Yes! Saxon is known for being academically rigorous. A lot of people don't like it because it's time consuming. It is a solid math program and many of the private schools in my area use Saxon as their math program. I've also heard of school using a different program for the lower grades and then switching to Saxon beginning with book 5/4. Susan Wise Bauer used it with her kids, I believe. She has recommended it in all four edition of The Well Trained Mind. The strengths of the program is that it is incremental and students practice, practice, practice the skills learned throughout the entire book. Many math programs take a mastery approach when teaching skills. Students work out problems until they master the concept and then they move on. My experience has been that, even if test show you've mastered a concept or anything, but you don't use it again for a while, you tend to forget it. I think Saxon has worked in our home because my kids don't have a chance to forget the new concepts. I also like that Saxon teaches the concepts and has the student apply them across different situations/scenarios. This give the student an understanding of when they're likely to encounter and use their newly acquired math skills. As you can tell, I'm a huge fan, however, the truth is that every child is different and every teacher/parent is different. You'll have to find a program that works well for your child(ren) and that you're comfortable teaching.

Taking transcripts and course descriptions to college fairs is a great idea!

The Robert Fagles translation is the one recommended in TWTM. A homeschool academy in my town uses the Robert Fitzgerald translation. My daughter read the Fagles translations of both The Iliad and the Odyssey. She said the sections that listed names (similar to the geneology sections in the bible) were a little hard (boring) to read but other than that they were fine. She did say she found the Odyssey a little more interesting than the Iliad. Hope this helps.

Hi Roy. I read the article you wrote on annotating books and it was EXCELLENT! I also read the other two related articles: Annotations, part 1 and the one on Close Reading. Very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing.

I'm not familiar with Jensen's grammar but we've been using Rod and Staff English for almost 7 years and, let me tell you, it is rock solid. It does an amazing job of teaching the grammar rules, their application, sentence diagramming, and writing. I love that the books have a hard cover so they hold up very well. It is also very inexpensive. When you purchase a set, you can also order a thin workbook that has extra practice exercises but my kids haven't used them. They learn the material very well by simply completing the lessons. The books offer more practice exercises than you will need. My kids really like it too. It's one of their favorite subjects.

I found this guide to be very helpful. https://www.covcath.org/uploaded/06_Students/Annotation_Guide_AP_Language.pdf

Thanks Lori. I have this exact passage highlighted in my copy of TWTM 🙂 And you're absolutely right, if writing book notes was killing the love of reading in my daughter, I totally wouldn't be doing it. I was looking for an example of what others type up and stick in the notebook. I'm a very visual person so templates and examples help. Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Yes, I totally agree that's it's the process not the product. I was looking for formatting ideas. I come across an example that I like and I'll look into the ones you mentioned. Thanks for your response.

Does anyone have their student write/type up Book Notes for their literature study, according to the recommendations in WTM or any other method? If so, would you mind sharing what they look like? Either a template or a detailed description would be very much appreciated. My daughter has been creating Book Note pages all year long but neither one of us is very confident she's doing it correctly. I appreciate the help. Thank you.

Yes, my daughter is taking a PSAT class this summer and I can already see that the practice workbook is going to be very helpful.

That's encouraging! Thanks for sharing.

I'm interested in hearing about people's experience with their kiddos taking the SAT after using Saxon in their homeschool. Do you feel the program prepared your student well enough? Any tips? I have a 9th grader who will be taking the PSAT in the fall and she starting using Saxon in the 4th grade. We love the program. Just wondering how other Saxon users did on the test. Thanks.

We love Saxon in our homeschool. We have successfully used books K through Algebra 2. My oldest is finishing Algebra 2 this year and we plan on continuing on with it. My kids do all of the problems in all of the books. Beginning with Algebra 2, I had my daughter complete only 20 of the problems and she is still working on math a minimum of an hour and a half a day. Saxon is no joke. It is a thorough and rigorous program. EVERYTHING my kids get wrong, they go back and redo. From 1st grade on up. We do EVERY component of the each level. At the lower levels they do the Meeting book daily, Meeting Strip, Facts Pages, then the lesson. They don't skip any of it. Beginning with book 5/4, they do all parts of the Warm-Up, the Problem Solving problem, the facts pages, all of the Investigations, and of course the actual lessons. For the higher levels, I purchased the Saxon Teacher CD's and my daughter uses those as needed. Saxon takes time and we've decided to prioritize math in our homeschool and give it the time it requires. If you decide to have your student do only some of the books, I highly recommend levels 5/4 (although I think your student is past this level) through book 8/7 or Pre-Algebra. These levels will give your student an excellent foundation and then you can choose something else for upper level math if you don't like the idea of them spending an hour and a half on math daily. Hope this helps.

