Is there a quick-and-dirty guide to the APs, where it's easy to figure out which are "manageable quantity" versus "huge quantity"? Thanks! --Janet

Is she a good independent learner? I think a textbook-based approach, maybe buying Breaking the Barrier in multiple levels or French Subject test prep books, etc. where she can quickly move through things she doesn't need and slow down where there are holes might work well. If money is a problem, you might try Francais Interactif from University of Texas. It is a college-level french 1 = high school French 1 and 2, but it has a lot more grammar and vocabulary, and would definitely help you find and fill in holes. (I found it too intimidating for my DD--too much information packed into each chapter--but yours has four years experience in French.) Here is the link to UT french http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/

It might be more helpful to have clearer picture of the assignment. It looks more like a 5 paragraph essay than a research paper. The introduction is fragmented. Sentences 1 and 2 are about world diversity. Sentence 3 starts to talk about Greek duty and honor, but doesn't develop that idea. Sentence 4 starts to talk about about Greek plays, art, and literature, but doesn't develop that idea. Sentence 5 starts to talk about Greek philosophers, but... Sentence 6 starts to talk about war between Athens and Sparta, but... And so on for the rest of the paragraph. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence, and the body of the paragraph that develops that topic sentence. This introduction does not stick to a single topic for more than a few words, and it zigs and zags over many concepts that are not developed in the paragraph or even later in the paper. For the body paragraphs, I think she could have done a better job narrowing her topic, and going into more detail on one of the three subtopics chosen. When I think of research papers, I think of "diving deep" into a topic, and this just reads like an overview. Paragraph 3, last sentence: I think there are some people who would not agree that "Greece ceased to exist long ago." You need to be careful of your facts in a research paper. --Janet

We just got back from OSF ourselves... saw Henry V and Merry Wives of Windsor Iowa. Definitely the STRANGEST Merry Wives ever!!! We are in the Seattle area, so we're blessed with SOTF: http://www.greenstage.org/sotf And, new for Eastsiders, Redmond Acts Out: http://www.redmond.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=74927 For those with younger kids, Sally and Thor Save the World at Summer Camp sounds perfect for Percy Jackson fans. My daughter and a friend are also putting on an abridged, backyard production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. --Janet

Sure, looks great for one semester of Creative Writing, and one for Home Economics. One note: For college admissions, students should show 4 years of English, including 3 of "standard" literature and composition courses. You can count one credit of things like creative writing or public speaking, etc as English, but any beyond that might be considered electives (by some college admissions departments). Even if she does a half-credit for Nanowrimo every year, you should still shoot for 3 units of traditional literature classes. --Janet

Just a quick note--make sure it's legal in your state to do this. And, if it is legal, how it might be under a different law from homeschooling. In WA, educating someone else's child over age 8 would be operating a private school, not homeschooling. --Janet

I think the total number of credits is good, and the variety of subjects is good (tilted towards classical, but this is the WTM board). In some places, you seem to have doubled-up on curriculum (i.e. 2 vocabulary resources, 2 sets of videos each in history and math, literature assignments in both history and English, 5 resources for a .5 credit course in art history). You should think about your learning goals and pick-and-choose from your resources to keep the total amount of work reasonable. A high school credit is about 120 to 180 hours of work. I think if you do detailed planning and see how many pages of reading, how many hours of video, and how many assignments per week all these resources will require, it will help you see if you have overbooked a subject. --Janet

This really varies by school district. Talk to your school. American schools are not as centralized as the schools in other countries. If your school does not offer a credit on the transcript, you can list her Latin work on the college application as an extracurricular activity. --Janet

You have gotten a lot of good advice here. I think TammyS is right-on. Just wanted to add one more idea: Maybe you should talk to the nurses in the family--what were they like at 17? Were they squeamish during their training? How did they deal with it? Would they suggest nursing for DD? Why or why not? --Janet

Heard about this book on this board, check it out on amazon: That Crumpled Paper was Due Last Week Very simple systems--keep each subject in a separate organizer, plan your study blocks in 2.5 hour chunks (30 study, 10 break, 30 study, 10 break, etc. for 2 hours of study plus 30 mins of breaks), save old tests and quizzes for studying for the final, make flashcards, etc. It's very straightforward and easy to implement, and the author works with disorganized boys, so there's a whole lot of been-there-done-that experience as well. --Janet

