Thank you, all! I'd looked into TTU and the other handful of institutions in this space before leaning toward IUHS. It's good to hear feedback on experiences with those online high schools. I know it's challenging for online instructors to give substantive, timely feedback (much easier to do it in person) especially when there are a lot of students. That definitely affects quality. Other factors can make online more difficult than it has to be, too (unclear policies, poorly designed LMSs, etc.) IUHS appears to be set up in a way that makes sense, if you're okay with self-directed (and I think we are). But web sites can be deceiving! I probably wouldn't be looking into this option if it weren't for the pandemic, but.... Pandemic! I am grateful that we homeschooled for so many years, as I'm used to doing a lot of research, monitoring, supplementing, creating when necessary, etc. I'd hoped for a break during this what-was-supposed-to-be-a-four-year period, but best laid plans... I don't know how parents new to this kind of thing are dealing with the whiplash. I'll move forward and adjust as we go, based on what happens... Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, Lanny! Yes, I saw a few very old posts on the WTM forums about IUHS. They seemed positive overall,, but a whole lot can change in several years. I'm hoping someone has a little more recent experience to share. Good luck to you and your kiddos, too! Online school absolutely requires more skills in time management and self-discipline.

Hi, all, It's been ages since I posted. I homeschooled my kiddo until the end of 8th grade, then enrolled her in a private classical prep school about two-and-a-half years ago. (Wouldn't have been my first choice, but it made sense to do so for my family at the time.) She's now in her junior year and has been more than keeping up academically. Her school reclassified itself as a college last week to get around the state mandate where we live that requires all public/private high schools to move online temporarily. This happened with no warning. (Her school pivoted last year, in March, and finished the rest of the year out online and did, in my opinion, a fantastic job. They started face-to-face this year, moved online for a few days when the mandate hit, and then--boom--back to face-to-face as a "college." We had less than a day's warning that any of this was going down.) We chose not to have her go back F2F because the Covid numbers where we are are going through the roof, and because online--for her, at this age--seemed to be working well since March. However, because 99% of the other students decided to become instant college students and are now back to meeting face-to-face, my kiddo -- one of only a very few online -- is increasingly being ignored (web cam to the wall, audio problems that don't get fixed even though she can't hear, notes on the board that everyone gets to see but her, missing out on instructions delivered in person, etc.) So while I believed strongly in the school up until this point, it doesn't seem workable going forward. My question to you good folks is: Have any of your kids attended Indiana University High School? How did it go? My understanding is that IUHS is asynchronous (meaning no scheduled lectures) which in my opinion isn't ideal, but honestly works out to the same thing we're beginning to experience. If your kids did attend, do you recommend it? Highly or grudgingly? Anything to watch out for? Thank you for any insight you can provide! (And... can I just say how grateful I am to have this forum to turn to?)

Rats! I was afraid of that. I don't understand the requirement of a separate computer (unless it's for editing), but that seems to be the way all of these products are structured. Thank you, FawnsFunnyFarm.

Hi, domestic_engineer, I'm looking for something stand-alone (meaning no extra hardware, so no tablet, PC, or other device.) I'm starting to suspect that what I'm looking for doesn't exist. Julie of KY -- thanks for this lead! I hadn't heard of it. It doesn't look like it's stand-alone, though (it comes with software, and the description talks about a USB connection).

Hi, all, My middle schooler has expressed interest (about a thousand times) in experimenting with stop-time animation. I was thinking of getting her a kit for the next gift-giving occasion. Does anyone know of any stand-alone options -- i.e., a video camera and playback unit--that doesn't require a PC/Mac? My goal is to have this be a self-contained unit, without the need for a separate computer. (If this means limited or no editing capability, I'm fine with that.) Any recommendations? Thank you kindly!

I agree with mathmarm -- making etymology visible isn't (shouldn't be) grade dependent. I'm not a huge believer in flash cards for Latin/Greek roots, either, although they're certainly not going to hurt. My approach has been to study the root concurrently with vocab, and then expand. So, for example, if a kiddo is learning the word "convert," I point out that "con" means "with" and "vert" means "turn," which explains why "converting" something means "turning to go with" something else; and I give some real-life examples of the word used in different contexts. And then I immediately point out that because "ad" means "to" or "toward," "advertising" means trying to make someone "turn toward" something and buy it. And because "intro" means "inside," an "introvert" is someone who enjoys turning inside for pleasure/company (and an "extrovert" is someone who enjoys turning outside of himself). And because "re" means "back" or "again," "reverting" means turning back to an earlier state or approach. And at some point I ask the kiddo, if we know that "sub" means "from below," what do you suppose we mean when we say someone is being "subversive?" You get the idea. Doing it this way takes a bit of time at the very beginning, but in my experience it changes how kiddos think about words by teaching them to begin looking at words as collections of rational, constituent parts. Eventually, with repetition (and there's a ton of repetition, which is precisely what makes studying roots so valuable), vocab stops being a disconnected word list and starts, for the most part, to be sensible. And soon you're spending a whole lot less time on vocabulary than you were, because kiddos are no longer pattern-matching and guessing; they have the tools to figure things out for themselves. There are several Latin/Greek root books on the market aimed at different ages/grades, although I'm not 100% enamored with any of them (and so am in the process of writing one myself). Yes. I am a word nerd. :-)

