Try this site http://bensguide.gpo.gov/ It has levels for elementary, middle and high school

A local friend of mine used Apologia Biology for her DD and she did well with it. Her DD then went to a small liberal arts college and is majoring in Biology. Her daughter struggled to make a C in her first semester Bio class. Because of this, I questioned the rigor and have decided to use BJU for my son (especially since he wants to also be a Bio major). If your DS isn't planning on a Biology/Chemistry major, then Apologia is probably sufficient; otherwise, I would look for other options.

Codecademy is another option http://www.codecademy.com/learn Don't worry about anything being too simple. Just let him get in and explore and he'll move to the more complex as he is comfortable.

While I agree that the comparison may not be apples to apples and statistics can always be tweaked to say what you want, I do think there is some validity in comparing. In FL, high school students that can pass the CC entrance exam can take DE classes for FREE - thus providing motivation for them to do so. Also, I know that Florida students taking AP via FLVS are required to take the AP test to get credit for the class http://www.flvs.net/areas/flvscourses/Pages/APCourses.aspx and I suspect that may be true at all public high schools. In addition, the passing rate for the AP exams is 43% which might explain the asterisk. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-08-01/news/os-advanced-placement-schools-08-02-220100801_1_advanced-placement-college-credit-florida-high-school-students I guess my point is that if your goal is to obtain the college credit, then CC might be your better option in Florida. One other factor that might influence things here is FL is that all CCs have articulation agreements with all Florida 4yr universities and in fact nearly all CCs are converting to 4 yr colleges. That gives me a little more faith in our CC classes that I might not have otherwise.

Wow! I took a look at that document from FL (where we also live) and was surprised to see that only 41% of students got college credit for the AP classes. Looks like CC is a much better option with 94% getting college credit.

I am aiming for 24 credits for my son which is the # required here in FL. However, we are doing it in 3.5 yrs rather than the normal 4. This is mainly because I will be giving him elective credits for things that for PS students would be ECs and also throwing in a credit or 2 that will be done a little here and there over the course of the entire 3.5 yrs. We are mainly focusing on the core English, Math, Science and Soc Stud with only 2 yrs of Foreign Lang.

You can go on this website http://www.collegetransfer.net/Search/SearchforCourseEquivalencies/tabid/100/Default.aspx and enter in the From and To colleges and the click on Search. It will show you if any classes at the FROM college have been accepted by the TO college

I get this some with my DS. He wants to be a neurosurgeon and his older brother just came home from China 2 yrs ago. DS2 complains that DS1 doesnt have to do as much. I tell my DS that he wants to go to Los Angeles and his brother wants to go to Atlanta (we live in FL). I explain to him that if I put them on the same path, then they will end up in the same place. I need to tailor their schooling to their desires and capabilities so they end up where they want to go. I think he finally understands now why his brother isn't required to do the same volume/level of work as his older brother.

Your friend should look at http://www.myaudioschool.com/ It was developed by a homeschooling mom whose son has dyslexia. It is a reading-based curriculum, but all of the books are audio-books. (Except for Math). In fact, your friend could use any reading based curriculum that uses older texts (think pre-1922) as most of these tend to be available as audio books. As far as dyslexia remediation, your friend should find an Orton-Gillingham based reading program. There are a number of these such as Barton, Wilson, Writing Road to Reading, ABeCeDarian and others. A couple of good internet resources are http://www.learningabledkids.com/learning_disability_LD/dyslexia_resources.html http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LearningAbledKids/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartofReading/

We don't really do either. We just keep working. My son is just entering 9th grade, so I'll consider 3 sessions a semester.

We school year round - 6 weeks on - 2 weeks off. We do take the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's off, but otherwise follow 6/2. We do have some hiccups that we work around such as Boy Scout camp and a Summer Youth Band that runs 2 hrs in the morning, but ends up taking 3 or more due to transportation time. We just started following a "fixed" schedule in terms of how much needs to be done with my rising 9th grader and we schedule his classes for 36 weeks.

GA Henty wrote a number of historical fiction books that are about on the 9th grade reading level. They were written pre1923 so the quality/vocabulary is very strong.

Thanks for the input. I'll follow my gut and load him up on the reading with video supplements.

Here is our plan for 9th Grade: English - Excellence in Literature with Jensen's Format Writing to guide the essays Math - Saxon Algebra 2 Science - Dive Biology with BJU History - self-constructed integrated (i.e. World and American) History (planned for 2 yrs) Foreign Language - Chinese 1 at FLVS Electives - Youth Band - 1 credit after 4 summers of band - Swimming - 0.5 credit - Leadership 1 (aka Boy Scouts Life Scout) - 1 credit - self-constructed Christian Living - You (books about Christianity that focus on him - ie. Dating, working hard, becoming a Godly man, etc) 0.5 credit Volunteer - local hospital - 33 hrs minimum

We use Jensens Format Writing. It starts with sentences, how to link them, builds to paragraphs, then to 5 para essays. It finishes up with a major paper and also throws in resume cover letters, letter to politician, and a few other misc types of writing.