You do what's right for YOU and your DH! It sounds like you guys are set financially to have more. Cars? Paid for college? Since when are those things parents are supposed to foot the bill for?? It would be nice for ANY of us parents to be able to provide all the unlimited perks for each of our kids that our imaginations can provide----but then reality kicks in! Love, nutrition, a roof over their heads, emotional support etc---those are the necessities. College, cars, braces etc---those are PERkS....I.e. NOT necessities ;). Follow your heart about the number of children you and your dh want---because it sounds like it's in the right place :001_smile:

Well, my ds gets that way when he gets gluten! Seriously---the pencil thing resonates as he is that way now..:glare: WWS looked great to me, and I thought it would be a good mix with IEW. But honestly, IEW just makes more sense, especially the theme based books. They are very systematic and predictable, which is what seems to work best with ds. He is pretty 'normal' unless he gets gluten, at which time he becomes very OCD and irritable. He likes routine and IEW fits the bill. I have used theme based quite successfully and only bought the Tips and Tricks DVD to get a base understanding of the program. WWS is a great program but if you need predictable structure and continuity until graduation, I highly recommend IEW. ;)

If your DS is a visual learner, Abeka is great! DD DETESTED Apologia! :glare: When I switched her to Abeka for Physical Science---she truly loved it. My ds is just fine with Apologia----dd had started the Biology and we had to quit 1/3 through because she was pulling her hair out not understanding the concepts. DS used it last year no problem and is doing and loving Phys Sci and soon Chemistry. Apologia is NOT for every learning style---not even Dive or Bio 101 (which we used) will fix that. Your best bet is to sell your Apologia Bio book and purchase a more visual program---Abeka is good as well as Ace School of Tomorrow---and even adding in Bio 101. But Bio 101 is NOT a full Biology program no matter what their website says!!!

My recommendations are Elegant Essay by IEW followed up by IEW Advanced Communication Series. Both will prepare for college writing and are what I am going to use with my ds to get I'm ready ;)

Yes, it is possible. DD will get some grants and is eligible for Stafford Loans, which are OK for bad credit/no credit students and families. DD was NOT capable of doing full AP and is a horrible test taker, so CLEP was out of the question. Aid is based on family income and finances. Her ACT scores were on the very low end---again, she is HORRIBLE at test taking. It hasn't been a problem so far and talking to the 2 schools she was looking at, they were very calm and no nonsense about all of my nervous questions. :tongue_smilie: Besides, we figure it is up to our kids to pay for their own college! DS is better at test taking, so he will be doing CLEP but no AP. We are also counting on him scoring higher on ACT or SAT in order to perhaps get some more aid. We have simply warned them that a modest amount of college debt is fine, but keep in mind what you major in as far as employability after graduation (as if it's even guaranteed anymore!).

:iagree: DD did no AP, CLEP etc. and is attending a state University in a few weeks. No big deal. Ds will be doing CLEP because he is more 'capable', no AP. We just want to help him save money. You DON"T NEED to do college in high school to get into college!!!! I guess it looks good on a transcript, or is good for more advanced, motivated students. But I know it's NOT necessary. Relax. Don't worry. It'll be OK ;)

Exactly ;). I guess I'm such a history purist, I find altering, omitting or misstating historical facts to effect a certain view on history just generally abhorrent, whether Christian or secular :glare: I continually shake my head in amazement at how much quicker the Christian texts get called on the carpet though.

Yes. It bothers me immensely! In fact so much so, that I have deleted the repeat offensive offenders and o longer have to deal with the irritation :tongue_smilie:

Every single history textbook does this!!! They all come from their belief system that shows up in the information they choose to include or omit! Go ahead and read many public school textbooks, and you will find massive amounts of information omitted because it's either offensive or doesn't fit with the viewpoint the kids are supposed to have after reading the book. This is EXACTLY why we use literature based history coupled with at least 2-3 factual sources.

I guess I will be the lone person to agree with you! I thought the arguments against these books were weak myself. There WERE kind slave masters---even though today anything to do with slavery is abhorrent to any of us. But it was the norm back then. Did the KKK have a different focus beyond racism when it first was established? Honestly, I don't know but reading that article made me want to find out. The biggest thing that made me laugh about the outrage of the author is that EVERY SINGLE textbook has bias!!! Every. single. one! The challenge is to find their viewpoint, and then read all the historical documents available to find the truth! Big job. But it's silly to just single out Christian publishers, as is SO popular today, because so many textbooks out there contain questionable if not completely inaccurate 'facts'. She did take a bit of liberty in selecting her quotes from these books without giving any background information at how they had gotten to the topic to begin with. :glare:

ACE School of Tomorrow Geography!! Using a 2nd time with ds, after dd did it, and LOVE it! Very thorough and covers each country/region/continent in quite a bit of depth compared to any other curriculum I looked at.

