't that big of a deal. overall opinion: wasn't a bad pick for us. good for the purpose. not necessarily all that exciting in the version I have because it's just text on page. so it can feel a little boring. But it's not the only thing used, right? since it's hard to find anything about the book, here is the table of contents (I'm using some abbreviations if that's ok. the book doesn't. but I'm typing) Leif Ericsson and the Viking Columbus Smith and Jamestown Pilgrims B. Franklin G. Washington T Jeff. more about Geo Washington Daniel Boone Eli Whitney T Jeff. and LA purchase Robert Fulton Samuel Morse Gold in California Abra. Lincoln. Inventions. so, some of them are short biographies. some of it is text. want some mfw trivia? Basically, long ago when Adventures was first written, the book Exploring american history (CLP) was in first edition. MFW scheduled very select portions of that book in Adventures. Well, with Ex. Amer History went to 2nd edition, MFW just did a reprint of the public domain original (Montgomery book) and printed that since only the selections were read in ADV. Then the full book of Explor. American History (clp) shows up in EX1850 and 1850MOD.

It's been a while since I used it. I don't remember having any ick reactions while reading it. I found my copy. The book is mostly stories told from point of view of fictional characters (children) and daily adventure life. yes, it will say Indians. I went digging to find anything that it says on Columbus so you can hear that. in the intro section to give background info before reading "Pedro and Catalina" it says.... next came a man from Spain. His name was Columbus. He had three ships under his control. The ships were called Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. But Columbus did not stay in this new land. He went back to Spain. Years later, more Spanish settler came and began to build homes......." (any typos are mine, not the book) If Columbus is mentioned again, I'm not seeing it. Jamestown, the mention is "Smith did all he could to keep peace. But other Englishmen did not. Often there was trouble with Indians. People felt safer to have a fort with guns". The fictional character whose eyes we see glimpse of "in the day of" hears the story of Pocahontas. It has about 4 sentences to be a narrative summary at lower grammar stage, which is pretty much how a lot of historical stuff is done in this book. Most of it is fictional characters, children, and their daily lives to give a glimpse into how it was in a kid's day. I hope that helps to see the unseen. I can look up other stuff. But it's more about culture of families and of the times (how was soap made) and less on history facts/events.

in Adventures, the science is thematically connected to the Bible lessons, which study the names of Jesus. For example, when you are learning "living water" the science topics will be water related. If you use something else it's ok. You might enjoy doing the extra in the "free but productive afternoons" or light Fridays if you don't want to miss the simple but connected theme. in ECC: the science is ecology/ecosystems, which I think connects well with world geography. CTG: The science is General Science. The thematic connection is mildly there. The book used is Science in the Beginning which orders the general science topics relative to the order in appearance of creation week. In other words, the first unit will be "light, optics". 2nd unit is air/water (atmosphere, weather stuff). 3rd unit: soil rocks. 4th: sun moon and stars.. 5th: birds/fishes.. 6th: land animals and people. The other part of science in CTG will be pyramid study and that is done while studying ancient Egypt. RTR: I never figured out if/how it was thematically connected really. Maybe some historical connection of sorts, but not necessarily in the lesson plan connection, if that distinction makes sense. One semester is Astronomy. One semester is Human physiology. Yes, astronomy study became big in history during this time. EX1850: one semester was animal study. one semester was botany. 1850MOD: year of elementary level intro to chem and physics topics. yes, you can do your own science if you prefer because in the mfw sequence of things, jr high students don't use the built in science. yes, you can do extra or lighter versions of more than one option as long as you aren't burning out you or the kids. Overall, the sequence progression made for a nice elementary time for my oldest and middle. We're science family (dh is research scientist). We always had time for more in afternoon, or field trips, or science museums. I personally enjoyed having the various books and topics over the year so I felt like I wasn't tied to one publisher.

I probably missed this if it was mentioned in the thread or other recent clep discussions. Charter Oak also has some credit course opportunities through EdX (the MOOC). Sounds crazy, right? Thomas Edison State College (another regionally accredited college that has online options and generous credit by exam options) is working with Saylor.org for some classes and TESC exams. more info on that can be found in their online associates in business degree plans. oh so many good paths to choose from for all kinds of goals. makes me break into cold sweat sometimes.