I'm currently listening to a Great Courses audio book (http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/american-ideals-founding-a-quot-republic-of-virtue-quot.html) by Daniel Robinson called "Founding a Republic of Virtue" that sounds like what you're after. I have a few of the Great Courses, and some are definitely better than others. But the ones lectured by Robinson are incredible. He did one on philosophy that is my all-time favorite, and in the "Virtue" title he approaches the Constitution (and related documents) from a philosophical context. And he drops names! (i.e., primary sources for further study). I highly recommend it. It's a little over my middle-schooler's head, but I'm interested in the topic--and if the kiddo's in the car when I'm listening, we both listen. (We often use audio for "stretch" listening.) But it would be perfect for high school. It comes with a book outline, too.

At that age, my kiddo ate up everything by Marguerite Henry and the Oz series (L. Frank Baum)... And anything by Geraldine McCaughrean. (None of these are graphic novels, though.) You just never know what's going to be a giant hit--at least, I never know!

I haven't heard of Jim Nance, so I can't weigh in on that topic. We're using Critical Thinking Book One and I love it (and DD gives it a thumbs up, too). It's targeted for 7th grade and up, but we started when DD was 5th grade and are continuing it in 6th grade. I had very little formal logic in college, but have found most of it turn key. I've been able to backfill the few concepts I was shaky on very easily. http://www.criticalthinking.com/critical-thinking-series.html

Hist Whist (e.e. cummings) and Poe's The Raven. It wouldn't be Halloween at our house without 'em!

I'm with a previous poster--writing is non-negotiable. Yes, it's hard. Yes, there's a lot going on that you have to deal with, from spelling, punctuation, and grammar to handwriting and--the most important thing--thinking. Valuable things are ALWAYS hard. Do them anyway! My DD is a sort-of reluctant writer. She'll write volumes (literally--she fills up entire notebooks) when she wants to, but often screams bloody murder if she's assigned a simple, short paragraph. After "knowing" for years that every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark, she'll (purposely? I'm still not sure) leave them off half the time on stuff I've assigned. There's a big difference between knowing and doing. The approach I've found the most success with is to separate positive feedback and the editing process. When she first turns in an assignment, I praise what she does well (which is a lot) and try to keep my mouth shut about the stuff she's still not paying attention to. On the second day, I point to each sentence and ask if she can spot what can be improved. I used to point out misspellings, run-on sentences, etc. but I don't anymore; my ultimate goals is for her to edit herself. If she really can't tell what needs to be changed, I prompt; if she still doesn't see it, then I point it out. But mostly, at 11 she can spot her own mistakes. She learned proofreading marks a couple of years back, so if we're rushed for time I have her proof her own work using proofreading marks. If we've got time--and at least once a week I make the time--I have her not only proof her own writing, but rewrite it. She hates this, but it's a necessary part of the writing process. Some stuff--short stories and poetry, for example--I don't critique like this; I just praise. I've seen great improvement in her writing using this strategy, and the push back is lessening, too. (It didn't disappear, though :-) If your sweet kiddo has a learning disability, of course, disregard.

I do 1-2 hours' worth of prep each weekend without fail. If we're going to be out doing fun stuff (hiking, road trip, etc.) I get it done Friday night. My prep takes the form of a daily, ordered checkoff list that is VERY specific (i.e., for each subject on each day, I include lesson plans down to lecture topics, which pages to read in which books, and detailed instructions for activities and graded assessments). This allows me to flesh out and track our progress toward the goals we're shooting for each year. If I don't do detailed lesson plans weekly, it doesn't get done. I work outside the home and only have early mornings, evenings, and weekends to work directly with my kiddo. My husband takes over during the day while I'm at work (except for those things we've outsourced, such as jiu jitsu and fencing classes). My husband isn't the most organized person on the planet, and having a list in front of him makes it possible for him to keep on track with the subjects he teaches and remind DD (or check work, when that's possible) on the subjects I teach. That's crucial, because if she hasn't read something (for example), I lose the time I'd planned to discuss it and work with her on that topic, because she's not prepared--and that's a day gone. Might not seem like a big deal, but those days add up. My brain's typically fried after a 9-hour day in an office. Without a detailed plan composed when I was alert and functioning, a whole lot of stuff would slide. BTW, I also build in a weekly "makeup" day so that if an activity takes longer than I've budgeted the time for, I can reassess and either have DD catch upon the weekend, or push the work out.

