I've written the syllabi for my kids' courses, but now I'm wondering if I've assigned too many essays. This is what I've assigned for the first "semester": History 3 2-page (minimum) essays 12 1-page (minimum) summaries Literature 2 2-page (minimum) essays 2 3-page (minimum) essays Beginning of a 10-page (minimum) research essay Geography (can be extended beyond this semester) 1 5-page (minimum) research essay These courses are all "Honors" and my kids are also dual enrolled in university courses. I'm moving them toward being dual enrolled for all their classes, so I'd like to get them accustomed to rigorous requirements. But then again, I wonder if this is too much for the period from July 1-December 31. Also, so far, they've already completed 2 of these essays and 2 summaries will be done with a third before their college classes start.

Yes, I will. It seems strange, but because the public schools in my area do, it seemed to be a possible disadvantage for my kids not to have them. Locally, they weight higher for ALL honors credits and even higher for AP and higher still for dual enrollment courses. We've followed suit.

My kids are now dual enrolled in some classes at university and the 990 hours for secondary are not going to add up with these classes since they are only meeting 3-4 hours a week for 14 weeks. Is there a solution that doesn't mean piling on more work in their non-dual enrollment classes? Should I just count hours?

Yeah, I know them. My kid used to play with the less than a block and a half dropper offer. They let their dog defecate all over their house and didn't pick it up. My kid stepped in it and ruined a pair of socks. Kid's dad also took his kid and my kid for a bike ride once upon a time and said they'd be back in a hour. They weren't back for three and it had gotten dark. No phone call. Nothing. Dad had a cell phone on him, too. Other parents did some things to me and mine that were less than nice. So, if my dh and I talk about the weirdness with the drop offs and make fun of them for it, I see no harm. We don't discuss it outside the family and we don't gossip. If that still makes me a jerk, so be it. I'll gladly accept your judgement.

Nope, he goes back home. Both families do. They get in their car and drive for the sole purpose of kid drop off and then turn around and go home. With the wonderful weather we have here, that's not even the reason.

Yes, there is a bad school time rush around here and if the kids who lived within walking distance (this being a mile or less, IMO) walked or rode their bikes it would be better.

I know the kids and families and there are no disabilities or other obvious issues. They are coddlers though and they are loose boundaries (both kids get away with things and get things by whining) and one kid's mom works at the school, but she leaves I guess a bit too early for the kid, so dad ends up driving him. BTW, the drive to school takes two minutes. I don't feel the least bit bad for making fun. ETA: One of the families drove their kid to the elementary school every morning. It was...less than a block and a half away.

I was pretty free range growing up. Most of my neighbors and I played in the extensive woods around our neighborhood. No one ever called the cops for anything. I feel lucky that I now live in a free range community. We live blocks from the elementary school (which no longer matters because we homeschool) and a mile from the middle and high schools/atheltic fields and park. We're so free range around here, we actually make fun of the families who live near us and drop off and pick up their kids from school.

Used Early Modern for my academically advanced 7th graders and Modern for them for 8th. Supplemented the documentaries, readings with World History Series books, and the literature with more books than required. For instance, Modern Times only requires Animal Farm, but they also read 1984. I don't think the readings in the Kingfisher are really enough for advanced/high school students. The assignments are good and FWIW, if you complete it, then History Odyssey also counts as 0.5 credits of Geography.

Slipper and daughter, I want to thank you two for bringing your issue here to the forums. It will enable my dh and I to have a very thorough and hopefully eye-opening discussion with our children about what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior from the people in their lives. I hope that everyone who has read this thread will do the same. Information is power. Often all it takes is one (or two) brave souls willing to talk about their experiences to help others. Thank you.

I was looking into SAT vocabulary and came across this site- www.freevocabulary.com Anyone have any thoughts on this?

My dh wants to weigh in. He doesn't think that you let an outside person cause strife in your family. Whether he's creating strife intentionally or because of impulsive, irresponsible behavior- it's inappropriate and should not be tolerated.

I'm going to weigh in before I read others' opinions. Firstly, for your daughter- I am not, nor have ever been conservative. I am very liberal, vote that way, and am liberal in some areas regarding my kids. They are a bit free range within reason. I am also not Christian. Moreover, I have absolutely scarily correct intuition. This man gives me the creeps and your daughter's behavior regarding his texts to her indicates a problem. She's 13. She should not be lying to you about the texts and for all you know, she's deleting the inappropriate ones. Moreover, his excuses regarding the inability to put you on the text list, his disregard for following rules (a lock in is a lock in), his inability to get an appropriate, unbiased female chaperone are one red flag after another. In other words, this feels like grooming. Even if it's not, there's still something fishy about his behavior. By excluding the parents from knowing what's going on, he may be teaching things that are not okay with y'all. In my experience (I'm not Christian now, but I've attended my fair share of Protestant churches), the difference between Presybeterian and Baptist is stark, most especially depending on the "brand" of Baptist. Your daughter could be indoctrinated in things you didn't realize she was being taught. I'd leave the church immediately and look into this guy's past. If he's a school teacher and has been inappropriate with students, they may have just let him go and he went to another state without any bad reports following him. It happens all the time.

