Our first two got their own when they started college. We usually had 2 family computers already. We now have a Mac and a mostly useless old pc, so third ds just got his own laptop as a high school junior so he can learn how to use Office.

http://philosophy4.com/ I searched and did not see this mentioned on the boards. I heard about it from someone in my homeschool group; her 7th gr son took a course and loved it. It looks interesting. Cindy

I've never heard of computer courses satisfying the foreign language requirement, interesting.

My High school students are memorizing a historical speech for speech class. These are some we are looking at. I have not read all these: Patrick Henry Lincoln's Gettysburg address Roosevelt's speech after Pearl Harbor Kennedy's space race or ask not what your country can do for you... Reagan : bringing down the wall Nixon Bush's 9/11 speech Martin Luther King- I have dream

My son is mildly dyslexic with mild ADD. He's 13 and should be in 8th grade, but a young 8th grader with a late May birthday. He reads comfortably though not perfecty at a 6th gr level. Because we have been working so hard on the reading, other language arts skills are behind. I decided to keep my son a 7th grader academically for another year. We're not repeating work; we continue to move forward. I felt he would not be ready for high school work in a year. However I do it I figure he will need an extra year before graduation so I decided to do it now to give us some breathing room before high school. Last year when he did his first standardized test, I went a grade lower. He still didn't do very well. My older son sounds a little like yours. He was late doing everything also with a May birthday. I started him later from the beginning; it was perfect for him. Follow your instincts. It's easier to make the change now when he doesn't care. Cindy

He does very little reading for pleasure. He still struggles pretty much. He thinks he does enough reading for school. We're on Barton level 9, but he needs lots of reviewing. The Drive Thru History looks great. Thanks.

I did a search and found some other posts about puberty and 13 yr olds. My 13 yr ds has minor issues compared to many on this board, mild to moderate dyslexia, poor memory, writing issues. He's at a 5th-6th gr academic level except spelling is probably 3rd gr. We just started school and it seems like he forgot so much over the summer, he's working slower than usual, and his attention span has worsened. It's so frustrating because he has so much that he needs to work on. I didn't know how we would fit it all in even if he worked at a good pace. So how do you fit in science and history when we could easily spend every day on just the 3 r's? I'm thinking we'll just do video history. That's better than no history which is what happened last year. I'm just tired of having too much to do; been at this for 15 years. I only have 2 other kiddos homeschooling right now besides this child, but my plate is overflowing because it's a challenge to get him to work independently. I've decided to add a year in before high school to give us some more time. He would be a young 8th gr, but I should have held him back in the beginning. That takes some of the pressure off. Just frustrated, Cindy

DS13 Barton 9 and 10; and maybe something to give him more practice with multi-syllable words, BJU 6 for extra outloud practice. Finish JAG book 2, begin AG WWS - completed WWE 2 last year and started working on writing lessons in R&S 4 Spelling - start back with Barton 3 rules and lists and and add in Fry's list using Natural Speller ideas. I always feel like we are wasting our time with spelling. Science - God's Design for Heaven and Earth, Gizmos (It took us 2 years to get through the 3 God's Design Life Science books) History - Ren/REf WTM style (did no history last year, had this planned from the year before. We can only manage to get in either history or science in a year but not both. No therapy this year should give us more time.) Math - Abeka pre-algebra with Kahn academy and Gizmos to assist Art - Meet the Masters on-line, Feed My Sheep with videos (I doubt that we will get to much of this.) Logic - Orbiting with logic (never seem to get to this.) Community Choir Local soccer and basketball

We've been happy with ESET on the pc for 2 or 3 years, and very happy with the mac. We are now a mac family.

