I would start with your state's requirements for a high school diploma, and your local cc's requirements for entrance (for a baccalaureate-transfer program, our CC requires: 4 years English emphasizing writing, lit, and communications, 2 years social studies including government, 3 years math--geometry is needed, 2 years lab science--biology is needed, 4 years electives like foreign language, art, music, vocational course work, extra units of the above subjects, etc...) That's only 15 credits, and it would be easy to keep that door open and still have time for more electives each year and end up with 20-24 credits. (24 credits is pretty typical for a 4-year college student, and that's what we aimed for. Also, our local highschool requires almost that many credits required for graduation.) So much can change between 9th and 12th grade--I think it's in their best interest to at least make it easy to get into a CC. I did aim for a regular college-ready transcript, with a third year of social studies and science, and some foreign language, made sure they had at least a year of fine arts. Beyond that, things I felt were important: PE (some form of exercise--good for life-long habits) health personal finance college and career exploration (they can be interested in a field which requires college or not, but learn more about it now) world views Bible following their interests as much as possible in every possible subject area. My son did robotics, Japanese history, back-stage theater work, guitar, and had a lot of freedom in choosing paper topics for history and English (so, writing or speech was required, topic was whatever my kids wanted to explore--similarly I often tailored lit. to their interests as well). He also had time for youth group and hobbies. My dd has done violin, voice, psychology, art, science fairs, and has had time for extras like youth group, babysitting twice a week, her own mini-sewing business, etc... I would consider apprentice-ships, job-shadowing, and on-the-job training in an area to be valuable experiences as well.

You don't have to purchase a Grade-Level package to do Sonlight. You can purchase a Core package (which right now contains History, Bible, LA, and Reading), and then choose whatever math you want. In the early core levels (A-C), you get to choose what level of readers and LA you want with it. In Cores D and up, the Readers and LA go together with the history. You actually can buy components now, they just push their "cores" and "grade level packages." (You do get bigger discounts when you do one of the packages--20% off with the grade level one, and 10% off with a core). However, they've announced that they'll be taking the "language arts" out of the cores again (and they are changing the name of the cores, so that the product won't be confused with "common core," which it has nothing to do with! Instead, the packages will now be called "History / Bible / Literature packages." So, then (when they roll out the changes on April 1) people can purchase any level and decide whether they want to add on LA or not.

Incidentally--this ALSO means that there's an advantage to doing a work study program versus an off-campus part time job (looking at 14c). I never realized it made a difference, but it appears FAFSA would take that income back out too.

So, what you're saying is that when I read this: "Includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances and interest accrual payments), as well as grant and scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships." I should understand that to mean that the scholarship/merit income they are talking about in question 44d is *only* that which falls into these categories, and not other scholarship/grant income that would be taxable? (and, as Julie says below, that the only reason for including this income here would be so FAFSA/CSS can take it out of the AGI reported?) I think this is starting to make sense to me--if I look at all of the questions in 44, the taxable portion of merit scholarships/grants applied to the AGI would be offset by the education credits in 44a--so then you wouldn't want to mention that type of grant income in 44d (that would be duplicating the info). Since fellowships etc... are also taxable and you can't get ed. credits for those, but Fafsa/CSS wants to give the student a "deduction" by taking that income out of the AGI--they give the student a place to do that. So all of the 44 questions are not to get someone to report income, but to allow them a way to take that income back out of their AGI. If someone had a fellowship, they'd get a W-2, right? So then this would allow them to not have fellowship income keep them from getting aid again. They could really make this clearer by simply labeling question 44 "deductions from income!" That would have saved me hours (and days) of searching for this answer (and a bit of worry over whether I was somehow being fraudulent!) Oh wow. That's a blow.

That's what I decided earlier today, so I hope your accountant is correct!

We did, but I'm not quite following how this helps. We elected to count some of DS's grant/scholarship money to go towards room and board rather than tuition. This allows us the tax break for tuition, but means that DS has some income. As this was his only income, and as it was less than the threshold, he didn't have to file tax forms. FAFSA makes clear that they want to know about income on W-2's, even if you didn't file. (I looked up the paper forms, and they have Question 32--if you're not going to file, jump to question 39. Then the instructions say: "Questions 39 and 40 ask about earnings (wages, salaries, tips, etc.) in 2015. Answer the questions whether or not a tax return was filed." I wish they would be just as clear about the remaining questions! Specifically, 44d says this: "d. Taxable college grant and scholarship aid reported to the IRS in your adjusted gross income. Includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances and interest accrual payments), as well as grant and scholarship portions of fellowships and assistantships." The paper form actually puts "reported to the IRS in your adjusted gross income" in bold. Well...it's not reported to the IRS in his AGI because he doesn't have to file. But if he did have to file, it would be. One would think, well, it's obvious, it's not reported so don't fill it out. Except that in the online version, they gray out a whole stack of questions when the student says they aren't filing, while they leave a bunch of others "live," which says to me--they want an answer. Clear as mud to me!

