This is an art school and we have 27 required courses out of 28. If you take astronomy as your physical science, you will not have room to take chemistry or physics because of the required earth science or AP Environmental and required Biology. Without astronomy, you still have to pick either chemistry OR physics but can't have both. There is only one free elective -so you have to decide whether to use to take an additional physical science OR a third year of a foreign language OR use it on an elective in the arts not falling in your endorsed arts area.

Oh she's not taking it. It was never an option. She's taking Biology, Chemistry, and AP Environmental Science. It's just that I keep talking to so many kids and parents who are taking it without any concept of what they need for college, etc. It sounds fun and easy. There was no academic advising about this. It's driving me crazy. They don't seem to understand that we have 28 possible credits and 27 are required already. There is no room to fix a mistake that sounded fun! I wrote DPI about the special permission. The science person said she doesn't know without knowing who gave the permission. I am waiting to hear from the person in charge of charter schools.

I don't think the way they are teaching it is physic based. When I took it in college, it was mostly math and physics and I needed both to get through the course. However, this course doesn't seem to be that type of astronomy course. This is where they are suggesting people who don't like math or don't do well in math to go. From the Course catalog (and this is an exact wording at this school as well as schools who put as earth science elective) -except the 9th grade part.. Science Astronomy The underlying principles of life, earth, and physical science are integrated in this study of the universe. Historical astronomy, the solar system, comets, constellations, extraterrestrial life, and the evolution of stars are the major topics of study. Observational astronomy skills and critical thinking are fostered through the use of laboratory and field activities. This is not a math heavy class and is recommended for students in the ninth grade.

My daughter is going (well that's may at this point as I'm frustrated already) to a charter school this year. They are offering Astronomy as a physical science. Now this does NOT meet the NC graduation requirements for physical science according to DPI. However, the principal "says" that the school received special permission from DPI because they are a new charter. Of course, I am trying to verify that from DPI. Now, this doesn’t affect my daughter personally as we have her placed in Biology and plan to take Chemistry and AP Environmental Science to meet her earth science requirement (provided they hire a chemistry teacher before she graduates –sigh –if not, then back to homeschool). However, the principal is really pushing this Astronomy class. It’s my thoughts is that this is not a good choice even if they got special permission, First of all, what if you need to transfer some unexpected reason. All the other local high school consider it an earth science elective and will the DPI special permission “transfer.†More importantly, will the colleges accept this as a physical science? Does anyone have any knowledge or input about colleges accepting this as a physical science?

I love it.

I see the demonization of public school quite often. In my Christian homeschool group, there will inevitably be someone who will comment that homeschool mothers are holier than public school moms simply because we homeschool or something to that effect. It always leads to hurt feelings because there are families who do both (just as I did my first year of homeschooling, and I will have one each next year). In the earlier years, I think it’s easy to get on the bandwagon of homeschooling =good and public school =bad. It’s a mommy war thing of justifying your choices as good. However, I don’t know how anyone can be involved with a significant amount of homeschoolers and not see that it’s not a panacea. If one thinks this, they have serious issues with delusions or else are not in tune with the world around them (I see this quite a bit actually –lots of denial issues) I see cliques, bullying, age segregation, poor education, poor manners, dysfunctional families, and more often than not, extremely poor socialization skills. The mean girls in our homeschool group (moms and daughters alike) are as bad if not worse than what I experienced in public schools (and they are the ones who tend to claim that homeschooling doesn’t have bullies and cliques LOL). Homeschooling didn’t make my kids like each other. It didn’t keep my daughter from getting hormonal attitudes. In the classes I teach, I have had homeschoolers not be able to stay awake because they were up all night partying the day before. I have seen drops outs, runaways, rebellious children, sneaky children (Courting only families whose kids have already kissed/had boyfriends that parents don’t know about are quite common, etc.) amongst homeschoolers (even Christian ones) and very spiritually mature, well-mannered, well-educated public schoolers. I see bright, advanced kids in homeschool and public school. I see poorly educated in both too. I see socially adjusted kids and social misfits in both. For any generalization that one can say about either group (and I do see some –usually social related), I can name an exception.

Literature :Tapestry of Grace Year 2 Dialectic/Learning Literature Through LOTR (Last two books only) Composition: Finish WWS 1 and go to WWS 2/ Grammar: Daily Grammar and/or Killgallons Latin: Latin Prep 2 Math: Finish LOF Advanced Algebra and then go to LOF Geometry/2nd Half of AOPS Beginning Algebra Science: CK-12 Biology History and other Humanities: TOG Year 2 Dialectic Intro to Philosophy: Sophie’s World

:lurk5: I would love to see one :)

I have same issue. I can't make paragraphs at all. I just cut and paste from word (NOT NOT NOT going to chrome or firefox for just one website)

