Publishers often have sold multiple texts for the same course, sometimes just slight versions and sometimes quite different. FYI, I think McDougal-Littell also had another series, which I don't think was the same; at least the Algebra 2 book did not have Larson listed as a coauthor nor did it seem similar in content to Larson's other books which seem different in style and level. A McDougal-Littell 1998 series had Richard Brown and Loring Coes as the lead authors for Algebra 1 and Miriam Leiva and Richard Brown as the lead authors for Algebra 2 (reprinted/republished in 2004). The local public schools here still use the Brown co-authored McDougal-Littell books, to the extent they use books, for honors-level courses. They're not bad books, at least the Algebra 2 book, and their content is similar to common core coverage. If you use a text that doesn't include a few chapters on data analysis and statistics, I'd strongly recommend you include that in your home teaching -- it's so important nowadays.

FYI, AskDrCallahan.com also has (basically daily) lectures using Jacobs Geometry.

I agree with Luckymama that the Aldrete course makes for a true ancient world history survey. Do you need to have the Great Courses plus? What about buying that course and dropping the GC plus? The other courses don't provide the foundation for a world history survey; I'd only use them to the extent you want to focus on a particular topic, if at all.

It's really hard to say without knowing how much time you have, what you've done, and what your DC's background is. Have you read The Well-Trained Mind by SWB yet? The WTM answers exactly this question in a general sense and IMO does an excellent job for literature/English.

I looked over the Amazon description of History of the World by Roberts and Westad and some other reviews, and here's my 2c on what I read. The book has been widely praised for it's clarity and the writers are characterized as noted historians. The book is regarded as going to the why of history. Some criticisms were that it's Western focused (I'm not convinced it's too much in the latest edition and inevitably some biases may creep in), and doesn't contain any citations. While the Roberts and Westad book seems like a gem, and isn't even that expensive (<$25 new), I'm a bit concerned how I'd use it in a world history course analyzing primary sources at times along the way; perhaps I could use a second text to use as a point of departure for analysis but use Roberts and Westad as a spine simply for DS to read as background? Even with the other texts reviewed above, there is some challenge in going to analysis of primary sources and finding good topics for writing essays on history. Does anyone have suggestions for how to go about analysis of primary sources and finding good topics for writing (and evaluating) essays on history?

RESOURCES FOR SPECIFIC TIME PERIODS OR LOCATIONS: Bedford/St. Martins Series in History and Culture (~100 booklets available). Look for used ones as they're a bit expensive new. Annenberg Learner web site, including videos (link to ancient western civilization here). [Thanks, Lori D. from another thread.]

What have you all found for relatively rigorous world history texts? I like the approach of WTM, with a Great Books literature conducted in parallel, but the same texts as a history course spine would seem to work without the accompanying Great Books literature course. In any case, I think it's important to spend a significant amount of time analyzing primary sources and writing essays on history (i.e., developing and practicing the rhetoric). BTW, we are running this as a 3-year cycle (9th grade; ancient, to ~ A.D. 476; 10th: medieval-early modern, to ~ 1850; and 11th: modern, since ~1850), and with a 3-year literature cycle, ancient literature, then medieval-early modern lit.; and modern literature. I'd love to get other perspectives on what would work for a relatively rigorous world history course. Here's what I've found: GLOBAL FOCUS, ACROSS ALL TIME PERIODS 1. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History With Sources by Robert Strayer (Vol 1: to 1500; Vol 2: Since 1500): I'm surprised that I don't see more about this on these boards, since it seems like it would work well for both a relatively rigorous course as well as something approaching a get er done course since it's brief and fairly easy to read. I have both volumes and we may switch to this as our spine, perhaps starting in 10th grade. Or, I may ask DS to read the two volumes as a review and “fill in the gaps†in 11th grade. WotW is very concise and does include some primary sources in the text. However, by being concise, it allows time for delving into select special topics along the way. 2. The History of the Ancient World (and then Medieval,and the Renaissance) by SWB. I bought the first two books, and DS started the first book, but neither of us were that enthusiastic. While I love SWB's Story of the World series for the “grammar stage,†the high school series doesn't seem to match the WTM as a spine for a rigorous course as well as or as easily as Ways of the World IMO. (IMO Ways of the World links more easily to primary sources, is broader in scope, and is more concise; HotAW focuses more on a Western perspective, and more on kings and wars than is my preference.) If your student likes the SWB style, by all means continue. 3. Although we haven't decided if DS will take the test, FYI there is an AP World History course and test. 4. Georgia Virtual schooling website, FYI, although I have not seriously reviewed it. GLOBAL FOCUS BUT ONLY LIMITED TIME PERIOD History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective, Great Courses videos, by Gregory Aldrete: My son and I like these lectures as they balance interest and rigor, although they are very accessible for a less rigorous course. WESTERN CIVILIZATION, ACROSS ALL TIME PERIODS Western Civilization by Noble, Strauss, Osheim, Neuschel, Cohen, and Roberts: We're using this, along with the Aldrete videos as our history spine this year. It strikes me as concise and scholarly, yet not boring. There is some use of primary sources and weighing the evidence. I feel confident that the text provides a sound treatment for a relatively rigorous course. The only downside IMO is that the focus on Western civilization means I need to complement it with a treatment of the rest of the world. Western Civilization by Jackson Spielvogel: I know that a lot of people use this on the boards. I came across the Noble, et al text first, and I couldn't see any reason to use Spielvogel instead – maybe others will chime in and give a reason!

