I don't know what WTM specifically says, but this is what we did. 1st-4th - talk about cultures and languages around the world as it comes up during world history, use globes and maps during history studies, do a Beginning Map Skills book, learn states and capitals 5th-8th - Trail Guide to World Geography & Trail Guide to US Geography high school - once a week play Seterra games All my high schoolers have a pretty good knowledge of where things are at when we talk about world events, which was my goal.

DS just did a comparative politics course at home this past year and he absolutely loved it! We used 2 college texts https://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Comparative-Politics-Sixth-Patrick/dp/0393624587/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=comparative+politics&qid=1557329191&s=gateway&sr=8-7 and https://www.amazon.com/Cases-Comparative-Politics-Sixth-Patrick/dp/0393624595/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/136-9812611-5459608?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0393624595&pd_rd_r=b6d11985-71a5-11e9-8ad6-676656a66066&pd_rd_w=hmoyj&pd_rd_wg=ArmQI&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=XN44DJGZSZ8PGP0AJ5S5&psc=1&refRID=XN44DJGZSZ8PGP0AJ5S5 He would read and then give a presentation/teach the information to me from each chapter in the essentials book and several case examples from the cases book and then wrote a research paper on the pros and cons of proportional representation. It was a fantastic year! (and much cheaper than an outsourced class) He did not prep for the AP exam, but would have had extra time in his schedule to do so if he had wanted to take the exam.

If I had just 1 year before middle school, Exploration Education is what I'd do.

We did use MM7 for my 2nd two kids, but my oldest moved right from public school to using Video Text (no MM at all) and it was a very successful transition. The first module covers pre-algebra topics and it's a great conceptual program.

Thank you for this. I am kinda leaning this way, but it's so good to have the reassurance of the Hive! 🙂

I just had a baby almost 2 weeks ago and in my high aspirations pre-baby I thought we could still finish the school year strong and do everything left on my list, just do it more slowly and finish over the summer. However, now that baby is here and I'm sleep deprived and feel like a milk cow 😊 I'm feeling very "done" with school this year and re-evaluating what reeeeeeeeaaaaaaalllly needs to get done in order to call this year good. We only have 2 more weeks to fulfill our 180 required days (IN law). My high schoolers are mostly on track. They will still watch a math video with me and we will discuss their last literature selection before they write an essay on it. All of their other work left this year can be done mostly independently from me, so I'm not too worried about throwing them off schedule or them not doing enough to earn their credits. But my 5th and 1st grader still have some work that I had planned for this year that isn't done. Here's what we had planned and what I'd like to drop (striked out): Finish MM5 (5th) Finish God's Design (5th) Get to a good stopping point with AAS (both) Finish Fix It (5th) Read SotW and write narrations (both) Get to a good stopping point with AAR just read a little with her every day (1st) Please tell me if I'm slacking or if I'm stressing about nothing and should just let it go ... thanks!

Katie Joy 🙂

Way ahead of you - Momto6 *is* the new name and my signature is updated to boot! 🤣 I'm sure I'll crash soon but right now postpartum euphoria is still giving me energy 🙂

We have a new little DD! Labor was fast and my blood pressure spiked but then dropped which made for some kinda hairy moments but we are both doing well and I'm so happy to not be pregnant anymore! Woo hoo! @RootAnn my age made it harder for me to push as effectively I think but that's all 😉

Maybe for you it went fast lol! Personally I think pregnancy days are like dog years and 1 ends up feeling like 7! 🤣 But seriously though, thanks everybody for the well wishes and I look forward to posting a pic and changing my user name sometime tomorrow evening!!!

Nope! We like surprises 🙂

starting at 7:30am Eastern time! Lord willing, I'm going to have a baby tomorrow!!!!! 🤞 Soooooooo excited not to be pregnant anymore and to find out who this little person is! Anybody out there who is the praying type, I will take them gladly 🙂

I think it's possible you may be projecting too much into the future to be able to predict what your high schoolers will need ... As Garga mentioned, high school takes a LOT of time. And most of the co-ops I've seen (never joined, but heard from others who are in them) are not all that academic in nature. We've had better luck cultivating friendships/social interaction and group collaboration by having our teens join clubs and organizations based on their interests and finding their tribe that way instead of having one picked out by their parents as a result of which moms decide to go to which co-op together. With only so much time in a week, my teens would much rather spend a whole day per week with their speech and debate team or their drama troupe doing stuff collaboratively with them on those types of projects and doing their academic work at home than (in their words, not mine) waste their schoolwork time with a co-op and not have as much time to do extracurricular stuff that really matters to them. YMMV of course

For science I think continuing with what you've been doing is great. We start Apologia in 7th for more structured science, but in elementary I don't think you need to do that if an organic approach is working for you and your student. For composition, we like IEW a lot and it's been great for both me as a teacher (to feel like I know what I'm supposed to be doing) and also for my students (who are growing by leaps and bounds in their writing). But it's definitely a more structured approach and might not be a good fit. And it's expensive. We have also had good success with the Wordsmith series mentioned by a PP, but only with my very self motivated student who grasped the writing process very intuitively. Not sure if I'd use it with a struggling writer or not.

