I bought the TM. I think it was pretty inexpensive. It has a form or two that you need to copy for the students that aren't in the student book. It has "possible answers" for some of the exercises. It thoroughly explains the writing process they use, which is 3 stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. I don't think I mentioned that before, but these 3 stages are so well-explained and broken-up. My boys spent 1 1-2 hr. session per week on each stage, so you're spending twice as much time on prewriting & rewriting as the actual writing. IOW: wk. 1 read ch., prewriting exercises, basic outline, 1 hr. wk. 2 write rough draft, 1-2 hrs. (sometimes this took 2 wks.) wk. 3 critiquing together, then rewrite yourself, 1 hr. (FWIW they also wrote other things during the week, such as history/lit summaries or 5-par essays, but I didn't require they use the Fan the Deck method or tie them in w/composition. I graded those assignments much more loosely as well. So their week was a blend of "formal composition" and "just write something.")

That is a separate booklet called something like "how to take a timed-essay exam." Lori mentioned it in the OP. It's around $3. Great resource for so little money.

Here I am! Here's what I like about Fan the Deck. After my oldest completed College Freshman Composition at the community college (he's still in high school), I chose Fan the Deck for my other children because I wanted them to be better prepared for college writing than he was. My two high schoolers (9th & 10th grades) used it in the spring semester (yes, I made the oldest do it too even though he'd already taken college English! Writing is still hard for him even though he got an A in the class.) 1. The assignments are very similar to the assignments in the college class: Definition, analysis,compare/contrast, argumentative, problem/solution (or a research paper). In fact the college class had these exact same assignments, but the papers were longer. 2. There is a lot of instruction on how to structure your paper, organize your thoughts. This is huge. This is the one area I needed a lot of help teaching. BTW, in the college class there wasn't much hand-holding for the structure/outlining. 3. Peer review is utilized (which was also part of the college class). Since I have 2 high schoolers this worked really well. They critiqued each other's papers with a checklist (given to them). 4. The series utilizes a great re-write tool called the Sentence Opening Sheet. This helped my kids soooo much. Basically they list the first 4 words of each sentence (they usually do a couple paragraphs' worth, less after they get the idea), then the verb in each sentence, and see where they are being too repetitive and try to mix it up. 5. The assignments were fairly easy to break up into weekly chunks, and do independently. They could read the book and complete almost all exercises on their own, including the writing. Instructions were well-written. We spent about 1 hr/month going over the essays together. (We completed one unit, which is one essay, per month. You could go faster.) This is a big plus for me. 6. Essay units alternate with sentence structure units (parallelism, passive voice, subordination). 7. Oh, huge plus: Very easy to grade. The book gives you grading checklists and also the peer-review is very helpful for grading. As some background, we've come from a more "loosey-goosey" writing approach: Write something every day, mom may or may not grade/critique it. They did fine with that but we needed something more structured to prepare for the more formal assignments of a classroom (whether high school or college). This fit the bill for us. These books were written for traditional classrooms, not homeschools, which was what I wanted... I wanted assignments that more closely resembled the college assignments, with the instruction/directives written in a similar way. Hope that gives you an idea of what's in it. I really think this book would enable most moms to give their high schoolers a college-prep composition class. You could even have your kids go through it two (or more) years in a row. Here's what's in the essay-exam book: 1. Vocabulary of the exam 2. Requirements of essay questions 3. Writing a tentative thesis 4. Developing your ideas 5. Organizing your ideas 6. Writing a controlling idea (thesis) 7. Concluding essay exams 8. Time management 9. Practice ... sounds like a composition course in a nutshell! Haven't used it yet but we definitely will next year.

I have this and will sell it to you cheap. My kids didn't really like it. You can definitely use it without using TWSS. We didn't find it helpful and my kids just don't click w/Mr. Pudewa's style. I found a timed-essay practice book that we'll use for SAT prep, from stackthedeck.com. It looks fab but we haven't used it yet. I agree w/the previous poster that IEW is more of a fundamentals-type program and your daughter sounds like she's beyond it.

Love this. This has helped me enjoy my teens more in times when it seems we are from two different planets. I try not to think of school as the main "thing" of our relationship, but just something we all have to muddle through to get to the fun stuff.

I stopped lessons at age 15 when I realized I could teach myself any piece I cared to learn. Note, not any piece under the sun, but anything I'd be interested in playing. I think this is a good test of whether someone's ready to stop. I was completely burned out, but I went back to piano at age 21 and began teaching private lessons. Today I teach my own kids and play at church some. I think the later teen years are a good time for kids to explore what they want to do, and spend less time on what they're being made to do, if they have that luxury. Another way to keep up the piano is to set a goal, for her to learn say 3-5 pieces on her own during the school year, practicing 30 min./day. My friend's 9th grade daughter is doing this with great success (only she does more than 3-5 pieces per year). An hour a day is a lot to spend on something one doesn't really want to do. However, it's not "music major" level either. It's a good amount for someone who wants to make visible (audible?) progress. Music major level is more like 2-3 hours per day. 30 minutes a day would be a maintenance level. This is what my 9th grader does. He won't progress much beyond his level (late intermediate), but he can learn lots of pieces at his level and have fun doing it. He can play contemporary worship song arrangements, and he can play popular classical "crowd pleasers." He could play keyboard in a band one day. Maybe you could talk w/your daughter about her goals for piano.

