Unless your kids are used to staying up really late, you might want to do your moon gazing tonight or Thursday night. The moon rises quite a bit later each night, of course, and where I live, by Saturday the 20th the moon won't rise until around 11:11 pm local time, and takes a while to rise high enough for good viewing. (It will rise tonight where I live around 9:30 pm, tomorrow night around 10:07 pm, etc.) Here is a link you can use to look up the moon rise times where you live: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/ Yesterday, July 16th, was the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, so just tell your kids we're celebrating the "anniversary week" of the overall mission. 😊 Our local astronomy club held a moon watching/star gazing party last weekend in honor of Apollo 11, scheduled to coincide with a more optimal moon rise time, so we went to that. We also watched the 3-part PBS series Chasing the Moon on Amazon. And also First Man, but that one might not be suitable for young kids. Thought of another great film to watch - a documentary called In the Shadow of the Moon. EXCELLENT.

FWIW, Derek Owens videos are hosted on his own site, not YouTube. I think there might be some sample videos on YouTube but that's it.

I can't remember specifically - it has been 5 or 6 years ago now for us. You should be able to see the Table of Contents in a preview at Christian Book Distributors' website. (CBD usually does a great job in general of putting up good book previews.) Here's a link to level 5: https://www.christianbook.com/grammar-writing-grade-5-1st-edition/stephen-hake/9781419098369/pd/998369?event=ESRCG Also, this scope and sequence on the publisher's website might be helpful, although it is at a pretty high level: http://www.hakepublishing.com/support-files/grammar_and_writing_scope_and_sequence.pdf ETA - I also just noticed this blurb at the bottom of the S&S (bolding by me):

We used Hake grammar. I agree, Hake is enough on its own. (We tried Fix-It somewhere along the way but dropped it quickly, after the first or two unit, I think.) I had DS do just the odds or just the evens in Hake and I also let him write in the book. It usually took about 20 minutes per lesson, as I recall. Grammar sections only, none of the other stuff. Three days per week. We spread one level over two years, and did two levels that way, spread over 5th thru 8th grade. FWIW, DS took the ACT for the first time in 10th grade, got a perfect (36) score on the English section, and he mostly credits Hake for that. ETA - The reason we spread each level of Hake that we used over two years is because once I compared the Table of Contents from each level, it became clear that the levels are repetitive/similar and build slowly due to the spiral review. So we used level 5 for 2 years, and level 7 or 8 (can't remember which now) for 2 years. You could do the same with level 6 and level 8, we just used level 5 because I had already purchased it before I thought to compare the levels to each other.

My son used Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology by Elaine N. Marieb (10th ed.) in his Human Anatomy & Physiology course. (I believe this text is now in its 12th edition currently.) It was taught by Kerrie Childress at Excelsior Classes. The text is published by Pearson. I didn't do it for this A&P text, but in the past I was able to register as an instructor with Pearson and then had access to their online supplemental resources.

If you want high school level chemistry, PAC IPC probably isn't what you want. It's really physical science - some conceptual chem and physics. What other sciences has she had already? You mentioned two lab sciences completed.

Yes, I agree, WAH was good for what we needed it for when we used it. And I'm not saying the weekly lessons were all that lengthy. I think most of them were a couple of pages per lesson. But the lit analysis handout is definitely a big chunk of instruction, although not a checklist or formulaic. If a kid needs more hands-on guidance maybe it just won't be enough for them, and that's where the weekly feedback loop is really helpful, as you said.

Yes, I know it costs more than other online writing courses. But I'd be embarrassed to tell you how many other writing curricula and online writing courses we've paid for with little to show for it. I mean, there'd be forward momentum, some years more than others, but I never thought, "Oh, that one was completely worth the price." So, I hope you don't mind me sharing this on your thread, but my son is attending a residential summer program at our state's flagship university right now, taking college courses with instructors who (thankfully) have high expectations. He sent me this comment that he received from one of his professors this week: "D., this is a very well-written essay! I could not ask for more. Your writing is remarkably strong. You'll want to do this exact same thing for the upcoming research paper. Excellent work!" That is the type of result I've been hoping for after all these years of writing classes! This is the whole point for me! 😄 And considering where my son started last year and where he ended up, I believe the Logical Communication class is 100% responsible for this result. I believe strong writing and thinking skills are so, so important. We spend more on this and then save more in other areas. Completely worth it, for us. Good luck to you and your son!

I don't even know what to say to this, but it sounds like your son must have missed out on critical components of the Write At Home course. That does not match up with my son's experience at all. I'm not even sure how that could happen, but reading this, it's no wonder that you feel there wasn't explicit instruction.

