My 8th grade daughter has always tested with Cat survey to meet state requirements. She scored 97-99% total until last year. She missed one answer in a couple sections, bringing those sections' percentiles down to the 60s and 70s and her total score to 92%. Some of the problem with CAT survey is there are so little questions, and the test is so easy that your score goes down if you miss one with a careless mistake - bc no one else did! She wants to apply to the local homeschool national honor society. They don't take the survey test. She has to make over 90% total battery. We are using Iowa. We will get the test prep book to look over the format of the science and social studies questions since she has never taken a standardized test including those. Do you think over 90% is likely? She got awards through Duke Tip the same year her Cat score went down. :) We could use complete CAT or TerraNova instead, but her tester is ordering Iowa for the other students. What do you think? Thanks.

Just googled it. WOW!!! I could never be that creative, talented or energetic, but I respect her gifts a lot! I wonder if it stressful for her to accomplish that level of memory making & homemaking or if it a natural gifting? Eta: she has some really wise words in her posts. Glad I kept reading!

Both bc we are in Nc and great experience! I remember how motivating it was for me, and it was for my daughter as well!

Thanks Julie in MN. CLE LA is just grammar and takes 20 min.. Laurel Tree is writing only. History isn't going to be a huge focus bc of interest in science/medical/engineering. We used Chalkdust this year. We watch the video lesson, do review problems on day 1. Do 30 (per CD rec) of the odd problems on day 2. We take 3 days to do chapter reviews. It has been a great schedule in an hour a day. I'll see how much history we can cover in 3-4 x week. I hope it is enough!

No Best Buddies around, and our name isn't related.

That is hard about Lukeion taking 2 hours a day for some! I read fluently in college, hopefully I can help with review.There is no way I could get them to AP Latin on my own. They love to study Latin and she is really good at it.... I think the La stuff, Logic and Cbalkdust times will work bc it did this year. They do sit ups , push ups, tramp while I read before lunch. They think piano is a break....

I have posted on the boards what I wanted high school to look like. Like many of you warned me, when you schedule the daily work on paper, something has to go. For us, if we continue on with serious piano and Latin - a lot, including Spanish, has to go! Here is the schedule. There just isn't lots of time for reading, reading, reading, thinking, thinking, thinking. It is sooo hurried. After school hours is more piano, sports, dance, volunteer work, engineering class. We are making friendships a higher time priority. We want them to have a college prep homeschool with a work-life balance. They haven't really had "homework" yet, but my daughter gets behind in LLoLotR this year (kind of regret that choice now) and has to catch up after school... Can you help again be reasonable? I'm on spring break so I'm thinking through all this stuff. Next year's schedule: 8-9:30 am 7th grade son - Chalkdust Algebra with mom, CLE La 9th grade daughter - CLE La, Laurel Tree Tutorials writing, Vocab for the College Bound Student, Traditional Logic 2 9:30-10:30 9th grade daughter - Chalkdust Geometry with mom 7th grade son - Write at Home essay writing workshop then Jump in, Vocab for the High School Student, CLE Reading (1 sem.), Fallacy Detective/Thinking Toolbox (maybe with dad in evenings or summer) 11:00-11:30 Lunch, readaloud (Entire years's read aloud list:Robinson Crusoe, Scarlet Letter, Tale of Two Cities, Assorted poetry study, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Red Badge of Courage, Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein, Old Man and the Sea, Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde). If I schedule these for 36 weeks and find more than 1/2 hour day necessary, we will read at night too, but I don't want to. 11:30-12:30 Latin 7th grade son - Latin Alive 1 9th grade daughter - Lukeion 1 (probably have homework) 12:30-2:30 Science/piano (one practices while the other does science on their own - I get stuff done) 7th grade son- Apologia General Science with audio, notebook and experiment kit 9th grade daughter - Dive Science Biology with BJU 2:30-3:30 History 3 -4x week this year! We have so many activities to run out to in the afternoons, that this is the subject to reduce imo. Day 1. History will be 1600-1865 chapters from History Odyssey 2 ( not that many chapters, maybe 20 Outline 1x a week) Day 2. Famous Men of Modern times with workbook 1x a week Day 3 and/or 4. Read assorted books, not too challenging but to fluff out the textbooks. I have way too many books from TQ years. It is a struggle not to hold them to read bunches of them, and to focus on how much they DO read. :)

Just checked. Yes it is taken... "Peer Buddy" is just the generic term bc I didn't want to post the actual domain name on here..

The club will serve only our county school district. In the homepage the description will state that it is for "County". That is enough I guess? "Peer Buddy" isn't the actual name, I'm being generic to avoid a google search to this post. We have a weebly website designed, and are making a facebook and. The specific domain name is taken on Weebly though unless we add something, which is why we added the County name. So, you all think of "County" and in "County" all look like offical county programs?

Can you help my children name their club. They are starting a peer buddy program for our county school system for teens with special needs. I'm being generic with the proper nouns so google doesn't find it... "Peer Buddy Program" of "County" or "Peer Buddy Program" in "County" They do have permission for the county school system admins to recruit through the schools (their brother is enrolled), but I don't want any misunderstanding that this is a government program. So just the name of the county without the word county... Thanks for advice. :)

I understand your point. We just use Omnibus for individual book studies/worldview. It has worked well for ancients and middle ages. I anticipate it will continue to work well.

