Can I just say that third grade is really still very young? You said that he is a voracious reader. Pat yourself on the back. Strew good books. He will learn. I have a high school junior who is EXTREMELY self-led and motivated to excel in academic pursuits. He fell in love with math and computer science and left me in the dust years ago...but not in third grade. In third grade, he “mathed” something, read something, and wrote something (often just copywork) every day. I was consistent in that I required the basics every day, but we were most definitely not spending hours on official school work. However, I considered the other hours of his day to be equally important. I, too, worried that he was going to hate all things academic. I, too, worried that I wasn’t requiring enough. I now know that it was in those hours of LEGO play, drawing, listening to read alouds, building forts in the forest, and starting basement fires with the chemistry kit that he was weeding through all of life's possibilities. It was in that play that he found his thing. I found my child who barely tolerated his daily math lesson up at midnight working through Hands-On-Equations. He didn’t want me to know. He didn’t want algebra to become his elementary school work. He wasn’t ready to share it yet, because it was all HIS. It was magic, and it never would have happened with this child if it had been Mom-led. Perhaps you will have the same experience at your house...

I’m coming late to the party, but I second the recommendation for Art of Poetry. I have used and like MP Poetry, but I prefer A of P. I have used it over the course of high school interspersed between longer works, and we have really enjoyed it!

National Merit or not, all of these students are the tops! I am proud to be a homeschooling mom today. These kids are going to go forth and do great things with their lives...

I have taught an AP course in a public school, and my professional opinion is that this is all done with a bit of black magic 😬. Yes, these exams are curved, but they are curved both up and down. It is all an attempt to arrive at an even distribution of scores. I will say that AP exams seem more straight-forward. For most of them, if you know the content well, you score well. Just a bit of unsolicited advice...With my first pancake, I had him take the PSAT every year beginning with his freshman year. I thought it would ease his anxiety going into the exams that did matter later in high school. He scored in the top percentile each year he took the exam. As he took the exams each year, his anxiety grew. He put great pressure on himself to maintain this score every test. The result for us is a very educated and intelligent student who is struggling with terrible anxiety and perfectionism. Do look ahead and be prepared for the exams to come in your student’s high school career. It’s good to be prepared, but enjoy each year of high school without pressing forward to the upcoming challenge. I so wish I knew then what I know now. Happy homeschooling!

I am glad that her scholarships will not be affected. Crazy results this year.

I hear you! My son pulled up his reading and his math fell down 🤣. It’s like walking and chewing gum... Good Times.

Hugs to her and to you. It was a very hard year. I just read on one site that the 50th percentile dropped by almost 100 points. Of course, I can’t find the site now, and don’t have a source, so this could all be hogwash. I’m just chalking it up to another life lesson about dealing with expectations and disappointment. I call this learning to bounce! Onward and upward to the SAT!!

I’m waiting on Saturday’s SAT, too! We are also looking at engineering with this one. Solidarity! Waiting is hard!!

The more the merrier! I may just need a year or two to get this all figured out 🤪

Thanks for all the replies. They give me something to chew on for next year. This is my over-the-top science and math kid, who will be tackling post-AP calculus math and post-AP physics science. Sadly, I don’t know enough about either of these courses to elaborate. Thank goodness he knows where he is going with that... He does need one more English credit, but I wanted to do something a little different for him for senior English. I am a former literature teacher, so I’m really having to stretch here 😉.

Add us to the list of National Merit hopefuls (in one of the toughest states, I might add) who had a lower score this year than last. Such a kick in the gut. It is what it is, but I can’t wait for our year of College board hostage to be over... Hugs to all your hard working kids out there who need them. True congratulations to those who did well on this test!

I like this. Thanks! next question...Rhetoric would be seen as an English credit, right? He has three years of literature and composition.

I certainly don’t intend to be poverty shaming anyone! As I said, the schools in my area are not hurting for money. I say this as both a former public school teacher and as a child who grew up with very little. I apologize if my comments came off this way.

