Well, here in Denmark it seems to me that it is all the rage to learn Spanish. So go figure. We study Danish together daily, and DS does Modern Greek for homework three evenings per week and maybe for 1/2 an hour each weekend. Now we want to figure out how to fit a bit of Dutch into the mix...

I am doing exactly this right now, and we started MM6 in January. I am a bit short on time right this moment, but I will try to type more (or at least clean up this hasty writing) later. I also own, and plan to pull from: AOPS Prealgebra LOF Prealgebra Lial's Prealgebra Oh, and I just downloaded College of the Redwoods Prealgebra. Here is what we have done so far: MM6 Ch 1 - straight on through. But I took from AoPS the idea that we needed a thorough coverage of the commutative, associative, etc. properties using algebraic language. So I sprinkled that through our MM6 Ch 1 time. Also watched several of the AoPS videos and decided - based on Ch 1 of AoPs that DS really could use negative integer work before we went too much further. So...rather than move into MM6 Chapter 2 (Ratios and Proportions), I made a long jump into Chapter 8, Integers. It really does stand alone, and DS is cruising through it. Once he gets through THAT, he will be able to really understand all the things that AoPS talks about in Chapters 1 & 2. MM6 barely covers exponents, and that is Chapter 2 in AoPS. But you would really have to have the negative operations covered before leaping into full-on exponents, so that is why I jumped from MM Ch 1 to MM Ch 8. I have barely looked at the Lial's book yet, but I am just going to look for what is missing. Absolute value, for example.

Heather, some of my closest friends said some very stupid things to me after my diagnosis. They are still my closest friends. And I am sure that I have unwittingly put my foot in my mouth during their times of trial, too.

OK, THIS has potential :) Care to elaborate?! I have had a kid in a B & M school since...yikes...1996. Over the years, I have dealt with all kinds of teachers. For the most part, we have enjoyed the super-organized ones. The ones who posted the homework on the website by 5 PM, just like they had said that they would at back-to-school night. The ones who had crystal-clear expectations and assignments. Vague teachers drove me batty. They drove my kids batty. Of course, HS and classroom management are very different. Clear as mud, yep. While I do think that DS does want to become a wee bit more efficient, neither one of us is or has been actually discontent. We are just open to doing things differently, while keeping that grass-is-greener-syndrome in mind. We have not been at this long enough to be set in our ways, kwim? I think that I will see how this week goes. My checklists certainly LOOK pretty awesome - I put them in OneNote and synced them to DS's laptop. Edited with an attempt for clarity. Turned out to be a somewhat failed attempt, though :)

Ask her. And listen carefully :) As a seven-year BC survivor with many BC-survivor friends, I am still fascinated by how differently each of us approached (and continues to approach) our cancer experience. If you want to read and learn more about BC, my number one go-to site is breastcancer.org In fact, I recommend that you read their Stages of Breast Cancer article - here is the link. BC stages are usually defined by a number (0 through IV). When I hear "advanced stage breast cancer" I usually think of Stage IV cancer. But you said that it is thought to be confined to the breast, and Stage IV is defined as BC that has spread beyond both the breast and the lymph nodes. The terminology can be confusing. Oh, and while it MIGHT be good for you to read and learn about BC, please remember that it might NOT be good for your friend to become the recipient of your new knowledge. The internet can be a very scary place for someone dealing with BC. You know your friend best, and I am sure that she will be grateful for your support!!!! Take your cues from your friend and don't worry too much about getting it "right."

This is our first year of HS, and we have been operating more time-based than task-based. This has been good for both of us so far, but... DS visited with a friend who is using a "box" program with a daily checklist, and my son was intrigued by notion of completing the tasks on a list and then moving on to free time. I am open to the idea, and can certainly see the benefits - more independence and perhaps he will learn more time management skills. I actually think that a weekly checklist would work better for us, and I have been working on that today. Been working on it ALL day, in fact.. :crying: Here are the hurdles in MY mind : We use hardly anything that is open-and-go. I have not been "winging it" thus far, but I do make a lot of decisions during the day / week...and I have not had to write them down. And, dare I say it...but I think I am kind of a creative teacher-mom who comes up with good ideas on-the-fly. How do I factor THAT into a checklist?! I have spent the better part of today formulating checklists for this week. I confess that this is not my idea of fun. Researching and buying? Very fun. Lesson planning? Not so much. ETA: Actually, I do enjoy lesson planning quite a bit. What I dislike is my tendency to get bogged down in the details of writing it all out. Please tell me WHEN you make your plans & checklists, especially if you create your own science, history, etc. We travel whenever we take a chunk of time off, so I am pretty much left with evenings and ordinary weekends. My biggest concern is that we will lose the organic, free-flow discussions that have been such a big part of our day. How do I keep from losing that? It is just the two of us here all day...scheduling a time to discuss history seems like overkill to me. No way do I want to set DS up for failure by assigning too much work. But if I have to write. down. every. single. little. thing in advance, then I can assure you that I am the one set up for failure.

Well, it certainly sounds exciting!! And thanks for sharing your encouragement, I think that is exactly what I needed to read today. And Escondido looks very interesting - I had never heard of it.

Thank you thank you... I had read about this somewhere and then forgotten about it. And I am very glad to discover that it is on YouTube. Being outside of the U.S., many of the Netflix gems are unavailable to us! And I will also add that we recently watched Fantasia - another very easy way to get some music appreciation worked in :)

St. Jerome Classical School in Maryland looks interesting. No first hand knowledge, though.

A version for kids will be released in April. I hope that it is as good as it sounds! Just thought I'd share the news... How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids Amazon shows a release date of April 23.

