I agree that there is a lot of stuff online, and you can pick and choose. But, back to my original post: If what you want to do is cover the basics, what exactly *are* the basics? What lab skills are the essentials? What topics really need to be experienced in the lab to be understood? I know I'm going to pick and choose, but I'm not sure what my priorities should be.

I downloaded the manual for that. It's way more than "get it done" level. I just want to cover the basics.

Not sure yet. Looking at the usual (secular) suspects Campbell, Miller-Levine, etc. Also Thinkwell. She did about a third or so of Thinkwell Biology in 7th, but couldn't keep up with the recommended pace in the lesson plans because, as she put it, "her brain got full." --Janet

My rising 10th grader needs to do biology this fall, and I'm looking into lab options. She is not a lab kid, so I'm looking for get-er-done level of labs. (The reading material will be honors-level, because she is a fabulous reader and writer. But, labs are not her thing.) Would you say: Dissections are mandatory, or are computer simulations or illustrations okay? Is using a microscope mandatory, or is looking at images online okay? If using a microscope is mandatory, is learning slide preparation skills mandatory, or are purchased slides okay? I would like to do 6 to 10 labs over the course of the school year, with under 20 hours of total lab time (set up, do lab, clean up, but not including writing the lab report). I love kits and/or tried-and-true lab manuals where you know things are pretty much guaranteed to work in advance (as long as procedures are followed, of course!). Does anybody know of a kit or manual like that, or do I have to roll my own? Thanks, --Janet

Try this thread http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/444356-rigorous-stem-textbooks

There is a great post about using an ipad with dyslexia -- all the ways to get Siri to read your school work to you and help with spelling. (All of these apps would help with any reading disability, not just dyslexia) http://forums.welltr...ol/page__st__50 Scroll to post #52. I would continue to work on improving her reading ability with the tools listed by others, but having an ipad set up to read to her might be a great way to make sure she doesn't fall behind in other subjects as she catches up on reading. (Of course, our homeschool just got an ipad for Christmas, so I may be biased!)

I like the safety school definition by diycollegerankings.com -- She calls it the 50/50 list. A school is a reasonable safety if it admits at least 50 percent of its applicants, and if it graduates at least 50 percent of it's students in a reasonable time (I believe she goes with 4 years for private and 5 for public due to the problems of getting into classes in some public universities.) http://diycollegerankings.com/50-50-college-listing-intro/ Financial safeties are really dependent on family situation, so you won't find a list that works for everybody, but the 50/50 list mentioned above is a good place to start looking for a safety school.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their helpful tips!!!! :thumbup: The multi-platform feature of Evernote is a life-saver around here. I can get at my Evernote notebooks on either the "old" or "new" PCs (with the desktop app) and on my android phone, even via the web at the library. (Which has saved me a few times --- I have created worksheets on my phone in a waiting room and printed them later at the library on a busy day.) I just got the ipad for Christmas, so I haven't used it heavily on that platform yet. But, having used Evernote for a year, "Notes everywhere in the cloud" is a must-have feature for me, though I can see "need it on my phone" being replaced by "need it on my ipad" as this year goes on.

Downloading a random transcript template provides a good framework towards thinking about what boxes need to be filled in... I started the transcript the summer after 8th grade. Of course, many of the "classes" (for all but 9th) just said-- "Some English", "Some Science", etc. You don't have to decide all four years, just give yourself a template to follow. I did put in plans for the typical graduation requirements for my state, such as Health, US Government, etc. to make sure they wouldn't be forgotten. Also, grade "eight-and-a-half" is an option. Your transcript needs to include at least four years, but you can have a section for "credits earned before 9th grade" if some 8th grade work ends up counting as high school but other parts don't. --Janet

Where to start? I don't think covering this with red ink is going to do you or your son any good. You need to go back to assigning one paragraph assignments until some of the basics of grammar, spelling, and coherent sentences are worked out. He simply isn't ready to succeed on a high school essay writing assignment.

Math U See is another good catch--up math program to consider. I've never used it, but Apologia is generally not considered a "get it done and move on" sort of program. It's very thorough and also vocabulary intensive. What science does he need to catch up on? i.e. how many credits, and which area(s) of science? Is just doing bookwork acceptable, or do you need labs? Do you need rigorous curricula for a future engineer?

You seem to be doubled-up on English credits -- Ancient Lit for one credit and Grammar and composition for one credit. Any chance you could drop some work here and just do one credit of English? I haven't used TOG before, but the word on the street is that it is a lot of work. So, if you drop a few assignments here and there, you can still give a full credit and not worry about it. Remember that when you are not signed up for a class, you have flexibility as a teacher to decide which assignments are most worth your student's time. You can do the worksheets you have the books for, and call that good enough sometimes. Finally, your comment about figuring out at the last minute that you don't have all the books you need -- how are you at physical organization? I find that getting a handle on my *time* requires having a good handle on my *stuff* -- making sure there is a place for everything and everything in its place. The "Workbox system" was an inspiration for me to really think about where everything I need is, in both time and space, though I have to say it's not really a high school oriented system. I'm more inspired by it than actually implementing it.

Three hours of math a day is really pretty brutal. I would look for ways to reduce the workload to the essentials. If he's not going into a science/engineering type major, 3 hours of math a day is also crowding out curriculum or experiences that may be more relevant to him. --Janet

She's tried to do a standard 5-paragraph essay: The "standard advice" for the SAT is to go for a FOUR paragraph essay -- introduction, two points, conclusion. If you're too short, you get dinged, but if you try to do three points, it's hard to do them well or have time to go back and make corrections. Her essay is not horrible-- but the points are not well developed, perhaps because she was pressed for time. I would try having her do a couple of prompts where she goes for 4 paragraphs instead of 5 and compare the results. See if she can write more substantial paragraphs if there are fewer of them.

