Ha, that's my kid. :) Here are some history of science books she may enjoy: Napoleon's Buttons The Disappearing Spoon -- a nice back-to-back read with the Flavia de Luce mystery novels if she hasn't already read those John Gribbin's books, e.g. The Scientists Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything Someone mentioned The Joy of Chemistry and I second that. I agree that the Story of Science guides are not necessary. HTH!

Has anyone found their students liking the higher level Plato science courses? Are there virtual labs available that we could try to mimic at home or with a kit from Home Science Tools? We plan to start high school science with algebra-based Physics. I was planning on using Hewitt's Conceptual Physics as a spine and throw in lots of other reading, and some home-based simple labs. However, I do wonder if the Plato or Kinetic Books physics might make life simpler for me. Would love feedback on other high school level Plato sciences too. Thank you!

The trick is to remember that WTM is the tool. Your child is the reality. It's their problem, not yours! But I feel for you. I am very well acquainted with the overwhelmed feeling. My elementary-aged child will begin high school in some subjects in the fall. I went from lurking on the K-8 board to lurking on the accelerated board to finally lurking full time on the high school board. That is my reality. I coudn't get WTM to fit around my reality so I dropped the tool.

I hope I'm not hijacking the thread. How religious are the BJU materials? I'm looking for secular options but don't mind anything not overtly religious. Thank you.

Thank you for posting this Kathy. I found the text available free here: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/chapman.htm Hoping it's the same one! :001_smile:

I will certainly give it a spin! He's very young-at-heart! :001_smile: Thanks Julie!

Thank you! What a fabulous link!

Any such animal out there? :001_smile: DS will begin 9th grade in the fall. I haven't pushed him much in writing, prefering to leave it by the wayside till he has more interest. So I feel he might do better with a middle school or jr high level curriculum for now. He writes quite well, uses good vocabulary and is a natural speller but is reluctant to write more and won't write often. I have some anxiety that with high school on the horizon, he should work harder at it than he has been doing. I hope to start him off by introducing something that will make him laugh but haven't found any curriculum that suits his taste for humor. He's always highly motivated by humor. I don't think I want something like Caught Ya Grammar With A Giggle. I wonder if IEW might do the trick but I don't see anything on their website geared towards middle school/ jr high that involves humor. I might supplement using writing topics with Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Asterix (etc.) themes to stimulate his interest. Any ideas? Thanks for reading!

LOL, thank you! The boy thought of it! All the best to you!

9th Grade is new for us. I love lurking here and am now finally confident enough to post. I'm nervous but my guy is raring to go. I don't know how excited he'll be when he realizes I'll be expecting more written work from him. ;)