OK, we just joined a homeschool charter school (we get to hs, we get ps money for curriculum, we have to meet CA state standards). I can request that some of our classes be designated Honors by making them more "rigorous." After I submitted my Honors English plan, I heard back that I need to assign 8 5-page papers [one of those can be a research paper]. My plan was a weekly 1-2 page essay, a few (3-4?) 4+ page papers, and an 8-page research paper. That's still a year total of at least 56 pp. To me, 8 5-pagers seems excessive. Any thoughts? Should I care about Honors status? My oldest has already taken college composition and got an A. But those long papers are like pulling teeth. The counselor said, "If he had college comp in 10th you don't want to go backwards by only taking regular English afterwards." But, I'm thinking colleges will be more impressed by the college class than the honors classes anyway. My kids test well, they are bright and take lots of college classes. Would being in regular English hurt the transcript? I'm feeling very torn between wanting that Honors label, but not wanting to do play their stupid game. However, switching to regular instead of honors would also take a lot of pressure off me. On the other hand, maybe 8 5-page papers is the norm and I need to expect more out of my kids. I will say that *I'm* very afraid of what the grief *I* will get for assigning so many long papers. Any resources for helping your kids write longer papers? They are good at organizing, and good at the 5-paragraph structure, but they haven't done much that was very long (other than the college class which nearly killed us both). Help!!

My son plays games with "clans" which are online groups that you join. You can also recruit players for them. That would definitely be leadership. :-) Since WoW is online maybe you could talk with your son about other leadership-type skills, or other social-navigation skills gained in playing. What's his field of interest? VGs have a major story-telling component along with character creation, and then there's the creative aspect of games if that's related to his desired major. My son did his CC English research paper on video games. There's a lot of scholarly stuff out there about them. Quite interesting really.

Kind of like: "Discuss the different sides of uncertainties about hypnosis: inform the reader what the issues are, what the types of evidences are, and how each side might or might not view that evidence." I don't think it's asking you to pass judgment on the rightness or wrongness, just state the issues. The words "informative" and "persuasive" are sticky though, IMO. The prof could have just said "write an essay." But it's late and I know nothing about hypnosis! Is this a psych class, or some other type of class?

I need a secular health book. I've heard great things about Total Health, but is it Christian? What I really need to know is would my public charter school pay for it. :-)

I need to come up with a course description for Latin 3. I'd like a sampling of ideas for what's typically covered in Latin 3. We're using Lingua Latina, and will be mainly reading Latin authors adapted, less and less as the book goes through. Maybe that's enough of a description? Any suggestions?

I finally came up with a "schedule" after 2 years of high school. 9th: 5 hrs. per day 10th: 6 hrs. 11th-12: 7-8 hrs. My oldest is 11th and so far this is working well.

Now I know where to start.

I'd like my kids to read selections from the Fed. and Anti-Fed. Papers but don't know how to pick. Any suggestions? Or, to put it another way, which ones are read in Omnibus III? :001_smile:

I did something that worked great last year. I made a "syllabus" for the entire year of reading, with the assignments & questions for each book they would read. They followed a weekly plan thus: *Read 150 pp per week (this includes 30-40 from Spielvogel, and the remainder from their Great Book), usually 3 days *Write an essay each week, one day; pick your own topic from my list So their Great Books "slot" took 1 hr. four days a week, 3 days reading and 1 day writing. They could spread it out differently if they wanted. I wrote up questions from the WEM, taking questions appropriate for that genre, and got more questions from Invitation to the Classics and even Cliff Notes or some such occasionally. I found WEM questions to be very usable, however. I did this for all (8? 9?) books they read, and stapled it together and told them to keep it the rest of the year and refer to it. [Note: Print on colored paper anything you want them to save for reference! It's much easier to find in a pile of papers.] Here is an example. Almost all the questions are from WEM. From book to book, a lot of the questions are the same (with some genre-specific questions). I was very, very happy with the way this worked out. They knew just what to do every week, they could choose their own essay topics, and I didn't have to write up assignments from week to week. It was much easier to come up w/all the questions all at once while I was in that mode. As You Like It, Shakespeare, 1601-11 Read about 110 pp/week. Keep a character list. Take notes each time you read (jot down phrases, sentences, paragraphs that you find interesting/important). You could also write down the main event of each scene. Write a five-paragraph essay once a week that answers any of the following questions. Grammar • Identify beginning, middle, climax, resolution • Describe a character (or more than one). • Describe how you think a character would look in a production. Logic • Does unity come from the plot, the character/s, or an idea? • Do any characters stand in opposition to each other? • How do the characters speak? (Identify their personalities, wants, etc.) • Is there any confusion of identity, and what purpose does it serve? • Is there a climax, or is it open-ended? • What is the play's theme? Rhetoric • Do you sympathize w/the characters, which ones, & why? • Does the writer's technique give you a clue of his point of view? • What does the writer want the reader to do/believe/experience? • Are you convinced? If not, why? • How would you direct and stage this play? • Which actors/people would you use? • What sort of stage? • Scenery, costumes? • Sound/visual effects? • Music? • Write out stage directions for one or two scenes • does your setting emphasize the themes? • How have other directors interpreted this play? After you finish the book: 1. Give it a 4-7 word title and longer subtitle that sums up the events/themes. 2. Write 2-3 sentences explaining Shakespeare’s title. 3. Write a five-paragraph essay answering one of the Rhetoric questions. (You don’t have to write more than one essay per week.) Note: No one ever took notes while reading. Oh well. Guess I'd better get cracking on this year's syllabus too!