OP, your kiddo sounds like mine at that age. I've always kept a giant bin of art supplies, but it was paper and scotch tape that were the go-tos for years. DD did things with paper I would NEVER have dreamed of, like clothing (!), dolls, and 3-D sculptures of animals. And it had to be tape (and not paste, glue, or staples). Instant gratification junkie. No idea where she got it. As other posters have noted, fabric is a good choice; you can hole-punch and use a blunt bodkin & yarn to teach sewing if your kiddo isn't comfortable with sharp needles just yet. Clay (modeling, air-dry, salt-dough, and Sculpey) was also a hit for us, as were mosaics (although when DD was 6 I used purchased tiles and flat see-through marbles vs. broken pottery). Oh, and making maracas and pinatas out of lightbulbs/ballons and papier mache and the classic drum-out-of-an-oatmeal-box were also winners here. I always kept old magazines for cutting and making collages, but DD never showed the slightest interest. (Now, however, she pokes through them to identify propaganda techniques :-) Oh, yes, and dioramas, which can be pretty simple at that age (construction paper and plastic animals). Dioramas are fun for littles and older kids...also a great way to use up old boxes. You just never know!

This is so interesting! I work in education (in addition to homeschooling) and am always amazed that "boring" so often equates to "no value" (or, conversely, that if something is entertaining, it *must* have educational value). I have a different view: things of value have value, and those that don't, don't (regardless of how boring or entertaining they are). Now, unfortunately for my DD, I place a high value on copy practice... It's unfortunate because my kiddo hates it. Partly because it's boring, and partly because it's not something she sees value in. (Happily, I don't factor in a 10-year-old's buy-in for things I deem necessary. I assign it anyway!) I found a fabulous book on Latin and Greek medical roots, and if the sass factor goes off the charts for a particular day, copy work Is assigned--period. Last week, when I was lecturing on the marine biomes, I stopped and asked what the heck epipelagic meant. And my kiddo shot back that "epi" means "on," and she knew this because of her copy practice. (And therefore she was able to to make an educated guess as to what we were studying.) Cracked me up. It's working! Years ago, I was sure copy work would also model writing style and ethics in a useful way. I spent a lot of time choosing the perfect poetry and the perfect quotes.... Honestly, I have no idea whether any of that is sticking. I actually think reading and discussion have helped with that more than the copy practice. But facts from copy practice surface fairly regularly, so there's not doubt it's working on that level. Anyway--I add my vote to those who find value in copy practice, for what that's worth.

Does your kiddo have problems "thinking" in complete sentences, or writing them? (As another poster mentioned, there's a relationship between the two, but also an important difference.) If you read something and ask your son to answer it in a complete sentence, can he do it? If not, it's not a writing mechanics issue, but a thinking-through-and-articulating issue. Either of these seems pretty normal to me at 8, since there's so much variability at that age... But identifying exactly what the sticking point is might be helpful. The thinking part has to come first, because writing is nothing more than making thinking visible. Once he knows what he wants to say, then it's a pretty straightforward (but potentially tedious to a little one!) process to translating that to paper and following all the conventions. I started my kid with with oral sentences, and I'd have to remind my DD *every single time* for what seemed like years to restate her answer in the form of a complete sentence. And then I'd copy it down for her and have her read it back, and together we'd fix it the way she wanted it fixed; it was more important to me that she understand what she wanted to say than that she actually wrote it. We didn't start writing in earnest until 4th grade. (We used First Language Lessons the first four years, which perfectly fit my philosophy of teaching grammar/writing. The main reason I started hsing was because I thought kids in ps were pushed too hard too soon to write, long before they'd been provided with the skills and experience to be successful--and the results I was hearing from PS teachers were predictably abysmal. As a professional writer, I was willing to die on this hill.) Now that my kiddo is finishing up 5th grade, she's able to write well. (Still hates being assigned writing projects, but will do a decent job on them... and will write pages and pages when it's something she's passionate about. Beautifully constructed sentences! Her spelling isn't great, but that'll come eventually. I'm a big believer in nailing the big chunks first, and refining later.) Sounds to me like you're doing everything right. You're sensitive to pushback but searching out ways to get your kiddo (eventually) where you want him to be. Kudos!