Got this link to course descriptions for "Common Core Standards" courses on this board a while ago. Lots of good stuff to steal.. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007341

I would buy the algebra text that you are planning to use. Some of them start out slow and include time to solidify pre-algebra concepts, some jump in fast. Certain topics, such as ratio and proportion, are almost universally reviewed in both pre-algebra and algebra texts. When you have the book in front of you, you'll have a better idea if your kids are ready for it. Re: Needing to finish calc in high school. Calc is required for a very top-tier engineering school such as MIT or CalTech. Otherwise, even science and engineering majors can do pre-calc in high school, and take calc when they get to college. Re: Retention. I don't think you would be doing your kids any favors by letting them "test and forget." Keep throwing those review problems at them, but don't panic when they have forgotten. Review problems are for catching those sorts of issues and reviewing, not for causing fear and panic on the part of students or teacher. Maturity is a factor, as you noted: Maturity = Time plus experience. Time will march on without your help, and review problems add experience. --Janet

You could put "Integrated Biology, Chemistry, and Physics" rather than "Integrated Science" as the course title. (adding "w/ lab") as you choose. (I personally put "w/ lab" on mine.) Does each year emphasize all 3 areas equally? Perhaps you could entitle the courses "Integrated Biology and Chemistry" "Integrated Chemistry and Physics" and "Integrated Physics and Biology"---or some such thing that makes a different area of science the start of the title for each year. --Janet

I have a love-hate relationship with Lee's approach. On the one hand, it does provide lots of information to colleges. On the other hand, it's way more than public school kids ever have to show, seems to work best for a school-at-home sort of approach, and may cause admissions offices to set unrealistic recordkeeping expectations if lots of applications start following her approach. I decided that my course descriptions were going to be course descriptions, not a complete gradebook. Looking at sample transcripts from other sources, I think I'm going to be fine. --Janet

:iagree:Yep. Your tutor can be used to check for understanding and to help with questions as they come up, but AoPS must be used organically, at the student's own pace, as regentrude describes. If your tutor expects a schedule of lessons to cover, that's the wrong tutor for this curriculum. --Janet

I have one kid in AOPS algebra and one in LOF algebra. These programs are very, very different. LOF breaks things into nice bite-size chunks. AOPS throws the whole cow at you. (Or dumps the whole potato truck if you're a vegetarian :)) My suggestions are: 1. Go to the AOPS website, and download the "post test" for their prealgebra book. It's harder than the "pre test" for the algebra book, and a better way to evaluate if the student is ready for AOPS algebra. 2. Create an Alcumus account for the student. See how they like clicking on "get problem" and getting problems without instruction first, because that's how their books work, too. 3. Read through this recent thread on AOPS. AOPS has a unique approach and requires the ability to tolerate frustration in both teacher and student. This thread captures that pretty well and is worth your time. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=393690 4. If you decide to try AOPS, think of LOF as the supplement to AOPS, not the other way around. Because AOPS is not an "instruction then practice" book, it is a poor fit for using as a supplement or for skipping around. --Janet

I'm not familiar with all of the things you've bought, so I can't give specific advice. If I were you, I'd work backwards from where you want to be at the end of the year. Some sample goals might be: 1. Turn in papers of X pages or more, with no more than S spelling errors, G grammar errors, and P punctuation errors. 2. Read N novels, P poems, S stories, and E essays from American Literature. 3. Write well-structured paragraphs 4. Write well-structured papers (subdivide into literary papers, compare-contrast, personal essay, arguments of various types, etc.) 5. Be able to do a 30 minute free-writing prompt such as on the SAT or ACT essay test 6. Be able to do a research paper with proper citations ...etc. Try to describe where you think the weaknesses are, and prioritize how to work on them. For example, 11th grade is a huge year for taking college tests, so I'd work the 30 minute free-writing skill pretty hard if SAT or ACT testing that June or following October. If that means mastering the intricacies of citations in research papers in 12th grade, so be it. Then, go back into your resources and pick-and-choose the pieces that will get you to those goals. Pay attention to how you are progressing along the year: If grammar is seldom a problem in written work, drop the grammar practice to focus more on spelling or wherever the problem spots are. Also, pay attention to the total load: How many pages of reading per month is it? How many short writing assignments? How many multi-page papers? If less happens in the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas period around your house, have you taken that into consideration? I personally don't think a new paper a week is the way to go. Let the student work on one paper for a couple of drafts, with time to think in between, so that they learn how to polish their work. However, short writing assignments of two paragraphs or less can be done weekly or even more frequently sometimes. The key to coming back from being behind is using your time efficiently, to work on the most important goals you have set, and dropping anything that is review of acceptable level skills or that is lower priority on the goals list. Planning to just pile on extra hours of work is a recipe for burnout--for both student and teacher. --Janet

