Consider this a bump, as I've never seen it before . . . but it looks pretty cool! Thinking about it for my DS. http://www.eeme.co/

This probably isn't what you have in mind, but have you looked at the Killgallon books, Grammar for Middle School - A Sentence Composing Approach? They're not necessarily based on "beautiful passages" but they use examples from published authors as part of the lessons. Not a typical grammar book. You can see samples here at the publisher's website: (edited to remove wonky link that keeps pasting w/ a security alert, just google "Killgallon grammar middle school"). You can also find them available for purchase at Amazon, etc. Or maybe Michael Clay Thompson's grammar books? I haven't used them personally but maybe you could find opinions here by searching. Also very non-traditional grammar instruction. http://www.rfwp.com/pages/michael-clay-thompson/ (edited to fix link)

:party: Congratulations! And good luck to your son!

For me, the one book would be Caesar's English.

No experience with American School, but I remembered this recent thread that might help you on the topic of their online vs. paper classes. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/581347-american-school-onlinecurrent/

Your DD's geography year sounds fantastic! Please tell her I love her notebooking pages. My DS is typically more get-er-done and shies away from "projects", but I bet I can get him to do that kind of notebooking. I may have to borrow that idea for next year. :) Thanks for sharing what you guys are doing!

Yes, what SilverMoon said. Also, OM has historically had a 15% off sale every May around Mother's Day, so you might wait until then to buy your course guide.

Have you looked at Oak Meadow's high school geography?

Did you buy your thumb drive from the Math Without Borders website? If so, you can buy a replacement from the creator, David Chandler, for ten bucks. Just contact him: http://mathwithoutborders.com/?page_id=107. He's very friendly. (Just FYI, as part of the checkout process when purchasing from him, Mr. Chandler stipulates that people who buy his materials agree to abide by a single-user license agreement and not resell the materials on the used market. So if they are scarce in the classifieds, that may be the reason. :001_smile:)

Very nice! Thank you for sharing your hard work!

These websites should get you started in your search for resources: http://conceptualphysics.com/ http://conceptualacademy.com/

Carrie, thank you for taking the time to share your resources! I appreciate that very much. On a related note, I thought of you as I was browsing today through the upcoming class list on Coursera, and noticed one that might be of interest to you. It's called "Introduction to Food and Health". https://www.coursera.org/learn/food-and-health Quote: "About this Course - Around the world, we find ourselves facing global epidemics of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes and other predominantly diet-related diseases. To address these public health crises, we urgently need to explore innovative strategies for promoting healthful eating. There is strong evidence that global increases in the consumption of heavily processed foods, coupled with cultural shifts away from the preparation of food in the home, have contributed to high rates of preventable, chronic disease. In this course, learners will be given the information and practical skills they need to begin optimizing the way they eat. This course will shift the focus away from reductionist discussions about nutrients and move, instead, towards practical discussions about real food and the environment in which we consume it. By the end of this course, learners should have the tools they need to distinguish between foods that will support their health and those that threaten it. In addition, we will present a compelling rationale for a return to simple home cooking, an integral part of our efforts to live longer, healthier lives."

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

Would you mind sharing resources/links you're using for this? It sounds like a fantastic topic to study.

Just beautiful. She's very talented. I love your photo too. Thanks for taking the time to share that with us.

Donna, your post brought tears to my eyes too. What a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. I think you're wonderful for doing this and your son sounds like an amazing, awesome person as well.

She teaches math online. She's also a forum member here. http://www.myhomeschoolmathclass.com/index.html Edited: to fix wonky link that pasted incorrectly

I haven't used them, but they have some free sample downloads you can try out to get an idea of how their book discussions work. http://www.centerforlit.com/Academy/sampleaudio.aspx

I've never used Warriner's, but I certainly don't think you can go wrong with that (just going by its reputation) and since you already own it, that's even better. And, yes, I think the independent format and efficiency of Hake makes it ideal for co-op situations too. Sounds like a good plan to me! :thumbup:

Hake grammar is very straight forward and does include a decent amount of diagramming. It's also written to the student and thorough. For us, no involvement was needed on my part except grading the work. (For others who may be reading, the diagramming is easy to skip if you don't care to include it. Diagramming is included but not integral to the rest of every lesson.) My DS did one lesson per week, working on it two days per week, about 15 minutes per day. If I remember correctly, a grade level includes about 110 to 120 lessons, depending on which level you're using. The way we did it, we spread one level over almost two years. There's so much overlap/repetition of topics between levels 5 and 6, and also between levels 7 and 8, I didn't see the need for my son to do a whole level every year. YMMV. So on the first grammar day each week DS spent about 15 minutes reading the lesson instruction and doing the examples and practice sections over the new material. Then he would stop for that day. The second grammar day each week, he would do the review section for that week's lesson, doing only every other question (evens or odds). There's so much spiral review, he never needed to do it all. But it is nice to have it there in case you need it. Next to each review question, there's a reference in parenthesis to the lesson number in which that concept was taught, in case the student needs to flip back and look at a lesson again. Also, I let my DS write in the textbook instead of writing on separate paper. I felt that saved him a bit of time on each lesson as well. There are tests in the teacher's book if you want to use them. The first one is used after the tenth lesson (I think) and then after that there's a test after every five lessons. DS never took longer than 15 or 20 minutes to do a test. If we had wanted to do a whole level in a year, we could have done it easily by spending about 30 minutes per day twice a week, or 15 minutes a day 4 days a week, for example. So, that's my long-winded way of saying, he spent about 30 minutes on each lesson, skipping half of the questions in every review section, and writing in the book to save some time. HTH.

Awesome! Congratulations to your daughter and you!!!

Alongside WWS, we used Hake grammar (not the writing workbook, just the grammar text), Figuratively Speaking, Mosdos lit (discussed orally, didn't use the workbook), and books chosen from the various popular lists (WTM, Sonlight, AO, etc., etc.) We also had Killgallon's Sentence Composing in the mix at various times for something different.

Congratulations to your son and you! I can feel your joy. Thanks for sharing it with all of us!

Couldn't agree more! THANK YOU to all the been-there, done-that experts who still hang around here with those of us coming behind you. It is truly much appreciated.

Congratulations to you both! :hurray: