I must have been typing as you were posting. You stated the struggle so well. Our ultimate goal is mastery and/or competency and yet our goal may be assessed and reached in a manner that doesn't compare with in school peers.

Thank you for asking the question. I am eager to see the responses. For us trying to compare to what local high schools (public or private) is very difficult. The way grades are assigned differs greatly from teacher to teacher, school to school... Some wind up being the results of a curve. Some include allowances for opportunities to earn extra credit. Some include participation/attendance. Some exempt students with a given grade from sitting for final exams. It often seems like the only universal thresholds are things like SAT/ACT, SAT Subject Exams, AP's and so forth. A great deal of what we do will not likely even be included in the final grade as it is responding to meeting areas where either greater remediation or acceleration is meeting needs particular to this one student. Thank you for asking. Wish I could add to the answer, but we are trying to figure it out too.

This is likely my biggest concern as we go forward. I worry about being able to fairly and simultaneously appropriately, rigorously, validly determine Dd's level of performance and mastery. I am a very tough critic and mom, and the two do battle often as I review work product. One thing that helps, is constantly assessing in a variety of ways. When I find that error, evaluate it and determine the cause I make a point to review that area and check back regularly. I still feel that tug of war when evaluating open ended responses, but then I try to find a source with an opinion I can rely on and consult.

Ditto, except we started with Alg 1/2. My project this summer is to go through the Calculus and Physics myself. It seemed like a lot at the time but there is a comfort in knowing we will not have to hunt things down with all the other busy-ness of highschool.

One more chiming in with Art Reed DVD's and Saxon. :iagree:

Extra-academic benefits our family has experienced from homeschooling: 1. Far less unproductive stress than when Dd was in school 2. More freedom to "be" and "do" 3. Greater enthusiasm and motivation 4. Far better health 5. Time to build consistent and enriching relations with grandparent, friends and others 6. Time to develop talents/skills 7. Freedom to try new things and flourish or fail and do so in a supporting environment where both are acknowledged as opportunities 8. Creativity 9. Better understanding of the larger community and the needs and benefits therein 10. Time together and with others not restricted to evenings, weekends and summers 11. Appropriately warm or cold unrushed lunches 12. Time outdoors 13. For Dd greater confidence based on earned and learned experience 14. For parents a far more respected role in upbringing and education of our child I could go on and on.

I have been struck by the number of parents who respond to hearing we homeschool by saying they wish they could but they need both incomes. They will say they know the schools are not all they wish they were but are willing to accept "good enough".

Test scores matter. The thing is that they matter whether an applicant is coming from the most recognized/uber accredited school, homeschooled or a small unaccredited private school. A student with rotten test scores from an accredited school faces admissions challenges. Homeschooling is no longer obscure and unknown to college admissions. It eases the mind to look at college websites and the common ap site and realize they have instructions and procedures for homeschooled applicants. Maybe there is a bit more "certainty" in attending an accredited school and doing well enough on the tests to be a competitive applicant. However, with all the various ways to validate the high school experience these days, that seems like a big maybe to me. What is an SAT Subject Test other than a rigorous final exam? The AP exam doesn't change because a homeschooler is taking it. We have a great opportunity as homeschoolers to take the 4 years of high school and make them incredible. If we do so, it will show. If a particular college doesn't care for this type of unique experience, there are plenty which do and I suspect would be a better life choice for us. Just my thought.

The one with Tut on the cover is the one. Probably so much less because it is more dated. All of the resource extras will have the same image. The other appears to be more recent, but I can't know if Spielvogel contributed to it. With the Tut one, he is the author. Because I have it and the WC, I recognize passages verbatim in both.

Glencoe published a World History by Spielvogel in the earlier 2000's. (ISBN 0-07-823993-1) Used copies of it can be found for $15.00 or less. It has the benefit of addressing those areas Western Civilization would not. We use a newer version of the Western Civilization, but I have a copy of the World History around as well. Often the text will be the same in similar content areas just with less elaboration in the World History (which was designed for high school use). For someone wanting to cover World History in a year it would work as a spine. We liked the more frequent use of excerpts from literature or documents in the WC. WH has some, but not as many. WH reads a bit easier and because it was used widely in high schools it has a lot of extra resources available (study guides, teacher's editions, test/quiz book).

I once joked with my daughter that someone came up with formal outlining as an excuse to let Roman Numerals Live. About once every couple of years I have her do a formal outline just to be aware of the process. She does informal outlining (key words, bullet points...) constantly. Learning to organize information/data is the skill I hope to implant. We focus on function, not form in this arena. If she struggled to organize thoughts/data/information in a logical or systematic manner to meet a given task I would do more.

So glad this thread is active at this time. My daughter was just bemoaning that math seems to always take longer each day than other tasks. I was great to show her she is not alone.

Using Saxon, currently Algebra 1, 1 1/2 hours a day.

When we finally walked away (I should say ran away) from the public schools, we took with us a huge amount of volunteer time/effort and money. We also took one child who year after year provided exceptionally high test scores (an asset in a No Child Left Behind world). We were not alone, over the years many of our peers and our daughter's peers flocked to other options. They were the mom's I saw at the Room Mother events, the dad's who took the day off to go along on the field trips, the one's who donated and did. Finally it struck me. I can choose to martyr myself, but my child is my charge/my duty and she need not suffer for whatever the cause is. Who would I be helping if I let the one I can most make a difference with fall? My only regret is not fleeing sooner. It may sound cold, selfish...pick your sword...no barb could cut deeper than when I realized I was allowing the one person I cared most in the world about to be hurt.

:lol:

:iagree:with Robin. After watching the course it struck me why the title included the "history of", as opposed to something like "analysis of". Mr. Voth presents well and I might consider another course by him at some point. If you are looking for something that might connect analyzing the literature in terms of literary devices and so forth, this would not be the course for it. I keep coming back to How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster and Essential Literary Terms by Sharon Hamilton. I found an older edition of Perrines' Literature Structure, Sound and Sense, which also is referenced frequently.

A while back I had the opportunity to casually chat with an admissions counselor about AP and Honors. Several of the points made in responses already were mentioned. However, one additional point she made was the difficulty in stating any hard and fast guidelines stems from the goal of many schools to mold a diverse entering freshman class. Thus one student may well be accepted over another despite weighted GPA's or Honors versus AP...

A neat trick I have seen some therapists use: Take a flat plastic box and some play sand. Have her use her finger to write in the sand like you would at the beach. Another fun one I saw for the sunny months: Squirt guns filled with food colored water on the driveway.

:iagree:

I don't think hubby was slandering liberals. I think he was suggesting that the schools tend toward more liberal content. Not so much a concern of mine. He has never gotten completely past the year our daughter spent on various units devoted to An Incovenient Truth without covering any other science objectives. As for myself, I do recognize validity to the suggestion that students/families with the means to leave the public system doing so may hurt those left behind. When we left the system we took with us two adults volunteering a large number of hours, plus grandma doing so often and a lot of monetary contributions. I see schools in our area where the brain and bucks drain is creating some real problems. However, I found what others here have said. Parental input is not wanted and the choice between the greater good and doing what was right for our child became too much.

:iagree:

I probably shouldn't share this at risk of being slammed but I couldn't help but laugh. Hubby walked by and casually asked what I was doing. I respond, "Oh, just looking at an article titled Why Liberals Shouldn't Home School." His response = "Because they would have to pay for an education and materials they already can access for free?" He is not progressive....

Quoting the article: " So when college-educated parents pull their kids out of public schools, whether for private school or homeschooling, they make it harder for less-advantaged children to thrive." Responding: I am not buying a ticket for that guilt trip.

As long as we stay away from Barnes and Noble, I should manage to stay within budget for the year. The discount/bargain section at B&N gets me everytime. We do more with art, music lessons, dance, theatre, special interest classes (labs/computer), workshops, camps, clubs and so forth than we would have been able to do timewise if in school. It would be difficult to compare. One factor in deciding to homeschool was to be able to have the time to do so. If I don't include those areas it would be $500.00 for the 2012-2013 year. On a funny note, my daughter and I recently discussed what her friends spend on clothing versus what she spends. Her school "uniform" is sweat pants or pajama bottoms and a t-shirt/sweatshirt. It prompted me to talk to a few in school mom's. I can see where we are saving a whole lot by not being in school. Funding a few trendy items for weekends is far less than meeting a daily need.

The same struggle for balance haunts the public and private college bound teens/families we encounter. Dual enrollments and AP's increasingly are the baseline expectations. If things change over the next four years as much as they have over the past three ... shudder.