I did look at both tests, but please consider this an initial report. I will report back later with a better analysis. I am writing my own course, but would love to see what you find!

Oh, yes those E.O. Wilson ibooks are great!!! I just want to mention that I tried and failed to get the free online Teacher's Access Pack from Pearson. It is a long and frustrating story. If you go that route, maybe you will be luckier than I was. But I have given up! Today I sat down with the text, the SAT Subject Test Book, and Baron's Test Prep book for the SAT Bio. I kept picking random questions from the test prep books to see if the answer was in the Miller-Levine book. I was able to find the answer in the M/L book almost every time. So far, I am feeling pretty confident that it is meaty enough for the SAT test. Just in case you were curious :) ETA: I did Round Two with the M-L text, the big SAT Subject Test book, and Baron's SAT Bio Prep book. Again, I chose random questions and looked to see if the answer was in M-L. This time, I was less successful. I had better luck with the M test than the E test. To be fair and honest, I couldn't easily find some of the answers in Campbell's Concepts and Connections (which I also have on hand). But I would be hard pressed to believe that there is much of anything on the SAT Bio test that isn't in that book.

SarahW, how exciting! Just keep looking, looking, looking for sources of English books. I have been in Denmark three years now, and I just discovered a new-to-me online source the other day. But, no matter what I do, the books cost more than they would in the USA. They just do. How is the interlibrary loan system in the NL? It is great within Denmark, and I often have things sent here from all over the country.

Of course! Log in and click on the Group Buy Calendar tab on the left side. Group Buys that have not yet begun have a Remind Me button. If you click on that button, you will have reminder options. I did the email option when Education Portal was still showing a TBA (To Be Announced) date, so I had no idea when the offer would come. I guess it pays to log on once in a while and see what is in the pipeline. HTH

Angie in VA, I changed the title so that folks would at least know that the Co-op now has it. It only came on today. I had had my account set for a reminder email, and I received that just this morning. 70% off the basic edition would have been nice.

Stay away...trust me. It used to be free, and last year they started to charge. They let people with existing accounts have a year for free. Unfortunately, we really like it.

ETA: I changed the title so that folks would know that the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op is now offering Education Portal at a substantial discount. But it is still disappointingly expensive :( Here is my original post: We have been enjoying our free subscription to Education Portal, but I think it runs out in the spring. I was excited to see that the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op had it as a new offering - until I looked at the offer. The co-op price is $395 / year for the Premium subscription, and there is no offer for the basic edition. Wow, my bubble was popped. I wouldn't mind paying something, but good golly that seems expensive to me. Too bad we have outgrown BrainPop here - it was a bargain in comparison. :lol: OK, that is my whine for today.

POV: Rising 9th grader. Of all the plans that I am making for high school, history remains the most volatile. I thought we would try to accelerate through our world history sequence this 8th grade year so that we could start a two-year world history sequence in 9th. But we have decided that we do not want to rush through the 20th and 21st centuries. There were too many things that we wanted to explore within the time period. As of today, 9th is looking like 20th / 21st century. We will have a cumulative 1/2 credit (or more) of Roman History. DS is really interested in Roman History and he plans to keep taking the NLE. So we think it would be best to spread the effort out over the years I would like him to take an AP History in 10th - either World or European. Whichever one isn't up for redesign that year :tongue_smilie: . I forget which one that is... 11th will be American History (AP or not) 12th TBD At some point, we have to work in 1/2 credit of geography and 1/2 credit of American government.. And we would like a 1/2 credit in Scandinavian Studies. I also think he should take one of the SAT Subject tests in history. Right now, history is my son's favorite subject, so I could see him taking 1.5 credits per year. But that could change, and then the plans will of course have to then change. In summary, between our cover school requirements and my requirements I have this planned as a minimum: 4 total credits (cover school requires 1/2 credit of geography, 1 credit of American History, 1/2 credit of American govt) 1 AP 1 SAT Subject test

The AP Science sequence boggles my mind, too. Regular Bio + AP Bio, Regular Chem + AP Chem, the whole of AP Physics is two courses. Right there is six science credits. Does anyone take physics before AP Physics? That would make seven. I guess that completing the entire AP Science sequence means that you have to be (1) ready early for AP Science or (2) not in need of the basic course before the AP course or (3) willing to take a lot of science credits. Or am I missing something? (My oldest didn't take AP and my middle went to IB, so I don't have any BTDT experience with AP.)

