Last year, realizing my day had more me-time than I liked, I started accessing what I wanted to do after homeschooling. I already teach an online course but I wanted something more, just for me. I thought and thought some more---no, I didn't want to return to an engineering job which I never found to be from 9 - 5. I thought about a teaching job but I couldn't see myself in a classroom 8 - 2....... hten I decided to focus on my favorite hobby --- quilting. I decided to start taking in friend's quilt tops and quilting them. I started my longarm quilting service business. I'm having fun and it certainly fills my time in a way that I love.

I would recommend joining the community at http://www.quiltingboard.com/ Very friendly group, lots of instructional video links, and other free information there. The women will get you started. Carole Long-arm quilter, quilter for 29yrs.

If you can do the subject without a teacher's manual then Dolciani's Algebra 2 with Trig. The book is readily available used for a few $ from places such as abebooks.com The Teacher's Manual is either very expensive or unavailable. Answers to the odd problems are in the back of the book however worked solutions are not there. I like her older books and have her '66 and '84 sitting on my shelf. The older book does spend time on reading log and trig tables which is why I prefer the '84 edition. Either would work or some other edition. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=dolciani&kn=algebra+and+trigonometry+book+2&x=0&y=0

My younger son who is starting 10th grade struggled past Singapore 6b. In 7th grade I realized he was not ready for NEM, or Algebra, and he wasn't ready for Key to Algebra so I placed him into Pre-Algebra by Dolciani. He did lots of speed drills too with all the operations and fractions. Dolciani books are available used for few $ on abebooks.com. As he worked through Pre-Algrebra he also did the Key To Algebra books. After KTA we started slowly through Dolciani Alg 1 book --- again, available used for a few $ over at abebooks.com. I decided he was still not at the speed nor did he have the confidence I felt he needed so we worked through Jacobs Algebra (8th grade). We then worked through Dolciani Alg 1 book, AGAIN (fall 9th grade). It was now mid-9th grade and problems became easy for him, really easy. Last winter and spring we worked through Jacobs Geometry, and on Monday he will start Dolciani's Alg 2 with trig. . We will see how it goes. If DS needs to work through a pre-calc book after completing Alg 2 w/ trig then he'll do that. I have often told him that I did Dolciani's Alg 1 book in 9th, her Alg 2 w/ trig book in 11th grade, went on to engineering school starting calculus as a freshman and finished in 4 yrs. Better to be solid than sloppy. It is so important for the student to really understand algrebra that if it takes an extra year or 2 then that is what it takes. With math mastery is the key, racing through the subject without mastery will not lead to mastery. So, no, it is not stupid to do another year of pre-algebra. And yes, some kids do do AP Calc in high school. My older son did that but not every kid is ready for that at 16 or 17 or 18. But it is far better to have a solid algebra foundation, with solid arithmetic skills first. Carole

I did something like that for my DS physics course. I labeled it as honors physics, and in his course description document stated that the course followed the AP Physics C syllabus and DS planned to take the AP exam in May. Once an AP course has completed the audit process you simple seek reapproval for the course. That is quite easy to do provided you are running the same course. One logs into their College Board account, click on a button or two, and your course approved. Carole

Here is how my local PS weights honors and AP courses: ps---I did not weight my DS AP classes.

Thank you Kareni, First, I need a lesson in how to use the search engine. I did not uncover these threads yesterday. From the posts it certainly sounds like a program I need to seriously rethink. It looks like this weekend and the next several days will find me developing our history program. It's back to the drawing board..... Carole

Thank you. I read just a little of it and was a bit concerned about whether it was engaging or not. Thank you for the feedback. Carole

I am sitting here looking at our history and literature plans for this coming year, and I don't know what to do. I have the history lesson plans I developed for my older son using Spielvogel and TTC Foundations of Western Civilization tapes. We followed TWTM for his history and great books study, with him reading at least 20 books, a dozen or so plays, and he wrote many papers. But this is quite a different child. This DS is not a reader --- he can read but he is a very slow reader with poor reading comprehension. If we read more than 6 books this year I will be amazed (almost as amazing as the earthquake I sat through a few hours ago). I feel that if I use my existing lesson plan I am setting us up for a fall rather than a successful, great year. Even with me reading out loud a lot this year the old plan isn't even a stretch plan. It is a plan for a failure. An alternative is History Odyssey's Ancients which is also sitting on my shelf. This looks like something he could handle however I am not familiar with History of the World by Roberts. Sure I know he has written lots of history books but is this a book a student will find as engaging as SWB's Ancienct World History Book? That's the other history book I have on my shelf. If you have used HO how did it work out? Has anyone substituted SWB's AWH for Roberts HotW? Thanks! Carole

