My son, who is 18yo today:), likes to bike around town. He does this solo. Although, in July when friends from TN came up to visit him and my other son (21yo) for a few days, they rented bikes and rode all over downtown Indianapolis one day.

My dyslexic son is taking American Sign Language for a World Language credit instead of a traditional world language class. This was recommended to me by a local mom who's son also has dyslexia. Her son loved ASL and did very well in it. It's my son's favorite subject this year. He plans to take ASL II next year. More and more colleges accept ASL as a language credit. In fact all the colleges my ds has looked into accept it and he can also continue the ASL college level classes once he's there.

My son is 17yo finishing 11th grade, but plans to take a 5th year (his 9th grade year was spent doing remedial work and a couple of high school electives). Here's a sample of his week: Monday: -Biology class from 10-12pm taken with home school group **Usually the hour before biology class (9-10am) he is finishing up his Biology home work. -American Sign Language class taken at the same place from 1:30-2:30 **Between biology and ASL classes he and I go have lunch somewhere and then he spends some time studying for the ASL class. -3:30ish to 5:00ish: he and I sit down for an Algebra I lesson (he struggles with math). If he finishes Algebra before 5pm, he sometimes will work on catching up on any subject he might be behind on from the week before. -6:00-8:30pm: he volunteers at the Food Bank at our church. Tuesday: -10:00ish-12:30ish: final edit on that week's writing assignment and completes a history assignment -12:30-1:30 lunch -IEW writing class (same home school group) from 1:30-2:30 -3:30ish-5:00ish: Algebra with me. -6:00-8:30pm: volunteers at the Food Bank again. Wednesday: -10am-4:30pm: He has a part time job at our library coffee shop. It is often *extremely* slow until the high school across the street gets out of school. His boss allows him to work on school work during the slow times. He always gets a good chunk of the week's biology assignment complete and 1 history assignment done too *and* usually literature reading. This job is SUCH a blessing. -7pm to 9pm Youth group. Thursday: --history lesson --works on writing assignment --Algebra I with me --Sign Language -3:00-6pm: work at the coffee shop (busy time, so he doesn't take any books with him) --after work: literature reading Friday NO outside activities! -history lesson -continue working on writing assignment or self-edit -Algebra 1 lesson -American Sign Language -Science reading or Literature reading Saturday -Works at the coffee shop from 10-4pm. He almost always gets a chunk of his science reading/taking notes completed and either a history lesson or literature reading. Sunday -church in the morning -youth small group meeting in the late afternoon -between those two events he will work on American Sign Language and other school stuff IF needed (usually a longer writing assignment or a tougher science module). He will finish biology, writing and ASL classes in a couple of weeks, but will continue Algebra, history and literature over the summer. By the way, I have to mention that he and I worked together to come up with this schedule. It's a loose schedule in that I don't care what time of day he does what, but the times I've written down are the times of the day he's figured out for himself that works best for him. He DOES have to do algebra at a decent time of day since it involves ME:) When he decided he wanted to start volunteering two evenings a week, he also had to agree to do school during the summer since that volunteering time cuts into getting more school done on those days. I would NOT trade his job or the time spent volunteering for anything. My ds has always struggled with reading and math (although both are improving greatly!), so these two activities build his confidence and make him feel important to the world, which I think all teens, especially boys, need.

My ds takes notes while reading and then answers questions for each section of reading. His tests are all open *notes* tests.

Video lectures we use and/or plan to use with future subject areas: Khan Academy (biology and chem), Bozeman science (biology and chem), Tyler Dewitt (chemistry, Algebra topics used in chemistry), Brightstorm (algrebra and chemistry...free on youtube) and APUSH review on youtube.

Video lectures we use and/or plan to use with future subject areas: Khan Academy (biology and chem), Bozeman science (biology and chem), Tyler Dewitt (chemistry, Algebra topics used in chemistry), Brightstorm (algrebra and chemistry...free on youtube) and APUSH review on youtube.