I totally understand. We've been homeschooling five years. I have not seen any graduates yet who went to a university yet. So far, everyone is going to Community college (though all are graduating at 17/18 with their peer groups -one or two actually a year behind). I don't really see much wrong with it for those families. Most of the kids are good kids and will do well once they get going. It does make it hard when I want to join an academic co-op and my rising 8th grader has done all of their high school options lol. A few I wonder about though as they graduated with less than what my rising 8th grader has (but I think there are some learning issues involved so I try not to judge). However, I did meet one mom that totally made me shake my head. She wanted to graduate her daughter after 8th grade. They don’t really do school. The daughter learns Japanese online and reads some books here and there on Japan and some anime. She is not allowed to read anything that the mom feels is unchristian (linked me and our pastor about the evils of hunger games). She has never written an essay, a research paper, etc. She has not had pre-algebra yet much less algebra. She’s not done any science. The mom’s reason for graduating her is that she works on a 12th grade level (Based on CAT test –which I tried to explain two years in a row doesn’t mean what she thinks) AND her daughter wants to move to Japan. She thinks if she graduates her, she can get a scholarship and go to Japan now.

It's not my world view (I'm Christian but not Young Earth nor Anti-Catholic). However, there is not a single other option for us. I need to outsource to get the labs done and DS really needs someone who understands science. EVERY SINGLE CO-OP and places that offers classes here uses Apologia. I found one place that does something else but it's an hour drive each way and they are not doing biology this year and they are much more expensive.

We tried. My son doesn't really want to unschool because he is afraid he will miss something cool because he doesn't know about it. My daughter doesn't like anything period. If it's not her idea, she wants nothing to do with it. She's hated every curriculum I have bought even if she picked it out. She did not want to turn her interests into school. She just didn't want to do school period. Her mind was made up that school is supposed to be boring and something you sludge through and she wasn't going to have it any other way. We tried homeschooling her but she never really got passed the deschooling phase. She did some amazing things in that period that would make many unschool parents proud but nothing much in the way of preparing for college. She wants to attend college to study her passion (dance) but she didn't want to do the work. Fortunately for us, a new charter school for dance is opening and she wants to go and she wants to go at Honors level . So now we are cramming a lot of math and writing in to get her prepared. She's working finally but still grumbling and complaining that she won't need this and it's stupid (Stupid means I have to think more than 2 secs).

History at Our House has a course on Asian History

At one time I thought of using the following merit badges as jumping off points (they are all online and you don't have to be a boy scout to do them just to get the actual badge; AHG scouts, Royal rangers and some Girl Scout Council's Own cover similar areas )-Aviation, Automotive Maintenance, Electricity, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Farm Mechanics, Robotics, Radio, Nuclear Science, Space Exploration, Photography, Oceanography and then supplement with projects from: http://hyperphysics....ase/hframe.html .Look at the physics standards and see which ones he will learn in auto mechanics. Then supplement with the other areas. Here is a curriculum that you can buy that is used in schools for applied physics -you can buy the units you need for supplementing separately http://www.cordcommu..._Technology.asp ****My disclaimer would be if he plans to go into a science field, then I would take a traditional physics course and then use this or auto mechanics as an elective. If you just need a science to meet state requirements or college admissions for a non math and science field, I personally wouldn't have any qualms about going this route. I got physics credit in high school at honors level and the only thing I remember doing is burning grass and painting the S on the field for football.

We tried AOPS. Some how made it through chapter 13 of Intro Algebra with much tears and frustration and lots of Khan Academy and AOPS videos. My son is lost and I am lost. We can't go further since their are not videos for AOPS chapter14 and above. We tried Counting and Probability and it was the same. It seems there is a lot of things that go unexplained or are assumed that you know. There is not a decent index to locate the information that you missed or forgot to see what he is talking about. For example, in the Counting book, he gives a problem with the symbol for floor but we have not learned anything about that. If it was covered, I had to google to figure out what the symbol even stood for. I can't find it because there is nothing in the index about floors. Now I would like to switch curriculums but I am not sure what I should switch to?

I don't believe the school knows exactly what it is expecting until the teachers are hired. This will be the school's first year and so there is no "how it's always been" mentality.

put in with a few other things and call it Applied Physics?

It's not a regular public school but it's not private either. It's a charter school.

Most of the kids coming to this school are homeschoolers, private schoolers and students from other charter schools. Very few public school kids have applied. Honors classes will be offered for all basic classes except Earth Science and not sure yet about math -depends on placement tests. She took high school level Earth Science this year so they will let her skip that if she wants but she will have to take AP Environmental Science instead to meet state standards. She does not want to repeat Earth Science so will do the AP option. I wuld think she should take Honors Biology and Chemistry to prepare for an AP level class? NC is changing from traditional Algebra 1/2 and Geometry to Integrated Math 1, 2, and 3. She will take a placement test for that. The school thinks there will be bumps for kids like her who are taking Algebra 1 in 8th grade because they will know the algebra material but not the other material. I'm worried about grades or testing. Is there a site that teaching testing skills (other than the basic standardized test.....) We are doing WWS this year for writing? Do you think it will be enough to prepare for Honors English? I know she can handle the literature part but not sure about writing part. She will have to submit writing samples to get into honors. I just want to make sure she can do it. I don't know at what level they are expected to write but I have until sometime in July to prepare here.