Since you mentioned other writing programs, and if you don't mind hearing about another option, I can wholeheartedly recommend Logical Communication with Mr. Roy Speed. It was a huge hit for us this past year. It has been the best money we've spent out of 9 years of homeschooling and many online classes. DS will be taking the next course in his writing series (Essay Writing and Appreciation) in the upcoming year. DS decided to do this instead of taking English Comp through dual enrollment because he thoroughly enjoys the live class sessions and knows he will benefit significantly more from the class with Mr. Speed as opposed to taking English Comp 1 and 2 at our local university. Mr. Speed is known here on the forum for his Shakespeare courses, but he's offering writing instruction online now too (his website is hscollegebound.com). He has also taught at a co-op for years and teaches writing to professionals, so he's experienced with writers at a variety of levels. Mr. Speed has spoken with us personally by phone about our son's strengths and areas he can improve on next, and I was impressed by his reaching out to us to do that. I'll paste below my comments from another thread: Logical Communication with Mr. Roy Speed has been a big hit. It focuses on clear thinking, organizing ideas and arguments, backing up your ideas with evidence, logical flow, and rhetorical devices, all in conjunction with analyzing high-quality essays. The instructor has appropriately high standards and is enthusiastic, the live classroom is well-managed and has interactive discussions, the workload is just right (emphasis on quality, not quantity), and the feedback is individualized (appropriate for a range of abilities), prompt and constructive. DS has taken several composition courses before this, and this one is the best he's had by far. Mr. Speed is known here on the forum for his Shakespeare courses, and he's offering full-year writing courses online now too. He also teaches writing to corporate professionals. DS will be taking his Essay Writing and Appreciation course next year.

Ah, yes, that part makes sense. I still think that confirming with the U would be wise at this point, when options are being explored and decisions are being made, instead of relying on what the CC is saying.

I'm a little fuzzy at this point on the exact situation your son is in . . . in terms of what degree (AA/AS?) he'll have and how many credits he's transferring with and how many credits he specifically will need to complete at the U. (Needs 30 hours or 48? Will have an AA/AS, or 96 transfer hours?) There's a difference between credits that transfer as gen ed vs credits that are deemed equivalent for a specific major by the receiving U. It sounds like you haven't actually confirmed with the U and are relying on the CC and perhaps some info you found online to advise you. In your shoes, I'd still confirm everything with a live person at the U to avoid potentially losing money and/or time, even more so in this situation where finances and the timeframe are portrayed as especially tight. Best of luck to you and your son.

I absolutely agree some kids may not click with the teaching style and certainly no class is a good fit for everyone. But I'm surprised that you don't think WAH provides explicit instruction. Could you elaborate on that? I didn't save the WAH lessons on my computer, and DS has his laptop with him out of town at the moment, so I can't look on his right now, but I remember seeing downloaded PDFs with instruction for every step of every lesson (A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, etc.) And I know for sure that the literary analysis lesson guide was a PDF that was 34 pages long, because I did save that one and DS still refers to it. It's pretty detailed, with lots of examples and suggested do's and don'ts. I also totally agree that IEW is not like WAH. DS used IEW in middle school, so I'm familiar with both. WAH is not nearly as rigid and doesn't have the IEW-style rubric details like "use two -ly words in this paragraph" or "start this sentence with X type of word . . . ". I believe a program like IEW has value for some kids, but WAH is definitely not like IEW. Also worth noting for others who may be interested, there is no live interaction or video component in WAH. The lessons are conveyed by reading PDFs, and then the student and writing coach interact in writing and pass assignments back and forth through a secure online platform (not email but similar). There used to be samples of the writing lessons on the website - not sure if they are still there but I would guess so. Maybe OP could poke around in those and see if she thinks the style/type of instruction would work for her son.

Have you confirmed this with an academic adviser at the university who works in the department from which your son hopes to graduate (not just someone who works in admissions)? Some universities require a minimum number of credits (sometimes at least half of the total) to be completed on their campus in order to graduate. And sometimes credits completed at other institutions will be applied as general education credits but will not count toward a specific major.

We used Write At Home for a couple of years and it was a good experience. You might consider signing up your son for one of the 8-week workshops instead of committing to a semester or year, to try it out. The semester and year-long courses are the same content as the workshops; think of them as several continuous workshops strung together. (The details are outlined on the website. Check the syllabus for each class.) Also, that way you can avoid the creative writing sections if you want to, as your DS indicated he does not want to do that. If your son likes one of the shorter classes, you can enroll in more at any time and start the next one when the current one is finished. You can pick and choose to find the level that matches your son's ability. The WAH workload is not heavy and DS thought the instruction was clear and logical. It was entirely hands-off for me. He consistently got good feedback from his "writing coaches", but I have read here of others who didn't have that experience, although you can ask to be switched to a different writing coach if you want, and switching is apparently no big deal. Having an outside instructor to perform for might make a big difference for your son - it did for mine. Let me know if you have any other questions that I could answer.

Yes! This is the key. DH and I both had student loan debt. First-generation college students, no help from family, poor advice from all directions. We made it our #1 priority to get that debt out of our lives. We continued to live frugally like we did in college until it was gone! We both worked at two jobs for a time - our full-time jobs plus side gigs. We delayed starting our family, had fewer children than we originally wanted, still live in our starter house, both drive older cars, I didn't become a SAHM (which I see as a luxury when the family has debt) until the debt was gone, only cheap stay-cations, rarely eat out, few "extras". It isn't popular to do these things and we're not "allowed" to talk about them. Everyone these days seems to have a sad story and justifications for why they are different. We simply decided we had to make certain life choices to pay off our debt. We're changing our family tree to benefit our son and the future generations of our family. We're frugal, but also happy, content, fulfilled, etc., and still have a better lifestyle than our high school peers who didn't go to college. So I think the sacrifices have been worth it. I think she said she didn't co-sign. I think saying the lender "came after" her is kind of too strong. They simply sent a letter; they're just fishing. It might even be a third-party debt collector just seeing if they can bully an unsuspecting or ill-informed relative (or former relative) into paying, all while knowing they have no legal basis for it. Unfortunately it happens.

