I haven't done it for diabetes, but I have received accommodations for learning disabilities. What kind of accommodations are you looking for? I have a hard time imagining that they'll grant you extra time, but you might just be seeking extra breaks (to give meds, test sugar), snacks, separate testing, etc. I certainly didn't write out any 6 page IEP. My son does not have any formal IEP or 504. I wrote out a cover letter summarizing what I was asking for and why. I wrote out a Last name homeschool education plan (my version of an IEP). This summarized diagnoses, testing and accommodations through the grades. I lumped all of elementary together and then started separating out accommodations for grades in middle school. It was completely customized to my child and did not include anything that wasn't pertinent to my son needing accommodations. In addition, you'll need a doctor stating your child will need certain accommodations. If you are asking for time accommodations, it is harder than simply having a professional say that they have this diagnosis and therefore need more time. For time, they want testing showing that the student actually needs more time.

It was overkill for my math/physics based boys. They did better switching to something that was more of the big picture without every little detail/definition. We still liked the biology lab book though.

I've used Jen Holman as a teacher for a different class. My boys have had two other teachers for Expository Essay. The class material is the same no matter who teaches, the teacher feedback has been good from all our teachers, including Jen in a different class. Expository Essay - Along the way while learning about essays, you also work on some details like thesis statements and paraphrasing, etc. The first essay is the open essay. You are initially given an assignment to come up with various thesis statements within a couple of topics. You are looking at pure knowledge questions (can you train a fish to do tricks?), practical application questions and value questions. You will then end up writing a paper with one of these and you don't have a lot of freedom to pick other subjects for the first essay. It's a pretty open ended paper and is poses a question without completely resolving it. My second son wrote a paper on Is it ethical to break rules and take a penalty in sports if it advances your team in the game? For the second essay, you are given a list of about 10-15 general topics and you are to pick one or suggest your own to write about. It's a basic five paragraph essay. Teaching is done on structure, and some of the assignments focus on this, but the bulk of the work is in writing and revising the papers. A fair amount of time is also spent on exploring your topic once you have it. This provides a lot of foundation for writing a better paper. A lot of freedom as well as encouragement is given in developing their own voice. I find the teachers are fantastic at drawing words out of my kids by asking them questions and not telling them what to say. While the class teaches the structure, I find the real benefit of the class is the instructor growing my writers into better writers. MLA Research Essay - Excellent class taught by Susanne Barrett. Very focused on structure and technique. Much less room to develop a voice in writing. FABULOUS at teaching HOW to do a research essay as well as how to follow instructions. My oldest found this to be a very difficult class, but then he turned around and was able to write research papers for other classes and get excellent grades on them.

... I could make an argument for any of your choices. The teachers are both very good for those classes. She'd probably have more opportunity to work on voice in the Expository Essay class, but would already know much of the structure of either class. I think either class would be good to repeat even if she already knows the material because the teachers are so good at drawing more out of every student. Susanne Barrett in the MLA research essay class is a stickler for every fine detail. All the formatting, grammar, citations, outline, etc. It's a great way to work on creating good habits for research and writing. Since so much of the MLA paper will be based on research and quoting/paraphrasing others, I don't think as much of the student's voice shines through compared to the Expository Essay class. The MLA class however makes you learn every step of notetaking, outlining, rough draft, revising, etc.

I don't think you HAVE to have a full year of writing. You need a full ENGLISH credit of which part of it is writing. You can piecemeal the credit by doing writing, literature, grammar, discussion, poetry, etc. Brave Writer lists each of their 4-6 week classes as 1/4 credit. Center for Literature list their discussion only literature class as 1 credit and a 2nd credit if you do the writing portion. If you are adding anything at home - vocabulary, grammar - then you are doing some more portions of a credit. It's okay to keep writing between Brave Writer classes, but it's also okay to have periods of time that you do more focused writing instruction and then less writing later. I take my Center for Lit class, multiple Brave Writer classes, family literature discussion along with whatever else we are learning (writing, grammar, poetry, vocabulary, etc.) and call it one English credit. In my course description, I spell out more of what we did and what was emphasized for that year. Good luck deciding if you want to piecemeal your credit of if you want it all from one source.