Piper, THANK you for these links! The first one, especially, is great--and we'll definitely be using it. We're trying to incorporate cooking projects this year, too (my DD is nearly 11) and have been using "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Ancient Cuisines" to supplement our ancient history studies. But I'm always looking for new, as-authentic-as-possible recipes. I figure, it's a three-fer--a history tie-in, a practical skill, and dinner :-) -Knitmama

I completely relate to OP. My kiddo hated everything to do with cursive. Hated (hates) copy practice, hates being assigned writing.... But writes like a fiend when it's something *she* decides is important (ancient recipes, poems, etc. that have nothing to do with assigned work.... or assigned work that happens to suit her fanncy). In our case, I'm thinking it's a case of "I don't want to do what I'm told" vs. "I don't have the skills to do what you ask." So I dropped cursive for a year and will be picking it up again soon. I've found that my DD, at least, has never followed the normal timetables--for anything! (She walked and talked long after other kids, but began to read well earlier than most. Everything was a surprise.) In general, sometimes she's ahead of the curve, sometimes she's behind. From the beginning, I prioritized the things that HAD to happen (in my mind) such as Latin, math, and reading. I include copy practice in the "has to happen" category, because the stuff I have her copy (in printing) encompasses history, science, poetry, philosophy, and spirituality. The concepts and mechanics of writing, to me, are bedrock. Everything else--even though it's important to me, and cursive falls into that category--falls a close second. So we'll be revisiting cursive... But it will be the same cursive I identified in the beginning (the cursive I learned as a child). I'm not convinced there's a big difference between the different types. The important thing, to me anyway, is being old enough and focused enough to copy and practice, and to care about the results. No law against starting over multiple times, when the time seems to be more right. Kudos to you for teaching your kid cursive. There's no doubt in my mind that it's valuable far beyond the obvious get-it-down-on-paper. So--keep the faith, carry on, and good luck!

Does your daughter balk at writing certain things, or writing anything at all? I've had success in mixing it up. Some days I assign labeled pictures or cartoons with captions (often about some topic we're studying in history or science); other days, letters to family/friends/ other days, an outline, or a page full of notes take from a reading, or a more formal report. Or poetry, or a short script, or a dictionary definition plus a word used in a sentence... You get the idea. Lots of variety and lots of throughput, but writing every day. On completely uninspired days, I assign copy practice (always something well-written and informative, because I'm a big believer in modeling good stuff. One thing that helped when my DD was younger and going through writing-resistant (okay, everything-resistant) patches was a game I invented called "Write yourself out of THAT corner!" I'd start a silly story--just a few sentences about a make-believe animal that had just stepped out of its burrow when... Full stop. And then I'd hand the notebook to my daughter and have her write a sentence or two, picking up where I left off. And she'd do the same--stop in the middle of a cliffhanger sentence. The goal was to describe wild situations that would be hard for the other person to come back from. Ridiculous stuff, but it got us both howling, and when you're laughing it's not hard--it's fun. And I echo what some other posters have mentioned--structured how-tos and reasonable milestones (like a draft one day, an edited version the next). I've found I have to be careful in terms of how I give feedback, too. It's easy to crush a budding writer's spirit. (Heck, it's easy to crush an established writer's spirit.)

Gil, We're teaching our DD 10 Spanish, too. When we lived in a heavily-Spanish-speaking area of the country, it was easy to practice--just go out to the store or the park and interact with folks. But now that we live in a predominantly English-speaking area, that's out of the question. We read bilingual Spanish/English books together, and also listen to Spanish language stories on CD. Pimsler in the car is good (and the only audio lessons I'd personally recommend.) We found a Spanish translation of a book she was interested in (Ciudad de las Bestias), and are slogging through that page at a time--which is challenging, having to stop and look stuff up in the dictionary (Spanish/English so we can understand the definition), but it's really been helpful at building fluency and stretching her vocab. And sometimes we just do drill-and-kill verb conjugations and vocabulary, because those are necessary to get to the next step. Nobody's favorite, but if you want to make an omelette, ya gotta break some eggs. As you mentioned, it's frustrating not to have conjugations and vocab at your fingertips--and sitting down and bulling through them both is the only way I know to do build fluency. FWIW, I specifically keep her away from all visual media; I think hearing suffers when there's something to watch. I realize this is the opposite of most people's approach, but it's worked for us. Our DD is a reluctant Spanish speaker but understands and reads well on her own now. (The last time we went to a Mexican grocery store, one of the other customers complimented her in Spanish and asked her a question, and without hesitating my daughter thanked her and answered the question--in English, though. D'oh!) I'm also not impressed by "boring." I get "It's hard!" from time to time, too, and I don't let that slow us down, either. Boredom and difficulty are constant companions on the road to learning; we might as well make friends with them now.