Joker, I know that you are right that it takes time to get the IB program certified. I will just take a guess on how this happens, but it is only a guess. Perhaps the IB program certification is just that: a program certification. The rest of the school continues about its business. My son went to IB within a school in Europe, and there was no overlap between the tiny IB department and the rest of the school. Different courses, different instructors. In my local stateside district, the IB program is in one of the worst schools in the district. It is a tiny part of a big school. If my kid wanted to go to IB, that is where he is zoned for IB access. This is also true in the district next door, and it is true in my hometown (different state) district. These otherwise low-performing schools really do house certified IB programs. Rethinking, I should have left the word "common" out of my comment. But it is not unheard of.

So far, foreign language and computer programming. I outsource for the same reasons as Luckymama. These are the courses that I can't or don't want to teach, 8th grade: Latin - online, live class 2x per week. Danish - private tutor 2 hours per week + the three of us (the tutor, the student and me) come up with other stuff to do. Programming - asynchronous class I think that we will outsource the same courses for 9th. After that, who knows?

There is a huge variety in IB schools. Be sure to find out what the average score is, and be suspicious if you can't get an answer. Also, in parts of the USA it is common to insert an IB program into a failing or otherwise troubled school as a way to bring academic-minded kids into the school. Not necessarily a reason to reject the progam...just something to be aware of.

Online access is turning into a problem, so I may have to buy the text if I want answers.

MarkT, I do not know. I didn't think to ask.

Would you be interested in an online version of the Computer Science course that Derek Owens and Tom Robinson are currently offering as a live version? If so, please let them know. I emailed Mr. Owens about the course, and he indicated that there is not a firm time frame yet for putting the course online. He also told me that the more he hears from families expressing interest, the more likely it is that putting the course online will be a priority. (He gave me permission to post that he would like to hear from you.)

I heard back from Derek Owens and Tom Robinson regarding the Computer Science class. There is not a firm timeline as to when it will be available online, but if folks let them know that there is interest, it might happen sooner! If you read this thread, and think that you would be interested in an online version of the Computer Science - let them know!

If you have the Teacher's Edition of the Miller Levine Macaw biology text, can you please tell me what value it adds? Are there answers to things like the Assessments/Analyzing Data/Standardized Test Practice? I believe that the ISBN is 0133235750.

What else might interest her? Cooking? Literature? Politics? Business? Human rights? Energy policy? Any of the above could tie in with foreign language. The hospitality industry would also have potential. I guess you could do all kinds of brainstorming to tie French with another interest. Thinking beyond the obvious tie-ins of French culture like wine and fashion, France gets 75% of its energy from nuclear energy. There is a big aerospace industry. An automotive industry. And so on...

We use R&S for 15 - 20 minutes per day, four days per week. We only do the grammar, and it is all done orally. Diagramming is on the whiteboard. He does the tests but not the worksheets. We skip all of the writing assignments. Originally, I skipped them because we were working a year behind (Book 5 in 6th grade, Book 6 in 7th grade). This year, we are doing Book 8 in 8th grade, and I could see using some of the composition lessons. But I would not want to slow down our grammar pace for them.

Here, a lot of the kids who take the IGCSEs move to the 2yr IB program afterward.

outnumbered, you are not alone. I graduated w/in the top 10 in my high school class and engineering school was HARD. My high school workload did not even begin to compare. It was an unpleasant shock.

I took my mom to Paris for a long weekend. She says that it was one of the highlights of her life :) (Note that I live in Europe...it was a quick flight)

You might even be able to then skip from 6 to 8. We did that, and it has been fairly painless.

Have any of you audited AP courses with PA Homeschool? I am thinking it could be a much cheaper option with the ability to pick and choose assignments. But still provide insight into prepping for AP. ETA: Or is this a dumb idea? I am a bit intimidated about directing an AP self-study. Perhaps needlessly so, but intimidated nevertheless. I am trying to get over that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/do-you-know-what-a-dbq-is/2013/05/12/a010e906-b845-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html DBQ stands for Document Based Question. DBQs are a type of question on the AP exams.