My son took several AP courses through PA HS'ers and I awarded 1 credit for each except for AP Micro Econ. Since it ended in Feb I awarded 1/2 credit for it. Remember though that only courses that have complete the College Board's AP Audit process can be listed as AP on the transcript. You can certainly go through the CB AP Audit process yourself. If you decide to not go through the AP audit process you could list the course as Honor's Psyc or Psyc with his AP test score. I teach AP Stat through PA HS'ers and I expect students to work 1 to 2 hours per school day on the class. A few get away with spending less than that while others need to spend more time. Reminds me of when my DS took AP Eng Comp and he spent 4 to 5 hrs a day, everyday on the class, and many weekends too writing essays. A good friend of his spent less than 1 hr a day on the same class, out-scored him all the time too. It so depends upon the student.

In Delaware one hs'ing option is for the family to declare that they are their own non-public school. Very easy in this state to do this. DOE then issues a school number to us and we then report our school status to DOE in the fall and spring. Quite easy to do----I love homeschooling in Delaware.

Yes, I did put grades on the transcript but took them off when I posted this publicly. They were located left of the credit column. I used letter grades with the exception of Field Ecology I & II and the courses listed under Misc. Yes, I placed test scores on the transcript to do just as 8FillTheHeart states. DS scores were very, very good.: I got the idea for placing the scores onto the transcript after seeing several public & private school transcripts. That is where they had placed their students' scores! Also, several colleges did not want official scores until after DS accepted their offer. Placing these scores onto the transcript provided the scores to the colleges. In DS Junior year we toured several college campuses. On these visits several admission officers stated that they needed confirmation that DS had fulfilled our state's high school educational requirements. For me an easy approach to convey this information was to add: On another college visit the admin person noticed the above line and stated that having that on the transcript was really helpful to him. :)

Here's a link to the one I used for my son, http://mtpleasant.homeschooljournal.net/files/2011/07/Transcript.pdf I placed his test scores on the front page of his transcript and on the backside were his Awards & Activities. I did not upload the second page. Carole

Maura, Thank you so much for the kind words too. Wow :blush: I really enjoy teaching stats and have every intention to continue teaching the online class, for at least the next four years. Carole ps --- sorry for the slow response on this one. I was touring Massachusetts with my youngest son and our 17yo French friend.

Holly, Last year's class did not have a software choice. For the past 3 years my students have used Minitab and it is an excellent product and used in colleges and throughout industry. You cannot go wrong with Minitab. Since students had difficulty obtaining Minitab I searched for a similar product and finally found one with MYSTAT. To me, it looks and feels just like Minitab however I have not explored ever inch of the product. An advantage to Minitab is the reference book which can be quite helpful in learning ones way around the software. An advantage with MYSTAT are its video tutorials. Students are required to use a computer statistical software package in the class but we really do not use it extensively. In my mind I have a difficult time requiring an expensive product that we use only occasionally. MYSTAT appears to have all the features Minitab has without the price tag or the difficult search to obtain it. The choice is yours to make.

Ahhh, thank you for the kind words. Congratulations to your son, he worked hard and was a pleasure to have in my class.

Thank you!

Would you consider LLotLotR to be secular? I saw that there was an optional religous elements unit but I was wondering if religous elements are also included throughout the study. Thanks! Carole

DS finished his freshman year on Wednesday. He had a great year, enjoyed being in college, made friends, and handled a difficult roommate and the academics quite well. A few weeks ago he secured an internship for the fall but last night he received an email from the Professor he will be working for in the fall. She asked if he was interested in starting the internship in early June. :001_smile: YES!! We're quite happy here today.

At our house math books are always completely finished. We just do a lot of math here (cause I enjoy the subject).

We're finishing up Jacob's Geometry and his definition is:

:iagree: You described my oldest too.

We're in our 13th year --- graduated one who is doing quite well in college--and I still get questions. The family has stopped questioning since they know that this is what we do, although the do not hide the fact that they do not approve. The questions come now from neighbors, or people my ds interact with in sports, but I have learned how to pass the bean dip or answer their question. My choice, not theirs. You'll find with time and practice how to handle all the questions.

We were travelling through the Richmond area when my 13yo DS was, well, acting like a 13yo boy and not being totally respectful to me. (He was not behaving as poorly as the cub scout boy. No where near that awful. )This very tall, very large African American man looked at DS and very calmly said the same thing you did to my son. It made an impact on him and several times over the next year or so we reflected back on that day. I think you did just fine, and if I could find that man I would thank him again. :)

Refunds I wonder what your local school policy is? Carole