Charter Oak State College is a regionally accredited college that accepts a lot of clep and dsst (that's another exam) toward degree https://www.charteroak.edu/ ACE: that's referring to American Council on Education. I know I could link to their website directly, but I'm going to link instead to Aleks math site where they have a nice summary description of that and other links https://www.aleks.com/about_aleks/ace_credit by the way, my oldest did not have any AP exams or classes. She did not have any dual enrollment. As I mentioned (on this thread I think?), we did clep college algebra but never submitted it. So We're the oddballs on this forum who started college as freshman with zero credits. She didn't get the clep credit until summer between freshman and sophomore years of college. (It was for gen ed literature.) she's electrical engineering/computer science double major (or as we tease her CS double gEEk). Started college as freshman in Calc 1. Will take summer courses this summer at the college to help get 2 classes done to avoid 2 semesters of "over load" (19 credit hours). yes, she still got awesome scholarships for college. yes she took ACT (only got a 30 composite and still got scholarships? yes) . yes we did "regular" high school at home. didn't even do co-ops. all of that is said to encourage. yes her college is Abet accredited. has good record for job placement. no it's not a "hive bragging" rites name school. But it is well respected "regional school" in the us news thingy making in their top 30 list. But it's not nationally ranked with oohs and ahhs in name recognition. and my kid gets to go to engineering conferences with student groups... best wishes in your planning. ((hugs))

On the site Pegasus mentioned, it appears there is other outdated or not accurate information. They haven't updated to include current price. also, you can only take the ACT twelve times, not "as often as you like". I can give them a break on not yet changing the SAT comparison chart as that just changed in March of this year. :) Even in 2012-13 academic year, I didn't have to pay to view scores online of my oldest. And, just got reminder this morning that I still have time to have reports sent to college from the test we took this weekend. yeah. When we registered, we didn't even have things in mind, so this will be good to think about and get done by that deadline. so there's still time on that if anyone else in our situation.

(maybe I'm repeating this from information already shared. I hope not.) Another thing to check with individual college on limits with clep would be what about a class I registered for but then drop. At my dd's college, you can't sign up for a class, withdraw from it, and then take the clep that would be that course equivalent. (I'm not sure if that applies to "drops" as well as withdraw) But given that most clep exams are dealing with 100 level courses, I understand why most people wouldn't even be bothering with clep exam once they are classified as sophomores in a 4 year college. Places like thomas edison and charter oak would be the exceptions, not the rule. (edit to correct to: "not" sure if it applies to drops)

That's how it worked for my oldest. She took clep college alg near end of 10th grade. But didn't have a college in mind yet. So she didn't report it and just "banked" it. Then while in college, she took another clep exam (analyzing lit) and had that score sent to the college. As far as we know, we never asked for the alg one to be sent as it wouldn't help her on degree (she's engineering). and I was listening to a webinar this week about how some people know they will apply to charter oak (regionally accredited and you can obtain associates almost entirely via clep and dsst exams), but don't send any CLEP results to charter oak until several are banked up and sent at once. rationale behind it was financial and when you start the program to only have to take the one or two online classes. I don't recall that in enough detail to talk more. But yeah, you can report later. We did.

dd's ticket said 12:15, but of course the pdf of preparing for ACT said if there's 5th test, add twenty minutes to that (12:35). I had gut feeling, it was quicker and dd was out of room about same time as pegasus's dd. around 1205-1210 mark. Where are you seeing about the $8 fee? I've missed that info. ?? thanks. (edit to add link. from here, it says 0 for fee for viewing online http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/taking-the-test.html I'm confused now.

agreeing that those with extended time should have had better explanations. For pick up this time, at least I wasn't sitting and waiting like I had to when oldest dd took the ACT. oh my. both times they were about an hour later than we expected due to breaks taking longer and just the beginning stuff. and some other crazy administrative thing. She never had the 5th test. Just over crowding issues at location and figuring out which room who was in. That was long wait in that lobby. But eventually it was done.

I'm beginning to think I had the unusual experience. I get it that some students need to know routine changes ahead of time. My dd is like that. But it wasn't that bad. The info that some dates will have extra test was in the ACT published preparing for the ACT test. So we knew such a thing could happen. I highly recommend accessing that booklet from ACT site or pick up a copy at local library. Read through it. It even gives you a sample of answer sheet with the certification you copy and sign.* So this doesn't have to be a surprise. If you are going for June 2016 date, here is a link directly http://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/Preparing-for-the-ACT.pdf (edit: I don't know when the 2016-2017 is released, or where they'll put in on the new website design. I use google to find this stuff. This might be the link for all of it.. scroll down on it http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-preparation.html Also, we signed up to receive email notifications on test stuff when we registered. And the email they sent just a day before the test sure seemed to drop the hint that there would be a 5th test on this test date. We were not surprised by it at all. It even says in the Prep for ACT guide about what time to expect them. I had this feeling that they were going to be done 20 minutes ahead of that predicted published time because everyone was in their room before 8 am and no one in the parking lot. So I went back into the lobby then. The extra time was only about 15 minutes from what the sign in people told us (parents) who were in the lobby. This building set up allowed us to sit in lobby. Some parents were in the parking lot doing what parents do in parking lots (sitting, waiting for their kids, playing games on phone, etc.) So, now you're set to prepare yourself and student. As far as I know, there isn't a list out there where ACT shares which dates have the extra section. Sections can be math or reading and not all of the tests will have the same number of questions in that 5th section, so don't let the 15 minute thing be an issue. Yes, the students who came out all had a glazed look on their faces. But they texted their parents for rides and waited and all laughed about that whole 5th thing and how tired they were and even said they didn't think the results would help. Be encouraged. I really don't know how I knew that I knew it would have a 5th test, but whatever they said in the email (that I already deleted, sorry) reminded me to remind my dd about that possibility. I simply told her "do what you can. it doesn't count against. and if you just fill in letter of the day, that's ok too." *yes, I even had my daughter do a quick run through to fill in the answer sheet with the info to match exactly on her admission ticket, and to copy the certification and sign. Read the pdf, that part is around page 11. No, it doesn't have to be in cursive. It is in your regular handwriting.