My oldest went through most of Athenaze in 7th grade, with no previous Gk, only Latin; however he was a little bewildered by the end. You could definitely use the 2ed workbook with it. And you can still get the 1st ed. answer key from the publisher. Almost all grammar is covered in bk 1, so there's not a huge hurry to get to book 2. Bk 2 is mostly reading gk authors. There's not much Homer in Athenaze, but there's A Reading Course in Homeric Gk that looks excellent. I think I'm going to have my boys use this next fall. http://www.pullins.com/Books/01753ReadingCourseinHomericGreek.htm By way of background my boys have taken the meandering route thru Gk... Athenaze 1, then Mounce, mostly muddled and not learned well but they've definitely gotten "the gist." I think the profit is in the journey.

I think your goals are great, and you should keep the languages going as long as you can. However, grading is something that people have strong opinions about, and others may not agree with me, but we are pretty relaxed about grading. It's up to you to decide what kind of effort or scores or whatever gets what grade. One suggestion is to make the quizzes/tests open book. Another is to make the grade based on her comprehension of material on a daily basis. Another way you could give a grade is to say, "Completing 100% of the book gets an A, 80% gets a B," etc. Some other ways to show comprehension could be coming up w/a final project, such as a large-ish translation project, a short composition in the language, creating her own noun/verb charts & power point presentation... you and she could get creative. Our language experience: Our kids study Latin and Greek. They will study these until they graduate from our homeschool. They don't take any closed-book tests (this year they took the level 2 National Latin Exam but that was a first). Their grades are based on their performance on their daily lessons. If she needs to go slower, you could do less and call the language study part of an English or humanities credit. This was suggested to me once by a charter school counselor and I think it's a great idea. I would love to hear other ideas.

... The rather simplistic solution I've found, but it *really* works, is if you complain or fight me, you get to write another one. Announced calmly, nay, gleefully, and enforced cheerfully and promptly. :D

I think a good preparation for reading the Great Books is to read worthy literature like Dickens & Austen, and poets such as Tennyson. I like "208 Classic Poems" which is on the Ambleside Online website. I think reading and understanding poetry is very helpful and a good way to break out of the straightforward, contemporary writing that we're used to. Use online plot summaries/study guides if you're having trouble with them. Then, when you're ready for the Great Books, here's what I've done. Pretty simple. Pick one that interests me. Find an online summary of the plot or the basic idea, or use Cliff's Notes. I might also read a children's version. Then start reading! Even if 90% goes over my head, I gain a lot just by trying. Then, I find that the next book, only 80% will go over my head. You get to read these books over and over. Don't feel like you have to "get it" all the first time or you're a failure. I don't think it's necessary to read them in any order. I would stick with the ones that are most interesting to you. I'm currently reading Paradise Lost and Beowulf. I think Shakespeare would be a good author to start with. You can also watch a video version first, or after, whichever you prefer. I think it's best to just start, rather than worry about whether you're ready to start! Keep us posted on your progress.

For us the pros have outweighed the cons. I think it's highly dependent on the instructor... ask around or check ratemyprofessor.com. For background, my 16yo has taken 2 programming classes and freshman English comp online (and got A's in them all but I digress). He's also taken 1 class on campus. Pros: * I have access to all learning material, syllabi, deadlines, etc. so I can oversee my kid's work better. THis is huge. I am able to help, make sure they understand, etc. etc. without facing "What did you learn today?" "I don't know." This was what happened in my son's first campus class. He continues to need a lot of help organizing his time & study materials. So online classes have enabled me to help him w/that. * Extremely convenient for scheduling. * A good online teacher is very available via email, and has course material well-organized online... easy access, no worries that you can't make his office hours. (this was his English teacher.) * My son tends to struggle w/face-to-face communication so this was a way for him to write his thoughts (on online forums) without the pressure of piping up in class. Cons * Yes, there are bad teachers who don't answer emails and don't grade in a timely manner. (My son had one of those.) * No face-to-face if your student wants that. * Your child could end up being too dependent on your help. Again, I strongly recommend getting teacher recs for your best experience. And, if this is your child's first class, I recommend choosing a somewhat easy class in a field he/she's really interested in.

Peter Leithart's other books I think would be perfect for what you're looking for, if you're partial to a reformed Christian world view. Heroes of the City of Man covers ancient authors. Brightest Heaven of Inventio covers 6 Shakespeare plays. Ascent to Love is all about Dante's (Inferno or Divine Comedy? Now I can't remember). Miniatures and Morals is Jane Austen. But really, even Cliff's Notes cover themes, both literary themes and moral/social issues, just not very indepth.

