I don't know your DC nor the particulars of the classes, so take this with a big caveat, but it doesn't strike me as too much. If, for example, the IHF and creative writer, for example, are pleasant diversions, that makes it easier. As a backup, you could make one a half credit if you're having a hard time completing it or going a bit into the summer. On the other hand, it's harder to add something well into the year if you're already pretty booked. My 2c. It will probably all be pretty clear as the year goes on.

We're in the middle of this now, and I'm planning to have it as three credits as that's the way it feels to me and the amount of work involved as I think all three areas are important for him, at least in 9th grade. If it evolves differently, or ends up taking much less time than it looks now, we may modify things. I'm also planning on the transcript showing the literature and history as individual courses but making clear that they're coordinated. We read the literature roughly as the history is covered, but the skills we're striving to develop and enhance are somewhat distinct. Schools often coordinate things like having American (U.S.) History and American (U.S.) Literature courses offered the same year and enter them separately. Our literature and history are closely connected, but our "rhetoric & composition" isn't particularly connected to the lit. and history; also, in our case, I think we're reading and analyzing literature to an extent worthy of a separate course. I don't think there's just one right way to do it.

Many of us seem to worry about helping or making sure our kids get into college. I suspect that the super-achieving kids's parents are worried just like the rest of us. Even when my older, non-homeschooled kid applied to colleges, I worried about it. I guess it's part of the territory with having kids. :ohmy: Congratulations again to yours on the first acceptance!!

Just to be sure we're all understanding, I think that colleges that require or encourage SAT subject tests usually ask for them from both SAT and ACT takers. SAT subject tests are usually more of a test of a high school course content rather than a more general test. (There may be some exceptions, as always, for individual colleges.)

That's the way I felt when I looked at Stewart's basic calculus too. Even in standard, non-AoPS books, there are many books with more joyful problems. (Multivariable calculus has much slimmer pickings IMHO.)

[Question was on AoPS Intermediate Algebra] No. We took a little over 2 months this fall to travel in Europe :-) and the AoPS was neglected :-( DS picked the AoPS, but he's not that enthusiastic about it so far, thus not spending that much time on it, so progress is very slow..

I'm assuming you don't want to do this yourself, but one possibility would be to do the history and literature at home using the Great Books, as discussed in WTM and then get a tutor to work on writing matching your history and lit. (For writing, we're using Writing with a Thesis by Skwire and Skwire and other material and will likely get a tutor for awhile.) We're economizing on other parts by using Great Courses History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective as a spine, from the library, as well as many of the Great Books literature from the library and will spend our money on writing.

This current year for us. May evolve, especially since we're traveling a lot this year, but roughly: 1. Writing: Writing with a Thesis by Skwire and Skwire and other material. Maybe a tutor for awhile. 1a. A student-led public speaking club to make this into somewhat of a communication "class"/credit 2. Ancient History using Great Courses History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective as a spine, misc. readings including some coordinated with Great Books literature and some European travel in the fall. FYI, we're using SWB's History of the Ancient World book as a discussion point to discuss a different perspective on what's included in a history course vs. what's not. 3. Ancient Literature using a Great Books approach similar to WTM recommendations [i'll try to update with a link to our readings here] 4. Math. AoPS Intermediate Algebra (text only). We may abandon the AoPS and go to Foerster's Precalculus (then Foerster Calculus as an alternative sequence) 5. Science. Home grown. 6. Spanish, roughly Spanish 4 (at home), reading short stories, a little bit of writing, grammar, and cultural studies. We speak a lot of Spanish at home, so this is just starting to fill in gaps.

Many or most selective US universities also consider AP classes and scores differently. Some AP courses receive credit and some don't, varying somewhat by university, although there are some general patterns. To receive credit, sometimes the score varies by course. And I've also heard that some courses are viewed more favorably than others for admissions, although that may vary depending upon college and major as well as other individual factors.

DS thinks using Writing with a Thesis by Skwire and Skwire is an excellent text and has been very worthwhile.

Thanks! There are a lot of positive reviews of this book (and a lot of inexpensive not-quite-latest editions at AbeBooks.com), and I picked up a copy too. DS is finding WWaT an excellent text, and I'm hoping this will extend the teaching a little bit with more examples. Does anyone have any other suggestions for what would make a nice follow up for non-fiction writing after WWaT? Texts, exercises, etc., but not busy work. I'd really like for DS to become a good writer. Although he comes up with really good ideas and has no trouble with grammar, oftentimes the product is rougher than it could be. Perhaps I should get a tutor as the dynamic of "correcting" your own teenage son gets tiring for both of us, esp. for something a bit subjective. He's interested in natural sciences and social sciences the most, but his interests are fairly broad.

I don't know your son, but I would tread carefully with existential nihilist novels, esp. under about age 18. They can be seriously depressing. At about age 15, I didn't find Kafka's Metamorphosis depressing, but some stories really are, especially longer ones, even after age 18, although with age they seem to have less risk. Sorry I don't have great suggestions, but it seems that reading in a group of non-depressed people would help. Maybe just discussing with you along the way is sufficient. And I'd agree with the comment above about shorter ones having a benefit of not getting as deeply involved in the characters for a long time. Your mileage may vary.

Your question seems similar to a previous thread entitled "Rigorous Precalculus": (http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/546309-rigorous-precalculus/?hl=%2Brigorous+%2Bprecalculus&do=findComment&comment=6288484) and two to consider would be Foerster Precalculus and Brown's Advanced Math, which are discussed in that post. They're both not AoPS, and not as challenging; they are roughly the next step down yet thorough. They are both more traditional unlike AoPS. They also both have solutions manuals.

It certainly makes sense to have your three kids do geometry together for your sanity. I really like the KhanAcademy.org for regular review and you may want to pick up another algebra 1 book and go through it as review, including solving real world/word problems, while you're doing geometry. It's very important not to forget algebra 1 while doing geometry so as not to have to redo much of the course before algebra 2. I don't think it's unreasonable to spend, say, 20% of your time in "geometry" with algebra review. You might save yourself a lot of time at the beginning of algebra 2. I'd also make sure that you start or continue to get some data analysis and simple probability and statistics into your curriculum at this time. A lot of high school texts from the last 15-20 years incorporate data analysis into the texts, even if it's an "algebra" or "geometry" book since it's so useful. Best wishes.

Their web site is: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/ They are often college professors who come into their studio and give the courses. They are not generally designed for homeschooling in particular; I think their biggest market is adult continuing education, but some can be a very useful part of a homeschool course from about middle school onward depending on the course. You really need to look at the courses, the reviews, and how it might fit into your home school plan. A number of the courses are discussed in existing threads. If there's one not covered where you have questions of how it might work in a course, start a new thread.

I totally agree with the fabulousness of Engaging Ideas and went off to check out (and then buy a used 6th ed.) of Allyn and Bacon. Thanks, EKS! We have a lot of writing books, but the Allyn and Bacon looks like a nice place to go for an explanation of how to handle a particular issue.

Another approach to testing concepts chapter by chapter would be to test each topic in KhanAcademy.org. You'd get immediate feedback, with help built in where needed. We kind of did that with Jacobs and it worked well.

Our experience has been more like those above rather than critical. In fact, in our more-ambitious-than-average community, I've been asked several times about homeschooling by parents who are concerned that their kids in bricks-and-mortar school might be falling behind home-schooled kids. Most of the time, especially in recent years, it's been more of a curiosity or ho-hum, "different strokes for different folks" attitude.

If Turkish is indeed a very phonetic language, I'd teach reading in English first. We're a bilingual Spanish/English family, and DS learned to read in English first and then Spanish -- it worked great and was easy going in that direction. The Spanish seemed easy since it's phonetic and very regular, unlike English. Reading in English second might have seemed difficult for DS. Good luck! By the way, we started Spanish only about a month after basic English reading was going and that worked fine for DS.

I would definitely do statistics in that situation. Statistics will help to read a newspaper, help understand medical treatments, help to understand investing, and help to understand modern daily life in general. An excellent text is Starnes, Yates, and Moore. It says it's for AP, but it's pretty clear and straightforward -- IMO, easier than much of algebra 3 and it will probably seem more relevant to the student. A lot of school math textbooks in the past 20 years for middle school and high school have some basics of data analysis if the student hasn't had that, as perhaps a gentle introduction. There are also some free online videos which go through the Starnes, et al book section by section if any section is difficult to understand. As a good, free way to keep up on basic algebra skills, and perhaps make a little bit of progress, KhanAcademy.org could be used together with the statistics book. (Unless it's recently changed, statistics is the weak part of Khan Academy, and I would not recommend it.)

Does anyone have any suggestions for writing prompts for high school students? I'm looking for things that would provide challenging but interesting arguments for a 14-year old, good topics for literary analysis, etc. Thanks! Brad

SWI-C would seem to work well for most 9th graders without SWI-B. (We never used IEW before starting IEW SWI-C in middle school at the recommendation of one of DS's former teachers. He got through half of it then, and we got distracted. We'll now go through all of SWI-C in 9th.)

Does anyone have experience with using Temas by Vista Higher Learning for high school Spanish 4 or AP Spanish Language and Culture? Temas is used in our local school district, by Ray Leven's class for homeschoolers, Johns Hopkins CTY, and elsewhere. We'd be using it for one DS at home, although we may do a few activities with another student. (DS is fluent in spoken Spanish but could use some work on reading, writing, and is very interested in cultural studies.) Selecting literature and writing assignments one by one is rather time consuming and supposedly this should be geared to a high school-level audience. Thanks! Brad

I also thought Jacobs 3rd edition had plenty of proofs, at least if the problems assigned cover proofs. IMO Jacobs 3rd edition provides a very solid logic training unless, of course, you avoid the problems that follow up on the proofs. I'm sure it's not as challenging as AoPS's geometry, but we were very, very pleased. Most books I looked at were not sufficient in their proofs/logic IMO. DS at age 11 went through the book almost entirely on his own, and I was impressed that the presentation must have been very good and clear because my DS will definitely complain if there's an error or logical inconsistency (not sure if I should put a smiley face or sad face here! It can be tiring!). FYI: Given my math background, the kind of oral exams I gave DS were primarily related to proofs, we went over the non-Euclidean geometry at the end very thoroughly, and we went through some of the proofs in Euclid's original (translated to English), so we were not avoiding proofs. But I think Jacobs 3rd edition can be used by non-mathematician families too. I was just trying to make the point that I think the text works for a lot of kids, including those whose parents are interested in proofs.

It's not uncommon to struggle with algebra 1, and you're probably doing the right thing to review in the summer. Even if algebra 1 had been a breeze, it could have been forgotten without review. Another possibility is KhanAcademy.org It's especially nice for review. Can't beat the price either. If you're looking for another text, I'd probably use Foerster's algebra 1 for review. It will probably result in deeper understanding than Lial, especially the second time through, although everyone's different. If the algebra 1 is solid enough, you could slowly start algebra 2, which will include some review of algebra 1.