And that was enough, sometimes he rolled some over to the next week. We only discussed the case studies, he didn't write them up; that would take longer. So 3 hrs. 20 min. would have been plenty for us. He finished the book in one semester. I think we did 1 chapter per week or something like that. I think I read somewhere on this board that it would be good to finish it a few wks. early and start book 2, which takes a little longer than a semester.

I think I know what you're going through. I didn't require much of my kids in the way of writing before high school either. Then it seemed, all of a sudden a very formal type of writing was required. What exactly do you think is the struggle for your son? Is it length, or structure, or is the whole thing overwhelming for him? Journaling is a great idea for just getting used to writing a larger quantity regularly. I had my boys write about 1/3-page (typed) summaries or narrations daily, and that helped quite a bit. Really, just writing on anything every day is a big help. Boys esp. often need practice just getting words onto paper. I used this 10-step list to teach my kids to write a 5-paragraph essay when they got to high school. I just printed it for them and told them to follow it. They wrote about simple topics at first, and their "essays" were very short. Following a checklist helped a lot though. After they were comfortable with the whole idea of a multi-paragraph essay, I was able to help them fix up their writing. I really like Fan the Deck. It's for more experienced writers but they have books for all levels in the series. It's inexpensive, easy to use, easy for the kids to understand. I've written more about it here on the forum, just search for it. stackthedeck.com Hope this helps. Perhaps you could elaborate on what you feel is the "missing part" of teaching writing for you, or your son.

I think you're right on for everything. For Logic, I counted book 1 for 1/2 credit. I think it says in the front that it's typically 1 semester for high schoolers. Just do book 2 2nd semester for 1 whole credit.

I didn't do much w/Heroes. I just had them read the corresponding parts of Heroes along with the Great Book they were reading, and answer one, two, or sometimes all the questions. We didn't do any of the more involved questions. As far as history study, I can't remember it it would be enough... we didn't use it for history. They read Spielvogel's Western Civ for history. Really, if they just read the commentary which Heroes provides and didn't answer any questions, they would still learn a lot. I just found that we can't discuss or answer every single question. As far as using it along with "House" I'd say, just buy them both, and pick and choose the best parts for you. I've never used "House" but I have used Brightest Heaven of Invention (Shakespeare) and Ascent to Love (Dante). Both excellent, excellent, excellent. I used them in the same way as I described above. The students just read them along w/the book. I tried to read as much as I could from the Leithart books and bring up interesting topics at lunch or in the car, and that was about the extent of our discussion. I also have Leithart's book "Deep Comedy." Deep stuff and maybe I'm mired in something I don't understand, so I haven't finished it. But it's great. It talks about some lit but not as a study guide to those works. (This book is for me, not the kids.)

This was a fabulous book. Go look at the TOC on Amazon (here) to see if it covers the books you need. Comprehension questions, as well as thought questions. Christian, somewhat reformed worldview. I loved it. Lots of good background info and "commentary", somewhat summary-like but much more informative than Cliff's. It doesn't have tons of questions for each book, as it's only one book to cover many works, but it had enough for me. I had my kids read the book along w/whatever work they were reading, and answer some questions. Invitation to the Classics is good for background info to have the students read, and there are usually 5-6 essay/discussion questions at the end about each work. Not much but the questions are quite good and I found them very useful.

I came up with 50 pages per day based on their (my kids') reading speed of 30-50 pp per hour. They read 3 days per week and write about their reading 2 days. So that's 150 pp/week.

