Hi! Just wanted to encourage you to use the 8th grade Rod and Staff text you have - it is very worthy of high school credit. R&S also has some good, solid advise on writing, but you could easily skip those lessons if you are using something else for writing. You will know your stuff after a year of Rod and Staff! Blessings, April

Thanks for posting this - I just sent my freshman engineering student an email regarding your post. Blessings, April

Thanks for this link! Blessings, April

This is really cool! Thanks for sharing. Where did you find those character flashcards? I wonder if there is anything like this for the odyssey... Blessings, April

Hi Susan, Both of my guys did Singapore PM through 6B - absolutely loved that series! I tried doing NEM with older ds in 7th grade - it took hours each day, and we both felt that something was lacking for him. He had always been a good math student, so this was frustrating for him. So, we switched to Rod and Staff 8th grade math book. It turned out to be a great fit and a great year of prealgebra for his concrete, literal, and linear brain! In 8th grade, he did Teaching Textbooks Alg 1, followed by TT Alg 2 in 9th grade. (this may not have been to best course for a engineer wanna-be, but we live and learn). In 10th grade, he did AoPS Intro to Geometry. In 11th grade he started Chalkdust PreCalculus and finished it in January of his senior year. We took 3 semesters to cover PreCalc because he really wanted to make sure he understood everything (Chapter P (for prerequisites) is supposed to be review, but much of it was brand new material for him so it took a long time even to get to chapter 1 of the text!) During the last semester of his senior year, ds studied Calculus with Thinkwell. He is finding himself very well prepared for his fiirst semester of calc at college! Younger son also did Singapore PM through 6B. He went right in to TT alg 1 in 7th grade, followed by TT Alg 2 in 8th grade. In 9th, he did AoPS Geometry. Last year he was supposed to do both AoPS Intro to Algebra and Intermediate Algebra. I assumed that Intro to Alg would be review (desirable since he hadn't done much alg in a year). It was not. So, We only covered the Intro book, and due to timing, that spilled over into the summer and the beginning of this year. Ds just started an online Alg 3 class with AoPS last night - this will cover Intermediate Alg in 24 weeks. If it goes well, I will sign him up for AoPS PreCal in March (18 weeks for trig, etc) Hopefully, he will do Calculus with Thinkwell as a senior. Older ds appreciated Chalkdust's PreCal text so much he took it to college with him. That is fine, because I don't think I could do it with younger ds! Hope this rambling is of some help! Blessings, April

Hi Dawn, I'm sorry you are having such a hectic and stressful week. We did not do the NM app online, so I can't speak to that, but I will urge you to get the application done. Out of the 16,000 semifinalists, approx 15,000 are named finalists. Of those 15,000, about 8,000 will receive scholarships from the NMF, etc. However, just being named a finalist can open all kinds of doors. Many colleges and universities offer generous scholarships to finalists, even if they are not in that group of 8,000 NM Scholars. My older son was a finalist last year, and received a full-tuition scholarship at his first-choice university (we pay room and board and fees...). IF you pop over to the college board you will find lots of stories of NM kids. Please, please, do not neglect to submit the app on time because you think your son might not make it! Blessings, April

Hi Tina, This is just a thought and may be totally off base. Is he easily distracted? Is so, he may have ADD, without the hyperactivity part. On the other hand, since you mentioned his room always being a disaster, he may not have an internal organizational system. I don't know if that is consistent with ADD or not. Or, he may just have his own internal timetable. Is there any incentive for him to go faster while still maintaining mastery? My older son (the Nat Merit Finalist) was a perfectionist dawdler. He adjusted on his own as the workload got heavier, but something that really helped him was using a timer. With no other students to push him to finish earlier, he too could drag out an assignment forever. Setting a timer for half an hour, all day every day really helped him see how long he was taking to finish something. It also helped him see where he could easily speed up and where he really needed the extra time for understanding. Hope this helps a bit! Blessings, April

Hi Tina, the Durant books are substantial in size - I think it would be very challenging to convert them to TOG books! You could have them available for your student as additional resources, but I don't think I would reinvent the wheel by redoing the schedule. If the books have good indices, your student could look up the topic or person or whatever. But, you might have to modify the discussion questions. An easier route, if you are trying to simplify, is to use the recommended text books (alternate resources) and let your student also do independent internet research to answer the questions. If you can afford/find the books, just going with the TOG recommended books sounds way easier to me! Blessings, April

Thanks! Starting over again with ds, a junior, so this is helpful! Blessings, April

Interesting site! Thanks for the link! Blessings, April

What a delightful surprise! Blessings, April

HA! If he changed speeds, wouldn't it now be a calculus problem?! Thanks for the laugh! Blessings, April

