If you like fantasy, I've enjoyed Jim Butcher audio books. His Fury series is my favorite. The Furies of Calderon is the first book in the series. I love Robin Hobb audiobooks as well, but I think they are quite a bit longer than your limit. Her assassin series (Assassin's Apprentice is the first) is the best starting place. I keep an audiobook going at all times and I get them all through the library. I listen to YA and adult books, but mostly fantasy. If you are interested in those, let me know and I can look back through my listening history and give more recommendations. I rarely notice length though. One YA suggestion, dd and I both just listened to 13 Reasons. It was fairly short and we both liked it. It is not a happy book though.

I really can't say if you will get any more services or assistance with an ASD diagnosis. However, it is possible and that diagnosis will open doors for testing accommodations, college accommodations, Social Security and more. All of those things are possible with other diagnoses too, so there is nothing that says he has to get a new one, but that ASD labels does open doors. I think it is worth it because you just can't know what doors he will need opened in the future.

MUS was my first thought too. It can be accelerated while he is remediating, and will remain gentle when he finds his actual level. It also doesn't put grade levels on anything, and doesn't appear childish so it works well for an older student at a very low starting level.

I'd start Geometry when you finish Algebra. However, I would consider his future plans in deciding if pushing is worth it. If he is a humanities guy and isn't really interested in a competitive college, there is no reason to push. Getting through pre-calc in high school is completely sufficient for non-stem kids not trying to get into competitive colleges. My oldest took Algebra in 9th and went through Algebra 2 and AP Stats. He took his one required credit of math in college the first semester and is very happy to never need another math class. My youngest took Algebra in 8th, but then decided to graduate a year early. She is currently doing College Algebra with a goal of CLEPing when she is done. The college she is going to accepts the College Algebra CLEP and the only other math she will need is a statistics for healthcare class (she is a nursing major).

My dad still had my maiden name on his will and all his bank accounts, ets. It was a nuisance when I got the inherited IRA checks and my bank wouldn't accept them. I'd been married 21 years when my dad died. OTOH, my dad did know my maiden name and he was very fond of dh, so I don't think it was a statement of any kind. My sister is divorced and returned to her maiden name. I wonder if he just figured that would happen to me eventually too.

You can print all the assignment pages and labs, so you don't need the journal with the full course CD. I'm not sure what is on the DVD, but I know the full course CD has all the supplemental videos and animations included as links within the text. If I were buying new, I'd look at Jay Wile's new Chemistry program instead of Apologia.

Since he has an IEP and you have contacts at a ps, talk to them. They can make the request instead of you, and from my friend who is a director of special ed, requests made by schools are almost universally approved. Knowing his test results, they can help you decide what to ask for and they can actually do an online application which is faster than the homeschool process as well.

My plan was to do Biology in 9th, Chem in 10th, Physics in 11th and then student choice. I didn't make it with either kiddo. My ds did Bio, Chem, and Forensic Science. I included his 8th grade ICP (using a high school text) on his transcript (listed as completed prior to high school). My dd did Bio, then Chem, then decided she wanted to graduate a year early and is currently taking Biology at the CC for her final year. She is going into nursing and never has to take Physics. So, both mine did Chem in 10th. I don't think what year the publisher thinks you'll do Chemistry matters at all. One of mine used Apologia and one used DIVE with BJU. Both are for sale. :)

We used Apologia Chemistry for ds and Advanced Biology for dd. Dd used DIVE for ICP, Biology, and Chemistry. DIVE definitely covered more and with a little more depth. The DIVE labs were MUCH better. We had done almost all the labs in Apologia Chemistry in middle school and I was completely unimpressed. However, for my non-sciency guy, Apologia Chemistry was a good fit, no regrets. I have the 2nd edition Chemistry full course CD available on Classifieds if you want it :).

While you might consider this a nuisance, it isn't THE problem. You still need to require him to show work, even if you can't check the work. You can check to see that he is working out the problems and that will show he has understanding. If you come to one you are both stumped on, MUS support will help or you can post it on these boards and someone will solve it for you. Regentrude is right about reverse engineering. I think that is how dd could ace MUS and gain NO understanding (Algebra and above only she did great with it prior to that). Making him show work is key. I would content MUS customer support and ask if they have complete solutions available for the tests. I never noticed that they weren't because I was always able to solve all the problems myself.

I agree, this is time for college visits. I would NOT send test scores. Admissions is setup to work one year at a time. No college we've worked with would accept an application sooner than late summer a year before the start date. If you send scores prior to having an open application, they will likely be deleted before your application is accepted. I did look up the essay prompts for my kids so they could work on essays early. Fall of senior year is such a busy time, it helped to have them at least drafted early. ETA: I stand corrected. Of course everyone is correct, test scores start getting sent Jr. year. I wasn't even thinking about the auto send scores, but of course many, maybe most people use those! Sorry.

