I just wanted to say I can really relate. My oldest dd is 14, and this past year was the first year she was homeschooled. She attended PS through 5th grade, and private christian school for 6th and 7th. She is a smart, sweet girl but quiet. She is also an athlete. She's played travel soccer for 4 years, and ran track last year, and even went to state's for the mile and 400. She's also involved in church youth group, and girl scouts. She's willing to try new activities. After all this, she has one good friend, from the christian school. I've second guessed homeschooling too, thinking I'm not helping her, but school hasn't worked either. Right now, she's at a Christian girl's camp for the week, and unfortunately, it didn't start well. this is her 3rd year year, but she doesn't have a friend in her cabin this year. Her counselor made a comment for her to "use her big girl voice" when she answered someone quietly. We left her upset, but I did go to the office and ask for someone to check on her and contact me this evening. Hearing it gets easier for some kids when they are older is comforting. Right now, I just try to be patient and supportive, and quietly helpful. Teenagers don't want their mom's speaking up for them. Pauline Homeschooling 2: ds, age 8, and dd age 14 Two others attending PS: dd, age 12 with Down syndrome, and ds age 8

Thank you, Mereminerals! I remember reading somewhere here on the board that someone had done something like this before, but I couldn't find it. DIVEis what I was looking for! Also, yes, chirowife, I think I will check to see if she can just do labs. The teachers do not plan to do any lecturing, just having the students read the chapters at home, then do the labs in class. Thank you! Pauline

Hi, My 9th grade daughter plans to take Apologia biology at co-op in the fall. We think it will be beneficial to be with a group to do labs, but only if we can supplement and make it more challenging. We would prefer to use a more rigorous text. Has anyone lined up BJU (or another biology text) with Apologia? Co-op will primarily be reviewing the chapter and doing labs. We are considering using Redwagon Tutorials materials to supplement. Any other ideas? Thanks for your help!! Pauline

I've read a lot of the threads regarding planning for 9th grade, but still have questions. This year, 8th grade, is our first year homeschooling, primarily because my daughter wanted to be more challenged. We've done pretty well, but it took awhile to find a math curriculum that worked for her, and the co-op classes were okay, but she's hoping for more challenging work next year. We really like what we've seen of TOG. Big questions...if we're just starting, should we start in Year 1? How does this program fit in with taking AP classes in 10th-12th grade? Has anyone done that? Do you have to take an AP class, along with TOG, or is enough of the material covered? Or is there something you add, besides the AP study guides? She really wants to do honors classes but I understand from posts that these classes are not as important to colleges. She would be happy with fairly rigorous classes, especially in history and language arts, as this is her strongest area. She's qualified for John Hopkin's CTY online classes, but not sure we want to go this way, due to expense. Also, we're really hoping for a local biology class, and if not, may try online. I'm just concerned about doing labs online, or at home, alone. Some classes with discussion would be great. I've checked out a lot of stuff online, just not sure yet. This year she did: Physical Science Apologia History Odyssey Modern Level 2 Latin Alive Lial's Introductory Algebra R & S Grammar level 6 (no grammar in 6th or 7th grade private school) Vocab from classical roots Lightning Lit HS Mid to late 19th Century American Lit (GThreeOnline) Bravewriter- Kidswrite Intermediate Plan so far for next year: Geometry, maybe AoPS Spanish (hopefully at co-op) thanks for your help! I always learn so much here, maybe too much:001_smile: then I have too many options! Pauline

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did decide to stick with a format that we already know and ordered Write Shop 2. Pauline

I'm looking for a writing curriculum. This is our first year home schooling and we started the year using Writeshop 1. My daughter did well with it, but it was a little simple for her. We're using WWS right now. I really like it but she's beyond it also. She needs practice writing 4 level outlines, essays, thesis sentences, etc. I've looked briefly at Writing Strands. If you have used it, could you tell me which book would be good to start in? She is a very strong reader, and has really good literary analysis skills, and vocabulary. She just was not taught any writing or grammar at her private school for the last 2 years. Thanks for your help! Pauline

I'm in the same boat...I don't do facebook and was planning to purchase 2 courses through HSBC. If anyone is still doing this, I'd like to join!! Thanks!

