Update on this. They have since changed their accounts to include options for homeschooling parents.

This is one of the readers. There are other volumes as well. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1482373343/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1482373343&linkCode=as2&tag=daycarel&linkId=42OIBIOGZT5A563Z We also picked up books entirely in Japanese from Half Price Bookstore. She likes to pick them up and try to work her way through them. She watches a ton of (age appropriate) anime. Here is a list of movies she's working her way through: http://www.imdb.com/search/title?languages=ja%7C1&title_type=feature&num_votes=10000,&sort=user_rating,desc Hope that helps!

Thanks, Lori. There are quite a lot of movies and we are reading the novels that go along with them (when available). We aren't simply doing a compare and contract...I have complete study guides for the novels with activities, tools to analyze, discussion questions, etc. Each movie/book will take at least 2 weeks to complete (working daily). Closer to 3. In my oldest daughter's previous (outside) English courses, she read about 3-4 novels over the entire year along with some writing and received a whole credit. We are set to read 7 novels, a short story, 2 plays, some poetry. You still don't think it's enough to call it an English course? Or to even qualify for more than half a credit? I was thinking the reading and analyzing alone with essays and Time4Writing would be enough for an English credit. Edited to add: Thank you for the other suggestions. We already have Windows to the World. Haven't looked at The Lightning Lit and Comp.

http://www.alexa.com/

Normal. I went through something similar at the age of 15/16. My parents wanted to go and I did NOT. I spent the whole trip there (to Texas) writing about how unhappy I was in my journal, writing notes to my friends (no cell phone in the 90s) and being completely miserable. I couldn't wait to get back. I had no anxiety about the trip, just didn't want to miss a thing at home.

Forgot to mention, we also purchase Japanese readers and she watches movies in Japanese. Many say the language is difficult, but if they are really interested they will pick it up quite easily. My daughter says to her, it makes more sense than any other language. She speaks Japanese all day. Even my toddler is starting to speak it.

Irasshai. My daughter has been using it and is on year two. We also purchase the text and workbook from Amazon. Really fleshes out the video lessons since there are only about 60 of those.

I've tried them. We are actually using US History for a 9th and 11th grader. Also signed up for American Literature. The content is good. (These are definitely secular courses) They give you a course intro and then a unit intro. They have a short lesson for each chapter, which is basically reading (there is a ton of reading!). Then they have additional readings, which may be biographies, diaries, and other online resources. Most of them are on Shmoop, but some are other sites. There are activities that go with the readings. May be a comic that you analyze, essays to write, a short Shmoop type video, etc. Lots of writing (rubric is included). I mostly have my daughters answer aloud, because they could easily be answering 5 different essay questions per subject each day. You could also just pick and choose which ones to answer. One thing to note is, I wanted to create classrooms on the site. Meaning, we all can read on our own screens, and they could complete the lessons right in the site. There are WYSIWYG text boxes for each assignment that can be submitted. The submitted assignments end up in the backend of the class where they can be graded by the teacher/parent. Students will be able to access their grades in their own backends. It also makes it so that the student can have their own account without the teacher notes. Another benefit is that they can mark the readings complete as they do them. I learned the hard way that you have to pay for each student. When signing up, it never mentions that. It just says that you can invite your students to your course. When I invited my daughter, she was going to have to pay $80 for the course. (1 semester). I was upset and contacted them. Especially once I found out that public school systems typically pay less than 10$ for the entire year per student. I contacted them and they were working on some sort of deal for me, but haven't worked anything out yet. For now, my students log in with my info and complete the assignments in Google Drive. They share it with me, I print it out, correct and hand back for a final version (if necessary). We are no longer using them for American Lit (got a refund) because it was so much writing and it's just really much easier to do it within the site, which we were unable to do). We picked up something else for English. HTH!

We've decided to give Movies as Literature a chance this year. We plan to use it with the extras (reading novels when available, comparing and contrasting, watching and analyzing related movies). Any idea what I could call a course like this? We are doing the writing in the course, plus some writing from Time4Writing. I thought Literature and Composition, but it seems a bit plain. you think this can even pass as a regular English course? I'm doing this with my 9th and 11th grader.

I've had a hard time teaching writing so I finally handed over to an online course. Both of my high schoolers use www.time4writing.com. I wasn't sure about it, but so far so good. They can go at their own pace. The lessons are all laid out and the teachers get back to them very quickly.

Perhaps that was their first intent, but Teddy's father stated on Facebook that he understands the wording of the bill, and that it proposes that all homeschoolers be subjected to interviews and home visits. He says that we should be willing to give up some of our privacy for the goodwill of all children. Bull. This bill will not help children. The abusers will put on a smile and get past the one or two interviews each year. Ridiculous.

You can also see some of the conversation on the senator's Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Senator-Capri-S-Cafaro/279952678729649 Teddy was in public school when his abuse was reported. This bill would not have helped him.

Exactly. I think it's important to stand up for our rights.

Teddy was abused for at least 2 years before his mother pulled him out to homeschool. Schools and family reported it to CPS. CPS dropped the ball, this had nothing to do with homeschooling.

Please, please (even if you're not in Ohio), voice your opinion of this Bill on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Teddyslaw01

I am considering doing this for my rising 10th grader. Any idea how to schedule it? A few days of geo and a few of alg 2?

Thanks, everyone! I like the idea of combining languages.

My daughter studies Japanese for her foreign language credit. She also took up self-educating for French and Latin. It's not enough to call it a full credit, but possibly enough for a quarter or half credit. Can this be included on her transcript, or would it be frowned upon to study another language with less intensity?

We have heard good things about www.time4writing.com. I'm planning to give it a shot with my daughter.

I know this is fairly old, but I wrote a review about it on Yelp some time back after attempting to use it: http://www.yelp.com/biz/complete-curriculum-flat-rock-2

I said it because it was my opinion. Why are people on this forum so combative? It's my opinion, and my reasoning, and it need not make sense to you. If someone dared her, or asked her to do it, it doesn't mean she KNEW what would happen.

Please understand what a felony conviction does to someone's life. It's not good. I would also like to say that I had NO clue, and neither did any of my children, that mixing these items would create a bomb. Color me stupid I guess...but if I didn't know...and my teens didn't know...why should I assume, she knew? I'm a firm believer in using it as a lesson. Have her talk to other kids about the dangers. Suspend her for a few days. Felony charges? No.

All of my kids are using Saxon and love it. They aren't "mathy" at all. My oldest is in Algebra 1 and when I tried to switch her, she pleaded with me to let her use Saxon for the rest of her high school years. They self-educate with Saxon. Reading the lessons, working the problems, checking the answers and then going back to rework any wrong problems until they get 100%. They've been doing this for years and seem to enjoy it.

Duolingo is interesting to use. My daughter is using that just because she's interested in French. Japanese is her language for school.

http://www.time4writing.com has high school writing courses.