My dd is a freshman in high school. She attended public school until midway through her 6th grade year. She always did well in school and math was always her weakest subject, but she never got below a B in class. She can be a lazy student at times and not want to put the level of effort into something that would make it great. For example: she is an excellent pianist, and was asked to play for a sing along at a party. All the songs were well within her ability level, but she put off practicing until the day of only to find out that some songs needed some practice-- not much but a little. She started crying, saying she didn't want to go, etc and I had to calm her down and sit with her while she practiced. She was able to overcome after 2 hours of practice, but she could have saved both of us a lot of stress by not procrastinating. Any tests, but particularly math tests leave her the same way. Tonight we discussed taking an Algebra test this week and straight to tears. We have been working on Algebra 1 for 1 1/2 years. It is a long story, but she was not completely honest in her math dealings since beginning homeschool and it has made an already weaker subject even more weak. But, with tests she completely shuts down. She seems to understand a skill set and then gets a 25% on the test. I have her with a very competent tutor who says she feels like she understands, but she makes a huge amount of careless errors. We are also seeing a therapist to help with anxiety, but I feel like part of the problem is procrastination, poor study skills and careless error. Any moms out there have a good student that has huge test anxiety? What can I do?

Thanks all!! I have another appointment with the therapist today. After reading up on all of your suggestions I did figure out that the therapist is using Cognitive-behavioral therapy. I think I am going to work on medication to go with the therapy at this point and have her tested for strep. This was such a big a help... I really can't thank you all enough. I feel much more hopeful today and like we can work through things.

I feel like we need to eat an entire chocolate cake together. :)

Thank you for your words. They hit me the way they needed too. I have always been a push through and get over it kind of gal and it is hard for me to view this as uncontrollable. I am trying to wrap my head around that and much as the behavior itself. I think I am getting there though. The more I look at this as an illness the more she views me as a someone trying to walk her through. But, then I doubt myself because she keeps embracing new behaviors. I also have a friend that treated children with OCD for years that said don't indulge her whims and now the therapist is saying something very different.

I have. But, honestly I am still trying to process all the information. I will ask the therapist what treatment he is using. Right now he trying to find her triggers.

Can they do a test? She does have some of the symptoms, but how do I know which it is? She has always had some small OCD things, but they snowballed into crazy overnight.

Thank you for the understanding and recommendations. I am so very grateful. Some days I am not sure I can make it through when she is having a bad day. It is so very overwhelming to hear the screaming and crying for so long. I will have to look for a local support group. I will look up PANDAS and thank you so much Mermaid's mom for the explanation. That was so much better said than what the therapist said.

I guess this is part vent part do you have any suggestions or thoughts. I have a 12 year old that went to public school until 3rd grade. The 3rd grade teacher and our doctor at the time thought she was ADHD, but the school would not run any further tests because they said "she was not far enough behind to be tested." I also decided that I didn't want to do medication. The school's attitude made me re-think public school and begin homeschooling for 4th grade. We did 4th, 5th and 6th and things went pretty well. She has struggled some and it was an adjustment for me, but I thought we were doing ok. This summer her world just crumbled. She has always been a hand washer and not one to like "dirty" things, but about a month ago it all went out of control. She began changing her socks up to 10 times a day (if she walks in a part of the house she deems dirty she has to change her socks), she can't handle friends over or going to someone else's house, she is washing her hands raw, sometimes if something upsets her she has full on melt down howling tantrums for hours, she used to be a huge animal lover and now won't touch any animal, she can't let things she deems "dirty" touch her-- she dropped her charger on a "dirty" place on the carpet and tried to wash it and when I told her it wasn't safe she tried to throw it away, won't allow anyone on her bed or in her room, she takes forever to get anything done because of the hand washing, she jumps from place to place around the house because of the "dirty" spots on the floor, she can't open the car door or close it because it is dirty and she will only sit in one spot in the car, because the other spots are "dirty" and list goes on... We started seeing a therapist and I am hopeful he can help and I assume that things take time, but I am confused about his methods. My take has been to let her work through the difficult situations to be able to overcome and see that this isn't how she can live a functional life. He wants me to do what she needs done so that she doesn't melt down and then he will work on getting her to let go of the fear. The problem is it really bugs me to have a 12 year old that I have to get socks for and open the door for... It is making it so I can't do things with my other kids because she is so needy. And I don't ever know what will set her off. I think I need meds at this point. I wake up dreading each day and I can't imagine what homeschool will be like in a few days when we begin. The therapist says she can't do public school right now and give her a start time and finish time and if she doesn't get the work done then oh well. My over-achieving self cringes at the thought of not finishing our work for the day, but then a part of me says-- maybe she needs laid back right now. Anyone have a kid with severe anxiety? Any thoughts? Please be kind. I love my kids and am giving my best, but homeschooling 4 is stressful-- especially with ADHD and another with dyslexia.

