Sharon Shinn and Anne Bishop are my two favorites of current authors. I have read almost everything my Marion Zimmer Bradley and Andre Norton, but they aren't really current.

This is very true, but I'm not sure its a place to debate with someone. My son plays baseball, and I basically bite my tongue when I hear parents talk about their sons going on and being recruited. So far no one has surprised me except that somehow they think it a big deal that their son has signed up to play on a community college team.

Yes, it is, but as the mom of a 17 and 14 year old, I can tell you that challenging your child with hard questions and comparing world views is what you do as they get older. I don't want to hold back on that. And that is exactly what Tapestry does. When they suggest in this week plan the older students should have a small debate on two fairly controversial statements that compare Christianity and Hinduism, the first thing they do is have the students turn to dictionaries and define terms. Exactly, in my view, what you want to do with students at that age. BUT not what you would do with a young child like yours. So I understand why you think this would be terrible later on, but it's not in my opinon. This is exactly the kind of discussion anyone who wants to be part of the great conversation must do. And as I said right off the bat to your first post, is it a surprise that Tapestry doesn't agree with HInduism? I think what Beth points out about the difference between a middle school and high school level curriculum is dead on. You can't compare such programs to programs for young children. What seems difficult to secularize now maybe exactly what is needed for older students. As a matter of fact, why I left Sonlight after the Eastern Hemisphere program was because their questions lacked depth. I'll never forget reading the first reader of the year which had lots of interesting material: the boy feels caught between two gods, he has three life and death struggles with animals, and is chased by cannibals, but when I turned to Sonlight's questions they were asking questions like how did he make clothing? Argh! Sure it was easy to secularize, but it was just rote recall. No beginning logic stage requirement at all. I don't think I'm making a big deal, but I am not willing to let misinformation stand. What I am doing is providing facts about the actual percentage of Christian content in a highly religious week in the plan. That's why I did the chart, because I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing what you claim Christians are doing, overlooking things casually. The chart was a device to show me and others the amount of Christian content. You said half the pages have it. I verified that was not so. If you disagree, I would be happy to compare a chart of yours to mine, apples to apples. You are certainly allowed to have an opinion, but I see a difference between that statement and opinion. It was a factual statement that could be verified. I verified.

No, I don't. I've never made any money shilling for a company. I would find that unethical. Yup, I counted all of that in my PDF that I posted. Still only came to five pages and 8 lines out of 59 pages. I noted these instances however, I do think, as the mom of a junior and 8th grader, that I want my children to be challenged to think. That's one reason I switched to a more classical view of education for middle and high school. My kids read real challenging information from the great writers of all traditions, such as the Bhagavad Gita I mentioned in a previous post. I work hard to understand those works. In the case of the Gita I reread it on our second pass through Tapestry. It's the only work I've done that for. Have you read the Gita in preparation to teach your child about Hinduism? I also find it silly to think Christians won't notice some things. Sure some Christians might not, but so might some secular people. Everyone is different when it comes to pick up details. So why exactly were you reading this thread? It's clear from statements up thread that you don't like Tapestry and that you were predisposed to not like it. So why read this thread? Yes, I know someone asked about secularizing, but, still, why would you have ever seen that? And if you desire a secular program why pick the year plan when you are most likely to encounter religious views for your sample? Further, for a child your dd's age, there are zero Christian books and zero Christian content for her in the India week. None. The heavy duty stuff does not come into play until a child reaches the logic stage.

Personally, even if you don't like the state history topic, it sounds like the group is functioning for what you want socialization wise, I'd sign up again. Extra knowledge really doesn't hurt.

I think you need to go through the information with her and then see the test to see what exactly it is that she is missing and where she is missing it. In my experience open book tests are often given when the material has to be processed in some way and with chemistry that is possible. So while your dd may think the teacher is not giving her the information it maybe that she is being given everything, but she can't apply it. She is young to take chemistry and you don't say what level math she is in. This could mean she is unable to process the equations she is getting on the test. BUT it maybe she is exactly right that she is missing information somewhere. Either way you need to figure it out and then decide your course of action rather than throwing money at the problem.

No, but I am a Christian and I have a high commitment to the truth and in particular to making sure I don't misrepresent others and their work. Let's take on a comparative week for reference to see if you are right. Since I want to make sure I pick a culture that TOG will come in conflict with, I won't use one of the chapters on the ancient Greeks, but instead I'll use a culture that still exists that they'll want to discuss in detail. This will mean I will have the most Christian field content possible. My second caveat is that I own a print edition, first printing. I've chosen to do the week on India, which means there is one big difference, I'm pretty sure Tapestry no longer reads the Bhagavad Gita as the literature for the R level student so there will be a difference there. I've attached a PDF with my breakdown of pages. In total that is 50 pages with 5 pages and 8 additional lines of text that have Christian content. That's about 10% of the total. And 10% is no where near every other page which would be half. Further almost all that content is limited to discussions with older students. They use the World Book Encyclopedia to inform the teacher. I am curious if you have previous posts that endorse other Christian curriculum as being adaptable? Can you link one or two? I've used Sonlight which the person who asked mentioned. They are less thorough in a week than Tapestry is, but I suspect in terms of % of Christian content in a similar week they might actually be higher than Tapestry, of course that will be because they include many fewer pages than Tapestry does. Tapestry India Week.pdf

First female athletes are highly desired by any school who gives football scholarships. That's because generally male and female athletic scholarships must be equivalent which means at a school fielding a football team, they need a lot of offsets. It's also desirable to be in an odd field such as rowing because there will be few competitors. In sports that are more competitive like softball or soccer for instance, she'll be chosen by her talent level not her SAT. The only thing she'll need in terms of SAT is to make it over the NCAA hurdle not the school's hurdle. It used to be Ivy league schools had gentleman's agreement and only recruited athletes as some minimum level of academic competition, but they've apparently let that go in the last few years. So here's the NCAA chart: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Quick_Reference_Sheet.pdf The Price of Admission claims that as much as 25% of the student body at competitive schools are admitted under these lower standards.

I asked my ds about this so I'd get an accurate view for you. He says that there are lectures each week which total around 2 hours. He is told to use the workbook/text while doing the lecture which he does. He then does 3 - 4 homework assignments. He thinks the average is 3 per week and about 30 - 45 minutes per assignments. At least one of them will be an experiment. The supplies for the experiments are minimal (under $30) and most things that ds has needed he has found himself. As for math, ds thinks you should go by what Mr. Owens says. He is sure that Algebra is necessary is less sure about trig, but we did Singapore math so he does not see the same breakdown in math that we do since in Singapore it is all mixed together. I think the good news is that Derek Owens Physics may not ever fill up. So you can wait until quite late to sign up if you must. BUT check with them on this fact. It's just what I have experienced.

This strikes me as hyperbole in the extreme. I've used every unit of Tapestry and this isn't even close to correct. However, Mergath does pinpoint where Tapestry will appear to be Christian: when they are dealing with other religions. Is that really a surprise to anyone? Added a bit later: The books used by Tapestry are majority secular including most of those on other religions, for instance, they use the Usborne book of world religions. Most references to Christianity will occur in the instructional materials for the parent making this a super easy program to switch out. Further, some questions which may strike the secular user as Christian are actual those of ethics, and might easily be switched to generic ethical questions presuming a similar ethical set. However, most such questions do not occur in the materials directed at grammar aged children but at Dialectic and Rhetoric students who should be in the process of being challenged to process all such issues anyway.

Hmmm, you're using the other two online classes we have too! They are both good two, but DO has really got quick response down in an amazing way.

First, I think I would tend to fill it out to a year long course and include military history as part of the course. I'm not sure studying the technology without the battles makes much sense. On the more practical side, The Civil War podcast just aired an episode on soldiers and weapons and suggested a pair of books: http://civilwarpodcast.blogspot.com/2013/10/civil-war-podcast-episode-45.html They say they are older but still the measure of such books (note other episodes recommend books on other aspects of the Civil War).

I decided to use Derek Owens for Physics and I can't say enough about well things have been working with that. His turn out around is nothing sort of amazing.

It is also possible that some schools will want a mid year update of how the student is doing in their in progress classes.

Just as a contrast, my son went to a private school this year. If anything this is probably the priciest, elitist school in our city. They tested everybody in the gym which reminded me that my little private school tested all of us in the cafeteria. This is a contrast to the other private school he took it at last year, a classical Christian school, where they test in class rooms.

I think in your case you need to figure out what your goals are and then from this point forward straighten out the schedule to make it work for those goals and your son's reading speed. I'd have an easier time telling you what to do if I knew what books you are looking at and the pace. It will be much harder to read excerpts in a program like Stogaugh's that is having him read the whole works vs. a program that is designed for specific excerpts, so I would lean towards cutting out whole works. If you feel he must know something of the other works then have him read synopses. If you want to use another program like this next year, then you can plan to do more of the reading over the summer, but that's something you learn as you go so I wouldn't beat myself up over it this year.

I think even on Saturdays and Sundays some school's bell systems still ring. Hall noise should also be able to be overlooked. The opening the door, and talking, etc, should not happen.

I think the test booklets go back to the school no matter what code you put in.

The big problem is likely to be your child, not the school. Mine drove himself over.

I'm giggling, because I checked in advance to find out if ds could park on site, which he could, so no drop off horror stores for us, at least not yet.

What I don't know is your state law nor what specific colleges youd dd would be interested in (say beyond cc). Check yourself on those and my guess is you'll be able to drop Clonlara.

I am not sure that the distinction is really used much by colleges in regards to home schooled students. Yes, some goofy schools put it on their admissions website, but most of the time they ignore it. I've noted before that the good information on admissions says that schools use class rank not grade point average so the whole "mommy grades" thing is not that useful to them (my take is that mommy grades only hurt when they conflict with the SAT, then questions are raised, they would be in a standard school setting applicant, too). GPA is used for some scholarships, but I've never seen anyone say that was only for accredited.

I think what worked for your husband is that he had advanced degrees before joining the military. I found another page on enlisted enrollment http://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/join-the-military-basic-eligibility.html They begin by saying: But in the bullet points they say: I can remember when home schoolers had a very difficult time being enrolled into the military if they tried at the end of high school. Some of it was because they were perceived as not having that high school diploma. Folks worked very hard for a very long time to get this changed.

Yes, I did read the whole story and I'm afraid my take was different than yours. The only person they found who was positive about the GED is cutting hair. They even have a high school aged young lady who doesn't want a GED. And as for the distinction you are making between the GED and a diploma with the military. It doesn't exist. If you have a diploma, then you don't have the GED.

Here's the page to find your home school registration number: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/reg/homeschool/state-codes.html