We bought a graduation cap through Amazon. We were in a hurry, and they offered next-day shipping. The cap (with a 2015 tassel) was delivered quickly and was just fine for what we needed. A link to the one we ordered: http://www.amazon.com/Newrara-Graduation-Unisex-Matte-Tassel/dp/B00X9PQ3W2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1434739162&sr=8-4&keywords=graduation+cap We used a gown we already had and so did not need to order one. The diploma came from the umbrella school with which we were registered and looks great.

Look through college texts and find one you like for Government. I find they frequently do a better job in the critical thinking department than high school level texts. We used Understanding American Government by Susan Welch, et al.

Our public schools also would not give an AP exam that they were not already giving to their students. It turns out that AP Human Geography is not an easy exam to find where we live - wish I'd investigated a bit more before investing all of the time and effort (not to mention the cost of materials) to create a College Board-approved syllabus and teach the class. If your child needs any accommodations to take the exam, it can be even more difficult to find a school willing to administer the AP exams, and the College Board was not particularly helpful when I contacted them for assistance. Not to be too negative, but I'd recommend doing your research on where to take the exam well in advance of deciding to do an AP class as a homeschooler.

Shorter, fun-to-read selections from some of the classic authors: Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" or "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie; Translated short stories by Goethe or Kafka - German classics that might appeal to her (we bought a dual-language book of German stories for the German version, but she could read the English version).

We're doing Econ right now - one semester, non-AP. We are using Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt, The Wordly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers by Robert Heilbroner and excerpts from ECON: Microeconomics by William McEachern to cover basic concepts. For a fun explanation of some terms, we're watching "EconMovies" on Youtube by Jacob Clifford (a link to one: "EconMovies 1: Star Wars [scarcity, Choices and Exchange] is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np-dZSdzymk)" So far, DS (a high school senior) is enjoying the class and has actually started using economic terms in family discussions :001_cool:

"He understands and remembers well. But his stamina is very poor. I watch him disintegrate after one or two exercises. He starts off ok, but after 15 or 20 minutes, he can't hold onto his pencil, sit in his chair, keep his eyes on the paper, and so on. He's up wandering around, getting into other people's business and just generally disorganized. I can correct him to a point, but really, his fuse just burns out so quickly." DS was never able to sit still for long, either, at that age. We found it helpful to let him move as much as possible while working. One thing that really helped was a hammock - he could swing away while doing his schoolwork. I also tried to do as many active learning games as possible with him. Sitting on a large exercise ball during study time was also useful - he could still get in plenty of wiggling, and the need to keep his balance seemed to help him focus a bit. When he burned out on reading or writing work, I found educational videos to be a real godsend. Over the years, he has probably watched everything National Geographic put out as well as almost every Ken Burns documentary. He learned a lot from them, too. The visual factor was a huge help.

4-H has a curriculum called "Horse Science," which includes diseases of the horse: http://www.4-hmall.org/Product/4-hcurriculum-horse/4-h-horse-program-horse-science/CO-201.aspx

It may depend on how you are registered as homeschoolers, but in general a 1-credit English course for high school includes literature, composition and grammar. You may not need to continue with formal grammar instruction if your child is strong in these skills, but she should continue to receive feedback on grammar usage in her compositions. If your daughter is considering writing as a career, I would think you would want to be sure all of her bases are covered in English each year so that she has no gaps to cause difficulties in her college years.

The accommodation of extended time does not show up on the score report for the ACT, and I would assume that other accommodations would not show up on the report, either. I agree that contacting the ACT folks is the best way to get the information you need. Contact and other info is available at http://www.actstudent.org/regist/disab/chart.html

The National WWII Museum's website contains lesson plans on the war that might be helpful: http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-teachers/lesson-plans/

Thanks, Apryl. That sounds great! We will plan to apply, as well.

Are we sure the TN Promise scholarship will be available to most homeschoolers in TN? Since a LOT of TN homeschoolers are not registered with local school districts but instead with private schools (as satellite campuses), it looks as though they would not be eligible. I hope I'm wrong about this - we would love to apply for this scholarship for DS!