I'm looking at Jacob's Geometry 3rd edition (Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding) for the upcoming school year. Has anyone used this edition? I would love to hear about experiences with it. How long does an average lesson take? How did your student like it? How did you as the teacher/parent like it? Any other tips/information you think I would need to know before ordering. Thanks. Lily

There are several: Beautiful Feet BiblioPlan Tapestry of Grace Trisms Wayfarers My Father's World If you would rather put the course together yourself and you have a copy of TWTM, there you'll find a recommendation for a history spine as well as a book list that correlates to the period of history your son will be studying. Hope this helps.

Just to clarify, my daughter writes history essays and learns the proper formatting with footnotes for other types of writing but for us, this falls under her Language Arts block. For setting a historical foundation for her Great Books study, she does the work I described above. She learns and practices writing skills through science and history topics but she does this during a different block of time.

This is my first go at history at the high school level and so I'm having my daughter do the work recommended in TWTM. This is what SWB says the goal of the history study in high school is: * "Half of each week's study time will be devoted to laying a foundation of history knowledge; the second half, to the the study of the Great Books. * At the rhetoric stage, one of the goals of the study of history is to "set the stage for his encounter with the Great Books." *The goal is NOT to "grasp all of history (an impossible task at any age!); it is to develop a sense of the historical context of great works, events, eras, and historical characters." Using The History of the Ancient World as her spine, my daughter does the following: "At the end of each chapter [of the history spine you choose to use], the student should stop and record the following on a sheet of notebook paper:" 1) Makes a list of the most important dates in the chapter, and why they stand out. 2) Lists 2-3 of the most important individuals in the chapter. 3) 3-4 events that stand out in the chapter. 4) Two events, people, or ideas she would like to investigate further. (TWTM, 4th ed., p. 592) In addition to the above, since we purchased the Study & Teaching Guide to The History of the Ancient World, I have her do the map work assigned in the guide (with modifications) as well as keep a timeline. The guide tells the student to trace over the map under study, using tracing paper, until the student memorizes the lines and locations and can then re-draw the map from memory. I chose not to have her do that. Instead, I print a copy of the map (you can purchase the digital file of the maps for around $5 from TWTM website), make a list of the places, rivers, etc. they want her to label, I WHITE these out on the original map, re-copy it, have her study the locations, and then write them in from memory and color the map. Her student planner looks like this: HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD (5000 B.C. to A.D. 400) r Ch. 43: “The Mandate of Heaven”, pp. 299-305 r History Foundation: Chapter summary (This is the list of important dates, names, events, etc. from above) r Map Exercise: The Yellow and the Yangtze r Time Line: Add important dates to the timeline. I I'll attach a copy what her final "History Foundation Page" looks like. She chooses to type it out instead of handwriting it. This is just an example of what we do. It certainly isn't the only way or the perfect way. My hope is to help someone because homeschooling high school has been a little scary and stressful for me at times. Hope this helps. Lily History Foundation Sample Page.docx

When my daughter did Elemental Science Biology for the Logic stage, I looked at the topic that was covered that week, and checked out books from the library for her. I did this weekly but you can certainly check out books for 2 or 3 weeks if that works better for you. I also sometimes referred to this list on "Living Books" found on the Simply Charlotte Mason Website. Hope this helps. Lily https://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/curriculum-guide/individual-graded-subjects/living-science-books/

I don't know of an on-line forum. In my town, there are several homeschool groups. These are different from a co-op in that we don't meet to take classes together. We meet every Friday for Park Day, we have a monthly field trip, one mom hosts a "Game Day" where kids get together to play board games. This year, we have a Teen Event where teens get together at a Starbucks to hang out and chat. Some moms drop off, others stay and chat with the other moms. Moms get together once a month for a meeting where we discuss various homeschool topics and upcoming events. We do a lot together and it's always the same group of kids so our children develop friendships. I like this better than a co-op because there is no class to prepare for and we meet often enough to develop friendships (moms too) but not so often that it takes over our homeschool. I mention our group because one, you may want to do a search for "Homeschoool Groups" in your area or two, you can possibly start your own. All you would need is one other family to start. Your group will grow. Ours has. One last thing, our group is a Christian group and many groups can be found through churches. Hope this helps.

Ugh! I'm on the verge of doing the same but lack the courage. Fear-driven and shackled is how I would describe our high school experience so far. Would love to hear more about what you're doing instead.

Are you talking about PAC Biology? https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/045627 Was going to research it but I wanted to make sure I had the right one. Thanks for the tip.

LOVE the idea of coloring coding the roots by language. Totally gonna steal that idea.

Where could I find the Samantha Carr books? I've searched her name on Amazon and came up with nothing. Thank you.

No. I think I messaged the wrong person. Thank you for your response. I didn't know about "The Fly On the Ceiling" or "Martin Luther: Man Who Changed the World". The 4 Christian Biographies for young readers are on my list. Thanks again for responding.

Where could I find the Samantha Carr books? I checked Amazon and nothing popped up. Thank you.