Yes, MUS uses all multiple choice test for Algebra 1 and above and have for at least 5 years, that's how long ago we started using it. We had issues with multiple choice tests too. The solution for me was to require all work be shown or no credit. Copying the test without the answers doesn't work because many of the questions are "which of these something" The problems are in the answers, not the question. Is he guessing or is he just avoiding silly mistakes by those answers not being available? If he knows how to do the problems and is just making small mistakes on the worksheets, I don't see any issue at all with the tests coming out perfect. It shows he understands the concepts even if he is a bit sloppy still. OTOH, I switched dd away from MUS because she could get 100% on everything without doing any work at all. The problems were just too easy. She could do it all in her head, but then when she couldn't apply that to a harder problem. She wasn't gaining understanding, just the ability to do easy problems. I think your challenge is to determine whether he is really learning from MUS. If so, getting A's is no reason to leave it :). Require him to show work and if he can't show work, he can't get credit. That should eliminate guess work and hopefully will show you that the multiple choice tests are just reducing his careless errors. Good luck!

I felt the exact same way for years. There are TONS of homeschoolers around me, but the vast majority homeschool for religious reasons and academics are not a priority. When I talk to locals about homeschooling they are using a box and have no interest in changing. They don't want to discuss or explore curriculum. They don't try to match learning styles for their kids. I end up feeling like I'm from a different planet. I gave up. I only talk homeschooling on these boards. I would have loved to have had a group of IRL homeschool friends that I could have shared with, but it just didn't happen. It made me all the more thankful for these boards.

I had a precocious reader that started reading at 2.5 and an early reader who started reading closer to 4. They both did a fair amount of site reading, although as soon as they could read, they read aloud to me and we sounded out any words they didn't know, so they picked up phonics too. They both started school in ps and had very heavy phonics instruction in first grade, that I think was good for them even though they were both reading long chapter books by then. Both tested with gifted IQs with the precocious reader being the higher of the two. My precocious reader is still an avid reader, although mostly non-fiction now. My early reader only reads as much as is required.

The day is 7 hours, 8:30-3:30. Students can arrive at 8:00 and go sit in the gym until 8:30. Many do because parents need to get to work.

We have definitely NEVER experienced this. Not only have we not experienced it, but I think we have probably benefitted by being given "the benefit of the doubt" and treated more generously. I can't be sure those teachers weren't equally generous to everyone, but having a teacher know that my child had a disability NEVER hurt him.

Ds will head back to school Sunday or Monday. Second semester starts Tuesday. I has been a long break and he is looking forward to getting "home". This week is a bit challenging as dd is back in CC classes and ds is just hanging around. I think it's making them both crabby to see what the other is doing. I've enjoyed having ds home more than I can say for the last 6 weeks. It will be hard to let go once again. He has a heavier load this semester and I'm expecting some new and different challenges. So far we both love his school and are happy he is there though.

Yes. I think it is unfair to the student and the teacher not to disclose disabilities. I have known too many people who have done that and it was always a detriment to the student and a frustration to the teacher.

I used homeschooled also. Yes, they have diplomas that I issued and they are high school graduates, but the most accurate description is that we homeschooled them. I don't think this has any bearing on financial aid offered, so don't stress about it.

You could try school. Some kids are very different at school, but since he isn't very different at coop, I suspect that won't be him. From your descriptions, he is either going to get an IEP with a behavior plan or be constantly in trouble or even suspended. If he is burning you out and hurting the education of your other kids, I would say try school. If it is a disaster, bring him back home. If it helps, keep him there. It is a hard call, but if what you are doing isn't working, it probably is time to try changing it.

:sad: I'm glad you know, understand, and can move on now.

I grade tests only, no weighting. I consider homework a learning opportunity. I don't care how many are missed, I care that they can find the mistakes and fix them. I don't want there to be pressure to do the work perfectly the first time. I want there to be the opportunity to think through things, work it out, not constantly ask for help, but try to use their own reasoning. Dd in particular would have made me sit with her and asked me if each step was correct or "what do I do next" if the homework had been graded. Knowing she could make mistakes and the only repurcussions would be fixing them gave her the freedom to explore, think, try, and reach a greater understanding.

I felt this same way. I loved the book choices in EIL, particularly the Intro to Lit level. I loved that there was no time wasted on busy work which we found to be an issue in the OM class we tried. I loved that it is so inexpensive. If you end up hating it, there is little lost. OM had too little reading and I feared the busy work type assignments that we found in Health would be in English too. I like OM's structure and gentleness, but I could never bring myself to try their high school English. I considered it repeatedly and always talked myself out of it. Since I didn't try it, I don't know if that was the right decision or not, but we never regretted EIL.

We had no problem with this lesson, but it was a long time ago. The numbers should go: 1000/1, 100/1, 10/1, 1 . 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000, 1/10000 MUS has an errata on their website. There may be a misprint in the version of the book you are using. I always checked and marked all the corrections on both student and tm before I started each level.

I've used multiple levels of EIL for two very different kids. I really like it. Is there anything specific you'd like to know? Here are a few past threads that might get you started: OM English 9 9th grade lit options Help finding a lit program (actually about 8th grade, but discussion of high school too)