We used The American Pageant by Kennedy and Cohen. It was very thorough, and DS enjoyed reading it.

We are using the Learnables series for high school German (they also have programs for Spanish, French, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Russian). We've tried Rosetta Stone and a private tutor. DS did not like Rosetta Stone at all and did not seem to learn much at all, either. The tutor was great but not something we could keep up for four years (we are doing a half-credit course each year, rather than cramming it all into two years). Learnables has been a pretty easy curriculum to fit in to our schedule, and it does not require that I know the language. DS has a fairly good grasp of conversational German at this point, and I expect him to obtain a better grasp of German grammar with college courses beginning next year.

Take a look at Analytical Grammar. DS did a little each day in this program for 9th and 10th grade. I was worried that this would not be enough, but his English score on the ACT was very good.

It is entirely possible that DS did not save his writing properly, but we were never able to retrieve his essays after he turned them in. Overall, we found the program to be a good one, but I did wind up supplementing the composition portion of the class.

We used T4L for a high school American literature course last year after the course we had planned to use did not work out. The presentation of the material was done in a way designed to keep the attention of easily-bored teens and was often humorous. I think DS had a pretty good intro to the highlights of American lit with this course. The quizzes were helpful in keeping him focused. The writing definitely left something to be desired, though. Writing assignments were not assigned any grade or given any corrections by the T4L staff, nor were they accessible to parents to grade after the student completed them (possibly T4L will be changing the writing portion in the future, though). If you plan to use this program, you would probably want to supplement with a better writing curriculum.

The Edcon catalog lists their reading comprehension books - we used the "High-Interest classics" series for reading comprehension, and they were quite good. Their catalog is at https://www.edconpublishing.com/Edcon-Catalog.pdf

Here's a link to information on the GED in Tennessee: http://www.tn.gov/labor-wfd/AE/ According to the website, there are free classes in every county to help adults prepare to take the exam, and it offers a link to help find them. Some universities in Tennessee will admit students based on good GED scores alone. Tennessee Tech requires a score of 525 or better on the GED for admissions.

Have you had him evaluated for dysgraphia? It could be helpful to do so, if only to rule out the possibility of a physical cause for the slow writing speed. Looking toward the future for your son, the College Board will consider a dysgraphia diagnosis as a reason to grant extended time or other accommmodations on the PSAT and SAT.

Mechanical Drafting - Murray's Technical Education online using AutoCAD AP U.S. History - at home using The American Pageant and a syllabus approved by the College Board Writing & Grammar 11 - BJU online American Literature - at home using Crash Course Literature videos and Sparknotes to cover an eclectic mix of books German 2 - at home using the Learnables, with outside practice in conversational German Algebra 2, Drama and Chemistry - outside courses

DS did World History in 10th. We used: BJU World History; Christ the King, Lord of History (A Catholic World History from Ancient to Modern Times); Pocket History of the Church; Sketches From Church History (An Illustrated Account of 20 Centuries of Christ's Power); Teaching Company's Foundation of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western World (lectures by Robert Bucholz). I thought giving multiple perspectives on World History would be a good way to develop critical thinking skills. It turned out to be a very interesting course, both for my son and for me!

Since your son may need to take the state standardized tests in world history and since he does not enjoy doing additional reading, you may have the best results from using the same text his zoned high school would use. You can probably find a TE through an online book seller, which may contain additional suggested resources for maps, videos, literature, etc.

Thanks, Tia. I will check with the publisher about this - I didn't realize they might allow me to access teacher materials. I have found the AP instructors' forum to be quite helpful. ITA about the textbook prices!

I'm doing something similar with German. We are on our third year of classes, and I'm assigning DS one-half of a foreign language credit each year. With our "umbrella school," I've listed the courses as German 1, part 1; German 1, part 2; and now German 2, part 1. DS spends about 30 minutes per weekday on German lessons at home. He has conversational practice and plays German games (German Scrabble is great!) with a relative originally from Germany on a fairly regular basis, but I do not count this as part of his school time. I'm hoping that the real value of doing a foreign language over four years will be that he will retain a lot more of the language, long term, than I did from a 2-year stint of high school Spanish.