I will be putting French I and Medieval History taken in 8th grade on my younger son's transcript. These will definitely be high school level courses taken alongside his 10th grade brother. At our state homeschool convention a few years ago, Inge Cannon, a homeschooler transcript advisor, says it is totally acceptable to give students credit on a transcript for high school level work done in 8th grade. She advised listing credit by subjects. Now this is only a problem if the school requires subjects to be listed by years. She recommended creating two types of transcripts: one by subjects and one by years. I am not going to keep adding classes to my younger child's homeschool years if he has already meet the requirements for high school graduation in our state.

We tried MUS Geometry this year. My math challenged older son said it is too easy. :glare: Not a good sign. I would not use it for anyone wanting a STEM career. It is a good program but not for someone who wants of delve into math or science as a career. That is my humble opinion and limited experience. We will not be using any other MUS programs. We used Math Relief for Algebra I and will using it again for Algebra II. Math Relief doesn't have a complete Geometry program, so that is why we tried MUS.

My soon to be 8th grade son is finishing the second year of Rainbow Science. He will do one semester of Pre-Chemistry and one semester of Pre-Biology both with Landry Academy. I am trying to decided if I will have him do Apologia Biology or Christian Liberty Biology in ninth grade. My older son hated Apologia Biology, so we switched to Christian Liberty Biology which he likes alot better. I have Apologia w/Red Wagon DVD and Christian Liberty, so I will decide which one my younger son will use later. I already have Spectrum Chemistry for my younger son. Anyway, here is the (possible) breakdown: 7th grade: Rainbow year 1 & 2 8th grade: One semeter of Friendly Chemisty and one semester of Science Shepherd Life Science (both with Greg Landry) 9th grade: Apologia or Christian Liberty Biology 10th grade: Spectrum Chemistry 11th grade: AP Chemistry (possibly with Chem Advantage) 12th grade: Physics (possibly with Landry Academy)

I too just finished ninth grade course descriptions and have started on tenth. It is good to done with them, for now.:001_smile:

You may want to try www.YourTeacher.com. It may be the answer to your problem.;)

Wanted to add my two cents:D! My son used it for ninth grade and learned Algebra very well. It would take my son anywhere from 30-60 minutes to do each lesson watching the dvd and completing the worksheet. After Algebra I , we chose MUS for Geometry, and we will return to Math Relief for Algebra II. Math Relief is a very solid program and we are very pleased with it.

Check out www.yourteacher.com. They offer an Algebra II course. We are using this for Geometry along with MUS Geometry and it is great. Homeschool Buyers Co-op was offering a free trial for about four months.

Thanks. Tried to send PM but your box is full!:tongue_smilie: Sharon

Hi! My 9th grade son took a twelve week literature class with Currclick and loved it. I tried it because the price was so good; it was $70 for twelve weeks. The teacher did not grade the writing assignments but read them during class. The difference between Currclick and Landry maybe that Landry provides the grades? I don't know. We are taking four classes with Landry this fall. My older son will be taking Chemistry and an MBA in a semester class. My younger son will be doing one semester of Chemistry followed by one semester of biology. We did take the 2 Day Intensive with Mr. Landry last month and loved it. He is an excellent teacher but I don't think he will be teaching Biology, but you could check. Anyway, www.DiveintoMath.com now offers online classes for math and maybe for science. Memoria Press (not sure of spelling) is also offering online classes. (Everybody is offering online course, it seems!:confused:)

Another vote here for Math Relief. :001_smile:

Good for you and your son !;)

My older son had done about seven labs last year with Apologia Physical science. At the time of the lab intensive, he was on module six iof Apologia Bio and had done about three of the labs. I purchased the biology lab kit from www.hometrainingtools.com and we'll finish some additional bio labs with that. I am going to count all of the lab intensive labs towards his biology credit. My younger 7th grade son has done lots of labs with Rainbow Science, but he had never written a lab report in his life. He was able to right a very good lab report on the blood typing experiment. His older brother and I did help him, and he also followed the examples in the lab manual.

The handout was a big, spiral lab book; each student received one and kept it. He also passed out copies of the insides of frogs for the frog dissection. They encourage taking pictures. Mr. Landry asked that pictures of the cat dissection not be taken because that might upset people who love or have cats. The lab reports were done at home. There are plenty of lined papers in the lab manual for writing reports along with samples of lab reports. That said, my 9th grade son wrote the best lab report of his life after Greg Landry explained how.:001_smile:

In speaking with his wife, who was there, she did talk about doing lots of biology lab intensives. I am not sure if he does the ones for chemistry and physical science. I should have asked :001_huh: but the days were busy.