My state only requires 1 full credit of PE (for ps students, not homeschoolers, but I try to roughly follow guidelines so their transcripts match up to other kids from my state). We just have them do "personal fitness" (walking, running, weights, yoga, whatever) for at least 15 minutes/day each year of high school and then give them a cumulative credit at the end. They are active in other ways, too, of course, with extracurriculars and such, but the 15 minutes/day for 4 years satisfies their official transcript hours.

Is there a reason why he has to take American History in 9th? Just asking because we found the History of US (concise edition) along with the Hewitt syllabus and a fun reading list to be absolutely perfect for 7th and 8th grade after using Human Odyssey for world history in 5th and 6th. So in 9th and 10th they were ready to look at world history and geography again and then repeat USH in ~11th.

Taking a social media break for Lent. It's good timing because I've seen signs in myself of wanting to present myself as smarter, funnier, or more whatever than I really am, and I hate that tendency in myself because at the heart level of that tendency is a lie and I should call it out as the sin that it is. Lent isn't really something my current church really does as a tradition, but as a former Catholic I really find it a useful practice and I hope to see you all again at Easter with a renewed spirit and dedication to what is real and good and true. And I also really hope to have baby pics to share by then 🙂

Many of the IRL people I know are pretty even keeled and while they don't do the same stuff we do, I would consider it very close to the same level. But I shudder when I see some of the questions and advice given on my state hs'ing group's FB page and how low some of the standards are there. And then I come here and feel like a slacker because none of us will ever read a Greek play and my DH is dead set against teaching Latin because it's a dead language lol So, you know, it's all about balance 🙂

I was apprehensive to tell my parents about #6 being on the way. I only have 1 sibling and my dad was a staunch believer in overpopulation back in the 60's/70's and my mom has always believed that having too many babies weakens a woman's health because her mom had 6 and died at 60 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis. I've told her about research that actually shows the contrary, but old beliefs die hard. They have never been anything but supportive of me and my family out loud. Who knows what they say about us when we're not around lol but I can't imagine them saying anything like the comments some of you report. 😕 I also can't imagine having a sibling who was so concerned about the money they might theoretically get someday that they were upset about getting another niece or nephew to love. I'm sorry for all of you who have to deal with that. My brother and his wife have 2 and say they're done and can't imagine having as many as we have, but they love and support them all and are never stingy with Christmas presents and whatnot. I do try to spend more on their 2 for gifts than I might if the numbers were more even. Extended family is a whole nother story. DH has several aunts and uncles with 7+ kids and 6 siblings himself so it was no big deal to his side of the family. But my aunt's and uncles and cousins think we're a freak show and regularly make comments about how maybe we should get separate bedrooms. I just shrug and say we like it and what else are we going to do with all our time if we don't have a TV? 😎 They usually don't know how to respond to that and drop it.

Sign up genius is free and easy. I used it when a friend from church had a house fire and needed meals for a month and our drama troupe used it for signing up for meals or the kids during tech week. They send a reminder email to everybody who signs up, which is nice.

I always did it with a long E but a hard G. I'm glad to now know the real way to say it!

I love all these stories! I wish @regentrude would play, I've always wondered how to pronounce it and also what it means. Mine is boring and self explanatory. I'm a mom to 5 kids and I live in Indiana. After Easter I'm going to have to change it to momto6 🙂

😂 Yes! How did you know? 😂

This week it was these. They all have in common finding the real zeros of a function. (I couldn't figure out how to superscript, so hopefully you understand which are the exponents) Find all real zeros of the polynomial function f(z) = z4 - z 3 - 2z - 4 Final real zeros of the polynomial function f(x) = 4x5 + 12x4 - 11x3 - 42x2 + 7x + 30 Use synthetic division to verify the upper and lower bounds of the real zeros of f. Then find the real zeros of the function f(x) = x4 - 4x3 +15 upper bound x=4 lower bound x=-1 Use synthetic division to verify the upper and lower bounds of the real zeros of f. Then find the real zeros of the function of the function f(x) = x4 - 4x3 + 16x -16 upper bound x=5 lower bound x=-3 The graph of y=f(x) is shown. Use the graph as an aid to find all the real zeros of the function y = 2x4 - 9x3 + 5x2 + 3x - 1

Yes to all of this! I've told her all that too, but you know how 14 year old girls can be ... They know everything *rolls eyes*