It's sort of a lit analysis. I haven't read the book but my understanding is that it has a point to make about different world views, and is making them via those 2 works. One aspect of lit analysis is comparing different books, but it's not the only kind of analysis. If you're wanting to read books that compares different works, Deep Comedy by Peter Leithart is great. But it's tough reading. I haven't finished it. It compares the biblical and ancient Greek world views via literature- Greek epics and Shakespeare. Are you looking to learn more about how to analyze literature, or learn more about world views, or...? And are you looking for curriculum, or books for yourself?

That seems like a good direction to go to avoid romance. Lad: A Dog Bob, Son of Battle Rascal Wild Animals I Have Known Owls in the Family My Side of the Mountain (has 2 sequels, not sure if those have romance) Redwall series? Is there romance in those?

Absolute favorites: Lingua Latina for Latin Fan the Deck for college-prep English composition Brightest Heaven of Invention & Heroes of the City of Man for Shakespeare/ancient lit commentary Spielvogel for history "spine" Latin-Centered Curriculum for an overall plan

Longer poetry... to stretch the poetry muscles before hitting epic poetry: "Evangeline" and "The Song of Hiawatha" by Longfellow. The latter is often found in abbreviated forms (or just the part about his childhood), but the whole poem is 250 pp (in my book). And I second story versions of Iliad & Odyssey!

Off the top of my head: Any kind of mythology, so students are familiar w/the gods/goddesses, what they did, etc. Famous Men of Rome/Greece, or a children's version of Plutarch. And in general, "old books" so your students are comfortable with less contemporary writing styles, are a great help. My high schoolers read Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost this year and it was helpful that they already read the Iliad and the Aeneid last year. They were already familiar w/that epic style. Yep, gotta love epic poetry. :-)

My son is interested in game programming too! Two books that he's enjoyed: Paid to Play, a book about jobs (all kinds) in the gaming industry Game Programming for Teens, which came w/a compiler (I notice there's also a Visual Basic version of this book) The latter he read and worked on on his own... might be fun for summer to test out his interest.

I would give 1 high school credit (NT Greek 1) for half the book, like you said. If you want him to speed it up how about skipping the "additional" translations? Otherwise it sounds like he's doing fine.

Biblioplan has a high school outline for lit/great books.

My son's currently in his 3rd online CC class. It's through our local CC but it's online. They've all been great... I can be more "in touch" with what's going on, since I have access to all materials. Much easier for me to help him w/organizing due dates, etc. No more "What did you learn today?" "Oh, nothing much......" :-) If you have specific questions let me know.

You don't have to have a certified AP class or teacher to take an AP test. CLEP tests I believe are not as hard as AP tests. No offense to anyone. AP tests are more widely accepted for college credit, esp by top-tier colleges. I'm in CA and neither UC nor my local Cal State accepts CLEP tests. (Actually the local Cal State does accept the CLEP chemistry test and that's it.)

I've looked at College Plus pretty thoroughly. I think it would work well for a highly-motivated, independent, out-of-the-box type student. But I don't think I could "make" someone do it who wasn't interested. I also don't think it would work for classes w/lots of labs like hard sciences. And, once started, I think it's hard to change your mind or transfer. They say that a BA from Thomas Edison State College is accredited and would be accepted anywhere, but I have to wonder what a graduate program would think about it. The idea of finishing your BA quickly is appealing though, and if I had a child who really wanted to do that, I'd say go for it. For years I was set on getting my kids through college quickly and early. My oldest (16) I'm finding, is slooooow. Not a slow learner, you just can't hurry him. He needs time to mature and can't handle a huge workload. And that's OK. He's taking one CC class per semester (we tried 2 and it was soooo hard) to ease into it. As for APs, the College Confidential boards (http://www.collegeconfidential.com) are a good place to find the "inside scoop" on a lot of college prep stuff. If I had a child who was a great test-taker, and I had easy & cheap access to AP classes, I suppose I'd have them do it. I'm finding that taking CC classes is a better fit for us.

I do and I like it. When I assign a "great book," I also assign the reading about the book from ITTC. The readings are only a few pages, but good Christian context. Also good "briefing" about the books for Mom. I also may use a couple of the "thought questions" for essay topics. There are a few, 5-10 questions for each work. Lots of nice color artworks, a la Omnibus, make it a beautiful book as well.

We started off really small with running. Small is better than nothing. We started with 20 minutes 3x/week. We were able to do it at about the same time every day, but if that's difficult, maybe just schedule it in week by week. We spent about 8 months at just this small level, mainly building the habit. It helps if you're dressed in your running clothes from the beginning of the day. Getting the whole family out at once is more difficult than just taking one child at a time (they can go alone the other days). Another way is to drive to a high school with a track, then the little ones can play in the middle where you can see them. We also have a treadmill, which my teens prefer because they can watch movies. We also have an indoor rowing machine. So, no excuses around here. As for making yourself do it.... pretty soon you feel so good doing it, that you miss it. Although I found I had to push myself pretty hard to get the point where I really felt amazingly good afterwards. (Ie. moderate exercise doesn't make me feel amazingly good and I don't miss it.) Also, when I was running just for myself, it was harder to make myself. When I made myself responsible for my kids' exercise, I was more motvated to be consistent for them.