150-180 hours is typical for a credit. Sometimes you might spend a bit more on an English credit, but I wouldn’t give two full credits unless you are spending at least double that. I would monitor your student’s hours for a few weeks and see how it goes. You could cut back on the work if it’s too much for one credit. Welcome!

Oy! Hope it gets sorted out soon!

The universal ACT Homeschool Code is 969-999. HTH!

You could police it--no phones or things like 3ds during school time--only computer. We collected devices during school times when issues popped up (and occasionally my kids self-policed and brought distracting devices to my desk, LOL!) You could put the computer in a public location and designate a "class time" for internet use. I find public computers are much less likely to be "abused." We did no computers in bedrooms until they went to college and got laptops. I don't regret that decision at all.

What have you used up to this point? Have you looked at Teaching Textbooks or Math-U-See? But if you are switching programs, be sure to use the placement tests first.

And I keep thinking of earwigs, which are really gross bugs!!

I used the Sonlight version (NOT one of the years that had The Light and the Glory though!) Anyway, the US history cores in elementary were two of my favorites.

Ha! Glad it was so much smoother for you the second time around :-).

Just know that for some people, these kinds of tests might not work, so don't be too discouraged if that's the case. My son did so many of these--Youscience, Myers-Briggs, Strong's Inventory, What Color is Your Parachute for Teens (which is a book)--and several others. I was the same way--I never was able to identify a career when I tried tests (and even took a college course!) like this back in the day either. It's fun to do though, and usually you learn something about yourself (my son learned lots of things he did NOT want to do, LOL, but it also got him thinking about things like the type of work environment and how he might like to use some of his skills/personality.)

My state had no portfolio requirements, so I only kept a sample (beginning, middle, end of year) from some subjects for a year. I recycled everything else, and recycled the samples after a year. I had my kids go through their work and decide what to keep each year, and then after that, I looked to see if there were any cute little stories or art work that I wanted. It all adds up fast!

Thanks for the update! I guess that's a loud and clear message...

I used a combination of daily work, discussions, papers, and tests.

Honestly it sounds like she’s doing really well. For the silver Congressional Award, I would ask her what her plan is for finishing up. If she doesn’t have a plan yet, then ask her to come up with one. I always found with my kids that helped to have them decide what they wanted to do and when, instead of me having to try to tell them to do it all the time. So asking them what their plan was gave me a way of helping them to stay on top of things without needing to nag a lot. I also found they were more likely to do things if they came up with the plan.

I have no doubt that Amazon makes a healthy profit on its rentals! Glad you could return the book!

How absolutely awful! Praying you and your daughter can come up with a good plan together.

They recommend MOH for grades 4 and up--usually you would only use it with little ones if they are tagging along an older sibling. That's not to say that you can't use it, but some younger kids might not really be interested yet. I did use it when mine were 3rd and 1st, and that worked fairly well.

If they didn’t want people to return rental books, they wouldn’t allow it. But they specify that they do right in the site guidelines. So return it with no worries. They know that college students drop classes, and that’s probably why they have the policy.

I think dictation can also help to strengthen a student's working memory (we used it to gradually help my kids hold more words in mind at a time, which can make the writing process easier.) I used dictation more for mechanics, but copywork can help with that too. I prefer copywork for longer passages and for focusing on literary elements, but really, both can be used for working on a variety of goals. Here are a couple of blog posts: Copywork and Dictation: Teaching Mechanics Copywork and Dictation: Teaching Literary Elements

For a reluctant writer, you may want to shore up spelling and handwriting a bit more before trying a writing program (or use "oral writing" if you find a composition program that you like but he's not ready for all the writing yet). Sometimes those individual skills really hold a student back. All About Spelling has a gradual writing progression that's really helpful for struggling writers--it starts with words and dictation phrases, moves on to dictation sentences, and then adds in a sentence-writing component by the third level (the levels are not the same as grade levels.) The tiles can help scaffold kids who aren't ready for a lot of writing at first too. Hang in there, third grade is still young--it's not unusual for third graders to not like writing much yet!

You can do either; just make sure to list what you do on the transcript. I used the 10 point scale.

LOL! It’s a good thing you caught them in time!

what are these expensive activities? Blech!

We get almost all textbooks on Amazon, either renting or buying used. I’ve rarely had an issue. Amazon is pretty strict about the edition matching what’s advertised, and someone would easily get that money back for a mismatch. I had an issue last semester where the book was advertised as coming with a CD and being new in the package, but there was no CD. Then the same shipper resent a new book, and it was the teacher edition, LOL! They made it right though, they don’t want to lose their standing on Amazon, and they have to accept returns.

Wow, that’s awful! My son is a transfer student, but there was no charge for parents to come to the transfer student orientation. No meals or overnight were included, but they had a special for lunch that we got for $6.99, and it was really good. Your comment made me check, and for the freshman orientation, parents pay 33 for meals if they are not staying overnight, or 102 if the hotel stay is included. So, I guess if the $150 is including the hotel stay and all the meals, maybe that’s not so bad.

This is what I would do too. I wouldn’t try to carry things on into next year and think that you’ll finish up. I think that’s going to get too overwhelming and burdensome. I would just start fresh in the fall, think about the things that you didn’t do as much of this year such as writing or discussions or science labs, and make sure to focus on those things next year in her new classes . It’s not unusua even in a school to only get through 3/4 of a textbook, so I would just move on.