My name is Hadley, and I am a curricula addict. There. That’s out of the way. Out of sheer curiosity, I ordered a used Theory of Knowledge IB textbook. I have only perused it thus far, but I really like what I see! It seems to be a mish-mash of philosophy, sociology, psychology, art history, dabblings of rhetoric, bits of logic, and the contents normally kept beneath the kitchen sink. I had planned to lead a group of seniors, including my own, through a solid rhetoric course next school year, but would love to add in bits and pieces of this text as well. My child already will have credits in art history, AP Psychology, and philosophy, so I want to avoid those topics in the course name. Perhaps I shall title this course “Everything That I Want to Discuss With My Child Before He Leaves Home, Just In Case We Never Speak Again”?? I’m not sure how well that could be interpreted by a college admissions board if I put it on his transcript... Anyone ever mashed this all together? Ideas? Maybe I’m just having a bit mania??

I have noticed a change in how fundraisers are conducted that I find quite disturbing. In the past, fundraisers involved an exchange of a product or a service for a “donation” of money. Today, the product or service has disappeared. I’m not sure what this is teaching our youth. I live in a fairly affluent school district, yet every year the kids from the local band dress in their uniforms and knock on doors asking for donations to the local band program. I always politely decline. I am always tempted to ask for a donation to my child’s piano lessons, but I refrain. i have no problem supporting local schools, but I don’t like teaching our children to knock on doors and ask for money. Maybe I’m just old and crotchety...high chance...

This thread is really getting me in the Christmas mood! I love the Santa pictures, and the special collections of memory ornaments. I love the shot of the family dog snuggled up under the light of the tree. This thread is better than the Hallmark Chanel at Christmas😀

Thanks! Yours is beautiful, too. It is gold, teal, and lime green with peacock feather ornaments and a bird on top...the feathers just don’t show up well in the pic😉. I love the LEGO tree! Christmas morning just isn’t the same without the littles...

I love seeing everyone’s trees! I’m so excited to finally participate this year! I love the variety of decorating styles. I must say, I miss the years when I had little kids and had truck and dinosaur themed trees.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply! I’ll sleep much better tonight. 😉 Eleven years into this homeschooling game, and I’m still second-guessing everything!

Thank you! Short, sweet , and to the point. I appreciate the reassurance. I don’t want to break my son, or his transcripts! He has also written several research papers, etc., but I have an uneven writing load in some of his classes. For instance, AP US History had a large stack of output. Philosophy has not so much...

Hello again! I introduced myself yesterday over on the Chat board, so today I’m going to jump in with my first question. Does every course have to have a large amount of written assessment in order to be assigned high school credit? For instance, I have a son with a strong STEM bent. He will willingly read literature and write correctly formatted MLA papers of literary analysis, but is his time better spent writing lab reports? This same son and I have fabulous discussions about novels, government, and philosophy. We can follow a rabbit trail and talk for days about themes or ideas. I consider that true assessment. Must I then have some sort or written assessment from him in order to give credit for reading that book, primary source, etc.? I absolutely understand that our students need to be able to produce different types of writing for different types of classes and audiences. My question is, do they have to write papers in every subject every year? Is discussion a valuable assessment tool? I’m really interested in your opinions.

Thank you all for the welcome! I just returned home and checked The Hive, and it brightened my day to have heard from so many of y’all! Yes, I am still homeschooling. My son is a high school junior. Like many of you, we chose to try homeschool for a year and we have never looked back. He and I have sampled many curricula, online classes, and co-ops over the years. This year, we have landed on a good mix with online classes with Pennsylvania Homeschoolers and Tapestry of Grace at home. I am getting to the white-knuckle part of the homeschool years: college applications...I am so happy to have this board for guidance!

Thanks for the welcome! I’m glad to finally “be” here!

Hello, all! I would like to introduce myself as a new poster, although I’ve technically had an account for years now. I’ve been learning from all of you since my son was in first grade. He’s now a junior. I would like to tell you all how very much you have helped me in this homeschool journey. You have educated me, as well as keeping me from feeling alone on this road. I’m hoping to jump into the waters and not be a stranger any longer! My toe is in now...

Chris in VA, Thanks so much for the tips!! I really appreciate the recommendation about the catacombs. I may have overlooked that one.