Coursera, Udacity, Edx, etc. might help you fill in some gaps. iTunesU if you have an ipad to watch those on. I'm currently doing a world history class on Coursera. You're not going to get mentoring on writing a good paper, but it's definitely filling in some holes in my knowledge of history.

Ditto regentrude -- we're at about 1 paper every 3 to 4 weeks. More than half of those require no research outside of textbooks on hand.

I think some homeschoolers get so caught up in making sure their kids are doing "rigorous" work that they make all the credits much harder to earn than they would be in regular high school. In most cases, homeschoolers have the freedom to award credit for things as we see fit. (Keeping appropriate records for things like college admissions--I wouldn't expect remedial reading to look great on your Harvard application, but I'm sure there are kids with stuff like that at large state universities.) A few states are more highly regulated, require school district review, etc. Some people choose to regulate themselves by signing up for umbrella schools and such as well. I think the answer for this specialist is to understand the homeschool laws in her state, and the specific umbrella programs her clients are using (if any), and see why the parents feel the kids can't get credit. --Janet

Maybe these? http://products.wolframalpha.com/courseassistants/

I don't think what you're asking for exists. If the quizzes are just "ABCD", then an unmotivated child is going to simply try all combinations until he passes, rather than learning the material. If the quizzes are more short answer or fill-in-the-blank, it's really hard to get automatic grading to work right every time. You'd be better off just slurping your worksheets into a cloud repository like Google Docs, Evernote, or Dropbox, and grading them manually. You're going to have to look at his work. You don't necessarily have to say, "You cannot go on to lesson 2 until I have graded lesson 1." You can say, "You may have to go back to lesson 1 if I find the work unacceptable." This might get the grading down to a couple times a week. I also worry that you are going in the wrong direction here -- checking in once a week is not going well. So, to avoid the weekly fights, you're going to just check in once at the end of the year instead. Given that he cannot plan out a week's worth of work, the chances of him succeeding if you give him a year's worth of rope is pretty much nil. I think you need to turn around and go the other way, much more frequent check ins instead of less. Give him less freedom to choose. We have a hybrid system at our house, where some subjects are done on a student scheduled basis from roughly 8:30 to noon. Then there is an hour lunch/recess break. From 1 to 3:30 or 4 (depending on activities we have that afternoon), it's scheduled down to the half-hour. We do music practice, chemistry, and one other thing that varies by day of the week. You may need to schedule the whole day at first. A brick&mortar school student doesn't decide when to do chemistry; the school tells him it's in room 122 at 10:40 am. Some kids just can't get things done otherwise. --Janet

Stylistically, he is over-using the introductory phrases. With respect to his argument, he starts and ends with the definition of the word symphony, but the middle wanders. The bits about the poor banjo being left out of the Classical Club and about symphony goers being wealthy and the concert halls crowded don't connect well. Once he's made his point about the definition of the word symphony, he should conclude his paragraph rather than trying to fill in some minimum length. On the other hand, if he really wants to talk about banjos or overcrowded concert halls, he should start another paragraph with a different topic sentence. I'd say it's probably OK for a 15 minute exercise by a 9th grader, but working on well-focused paragraphs is an area of weakness to work on for future assignments.

You know, it's hard for me to compare whether the student has to make more connections on their own with Spectrum versus other curricula, because I have only used Spectrum for actual teaching, and we're only on lesson 20 or so. We have not found it difficult to understand so far. If there are any specific questions I can answer (such as how to they cover a topic, etc.) let me know. --Janet

We are doing Spectrum Chemistry this year. The kids do not like the informal tone of the book, and would prefer a more "textbooky" book. Sample from today's chapter: But, as a teaching parent, I love this curriculum, and how it is laid out in easy-to-use bites. We are on a four day work week, and I feel it will be easy to make steady progress and finish the book by the end of the school year. Since your DH is going to be the primary teacher, I would let him look for the book(s). If you really want a college text, there is Conceptual Chemistry which has a very nice support website with video lectures.

Be careful here. He's young. You can insist on keeping other options open, but refusing to even consider his preferences might be a recipe for disaster.

It moves both ways -- if your student becomes obsessive about Mars, you watch them work then reverse-engineer a course in "Independent Study in Planetary Science." But, you also have to plan forward. If Big State U* wants to see four years of English from all applicants, you sketch out four years of English and figure out what you want your student to do to earn a credit in English each year. (One unit of English may be in "Technical and Scientific Writing" for all those notebooks about Mars, and others may be more traditional literature courses, but you manage to plan or find something to call English each year.) (*For "Big State U" you could substitute "Local Community College Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Department" or "Ivy League U" or "My State's minimum high school graduation requirements" as appropriate for the particular student. "Big State U" is often a nice medium target -- more than doing the minimum, but not as intense as Ivy League prep, and it keeps many options open.)

Well, now that we're in the peer review and grading stage--I think I'm an overachiever in this bunch. But, I think you get out of things what you put into them, too. It's a nice class because they are NOT offering a certificate, so there are no "grade grubbers." You're there because you want to learn, not for the cookie. It's also great to be in a world history discussion forum with folks from all over the world. The Europeans are shocked at how differently the American professor views world history, the Muslims have a very different take on the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic polities, and the student from Azerbaijan has a very different take on Russia, for example. I wish I had more time to keep up with the forums, but sometimes it's all I can do to watch the lectures and do the reading. --Janet