I would do one or the other----we have both! WWS is truly a FULL program! I would even suggest WWS before IEW Medieval simply because WWS teaches skills that will come in handy with IEW and make it easier for you to implement and your student to do. I was trying to do both this year, and it was just TOO much! I decided to start with WWS and then we will do the Medieval, even though he will be long done with studying this time period. And NO----if your student needs remediation/help with writing, WWS and/or IEW Medieval and just fine. We will be using the Elegant Essay and IEW Advanced Communiation Series for ds's Senior year---so I'm not worried AT ALL about using WWS or IEW Level B to get us there---even in 10th/11th grade ;)

Hi Joane! :001_smile: I know how you feel and we keep using SL too!, I NEVER go to the forums anymore but we still love the books we have ;)

Lol! My son cried after reading This book too----but he is 17 now and shows no signs of permanent damage ;). We have used SL since 2001 and quite frankly it was the nasty women on the forums that almost made me dump SL!! :glare: We just simply LOVE the lit approach to history, so that is why I still use it to this day. I'm sorry that the OP is having problems like that, and the burden should most definitely be on SL to remedy it. To the poster made nervous by this thread, sL is wonderful curriculum! And the new IG for the younger grades are better than ever!! No company is perfect, so just use the curriculum that works for your family. Life is too short to boycott good curriculum over CS problems of other people. We have used quite a few WP programs over the years---and they were awesome! Even though lots of other people had nightmares getting a complete order....

Exactly! The media is fueling a Hate Fire that is unnecessary! It's so sad to see especially young people who have been trained to believe in 'tolerance' for all totally in favor of banning Chick Fil A. They don't get it! Tyranny is a gradual process, but the end result is VERY ugly :glare:

I'll just continue the conversation here and say 'No'---it's not necessary for every single high school student! Perhaps Algebra 1---and that's it. But MANY students would fare so much better in life studying more practical math subjects in high school. I studied all the way through Precalc/Trig---but I STILL have trouble balancing a checkbook. I think that is pathetic because my college prep high school was so concerned with getting into college, that practical subjects were considered banal and unnecessary. :glare: Additionally, my dd is VERY intelligent, but she is HORRIBLE with a capital 'H' in math!!!! Not a single curriculum---and we tried them all----every resonated with her beyond Algebra 1. And now her chances of getting into the college she has decided she wants to go to is in jeopardy because of simply math. Math. The major she wants to study requires ZERO math. But she has to get a certain score on the COMPASS tomorrow to even get admitted as a homeschooler to this college. Math---specifically algebra +----could prevent her from getting admitted. Silly and ridiculous in my opinion.

My dd is the same age as yours, Nightelf, and she will be taking the COMPASS next Thurs so timely you ask this question! ;) She has not studied Algebra in 2 years so I am giving her our Standard Deviants Algebra DVDs, Understanding Mathematics + workbook to work on and lots of prayers!!! She has finally decided that working and trying to do online school is just too much, so she is finishing her application to her college of choice she started last year finally!! I am SOOO happy and excited for her. The one year of rest has given her the fire under her seat she needed to decide what she wants to study and why! Good luck to your DD ;)

This is great, thanks! And I already ordered my MFW Chem + plans----so really excited to get it next week :D

What's the viewpoint of the text? I did notice that Greenspan and Bernanke are considered 'Outstanding Economists' while perusing the table of contents at Amazon. :glare:

Wow---thanks so much Crystal! ;)

:001_tt2:...lol...thanks Crystal! And thank you for the info on the Physics. And since I have you---are the MFW lesson plans 4 days throughout the year? AND---is it true that the MFW lesson plans also schedule the quarterly tests? Still trying to decide if I want to stick with Apologia and use the MFW lesson plans next year. ;)

Thank you! That answers my main question about the Chemistry. And if you don't mind taking a look at your Physics book to see about the summaries--- I would appreciate that ;)

Really?! Nobody here is using Apologia right now? :001_huh:

Does this book have the Summary pages in the back like the Gen, Phys and Biology do? For that matter, do the Physics and Marine Bio texts contain the summaries also?

NEITHER Thomas Edison State College NOR College Plus are diploma mills!! :glare: