Well, I have a lot to think about before we start Biology in the fall! With my oldest girls, I just let them know that I thought Apologia was unusable and that BJU was too...emotional on the subject and to concentrate on the science. My son wants to read something clear from both the YEC (all the kids in our hs group use Apologia or BJU) and secular (there's that word! I feel like Inigo Montoya is shaking his finger at me in my head!), regular high school textbook. I am glad that this thread has not become too nasty.

I get this. But I do react when I read this in a bio of Sam Harris - "Harris is a cofounder and the CEO of Project Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society." I would prefer to know that my scientific information is coming from someone not devoted to secular values - or Christian ones. I doubt that I can find anything truly objective. Galileo wasn't trying to disprove the existence of the supernatural, only making observations. As far as I know, Darwin was the same. I don't know this about what I read today.

double post

Nope, not towards you. I was being brief! What I meant was that it is not something restricted to Bible Belt Christians, kwim? Someone upthread mentioned that they had not seen it in the major cities...I think that she mentioned LA and NYC. Most of my family is YEC yet I am the only homeschooler. Since everyone IRL that I am in close contact with are either in my family, from current or past churches, or in my homeschool group, YEC is the default. I know plenty of non-Christians, but I don't have a close enough relationship with them for something like this to come up!

There are plenty of Christians in NYC who believe in YEC.

We had a giant fight on Thursday and he would not speak about it with me till Saturday morning. At the time I was so furious, but by Saturday morning I was grateful. We were both calm and we had uninterrupted time to spend with each other. We both apologized and were able to really hear what the other was saying. He was wise!

Dicentra and Matryoshka - very helpful posts. Thanks!! I struggle with all this - YE always seems a stretch to me and I can buy a scientist telling me "this is what we have discovered and what we believe it means" and take it seriously. When I took Biology in High School (I was raised a Christian and never thought about YE, only that evolution without God didn't seem plausible)- in 1981? - we were taught that it was a theory and given all sorts of information that seemed perfectly reasonable to me. I figured that I would wait a bit and see what "they" came up with. Since my oldest was in High School I have done some reading to try to catch up a bit - Jay Wile, Biologos, library books. But. When the attitude behind the science I read is like a poster upthread said - "of course (whatever belief) is hooey, like all supernatural claims", then I start to wonder. How does a completely - naturalistic, for lack of a better word - pov affect scientific inquiry? As strongly as a supernatural belief would? I don't see it as religion vs. science, but as people starting from a certain framework and then fitting their observations into that framework. Therefore, I am fairly skeptical of both AIG and our new Bio text (Holt - Nowicki). I don't see how it all could have just happened, I don't see Genesis 1 as literal, and I am not smart enough to really understand everything I read, so I am staying with my current belief that there is no way we can know for sure.

Thanks so much for posting this.

We used BJU Bio with DIVE for the same reasons others have mentioned - the tests are not so detailed but it still covers a great deal of information. The big reason I would not use Apologia, besides that fact that my children found the Earth and PS texts preachy and rambly, is that they leave the human body out. We didn't have two years to cover Bio! Next year my youngest will be doing Bio with DIVE and a Holt text by Nowicki, as we want to see both sides of the evolution debate.

We have a PE requirement here - 2 credits. I divided it up over 4 years and set about a 75 hour minimum per year requirement, which seemed about right for .5 credits. My girls used yoga/strength training/Pilates DVDs a few times a week and walked a few times a week in spring and fall, less in winter and summer - it really added up! One daughter joined a gym when she was a senior as she was getting bored of the videos! My son takes swim lessons and does daily exercises and periodic PT (scoliosis) and adds up to more than the 75 hours per year. I may put the swim lessons on his transcript as an extracurricular if it adds up to a lot of extra hours! We also have a Health requirement - .5 credits. I've used Total Heath, AOP Heath, and a book from the American School...can't remember the title. It would not be difficult to create a syllabus for Health using real books - Anatomy, Disease, Nutrition, Fitness, First Aid, Drugs/Alcohol/STD/etc. awareness.

Which Wodehouse? Read The Code of the Woosters!

Eppie - what a great option for High school!

Why don't you ask her what her favorite books are? If she likes The Hunger Games, or Jane Eyre, or The Witch of Blackbird Pond, or Dicey's Song, then you'll have a better idea of what will appeal to her.

