For whatever it's worth, my daughter studied with Khan for the SAT last fall. I was a little unsure, but she loved the program, the way it isolated and worked on her weaknesses, and the way it helped her decide what to study next. It taught her just the kind of things she needed to know. Also, Khan's practice tests prepared her to receive slightly (but not radically) lower scores than she actually received, which is as it should be--offering false hope is just wrong. And she scored significantly better than we thought she would based on a test she took the previous year. So in the end, I'm a satisfied parent, and my younger will be studying the same way when it's her turn.

We're having trouble figuring out whether my daughter should take the math 1 or math 2 subject test. I know this is a common kind of question! She took math 1 at the end of 10th grade after finishing Algebra 2. She did okay on it, but would like to do better. She's trying to decide whether to study to retake math 1, or just skip to math 2. She will likely want to major in physics or a similar field but is not planning to apply directly to a science program, and she's not planning to apply to top-tier selective colleges. However, she has her eye on colleges that have moderate selection criteria and she needs to get some merit aid. When I look around at advice about which test to take, I see that usually math 2 is suggested for after precalculus, but also that it has a wicked curve and therefore a kid who is strong in math and science but perhaps not at the top might want to reconsider. We'd be grateful for any advice from people who have more experience with this!

Does anyone have information about how usual it is for colleges to superscore SAT scores? My daughter took the SAT earlier this year and got a score she is very happy with. However, she didn't take the essay at that time, so she has to take the whole thing again in order to get the essay. She'll be taking it in late August and is trying to figure out how much to study for the non-essay portion. She'd rather not study a lot for it since she has a lot else going on and isn't set on getting a higher score, but she's wondering whether she might weaken her application if she gets a less good score this time around. Any advice for us? Thanks.

My daughter, who loved Foerster Alg 1 and 2, hated Chakerian's Guided Inquiry. It is discovery method, and she prefers a more traditional teaching format. I wish we'd chosen a different geometry for her.

Thank you, Daria. That is exactly the kind of information I was hoping for. I will ask the school about when this point comes so we can make an informed decision. I appreciate the advice!

For us it was about the Foerster precalc book being very different in approach to the earlier books. We had been warned about this, but she had just LOVED Foerster before and we planned to use it all the way through calculus. We figured we could surmount any issues. Just as we had been warned, the Foerster precalc book switched from a more traditional explain-then-practice method to a more discovery method. My daughter HATES the discovery method of teaching math. It was just a disaster all the way around, which threw us for a loop because we had been such a solid Foerster family for so long with this kid. We were also having issues with pacing, not being sure how much to do and how to pace it, but that became moot pretty quickly as it was clear we just needed to get away from Foerster altogether. It was a tough and unforeseen start to the year, but things are going much better now with DO and the Sullivan text. We're not sure what we'll do next year because she likes to have a textbook and I think his Calculus doesn't use a text, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

My daughter also went from Foerster Alg 2 to DO precalc. No issues. Foerster precalc was a disaster for her though she had liked the previous Foersters. The switch to DO was smooth and much appreciated.

At what point do you have to share a public school transcript with colleges? My always-homeschooled daughter is interested in taking one class this coming semester at the local high school. Obviously, if she stays in for the semester, she will have an official transcript that we will show colleges when she applies. What if she withdraws after a few days or weeks? If there's no official grade, are you required to submit the transcript? Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing? I haven't had a kid apply to college yet so I'm not sure what the expectations are.

Just another thanks for all the advice, and especially the Crash Course video suggestions. Those videos were just exactly what we needed to get un-stalled, and indeed it has brought us more than a few smiles, which was really needed. Along with a few other things, this is going to get us through a lightweight but reasonable year of econ/gov't. Much appreciated.

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back here and say thanks for all the advice! It's good to know that the test preps really should be pretty different. I think in the end she is going to take both like someone suggested above and then hone her practice based on which she decides. For now she's doing Khan, and it certainly won't hurt anything. Thanks again, everyone!

I guess the topic title says it all. My daughter thinks she wants to go ACT instead of SAT, but she did take the PSAT (as well as ACT as a 10th grader just for "fun"/baseline) and has linked her Khan Academy account to her results, and she likes the way it helps her study. Anyone have any thoughts on how much this would help prep for the ACT? Or, is there something else out there like Khan Academy's prep program for ACT, whether free or at a cost? Clearly, it would NOT be very helpful for the Science section, of course, but how about the other sections?

Okay. You all really are the best! You have given me renewed hope. I hadn't ever heard of the Crash Course videos and look forward to checking them out. I will also look into the other resources mentioned here. I think we can do this.... I love how you can get help for almost anything on these forums, and it's okay to say "we need something easy" when things aren't going great and you'll get lots of respectful ideas. Grateful thanks to everyone!

Any suggestions for a get-it-done US Gov and Econ for a kid who is dealing with too much right now as it is and just needs to get a basic understanding and have something to put on her transcript? Text (short/easy) is ok; so is video or audio. Secular is necessary. Something cohesive and easy to implement is probably better at this point than a list of unrelated book titles that could be pulled together into a self-made course. Willing to throw some money at the problem though not a ridiculous amount. Something that could be done together, maybe even with a smile or two, might be nice as things are kind of hard at the moment. We'd be so grateful for any ideas!