I saw this today and just wanted to share here in case anyone is interested . . . FundaFunda Academy is offering a High School Challenge that runs for the month of July. It's a unit study for getting prepared for college. The self-paced virtual classroom opens on July 1 but registration will remain open until July 20. The classroom closes at the end of July. We've always had a great experience with FundaFunda. More info and registration: https://www.fundafundaacademy.com/challenge/

My son read the Samuel Butler translation. It is said to be a little easier to understand than some other versions and just as rich. It was part of his Great Books - Ancients class with Wasko Lit. Mr. Wasko has taught high school English for ~30 years so I trusted his judgment on this. 😀

OP, obviously we don't know your son, and you do know him, his strengths and weaknesses, better than anyone. But if I were in your shoes, I'd lay out for my DS the concerns regarding the number of credit hours he's capable of per semester, being able to work or not (which means being able to afford the college or not?), maintain a 3.0 which means keeping his scholarship, graduate on time, etc, and then leave it with him. I would think my son deserves the chance to apply himself, rise to the occasion, and not have it decided for him in advance. Obviously, you know you can't do it for him. At some point he has to do this, or not.

Does your son know that he's not going to get any financial support from his parents once he turns 18? If this is true, he needs a job ASAP and I don't see how he could have the luxury of not working going forward. If he lives at home and commutes, will you continue to feed him, let him use your utilities, etc? Or will he pay rent to you? If he moves to a dorm instead, some of your monthly expenses will decrease. Teen boys usually eat a lot (mine does and he's not even an athlete), so I'd bet your grocery bill alone will go down significantly, plus your water bill and gas or electricity bill (fewer showers, less laundry). Can you not apply your monthly "savings" toward helping him live on campus? Just trying to help you brainstorm.

In this scenario, I'd want my son to live in a dorm. #1 for safety reasons. Young driver, high traffic, accidents on bridge? No way. #2 for all the time-efficiency reasons stated by many above. #3 for financial reasons. I think it will cost a lot more than you think to commute. Estimated costs of commuting today range from $0.59 to $0.75 cents per mile (https://exchange.aaa.com/automotive/driving-costs/#.XRKG7-hKg2w), depending on how many miles you drive per year. I don't know how many miles he'd be traveling, but at 30 miles one-way, 60 miles per day, for 180 days a year, it would cost AT LEAST $6300 per year in fuel, depreciation, maintenance, tires, insurance, and the cost of the car itself. That's more than half of the $11k you said he could save by commuting. I live in an area where we have to drive long distances to get to anything. I still wouldn't want my son to commute in this situation. Some things are worth the money. I think in this case a dorm room is one of those.

But AP and Advanced Placement are trademarked terms, owned by the College Board. Regardless of the opinion anyone may have about the College Board, that fact remains. And I've read here numerous times over the years that if a student takes a course (or self-studies) with a syllabus which has NOT been College Board-approved, one simply is not justified in labeling that course AP or Advanced Placement on the transcript. One could perhaps label it "Chemistry with AP Exam", but not "AP Chemistry". If the student ends up not taking the AP exam after completing the (non-approved) course, then " . . . with AP exam" doesn't go after the course name. There are no transcript police, but giving an inaccurate name to a course in order to give a student a GPA bump or to fit any other narrative just isn't playing by the rules. And if we as homeschoolers know this, I'd bet that folks in the college admissions/scholarship arena know that too.

My DS is in this situation; one of the DE classes he's taking is worth 2 college credits. I'm going to round down and give it .5 credits on his high school transcript, because I don't want his transcript to be perceived as being "padded", and because he will have more than enough credits for graduation from our homeschool, so the difference between .5 and 1.0 credit doesn't matter in the big picture anyway. The point is that he took the course and it is on the transcript -- the number of credits earned for it is not the point, to me.

I don't know if this is the same issue you're encountering, but I used to list my son's used curricula on Amazon and other sites for resale after we finished with it. I've never sold more than a handful of books a year, so it definitely isn't a business for me and I don't make a profit. Anyway, several months ago, I got an email from Amazon that said they now require all sellers to provide US Tax Identity information: "provide Amazon the appropriate tax identity in the form of a W-9 or W-8BEN form". And this was also in the email: Since I had grown tired of paying Amazon's high selling fees anyway, it was an overreach I wasn't willing to comply with, so I let them close my seller account. But I was never charged a fee to list with Amazon. The fees applied only when one of the books was sold. For me, eBay has lower fees and I sell more used books there than I did with Amazon.

Hard work pays great rewards! Kudos to your DD! So nice to hear this!