Thank you so much for your replies and for the links. The YMCA seems like a good option for sports that I hadn't thought of before. Thanks again!

Hello, My husband is seriously considering a job in Bloomington, IN. We are currently in the Twin Cities area of MN and homeschooling here has been relatively stress-free with regards to minimal oversight and involvement in public school sports. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the homeschooling environment in IN is like? I have 5 dc, ranging in age from 15 down to 6. Four are boys and are involved in sports - baseball, cross country, and soccer at the public school. I've read online that a class needs to be taken at the public school to be involved in their sports? Is that right? Also, are there any homeschool co-ops that teach high school classes? I can't find any information about this online. What do homeschoolers do in IN for outside high school classes? I would so appreciate to connect with someone in IN that has experience homeschooling there! Thank you for reading! Kim in MN

In case anyone is interested, here is a review by Maria Miller, the author of Math Mammoth: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/reviews/geometry_guided_inquiry.php We also have been pleased with Math Without Borders Algebra I and plan to use the same for Geometry. My son is especially excited to use Geometer's Sketchpad, a program which Mr. Chandler recommends to use alongside the text and the DVDs. Hope that helps someone! Kim

We would LOVE to join a group for the self-paced Omnibus I course too! Anyone have room for 1 more student? Thanks! Kim

My husband and I are considering a move to a state (AL), which does not allow homeschoolers to participate in public school sports, from a state (MN) which does allow participation. We have 4 sons ages 4-13 who have all played on the community ed baseball, soccer, and basketball teams. Once in 7th grade, the only option is playing for the public school teams, which my oldest is doing this year. We would regret a move if that meant taking them away from the ability to play sports. My question is for those of you who live in states that don't allow participation in public school sports. Are there homeschool options? Are we worried for nothing, or should this be a consideration in our decision to move or not? I would love to hear from someone in AL (Birmingham area), but comments from anyone in states that have similar restrictions are appreciated! Also, general comments about the current Tebow bill would be interesting too. :) Kim in MN

We are also using the Homeschool in the Woods lapbook along with some of the books & CDs mentioned. My kids have loved putting this lapbook together! Here's the link: http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/HTTA/AP/Composers.htm

Here's a free 1 year geography curriculum from Knowledge Quest. It includes online map quizzes and keeps track of scores. My kids and I have contests to see who can get the most countries - we decided to work on Europe first. You can also choose to quiz yourself on capitals, but we're not quite ready for that yet. :tongue_smilie: It has been very easy to implement. http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Globalmania.html Kim

Would MCT (Michael Clay Thompson) LA be considered a living LA approach? Kim

We used it last year. I think the recommended age range is 10-12 years. My 11 year old ds loved it, especially the projects scheduled that he could do independently. I tried adding my 9 year old ds who turned 10 in December of that year. He's a good reader and works well independently. He did not do well with the writing required for the notebook pages. My older son ended up with a beautiful notebook! We loved the book selections also. Overall, I would highly recommend HOD RTR. Kim

I'm planning to use some or all of the TOPS Chemistry units this year for my 7th and 5th graders, with some younger ones observing too. There are 5 units listed in the Chemistry section. They look pretty meaty... can I do them all in one year? Can anyone that has used TOPS give me more information about what to order? I'd like to order everything now that I'll need for the whole year, but would it be better just to order one unit at a time? Any recommendations or comments would be helpful! Thanks!

I emailed him (last night!) about being able to add subjects that weren't there, such as Logic, History, Worldview, and Bible. Also about changing the courses that I had already added under "Social Studies" to "History". Here is his reply (this morning!): I have added these subjects, but also have changed my mind on the topic of restricting subjects. I believe my original reason for restricting this is no longer valid. Also I moved your Social Studies courses to History. He sure knows how to get things done!

I just started my 15 day trial, and I have a few questions for someone who is using it: In what subject would you classify a worldview course? I'd like to call it "Worldview" with the course being Starting Points. But the only thing I could find in the subject list was "Religion". I'd like to call it what will eventually be on a transcript. Maybe "Religion" is what I should use? Also, I was going to add Art of Argument as a course, but there isn't a "Logic" subject. Does anyone have any ideas for me, or do you think I should email the developer about it?

After spending about 6 hours this weekend between the $5 trial of HST+, Skedtrack, Home School Inc, and the trial of SCM, I was about to give up and stick with Excel. But this one definitely looks doable. I'll keep playing around with it over the next 15 days. Everyone's comments are very encouraging. Thank you for sharing!

I recently read Michael Clay Thompson's Classics in the Classroom. Not only does it include a very thorough list of "great" classic books, it also gives good advice on socratic questioning and encouraging book discussions. He would definitely agree that once there's a definite answer, the discussion is dead. I've read DP also, but reading MCT has given me a renewed motivation to try literary discussions with our small homeschool group of elementary/middle school kids next year. Kim

I have been looking at the CM organizer just the past couple days. I signed up for the free month trial, and I've been playing around with the Homeschool Skedtrak too, which is free. http://www.homeschoolskedtrack.com/HomeSchool/displayLogin.do I love the way the CM organizer schedules and tracks books. It is way more user friendly than anything else I've looked at. Like I said, I only found it a couple days ago, but even though it's more expensive, it looks like it might be worth it. I'd love to hear what other people think too. Here's the link: http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/cm-organizer/tour/ Kim

We've used the Iowa test for 5 years now. I usually don't look through it ahead of time, but as they go through it, there are always areas that I think they did not do as well as they should have. Sometimes I have to bite my tongue to not say anything to them! But their test scores have always come back very good, and I realize I worried for nothing. You might want to prepare your kids before testing by telling them they will not know everything on it. Good luck!

We tried HOD this year, and while it was an excellent program, I tried to do too many levels. Two in RTR, one in Beyond, and two in Little Hearts. The quality of the materials and projects were wonderful. I especially liked the RTR guide. My children loved how hands-on it was, and I loved the notebooking and that it was Christ-centered. I just wish there was a way to combine ages more easily. So, depending on how many children you have and their ages, HOD can be a great curriculum. To answer your question about supplementing, I didn't feel that we had to at all. For RTR, the history and science literature selections were just right. Some are independent reading and some were read-alouds. We also did DITHOR - the book list, which is separated according to different genres, has been a great resource and will continue to be a great resource even though we won't be using it next year. For the younger levels, the readers were ones that I wouldn't have normally chosen, but we certainly enjoyed them. I definitely don't regret the year with HOD. Good luck with your decision! Kim

Several years ago, we did the $1 trial membership for a month. My oldest was 10 at the time, and as long as I had all the materials, he really went with it independently. All of my children loved it. I have to admit, I enjoyed it too :001_smile:. But I didn't quite get how the e-science curriculum was supposed to work. I wasn't exactly where to go on the website; it just didn't seem very organized. After watching a free tele-class a couple months ago, we were able to do the $1 trial again, and I was seriously considering just continuing with it. The website was easier to navigate around and was definitely more understandable the second time around. But we were already in the middle of astronomy this year, and I figured that I would wait until next year. Now that I'm at the point of really needing to decide, it comes down to expense. I know the kids would love it and learn a ton, but $37/month adds up, plus the materials. If I were you, I'd do the $1 trial and see what you think. I'm sure we'll do it for a couple months here and there, but for us, it's just too expensive to do it all year. HTH.