I didn't see anyone recommending Scratch or Alice. Both of these are 'introductory' languages which I use to teach computer programming at our homeschool co op. They contain all the programming principles you are looking for, but they are easy to learn as you use drag and drop commands instead of having to learn syntax. Kids are programming and making simulations and games within hours. Scratch was developed by MIT and Alice by Carnegie Mellon - both were an attempt to make programming more accessible to the modern teen. I have written a whole page about these with links to examples etc - How to Teach Computer Programming to Kids. Many schools and colleges are using these as an Intro to Computing before moving on to Java.

My kids also used that one (Jan's 101 - jegworks). Youtube also has great tutorials.

I agree with the previous posters - the schedule is great the way it integrates everything and you know just what to do each day - no prep needed at all. And later - my kids learned so much from the notes! The notes teach them how to understand the literature etc (mine scored really well on AP exams as a result). And used IGs are cheap - msg me ... I may have what you are looking for! I have a lot and my youngest is now using core 6.

Try to get one within the last 10 years at least. I bought a globe about 5 years ago and I don't plan to replace it ... If your kids are still young, you will probably use the same one till they graduate school, so don't get one that is too old.

It depends on the level of LOF. For Fractions and Percents I used it as supplemental to Singapore. Will do the same for pre-algebra. But I used it as stand-alone for Algebra and Geometry and Trig.

Obviously all news comes with the bias of the author - I don't think one ever gets 'just the facts'. I use twitter to hear breaking news - and then read the sources the tweets link to. Usually people I follow have a variety of different sources and reading a few different ones one can pick out the 'facts'. For a magazine, I love God's World News.

What does he enjoy? That is the first place to start. If he likes playing war-related video games - look for books set in wars. If he is into sports, then find books related to sports. I am sure he has some passion - find literature that he can relate to. I would start like that - even if you have to devise your own literature course to achieve it. Do that for next year. Then in future years move to books that are a bit more challenging - but keep throwing in some he will like. By the time he graduates you do want him to be able to read easily if he intends on going to college. He will have to read there, so you want to make sure he is ready for that.

For Bible in high school I focus on worldview studies as want my kids to be ready to cope when they leave home. The two main ones we use are Understanding the Times (which is in SL - core 300) and Starting Points by David Quine. We do Starting Points spread over 4 years as it is a lot. It starts by examining the basic teachings of the Bible and then leads students into using a Biblical Worldview to analyze literature, movies etc. I highly recommend both of these - they are definitely very meaty!! My kids have been challenged and have learned a great deal.

Just realized this is an old thread so am deleting what I wrote as it is now irrelevant.

For a full curriculum, My Father's World has a nice geography program for younger kids, and there is Galloping the Globe. My daughter didn't get too excited by either, but they do cover the basics. If you want to do it more informally and in a fun way, I have written up quite a few ideas on How to teach your kids Geography. I include online games, ways to use the news etc.

My one son used TT for Algebra and Geometry. He breezed through it getting practically everything correct, so I was thrilled with it. BUT then he started taking PSAT, SAT and ACT - and his math scores did not reflect the grades he got on TT. Now I realize TT is easy. It is very well laid out and I love the fact that all the solutions are worked out, but if you want to prepare your child to get into a competitive college, and if ACT / SAT results will be important to you - this is not a good program. We moved to Life of Fred and Thinkwell and his scores have improved a lot.

As the original poster, I just want to say I am quite happy for the direction this thread has gone in. I am glad it sparked so much discussion and great advice. My son has applied to lots of hard to get into schools (including Stanford!) and he is just encouraged to know many of those places will have a positive view of homeschoolers - though as I think Kathy said, few homeschoolers - or any other students get into those top colleges! I have also focused on trying to show the depth of the work my kids have done at home. My kids take as many APs as are relevant to the courses they are doing and we do loads of contests. Their results in those will hopefully show admissions counselors the quality of work done. And then we have also focused on community service and leadership and the arts (photography, computer graphics and film making). And they all run their own businesses. My oldest dd got into 4 colleges with acceptance rates of less than 25% (and then chose Biola!) so I do have first hand experience to know homeschoolers need not worry they can't get into good colleges. And from our local homeschool support group we have students currently at MIT and University of Chicago. So for those of you with highschoolers - pursue excellence - in whatever form fits with your family and your children's interests and abilities. Homeschooling is an advantage if done well!

Wait until you have a senior! Then life is full of waiting. Waiting for SAT and ACT scores, waiting for scholarship results, waiting for college acceptance / rejection letters. It is just one stressful day to the next! My 10th grader is also waiting for his PSAT results impatiently. I am more worried about all his older brother's results etc as the 10th grade PSAT scores are just to gauge how much work he will have to do next year.

