Its been over a year since a posted and I need to post so that I can access the for sale forum. I am hoping this will do the trick.

My son did Homeschool Spanish Academy for 2 years. He did two classes a week. He started in level 2 and two years later he was in level 4. He then took Spanish IV at Community College and had absolutely no problem with the class. Doing HSA twice a week did not appear to be an overwhelming amount of work & homework, but it would appear that doing a level per year is right on track with what colleges expect.

We used Homeschool Spanish Academy with great success. Live teachers via Skype from Guatamala. They give a placement test and take it from there. They go up through Spanish 4 and it seems to be accurate. My son finished the fall semester with them and got through lesson 6 on level 4, then took Spanish 4 at the local CC and did very well.

No experience with SOS, but as an alternative or a follow up, have you looked at Homeschool Spanish Academy? My son had great success going that route. Live teacher via skype, based in Guatamala, not very expensive. I highly recommend them. HomeschoolSpanishAcademy.com

I agree that repetition is key. It almost doesn't matter what spelling list/program you use. With my poor speller (when she was younger), I kept a list in my back pocket of words that she missed and I pulled it out a few times a day and did a verbal spelling test. That may not work with an older child, but maybe you could come up with something similar that would work. Also, tell him to pay attention to words when he reads. Not everyone knows this. When I read, a part of my brain is always looking for words that I am not familiar with- either definition or spelling. You can probably read and understand from context just fine, but if someone were to ask you to spell the odd word, could you?

Any suggestions for easy to use curriculum? I'm not good at pulling resources together so I would rather have a single source, open & go package.

Thanks for the info everyone. It will probably be her reach school - we'll see.

Dd has become interested in Duke. Biology major, maybe BioChem. What does it take to be accepted? (she is in the ACT range and has a 4.0 GPA which includes 10 CC classes) What is North Carolina like? What is the college like? Availability of merit scholarships? Don't know if we'll be able to pull off a visit, so I need all the info you can give. Thanks!

I recently got ACT accommodations for my dd who has Type 1 diabetes. We asked for permission to bring in insulin pump, sugar and stop-the-clock breaks to check blood sugar. The process to get the accomodations in place went very smoothly. You will want to follow the instructions for 'extended time' which is a little different from what I had to do. I just remembered that early on I was confused and called ACT. They were extremely helpful. Call 319-337-1851 to get clarification on what you need to do after looking it over on their website. They do require documentation of the need for accommodations which you seem to have, but I would double check to make sure that it will meet their requirements. Since ACT and SAT are administered by different companies, you will need to go through the process with each of them, if you want to take both tests.

I've used pre-algebra, algebra and geometry with my 2 kids. Our biggest fustration is that sometimes the video doesn't cover something in the chapter. Not a big problem with my dd, but my ds had a real hard time recognizing when he should look through the book to get the info. I plan to stick with Chalkdust because it is challenging, has Dana teaching on video and works for my kids. We do odd numbered exercise problems and every review problem. My kids have never mentioned the exercise problems being much harder.. Sorry that it isn't working for you. You could make it spiral by assigning some of the even problems from past chapters or sections every day. Kinda of hard to make a switch at this point, but you may have to.

Thanks for that info. I'd still like to hear from anyone who has taken either of these classes. Anyone???

I am looking at Landry Academy for 2 classes for my son next year. I am looking for feedback on Biology and on Writing a Novel in a Year. I will also be contacting Landry tomorrow with these same questions, but there are only two days left to take advantage of their sale, so I thought I would ask here as well. I have searched the forums for previous posts on Landry so I know all that has been said in the past. Has anyone taken the class Writing a Novel in a Year? My son writes stories all the time. Many of them are quite long and he pays attention to plot, setting, characters, theme, etc. Is this class designed to help writers refine their skills or is it a beginner class, just trying to get kids to write? Anything else you can tell me about the class? Biology is the second one we are considering. Would love to hear how the class is structured and anything else. My son has some processing issues. For instance, with his dysgraphia, standard notetaking is impossible. Processing information takes extra time as does test taking and homework. What is the expectation level of the classes? How about the workload? How much time do the classes require outside of the 90 minute class? Another thing: I know Landry is a Christian company. I usually prefer secular curriculum. Do you think we could use Landry? One More: Does Landry BIology cover all 34 chapters in the Science Shepherd Biology text? The sample lecture I listened to seemed to move rather slowly and I began to wonder if they make it through the book. Lots of questions. Would welcome all kinds of information.

If you are looking for help with literature discussion, check out CenterForLit.com. Adam and Missy Andrews conduct a discussion of 6 books throughout a semester. They don't assign homework, but you could. http://centerforlit....Courses/OL.aspx They have lots of other literature curriculum, too.

I get skin rashes when I eat dairy. On my dry hands it cracked my skin at all the knuckles and was extremely painful. On other parts of my body I develop blisters that itch and weep. Stop all dairy and my skin clears up. I've always called it eczema. I had a derm tell me that dairy doesn't cause eczema...but I beg to differ. And yes, dairy can cause autistic like symptoms which is why a GFCF diet is recommended for autism. I'm glad your little guy is doing well.

Margaret, yes, please ask your friend. I would love to know what she says. To both, thanks for your input. I have read CMU's catalog and have found multiple discrepancies. And lots of times they mention college credits earned, but they never qualify if it is 'after high school'. That information I got over the phone from an adviser. I will be calling again.