Thank you so much for your help!! I'll be honest, it never occurred to me to stop, do some MUS, and then restart. I don't know why. You would think after 3 older kids, I'd have the hang of this by now!! I have the placement tests for MUS so I think we will test him on that and see where he is. I also am looking at Keys as well. My older daughter needed Keys for some reinforcement, but it was more of a supplement for her rather than a different way of explaining it. Zach is my only hands on learner and I'll admit that I just don't function that way, so I'm learning how to help him learn the best!

I'm hoping y'all can chime in with your thoughts. I have 4 children and the oldest 3 have always used Saxon math. They didn't necessarily love it, but they all did well on their ACTs and have commented that Saxon really prepared them for their college Calculus classes. My 12 year old son though is really struggling with math. He seems to understand a concept when you explain it, but then he completely misses the problem when he's doing homework later that night. I've explained fractions multiple times and he's still getting confused sometimes when multiplying or adding them. It's the same for other type problems as well. Clearly he hasn't mastered the basics yet. Even though he scores greater than 85% on both his Saxon tests and homework, he doesn't understand WHAT he's doing when you question him. My other kids never did this. It's completely throwing me for a loop! He's currently in Saxon 7/6 and I've thought about stopping and switching to MUS so he can visually see the concept. He does seem to be a visual and kinesthetic learner (which I'm not used to!). So my question is do you think MUS alone is a good math program, and does it adequately prepare them for advanced math (providing they want to take those advanced math classes in college). Does it prepare them for the ACT well? I've heard it wasn't a strong program before, but wondered about it now. Thanks so much for your help!

Thank you so much for this feedback! I can see this working very well thanks to your writing this out!

You are right, I am basically looking for a solution's manual but the ones I have found mostly have solutions worked out for even only at best or 20% done at worst. The texts often have even or odd answers but usually not the solutions worked out. For the most part my husband or I can figure this out, but it's nice to have a back up since neither of us have had physics in 25 years! I definitely don't have a problem with older texts - that's one of the reason I enjoy math as it doesn't change! I do like a study guide though if it's available. It's a ready made test for me. It's not mandatory, but good to have all the same. I do still have my oldest son's Physics book and solutions manual if push comes to shove. Again, if you happen to know of a solution guide that has a majority of the problems worked out, that would make my life much easier. I appreciate all the feedback I've been given to date for sure!

This is what I need to hear. My husband and I are both GT engineers and so we wouldn't be sad if she ended up there :) However, we live in TX so A&M is good too! I have never even seen the Saxon book so I'm very open to information with the exception of Apologia. My son used this and I'd like to use something different. I found the physics thread but couldn't find any books like I did with Zumdahl. I'll check out the above books and will keep looking! My problem is I need the text, TM, and study guide which is proving to be difficult to locate for any one text. I can teach physics, but I don't have the time nor the energy to work every problem myself for the answers. If y'all know a better place than Amazon to look, I'd appreciate the help.

Thank you for your thoughts! She really does like Saxon and will be happier if I can allow her to use this. Thank you Margaret for the heads up about the subject test!

My daughter has used the Apologia Biology but wanted a different approach to Chemistry so we used the Zumdahl books as recommended here and it is a much better fit for us than Apologia. Now I'm planning physics. She really really likes the Saxon books and wants to use Saxon Physics with the Landry Academy physics lab intensive. Is this enough for a physics credit? Is there something else that might work if not? I can't find any online examples of BJU. At this point she is looking to attend Texas A&M or Ga Tech for engineering. Could you please offer some insight? I'd really appreciate it!

So based on this map Angie it looks likes Dripping Springs is in the service area but not the district. But, I only see two categories here besides out of state so this must mean Dripping Springs is quite a bit more, right? Am I reading this right? Unfortunately for us, it looks like my daughter will be considered out of state for an entire year which is even more for tuition than out of the district. I knew we would probably be facing this, but wow does it make it expensive for a community college credit! We looked on Zillow but didn't see any homes with our criteria. However, this is good to keep in mind because I am not confident that Zillow lists are accurate! This is good to know about the library card. We may be small here compared to Austin, but we have a great library system. Now availability of doctors - not so much which is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to moving!!

Thank you for the help so far. May I ask for you ladies that live on the north side of town is the south or southwest side bad? We just have to be close to San Marcos. Thank you for the links and I will contact the yahoo group as well as CHEACT. My kids are excited to know that there are homeschool groups. They currently run for the cross country team and are trying to figure out if there is a team in Texas. JuanitaL I am not sure how far it would be - I will have to ask my husband. We didn't see a community college campus pop up in that area but we are only relying on the internet at this point. I didn't even find the AAH or the CHEACT group so I definitely could be missing something! Do you ladies know if a homeschooler can take more than two classes per semester at ACC? I know only two are paid for (and that is amazing to us because in MI we are all on our own!) but my oldest daughter is a Junior and trying to take as many classes as she can before graduating. She will be contacting ACC this week but wasn't sure if any of you knew the answer ahead of time! Thank you again for the help. I'm looking forward to selling the snow blower and being warm!

I am coming out of lurking to introduce myself and ask a question. I have been stalking this board for a while now but never posted because, well frankly, I felt like I didn't have a lot to offer regarding advice, opinions, etc. since we have only been homeschooling a few years. I have four children - one in college, two in high school, and one in elementary school. I have learned so much from this board that I knew I needed to finally post because I think I am need of your specific help. We will be relocating to Texas in December somewhere near San Marcos, Texas. We can't seem to find a community college in New Braunfels nor San Marcos so think we will have to move to Buda, Dripping Springs, Driftwood, etc. area. My husband will work out of San Marcos. Are there any areas with an active homeschool group near these places? Is there somewhere else within 30 minutes of San Marcos that has a community college for my dual-enrolled kids as well as a homeschool community? Are there any areas that we should NOT look at specifically? We can live in temporary housing for up to 90 days if we need to, but I was hoping to start looking at specific areas now while we start selling our house here in Michigan. I know this is rude to quit stalking, introduce myself, and ask a question all at once, but I'm feeling overwhelmed right now. My kids love our homeschool community here (though it is very small and we don't do co-ops). If you could help I would definitely appreciate your time!