I recommend getting an introductory college Earth Science text used from Amazon. Have him look it over and see what he hasn't covered. I realize that a textbook is not a CMish approach, but I am sure it would be better than what he is currently doing!

I would always keep them on the same History topics. One year I might be assigning Spielvogel, Holt World History, and SOTW, as well as Beowulf, Adam of the Road, and The Door in the Wall. Each kid had books at their own level, but I would only have to be thinking about one area of history. The little ones would be doing the 13 Colonies Coloring book and the big ones would be reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Not lined up exactly, but we could all follow the same general ideas all year. This worked till my 3rd was in High School! For Science, I tried to keep it to only 2 topics per year, so I wouldn't be too scattered.

What is an ALE?

I know several kids who are at Kings and love it! I also know a few who have left because they hated it and a few more who left because they just couldn't afford it anymore. The three girls I know best who are there right now like the new leadership and feel the school is back on track. One is a junior, doing PPE and Debate. She and her parents are extremely happy with Kings! Two other girls are majoring in Media, Culture, and the Arts and have had wonderful internship and employment opportunities. One girl had issues at Kings that were troubling...I will pm you.

What a great list! Thanks for posting it, Sebastian. I already disagree with him on a few (I don't think anything can surpass The Code of the Woosters and I prefer The House of Mirth) but there are several I have never heard of. Always good to find new old books, if ykwim! ETA: He has Three Men in a Boat and The Way We Live Now. I am really liking this list!

There is an Amateur Astronomer's Association that has activities all over my area, including one in a National Park about 15m from my home!!

This is what my current 9th grader is doing - Algebra 1 - Lial He is teaching himself..I wish he were doing Jann in TX's class, but he likes battling it out on his own. Switched on Schoolhouse Earth Science - interesting, but way wicked easy World History 1 - Barron's World History. Text is just ok but it does lead to a lof of discussion English 1 - Literary Lessons from LOTR plus World Lit textbook and World Lit reading list. Lots of good reading and discussion, not enough writing Introduction to Computer Programming - TeenCoder and he HATES IT!!! We are only doing the first book for .5 credit and have started Spanish 1 - Breaking the Barrier - for the other .5 elective credit Art History - .25 credit; the other .25 will be in 10th grade. The Annotated Mona Lisa and several museum trips. Other stuff - PE is swim lessons, physical therapy (he has scoliosis), and daily exercise Debate, Fun Logic, and Worldview at Co-op

Wow - now I have a great list of new books! Some of your suggestions look doable so I will read a few and then see. I had already decided on Life Of Pi and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich but I want to add something sort of in-between them. My daughters think I should go with Everything is Illuminated and ignore the American author...maybe.

We got the book and he really likes it! We did spend some time at the Math in a box site, looking at her sample lessons. I was impressed and he was - horrified by all the work he would have to send in. I felt like a bad Mom but it made me laugh! Well, we still have time to decide. Once I get all his other courses set, it will be easier to choose the right way to handle Geometry.

Well. I was looking through TWTM book for something else and I saw that Susan had recommended a book for High School Astronomy: Astronomy - A Self Teaching Guide. I ordered it and my daughter likes the layout! I can tell that parts of it will be too challenging as she doesn't have the math foundation, but overall it should do very well. I've decided not to fuss about making it a proper lab course, but have her spend some time and do some research at the Hayden Planetarium. We can't really see the night sky here, as it is too bright, even at night, so I am looking for a local astronomy club or something...maybe upstate. The book was so inexpensive that I should be able to pay for a few hands-on experiences. I hope it works out. Anyway. Thanks for all your ideas! It really does help me to have experienced homeschoolers to bounce stuff off.

Just read this - http://finance.yahoo.com/news/americas-top-sat-tutor-explains-204344156.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=fb Basically - take the ACT, not the SAT, if you have to test in 2016. Interesting POV. My son is in the 9th grade, so we have some time to wait and see.

Hey. I am planning for next year - World History 1815 to the present. I have a large list of possible books that I am paring down, but I actually have a gap that I would like to fill. I would like something written between 1950-2000. Fiction or non-fiction or drama. European. Not Russian, Latin American, African, or Asian - I have several ideas for those. Not American - we'll do those another year. Not about WW2 or the Holocaust - I have plenty of those. Not too racy or dark - I may add Brave New World or 1984 if I feel he is ready at the time. but I don't want to plan for them. Something comparable to The Crucible or The Autobiography of Malcolm X or Housekeeping. Thanks!