We did American history and government together my youngest's senoir year. And Econ too. We didn't intend it to work out that way, but got so far behind because of procrastination issues and a house fire that we had to do them all at once or skip one. It worked out pretty good. American history and government complement each other well.

My MIL is mostly very good, but here are some things I wish she'd done better: 1) Allow your IL to choose what they want to call you--mom, your first name, Mrs + your last name. In my case my MIL requested to be called mom, which I do, and have never complained before, but I'd rather have called her by her first name. I HAVE a mom, and she is not it. Less confusion if I don't call two people mom. 2) If you must give advice, FOR GOD"S SAKE don't check up to make sure your in law is taking your advice. 3) If you have a problem with the IL, tell them so. Don't try to go through your child, and don't hold it in until you can't anymore then explode at the IL. 4) Don't offer to help then resent it if they accept your offer. 5) Don't criticize their housekeeping, home decorating, child-rearing, schooling choices. 6)Don't come into their home and tell them how things "must" be done--e.g. "You must have a light over the sink, there isn't enough light there." Maybe the IL is happy with only the natural light and never does dishes after dark. It's not your business, even if you do help them with dishes. Thanks for letting me vent. Now I'll go back to being best friends with my MIL. She isn't perfect, but neither am I and we love each other.

And they shouldn't be considered measures of intelligence. There are other tests for that. Think of the SAT and ACT as final exams for high school. They're supposed to show you've learned enough in high school to succeed in college. Which has nothing to do with the main topic of this thread, I know. Just had to respond to that comment.

For Josh, finishing his associate's degree. For me??? I'm not sure I even know who I am anymore besides a homeschooling mom.

Are you looking for curriculum or read-alongs? For curriculum we used The American Past by Joseph Conlin. It's a college textbook in 2 volumes. I like it because it is very balanced in presentation, not trying to push an agenda like so many high school curricula do. If you get the 8th edition, there are online quizzes and activities that go with it and save the teacher (you) a ton of work. Here's our read-along list: The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin I Was Born a Slave (3 volume anthology of slave narratives--read selections unless your ds loves them so much he wants to read them all) Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benet His Brother's Keeper by Charles Sheldon That Printer of Udell's by Harold Bell Wright Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki

I know I've only been here sporadically the last few years. Too busy with high school, a part time job, and many church responsibilities. But I just wanted to share. WE MADE IT!! My youngest completed his last high school assignment yesterday! I never thought I'd live to see this day. 3 years ago he was over 1 year behind on his high school work and today he has completed enough work for a high school diploma. AND has taken 6 dual enrollment classes with a 4.0 GPA. I'm so proud of him. And the best part is his social development. He has completely conquered his temper problem, helps around the house, holds a part time job, and saves his money. So you'll probably hear from me even less than before now that I'm done homeschooling forever. (Unless my dream comes true and someday my children let me homeschool my grandchildren -- which I don't have yet.) But I'll still stop in once in a while just to see what's going on.

Realize that things can change, sometimes drastically, over the course of the 4 years of high school. My now 20 year old has changed his goals radically at least 4 times since 9th grade. He was going to be a an Air Force officer, then he was going to be a musician (he does have the ability if he wanted to do that), then he was going to be an engineer, then he just wanted to get college over quickly so he could join the Peace Corps, then he was going to teach linguistics at the college level, now he's majoring in computer science. I think he'll stick with that one because he's now a junior and paying for his own college, so he won't want to take the additional year that changing majors now would require. My point is that you might want to think about preparing her for something unexpected because you just never know.

We've used Glencoe textbooks for science for 3 years now. I have a college student tutor my son, and they are really comfortable with the Glencoe format. I buy older editions (not outdated, just not the latest editions) and I get the teacher's wrap-around editions for the tutor. I just make sure the teacher's edition and the student edition are from the same year. There are also lab manuals, manuals of extension activities, and things like that available. I have purchased all of these from Amazon.com, usually for under $30 per year.

No, without the geometry, he would only have 3 math credits.

I wouldn't recommend using this book as your only guide to Shakespeare. Leithart picks ONE and only one theme from each play he discusses and works it to death. He makes Shakespeare seem one-dimensional and misses all of the richness that can be found in his plays.

We're using a college textbook. The American Past by Joseph R. Conlin. My older ds took Am. hist. at the community college and that is the book they used. I looked through it at that time and thought it very balanced, so I decided to use it for the younger son at home. If you get the 8th edition, which is a little less expensive since it is not the newest, there are lots of quizzes and activities online for each chapter. Saves a lot of teacher prep time.

My son got me Gilead by Marilynne Robinson for my birthday. Though she's a living author, I'd definitely consider her a great literary writer. Gilead did win the Pulitzer Prize. Anyway, it's a wonderful uplifting novel about a dying pastor writing his memories down for his son. Very beautifully written. Try it. I think it'd be great for an American lit course.

Ds is a senior. We started to do geometry last fall (11th grade). We got through 5 chapters of the 13 chapter book. Then we decided to have him do algebra II at the community college last winter semester. Because he didn't want to do 2 maths at once, we put geometry on the back burner. My intention was to finish it over the summer. (We school year round). We did some review over the summer and got two additional chapters done. Then in the fall he took another math class at the community college and geometry was put on the back burner again. Now it's time to pick it up again and ds is putting up a strong resistance. He doesn't like learning math from me. I have to say, geometry is the one subject I've really struggled with teaching. I got an A in geometry in high school, but that was 35 years ago, so I've forgotten a lot and also the teaching of geometry has changed a lot since then, so he is learning things I never studied. We checked into the community college, but they don't offer geometry. I suggested video lectures, but he has never liked those either, and that didn't make him any less resistant. We live in Michigan, and homeschoolers in Michigan are not required to have any specific courses for graduation. It's all up to what the parents want. That said, I have been trying to follow the Michigan merit curriculum that public high school students have to have to graduate (not necessarily as to the same content, but the same number of classes in the same subjects, etc.) Not only that, but if he decides to go to college (not sure yet what he wants to do with his life), he'll need geometry to do well on the SAT or ACT. I also know that in a public high school, you don't necessarily get through the whole textbook in every course. Just last night my husband was making fun of my (lack of) knowledge of 20th century American history. My high school American history teacher moved kind of slowly, and we just barely got to World War I in that course. So here's my question. Is it worth the fight to get him to finish his geometry course? And if I give up and let him quit now, is just a little over half of the book enough to give him credit on his transcript for a geometry course? And is is likely to be good enough to get him an acceptable grade on his college entrance exams? What would you do?

We've used them, but I was expecting more from them. I honestly don't think one teaching company course is rigorous enough to deserve a credit as an entire high school level course. They are wonderful as supplements, but not on their own.

I started homeschooling thinking I could surely do a better job than the public schools. And I have...for my older son, because he is like me and we understand each other. But I worry about my younger son. He is academically gifted, but unmotivated and disorganized. It's a good thing we started high school level classes in 7th grade because we're just barely going to finish before he turned 18. He informed me that he will drop out if he does not finish by the time he is 18. And I think...what have I done? Maybe I should have swallowed my pride and admitted that I could not teach this child.