very well said

this is hilarious! (i had to read it to my family)

we used to live on Wolf Creek Drive in Anchorage!

for years, ours was GrayDash Academy (my older son's middle name is Grayson, my younger son's middle name is Dashiell) when we moved from Alaska to Washington state, my older son went to a private high school for 2 years our school (with my younger son) was called Morningside Academy (just because we liked the word!) after my older son came back home (to self educate), we just started calling it Free School (as in "we are all free again" from the school's constraints!) nothing official though and i've been wondering what to write on my older son's diploma this year he is a recent graduate :)

this is very nice :) thank you for posting it

oh good - you should be safe then (mine's still sitting in our schoolroom closet - i don't recall having that guarantee) hopefully they've made the necessary corrections to the advanced level and you and your son will love it!

my son is very physics-oriented (from years of serious lego-building :)) most of the experiments worked just fine and were fun sometimes they were a bit boring though the projects were usually broken up into segments (pertaining to what lesson you were on) my son preferred to do them all at once since he was able to figure out what to do next (does that make sense? i'm tired)

sorry to be discouraging, brandy yes - maybe they've made the necessary changes (they didn't have an advanced version when i bought it)

i bought it last year after talking with the author at our homeschooling convention unfortunately, we found that the curriculum contained many errors my son (11yo at the time) was the one who pointed most of them out! finally, after being frustrated several times, we ended up discontinuing the science program (by the way, we had the intermediate level - i cannot speak for the elementary level)

what a wonderful time you had with your four boys, some lovely poetry, and tea . . . ! thank you so much for sharing it here i have 2 boys (12 and 17 now) and we still do "sunday family tea time" each week one person presents (we rotate between the 4 of us) and the one who presented the week before is in charge of treats we love the time together, we all learn something new each week, and our public speaking skills continue to improve :)

i'm using TT7 with my 6th grader and my 11th grader is doing chalkdust calculus we love both programs! imo, the math curriculum just has to fit the student then it will do its job

we have traveled with our family to: -brazil -china -vietnam (twice, my husband has a business there and has been there more often, my younger son was even in a traditional vietnamese wedding - he cried all the way through :)) we are hoping to move for an extended period to another country though (ideally we'd like to live part of the year in the u.s. and part outside) buenos aires, argentina is our first choice we are going there in may to check things out we're also planning to travel through europe this fall in order to visit more countries that are on our list i am really enjoying this thread thanks to spradlin02 for starting it and to all other posters for contributing to it

we tried this program at the beginning of this year but stopped using it it wasn't very challenging for my 6th grader (whose passion is engines/motors) we also found several errors in the text as well

we school afternoons and evenings (because we are night owls and like to sleep in!) we are very flexible, adjusting to our schedule when needed working in various outside activities (tap, art, french) and fairly extensive travel i have 2 sons (6th and 11th) they also spend a great deal of time on independent projects (they each have a passion that they are very dedicated to) but still manage to get all of their assigned academic schoolwork done too my youngest has been homeschooled since preschool my oldest was homeschooled preschool through 8th, went to a private school for 9th and 10th, and is back home this year at his request he is basically self-educating (with some help from dad in calculus) (he is taking the SAT at this very moment!) we still take summers off because we all like the break we feel as if we are always learning though (our whole family) everything else we do counts as "unschooling"

my son took the psat in both 9th and 10th (and will take it next month as a current junior) he had tested out of algebra I and was taking geometry in 9th grade he took algebra II/trig his sophomore year and he did very well on the test both years i think it was terrific practice/prep for him and i would highly encourage your son to take the psat this year

i appreciate this, jean thank you

wow! congratulations to your son! it's wonderful to hear of a motivated young person following his dream (thanks for sharing) just curious - what is his field of interest?

i've used "spelling workout" but i like evan-moor's "building spelling skills" better (grade by grade workbooks)

i just wanted to add that i agree with all of the posters who have said to reinforce the math facts flash cards, math windows, etc for the multiplication tables have been tremendously effective with my 10yo, something he definitely needed to do also, just to clarify - i actually sit down with my son to do teaching textbooks (even though he could easily do it on his own) we listen to the lesson together and i make comments when necessary and then i sit nearby while he does the problems completely on his own (he seems to like having me there) i am fairly good at math and my husband is an electrical engineer who used to tutor advanced math to college students however, he has only acted to facilitate and nudge our sons in the right direction when they are struggling with a math concept

jessica - i would go with what your heart is telling you i homeschooled my older son through 8th grade (he is now in 10th and in his second year at a private school) from k through 8, he used four different (yikes!) math programs (with the "key to" workbooks thrown in as well) we tried saxon, math-u-see, scott foresman, and singapore (in which he went half-way through nem-1) he tested out of algebra 1 at his school, has completed geometry (with a 100% average), and is currently maintaining a 100% average in algebra 2 (with 50% of the class actually FAILING at this point in the semester) all this to say that: changing math programs did NOT have an adverse effect on him!! :) in fact, i think it may have been beneficial to experience different approaches to math i am currently homeschooling my younger son (who is in 5th grade) he had worked exclusively with singapore from the beginning although he is good at math (especially mental math - i struggle with getting him to show his work), we were behind in terms of level because he doesn't really enjoy math (although he has scored well on standardized tests) in fact, he actually dreaded doing it this has weighed on me heavily over the past 6 months we started supplementing with the "key to" workbooks last year and this year i took a bold step and switched him to teaching textbooks despite all of the reviews criticizing its lack of "meatiness", it seems quite thorough to me, the author has very impressive credentials, and my son is enjoying himself and whizzing through the program! so . . . have i worried about switching programs? YES! have i fretted about choosing the right math for my son(s)? YES! have i regretted my choices in the long run? NO! (because i think i just knew when it was time to make a change) good luck to you you are a good mom, you know your daughter best, you will do the right thing