Unfortunately, I thought I was all set in purchasing this with some friends, and then through Homeschool Buyers Co-op, but that was cancelled by Veritas Press. They said we could join a group through Facebook but I'm not part of Facebook. I planned to purchase 2, and a friend wanted to purchase one course. Thanks!

I just had to say I'd love to have this, also! My dd14 is using this book, and I'd like her to use Khan for practice. Thanks for asking! Pauline

Thanks for the recommendations! The classes from Bravewriter sound like they would be a great fit for my daughter. I think she'll do the expository essay class in the fall. For now, we've decided on Lightning Lit, Mid-late 19th century British Literature through OnlineG3. It's her first online class, and I hope she enjoys it.

I'm hoping to find an online class for my dd 8th grade for this spring. I know it might be too late. It's our first year homeschooling and looking for more of a challenge, probably a language arts class. Any ideas? Thanks!

I don't know if you'll be able to find this food in your town, but we use Fromm's Surf and Turf and buy it at our local small pet store. One of our dogs was constantly biting his tail and had skin issues as a puppy. He's been fine since we switched his food. It's a grain-free food with vegetables and fish. HTH!

Thank you! I do feel better knowing your son is in Ch3. We'll be starting it next week, after she reviews Ch 2 again and takes the test successfully. We'll keep I'm off to read the links. Thanks!

I agree with you. Just today, as she was working on the chapter review, she was having a hard time with percents. I went back and realized she hadn't completed many problems from that section. I definitely have to be sure she does a good variety of problems, if not all of them. There are a lot in Lial's. Before Lial's, we did switch books, but part of that was because my daughter was new to being schooled at home, and was really feeling she needed a "math" teacher, and like she needed to go back to school! AoPS and LoF didn't have any video component, or DVD's. I know that math is not my strength, and I wanted her to enjoy homeschooling. The DVD's do help, and this book moves a little slower than AoPS. We will use AoPS also. At this pace we won't finish by the end of the year, but we'll keep plugging away, with mastery as our goal.

Thank you all for the suggestions! LisaK, thanks for the reminder that it's not how fast you do it. We're just finishing chapter 2 so I feel the urge to move faster, but we'll keep plugging along, working on a solid understanding. Also, I found a pattern to her errors, and that helped. We'll pull out AoPS occasionally too. I see you use a few books also. Mommybostic, yes, she did Pre-Algebra last year. And yes, we are trying to make this year more challenging also, than her private school. I just haven't got the hang of grading everything yet. It seems like her assignments are always a work in progress. My SIL gave me Saxon math, but because I was on our 3rd book, I decided to stop trying new ones. This book also has a solutions manual. After I realized the text only had the answers but the manual has all the problems worked out, we're doing much better! Good luck finding a good fit for LA. I'm still looking also, for something challenging. Momto2ns, good idea about checking the test first. She does almost all the problems, because they vary so much. Thanks! Pauline

Hi, This my second year homeschooling my ds8 but my first year teaching my dd14. I've learned a lot here in the last few months, just reading posts. We've had a hard time with algebra. She's very bright and good in math but not "mathy". Her strength is in all language arts and she reads all the time. We started with AoPS, but she needs more explanation than is provided, and it moved a little fast. We also tried LoF but she didn't like that. She uses Khan academy a little. Now we're using Lial's Introduction to Algebra, 9th edition. We have the DVD's but the first few chapters didn't seem too hard so she didn't use them. When she gets to the test (just finished Ch2) some of the problems are really hard for her. She's used to gettting 100% all the time, so this is a problem for her. I'm pretty sure she learned pre-algebra well because she took the SAT's as a 7th grader and got a pretty good math score, considering she hadn't had higher level math. I'm trying to figure out if she's learning the concepts throughly enough, and how to help her. I wish now I had signed her up for an online class because math is not a strong area for me. My plan is to use the DVD's from now on. And also to have her rework any problems she gets incorrect. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks! Pauline