Good point, and if your state requires a fine arts credit then that becomes another thing you have to make happen during 9th or 10th grade.

We have used this site: Create A Graph It is quite easy to figure out, and you don't need any software.

My son has not found the workload to be crushing, and he has an active social life :) But the IB program is not right for every child any more than one homeschool curriculum is right for every family! A few things: The IB student has to complete a total of 150 CAS (Creativitiy, Action and Service) hours over two years - not 150 per year. I know that several of his classmates are taking two sciences. From the IB website: "It is a requirement of the programme that students choose one subject from each of the academic areas 1 – 5. Alongside these five courses, a student can choose to study a group 6 subject, or to study an additional subject from groups 1 – 5." Group 6 is The Arts, so you can take a second science instead. Or computer science, I think. I just looked at the IB website, and they are calling computer science an elective that would not replace math. Group 1: Language and Literature Group 2: Language Acquisition Group 3: Individuals and Societies (History, Econ, Business, Psych, etc.) Group 4: Experimental Sciences Group 5: Mathematics You take a mixture of High Level (HL) and Standard Level (SL) subjects. You are required to have three High Levels, and you are only allowed to have four. A kid interested in STEM could take HL Math and two HL Sciences.

Depending on your state's graduation requirements, it can be a bit tricky to line up credits. Science comes to mind. The IB student is only required to choose one science (e.g., Chemistry, Physics, Biology), and the IB candidate will take that science for two years. But the state might mandate three (or even four) different sciences - so you would have to work that out. Some kids take two sciences within the IB program, but even that could leave you with a gap to fill. American Government is also usually a credit that has to be "found" outside of the IB program. IB was set up so that kids could move around the world and get a seamless education, but the theory falls apart somewhat in execution. If you change IB schools, and the new school doesn't offer the same courses as the first IB school, then it gets tricky. Unless the program is new, you should be able to find out the average scores of a particular school's IB graduates. And I would also ask about the % who acutally receive the IB diploma.

My middle is graduating from an IB school in May. I am very happy with the education that he has received, and quite pleased with his college acceptances as well. Universities have various policies regarding college credit for IB scores. What else would you like to know - maybe I can answer :)

Just thought that I would follow through and let you know that our modified approach to WWS has worked out great! We are both much happier with the program now.

Just raising my hand that we are another HS on the "MM6 + Supplements = PreAlgebra" plan!

Maybe my 6th grader's math story will reassure you. This year (6th) is my son's first year at home. Like your son, he is bright and learns easily. But thanks to two problematic years of math education (4th and 5th grade...two different private schools...long story...), by the end of 5th grade he was alarmingly behind. Based on his temperament and abilities, there was no reason for him to be behind except for his prior studies. He should be able to take algebra in 8th grade. And now, finally, he is on track to do so. At this point he just needs to catch up in word problems. I started to write out exactly what we have done, but it was turning into a book. Briefly, we started MM5 in August and by January I had him in MM6. We are also using A LOT of supplements, Mom at the whiteboard being the most important one of all :) It is almost unbelievable to me, but AoPS has actually become one of our supplements. I am happy to share more details, or you can PM me. From your post, it sounds like both of you are willing and able to catch up, and I think that you will be fine!!!!!!!!!!!!! ETA: I didn't see Rose's post until after I made mine, but I agree with everything she said about MM.

The current version of the Greek CTT course does NOT use Civilizations Past and Present - I will update my OP. Hopefully, someone will answer your questions. Certainly some of the films are well-suited for older students. For what it is worth, I am also finding myself intrigued by several different courses, but I think that any author / program could get monotonous after some time. (edited for clarity) Hmm, I wonder why the Rome Course uses a textbook and most others do not. The Classical Roman Reader would not interest MY 6th grader so I am wondering how much of that course is centered around that book.

Hmm, maybe the CurrClick samples are of an older CTT version - the Upper School Greek is indicating that the Civilizations Past and Present text is required, and the sample readings/exercises refer to it.

ETA: It appears that I was viewing samples that are outdated, and that the current product does not use this textbook. Do you use CTT with Civilizations Past and Present? Could you do it without this text? Thanks to this thread and a mention of CTT in the 7th grade thread, I discovered CTT today:) From the samples, I think that I would really like to use some of these products. When I look at the samples on the CTT website, I only see films listed as additional required resources. But when I viewed the samples on CurrClick, most of the history samples list Civilizations Past and Present 10th edition as a required text. I would really like to use the Upper School History as a supplement to the K12 text, but I wonder how feasible this would be. (BTW, I am also looking at the All Purpose Civics Course. I have been mulling over having DS do an in-depth study on Denmark, and this could be just the right framework.)

Me too! I just spent, shall we say...a VERY large chunk of time looking at CTT. What they ask for as "output" from the student is exactly what I have been looking for. Can you say more about how you use it with other texts and books? That is what I would like to do. ETA: Oops, just noticed that this is an older thread. Well, anyone want to discuss how to use CTT as a supplement?! For example, we are happily using K12 Human Odyssey. DS and I both like the book, and sometimes we use the Student Pages. But I like the look of CTT's assignments better.

Another vote for Kid Coder. DS12 is enjoying it, and I think that it does a good job introducing the vocabulary and concepts that he will need for further programming studies.

Count us in. This will be the first time for DS. He chose the African Tales for his subtest.

I started my 6th grader in the 5th grade book. He had previously had formal grammar instruction in school, but he did not know anything about diagramming. Not did he know the essential terms (direct object, past participle, predicate adjective, etc.). It has gone really well, and I am happy.