I'm working on our school profile and some parts of it are reading as prose or our family's personal essay, especially the "why we chose to homeschool" (and, to a lesser degree, "how we school".) Obviously, this is an official document, not a writing contest. At the same time, every story is unique and I want to tell ours - even if it's short and sweet. There's much more to it than "we chose to homeschool because the public schools here are subpar and we wanted to raise our kids according to our own values". I don't, however, want it to come across as unprofessional. Thoughts?

NM

My DD used Novare Biology (Christian worldview) at home for honors bio, and took AP Bio at Wilson Hill Academy. For the Novare text, the lab book must be purchased separately - there is a dissection lab, but also others if you don't want to do that. I don't think you can buy a separate lab kit to use, but the labs require pretty basic supplies (e.g. using M&Ms to model evolution/ecology). For the WHA class, the teacher created a list of supplies needed and provided labs - all I needed to do was order the supplies.

My daughter took Chem last week and will take Bio today. We're in a smaller city, and there were only about 15 kids from the local HS that took Chem exam with her. She felt the exam was on par with the review materials, maybe a bit harder.

I'm also freaking out a bit about the lack of extracurriculars in our homeschool. (I should probably start a new conversation about it instead of derailing this one - sorry, @thewellerman!)

This is something I should do. Can you please elaborate on what type of FB groups you're referring to? Homeschool groups? Prospective college groups? Which is your group? Thank you!

@Clemsondanathank you for this. It's so hard to walk the line between teaching them to work through hard stuff and killing their love for something with our insistence that they keep at it.

@theelfqueen and @Farrar thank you both for the input and advice! What you're saying makes sense. I had understood that they use the books more as an ancillary resource, with the bulk of the teaching being from direct interaction with the teachers - hands on and live lectures.

Yes! THIS is exactly why I don't want to ditch AOPS. My DD16 understands that the struggle has a purpose and is continuing to thrive with AOPS. I have explained to my DS that this is how (and why) AOPS works. The difficulty with him is that he's a bright kid, but also verrrrry sensitive. It doesn't take much for his emotional fuses to blow, which he's learning to manage, but in the meantime it makes it harder to get past the frustration to a place where learning is happening. Also, thank you for weighing in. Everyone's advice is appreciated, but I've been here long enough (though I tend to be quiet) to know that you definitely know math... ❤️

Hm. I had understood that they're not a complete curriculum.

You're right - I need to rephrase my question. With AOPS he generally understands the teaching, but sometimes it "clicks" with the exercises, and other times he feels like he should have been able to figure out the "fancy" approaches they offer. I hesitate to ditch AOPS entirely because it's so solid and, when it does click, it's wonderful. He's not fighting AOPS, he just feels like he should be able to do the problems more easily and he gets frustrated when it's a struggle. So what I was considering was to follow the sequence through the AOPS book. If a topic is one that clicks (for lack of a better word) for him, great. However, if he's struggling with a topic, then we can switch gears and look at it from another book rather than keep at it to the point of pure frustration. DD16 would put the problems aside for a bit and would figure them out afterwards, DS doesn't do that.

I posted earlier about my math conundrums with DS13; basically he understands the concepts of AOPS Pre-Algebra, but struggles with the presentation - he feels overwhelmed with how they present different ways to approach a problem. I think there's a chance he might grow into it with time. On the recommendation of the Hive, we bought Foerster's Algebra 1, which he's done very little of so far but deems mostly OK, as he does Jacob's (which I had bought used for his older sister at some point). He has sometimes watched Khan Academy videos and liked them. The Arbor Center for Teaching books (Jousting Armadillos so far, now Crocodiles and Coconuts) were the best fit by far. It was the only one that sparked interest and did not elicit groans. There's definitely no sense in doing a bunch of different books all at once, but I've been trying to find one source that's really "just right". If there was one resource that clicked with him the way Jousting Armadillos did, I'd go that route and forget about the rest. But as things stand, I'm wondering if maybe we could manage to use AOPS as a "spine", supplementing the teaching, topic by topic, as necessary from the other sources? Has anyone tried anything like that?

Thank you! (As an aside, our entire family absolutely loves the quote in your signature 😊).

Thank you, everyone. The only prep she's done is taking practice tests and she actually enjoys taking tests. I think the only downside of the actual test-taking process in her mind would be the risk of potentially exposing her grandpa to COVID (though she'll be wearing an N95 and this is more of a theoretical risk, I'm just detailing her thought process and which part of it all would make her hesitate jumping to take all the tests she can).

DD16/grade 11 is interested in genetics/molecular and cell biology/molecular biochemistry. She's very organized, motivated, very strong academically, and has taken all her science classes online and gotten straight A's (honors Physics, honors Chem, and this year - Chem AP and Bio AP). Other than a few writing courses and Latin, her other classes have been at home (so no DE, etc). She has signed up to take the PSAT this fall and the SAT this spring. She's done well on the practice tests: SAT 1520 (math 770, r&w 750) and ACT 31-35 (science 31, math 33, english 35, reading 33). She did the practice ACT after hearing that a lot of kids in her Bio class took the ACT and not the SAT. Would it make sense for her to take both the SAT and the ACT? I'd normally think it would be overkill, but the ACT does have the science section... Also, I'm not sure taking a bunch of tests is the right approach here, but my worry is that she doesn't really have much to show as far as extracurriculars and I guess my reasoning is that the tests would help highlight her academic strengths. I know many colleges have shifted their focus away from the SAT in the last year, and that subject tests are no longer available. I hope we can somehow demonstrate that she's a well-rounded person.There was a HS co-op for a number of years, and she played field hockey through 8th grade and danced from 1st through 9th, but with the pandemic, that all stopped. We have a high risk family member and we have a small business. For better or worse, for our family that has translated to hunkering down to avoid COVID as well as all hands on deck to keep the business afloat. Ugh. I'm kind of derailing my own question, but it's all related in my mind.

I know this is an oooold thread, but I can't find a solutions manual in stock anywhere. Yikes! I just bought the Classics Edition (2006) of Foerster's Algebra 1 for my DS. Any idea where to find a solutions manual? Almost all of the out of stock ones are published in 1995, and I have found a mention of one printed in 2006 only once: https://www.textbooks.com/Algebra-1-Classic-Edition-Solution-Key-3rd-Edition/9780201861006/FOERSTER.php Any ideas where I might find a solutions manual or teacher's text compatible with the Classics Edition student text?

Thank you, that's reassuring! What edition do you have? I don't know how much the edition matters.

OK I'm looking at (for) Foerster and now realized that, while I was able to get my hands on Dolciani and Lial through interlibrary loan last year, Foerster was one that I could only find for purchase and that's where the search stopped. I haven't actually held it in hand. This time I'm going to buy it used and actually give it a shot. DS has completed SM, Jousting Armadillos, three chapters of AOPS Pre-Algebra, and four chapters of Jacobs Algebra. Should I go for trying Foerster's Algebra 1 from here? There isn't a "pre-algebra", correct? Does it matter which edition? I found the Classics Edition (2006) used.

Yes! He's a perfectionist, and that's exactly the issue he's having.

I can definitely relate. Sometimes it's so hard to know if something is going to ultimately have been the right path. Would you mind sharing what algebra and geometry resources you ended up using?

Thank you so much for all the suggestions! I'm going to go look at Foerster again; I think I checked it out for DD, but AOPS has been a good fit for her so I didn't pursue it further. I'd forgotten about it... I've also order Crocodiles and Coconuts, so there's that, right? :)