I'd agree, it's a great opportunity and should be highlighted, but if it were me, I'd say that 2 weeks is not enough (in terms of hours or level of work) to "count" as credit, unless she also did related studying before/after and you included that into it as well. I had a sort of similar situation that I did count, but the trip was longer and more involved, and there was studying before hand also. My oldest spent a month in China, volunteering as an English teacher to Chinese children at a school, and prior to the trip she spent several months studying Chinese and learning about China. So I rolled all that up into .5 credit that I called "Chinese Language and Culture"

I work full time also, and I homeschool my 3 girls. We do most of our academics at nights and on the weekends. The girls are on their own during the workday, and I've tried having them do academic work while I'm not there but it's never worked out very well. So we have I suppose a flipped schoolday - they have free time/social time during the standard workday, and they have structured and academic time evenings and weekends. We also ramp up our academics during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, when I am off work. It's not easy but you can do it!

I'd second the recommendations for Lukeion Latin. Great classes! Also, the Art of Problem Solving classes are fast paced but great.

I worked my way through college training horses and managing a stable. I grew up riding horses. In my experience, when you're being considered for a job running a barn or working with horses, they care what skills you have and what knowledge of horses you have, but they don't care at all how you got it. If anything, someone with a degree in something as specific as equine studies might have to work a little harder to prove that they really do know what the are doing in a real-life stable, that they have real skills not just "paper" knowledge. If she wants to work as a stable manager, she should get a job in a stable - any job, to start with. If she can't get a job, she should volunteer. Practical hands on work with horses is, in my experience, the only required qualification for working with horses. I agree with the other posters, that a degree in business or accounting, or at least classes in business and accounting, *would* give her an edge in a stable manager job. So would being trained as a vet tech, or having skills as a farrier. But being a stable manager does not usually pay all that well (tho many jobs do come with housing supplied, especially if you work at a stud farm or racetrack). And it is hard, physical work, so you definitely want to think about the long term. I must admit I know where she's coming from, though. When I was a kid I dreamed the same dreams. I practically lived at the barn. I told my parents that I wanted to run a barn, as my career. I still remember my dad listening to that, and saying "are you sure you don't want to do something else to make money, and then you can hire someone else to run the barn for you? When you turn your hobby into a job you risk losing what makes it fun in the first place". At least for me, that was good advice. At the age of 45, I am very glad that I work indoors at a comfortable desk, and can go to the barn when I want to, and not when I don't. :)

I'd recommend Lukeion as well. Very rigorous but fun - my kids love it! Definitely hard work tho.

Khan lets the child select their own mission(s), it does not restrict them to the mission you set for them. It will also suggest missions based on what they are working on. From what I've seen, if I want one of my children working on a particular mission, I have to actually log in as them and set the mission that way, or just tell them to set it. Mostly, I just have my kids work on the mission "World of Math", because that lets them pick skills based on their interests. But I also make heavy use of coach recommendations, and of course as others have mentioned, i tell them they must complete all mastery challenges before moving on to new skills. Khan will not enforce that for you - it will suggest the mastery challenge but won't require it.

My daughter is taking Lukeion Latin 1 this fall, after having studied Latin independently with SYRWTLL and Rosetta Stone Latin, so that may be a decent comparison to your daughter's situation. FWIW, she is enjoying it, but she definitely found it much more challenging than her self-study of Latin, so if she had jumped straight to Latin 2 she would have had significant issues. Lukeion Latin 1 is turning into a good mix of review and challenge, and I think setting her up well for Latin 2 next year.

I use copywork for middle and high school, yes. And I had much the same problem you had in finding it, so I actually created some copywork books based on great books and inspirational quotes. My kids use them and love them. Shameless plug, they are available directly online - Great Literature Copywork and Inspirational Quotes Copywork, or from Amazon if you want to get nicely pre-packaged copywork with material that will engage older students - there are passages from Shakespeare, Great Expectations, the Gettysburg Address, poetry from Frost and Poe, and much more. Or you can just do the same thing I did, and make up your own copywork passages. :001_smile: Either way, yes, copywork for older students is perfectly reasonable and appropriate.