If he's doing 6th grade work this year, I'd start him with level 6. Especially since you are concerned about level 7 being all writing (the grammar in 7 is "optional" and not even in the regular lessons--we never did it when my oldest did level 7). That said, I don't think it will make a HUGE difference if he's 7th grade next year and you prefer to have him in 7. It's not like there's tons and tons of writing. I find Essentials in Writing is pretty easy to pace to our needs. If my kids need an extra day or two to work on an outline or a paragraph or something, we take the days needed. There's no schedule saying how quickly you need to work through the assignments. I just schedule 30 minutes per day for writing for my kids and see how far we get each day.

It's hard to find something specifically on this! I could find info saying to report income on W-2's even if the student didn't have to file. But the only references to this all seem to say what the form says--to report it if it's part of the AGI on the return. I tried calling the helpline which was a labyrinth of pressing numbers that never did get to a real person! Best I can tell is not to include it, but I'm not 100% confident in that answer, LOL!

We only have a few classes that fall into this category. One was a science class that one of mine started one year, but finished the next (the bulk was done in the 2nd year). I gave credit for that one in the year that it was finished. Another was a class done over two summers--one before the year, one after the year (June instead of May). I gave credit in the school year that was between the two summers. Don't overthink it--give credit to the school year that makes the most sense. Usually that will be the year finished, but it could be the year the bulk of the work was done. If it would look like everything was finished senior year, I would probably choose to do a transcript by subject instead of by year. As far as counting time--I do keep track of days. Most of the time, we do an hour per day per credit-hour subject, so I know if we did a subject that day, that's an hour. I don't log time or get overly specific. For an elective like music lessons, I would add up the music lesson time (30 or 60 minute segments, depending on the instructor) and approximate practice time (a daily average, again not a specific log, but time that I feel is accurate). Also noting things like performances etc... If I see it's enough for a credit or half a credit, then I award that.

If a student has grant/scholarship income but not enough to have a filing requirement for federal or state taxes, is there a place for that income on the FAFSA form?

Honestly, I don't think a lot of copywork is worthwhile at age 6, unless she is an early writer/speller who is anxious to learn more. As you said, she doesn't know how to spell the words so she has to copy letter by letter. This is not helping her learn how to spell the word. She is copying letters like she would copy a phone number--one character at a time, instead of realizing that some letters work together as phonograms (like the SH or EE in "sheep.") I find that until a student has a strong grasp of how the phonograms are working in a word, the exercise is taxing and not very fruitful. I'd work on handwriting, learning how certain words work (build incrementally from writing one sound at a time to writing a very short, blended word--can she hold "at" in her mind and write it without looking back at each letter? and slowly building up in very doable steps.) The copywork in most handwriting books, while not always very inspiring, is typically more doable and appropriate for kids at this stage of writing. We used AAS and found that the dictations helped my kids to gradually increase their working memory and their ability to hold more parts in their minds (and eventually more and more words).

BTW, his myers briggs is INFJ. I think of "quality control" when I picture what he'd like, but as he says...he'd have to be VERY interested in the product. When he is, he always has ideas on how it's not made well enough and what should be done better.

I don't think you sound ridiculous--I think you sound like a loving mom. Honestly, it's going to be okay. Kids learn things at all different paces. I'd spend time playing with manipulatives. Edible ones are fun too. If she has 2 raisins, and you give her three more, how many will she have? Then let her eat them :-). We did this with things like peanuts, cheerios, chocolate chips sometimes...as well as manipulatives like base 10 blocks, cuisenaire rods, counting bears (my dd loved the counting bears. She'd put them into families by size or color--lots of adding and subtracting you can do with them). Count lots of things, and play board games that incorporate counting. If you usually set the table for 4 people, but tonight 2 friends are coming for dinner, how many napkins do you need all together? Things like that. My kids also loved problems that involved them pretending to steal my food. For example, "Let's pretend I have 5 cookies, and then you EAT three of my cookies! (use sneaky/joking tone and look--that made mine giggle!) How many cookies do I have left?" Work with 1-10 first and then expand up to 20. Make it fun and don't worry about how quickly she gets it. The important thing is to lay a solid foundation. There isn't one "right" progression for math. Some kids are ready for algebra in 7th grade, some in 8th, some in 9th, some maybe not until 10th. All of them could get in enough math to be "college ready" (doing alg 1, geometry, alg 2). Also, sometimes kids hit a plateau, and then jump ahead at something later--while others just improve slow and steady. It's all okay. Enjoy your charming and wonderful daughter. Miquon didn't resonate with my oldest (he liked to be directly shown things). Sometimes it takes a few tries to find just the right program; that's okay. She'll get there.

Essentials in Writing helped my kids a lot with organization (as well as just getting words on paper). Here's a review I did. We liked that the videos are short (about 5 minutes) and then they work on exactly what was discussed that day. In the paragraph and essay sections, he breaks longer assignments down into doable parts.

It sounds like the other classes are mainly good experiences, so I can see why you would want to continue. I think this may be something that could be solved by better communication. For many high school classes, and for any junior high classes like this history one, it should be made clear ahead of time whether homework will be required. I would even go so far as to say, "Do not sign up for this class if you are not willing to do some homework." or something specific, such as, "This class will require the student to research one historical figure per week and to write notes or a short paper. The student must come to class prepared to share what they have learned. This will be a fun course, but also academic. Students who do not want a class with homework should not sign up." People have different reasons for joining a co-op. If this one is mainly "enrichment," then I would expect little to no homework expected of the student. If your hope is for a high school co-op that could be part of your student's credits (not just "fun to get together with other kids"), then I don't see how you can get around the homework thing. They would have to read, research, write, or be active in some way out of class to have enough hours to make up a half credit or credit--1 hour per week in a class wouldn't be enough to earn a credit, even if they meet for 36 weeks, you know? So, I think the co-op would have to do more defining ahead of time to separate kids into "fun" and "enrichment" versus "academic" or "credit-worthy" classes.

I don't have a good solution for you, but I've never understood kids coming without being prepared (other than something occasional that comes up--it's not like it's a surprise). But when my kids did a co-op, I worked it into our daily routine (speech was part of our writing curriculum, reading a book was part of our lit or Bible time, depending on the book, etc...) Some moms may not do that. We used to throw candy to kids who could discuss/answer questions, but I don't think that really increased the number who read the book.

I'd just do SWO and start vocabulary after that with something that focuses on roots if you need more vocabulary. If you still read aloud, you'll likely expose your kids to a large vocabulary between that, their reading, and daily conversations. (We read aloud through high school and got to some pretty meaty books--it was a fun and painless way to work on vocabulary.)

This came out as a good match for him on one of the things we did too (along with IRS agent, but he said people don't like the IRS so he didn't want to consider that...) He showed a small amount of interest in some insurance fields (claims adjustor/examiner).

Interestingly, many of these came up on his combined aptitude/interest survey results (through Latitude.) One that came up on Strong's Inventory that we all loved--Career Counselor! (For the kid who doesn't know what to do--help others discover what they want to do!)

I have to say that I've been so interested to see whether he'll like statistics. He hasn't been able to get into the class yet (it fills up really fast here!). I think that will be interesting though. Thanks for all the links.

Yeah, I keep trying to think if there is a fit somewhere along those lines. Our CC draws people from around the country for it's wind farm program--but no interest because of heights (balance/coordination issues). Sensory issues kind of rule out greasy things like car repair.

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who thinks so! Thank you! Appreciating all the suggestions!

We used Total Health.

I agree with the others that this sounds like a teacher issue--fall work in February?!! Additionally, I'd point out that the response she is giving (to 6 and 7 year-olds) is not developmentally appropriate either. Ever had a new job as an adult and had to be shown something more than once in order to know what to do? How much more a child. I can understand that she may *think* that she's encouraging children to listen so that she doesn't have to repeat herself ad nauseum, but this really isn't going to work... Why would your daughter ask for help when she's obviously not going to get it? I think you just have the misfortune of breaking in a new teacher. I wonder if the school can do anything to walk alongside her and help her tweak some of her approaches to be more developmentally appropriate for little ones (I'm wondering if she student taught with older kids....)

What do you think of this: Student who still loves Lego and things like Pokemon/Yugioh (into the games and has considered tournament play. He's extremely good at a game we play called Quixx which involves probability--if he's playing the rest of us even in our extended family can almost never beat him). I haven't seen the interest in Lego transfer to machines, but he does love to modify nerf guns, has watched a LOT of videos, takes his guns apart and experiments with different springs and changing things around, cutting parts etc... Doesn't generally like math but seems to have some math aptitude if given enough time (not fast but some good thought processes. Liked Geometry but didn't really like algebra 1 & 2. doesn't want to continue to higher math--well, any higher than he has to, LOL! He knows he'll have to take either statistics or college algebra.) Loves philosophy and history classes but isn't sure he wants to major in either. (I'm not sure if part of the problem is that he isn't sure what he could do if he did major in one of these.) He considered a psychology major because he's always been interested in people's thought patterns, but after a class wasn't as interested--though he hasn't ruled it out. I had him check out Sociology this semester--not sure if it will be a "hit" or "miss." I'd guess he leans more humanities (doesn't like science), but he hates to write and really struggles with it (I'd guess it takes him 3-4 times what most students would need). However, if faced with writing or public speaking, I'm pretty sure he'd choose writing. He has done an aptitude test and several career-interest surveys, spent a semester in high school exploring careers (he was able to find many things he didn't want to do...) He tests as an introverted "specialist"--one who would like to do independent research or be an expert in some area. He likes things to be logical, and he likes structure (hates it when things change, especially last minute). Not interested in computers or programming. If only we knew what that area was, LOL! Sometimes I'm just at a loss as to what to suggest he check out. He's first year college, has time...I try not to worry, LOL!