From page 9 the booklet, Preparing for ACT 2015/2016: On some test dates, ACT tries out questions to develop future versions of the tests. You may be asked to take a fifth test, the results of which will not be reflected in your reported scores. The fifth test could be multiple- choice or one for which you will create your own answers. Please try your best on these questions, because your participation can help shape the future of the ACT. yep. we had 5th test.

I did a quick search on "high school practical arts" and this list from Florida came up http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7746/urlt/0079840-pacourses1213.pdf and this from a school in MO. https://whs-wsd-mo.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1276956757803 eta: in my state the public schools call those "career and technical electives"

another one http://www.hsfpp.org/

moneyskill .org might be helpful.

And the ACT does not allow Nspire CAS. (I'm not familiar with SAT to know what is and isn't.) We went with the TI84 in high school. Then everyone in her college engineering classes has TI89 (not allowed on ACT) so she got one of those in college.

I'm too far away to have gone this year. But with mfw and conventions, they aren't doing any conventions/conferences/hotel events this year in any city. They have something on their website on it about taking a sabbath rest from conventions or something like that. That's a big change for them. I don't know about other vendors. anyway, looking forward to reading this thread and listening to the fun. We don't have any convention near enough to us anymore so it's fun to listen and remember the good ole days when it was exciting to be there. all ears.. :)

Statehistory. net has easy to follow program. It has christian point of view, but I don't remember what that meant. I didn't feel at the time it was too much or over the top (but that's way too subjective to evaluate). here's a link http://statehistory.net/ and edit to add link to the sample and more info https://www.statehistory.net/uploads/state_history_download.pdf likes: had easy to follow lesson plans for year, or semester, or even quicker pace for summer (6 weeks). Covered basics of the state. you order for the one you want. Read the lesson in the student book. build a notebook of info, take a few quizzes. It's easy to do. Can be used in upper elementary, middle, or high school. dislikes: It wasn't a big deal for me, but you'll need to have a few pictures to print, or cut and paste from tourist brochures, to do a few of the pages. That really wasn't hard to get at a tourist places (rest area on interstate, or hotel lobby, or city tourism office) and/or print a few pictures from state tourism site.

Have you looked at this document for the school? http://financialaid.missouri.edu/forms/files/identity-verification-and-statement-of-educational-purpose-form-2015-16.pdf it might have some insights. I know several homeschoolers who got scholarships at Missouri Science and Tech (which is part of U of Missouri system but not in Columbia). They were all homeschooled and residents of Missouri (even residents of the city where that campu is) Hope that encourages a bit to contact and ask for clarification. Maybe no one has asked about that and they could write that part of the website with a bit more info.

fun memories: I remember last year (dd's college freshman year) that she had a class where there was a lazy person or two. In that class, you didn't have the same lab group each week. As part of the lab grade, students graded each other on participation. So it quickly got around if you wanted to get the lab done that week there were people to avoid in class. And she and another guy in the class became the go to people when other groups were stuck. and for biology dissections? ok.. I wimped on that. She wimped on that. Dad had to rescue us on that. But, my daughter never has to take biology for her degree. So it all worked out. we only did worm, crayfish and perch. I gave the frog away to someone who really wanted to do it. anyway.. .dd is off to a engineering conference next week. She and her group are in some competition with some robot thing. but turns out the group leader has mono and the project isn't as ready as they hoped. hmm.. but when I tell her about threads like this she tends to tell me that if people live near a university that does outreach programs for STEM, to try and attend those one day fun things. As a college student she enjoys being part of those events and sharing with high schoolers. If possible, try to make some of those events if you have them. (that's just input from my dd who was homeschooled the whole way and is woman in STEM major.) original poster: hoping you find a best fit outside course for your needs. Up the thread someone mentioned Landry academy. They have lab intensive "camps" around the country. Maybe one is near you for that group experience. In my area plenty of people get nervous about high school at home and do all kinds of outsource options to fit their needs. Hoping you find an outsource option that is available.