http://www.diycollegerankings.com A lot of it is general college search, but it is by a homeschool mom with a baseball son, so there is a lot of baseball specific info, too. Good luck!

The youtube channel "bozemanbiology" is by a high school science teacher. He has other science besides bio, too.

I've BTDT on the lots of input, not much output thing. My advice is to take baby steps. What is the biggest worry you have? If it's writing, add lots of accountability around writing. Then if math comes next, do math. Etc. Work up one subject at a time. Going straight from "low output and little accountability" to "lots of work, on a strict schedule" is a set-up for failure. Yes, that might be the end goal, but it will take time. The other thing I would do is schedule the days by the hour, to make sure you are not over-scheduling beyond his abilities, leaving no breaks or time for unstructured activities. The first few weeks of schedule-by-the-hour are for learning how long things take and when the most productive hours of the day are, and adjusting accordingly. --Janet

We don't do the "rewrite until mastery" thing here. My DD finds it demoralizing to work on the same paper over and over. Instead, I use a scaffolding or "target skills" approach. We work on one aspect of writing, the target skill, until it is there. Then, I expect future papers to show that skill, plus whatever the next one on the ladder is. For 8th grade, DD worked on a well-structured essay with good supporting arguments. You can see her work in the "Looking back at 8th grade" post in the writing workshop board. In the earliest essay, it's really not well-organized. The second essay has great organization, but does not develop any of the ideas in detail. The third essay has both structure and supporting examples and is beginning to work on citing her sources. By the end of the year, goals were met, so she gets an A, even though the papers that got her to that skill level were not all "A" papers. For 9th grade, we are going to continue working on citations and research papers. Many of her writing assignments will be for social studies rather than English. For 10th grade, we are going to work on writing under deadline pressure using timed prompts, essay tests, and such to get ready for standardized tests coming in 11th. For 11th grade, we are finally going to get around to writing the dreaded "English Paper" -- describing themes, character development, and other literary analysis. (I'm a less-is-more kind of writing teacher.) Then 12th is a "putting it all together and filling in holes" kind of year. I might do public speaking, too. She rarely makes grammar and spelling mistakes, so that is not an issue with us. Her vocabulary is also good, so she works through a vocab workbook just to fill in holes. I don't give vocab tests, so there's no real "grade" for that work. So, her English grade is just her literature work (which was outsourced this year, she took Shakespeare at co-op), and writing. She had a 96 average on her work at co-op, also an A, so I didn't have to worry about how to weight things to get the final grade.

Found this on RateMyProfessor.com Very smart guy and I highly encourage office hours. His lectures go off in EVERY direction, but most end up at religous readings. since his knowledge of Catholicism and the bible clearly affects how he reads things. The papers are manageable once you figure out the grading system, but the reading load is too heavy. Several other comments along the same vein.... Not sure I'm as excited about the class now either. (I signed up, not my kids.) --Janet

:iagree:Foreign language is hard!

I have to agree with the OP's assertion that a lot of expensive science kits are really not all that interesting or educational. I also agree with the follow-ups that labs can/should be fundamental to science education. Some of us are better at pulling together custom labs than others... So, for those of us who prefer as close to "out of the box" as possible, where have you found good labs--and which lab kits would you warn others away from? Even if it's not a complete kit, where have you found good books or websites that at least do some of the heavy lifting of putting together a lab course? Please, be as specific as you can in your reviews: Say what you liked/didn't like about it, don't just say the name on the box. Don't talk about what you bought for this year and haven't used yet. Talk about what you used last year and what you liked or didn't like from that experience. And I'm :bigear: on this one and not contributing much. We really didn't do much with lab science last year, except that younger DD did a science fair project. --Janet

You don't say what your son's future plans are-- A future engineer or physics or chemistry major needs physics, and a future in a health science career needs the biology option. If his future college major is in the liberal arts, history, business, etc, the specific science matters less. Some colleges also want to know that you did labs, and didn't just read a textbook. If any of the choices are light on lab work, skip them.

I realize I didn't put the links for the pre and post tests. If you go to each books individual page, such as this one: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Store/viewitem.php?item=intro:algebra Click on the "Diagnostic Tests" tab. The pre-test is to see if there are any missing pre-requisites. The post-test is to see if there is any new material to be learned from that book. As I said, I found the pre-algebra post-test to be much more challenging than the intro-to-algebra pre-test. So, do consider both the post-test of the book before, and the pre-test of the book you are considering. Number theory and Probability are not in the algebra-geometry-pre-calc sequence and don't have the same need to know the previous level in depth. But, for deciding on which algebra book, looking at both tests is valuable. To understand why they have Number Theory and other courses outside the standard core curriculum, read "The Calculus Trap": http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?page=calculustrap

Coursera courses generally start later than the originally scheduled start date. :lol: New material is released weekly. Some courses are more flexible than others about whether you can get behind and catch up. The Fantasy literature course expects everybody to do the work at the same time and turn in their essays on Tuesdays. Remember that Coursera is an aggregator of courses from different sources. Not every course will run the same way. --Janet

I'll second the opinion that the online classes are very fast. If your student can self-teach, or if you have the background to teach it, going at the student's pace is best to start. On the other hand, if the student is learning way to fast for teacher to keep up, these classes are for you! Don't just do the "pretest" for the book you are considering. Where appropriate, do the "post-test" for the book beforehand. For example, the pre-test for the algebra book is easier than the post-test for the pre-algebra book. Use both types of tests to determine placement.