We only do fitness/PE 3x/week, 30-40 min/day. If you can do a Saturday that leaves only 2 weekdays which is easier to fit in. My high schoolers plan their own daily schedules so they sometimes exercise first thing in the AM, sometimes in the later afternoon. Right before dinner is often a good time because we're home and there's nothing else planned. We have a Concept 2 rowing machine. It cost a lot but it's been worth every penny. 5 of the 6 of us use it, and it will last for decades (unlike the treadmill which died after a few years) because it has no motor. Indoor rowing is a sport in itself and we (dh and I) love it. (The kids tolerate it.) The nice things about having your own machine: the weather doesn't matter, no transportation time, no waiting for others. I come up with motivating challenges and such periodically and offer rewards (the best being extra video game time... it's free and the boys decided they'd rather have that than cash!).

Ah! That's just what I was looking for. Thanks so much.

Specifically, Bennett's America, the Last Best Hope ( or something like that) and Johnson's History of the American People. I'm wondering about readability and "interestingness." And I'm too lazy to read them both (although I do have the Johnson book). Thanks!

You're welcome! Please PM me if you have specific questions. I love to encourage homeschool moms to teach piano to their kids. There are so many great materials out there. Yes, it's frustrating and difficult at times, but it is for paid teachers too, and it would be if you were paying for lessons too! Mostly it's very rewarding!

I personally dislike method books. However they're a good way to keep up w/scales, theory etc. After finishing level 2 of a method book, I put my kids (and other students) into classical. I start them off with Essential Keyboard Repertoire. (Ignore the bad Amazon review.) The big plus is you can buy a CD of all the songs (you may have to ask your music store to order it). Another nice thing is that the book has a list the 10-12 easiest pieces so that should make it easier to use. There are 4 volumes, and we've never gotten past the first because I can pick & choose from my other books after volume 1, but you can keep going through those as long as you like. So, just pick a piece with an easier key, have her listen to the CD, try to play it for her, then let her go at it. If you're dropping method books you can find scale books, theory books, technique books, whatever you want. Just ask them to help you in the store. Perhaps your daughter could keep a theory book & scale book going. Faber & Faber is a very popular, newer method book that I think would appeal more to older students. F & F also has good hymns/Christmas collections. Really, all the publishers do. So maybe you can entice her w/ some new music. Another way to get her more motivated to read is to maybe do note flashcards. Practice a few minutes a day. Go for accuracy and speed. When she can get them all perfect in X minutes (fast!), she gets a reward of some new fun music. You can also buy sight reading books; or just find a method book a level or two below her, that she's never used, and have her go through it all just for sight reading. Again throw in some incentives for completing it. It's a good way to practice reading. Let me know if you have more questions or need other ideas. PS my husband is from ABQ.

How far has she gotten in Bastien? I'm a piano teacher, but currently teaching only my own kids. I have a friend who teaches her own too so maybe I can give you some ideas if I know where she's at and what you're looking for. Is she interested in classical? If not what kind of music does she want to play/do you want her to play? Do you intend to make the ability to read a requirement? And do you consider scales, etc. necessary? Depending on your goals they don't have to be required. Alfred's all-in-one is a good program, but may be too easy depending on how far she's gotten already.

Just had to chime in that we used to live in the Tri-Cities... both Richland and Kennewick. I would guess WSU has a good program because of Hanford there.

I have a two-step plan if we ever feel the need to transition from homeschool to public during high school (I'm in CA and currently privately homeschooling via R-4): 1. Enroll student in a homeschool charter school, which will be much more flexible about accepting my homemade transcript. 2. Then enroll in the public high school which will accept the charter school transcript. [i'm actually going to be meeting w/a charter school teacher/counselor next week to see how they will evaluate my son's 9th & 10th grade transcript to possibly join... although not for the purpose of transferrring to ps... and will edit this if it turns out to be a bust!]

How about requiring a certain # of pages per day... enough that at her current rate, it might take several hours, but at a reasonable rate it would only take an hour? That's what works for my dawdling reader. Is her slow summer reading cutting into her chores/other required activities? In which I would say, make sure the required stuff is done first before she's allowed to read, things like that. It's all about closing in the fences really tight IYKWIM!!

I love this. Our problem is that my teenage boys (14 & 16) don't seem interested in doing any choosing for themselves other than playing VG all day if they could. That would be their choice. I get worried that I will have two slackers who won't leave the house. (Although when the time comes we won't have any problem with changing the locks when they're gone if necessary. :tongue_smilie:) They complete their work and work hard when required to, but they sure don't have any desire to do anything that requires any extra effort.