The teachers of Center for Lit come from a Christian Worldview but they don't try to persuade the students in any particular direction. Through most book discussions, you'd never know they are Christians. Some books have that as part of their theme and therefore it comes up in discussion. When discussing this issue with my boys (after they had both done a full year of Center for Lit), one of them knew that Adam Andrews is a Christian and the other did not. I think my oldest learned it as they discussed one of the books by CS Lewis.

For the common app, I think there is the ability to upload 4 transcripts from what I've been told. 1st - homeschool transcript 2nd - course descriptions Should I include transcripts from PA Homeschoolers, Brave Writer, and local courses - in other words classes graded by someone other than me? Should this be a third transcript upload?

I will do graduation announcements as all my out of state family expects it. I have had friends do low-cost announcements by simply printing their own on cardstock - black and white is fine.

I narrow it down to "my" choices and then let my middle schooler pick based on the course descriptions. It's easier to give them a choice between 2-3 classes rather than too many.

I would reexamine the minimum requirements for a diploma. To me it sounds like he's met them and he's certainly met the requirements of learning by his ACT score. (If you want you could also back up and count 8th-11th as his high school years). I'd graduate him and be done. I'd also make a transcript because he might need it in the future - I'd feel fine listing some/all of the classes as simply pass/fail. The transcript would just be on hand for if he wants to apply to college or other in the future so you don't have to do it then. I would award a diploma over the GED because the GED has a stigma associated with it that doesn't reflect the ability of a student that can make a 30 on the ACT.

I happen to love the Brave Writer classes. If your daughter also loves them, then I'd continue with them for the "structure" rather than IEW. I don't think she'd like to go back to IEW from Brave Writer. You can always move to something else later if you want. My kids like the Center for LIterature online discussions. We've always done them without the writing component, but they do offer writing as well. Brave Writer also offers Boomerang for lit discussion as well as some literary analysis writing classes.

My kids wouldn't be happy about doing a writing course over the summer either. :closedeyes: However, as far as writing courses go, KidsWriter intermediate is much less painful than most.

Which is harder depends on how you are inclined to learn as well as interests. Chemistry has more math; Biology has more memorizing.

Even if she doesn't finish all of the geometry and statistics, then she can go ahead and start algebra. She can finish up the rest at a slower pace if needed. I agree that now she's found AoPS, she might not want to go back.

I would say that very few people would be able to do AoPS in that timeframe. Geometry is a big book and even if you already knew all the material, it'd be challenging to just do the review problems in 50 days. If you are learning the material, it takes time to process the amount and depth of material in the book. I'd recommend doing something else for your test prep.

HUGS. I tend to tell the kids that their brains are wired different and that makes them better at certain things and makes it harder to do other things.

None of my kids have done Middle school writing projects so I can't comment on that. It sounds like a good place to start. Kidswrite Intermediate - one of mine took it as an 8th grader; my oldest was not ready until high school. The writing itself is not that difficult, but some of the thinking like learning how to paraphrase doesn't always come naturally to a younger student. Depending on your student, you might consider doing Expository Essay next or save that one for high school. Does your dd like fiction? My daughter took several of the fiction writing classes this year as a 7th grader. She was on the young side and I wouldn't recommend these for someone who doesn't like fiction, but they were great classes. Do you have other kids? Some of the family classes might fit you well - Playing with Poetry, Just so Stories, Family Shakespeare are all good choices. Might consider taking one or two months of the Boomerang club. Pick some books that sound interesting and then sign up for a month and have your daughter do writing about the books. Lots of choices and they are all good.

I do want to say that there are a lot of great books in core 200. Don't be afraid to adjust it to your family's liking.