I am a big fan of this person's blog, and her e-book is free in the kindle store right now. Nook store usually price-matches these things as well. The freebies usually last anywhere from a day to a week. The College Solution by Lynn O'Shaughnessy http://www.amazon.com/The-College-Solution-Everyone-ebook/dp/B007VONQ90

Coursera.org has a modern world history class added to the "coming soon" list.

Bridge Math is all about the math you need for Spectrum Chemistry, especially keeping track of units and significant figures. In addition to being a great prep unit study for high school level science, I wish I had bought it earlier for dealing with middle school science fair data sets. --Janet

Anatomy and Physiology both come after basic Biology, not before. Since you liked Rainbow Science, have you considered Spectrum Chemistry for the same vendor? Chemistry is a good background to have for many Bio textbooks as well. If you find an earth science with a strong planetary science component, please do share. My dream earth science curriculum wouldn't throw the planets in at the last chapter, but would discuss weather on mars along with weather on earth, compare and contrast volcanoes on various planets and moons in the same chapter, etc. --Janet

Nibble that forum cautiously--there are some really intense folks over there who believe nothing less than straight-A's and 12 AP's, preferably all 5's, is what you need to get into college--unless of course you want Podunk Community College. There's a lot you need to take with a very large grain of salt or you will go insane. You do not need to compete with those folks. --Janet

I am incapable of scheduling down to the day during my summer planning period, but I do break it into rough chunks of what I think should take a week to do. As we go through the school year, I break the chunks down by the day as I go. However, now that DD is entering 9th, I want her to help break down her daily schedules as well. --Janet

Don't just look at admissions requirements, look at graduation requirements. Do they have general-education requirements that all students take, and do those include science? Pick something that will prepare her for that if necessary. --Janet

Not a working mom here, but definitely in the "need to get things done in a more limited amount of time" situation here. What I did was outline what needed to happen in each subject, for the entire credit (or half-credit), then I divided each outline into weekly "chunks". I wound up with 30-35 "chunks" per subject. Then I looked at the calendar, and found 43 weeks (starting week after younger DD's birthday, ending the week of the end-of-year dance recital, skipping a few holiday times). Great. That gives me some flexibility -- 35 chunks in 43 weeks. Of course, I expect to have some weeks where we don't get to everything every day and we fall behind. So, then I made an overall status sheet for DD, and for each subject I have a "progress bar" with a box to color in for each of the weekly "chunks". Each subject has a rectangle with boxes to color in for the number of chunks that subject has. Each time we finish a chunk, I can color in the box for that chunk number. How I hope this works is: The progress bars will give me a visual reminder of which subjects are moving forward and which are not. By looking at the number of chunks in a course versus number of weeks in the school year, I can figure out which subject(s) will require extra work outside of school hours. We don't normally do school work after dinner on most nights or do much on weekends, but we could if we had to. The trick is knowing when we have to. --Janet

Great Source writer's handbooks -- The middle school one is called Write Source 2000 The high school one is called Writer's INC They have similar tables of contents, but the examples in the high school level one are more sophisticated. Both are readily available in the used book marketplaces inexpensively. Since it's written as a reference handbook, you can just skip to the chapter that is relevant to the assignment and go from there. --Janet

I just wanted to post some of DD's writing this year... We've come a long way! Early in the school year: Mid-year: Last paper of the year--She blew me away with this! He gives his thesis, the author hath avoided anything personal, then explains it. Lincoln, on the other hand, repeats himself. He says, If Lincoln had been writing a pamphlet, that repetition would be unnecessary and even tiresome. However, he was giving a speech in a public place before the invention of microphones. He needed to make sure that everyone heard his thesis statement. Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Paine have very different writing styles, but they are not without similarities. They both wrote powerfully, changing the course of history. Without Paine's Common Sense, the American Revolution would not have had as many dedicated supporters, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address helped America see the Battle of Gettysburg in context, showing its place in the struggle for freedom. Lincoln and Paine both changed opinions with their words, changing history in the process.

The ones my 8th grader used the most this year were the History Day guides, but they are really pricey for what you get. (30 bucks for a magazine-sized guide!) Other than that, we grab stuff from a variety of resources. --Janet

I would like to get a book for my DD that provides a guide to classic novels--more than just say, the suggested reading lists that are out there, but a plot summary and how/why the book is interesting or important. Something she would enjoy browsing when she has to choose books over the next four years of high school, but written to be very accessible to a 14 year old as well. I can find lots of books written to teachers or librarians to guide the teen readers in their lives, but I'm having troubles finding something written to the teen herself. Any suggestions? --Janet

Are you near a large city? Organizations counseling gay kids have to have seen this situation before, if you can find one. ETA: It looks like JennyD has it right... The only loophole to the age 24 thing is to get married or to "Be a student for whom a financial aid administrator makes a documented determination of independence by reason of other unusual circumstances." http://www.fastweb.com/financial-aid/articles/699-fafsa-and-the-independent-student --Janet

Basic computer science courses are available online for free at coursera.org and udacity.com --They may not help you graduate faster since they are non-credit, but you can put them on a resume. If you do find a way to get to college, the experiences will help you do better. Where do you live? Is there a good computer science department nearby? If so, see if they offer continuing education classes you could access as a non-degree student and get certifications and such more quickly than a full degree would take. What about good employers who might be hiring? Can you target companies with education benefits that will pay for you to continue your training and work your way up? --Janet