Hi Cynthia, If you can find the dates and times for the SAT on the College Board website, you can find the dates and times and locations for the SAT II test - you have to hunt a bit, but they are there! They will be called subject tests. Hope this helps, Blessings, April

This is a really great idea! Similarly, I am trying to figure out how to find time in my son's day to outline an article in the newspaper or a magazine and then write a precis, so he can see how professional writers make their points. Not necessarily SAT prep, but good for writing in general. Blessings, April

We really appreciated IEW's High School Essay Intensive. Ideally, this should be used over a number of weeks or even months, but my son only had a few of weeks to prepare for the SAT and found this invaluable. Best wishes as you prepare for the big test! Blessings, April

Excellent news! Thanks for sharing! Blessings, April

We used DIVE Chemistry along with both the Apologia Chemistry texts last year for Honors Chem. Ds enjoyed it so much that he is doing AP Chem through PA Homeschoolers this year. HE feels very well prepared for AP and still references the DIVE lectures when he needs to. We did many of the labs at home, but all the labs are on video on the cd, so you can "do" some of the labs along with him if you choose to. Hope this helps! Blessings, April

Yes, you can take an AP test without taking an AP course. If your dd needs to take the test at her high school, however, you should check with the administration to see what you need to do to register her for the exam. Reminder to self!: I need to do that for my son - he is taking 2 AP courses, but needs to test at our local Christian High School. I am curious about the Pre-AP thing. Generally, if a course is labeled Pre-AP it is designed to get the student ready to take an actual AP course which will then prepare the student for the actual test. Was your dd's course truly Pre-AP or actually AP level? Either way, if you want her to take the exam, be sure to do lots of self-prep at home. Barron's test prep books generally get good reviews. Hope this helps and good luck! Blessings, April

I really like Art of Problem Solving Geometry. Both of my guys have done this. It is challenging, but all the AoPS books are designed to be self-teaching for the diligent student. The text will challenge any student, and sometimes I needed to back off a bit and not expect all the challenge problems to be done, for example. I am intrigued by Lori's suggestion of Cliff Notes Geometry, however! Blessings, April

Wow! Thanks for this nifty bit of information! Blessings, April

Here's another vote for the IEW's High School Essay Intensive! Get it and start cranking out essays! His tips are really good and helpful. If you have a few months to work on this, so much the better. Writing for the SAT is different from other types of essay writing given the time limitation, but it will translate into being able to write more quickly in general (at least it did for my son). Blessings! April

What a delight, and thanks for sharing! Isn't it wonderful when our kids are doing well and enjoying the journey into adulthood> I got to speak with DS yesterday - he is in TX and I am in CA. It was wonderful to hear his voice after mostly texting for the last couple of weeks. We won't see him until mid-December, but I rejoice that he is happy and doing well and making friends! Enjoy your son and DH's birthday! Blessings, April

Hi Cynthia, Here in CA, our CCs are suffering due to ballooning enrollment and serious budget issues at the state level. Perfect storm - cutbacks in courses offered and class sessions along with more students and lax financial aid policies (abuse by some impacts everyone!)! This has made it very challenging for high school students, as special-admit students, to get any classes. A few people I know have managed it this term, but not many. My older son was able to take 3 comp sci courses as a sophomore a couple of years ago, but younger son, now a junior, will probably not be able to take any - at least not this year. So, we are going the much more expensive AP route to achieve the same end of validating the mom-transcript. He is taking AP Chem with PA Homeschoolers (ChemAdvantage - going well so far and he really likes it) and AP Lit here at home with a young woman who is working on her Master's degree in English. That, too, is going well. These classes are taking a substantial amount of time, as was expected. The challenge will be not short-changing his other subjects. We are also going to try Art of Problem Solving's Alg 3 course in a couple of weeks. Math has been an interesting journey...but that is a topic for another thread! Best wishes as you think through all the CC stuff for your son, and know that many of us are thinking it through as well! Blessings, April

Hi Sue, What topics does the econ book that you have cover? Some econ courses are pure economics - applying econ theories to the big picture and seeing how groups and individuals deal with economic choices. Some might include chapters on how to be an educated consumer based on economic principles, but that is not generally the focus (at least at the college level). For that, the consumer ed book might be a good addition. It is so important to educate ourselves and our children about financial matters and economic decisions large and small! If your schedule permits, do them both! And, yes, economics is considered a social science (not studies). Economics is fascinating - it is really the study of how we cope with scarcity. Hope you enjoy it! Blessings, April

Brenda, THat is a great idea! My son should take the history SAT 2 after taking TOG History - the q of the day should help him stay sharp until he has time to take the test! Thanks for expanding my thinking! Blessings, April