These are "indirect vented" - there are vents, but they are partially coverd to protect from splashes. I'm not sure why they are still fogging for you. You won't want to use the direct vent or drill holes if he is going to be using any kind of chemicals. If it is just colored water or such, that would probably be fine.

Have you joined the Yahoo group Catholicwelltrained minds? You can probably get a lot of help there.

We have had good luck with these: http://www.hometrainingtools.com/safety-goggles-splash-child-size/p/CE-GOGGLE2/

I have never heard of these - they look like a lot of fun! :lurk5:

I recently bought the Science Shepherd Biology text & companion - they look really wonderful. I am not sure what to do for the labs - hands-on, the DVD, or a combination. Which did you use? It seems like doing the lab & also watching the DVD may be a bit much? Ds says he does not want to do any of the dissections, which looks like make up a fair portion of the labs. Can you really learn enough from just watching it on DVD - is that enough to be considered a high school lab course? Thanks! Kathy

I use these with the Sunday school class I teach -grade 3 & 4. It works great for them, and we hang them on the wall. The kids really enjoy it. Mine is from 2006, and it doesn't tell what level it is for. I don't think they had so many different options back then - it looks like they have added a lot more since then. Sorry, I can't answer your question about the different levels - at least I can bump your post back up. But I would probably suggest getting the higher grade one because it would be easier to omit & "teach down" a level that "teach up" and need to add.

The Life of Fred pre-algebra books are what got my ds going best on word problems. They have you make a table with the rows & columns labeled, then fill in the information you know first. From there you can see how the information relates, so you can figure out how to solve it.

Mine usually shows up in mid-June -- in NY

This one works - thanks!

I remember this song from years ago - thanks for the reminder! But my Norton blocks the site you linked to as malicious...?

I read during both breakfast and lunch - I usually eat breakfast before we begin, and my lunch at "break time". I generally read Bible & history at breakfast and then science at lunch. Any leftover time I do read-aloud (we mostly use Sonlight). This has worked out really well for us - especially since ds is a very s-l-o-w eater! Another time that I found attention was high (for little ones) was during bath time.

Are you a member of the Homeschool Buyers Co-op? They do not have a sale on it right now, but quite often they will offer Kidcoder & Teencoder for 40% off. If you decide to get it but don't need it right now, that may be a good option. They usually also give you a free membership to Dreamspark with it - which will get you Visual Basic Express or the full version for free. https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/homeschool-programming/?c=1

It just occurred to me that if you are on good terms with your local school district, you could check to see if they get these & maybe can order an extra copy for you?

I would probably go ahead and use what you already have. Maybe look through the titles though, and condense the first half a little bit (skipping some books or doubling up on some days), since they covered that basic material in ps - though I'm sure it was not as interesting there! Then you may be able to add in a few of the books from Core E which look interesting. I might suggest adding The World Wars book especially, and the South America & Canada books to make it more American history than just US history.

Yes, I think we all got the same grade. It may be worth contacting the company though to look into that. I think the reason it's so expensive for a single subscription is because of the postage every week. It seems like if they just sent multiple subscriptions together in 1 package - even if they are different grade levels -they might still reduce the cost. It can't hurt to ask - the worst that could happen is they tell you "No.":)

I don't know if they offer sales, but there is a quantity discount (at least there used to be). We got it several years ago by getting together with a group of other homeschoolers and it was quite a lot less. Do you have a local hs group you could split the cost with?

We used and loved Rainbow Science, but it does not go into great detail on any of the topics. If you spread it over 2 years as planned, each week there are only 2 chapters (usually 1-2 pages each) and 1 lab to do. I used it as a jumping off point & added many other resources for my science-loving son. There was 1 lab specifically about the scientific method, but I would not say that is a focus of the program at all. Have you looked at Real Science 4 Kids Chem II? The labs for that may be what you are looking for - they only give general guidance for the labs, but it is mostly up to the student to design and cary out the experiments. This is the most "scientific methody" resource for this age that I have seen. I think Rainbow is a fun program to get or keep kids interested in science (ds loved the humor in it), and I love that all supplies are included. I would not say it is a rigorous program on its own though.

Maybe the Key to Geometry series. They are quite inexpensive and maybe you could find just a few that cover the problem areas.

I'm not aware of any coupons, but if you get on their e-mail list you will find that they have a lot of sales. If you don't need to order just yet, you could keep an eye out for a sale. Sometimes you can save 50%.

We have done TT 7, pre-algebra & algebra 1. I get the text every year thinking "this could be the year we'll need it". I have yet to find a point where we "need" it. If you are trying to cut back to fit in your budget, this is probably something you could cut. The only time it ever gets pulled out is if ds is stuck on something & I use it to refresh my memory or to see how something was explained to him (what method or wording they used, for example). I could really get the same information from just watching the CD lesson. I probably don't get my money's worth of use from the text, but I will also probably get it again next year because "this could be the year we need it."

I would also suggest taking a look at Science Shepherd Biology. I have this, though we will not start using it until the fall. From what I see so far it is exactly what I was looking for.:hurray:

I bought the interlocking ones thinking they would be great because you could actually "build" a rod or flat. Well, I should have taken into account my ds who loves to build a little too much. Every time I brought them out he thought it was break time - he would just hook them together and not really pay attention to what we we supposed to be doing. Maybe the regular ones would be enough "less fun" to actually get some math done...

Thank you! With the basic version I can basically make assignment list & schedules. The features I am most curious about are the grading & transcript features in the Plus version, since I had not really needed these prior to high school. It looks like there is a lot of flexiblility in the grading area - it looks quite overwhelming on their web site. Have you found this to be something that works well for all of your grading needs? Is it too complicated to get full benefit of the flexibility? Are the transcript reports pretty much generated from information you have in there, or would it be just as easy to make a separate form in MS Word? Do you feel that it saves you time using this program, or is it "just one more thing to do"? Thanks!

What did you enter for school? I tried to enter "Homeschool", but it looks like you need to choose an actual school from a list to register.

It's not really a unit study, but here is a page with some questions & ideas: http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/units/carry_on_mr_bowditch.shtm