My 12 yr old ds just finished Barton level 8. This was the first year since starting Barton that we did any other writing or grammar. We used Sentence Family and Junior Analytical Grammar and almost got through the second JAG book. We'll continue with AG after JAG. We completed WWE II for writing and then I was stumped, too (I own many writing programs but this is my first child with learning issues.) I have Rod and Staff 3,4,6,7, so I decided to start with book 3 and just do the writing lessons. I'll also throw in an occasional lesson from WWE 3 or 4. Cindy

Our oldest shared a room, so it is pretty much as he left it. When he moved to college the first time, my son who shares the room pushed his older brothers bed and stuff all to the side. My older son was only 2 hr. away, so he was home a lot the first year, not so much this year since he has a girl friend. He comes home for summer jobs, too. This fall the next oldest goes off to college also, maybe close, maybe not so close. My two youngest sons want the big bedroom in the basement vacated by their older brothers. The older ones may still be home for the summer. I think we'll probably wait one more year for the switch when oldest ds graduates and gets married. Although, that empty room is going to be very tempting, I don't think my college students would like to come home and have the bedroom right across from Mom and Dad! Cindy

We got through so much Barton because my son had phonemic awareness and had been through all the phonics in a regular reading program. He got stuck on multi-syllable words, so he flew through levels 1-3, and we probably moved too quickly through level 4. We did levels 1-5 in a year, then levels 6 and 7 the second year. We did a morning and an afternoon session 4 or 5 days per week. He did no other language arts during these 2 years. This year we slowed down to one Barton session per day so we could also work on grammar and writing. It took almost the whole school year to finish level 8, and now we're going to take a little break from Barton. Cindy

I recently had my 7th gr. son tested for reading after 3 years of Barton (just finished level 8), 4 months of VT, a small amout of brain gym type stuff, 14 weeks of metronome therapy, continues some metronome exercises at home and wears flashing glasses to stimulate his right hemisphere. He was at a 2nd gr reading level when he started 5th gr. His comfort level for reading is 5th gr, instructional level is 6th-7th, frustration level 8th. He still will not read for pleasure, so has to be made to read outside of school, but he continues to progress. We will begin Barton level 9 in the fall. Cindy

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/41626661

It was more important that my son read than spell for now. We would have to spend a month per lesson for the spelling to stick if ever. He was already 10 when we started and I wanted to get him reading before high school. We are in our third year and on Level 8. We slowed down a bit this year to make time for more grammar and writing. I'm about ready to go back and start reviewing the spelling. That was my plan from the beginning. :001_smile: Cindy

Has anyone tried this? Thanks, Cindy

I've seen posts where people complain about the immersion aspect of RS. We used it years ago when version 1 was available. That bothered me too. I wanted to know in English what the pictures were instead of guessing. To solve the problem I printed out the English version from the RS website. I checked and saw they still had this for you to print, I think. I'm sure others have thought of this also. Maybe that's not the right way to use RS but it worked for us. Now I'm trying to decide on version 3 Chinese for my 4 year old daughter. I haven't heard too many goods things about it. Cindy

Sentence Family www.stmichaelschool.us/sentencefamily

I like to use freezer paper taped to the wall or you could do an accordian fold. We have a long hallway that works great. Then I draw a line down the center of the paper, make century or decade divisions depending on the time period covered. I like to put Biblical or church history stuff on top of the timeline and everything else on the bottom. I bought a lot of timeline figures, but you can get images off the net, or draw them or cut them out of old books. I also like to use different colors for different history topics (general history, art, music, Biblical)

That's a good idea to check out the student life handbooks. PH is probably out for us too because of $, but I am still intrigued. Just because they take a 6-day stand doesn't mean a student has to agree. The 'no dancing' will be the main reason PH is out. We're Christian, but I guess not as conservative as some. My boys don't like such rigid restrictions, although I can see the point. Cindy

Ds will be a junior, and is leaning towards liberal arts/poli-sci and law school. These two are intriguing to me and I would appreciate your comments. I am aware that GW is not accredited at this time. Thanks, Cindy

My son went to public school for 10th. The policy had changed to not accept home school credits right before he enrolled. They did let him take 10th gr classes and gave him 4.5 9th gr credits for doing well in 10th. He took a class in summer school to make up the .5 credit he needed to be at the right grade level.

This a topic I needed. I too am considering putting 3 1/2 yr old dd in preschool this fall. I'll be schooling 2, one a struggling reader. It is so stressful trying to deal with it all. Thanks, Cindy

I got tired of BJU science and tried to put a weather unit together like I did in the early years. I have too many books and could never decide which ones to use so science completely fizzled. I need something already planned. We're going to give God's Design... a try next year.