That's great, sounds like fun! A few answers: 1) It depends on the horse and how active it is. If they are not very active and pasture-boarded (live outside most of the time where they can graze), you would only need to supplement with some hay once or twice a day. If they are ridden a lot and live mostly in a barn with limited access to grass, you'd want to give them some grain/sweet feed once or twice a day plus a good bit of hay. Whoever you buy the horse from should tell you what that particular horse is used to eating, tho, and you should keep it on the same diet at least until you've gotten a chance to see if you need to make changes. 2) Your vet should be able to help with this - basic vacinations, having the teeth floated, worming, etc. 3) HIgh quality hay like rich alfalfa you want to limit to a flake or two at most, typically. Normal grass hay can be pretty much unlimited unless the horse is getting too fat. 4) 200 lbs for a full grown horse should not be a problem at all. An average adult man weighs about that much, remember. 5) Listlessness, lying down for more than 1 hr or so, not eating when they normally eat, generally looking "off" or acting different than usual. Horses are like kids that way - once you know the individual, you know what is normal for them. If they act abnormal, something may be wrong. Enjoy! I grew up riding horses and loved it.

My daughter loves minecraft -- she's used it to build her own versions of the seven wonders of the world, and had spirited debates about the "real design" of the hanging gardens... I'd agree, it's about as educational as legos. Plus a bit of typing skill and computer literacy if they aren't already good with computers. Other than that, it is what they bring to it.

How do you foster a culture of achievement, not just activity? My kids do their academic work reasonably willingly and sometimes with enthusiasm - they are pretty good "re-active" workers, meaning they mostly do what they are told to do. But they don't seem to have any real drive or internal motivation to achieve anything. They seem content to "go through the motions" and doing mostly the least that they can get away with. Which for example can mean spending 6 months doing basically the same fractions lessons over and over in Khan Academy rather than putting in the necessary work and focus to get the problems right and move on. It's not lack of understanding of concepts -- it's basically laziness, taking the 'easy way'. And I'm not sure how to address this. They have never been given grades (it always seemed silly with sub-high-school level kids). Do any of you folks use grades internally, and does it help with motivation? We've tried suggesting contests, but unless it's a physical group like a spelling bee, they have no interest. Any ideas or suggestions? Is this normal or unusual? How do you help your kids learn to pursue and value achievement and accomplishments?

Khan Academy!! Great and free...

After Singapore 6B we've moved to AOPS & Fred. We looked at the other offerings on the singapore site but they didn't seem to have the same mix of easy to use, high quality, etc. that the basic singapore series had. My oldest went from Singapore 6B to AOPS Algebra + Fred Algebra with no issues - but we had done the earlier Fred books sort of in parallel with Singapore. We have a friend who never did Fred, tho, who went from 6B directly to AOPS PreAlgebra and apparently it worked very well. Good luck!

We do school year 'round. So much easier for everyone that way, and then we can take a week off here or there as the need arises.

We've used Mavis Beacon Typing and my kids love that.

There's a very good online vocabulary / spelling tutoring program at http://www.learnthat.org. My kids use it and like it very much, and my oldest has started SAT prep and done quite well on the verbal practice tests, at least partially because of LearnThat. Tho I agree, Latin is probably the single most important foundational skill for a good vocabulary, and for doing well on verbal tests.

My daughter did Singapore 6A & 6B concurrently with Fred PreAlgebra 1 & 2 this past year. Fred and Singapore complemented each other very well, and 6A & 6B are basically comparable to Fred PreAlgebra in terms of topics covered and difficulty. I agree that the Singapore provided a lot of much-needed practice in thinking through the more complex problems, which is important prep for Algebra. She has recently started Algebra (we do school year round), and is finding herself well-prepared, so I think that speaks well to the combination. I'd recommend it.