Thanks so much for your input. I'm listening and modifying. Would you add anything? My 7th grader will want to read lots of Messner inventor/scientist/doctor bios when they come up in the time period. My daughter may want to read more light classics that she hasn't read yet. I added a few readers we didn't get to the last cycle that they want to read. I also went through and added units from our Tq book collections to be sure they read some of our high qualiy nonfiction, like my Tunis books. Explorers Unit Don Quixote, Holt World Literature excerpt Enlightenment Thinkers / Robinson Crusoe / Mayflower Compact / Crown and Covenant series, Douglas Bond Scarlet Letter, Leland Ryken guide Colonial Unit, Tunis and other books Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare Great Awakening Unit, Tq 49 Founding American Documents // Common Sense / Federalist and Anti Federalist Papers // Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens /// Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving / Self Reliance, Emerson / Civil Disobedience, Thoreau / Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman / Pioneer, Westward Expansion unit Uncle Tom's Cabin // Lincoln's Speeches / Slave Narratives / Red Badge of Courage // Huckleberry Finn // Old Man and the Sea, Herman Melville / Edgar Allen Poe / Frankenstein, Mary Shelley // Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde //

Paradise Lost // 1,2 Enlightenment Thinkers / 3 Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes / 4 Social Contract. Rousseau // 5, 6 Robinson Crusoe / 7 Mayflower Compact /8 {Scarlet Letter??? Leland Ryken guide} 9, 10 Founding American Documents // 11, 12 Common Sense / 13 Federalist and Anti Federalist Papers // 14, 15 Legend of Sleepy Hollow / 16 Tale of Two Cities /// 17, 18, 19 Self Reliance, Emerson / 20 Civil Disobedience, Thoreau / 21 Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman / 22 Uncle Tom's Cabin // 23, 24 Lincoln's Speeches / 25 Slave Narratives / 26 Red Badge of Courage // 27, 28 Huckleberry Finn //29, 30 Old Man and the Sea, Herman Melville / 31 Edgar Allen Poe / 32 Frankenstein, Mary Shelley // 33, 34 Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde // 35, 36 Edited list with cuts:

I think I should cut Pensees totally then. I will probably cut Ben Franklin autobiography too. Add more poetry and short stories....

Thanks, the time allotments are from the Omnibus teacher manual. I will follow their reading schedule and assignments. I may cut the list down, just don't know what to cut.

This is for 9th and 7th. I'm leaving out books/authors they have read and works included in Belhaven High Scholars reading list... Omnibus schedules 2 weeks for Uncle Tom's Cabin. Isn't it really long?

These are are from Omnibus 3 and 6. I will use their exacts schedules for the readings to be sure I don't overplan for ONCE! It added up to 38 weeks. I am determined not to overplan this year, so I will schedule exactly the same. I use a textbook for history, so some of this "could" be cut. What would you cut? What would you add instead? Paradise Lost // 1,2 Enlightenment Thinkers / 2 Pensees, Paschal / 4 Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes / 5 Social Contract. Rousseau // 6,7 Robinson Crusoe / 8 Of Plymouth Plantation /// 9,10 {Scarlet Letter??? Leland Ryken guide} Founding American Documents // 11,12 Common Sense / Federalist and Anti Federalist Papers // 13,14 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin //// 15,16,17,18 Legend of Sleepy Hollow / 19 Tale of Two Cities /// 20,21,22 Self Reliance, Emerson / 23 Civil Disobedience, Thoreau / 24 Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman / 25 Uncle Tom's Cabin // 26,27 Lincoln's Speeches / 28 Slave Narratives / 29 Red Badge of Courage // 30,31 Huckleberry Finn // 32,33 Old Man and the Sea, Herman Melville / 34 Frankenstein, Mary Shelley // 35,36 Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde // 37,38

Wrapping up Algebra 1. Does anyone find some of the problems on the tests are different/more difficult than the dvds teach? I know he recommends limiting the applications problems, so we usually read those with the solutions guide open and work through together. I feel like she is getting a great foundation when I look at other curricula samples. But, I'm such a box checker. It drives me crazy that some test problems are different/ too difficult. I wonder if she can't apply her understanding to novel problems, she doesn't have the depth of understanding to move on? Or if it will mature when she takes Algebra 2 in 10th?... Which is basically the same material with a few extra chapters.

Thanks for this. I have never seen my daughter whine, in spite of difficult circumstances. Watching her go through a prolonged "down" spell has been tough! I can see intellectually that I'm overreacting, and it has been so helpful to get other perspectives. Thanks.

She does have out of town friends who are kindred spirits. I think online classes in high school will help with that as well. One benefit of technology! Thanks for your encouragement.

Thanks, this was very encouraging.

Janet C, I think I understand what you are saying, but I'm not sure you understood what I said before I edited my post. I don't think our friends have to share our academic ambition. I also don't think there is only one path to college. I don't think I said anything like that. I know what my own children are capable of, and I'm only resposible for them after all. I don't want my children to be aligned with a coop/ university model school that won't serve them long term, just to be with friends.

Thanks for this. I agree, I don't think we are "overdoing it" academically. SAT 2 and AP is what is what UNC CH expects from homeschool, public or private school.

I just had a phone meeting with the director. It is expensive, and for sure all day MW. I don't know of a coop near us that allows just a lit/history class, but I would consider that for sure for 7th-10th. My daughter read my notes fro the meeting and said NO WAY! That is progress that she would come to that decision on her own. I just wanted to add that they are in a lot of activities and they do have friends. They just don't have a clique from school or coop. We will plan more sleepovers. I believe that building memories outside of school or coop setting is the key to growing friendships. That was the case when I was their age. I appreciate what everyone is saying. I will emphasize friendships more!!

This is a university model program All day all subjects, 2x week. "Homework" at home 3 days a week.