It's been a few years since I looked at what AP Environmental Science covers, but my recollection is that it's a fairly narrow slice of environmental science and mostly focused on ecology. I'd make sure sure you really need the earth science for homeschoolers where he'll be graduating or needing it for college, which I haven't seen needed, esp. if DS isn't interested. There's so much good, interesting science to learn.

There seem to be different scenarios here. While regentrude and others list excellent reasons for taking more than 4 years, there are also scenarios where students drift along and take more than 4 years for no particular reason rather than lack of motivation, lack of availability of courses needed to finish on time (e.g., due to double majors and conflicts in critical needed classes or other limited availability of classes without careful planning from day one), and/or lack of guidance. I'd be interested in seeing four-year graduation rates in many cases, perhaps broken down by liberal arts, engineering, business, etc., but completely understand that there are terrific reasons why non-four-year graduation rates would not be the norm (esp. if I'm not helping to pay for a 5th year of tuition :ohmy:, though 2nd DC would know as the 1st that I wouldn't be helping out with a 5th year, so maybe that would help a little with focus).

Anything by Vandiver is great (although I don't think I used her mythology one due to cost and not being available at library). If you have to narrow it down, I think that the Illiad and Odyssey ones would probably be more beneficial than the full Herodotus set (maybe just the first 4 lectures of Herodotus would be enough), for example. Aldrete's History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective is also excellent and was perhaps my DS's favorite. The only one we ever returned was Algebra 1 by Sellers; IMO only useful for an adult who wants to gain a superficial reaquaintance with algebra without much work. IMO "Great Mythologies of the World" was dreadful. I could not stand the first professor, who seemed to be just telling a story about myths rather than a solid academic presentation: I think of it as "myths about myths." YMMV. I did not listen to the following two or so professors. I enjoyed "Early Christianities" myself and thought it was well done, but we didn't use it with DS because there's so much else to do with him.

We did Jacobs algebra in late 5th-6th grade. It didn't go all that smoothly even though the pre-algebra was super solid and done multiple times just waiting for DS to get older. We used Jacobs geometry (3rd ed) and Callahan videos in late 6th-early 7th and after a slow start, DS really got rolling. DS didn't love the videos -- not that they were bad, but after some early complaints, we found DS didn't need the videos except for a few concepts. Can your DS read a math book himself? That's what my DS did, and it worked great. [not trying to be snarky...just trying to help OP with another possible approach]. Even when a video was needed to explain a concept, my DS found he liked the KhanAcademy.org videos on the topic better and he found them easily himself online by topic. I would not do the algebra review in Jacobs geometry, as it's just rote calculations and just one topic at a time, but I would do some algebra review, like word problems, or start algebra 2 very slowly so the algebra is not forgotten. I'm not sure of your son's age, or what he's been doing in math lately, but if he's in high school now, he may need to do a lot of algebra review to refresh or maintain skills. And, yes, I think it's crazy to plan on stopping math early at this age. The changes from 8th-9th-10th grade can be huge. I'm not saying you need to do calculus in high school, and it's not the most important thing by any means. (If he's not loving precalculus, and is planning on college, perhaps statistics as well as consumer math, while keeping the algebra reviewed at least through 11th grade?)

Watching some fun German TV at home may make the transition to speaking German with the provider go more smoothly (and more quickly). It's also nice to reinforce the language and hear it in different contexts. I would focus on the spoken language until DC can read in English and gets to fluency or close to fluency in spoken German. [My DW spoke Spanish to DS from birth and I spoke English to him. A few months after he learned to read in English, I sat down for 5 minutes with him on two different days to explain how the "rules" for Spanish were different than the English rules (to the extent that English rules exist), and he was reading basic Spanish.] Since German, as Spanish, follows regular rules between the written language and spoken language, it may not be that hard to learn to read German once speaking. But if DC picks up a strong English accent speaking German, it will be difficult to get rid of that and make it harder to be understood when speaking German. So I'd focus very heavily on the spoken language. But I think you may need some other oral, audiovisual materials, including songs and TV, to supplement the time with the day care provider. What a great opportunity for your DC!

I think that the comments above illustrate the hazards of asking questions without context and background. Regentrude and Mike made their interpretations and gave helpful answers, which would match the level of the median high school student of the local high school of perhaps every one of the high schools of the 10-20 places I've lived since I was a kid. But there are clearly high schools in the USA where successfully completing any level of chemistry, including Conceptual Chemistry, would be an accomplishment. Even more importantly, there are also factors of what level of math the student has completed. And what are the goals of the student and parent? Might the student go into a science field? Etc. Context and background matters. One size doesn't fit all, but I think that the OP has received some different perspectives. ETA: In some cases, college texts for non-majors match fairly standard high school courses and may be useful texts for standard high school courses; standard high school courses may assume that lecture is the main means of teaching and the text is merely an attractive-looking reference and source of exercises, whereas many college texts assume that you could learn from the text as the main source of instruction. On the other hand, one of my kids used a CK-12.org chemistry text as the primary source of instruction (to accompany a lab and discussion class), and it worked pretty well for his class for that purpose. Of course, each situation and experience is different.

I'm no expert in Euclid's Geometry and have only gone through parts of the text, but I think it really depends upon how the course is run and if modern math notions are included, as AEC mentioned. Except for a chapter on non-Euclidean geometry usu. included in modern textbooks since I think it was developed in the 1800s, I don't think there's a lot that's different in a general sense. On the other hand, I do think geometry is easier to study in a good modern text as the definitions and postulates are laid out in an easier way and a few bumps are smoothed out in Euclid. I'd actually be more concerned with the changes in the past 30 years in math education than the previous 100 years: I'd be sure to include algebra review and basic data analysis and statistics during the year so those areas continue to develop slowly while studying geometry. ETA: mathwonk used to post on these boards, and he had some nice posts on Euclid which might be of interest to search for.

I would check on the foreign language requirements to make sure that colleges of interest won't require 3 years of the SAME language as a requirement for admission. I really don't know what the current situation is there, but you want to be sure your DS doesn't get tripped up by something so simple. Lori D. had a nice idea with dual enrollment to get 2 high school years in by DE in 12th grade. If it's not too stressful, the summer geometry has some merit. First, it keeps up with the traditional high school path despite the brain injury. Second, it doesn't allow for as much forgetting of algebra as can occur with a full-year geometry course. Finally, geometry can be squeezed in in less time than an algebra 1 or algebra 2 class. For example, the syllabus for Jacobs Geometry (3rd ed.) that AskDrCallahan.com uses is for 24 weeks assuming a full course load during the school year, including review time and algebra review (although I don't think they include a few days on non-Euclidean geometry, which IMO is a good part to have). You could skip the algebra review and maybe cut back a little bit later in the year if pressed for time in the summer.

I think it's a good idea to catch up with the math over the summer. It's kind of a shame to have to use your summer time for the foreign language learning to get up to three years in one language. As a Romance language, Italian will help a bit with English vocabulary, but it's a shame to have to start over with another foreign language so late. If the AP Psych is a big interest, it's OK, but some of the more basic, building-block studies might help college preparation and a college application more -- others may have other ideas here and my thoughts below. I think that the most central of the AP classes for liberal arts colleges are the English and math classes: English language and composition, English Literature and Composition, and math (I think AP calculus, esp. BC, would make this top group, but AP statistics shortly behind). In the next group, my understanding is (others please comment!): AP history classes, AP bio, chem, physics, AP statistics and probably computer sciences and maybe econ, AP foreign languages. Then maybe psych. Finally, some of the classes are AP but aren't going to help, if there are five or fewer AP classes with scores on the college applications, as much in a highly competitive college application, like those mentioned in OP: e.g., AP Human Geography; AP Environmental Science (again, unless you've got the basic science courses covered too). Of course, interest and the quality of the courses is really important too!

I agree with these points above, and Lori D's and other posts are helpful. Hewitt's Conceptual science books wouldn't count as rigorous IMO for high school, although I recognize that everyone has their own opinion and a lot of people find them great for covering the main points; I also wouldn't consider Lial's math books rigorous either as they strike me as pretty calculation focused and lacking the depth of word problems compared to alternatives such as Foerster, which was mentioned above -- again, I realize that everyone has their own point of view, what's good for one student isn't necessarily the best for another and all that, but it's a discussion here and the OP was about rigorous and inexpensive. I haven't seen a lot of discussion on the boards about two inexpensive texts that could be used as part of a rigorous curriculum: World History: Ways of the World: A Global History with Sources (as mentioned by Arcardia above in post #23, with helpful links) World Literature: Norton Anthology of World Literature, condensed or full, 2nd edition, or by its previous title, Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, expanded or regular. Although libraries may have copies of many of the individual works, getting them all can be very difficult, and the Norton Anthologies have good, brief introductions so that you can get to reading the great literature. Thanks for starting this interesting thread.