Barton resells very high. It is really pricey, but you can usually get about 90% of your money back with the upper levels. There are facebook pages dedicated to homeschooling with Barton. I have used AAS, but Barton is a much better program to me.

Is this a full course? Can anyone recommend? I would probably just buy the book and workbook material and have a tutor help with any concepts that my dd struggles with.

Does anyone know if this will be on sale soon? I read that she had a sale at the end of last year and wanted to check. Thanks so much!!

We always need math practice here. I would love to be in on a group buy. I would even head it up. I have 3 myself. :)

I love Crashcourse and Crashcourse kids. Senor Jordan is not bad for Spanish although his accent is a little off.

Is there an app out there? Should I just buy a book? Any suggestions or experiences would be great. Thanks!

Looking at the Geometry options out there. I was awful at Geometry as a kid, so no help from me on this. Does Jacobs's Geometry have videos to go with the text? Thanks!

I have heard Derek Owens is wonderful, but it is very pricey. But, I don't want to rule it totally out. I have also heard Chalkdust is great. Any experience there? I also may just pay a local tutor. So many options... It is really hard to know what way to go.

I will have to look those up. Sounds like her speed. :)

Try the Stack the States app. It is nice for down time and they learn the shapes of the states, fun facts about them and capitals.

I started homeschooling this child in 6th grade and we have struggled with math in the 2 1/2 years that have followed. I don't want to get into any details, but her foundation is somewhat shaky. She excels in anything language related-- She can memorize huge lists of words, she flies through Spanish and gets verb conjugations with no problem and her writing is great. . But, alas, math... She did Algebra 1 this past year in Saxon-- 8th grade, but is having to re-do the entire course over the summer and the beginning of next year. She wants to do this, so she can do Geometry-- 9th grade, Algebra 2 10th, Pre-Cal 11th and then whatever she will need for 12th. She is trying to get into a pretty competitive college. I feel like she can succeed with math, but she does not always put forth her full effort and I cannot go over everything with her. I would spend all day studying math and not working with my other kids. So, I want to ditch Saxon after she finishes Algebra 1-- she is about 1/3 of the way through and go to Teaching Textbooks. I hear so much bad press about the program that I am unsure. I was going to add Chalk Dust Prepping for the SAT/ACT in a year or so-- just to make sure we have a good foundation for the SAT/ACT. She will most likely NOT go into a STEM field-- possibly web design or something, but more than likely some kind of art or language field. So, any advice... Any math geniuses out there? Thanks ;) in advance!!!

If my daughter seems to be getting the teaching overall should I review the lessons in the level 4 just to be sure? Is it so huge that I should review just to make sure?

I just wanted to share some of my finds and ask if you have any great apps you love. I don't like a lot of technology, but I can't teach everything to 4 kids. Sometimes good learning apps can be a great help. Here is my list: 1. Homer--Younger-- 4-8 This was probably my favorite all time app. They gave me a 70% off or something to try it and it was awesome! They have great history, fables, folk songs, emergent reading, science-- all kinds of great stuff. My then kindergartener was always sharing what she had learned from this cool app. It was worth every penny! 2. Stack the States--any age. I think someone on here recommended it. My kids LOVE it!! They will play it instead of their mindless games. It gives facts about each state and they get to open new levels. They also have a Stack the Countries that we plan on using down the road a little. As a side note a young friend (20) and his girlfriend (17) came by tonight and played this game forever. They loved it. 3. Duolingo--8 and up-- I have been using this app for 2 years. I was a Spanish teacher before I entered momhood and I think it does an overall good job for a free app. Sure it is not going to teach everything, but it is good in partnership with other teaching. 4. Reading Raven-- 4-7-- not one of my favorites, but my 7 year old said she loved it. It is good for teaching reading and reasonably priced. 5. Math Town-- 5-11-- great for learning addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. My kids love it. I have played it too and it is pretty entertaining. 6. Math Zombies-- 7-12-- especially good for boys. Some of my kids get stressed out because their is a timer, but overall good. 7. Operation Math--6-10-- They got bored with this after a little while, but they will go back to it sometimes. Worth the $1.99 8. DragonBox-- I'm not sure of the age, but beware it may be really challenging for some kids, but really great for mathy ones. It is an algebra game. My 9 year old got stumped about 12 levels in and our college friends taking engineering classes had to really work to figure out some levels, but may be good for mathy kids and parents. There are my faves. What are yours?

Do you need the teacher's edition?

Is the Frye book clean? One of the reviews seemed to elude that it may not be. Thanks!!

My daughter just gets language and grammar. She is also great at learning languages and writes beautiful poetry. We have worked through Caesar's English 2 and need some more great curriculum for next year. Does anyone have any experience with their higher level books? I'm building a curriculum around a fiction class she is taking. I will give her at least 8-10 books to read and we do Wordly Wise every year. But, we need grammar and and maybe some more writing. Any suggestions or curriculums you just love?

Great!!! That helps ease my anxiety a lot... My first in high school, so I'm walking into the unknown!