We just finished Greg Landry's Two Day Lab Intensive for Biology/Anatomy & Physiology, and it was excellent. I served as a parent volunteer and was there for both days. Greg Landry is an excellent teacher. He explained things in a way the students could really understand. There were about 24-25 students ranging in ages from 12-16 years old. There were about 15 boys and 9 girls in the Illinois lab. Also, I overheard two girls saying they were not homeschoolers. Anyway, on day one we did the following: a DNA extraction experiment, blood typing of individual students' blood, a discussion of the human respiratory and skeletal systems, inflation of healthy and "smoker" pig lungs, an osmosis/diffusion experiment, a genetics experiment, a discussion of soils and plants, bateria cultures and ph testing. Greg Landy gave a detailed, indepth discussion of how to write lab reports. On day two we did frog, cat, sheep uterus and cow heart, lung & trachea dissections. The students also tested their glucose levels over several hours after eating sugary foods for breakest. The students also conducted a hematocrit experiment. On the first day students were give about five homework assigments. Some were to be done that night, and the rest were to be finished over the next days/weeks (baterial cultures and plant experiment). Overall, it was an excellent experience. My 9th grade son, who couldn't care less about science, said he understands more of his Apologia Biology now. He also said he wishes Greg Landry were his science teacher. My 7th grade son says he wants to do all of the lab intensives. :001_smile:

I will be giving my son, who will be in 8th grade next year, high school credit for French and Medieval History. He will be doing the exact same courses as his 10th grade brother. I will simply count these courses on his high school transcripts as 9th grade credits. By the end of 8th grade, my younger son will have done two levels of Rosetta Stone French and Biblioplan Year 2 w/Notgrass Exploring World History.

My son, age 14, has been recruited to play on the local public high school tennis team. :001_smile: We kept running into the tennis coach at the local courts. When we saw him at a tournament recently, he asked if my sons was going to play for a high school team. I told him, again, that we are homeschoolers. He said that was fine, and that my sons were eligible to play under the law in IL (We live in Chicago). Anyway, now ny 14 year old is playing second singles, the second best player on the team. My younger son, age 12, is invited to practice with the team also. He will be playing for the team in year or so. My sons have been playing tennis for two years, doing a few tournaments, taking private lessons, etc. So this is a wonderful opportunity for them. We prayed and asked the Lord to open a door for them to play high school tennis. Their private coach, who coaches for a Catholic high school, tried to get two Catholic schools to allow them to play for their teams (This was the coach's idea, not mine.), but the schools said the only way to play for them was to be enrolled and pay $10k in tution. No thanks. The public school coach said since we are tax payers we have a right to play, and so we do!

We are using Rainbow Science for 7th grade. My son is doing both years in one. He loves it and is learning a lot. He is able to do most of it on his own. I wish I had done it with my older son; I think it would have prepared him better for high science. We too are using the Tiner books, World of Biology and World of Physics, as supplements.

The quizzes are found on the website for Beginning Publications. If you look up Rainbow Science on the website, it is on the right side along with the scope and sequence. You have to print the quizzes since they are not included with the printed material.

The lessons for Apologia Biology can easily take my 9th grader an hour a day. Some days he reads, some he does labs and everyday he reviews vocabulary. We are also using the Red Wagon Tutorial DVD-ROM, and that has been a big help. My older son is taking Apologia Biology without a lot of prep. I wish my older son had taken Rainbow because it is a good introduction to Chemistry, Physic, Biology, etc. My younger son will be taking Science Sheperd Biology for one semester with Landry Academy online. He will also be taking one semester of Chemistry too. Both will be done in eight grade. I feel with my younger son, I know more of what I am doing and I can lay a better foundation with him for the high school sciences. (I hope) Finally, my younger son finishes his Rainbow lessons in about 15 minutes. I have started making him write down the vocabulary words and then review them everyday. I also give him the quizzes that are found online.

We are using Rainbow Science for 7th grade right now. I would not use it for high school. My 7th grade son is using Rainbow and the 9th grader is using Apologia for Biology. There is no comparsion between the two; Rainbow is definitely a middle school course. All that being said, my son is doing year 1 and 2 of Rainbow in one year. We will then do two one-semeter courses online with Greg Landry's Academy for 8th grade and Apologia Biology for 9th.

I don't know if this has been posted, but I just became aware of this writing curriculum: www.EssentialsinWriting.com I just ordered the 8th & 9th grade sets. I love that it has video component that does the teaching.

Thanks for all the replies. An special thanks to Kareni for the link. I saw some course description that I may have to copy and then "tweek". The good thing is I only have two students that are two years apart. Both are basically doing the same thing, with my younger one focusing more of science, so once I write the course descriptions I am done for both. I am trying to keep up and not get behind. My oldest has always being my trail balloon, but I am determined to get this right!:D

I am in the process of writing course descriptions for my 9th grader. They are not hard, I hope I am doing them right :001_huh:, but they are tedious. How much information do you include? I have been cutting and copying from different websites and sources and then changing the information around. I am also writing some in my own words. My concern is that when, and if, some college 2-3 years down the road asks for the information, I will have it ready and waiting. Plus, it is wonderful to see what and how much information we are covering. That said, the process is still tedious and a little boring.

www.currclick.com is offering these classes, I believe, online during the summer and fall. Also, www.visionforum.com offers curriculums that have audio and dvd components. :001_smile: