Course using Knight and Giancoli, from Dicentra follows: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: College Physics: A Strategic Approach by Knight, Jones, and Field Publisher: Addison Wesley Where to buy: http://www.amazon.co...sics knight 1st Level: Algebra-based College Physics Type: Textbook Additional Materials: Yes Student Study Guides (Volumes 1 & 2) http://www.amazon.co...d_bxgy_b_text_y http://www.amazon.co...d_bxgy_b_text_z Teacher Resources: Depends – sometimes you can find teacher's editions used Thread with links to Regentrude's lesson plans: http://forums.welltr...t/#entry4061922 And tests: http://forums.welltr...t/#entry4208643 Lesson Plans: Yes – see above Secular/Christian: Secular Program includes labs: No Lab kit available: No Math background needed: Algebra 1 + Basic Trig ----------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Physics: Principles with Applications by Douglas Giancoli Publisher: Pearson/Prentice Hall Where to buy: http://www.amazon.co...6200?pldnSite=1 Level: Algebra-based College Physics Type: Textbook Additional Materials: Yes Student Study Guide http://www.amazon.co...DSFX1BCTQPJD7BT http://www.amazon.co...DSFX1BCTQPJD7BT Companion Website: http://wps.prenhall....i_physicsppa_6/ Answers (Note: This is a subscription site – I have no idea how legit it is. Use at your own risk.): https://www.giancolianswers.com/ Teacher Resources: Yes Test Item File: http://www.amazon.co...physics teacher Instructor's Resource Manual: http://www.amazon.co...physics teacher Lesson Plans: No Secular/Christian: Secular Program includes labs: No Lab kit available: No Math background needed: Algebra 1 + Basic Trig -----------------------------------------------

I'm looking for a physics course (text and/or free online videos like Coursera or MIT/OCW – I'd love to have video "labs," for example) to accompany a precalculus math course (specifically, using Foerster's Precalculus text, which has quite a few physics word problems). Religious content is ok but not assuming a 6000 year earth. From the pinned thread on this board, the texts by Knight College Physics, Giancoli Physics: Principles with Applications, and Singapore Physics Matters seemed like they might work, but I'm open to others; I'm leaning toward Knight (which edition?). I've copied the details, including accompanying problems and videos, from the pinned thread for those three texts in the next post. I don't really know how long it will take to go through the Foerster Precalculus text – it could be a month and a half to a year and a half, so might it be better to wrap up the first high school physics course early and go to a calculus-based physics if the student is very gung ho about the math and physics? Thanks!!

May I ask if those were the numbers of credits before college application or before completing high school? Thanks!

The Great Courses History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective by Aldrete is very good, and I'd recommend it for part of your course. I haven't used it, but the text Ways of the World: A Global History with Sources has been recommended elsewhere (by Chrysalis Academy) and looks good to me. ETA: I'm not sure what your English/literature plans are for that year, but the Norton Anthology of World Literature has very nice historical summaries at the beginning of each literature groups (i.e., times and places), which would make for a nice and efficient connection between the courses if you're matching lit. and history. If you do use the Norton Anthology for a one-year course, I'd use the two-volume shorter version rather than the complete or extended version.

If she'd be done with Brown, the first course would seem redundant. The second course might be a nice transition to see some uses of upcoming math and might help motivate those upcoming math classes. The third one would seem to depend whether computer science is of interest. Brown would fill the "college algebra" prerequisite and provide a start on the discrete math part; on paper, it looks like she'd be well prepared, but I would talk with the professor first to make sure nothing's missed -- like if all the students are mathematically mature, have had multiple calculus classes in practice, have already encountered some of the ideas in previous computer science classes, etc.

Has anyone used the Norton Anthology of World Literature for high school world lit? There have been a number of discussions about Great Books literature, including following the WTM, but I haven't seen many or any discussions of using the Norton Anthology of World Literature (previously called Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces). The Norton Anthology, especially the shorter version, seems like a terrific basic text for a lot of the readings. We developed a reading list, but I don't have a lot of background in non-Western/non-Middle East ancient literature to pick particular works, translations, and provide brief background information for the literature of China, India, etc., but I wanted to provide a more global literature class (ancient in 9th grade). The Norton Anthology seems to provide all that, so I'm surprised that I don't read more about it here. Have others used it? How? What was your experience? Specifically, we're planning on using previous edition of the Norton Anthology, shorter version, Vol. 1, for the literature of China and India part of our ancient and medieval literature course (only 4 bucks including shipping). Does anyone have any suggestions to share? Thanks.

Without knowing your goals, your student's interests, which Dolciani you've finished, etc., it's impossible to provide guidance. I will note that the first one looks like high school math, the second looks like a general description of calculus for prospective finance students, and the third one a common topic for computer science students. (FYI, the third course is mathematically similar to topics sometimes covered in a possibly simpler way less focused on computer science in some high school courses, such as AoPS Intro to Counting and Probablity, AoPS Intro to Number Theory, Richard Brown's Advanced Mathematics: Precalculus with Discrete Mathematics and Data Analysis.)

OK, we didn't use it like SWB recommends, but we did use it. FYI, I did not ask DS to find examples, as I thought it would have taken a lot of time for the benefit. DS had already finished a proofs-based geometry class, so the logical part of it was pretty easy to get by that point, and we discussed examples. (By the way there is a Workbook which goes along with it, which has examples.) It was a very helpful book, it's a nice complement to geometry, and the book is very concise. DS thought it was a good book too. Our issue is still more the presentation and style in writing, however, rather than grasping the ideas, the logic and rules.

Setting a fixed amount of time has put us "on the same team"; we are now clearly working together to get as much done in the allotted time. It has changed our relationship significantly for the better. It's reduced stress and made school more pleasant. The fixed-time schedule has also helped with fostering good discussions for us, without DS feeling it will cost him a longer day. I also have the tendency to add too much to a syllabus, so this helps. We don't track as closely. My DS would hate a timer. I actually keep track of time based on DS's report and my observation. Fortunately, the time spent is matching the syllabus pretty well over the course of months. We have a lot of flexibility in 9th grade. I'm not sure if it will work as well in future years as now. My DS doesn't like stopping in the middle of a chapter, so he "goes longer" or "stops sooner" to match a chapter break (or section break). Thanks for starting this spin off!

FYI, WWS is a parts-to-whole approach to writing, which works for some kids and doesn't for others. There are a number of reviews of writing curricula; you might want to search on one or so when you've narrowed it down. One thread I found especially useful was this one.

I certainly can't speak for lewelma, but I find that when my younger DS is particularly focused, he often spends less time in meals, like 5-10 min, and gets back to something he's been working on. In his case, during those focused times he's usually got a better work/non-work balance of work hard/then do his own thing. So true what WMA said, "balance will look different to everyone."

I also wouldn't characterize Foerster's as teaching by discovery. I think what you already have is probably a good choice unless there's some other reason.

Nothing immediately strikes me as unreasonable.

I posted this in the Bilingual Education Board but thought there might be some interest here too, so I'm sharing a reading list roughly for high school Spanish 4 (the first one might be appropriate for Spanish 3, and #4-7 might be appropriate for an AP Spanish Language and Culture class). These all include materials originally written in Spanish (not translations), with some literary value, and of interest to a high-school-aged student: Andrade, Marcel (ed.) Classic Spanish Stories and Plays (in Spanish), on the easier side of this list. Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes. Varona-Lacey, G. (ed.) Contemporary Latin American Literature (in Spanish). Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes. Quevedo, F. Aventura Caribe, maybe more middle school level for native speaker? Sepúlveda, F and L Díaz (eds.) Cuentos Latinoamericanos Garcia-Marquez El Coronel No Tiene Nadie Con Escribir Bastidas Padilla, C. Quetzalcóatl y Otras Leyendas de América Cuentos latinoamericanos (Prologue by Conrado Zuluaga, analysis by Maria Candelaria Posada; Publisher: Alfaguara Juvenil/Santanilla). Appears to be for solid high school students in Latin America The list is roughly in order of difficulty. I tried to avoid lengthy works so as to provide a variety of texts, especially since Spanish reading speed may not be as fast as English. There are also a few other materials which may be of interest for others in this situation: (A) there's a great highly abridged, paraphrased Spanish graphic novel of Don Quijote de la Macha by Oceano press. Highly entertaining and you get some of the main storyline; (B) Michael Clay Thompson's vocabulary building texts for English speakers have a lot of words that tie in nicely with Spanish for bilingual students, especially Caesar's English 1, Caesar's English 2, and, to a lessor extent, Word Within the Word 1; © A nice book, in English, on the early history of the Americas is The Ancient American World (Oxford Press). It's probably at the middle school level, but could be used for early high school unless you find something more appropriate. If anyone else has additional suggestions for this level, I'd love to hear them.

There was a previous thread last year on AP Spanish Language and Culture for native Spanish speakers, but I thought I'd take a step back and share a list of readings I've (struggled to ) come up with for pre-AP Spanish for a native speaker. In our case, it's for a 9th grade native Spanish speaker, or roughly something like high school Spanish 4. These all include materials originally written in Spanish (not translations), with some literary value, and of interest to a high-school-aged student: Andrade, Marcel (ed.) Classic Spanish Stories and Plays (in Spanish), on the easier side of this list. Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes. Varona-Lacey, G. (ed.) Contemporary Latin American Literature (in Spanish). Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes. Quevedo, F. Aventura Caribe, maybe more middle school level for native speaker? Sepúlveda, F and L Díaz (eds.) Cuentos Latinoamericanos Garcia-Marquez El Coronel No Tiene Nadie Con Escribir Bastidas Padilla, C. Quetzalcóatl y Otras Leyendas de América Cuentos latinoamericanos (Prologue by Conrado Zuluaga, analysis by Maria Candelaria Posada; Publisher: Alfaguara Juvenil/Santanilla). Appears to be for solid high school students in Latin America The list is roughly in order of difficulty. I tried to avoid lengthy works so as to provide a variety of texts, especially since Spanish reading speed may not be as fast as English. There are also a few other materials which may be of interest for others in this situation: (A) there's a great highly abridged, paraphrased Spanish graphic novel of Don Quijote de la Macha by Oceano press, which is really late elementary school level but could be used later. Highly entertaining and you get some of the main storyline; (B) Michael Clay Thompson's vocabulary building texts for English speakers have a lot of words that tie in nicely with Spanish for bilingual students, especially Caesar's English 1, Caesar's English 2, and, to a lessor extent, Word Within the Word 1; © A very nice book, in English, on the early history of the Americas is The Ancient American World (Oxford Press). It's probably at the middle school level, but could be used for early high school unless you find something more appropriate. If anyone else has additional suggestions for this level, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!! Although I'm not familiar with The Ways of the World, it looks like a good choice for a text, probably more appropriate for a lot of folks than what we're using. I really like many of SWB's suggestions for history and Great Books in the WTM, but we didn't find her HotAW to make a good text for 9th grade (or earlier or later) history, at least for us; since we'd started that way, we had to quickly switch text. It sounds like Ways of the World has a lot of contact with primary sources, which was one of our criteria. I also like that you've got a number of other Eastern sources listed. I kind of jumped to the Norton Anthology's Chinese and Indian sections, but your choices sound good. FYI, another side book, which looks interesting to me is Herodotus and Sima Qian: the First Great Historians of Greece and China: a Brief History with Documents.

Younger kids certainly can pronounce words like they're taught much better, but they also have the potential to learn exceedingly well in general. My guess is that whatever research you're referring to is focused on outcomes that may not be reflective of broad language learning. IMO age 11 or earlier is the best time to learn a second, or third language if possible and there's a way to practice it.

Having spent the previous year in bricks and mortar school sandwiched by homeschooling, I can most certainly say that my DS did not get it done quicker in B&M school. Your other suggestions may very well apply in our case...can't speak for Derek, of course.

This is what we're doing for a Great Book's based approach for 9th grade (ancient period).. We are having a history class and a literature course closely coordinated. (FYI, we are having a third course on composition and rhetoric, plus math, science, and Spanish, etc.) I'll start with the history course as it will make the book list clearer. Any comments on this year in progress are appreciated. 9th grade. World history: Early world history (with a focus on five classical civilizations): The primary historical background (spine) is The Great Courses “History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective†by Dr. Andrete. As a quick background we used the fairly easy book, The Ancient Greek World (Oxford Press) and may use the companion books The Ancient South Asian World, The Ancient Chinese World, and The Ancient American World. We are also reading the ancient part (through A.D. 600) of Western Civilization by Noble, Strauss, et. al. The history course is closely coordinated with the literature course. We spent 2 months in Europe this fall and saw some things that complement this year’s course. 9th grade (ancient) literature and reading list for literature and history courses: In addition to the reading list below, we have discussions and are using four Great Courses literature videocourses.(Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, first 24 lectures; Vandiver’s Odyssey, Herodotus, and Greek Tragedy). This is our draft reading list for us for this year (9th grade): The Epic of Gilgamesh [translated by Andrew George] (first watched video here and read this brief introduction ) The Bhagavad Gita (translation?) Homer The Iliad (excerpts, all selections from The Norton Book of Classical Literature, ed. by B Knox) Homer The Odyssey (translation by Robert Fagles); supplemented with Vandiver Odyssey Great Course Aeschylus Oresteia trilogy [translated by Peter Meineck] Aristotle Poetics (tr. by Ingram Bywater) Sophocles Oedipus the King Sophocles Antigone Euripides Medea Aristotle Rhetoric (translation by Rhys Roberts; linkage with our writing program). Aristophanes- one play, probably The Clouds (which discusses Socrates) and readings by Xenophon on Socrates. Herodotus Histories (Robin Waterfield translation) and Vandiver audio course. Thucydides The History of the Peloponnesian War (abridged version in Viking Greek Historians) Plato 4 dialogues in Biffle’s A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato Readings from the Old Testament (Job, Genesis, parts of Deuteronomy, Isaiah, etc.) New Testament (maybe not all) Plato The Republic, probably not in its entirety (translation by Robin Waterfield?) Virgil Aeneid ? (translation by Robert Fagles? Or an abridged version) Augustine Confessions (is there an abridged version?) Although we’re highly Greek-centric by design, for diversity we'll also be reading some original or other ancient sources from other cultures in various continents before broad internationalization, some of which will be immediately before colonization, such as in the Americas. Although it's strictly "out of time sequence," the practical effect is that of a primarily independently developed culture. Finally, we are going to try to read the ancient literature from China and India in the Norton Anthology of World Literature (Volume I, short version). I hope this helps! (Any comments would also be appreciated.)

I first read this as essays as examples for learning to write essays, which is what my list was above. For historically important essays, you may want to look at SWB's high school reading list which includes a few essays which are highly worthwhile for every high schooler, including those by Locke and ML King.

FYI, we made an abrupt change to a time-based or time-limited schedule. I'll never forget the change in our DS's attitude, apparent happiness, and improved focus that happened (starting Dec. 7). I'm not saying you shouldn't go gradually, but I'm just sharing our experience. Also, although it's hard to tell, I think that DS has learned as much in his 40-42 hour schedule as with the old schedule. YMMV. Best wishes!!

We have friends living a crazy lifestyle, IMO, and often means the kids spending over 70 hours per week working, including school time, homework, and extracurricular activities "that look good." We know of many kids who frequently or usually sleep 4-5 hours per night during the school year throughout high school. Personal reading time, well rested, and good natured, in addition to well educated are really important. The first three are non-negotiable in our goals, and we try to exceed the B&M school education as well if possible.

(my bolding of text) I'm actually more concerned about making sure the "educated adult" part is well accomplished than the professional preparation part, though that is also a factor. And, so true, "before we know it, it will be out of our hands." That causes me a bit of anxiety, even though things appear to be going so well.

This is a great thread and hits on so many issues relevant to us too. I could have quoted 10 comments and commented on them, but I only quoted the last one since I thought I might overload the "Multiquote" function :ohmy: . We have some similar issues with my 9th grade DS too. He's very academically oriented, or really more "interested" in his case, and probably always has been, at least since it was obvious by his 3rd birthday. Looking back, we probably started to have some issues in 7th or 8th grade. He had been homeschooled most of the time until 8th grade and is back to homeschooling. In outsourced classes prior to 8th he would often complain about homework he thought was "busy work," and he had a pretty low threshold. In 8th when he went to a program with kids and coursework supposedly two years advanced, he loved the environment with the serious students, and he had very good to outstanding teachers in each subject. As in OP, DS was much more interested in learning the material than the grades, which he didn't really seem to care about (it worked out fine, but his indifference was a bit of a concern to me). Another thing really became noticeable to me: he still would do his own reading most days, often before doing his homework. At the time, I thought it was simple procrastination, but I now think it was mostly that he really wanted to explore his own topics. DS decided to go back to homeschooling for 9th (mostly because that school program ended after 8th and he'd heard there was a lot of "busy work" at the high school, and we wanted to travel a lot). Due to travel schedules, we couldn't really outsource anything, and that was fortunate for us. I also wanted DS to explore some interests, since he seemed to be interested in almost everything academic and just vaguely thought he'd focus on (natural) sciences. We started with an assignment-based system, but switched to a time-based system after awhile. Immediately, with the time-based system (basically 7 1/2 hours per day Mon-Sat), DS's focus was super-sharp on my assigned work, and he seemed to be getting more done. He also has seemed to spend much of his free time on academic topics (e.g., we're doing ancient world history for our social studies, but I think he's done as much work completely on his own on US history as I would have required for a high school US history course). At least I think I don't worry that I'm pushing him, and he's discovering some interests, in addition to learning some stuff. As a post said above, I do need to get him moving a bit...and what a change that is from 8th to 9th grade! I'm also concerned about DS finding intellectual peers in college, which makes the incentive to go toward a more elite school, but I've also decided to leave it on him to push himself, if he really wants to. There are other ways to find intellectual peers, I've decided, outside the confines of the first few years of college. I'm also really concerned about having too much sway with these decisions. Maybe that will change in the next year. In the meantime, I try to keep our eye on the main goals and close as few options possible without going crazy.

FYI, here is a list of readings we've found useful for a 9th grade native Spanish speaker, or roughly something like high school Spanish 4: Andrade, Marcel (ed.) Classic Spanish Stories and Plays (in Spanish), on the easier side of this list. Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes. Varona-Lacey, G. (ed.) Contemporary Latin American Literature (in Spanish). Nice, brief introductions and vocabulary footnotes. Quevedo, F. Aventura Caribe, maybe more middle school level for native speaker? Sepúlveda, F and L Díaz (eds.) Cuentos Latinoamericanos Garcia-Marquez El Coronel No Tiene Nadie Con Escribir Bastidas Padilla, C. Quetzalcóatl y Otras Leyendas de América Cuentos latinoamericanos (Prologue by Conrado Zuluaga, analysis by Maria Candelaria Posada; Publisher: Alfaguara Juvenil/Santanilla). Appears to be for solid high school students in Latin America Two other notes: (A) Of AP Spanish Language and Literature textbooks, Temas by Vista Higher Learning seems the most recommended. I find it to be a bit "textbooky" and perhaps designed more for a classbook supplement than for a native speaker; supposedly the accompanying online site requiring a code, which only comes when specifically promised, has a lot of audiovisual materials; (B) there's a great highly abridged, paraphrased graphic novel of Don Quijote de la Macha by Oceano press, which is really late elementary school level but could be used later. Highly entertaining and you get some of the main storyline. If anyone else has additional suggestions for this level or the level of AP Spanish Language and Culture (or AP Spanish Literature and Culture), I'd love to hear them. ETA: edited for format and to add the 7th text and two other notes.