What worked for my high school non-writer was Brave Writer online courses. Does he know spelling and grammar as well as vocabulary - if not, you might work on copywork and dictation over the summer. It's amazing how much can be learned through this. I'm like you in that I (and my son) are number people and I had no idea how to teach writing. It's been amazing how far he's come with Brave Writer and comparatively painlessly (when compared to other things we tried).

One of the best pieces of advise I got when starting was to give myself permission to waste some money on curriculum. While we all try to do our best in picking out the perfect curriculum for our family it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes it is best to consider certain purchases a waste of money, set it aside and start on something else. It is often not worthwhile to plod through it just because I spent money on it.

Good luck. Your son may be hesitant as he's not really sure what it will mean to his future. I approached it with my teenager much to the extent that the testing was more for me to better understand how he learns and how to best teach him. Regarding dysgraphia - I have a very gifted, severely dysgraphic son. I got so tired in the early years from people telling me I just needed to make him practice writing more. It's certainly not that simple. I can relate to preferring a root canal compared to helping him write. He does have extended time on tests as well as other accommodations. Just knowing that his brain is "wired differently" has been very beneficial to him to better understand why he has to work so much harder at some things than others.

My dyslexics love Beast Academy (but they may have some math loving genes as well). My dyslexic daughter has done Beast as it was published from day 1. We've always had to do something else alongside since it wasn't being published as fast as she would do it. She would work in older grades SM and MEP and then do Beast at whatever rate published. My youngest dyslexic loves Beast and it is his main program. He needs a little more drill of facts, but every time he gets a new book he writes out a huge multiplication chart in the back of the book for his reference. ... by the way my dyslexics can't carry and borrow on paper until years after they learn it - though they can do it in their heads.

How interesting. I think writing AoPS proofs was a big step in my oldest (dysgraphic) son in learning to write. Thanks so much for writing out your thoughts.

Yes, I've looked at their pdfs. I started with buying The Writer's Jungle - I loved the concept, but in reality I couldn't implement it myself. In Kidswriter Basic - I was the student. The teacher would give assignments, I would tell me kids what to do, I would summit the kid's work and then the teacher would give comments and I'd pick and choose what to pass on. All the rest of the classes, my child has been the student. My struggling writer says he still doesn't like to write, but he likes the "Brave Writer" way better than anything else. It's also turned him into a very capable (though continues to be very slow) writer. For the online class, an assignment is posted to the classroom and generally you have 2-3 days to finish it. Usually 2-3 short assignments are done weekly. The student submits all their work and the teacher gives comments. You can also read the comments on all the other student's work. The teacher always finds things to praise as well as things to ask questions geared to making the student improve their work. Getting back to your question - I've also bought Help for High School. It is written to the student with lots of samples as well as how to self-critique. This is almost exactly the assignments for Kidswriter Intermediate and Expository Essay. I bought it thinking I could assign it to my son and then grade his assignments myself. NOPE! I cannot give feedback that he responds to. Some of it is that he doesn't want mom to critique the writing and some of it is that the BW teachers give way better critiques. I enrolled my struggling writer in both Kidswriter Intermediate followed by Expository Essay and they were wonderful (he's since taken some other classes as well). I then thought I could teach my second son from the pdf - NOPE! For me the Brave Writer teacher feedback is invaluable. I can not give anywhere near this level of feedback. They draw out words from my kids that I cannot do, but they don't "tell" them what to write. Their writing is unmistakably theirs. My natural writer (12yo) has taken several fiction writing classes as well. I feel crazy that I bought the pdfs and then turned around and enrolled them in the classes. Oh well, live and learn. I learned that the classes are expensive and worth every penny to me.

I love to assign something more of the student's choosing that can be done independently - more reading of their choice, computer programming, watching Teaching Company videos, etc. In general, you have all the bases covered and I wouldn't worry about "needing" to add more.