I remember seeing that SM's grading scale was way different than most US schools'. Anything above 75% was an A. Now I can't find this on the website and I need it for my kids' recommendation letters for dual enrollment. Does anyone have a link or know where I can find it? Thanks!

I get really peeved about the way our medical professionals handle puberty. If you read the literature, there are distinct stages and puberty progresses perfectly along those stages and lasts only 5 years. And yet perimenopause can last 10 years. Doesn't add up to me and I don't know a soul who has proceeding along the five stages of puberty in five years. I continued to grow several years beyond my first period (age 12). Not as much as before, but more. My breasts weren't fully developed until I was almost 23 (call them honeymoon breasts, if you will). My own dc are not following the stages perfectly and are still growing well (albeit a bit slower than before menses). Sorry, it just gets me that one of the body's most transformative periods is pigeonholed into this one-process-should-fit-all attitude. I wouldn't worry about your daughter. If you are worried about her adult height, keep her well fed with protein (one of my dd loves to eat beans), start her on a good multivitamin, etc.

We are going to read creation and hero myths from a multitude of ancient cultures around the world. Then my kids will do a civilizations project in which they will create their own ancient civilization, come up with some early inventions, and then write their culture's creation or a hero myth. I'm going to give them 0.5 credits in Mythology for this.

I have been wanting to start my kids on some SAT prep, but by the time they take it, it will be the new one. Khan Academy has promised a real overhaul and super help for the new one with a "By spring 2015" date. Well, it's spring. I'm chomping at the bit for this. Anyone have any idea when it might be available?

I highly recommend The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck who won both a Pulitzer and a Nobel. This is one of my favorite all time books (and I have an English degree) and all three of my kids read it this year for homeschool and they all enjoyed it. It has a lot to discuss. Some moral ambiguties. A ton of information about the culture of China before communism.

We really like oatmeal, too, but I always find that it never quite satisfies. An hour or two after having some- ravishing hunger. I've even done baked oatmeal with egg in it to no avail. If you (or anyone) has recommendations how to make oatmeal fill you up and keep you from getting hungry not too long after, I'd love to hear it.

Yes, we're huge nut eaters in our house. I wish I could find them cheaper. My older dd will eat cashews by the cupful.

Yeah, I wonder about couponing, too. Too often it's stuff we don't buy or that is still cheaper in the no-name brand than the name brand with the coupon. I don't think any stores in my area double coupons either.

I wonder about this. I've been typing in all our expenses since last year and I don't see any wiggle room in any other areas. Our bills are set. We don't have cable. We don't have a car payment. We don't buy clothes new (save socks and undies). We go out to eat about two times a month. I wonder what he would have us cut.

To go along with the food budget thread I started earlier, what are your cheapest meals? And I'm taking as many gluten-free, protein-rich, but vegetarian suggestions as possible. Here's what we do in my house: Black bean tacos with some shredded cheese and maybe avocado and salsa (depending on person) Roasted rosemary potatoes, sometimes with scrambled eggs Gluten-free pasta with sauce and TVP, kids get a piece of garlic bread, too. Rice with vegetable stir fry

Food for thought. Sorry, couldn't resist. :laugh: We're going to grow some food this year. We're mostly pescatarians, but fish can be expensive. Our plant and nut-based milks are expensive. It's not unusual to spend $18-24 a week on those. We love our cereal, though, but if I can substitute that for baked goods (only dh is gluten-sensitive) that may be a solution. One advantage that we have is we pay no sales tax on food. Fairfarmhand, we lived in TN and it was cheaper for me to drive to KY to buy food because of the difference in sales tax. Yikes! ETA: I have another question/issue. Dh and I went to rich suburban Boston last year and the apples at Trader Joe's were significantly cheaper than they were where we normally live. Thing was, the apples were grown in our state. So the transportation cost up to Boston would have been significantly more. I'm really puzzled why apples are so expensive in our state when we are in a major apple-growing region. Could MA be subsidizing its produce?

Oh, and this may or may not be related to food costs, but if you have family members who are extremely active with working out (eg. my dd dances 3 hours a week), etc., do you think that's going to up the food costs?