I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. All creatures deserve love and it sounds as though your snake was very well loved. Virtual hugs to you and yours (and especially to your ds).

For those of you who have tackled the NCAA eligibility rules with homeschoolers, did you use NARS or Clonlara (or some other organization) to help "legitimize" your transcript? For my dd, who will be in 9th grade this fall, I had been planning to provide a home transcript listing different types of classes (online, cc, and mom-designed) while following NCAA course and title requirements. But after scanning through the WTM archives, I'm starting to wonder if I need to take the extra precaution of placing dd's transcript under an oversight agency. :confused: What do you think?

U.K.: London, Buckinghamshire, and Kent SPAIN: Asturias (along the Atlantic coast), Menorca (Balearic Islands), Madrid U.S.: Summit, NJ, and Washington, DC environs I'd like to retire in Spain-- good food, nice weather, great people. :thumbup:

Very interesting! Thank you for this post!

My 13yo dd is enjoying the Scholars Online Latin I course. They cover half of the Wheelock's textbook in Latin I. It's a lot of work, but she likes it.

It doesn't match my board name, but who could resist a polar bear? I like to think that she's a fierce, protective mama bear. ;)

JennW, good to know that I'm not the only "thread-killer" on this board! ;) In addition, I don't belong here because, even after all the recent anti-TT posts, TT Geometry looks like a really attractive option for next year.

If my memory serves me well, by the time I had convinced my dd last year that she should consider taking a Latin class for eighth grade, the Lukeion Latin I class had already filled (hint: sign up early!). As I mentioned in the previous post, dd has really enjoyed other classes with Lukeion and I've been very happy with the rigor and depth of the curriculum. We were initially disappointed that she couldn't take Latin with Amy Barr. Last year, while comparing Scholars Online Wheelocks Latin I with Lukeion Wheelocks Latin I, I remember noticing that they covered the same amount of material (I believe it was chapters 1-20 in Latin I, and chapters 21-40 in Latin II), and that the price for the two courses was similar. I also found a couple of major differences. The Lukeion course incorporates graphics, sound, etc., and the Scholars Online course is text-based. In my dd's Lukeion myth class, kids are now able to use a microphone to converse with each other and with the teacher. I don't know if Amy Barr of Lukeion asks her Latin students to read sentences aloud or not, but it would certainly be nice to hear Latin spoken. We purchased the Wheelocks Latin CDs so that dd would be able to listen to Latin after her "silent" Scholars Online Latin class. The other difference is that the Lukeion course meets only once per week while the Scholars Online course meets twice a week for one an a half hours per session. On the one hand, one and a half hours of texting and reading other students' texts can seem endless on some days (dd has perfected the art of doodling and listening to music while in Latin class ;) ). But on the other hand, having class twice a week keeps her focused and she's now very comfortable with the routine. Her SO teacher is also very prompt at correcting and returning quizzes, tests, etc. It's a well-oiled machine. So, I suspect that the Lukeion course is as good as any other Lukeion course (therefore both excellent and rigorous). However, we'll probably continue with Scholars Online because dd has grown to love the class, the teacher, and the interaction with her SO classmates. HTH.

Yep. Spanish from Spain.

I hope that your post doesn't continue to go unanswered. Like you, we're also researching geometry options for next year. I found Geometry-- A Guided Inquiry on the Math Without Borders website (http://www.mathwithoutborders.com/), but know nothing about it. Looks intriguing, though, doesn't it? Perhaps we'll get a response from someone who's seen the materials first-hand. Sorry not to be of more help. :o

Jacobs Algebra with Kingdom Tutors Algebra DVD for 13yodd

Avoiding burnout in my 8th grader. We have to remember to schedule "fun."

We're trying to decide between Jacobs and Chalkdust Geometry for next year. The main concern I have regarding Chalkdust is the textbook sold as a package with their dvds, Geometry: An Integrated Approach by Roland Larson. The Amazon reviews for this book are abysmal (one and a half stars out of five). Admittedly, most of the negative reviews are from somewhat inarticulate students, but I'm still concerned. Is the book really that bad? Has anyone successfully used Chalkdust with a different text?

B.A. Double-majored in English and Biology

Dh and I count this film as one of our all-time favorites. I suggest watching it after studying MacBeth. Throne of Blood is incredibly beautiful and atmospheric, but it doesn't follow Shakespeare's script very closely. There's a haunted forest, an eery witch, a sympathetic ghost, and an intensely evil and conniving wife. Don't miss the main character's death scene-- it's one of the most exciting scenes in modern film.

As I understand it, during synchronous classes there is a scheduled weekly class time during which teacher and students get together as a group to discuss the material. In asynchronous classes (which my dd has never taken, but which she will likely take next year through PA Homeschoolers), the students are given assignments, readings, feedback from the teacher, etc., but there is no scheduled "class time" during the week when all participants must be logged on at the same time.

I misspoke. NOT white board. The kids and teacher exchange text (I thought that was called a "white board" since the screen is white, but dd put me straight. There's no audio (at least not for Latin; I don't know about the other classes). The text exchanges, however, are quite lively. During class the instructor will go over a concept and then ask for feedback from the students. For Latin sentence homework the kids are divided into groups. Each group takes turns submitting sentences. All the kids have to participate. There's no hiding in these courses. :) After class several of the students stay on and chat for a while. It's a friendly atmosphere. Everyone seems to be enjoying the class. At the beginning, dd found it hard to sit still and concentrate for one and a half hours of reading and submitting text. I now let her doodle in a sketchpad during class or draw on MS Paint. She's doing quite well in the class, and is an eager participant, so I suppose that's okay.

I let my dd finish 5th grade at a private elementary school. She came home miserable and crying most afternoons. I thought I was doing the right thing by letting her "graduate" from elementary school. :o:eek::mad: She's been home for two years now and she's much, much happier. :) We learned that what she really wants to do, and what she couldn't do at school because she was over-scheduled, is read books of her own choice and write fabulous, intricate stories. I feel so sorry that we ever thought to send this child to school.

for our 8th grade dd. The Latin I class through Scholars Online has been excellent. It's a synchronous class. The students review their Wheelocks latin homework with the instructor for one and a half hours twice a week. All instruction occurs on a white board (no audio). It took a while for dd to become accustomed to the format, but now she loves it. We've used the Lukeion Project for mythology studies and for a vocabulary class. Amy and Regan Barr are superb instructors. They incorporate art, archeology, and history into each class. I highly recommend their courses for any student interested in gaining a deep appreciation for the classics. The EPGY writing classes have also been a hit (at least with me :) )at our house. I don't think I could successfully teach essay writing myself. :o Last term dd wrote literary analyses (using the text of the play The Crucible). This term she's working on rhetoric and persuasive essay writing. Sometimes dd struggles with an assignment, but overall it's been a good essay-writing curriculum. EPGY offers writing courses through high school and AP level. Next year we're thinking about adding Keystone for 9th grade biology and a PA Homeschoolers course. We're still on the hunt for 9th grade sources, so I'm really looking forward to reading other replies.

Dd and I have little conversations in Spanish occasionally when we're in the car or at the grocery shop. It's our "secret" language (dh speaks French and older dd studied Latin and Greek). Every now and then I ask her to make up a story (she's a great story-teller) in Spanish. I give her the parameters and she takes off from there. A couple of days ago, for example, I told her that she had to pretend to be the owner of a zoo and that she had to write an advertisement in Spanish telling people about some of the animals. She spoke in Spanish for about half an hour about the shy lion who was secretly in love with the giraffe next door, the hungry snake who really wanted to have legs so that she could walk to the bird cage and have eggs for breakfast, etc. It was fun and she got to use much of her Span I vocabulary. My only worry is that she doesn't have the opportunity to converse with other Spanish speakers. It's one thing to have chats in elementary Spanish with one's mom and quite another to keep up a conversation with native speakers. I'm going to have to try harder to provide her those opportunities.

Hillary, it's very sweet of you to let me know-- thank you! I've ordered the Spanish I book through AbeBooks in the U.S. so that I can compare it to the Spanish curriculum we're using this year. If it looks good, I plan to purchase the entire Galore Park Spanish II set (through BookDepository now that I know that they're so fast! :) ). By the way, my AbeBooks order is taking longer than your order from the U.K. :o

No problem! We're in VA and were SO excited when it came time for the Chesapeake Primaries! Dd13 came into the polling booth with me because she wanted to be the one to press the button for Obama. We've been glued to CNN for weeks now. Enjoy! :D

I second the recommendation for the NeilMed bottle. It's especialy good, I find, at preventing common colds from turning into nasty sinus infections. I start using mine as soon as I think I may be coming down with a cold or when I think someone in the family has a cold. It helps enormously. I do use Sudafed, have taken it on and off for years, and have never experienced any of the side-effects listed. It's the only med that works on my sinuses, and I've tried all the prescription allergy meds. Recently I've stopped taking Sudafed at night and started sleeping with a Breath Right strip on my nose. I love these! Now I can stop breathing through my mouth all night and I sleep much better.

I think I introduced myself on the high school board, but not here. I'm Begona. Yesterday I was elated because I finally mutated out of my larval stage. Yay! I'm not a frequent poster, and I'm also not very chatty in real life, but I read the boards regularly. My husband and I have two daughters. Our older one is a sophomore at a Virginia university. She's studying computer science and plans to graduate with minors in linguistics and in ancient Greek. She has never been homeschooled. Younger daughter, aged 13, left private school two years ago and is thriving in our little homeschool. She is a budding writer and Rolling Stones fanatic. :rolleyes: Her curriculum includes mythology classes through the Lukeion Project, writing classes through EPGY, Latin with Scholars Online, CyberEd Science, Jacobs Algebra, and McDougal Littel's En Espanol series. She's also an amazing target shooter (junior olympian, national record holder). We love homeschooling-- no more tears at the end of an exhausting school day. :D

Whoops! I think I need to learn how to do quotes. :o