This is so interesting! I had no idea! My dd's (who attended our local PS full time from 6-12th grade) boyfriend transferred in from homeschooling as an 11th grader. I think he said they didn't count his grades toward his GPA, but they counted the credits, apparently, because he graduated. On the other hand, a teenager where I work just moved here from Minnesota (to WI) and he had to retake Algebra! Maybe his grades were bad, but he seems like a smart kid. I know things do vary between districts. The district in which we live wouldn't take my son for speech once he was school-age, but the district where my dd went to school would. Only we couldn't because we didn't live in that district. Silly. Blessings, Sandwich

My dd did it. It came with downloadable resources for her to read. I assume that's what you mean by the workbook. It doesn't require you to give speeches, but makes suggestions for it and does teach you how to write them. My dd gave a presentation to her brother's 3rd grade class, teaching them Hindi numbers and colors with and overhead and handouts. I counted that. I counted reading the lesson in church. She gave a speech for her homeschool science fair project. I think there was one more thing, but I can't remember what. I looked for real-life public speaking opportunities, and they didn't all take place during the time she took the course. HTH, Blessings, Sandwich

I'm sure you could, but my science-geeky student found AP Bio to be mostly new information. It also was TOUGH, and she's a great studier, loves the material and tests well. Her professor admitted she wasn't going to cover all the chapters, so my dd studied those on her own. She spent most of Christmas break last year studying AP Bio. She did get a 5, so it was well worth her time. On the other hand, as a Broadfield Science major now in college, she found her first semester Bio class a breeze. Because she's a science major, she can't actually skip any Bio classes as a result of her AP score, although she does get the credits. But it definitely makes her college experience easier! Blessings, Sandwich

I think this is a different option than has been mentioned...sort of. My oldest (who homeschooled through 5th grade and then went to PS) took Spanish 5 her senior year (taught by the high school Spanish teacher). They were discouraged from taking the AP Spanish test because, at least around here, you make out better by taking the foreign language placement test once you're accepted. So if your student did take the Spanish 5 class, is placement testing an option rather than just blanket acceptance of the "college" level class her Spanish 5 class is purported to be? In other words, if the university she ultimately chooses won't accept the credits awarded by the college offering the class, can she still test in? My dd tested into 4th semester Spanish at her university and upon receiving an A in the class was awarded 16 credits (12 retro and 4 for the class she took). Just another thought. blessings, Sandwich

I think whatever base program you choose, you'll do best with a motivated student and multiple resources. We ARE using Rosetta Stone, but also Spanish for Children A&B (almost done with B now, but still learning new things, so continuing on), listening to the Bible in Spanish (she listens over and over to the same section until she can understand it), watching movies in Spanish (currently the Jesus Film, free online), journaling in Spanish, making her own flash cards and using them, and also writing with a Spanish penpal (pal writes in English, dd writes in Spanish and they correct each other's paragraphs). Oh, and she checks out a book in Spanish from the library. She's read bits of Charlotte's Web and is now working through a Narnia book. Also, she volunteers at the local food pantry and occasionally has an opportunity to chat with someone or do a bit of translating. As I mentioned, she's very motivated, but to become fluent in a language, I think you need to be. Anyway, perhaps your child will be interested in some of these ideas. (this child is a freshman. Her sister is a Jr. in PS in Spanish 4 and the younger sister is not much behind the older in fluency, but she works MUCH harder at it. Older sister only puts in the time at school and while she's naturally good at Spanish, if she put in more effort like her younger sister, she'd be VERY good) Blessings, Sandwich

Not sure what your requirements are, but we made up our own thing. I read through several books with my dd and we discussed, she wrote a brief summary of each chapter: Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler Facing the Facts: The Truth about S3x and You by Brenna Jones and Stan Jones (we just skimmed this one) For Young Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa Rice And now she will be listening to audio of The Great Courses' Nutrition made clear by Anding, Roberta. Non-traditional, but it worked for us. Blessings, Sandwich

My dd is doing DM in her high school years, possibly backed up with LOF. She's almost finished with DM 1B in her 9th grade year. She's doing well, although the geometry is kicking her b**t. I knew it was rated for 7/8th grade (the DM series) but I assumed it was just different, foreign standards. Will DM plus LOF be adequate for high school math? She's undecided on college but if she goes, it will likely be for linguistics, languages or mission-minded something, not a technical, sciencey degree. I'm requiring 3 credits of math for her graduation (the minimum by PS standards here). Blessings, Sandwich

http://www.ixl.com if you are looking for math, but he might need more help at the preschool level. 20 problems a day are free. Blessings, Sandwich