A new school of the arts is opening up this year in our city that my DD really wants to attend. She would be entering this fall as a freshman and would like to take as many honors level and later AP classes as she can. We are going to use the time between now and then to focus on skills over content (since she will repeat a lot of content). What skills will she be expected to have?

We did a course similar to this using these badges as jumping off points: Victorian Days Living in the 30's the 40's Fabulous Fifties Groovy Scouting Disco Diva Awesome 80's She read these series: Twentieth Century Fashion and Archie Americana and this book: Twentieth Century Pop Culture and a cookbook that I can't remember. And some of the lessons from here: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Here most college tracked kids take Algebra 1 in 8th grade, I have kids in my Sunday School class who are already taking Geometry in 8th grade

This is very tentative...... English -Hoping to farm out both literature and composition -if not we may do IEW and then expand with spark notes on the books we read in our book club (a good mix of classics and new future classics) Geometry -if I farm out, it will likely be Teaching Textbooks -otherwise LOF and Khan Academy (unless we feel she needs to do Algebra 1 again!) US History -Farmed out -I think they use Speigval? Biology -Apologia (out) PE/Health -Pretty much a gimme here as she regularly works out and has health discussion -but I am requiring her read Primal BluePrint or Thin Healthy Mama. Electives-Music Performance, Equestrian Studies, and Cinematography Extracurriculars -Girl Scouts, American Heritage Scouts and Dance/Company, Dance assistant, Book Club (if we don't use it for English) and Volunteer work

We are relaxed as in the kids design their own curriculum and we together on pacing...... They are both reading Jane Eyre for book club and we are doing a chapter of a week from Fellowship of the Rings and using LLFLOTR. Writing has been sporadic but they are doing some copywork, written narrations, etc. My daughter has always been a horrible speller and had poor grammar in her writing so she had a period of where she either had me check her Facebook posts before she posted or else I would correct them online. Suddenly her spelling and grammar improved tenfold! They also took a class on the Hero's Journey. Both are going through the math programs they picked out . DD is doing Kinetic Algebra 1 and LOF Algebra 1. DS finished the first 13 chapters of AOPS algebra and is taking a break and doing AOPS counting and probability. They are immersed in learing Greek History and preparing for National Mythological Exam. They have read the Iliad and now reading The Odyssey. They are also reading Story of the Greeks. They were immersed in the election for awhile -watch the debates, looked at varying viewpoints in the press, etc. They read a bout a chapter a week in an Uncle Eric Book (Liberal Conservative Confused) and one chapter of Thinking Toolbox and we discuss what they learn. Science hasn't been too involved lately. My son does more than my DD. He is studying for Science Olympiad and has been doing some science related merit badges. Both are reading and doing the Quests for the Hakim series (The Aristotle book). DS has been learning songs to play on guitar to play at next Scout campout. He has his FIrst Class now and is working on Star Scout. He took a break from Jui Jitsu because it conflicted with fall baseball and has decided to continue the break until his friend moves out the the country next month so that he can spend as much time as possible with him. DD is mostly immersed with dance and got accepted into Pointe. Her soccer team didn't do as well this fall as they did last year but she herself improved a great deal. She is also working on a silver project for Scouts and for some award in AHG Scouts. She has been working on several videos. Both kids are volunteering as "interns" at the church twice a week. There is also almost always some social outing going on......

We have mean girls: We've encounted mean girls everywhere-some are really overt and some are just shunning. Some is high drama and some is easy to ignore. We have experienced it in the neighborhood, church, homeschool groups (Christian and Secular), Girl Scouts, AHG scouts, soccer, and most especially dance. My 8th grade daughter was able to stay friends with her public school friends until about 7th grade. Then they started having boyfriends, etc and she does not. She was also still into dolls up until just a few months ago. Then many of those friends just seem to get mean. Even if they come over and interact. They are plain rude so my daughter just quit asking them over. Soccer and Dance are hard because she is the new girl in groups that have been together for many, many years. Add to that the fact that she doesn't go to school with any of them so she struggles more than the other new girls have. Dance is the worst. The clique even has a name. Parents of younger girls not even in her dance class know about this clique. Everything seems to run on being in company (we are not company this year since we just switched and auditions had already happened). Being in company for 2 classes is more highly regarded than taking 8 classes and not being in company (no matter why -one girl can't do company for just this year and she's "out"). The biggest Queen Bee is the daughter of one the teachers. Unfortunately, the non-clique girls formed their own clique and they shun my dd too. Her only respite is she is in two classes not on the cycle and are her first year taking so it's mostly kids younger than her and they seem to like her.