Thanks! I'm not familiar with that anthology, but I looked at how it was used in courses. The first place that came up was a previously offered Univ of Texas course; apparently, which I qualify since their catalog is hard to follow, Voces del Hispanoamerica was used in a class after a minimum of four semesters, and after approx. 6 recommended courses had been taken. That would seem to place it at the AP Spanish Literature and Culture level or slightly beyond. It would appear to be somewhat comparable to the end of my above list or probably slightly beyond that. FYI, for AP Spanish Literature and Culture, there is a required reading list and a few anthologies tailored to that course. In summary, the order of classes for a non-native speaker would seem to be: Years 1-3 (or semesters 1-3 in college): basic Spanish vocabulary, speaking, grammar, writing Spanish 4: reading of simpler texts in their entirety or selections of more complicated text, with most discussion in Spanish AP Spanish Language and Culture (usu. taken after 4 years high school level Spanish or after 3 intensive years) AP Spanish Literature and Culture Courses Beyond What's Usually Offered at the High School Level Thanks again for sharing this anthology!

We've gone pre-K to early high school without any such issues come up, and there are lots of texts, etc. that would seem to meet your stated criteria easily. (It's easy to avoid those publishers; there's so much out there if you don't have time to check specific works from those relatively few publishers.) Some review is, of course, necessary, including with teachers in bricks and mortar schools, but we wouldn't use materials that hit any of those red-button issues, and haven't had any issues.

Especially if it's feeling a burden, 45 minutes of online course content basically each day seems like a lot to me. I'd rather my DC spend more time reading the Great Books. After spending a lot of time trying to find a broader range of global literature, I purchased the Norton Anthology of World Literature (the less expensive 2nd edition, although it's essentially the same as the older Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces). At least I now have a "baseline" for each time period. The introductions are nice and brief, so you can spend time reading the literature rather than just a textbook. If you really like the course, perhaps you could skip some entire sections going forward. IMO from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance I'd hit more of the relatively few main authors and then slow down again. On the other hand, I'd be sure to get sufficient exposure to global literature (which is why I got the Norton Anthology of World Lit). In any case, I don't think your daughter should feel like it's a burden, Covering the ancients well should have provided a nice foundation for thinking about history and lit and understanding modern references to historical literature and history.

I don't know what algebra review DO includes, but I don't like the Jacobs Geometry (3rd ed) algebra review because they're just simple calculation exercises, and I recall that they're only one topic at a time...so you'd only see that type of problem once in a whole year if that were the only review. I'd prefer to use a mix of word problems from Foerster, either algebra 1 or the beginning of algebra 2, or use KhanAcademy.org, or something else for algebra review.

After spending a lot of time trying to find a broader range of global literature, I also purchased the Norton Anthology of World Lit (the less expensive 2nd edition, although it's essentially the same as the older Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces). At least I now have a "baseline" for each time period. The introductions are nice and brief, so you can spend time reading the literature rather than just a textbook. For the accompanying history, in the ancient time period, we like the Great Courses one by Aldrete. DS reads a lot of world news, and we get literature from a Latin American perspective in his Spanish class. I also have the Great Course on Customs of the World sitting here, and it looks good, but we haven't gotten to it yet.

We aren't using Omnibus, but we're reading the ancients in a Great Books approach this year. If the reading is too much, I would cut back on the reading somewhere but keep reading the original works as you are. I think it did help us by using several of Vandiver's Great Courses audios and videos rather than only using textbook analysis -- it helps to have that mix of reading and audiovisual work. If you need to cut back on the original works, it seems that the options would be to read fewer works or find selections for some works (or some other creative solution like audiobooks if you have a lot of car time, etc.). DS and I were more ambitious early on, such as reading the unabridged Epic of Gilgamesh, reading the full trilogy of the Oresteia rather than just the first play (Agamemnon), but next year and maybe later this year we'll be a bit more selective, such as reading Dante's Inferno rather than the entire Divine Comedy, and we may read sections of Augustine's Confessions rather than the whole thing. On the other hand, we're going to keep reading the original works.

There are a number of comments on Algebra 2 above, and Foerster seems like a reasonable text. Whichever text you use, you'll want to be sure that some data analysis/statistics is incorporated into the class. I think that Jacobs Geometry (at least the 3rd edition which we used) could be used, especially if you're sure to include enough problems which cover proofs (although skip the algebra review problems and substitute with regular algebra review -- you might even want to slowly start algebra 2/trig/college algebra, etc. while you're doing geometry so as not to forget the algebra). If precalculus is of interest, you may want to look at a similar thread specifically for precalculus . Best wishes. Edited to correct typo.

Wow, regentrude, this is awesome. Knight seems to be the way to go. Each of your points really helps. Thanks! Now I'll look through the Knight lesson plans thread and high school physics pinned thread for some videos to accompany. Thanks again!