PS-wise, my dd should be 8th grade with an Oct. birthday. But we decided this spring to have her skip 8th grade, so she'll be entering her 9th grade year at age 13 yr 10 mos. So I voted for 14 +/- 2 mos. Blessings, Sandwich

Chiming in late, but I actually just read in the SfC B sample today, where they mentioned that in the first book, they explained that the preterit tense was past tense, but now are revealing that it is actually ONE of the past tense forms. I think this is a case of being able to explain a complicated concept fully, but choosing not to do so when introducing material to young children. Sort of like when they ask you about the birds and the bees. You could explain the whole mechanics and everything to them, but sometimes they only need a little bit of explanation to answer their question. The details can come later. Blessings, Sandwich

When my (now 2nd grader) son was in K, we did have to rotate snacks. They've since abolished that and each child brings his own morning and afternoon snack.

Holy cats! Am I blessed to have my K'er in the district we are in. I am never moving! (now, I would NEVER send any of my kids to 3rd - 5th grade in this district, but from our experience, K-2 and 6+ have been fabulous. Just depends on the building, I guess. Good questions suggested, all of them. I was glad to see class size mentioned. I'd ask about that and discipline, plus fees before all the academic stuff. re: the $$----- our K registration was $30 plus about $50-60 for school supplies (including shared supplies like dry erase markers, kleenex, baby wipes, etc.). Morning "nutrition break" ie: "breakfast program" is $90/semester and hot lunch is $1.35/day. The fundraising goal is $20 per student per year, so I just send $20 cash off the first day. I don't buy any of that fundraising junk. FWIW, we did do the nutrition break the first semester, because at $1/day, it's a good value (carton of milk, fruit, healthy carb and yogurt or string cheese), but my son wasn't eating it all, so we're sending our own morning snack for 2nd sem. He took all cold lunch the first sem. but now is allowed one hot lunch/week and a milk on cold lunch days (he's not a big milk drinker) But do consider the financial costs of public school vs. homeschool curriculum (which most often is largely non-consumable) Blessings, Sandwich

Heather, thank you for the in depth explanation. That sounds about right, as I've been familiar with both companies for at least 5 years and they all seem like kind and reasonable people. I see your point about people not knowing the curriculums well enough and getting overwhelmed, esp. newbies. I've owned Knowledge Quest maps for many years and was excited about the new set (the color was secondary for me) but the fact that they coordinated with many curriculums and moved through history was a selling factor for me. I used MOH before (I own the first version) and we were frustrated at that time that the atlases were so little help. I wasn't aware of the answer keys online until just yesterday. I understand that problem has been corrected in the 2nd version. I just received my MOH 2 last week, and I'm actually excited about how nice the maps are and how thorough the exercises look in this volume. I may have my 7th grader do the MOH maps and my 5th grader continue with Map Trek next year. Right now it works best for my 5th grader to just use the answer key provided with Map Trek and work on her "writing on the map" skills without having to actually search out the info. I'm hoping that once she gets comfortable using the maps, she'll be more willing to do research for the answers. We're calling it Map Copywork, for now :D Paula, thank you for the link! It was exactly what I was looking for. Blessings, Sandwich

I would also find out whether it is play-based. We live in one school district but send out children (my Freshman and my kindergartener) to another. The children in 4K in our home district were learning what the children in the district we attend learn in K. Our attending district is play-based and our home district is much more academic and book-based (work sheets, etc.) My neighbor, whose kids attend PS in our home district said teachers were disappointed SIX WEEKS into K that her son was not yet reading Dr. Suess books. They expected him to be. We have opted for the play-based K due to our son's lower maturity (he was adopted internationally at 2.5years). He is attending public school primarily for speech, secondarily because he needs more structure than our rather loose HS provides right now. I did not need him to be reading or adding by the end of K. Academics I can teach at home. (although he has made huge strides, from not recognizing all his letters in Sept. to beginning to sound out words in Jan.) So I would look at the expectations at methods of the K in your district. You may want the traditional school structure and greater academics. Or you may want the looser, play-based structure. Something to consider. Blessings, Sandwich

Yes, MOH is Mystery of History. The Integration Guides were a free guide put out by someone at Knowledge Quest who is the publisher of MapTrek. The guides coordinated the maps in MapTrek with the chapters of MOH. There are Integration Guides for many popular curriculums like Sonlight, Ambleside Online, Story of the World, TruthQuest, etc. I had downloaded the Integration Guide for MOH after I purchased MapTrek, but apparently the MOH publisher had a problem with it, so it was pulled. You can see MapTrek at Knowledge Quest's website (just Google it). Blessings, Sandwich