He sounds a lot like my son, who is now 17yo and in 11th grade. My son will take a 5th year of highschool. My son has always been homeschooled, but has dyslexia, which is the reason he'll not graduate until after that 5th year of highschool. My son's 9th grade year was spent remedial work in math, spelling, reading and writing (simple paragraphs for the writing). He did earn extra curricular credits that year doing things he enjoyed (guitar, PE-homeschool track and cross country and current events credit). Watch for what he's spending his free time doing, then decide at the end of the school year if he's spent enough time doing the activity to earn a 1/2 credit for it. Also, I think another poster mentioned having him do something NOT school related that makes him feel good as a person. Whether that be a sport (organized or not...like just lifting weights on a regular basis or running in 5k races, etc...) or a part-time job or time spent volunteering. Your nephew sounds a LOT like my now 17yo ds, who is currently an 11th grade BUT will take a 5th year of highschool (so he'll be 19 1/2 when he graduates). The BEST thing to happen to my ds was his part-time job. But for your nephew it could be a sport or being a volunteer somewhere. My ds is also a regular volunteer at our church food pantry 2 evenings a week for 3 hours. This is a very close 2nd to the job as being a life/attitude changer for him. These young men of ours NEED to feel important and useful to the world. Here's what I suggest for your nephew (based on what we've done or plan to do) after he finishes the courses: 10th -Math: TT pre-Alg. -Writing: IEW SWI-B (we've had amazing success with IEW)...but I would go SLOWLY taking 2 years to do SWI-B. -Literature:Just let him read, read, read along with audio. Then have him orally narrate to you. Encourage him to choose his own books to read out of a pile that you have chosen for him. Don't make it follow his history. Just make interesting choices: The Giver, Adventures of Tom Sawyer (audio at librivox.com), Of Mice and Men, The Outsiders are a few of my son's favorites that are shorter, easier reads that appeal to most teen boys. -Science: Apologia Physical (I'd keep this LIGHT. Do the first module with him and teach him to take notes while reading, then let the tests be open notes.) -History: Story of the World vol. 4. Just have him read and orally narrate to you. Count this as a Modern History 1/2 credit. He'll learn some history AND build his reading skills). 11th: -Math: TT Alg. 1 -Writing: continue SWI-B -Literature: Continue what you were doing in 10th grade, but add a few written book critiques once he covers this in the IEW SWI-B. -Science: Apologia Biology (continue with the open notes tests...have him only do a few labs). -History: Notgrass American....my ds is using this, but he does only the textbook readings and questions. We've not followed the literature or the American Voices readings). 12th -Math: TT Alg. 2 -Writing: IEW's continuation course -Lit: continue just reading classics along with audio if he still needs it and the informal discussions with you over dinner a few nights a week:) -Government/Econ: Notgrass and a few of the Uncle Eric books (Are you are Liberal, Conservative or Confused/Whatever Happened to Penny Candy and maybe one or two more...my older ds LOVED these books) -Science: Georgia Public Broadcasting Chem or Apologia Chem OR DIVE Integrated Chem and Physics using Abeka's textbook 5th year @ CC -Math: TT Geometry -English: English Comp I & II @ CC -History: Steams of Civilizations I and II w/ The Universe Next Door (my older son read this and loved it!) and maybe a few more of the Uncle Eric books -Science: not sure...probably Georgia Public Broadcasting Physics OR if I use DIVE the year before, then we'll just continue with DIVE Chemistry

Thanks! Knew about this, but have never looked into.

Thanks to all who shared. Don't think I'll try it.

Have any of you had success using Apologia Chem as the spine for the course then just using DIVE lectures that go with the Apologia Chem modules? We would skip any of the DIVE lectures/topics that use readings that are not in Apologia Chem. I'd have my ds take notes on the DIVE lectures, but skip the worksheets and tests that go with DIVE. Instead I'd have him take notes on the Apologia Chem. modules, do the OYO questions, study guide and Apologia tests. I think we'd use all of the labs in DIVE that go along with each Apologia module, since I've heard that folks like the DIVE labs better than Apologia Chem's labs.

These poor kiddos are gonna have a GREAT time reading some wonderful books after they finish highschool! I don't remember any of these issues in Animal Farm. I'm about 1/2 way through Uncle Tom's Cabin and so far it would be a good choice. Can't remember anything like this in The Hiding Place either. Edited to add...Better skip the Bible also. Violence and sex abound!

My son is going to Ivy Tech CC in Indianapolis. He has a 5-7 page research paper due in 3 of his classes: ENG II2, Psychology & Western Civ I. He's also got 3 short (2 pages) reports in ENG 112 and Western Civ. Thank goodness for IEW!

My son is taking Apologia Biology this year in an outside class. He's only had one test so far this year. Although he's taking this with a class, they still take the tests at home. He just took Mod.1 test last week. I allowed him to use his notes he took while reading to answer the test questions. I wanted him to see how important it is to take GOOD notes. He made an A (not a 100...he missed partial questions on 3 of them). I had him take notes while reading, do all the OYO ?s, do the study guide and the module summary before he took the test. I had him complete the study guide and module summary also using only his notes from reading. Then I checked it and let him use the book for any that he missed. Oh, and before he writes any of his notes while reading, I have him underline the key words in the textbook that he needs to copy into his notes. And he uses a highlighter to highlight the vocabulary (the parts that are set apart from the regular paragraphs). For his next test it will be closed book/notes. But for any he misses on that test I will have him make corrections for 1/2 credit using only his notes. HTH

Thank you for the idea to make their own sample test using their notes and then to wait and take the test they made. I could see how this would work GREAT with my son. My older ds, who is now in CC full time, does well studying by orally explaining (teaching/narrating) everything in his notes to someone. Since he still lives at home, he often will ask me to go out to a LONG lunch with him and then teaches me everthing in his notes. He's met more people in his classes this year at CC, so I'm encouraging him to organize study groups with these folks so he can teach them (and they can teach him right back:)

We used this on and off last school year and I did have all of the readings and workbook activities coordinated, but my computer crashed and I lost it!:( It was a bit of a job coordinating it! You can do it, but just block out a nice chunk of time one day to do it. Oh, and I had also coordinated Khan Academy's biology lectures with it. Those lined up EASILY with the program. Those lectures are in almost the same exact order as the book! My ds was *really* struggling with using just the book. After we began watching the KA lectures *and* taking notes from the lectures, he began to do better. We didn't finish the program because he had gotten bogged down with two other difficult (for him) subjects that NEEDED to be mastered more than the biology at that point in time. He decided he wanted to take biology in an outside class with our homeschool group this year. That's the reason I haven't gotten everything coordinated again. It's worth the time to coordinate the workbook activities and KA lectures. All of that together DID make a nice program.