I am using Meet the Masters with my 10 year old and it is GREAT! I bought 3 years worth of Art History for about $70 as I bought through Homeschoolbuyersco-op. The main lesson is an online 'powerpoint' which you have text that you read aloud to your child. It has questions built in to help them see what the artist was doing. Then there is a quiz, and finally a hands-on exercise where your child gets to try out some of the techniques that artist uses. This is our second year and it has really worked well for us. Sonlight has quite a few great art appreciation books - we took most out of the library. A particularly fun one is Art Fraud Detective where you have to compare to masterpieces to figure out which one is a fraud. And then there are the Artists Specials DVDs (6 of them) which are great DVDS aimed at elementary age with a story woven around the life and work of a famous artists (eg Mary Cassatt). Once again, our public library has them and my kids loved them.

My son found this article that I think you will find encouraging to read! http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2000/novdec/articles/homeschooling.html

I wanted my son to do them in one semester each but he took 2 just on the first book. They are hard. My son is good at math, but not brilliant so for a kid who is better at math it may go faster.

Geosafari is what you are looking for I think ... we never used it, my kids played Geography Games on a PC. I am sure you can find them on eBay even if they aren't sold new anymore.

Congrats! It is moments like those that make you realize all your hard work homeschooling was worth it!

I teach a class for 5th through 8th grade every alternate year on those topics. The first semester I either focus on the Stock Market or World Trade and the second semester I turn the classroom into a mini economy an everyone applies for a job (eg bank manager, tax collector, shop keeper, real estate agent etc). Each week I introduce a new concept eg budgetting or saving or taxes and then add that to the simulation. I teach for about 10 minutes - the real learning happens as the kids 'pretend'. All the material I use comes from the Council for Economic Education. You can find their store online or request a catalog.

I do think it is great if you have a good co op / support group near you to join up. I belong to both. Our support group offers field trips, contests, play days and a variety of social activities. Plus I have been able to get advice from those who have walked this path ahead of me. This becomes very important when you reach the high school years. We didn't do co op classes for our first few years of homeschooling, but when we started I realized it gave my kids the chance to be in a 'classroom' situation, with someone other than me that they are accountable to. I feel comfortable teaching all the core subjects at home, but we have enjoyed co op for subjects like Forensic Science, Acting and Music Theory. That is also where my kids do Spanish. My 2nd oldest child is currently filling out his college applications - and I remember when my oldest was doing hers how glad I was to have co op teachers to write the academic references she needed.

Jeannie I know about Professor in a Box - I would have used it for Accounting for my son, but he is going to do it at our local 4 year college so he will get college credit for it (the colleges he is looking at don't accept CLEPs and he wants to get out of as many entry level courses as possible). The Marketing one sounds perfect BUT he needs to start asap as the second half of our year is always crazy. He competes in Science Olympiad and History Day and both those Regional and State contests occur in Feb and March. It would not be a good idea for him to start a course in Jan - I would rather he was almost done by then - especially as he will also be taking 4 APs in May. Any chance dh would like a 12th grader to 'test' the product out in advance?

Thanks - I used different phrases when I googled and had no success - didn't think of that one! The book you mentioned sounds great. I teach an entrepreneurship course at our local co op and I will definitely take a look at it for that. I will try to remember to come back and post once I decide on something

He never manages to get any job in summer as he has a number of other activities (choir tour, 4-H camps etc) going on at that time, so that won't work. I let my kids choose electives each year so they have one subject they really love, and this is what he wants to do. Last year he did Game Theory. I think I will see if Teaching Company has anything and also look on Amazon.

Thanks, but he is looking for something more on general marketing. I have studied ecommerce quite bit myself and passed that on to him, so that textbook wouldn't work. Any other ideas out there?

I homeschool primarily for academic reasons (though I enjoy all he other benefits too!) and because I wanted high academics I chose SL. It is extremely rigorous at the high school level if you do it all - and there is PLENTY of history as well as literature (many of the books are biographies etc and are 'living' history books). My oldest took US History AP after doing SL 100 which is the most lightweight of their older level cores (and my younger kids actually did it as middle schoolers) - and then she took the AP US History exam and scored a 5. The SL books are engaging to read, but that doesn't make them less 'meaty'. My kids are also on our homeschool quiz bowl team (we are the only homeschool team in our state as far as I know) and in most tournaments half the team are my kids (and often the other kids are SL kids too) - and they do very well on any history questions. In fact, this past year they placed second in a State US History Bowl (and we are not from the US, so I and my kids have learned everything we know from SL). I have seen the complaints about SL's high school program, but apart from the fact that I too would like a proper World History course, I can't find anything to complain about. Through SL my kids have gained knowledge, learned to think and learned to write extremely well. We do do ALL of SL - the Language Arts and the History and we do pretty much every assignment and the research papers. And my kids academic results have been excellent as a result.