For art, I use a two-pronged approach. I teach both techniques and appreciation (I love Sister Wendy's books for the latter) but this almost always leads to trying it out ourselves. Once you learn about perspective or foreshortening, it's almost impossible not to try it yourself, just to see if it works! And trying it out yourself leads to a deeper appreciation of those who have mastered it. Same thing with music. Listening (modelling) is important, but in my view the act of creating is necessary for full appreciation. Luckily, I'm married to a musician/music teacher who concurs. I don't expect my kiddo to become an artist or a musician, but I don't think it's too much to expect to have her learn a basic facility/understanding of how to create. (This is the same approach I take with language arts; we read the classics, and I don't expect her to hit those heights--but she does need to achieve both an appreciation/understanding of great literature and competence in her own communication.) FWIW, I always-always-always shoehorn in history, too, because I find I can't teach any other way. Artists' choice of subjects, techniques, and materials are rooted in place/time, and as much as I can, I research and emphasize those details. They add to the fun!

I create a weekly schedule that I print out each Sunday evening (which shows what subjects need to be covered the next week on which days, for how long, and in which optimal order). I put this together based on the nuggets I've gotten from WTM (and others) as well as what's worked for us in the past. I also create an overall "here's how to teach each subject" document. Here's where more tips go! This document is incredibly detailed and I keep it handy throughout the school year, penciling things off as we complete them. Creating these is a ton of up-front work, but the payback will come in a couple months when I have one of "those" days--thankfully rare but inevitable--when I'm dead-tired, starving, running late, cheesed off, or otherwise uninspired. All I'll have to do is check my plan, choose what I need (specific book titles that line up with history, specific art/history project, specific field trip that supports one this month's topics, etc., etc.) and bingo--no thinking required (and no worrying that I haven't incorporated everything I wanted to incorporate). Works for us!

OP, Thank you for starting this thread! I'm getting lots of great ideas. Your list looked very familiar--I have a 10-year-old with similar interests/tastes, it appears! Additional books my kiddo liked (that I don't think anyone else has mentioned): Black Beauty, Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Heidi, Children of Odin/Tales of the Golden Fleece/The Children's Homer (Padraic Colum). Like another poster's kiddo, she thought Hound of the Baskervilles was super scary. You just never know...

fairytalemama, Ha! That's interesting. We use McGuffey's and the Blue-Backed Speller, and both of these contain lots of references to farm life, too. They're good for explaining "back in the old days....." Although with the speller, I usual end up having to go through and delete words that have actually changed or fallen out of the vernacular in the last hundred-or-so years. When I think Mennonite, I think the "More-with-Less" cookbook, which was put out by the Mennonite community. Has nothing to do with home schooling, but I wholeheartedly recommend it. It's a practical cookbook focusing on what I call "Mom" food---lots of easy, cheap casseroles and such--and the recipes are presented in the context of frugality as a social and spiritual discipline. I got a copy when we were going through a super-broke period, because the focus is on maximizing nutrition and minimizing cost. And now I'm totally off topic :-) Thanks for the info...

Thank you, redsquirrel! Your critique is so detailed and pertinent--just what I was hoping for. I'm drawn to the rigor of R&S (I've yet to hear anything negative about that aspect) but was curious about the practical aspects of teaching with it and also the religious focus. We're neither Christians nor Christianity-phobic. The primary drawback, for me, is that my kiddo will likely focus on the Christianity aspect to the detriment of the grammar. "Well, what the heck is *that* all about? Let's look it up together!" is a hoot and one of the many reasons we home school, but it can also be a prime stalling technique. (Case in point: This morning while we were doing Latin, she stopped declining "mundus" to ask why anybody would ever need to use the word "worlds," since clearly there's only one Earth. Which led to a discussion of metaphor, which morphed into a discussion about God, which raised a mention of Galileo, which triggered a dictionary look-up of "universe." And "Latin" ended with her reading about the horse head nebula in an book on astronomy. Fortunately, I'd had enough coffee to be sure she'd finished most of her Latin before letting everything sort of devolve.... Or involve, I suppose, depending on how you look at it.) But anyway, if there are options in R&S in terms of exercises and examples--and it sounds like there are--I should be able to hang. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say! Thank you again :-)