History of the Ancient World by Greg Aldrete Your Deceptive Mind by Steve Novella

Just a thanks to everyone who posted suggestions for getting into our kids' score reports. We were having the same problems mentioned in this thread, and like many here, I'm not sure which suggestion did the trick, but after many frustrating failures suddenly before my wondering eyes there appeared my kid's scores. I think one key may have been the idea of going to My Plan and updating the school info there. I had to choose My State Home School, but hadn't chosen it before because it had a street address (not ours) associated with it, so I thought it must not be for all homeschoolers from our state. That got me (finally) past the first annoying page, and then it said it couldn't find her scores, so we searched by student ID number (the school where she took the test had assigned her her very first student ID number!). That also didn't work, but as suggested here I just kept logging out, logging in, and trying various options, and all of a sudden the scores were in front of me at some point. It was kind of surreal and I have trouble reconstructing how it went, but I can add to the voices that say keep trying the ideas on this thread. Over and over. Sigh.

Just stumbled on this thread. So I'm not the only one? What a relief. Mine's only in 10th, but I feel oppressed by the idea that all her future happiness is in my clueless hands. I literally wake up at night fretting. She is studious, lovely, and gracious, loves homeschooling, and is learning a lot. Still I fantasize all the time about putting her in school and unloading the burden. I won't do it, but I had no idea how hard this would be for me, wondering how well or poorly I am leading her. It makes it worse that she trusts me and looks to me for guidance. It doesn't really make it worse, but in ways...

I didn't learn anything about deconstruction until we read Derrida and practiced various lit crit methods in a grad school lit course. Maybe it's just not done in high school very often? I don't plan to do it with my kids. Basic idea of deconstr: It's a conceited illusion that you can pin down the meaning of language. It's too complex and ever-changing and variously interpreted for that. Deconstr people also love to talk about absences, lacks, silences, etc. in texts. Derrida was actually quite playful (though totally serious at the same time) about the whole enterprise, but subsequent theorists upped the ante in some weird and stodgy ways. yadda yadda. But really, I think this is grad-school-lit stuff, unless your kid has a special passion for it. If s/he does, give him or her Derrida and a huge dose of luck and perseverence, because they'll need both to get through Derrida intact!

No, Dimensions 7 and 8 don't have schedules. Sigh. I really missed that. I'm glad we're in 8B now and nearly back to a text with a schedule. The one thing I can tell you is that we found 7A and 7B very slow going....like molasses. 8 has been way better. I heard others say the same thing, but only after this had caused us some stress. So I just wanted to say don't lose heart if things seem slow for a while!

Absolutely consider moving on. I made my kid wallow for a year too long....some kids blossom with algebra. Her pre-a issues mostly withered away when she got to do algebra. He can review limited problem areas as he re-encounters them in alg....which he will. If he's generally sound in pre-a, I vote to let him see if he might find algebra way more inspiring than pre-algebra.

Sandwalk Adventures. It's a graphic novel and my kids don't even like graphic novels, but we read it over and over. Disclaimers: People of certain kinds of religious approaches might find it offensive, and not just because it's about evolution. Also, there's talk among the protagonist follicle mites about butts (they don't have them)....yes, it uses the word "butt," and yes, my kids laughed evey time. I enjoyed the book as much as they did. Charles and Emma is a delightful biography of, well, Charles and Emma. ETA These would be quick and easy for most 7th graders, but they're still lovely resources.

Thank you all so much for this wonderful discussion! I actually read it to my daughter as an example of the many different ways you can go deeper into a text and have fun discussing it. We are thinking we might indeed try pairing it with the Aeneid, as she has not yet read that, either--great idea! I got way more than I hoped for when I asked this question. :)

Or is it more appropriate for middle school? I'd love to hear others' perspectives on this.

Looks like I took: 9th Algebra 3 10th Accelerated Geometry 11th Accelerated Analysis 1-2 12th AP Calculus What a memory trip. I can't imagine the Algebra 3 was what it sounds like. It was probably more like what we call Algebra 1 today. I don't remember what I took in junior high. I also have no idea what we covered in analysis 1-2 or what text we used. I didn't realize until I looked at my transcript that the names for my 9th anbd 11th grade math courses were so wonky.

We tried science matters and chemistry matters for my kids one year. Neither worked well, probably because of issues mentioned by CW and also it just seemed to be clearly part of an integrated program with parts we did not and could not have. It just didn't quite stand alone. Plus sm seemed frustratingly surface-level and my kid wanted more depth, while cm made huge leaps in understanding without teaching the info needed for those leaps. My younger adores Discovering Mathematics so we had high hopes, but we ditched both within a few months. Going to introductory level nonmajor college texts is the best thing we ever did for science.

It's so nice to hear from at least one person who has used Kolbe, merry gardens. You're so right that you need the freedom to adjust to the student's needs, but at the same time it's also nice to have a plan to adhere to or diverge from knowingly, isn't it? I am glad you liked Kolbe, and appreciate you sharing that with me!