How about Sonlight? They use a variety of books and different topics. You sound like me ... if I didn't have science all laid out for me, I'd never do it. With Sonlight you buy the kit to do all the experiments, and you even get a DVD so that if you don't get to the experiments or your experiments don't work (!) then you can watch what should have happened. You mentioned living books - Sonlight does use biographies - we have just read one about Rachel Carson. And they make extensive use of Usborne books which are SO beautiful and the newer ones are interlinked with websites so that after learning for instance about dolphins, you go to the Usborne website and click on the link to see dolphins. My dd 9 absolutely loves this. Sonlight is designed so that you can use it with kids of different ages - my older 3 are 5 years apart and they do cores 3, 4 and 5 together. Core 3 has some plants, some animals ... can't remember the rest. Core 4 has electricity and magnetism plus more. Go to http://www.sonlight.com and request a catalog or look online. Meryl

I am a HUGE Sonlight fan. I have used all their cores (oldest is now in college) and have loved them all. We have really enjoyed most of the books and have not found any redundant. Read Alouds are books that are above the students own reading level, so they are challenged with more complex plots and a wider vocabulary - but they are not overwhelmed as a parent is reading and explaining as necessary. Readers they do by themselves. The history books are non-fiction and supplement the spines for the core. They make history come alive. Of course, the schedule is great ... I appreciate not having to plan the year. Btw - many Veritas books are also Sonlight books - I get their catalog too as we often finish our Sonlight books and look for extra reads. Meryl

And here's one I discovered a week or so ago - http://kidsciencechallenge.com/ It is for 3rd -6th graders, is free and looks like a lot of fun. I am getting my daughter to do it.

I have it - as well as Rosetta Stone. It has a much bigger variety of types of exercises than Rosetta Stone has, which my kids enjoy BUT I can't figure how you'd use this if you had no prior knowledge of the language. I have done a bit of Spanish alongside my kids, but when we got Tell Me More and I tried it out, the first levels were hard!! Rosetta Stone does a much better job of easing one in. My youngest started suing it when she was 6. I use both as supplements. My kids do the bulk of their language work at our homeschool co op where they have a Spanish speaker teaching them. I use the CD Rom programs before they get to high school, and during high school in weeks when they don't have classes Meryl

I made a Squidoo Lens on this topic - I have some mentioned there that you haven't mentioned yet: http://www.squidoo.com/contests-for-students FYI - my kids and our homeschool group have had a lot of success with contests. At present my youngest's Stock Market team is in 3rd place in our region (there is money in it for the top 3 teams ....) One I didn't mention on my lens is the Linguistics contests http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu/. This is not one we have done well in yet, but I think it is fun and I hope with some practice my kids can get the hang of it Meryl

Two of my Squidoo lenses have categories for games http://www.squidoo.com-teach-geography has some great geography ones, and http://www.squidoo.com/teach-economics has economics ones. Other good ones are Artshark (art), Blurt and Bible Blurt (language and process skills), 24 (a brilliant math one!!!), Password and Taboo (language skills), Scrabble (spelling). I would give a thumbs up to Set and Quiddler which have been mentioned before. We have a lot ... I will post again after I've been downstairs to look at our shelves where they are stored. My youngest is 9 and oldest is 19 and we all play all these games (with 2 others in the middle) Meryl

I don't know anything about RS, but I see you are also using Singapore. My dd went from Singapore 6B to Videotext A (she was in 8th grade by then). Why don't you let your daughter finish up with Singapore and then move her across, or is she not doing SIngapore? Meryl

I watched Linwoods when my kids were elementary thru middle school - they were fun and perfect supplements. But the Gallagher are great for an indepth study. My ds (11th grade) is using them as his spine for US History this year (I have other items added as well) and he is really enjoying them. I just wish I had time to watch with him!

I can't give you any ideas for general study skills resources, but I can recommend the Princeton Review books for whatever AP classes she has. My oldest 2 have both had success with a variety of them, and they do give some tips on studying as well as many on how to cope with the actual exam. I know how to go about teaching kids to study ... but I am not sure I could explain it all here. My kids do Science Olympiad which requires learning vast quantities of info. Basically they first work through it. They need to make notes as they go, or do worksheets at the end of each chapter, or something that serves as review. These review notes will be what they study from so they need to be neat and done in a way that it is easy to study from. They should summarize the text - not re-write it. It is much easier to learn from a summary than from a textbook. To remember multiple points under a heading they can use memory devices like mnemonics o r make up a funny story using one word from each point they must remember. Taking info and turning it into a diagram or a table is also a good way to learn it. I hope this gave some ideas! Meryl

I stay as far away from experiments as possible (see them as a necessary evil). My kids do them in the kitchen usually, but my dd did her Adv Chem ones in her bathroom. It was quite funny - my husband would complain at the state of her bathroom - and she would respond that she couldn't clean it as she was doing experiments there (she always seemed to have something becoming something else in some container!) Meryl

My kids only started doing the quarterly tests when they reached high school, and then I used them as a way for my kids to improve their grade. I only counted the results IF it would improved their overall science grade. The one good thing about quarterly tests is that it does check to see if students retain what they have learned longer than 2 weeks, and that is a skill they will need to have when they get to college. I don't worry about it with my kids as they compete in Science Olympiad and have vasts amount of info they have to retain for that. Meryl