The stories come out in all sorts of fields -- science, business, etc. Here's are a couple of articles that came up from a quick net search: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/chemical-mind-hacking-legit-or-corporate-cheating/3573 http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/20-of-scientist/ It's not just kids. --Janet

I think you hit the nail on the head for me without even realizing it! As an introvert, if my 17 year-old self (I had a just-in-time birthday) had to answer all these questions about who I am and what I want to do in life, in front of a panel of community volunteers, in order to graduate from high school--I would have been mortified. Hmmm.... --Janet

Question for parents of seniors or who have graduated one or ore already: How much do your students know about themselves and their post-high-school plans? I'm looking at the list of questions my public school district requires graduating seniors to be able to answer.... and it's freaking me out. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwUN3wDbtfz5ZzNmVmJLTHlTd1dCdzFmYjJ4cUJ5UQ/edit Not only would my rising 9th grader have no idea where to start on an assignment like that, I don't think I could have answered all of these questions the day I graduated high school. Even if I had articulated these sorts of plans at that age, my adult life took many twists and turns... It's not entirely clear to me that my life would have been better if I had been forced to answer these types of questions at a younger age. Is it a good thing or a bad thing for today's kids to be more focused than I was way-back-when? Or is it just adding even more pressure to a stressful time of life? How much of a personal vision should we expect of high school seniors? How much of that vision will come as a part of growing up from ages 14 to 18, and how much of it comes from deliberate teaching? How should homeschoolers go about that teaching? --Janet

One more website for geography geeks: geocurrents.info -- mashup of geography and current events --Janet

I think it's so hard to grade because it's more a list of things learned than an organized essay. The closest thing that I can find to a thesis statement for the essay is the last sentence of the first paragraph: The origins of the various guns used, whether the guns were used by the Union Army or the Confederate Army, and which guns were more effective on the battlefield demonstrated the role that guns had in the Civil War. And I'm not even sure what that sentence means. Most paragraphs are lacking a topic sentence, and transitions between different ideas, and references back to the introduction (to find your way on a map of the essay) are also non-existent. General statements like: The guns used in the Civil War, were a fairly new addition and had not been in use by the military world long before the war started. Many alterations and new developments of guns throughout the war greatly impacted the war. Are not supported by specific examples. The student needs work on the research process--you need to help him figure out what he learned from his research and how to organize it. An advanced skill is to create a thesis that doesn't just list facts about guns (some came from Europe, some were used by the North, some worked better), but to create a thesis that answers the question "who cares?" Example from a book: During World War II, a group of Navajos developed and used a communication code based on their language. Is a poor thesis for a report.. Who cares? Now look at this one: During a crucial time for American Forces in the Pacific, a group of Navajo Indians developed and implemented the strongest military code used during World War II. Why should we care? It was a crucial time during the war, and the code was better than any of the other forces had. Of course, the report needs to go on to cite facts about why it was a crucial time, how it was stronger, how these Indians managed to get their code on the battlefield, whether there is any proof that it helped win battles, and so on, but you have hooked the reader's interest with a strong thesis statement. --Janet

That's really sad that neither the local or state competitions pick up on that. Are the interviews tougher at Nationals or do they get away with that even there? We have only done one Junior level Regional competition--We saw some kids say in the interview things like "My teacher gave me my topic" and "I speak Korean at home, but can't read it, so my parents read the Korean websites to me so I could understand." The judges were interested in how (and if) the kids did their own projects. --Janet

We are continuing to high school independently, but do plan to use some outside classes and test scores to help validate "mommy grades" on the transcript. I'll recommend a couple of books to get started: Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens by Debra Bell* Setting the Records Straight by Lee Binz *Note: This one is an unabashedly Christian resource. If the OP's signature didn't indicate that she is religious, I would still recommend the book, but maybe just getting it from the library since there are a lot of sections secular homeschoolers will skip. --Janet

May I hijack your thread to ask what your favorite review materials were for preparing for the subject test? We're doing Chemistry next year and may try this test, too. --Janet