My 9th grade daughter has been using Advanced Physics and Chmistry this year, but I can't say that I love it. It just doesn't have the support materials that I need, though they have recently added better answer keys upon request. The labs for it are just not doable at home for the most part. I wanted to love this, but we've found it rather frustrating. I'll be looking for setting else next year. Homeschooling science is my biggest frustration, right next to homeschooling my nearly 13yo ;)

Thank you for your replies. There aren't any good coops around, we can't afford private school and public school is not an option. I have wondered for a couple of years if she doesn't need more outside accountability. We have free cyber school in our state with daily online classes that I've strongly considered, but I haven't been able to convince my husband. Sigh... Thank you again! Angela

I have a 12-year-old (13yo in Jan) daughter and I just don't know how to motivate her. She's ALWAYS been my difficult-to-homeschool child. I've tried different things every year from very structured to more relaxed and interest-led, but nothing seems to work. She might have one good week occassionally when she senses that I'm very frustrated with her lack of work, but she never puts together two decent weeks. She works slowly, doesn't complete work, and won't consistently study no matter how I try to break things down for her into small chunks. I don't think she has any learning disabilities. She reads well and enjoys it. It's just about the only thing she enjoys doing. She used to craft a lot, but she hasn't done that in while. Any ideas? Anyone BTDT and managed to change things? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your ideas. Whether or not further spelling studies is worth her time at this point is definitely part of my consideration. If she does do something, it would have to be independent since she's the oldest of 7, and I must save my one-on-one time with her for more important things. Thanks again!

Hi, My dd is finishing 9th grade. She recently took the Stanford Acheivement test and scored lowest in spelling (still in the average range, though). We've always known that she is not the strongest speller even though she went through the entire AAS program. Should she continue studying spelling next year or should we call it good enough? If she should continue spelling, what materials do you suggest? TIA!

Hi, My dd is finishing 9th grade. She recently took the Stanford Acheivement test and scored lowest in spelling (still in the average range, though). We've always known that she is not the strongest speller even though she went through the entire AAS program. Should she continue studying spelling next year or should we call it good enough? If she should continue spelling, what materials do you suggest? TIA!

My 4th grade son has completed Book 1 and is almost finished with book 2. I added my 6th grade daughter about mid-Fall to my son's Book 2 lessons and they are close to completing it now. My 6th grade dd had completed AG, but still struggled with what a clause was, much less identifying what type of clause. Book 2 spends extensive time practicing clause identification and then recognizing adverbial and who/which clauses. These two kids are VERY good at this now. I've not seen another grammar program introduce clauses so early, but Fix-it does it so well that it becomes easy. We enjoy the lessons very much and they don't take long at all. I love that the real goal is for them to be able to write and punctuate well (not just grammar trivia knowledge), and I can see Fix-it achieving that. I definitely plan to continue using Fix-it in our homeschool.

I know this is an older thread, but I'm looking into using Homeschool Connections for a couple of my kids in the fall. I'll probably use one or two live classes and then the recorded ones, perhaps with the teacher access. Any more reviews? When I read the "homework" section of course descriptions I'm a little underwhelmed. Many of the descriptions mention reading and perhaps quizzes. I want them to give my kids reading and writing assignments as well as tests. I don't want to have to add assignments myself if I'm paying for something like this. Thanks!

Just looked at it. Thx! Never heard of it.

We have been enjoying the Mark Kistler drawing videos for art this year. I'm wondering if there is something like them, but perhaps with other media, like colored pencils, paint, pastels, etc that we could use next school year. I would like something usable be a wise age range. TIA! Angela

Thank you for all of the replies. I'm going to let him use Lively Latin for a while and then I let him try FF again sometime next school year. LL isn't too expensive and it should be a relatively easy review for him. Thanks again!

Oh, we have definitely been taking it slow. Since Christmas he has done only two lessons. He works about 20-30 min on vocab, grammar questions, and small sections of the workbook.

My son is in 4th grade and smart, but easily frustrated. His older sisters have done well with MP's First Form series, but he's hitting a wall with the introduction of adjectives. I'd like him to continue with Latin and not lose all he's learned so far but with something he can feel successful. Ideas? TIA!

Actually, IEW has a forum now that they are trying to move everyone from the Yahoogroup over to. You can find it through their website. They have several employees who's job itis to answer all kids of questions there. I know they would be happy to help.

New Fix-it Grammar! LOVE this program!!

You would definitely need the workbook. That's where all the practice is done. And you need the teacher's manual. We have the DVDs and love them, but if you're comfortable teaching Latin and have the time, I'm sure you could do without them.

Hi, I remember some people recommending a timeline maker for iPad, but I don't remember it's name. Help? Thanks!!

I highly recommend that you sign up for their yahoo group. IEW has very knowledgable staff members constantly answer questions on there. They would help you decide on the most appropriate plan for your group of kids.

I also like the Catholic textbook project texts. We primarily use Connecting with History (aka RC History), which includes the above texts when appropriate. This year we are trying for the first time Behold & See for science. My 2nd grader is using the grade 2 book, and it is kinda light, I guess, but that's fine with me at that age. You can always add library books. I'm using the grade 6 book with my 4th and 6th grader and I really like it so far. Engaging reading, good experiments, workbook for review. HTH!

Thanks so much to everyone for taking to time to write so such detailed advice. I have a lot to research and look into. I really appreciate your support!

So, did the neuropsych tell you how to help your dc? Im not really interested in drugs (not that I'm judging anyone who uses them) I would just like a lot of other options to work through.

I have an 11yo dd - smart, creative, out-going - but just CAN'T get get her work done in a reasonable amount of time. This has been going on for years. I've thought of it as a behavior problem (laziness) and tried both rewards and punishments to improve things without success. Today when I was talking to her and asking why she just can't get her work done - all she had completed was math the whole morning - and she said, "my brain won't let me." She said that she's always thinking about other things. I've heard her say something like this before and didn't think twice about it, but now I'm wondering if she actually has a problem, like ADD, and she can't help it? Does this sound familiar to anyone who has experience? How do I know if she has a problem or not? And then what do we do about it? Thanks so much!

For my crew of five school-aged kids, I type lesson plans for each subject into individual open office documents. I then copy and paste the lessons each week onto an assignment sheet for each child. I've tried several of those computerized planners and everyone of them is more work than this simple method.

I'm really impressed with the new edition of Fix-it Grammar by IEW. My rising 4th grader is using it this summer. In the first book he's already learning how to identify clauses and really think about how the different parts of a sentence work together.

Yeah, I've never been able to justify spending that much money on spelling CDs. If they offered mp3s for about half the price, I would seriously consider it. In the meantime, I'm dictating the words to my kids myself, so I only had to buy the cards. It's working really well and takes very little time. I can't say how long it takes to go through a level because we haven't been using it that long. I have a couple of kids on lessons 7 and 9. They seem to do about one lesson every 1-1.5 weeks. For 47 lessons per level that would be 50-70 weeks for a Level, I guess, which is about 1.5-2 school years. HTH! Angela