My 9 year old dd is doing Logo Adventures. At first she complained about computer period - but now she loves it. She has just started with animations. She will continue on with the other 2 books after that. I am also teaching a class at co-op Intro to Programming this year. I have 7th thru 12th grade and I am using ALice programming language. One of my students liked it so much she wrote an online 'article' on it, so you can read that if it might interest her more. It uses drop-down menus instead of code and kids produce animations. http://www.squidoo.com/alice-programming Meryl in TN

I was only introduced to Fred - here on these forums - just over a year ago and have already bought 4 books! I started with Algebra 1 - we ditched Teaching Textbooks and moved over to that for 3rd child. Rest of family jealous that he was having so much fun. So, bought 9yr old dd Fractions. And then this year I bought my oldest son Trig and the other one Algebra 2. I don't have Geometry yet ... but I would think it would stand alone. At most you need to start at Algebra 1. The first 2 won't be necessary. My son who is doing TRig had to backtrack and do about 1/3 of Algebra 2 as he did ALgebra 2 with Teaching Textbooks and it didnt cover anywhere close to the topics LOF does. Meryl

My dd did Sonlight as an 11th grader - and then she took the AP US History exam and scored a 5. She did SL 100 + the Lit from 400. I got the tests from Hewitt and made her do those as well. My ds is now 11th grade - and I couldn't do the same thing with him as he did SL 100 same time as dd (when he was 8th grade), so I am using the SL 400 lit and I made up my own course from * Teaching Compnay US History DVDs (he has to do at least one of the recommended essays per every 3 lectures - he does 3 lectures a week) * Lies my Teacher Told Me *Penguin US History * Critical Thinking in US HIst books (just the exercises related to US History - some are general) In addition I have added in number of other DVDs. So far we have watched the A&E John Adams and another one on War of 1812 (from Netflix). Both were excellent. And we watch the Presidents (history Channel) Dvds as he does each president. It is working really well and he is enjoying it. Hopefully it is also preparing him well for the AP exam! Meryl

I use both too ... and my dd has stopped using the rods long ago. I agree that there is much more to Miquon than manipulatives. They do math from a different perspective, and I think the more ways of 'seeing' math the better a kid understands and can really get to the heart of math. I introduced Life Of Fred as well this year (my dd is doing Singapore 4B and Miquon yellow and LOF Fractions) Meryl

I discovered Paperbookswap a few weeks ago. You sign up and post books (paperback or hardcovers) you are done with. When other people want your books, they send a request. You mail - and pay postage. When they receive it - you get a credit and then you can request a book you want. So, the only cost is the shipping - and as that is usually less than I would pay for a book at our local used book store , I have started to do this instead. And you don't even need mailers as you print the mailer off from your printer. The whole thing is very ingenious and the website is great - so I would highly recommend this. You can go straight to their website, or click through my link below which will give me extra credits! http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php?n=2&r_by=merylvdm Meryl

Anyone actually like Visualize World Geography? I looked at the link and it looks interesting. I don't want to buy something we won't use, and we have plenty of geography resources - but we love Geography and so I am always open to trying new things Meryl

Singapore applies math, teaches students to think outside the box and to understand what they are doing. It has sufficient practice to be sure kids are getting it, but not enough to bore them. Lots of word problems. And there are extra practice books - and challenge books to go with each level. My kids do the American Math contest and have top scored in our homeschool group - and I am sure it is because they do Singapore math.

How about Teaching Textbooks? Many of our homeschool group love it. I did switch math programs mid yer - in 8th grade for my son. I switched from Teaching Textbooks Algebra (it was too easy) to Life of Fred - which he LOVES!!. But LOF isn't a comprehensive math before Algebra - Fractions and Percents are better to go along with an existing program. We use Singore for the earlier years. If your son did a Singapore placement test you could see where he places and figure out if he could finish to 6B by 7th grade. Meryl

The Fred site has a link to the place that sells the books - click on Orders, I think. And shipping is always free, so just buy what you need. You will need the Companion book. Meryl

The Shakespeare Stealer Catherine called Birdy (Middle Ages)

How about GA Henty books? They are challenging, I would say. We did Cat of Bubastes as a read-aloud. I know there are others in that time period. Meryl

Sonlight has one as part of the core packages - b ut I am pretty sure you can buy it separately too Meryl

Sister Wendy has other art books and videos as well as the Painting ones mentioned above. My daughter used them all and Annotated Mona Lisa. She took the AP Art History exam and used a test prep book that had a CD full of visuals that went with it - I am trying to remember the name. I think something like A+ (not one of the well-known ones). It was pretty good - and she scored a 5 after just pulling together the course from all over. Oh - she also watched the series on the Louvre by Teaching Company (and we got to visit the Louvre!!) Meryl

I had no idea - so googled it. Wiki Answers says: Interphase (along with G1, S and G2) is the first stage of the cell cycle, and is not part of mitosis. If that is correct, I would probably deduct a quarter of a point ie if the question had 1 point value - I would give 3/4; if 4 points value, I would give 3 out of 4 Meryl