Grinning very broadly for you! That's great news! He should learn SO much -- what an exciting summer for him!

A friend of mine generously gave my dd2 her knitting machine. However, my dd cannot get it to work. The machinery seems to knot the yarn and drop stitches at inconvenient moments. Dd2 has given up in frustration. (She has knit a 8"x8" thing; she just can't get it any wider or longer no matter how hard she tries...and she has spent easily 20+ hours with the thing.) It is a fairly old machine (over 20 years) and I am not sure that it has aged well. Does anyone know anything about knitting machines? Should dd2 persevere in trying to get it to work? Are knitting machines more pain than they are worth? Or is this something that a knitting machine repair man would need to deal with? (I am not sure the yellow pages has an entry under "Knitting Machine Repair Man"!)

Geometry by Jurgensen, Brown, and Jurgensen (McDougall-Littel) is VERY proof-intensive.

Schedule? What's a schedule? Seriously, I work with my younger dd (6th grade) first thing in the morning and then am available for whoever/whatever for the rest of the morning. After lunch I do read-alouds to my younger two (6th and 8th) and go over any "together work" with both of them. Then I am generally available until 2 or 3, when I announce that if you didn't ask your questions you're about to run out of time....... My kids are pretty self-motivated, so it works. I guess I take the "unscheduling" approach. (This post was probably massively unhelpful....I guess I am posting just to show that sometimes having no schedules does work.....) I hope this post is n't too annoying! :001_huh:

My kids have taken AP tests at two schools. The private school has been wonderfully helpful and has bothered to find out the homeschool code for my kids. The public school where my kids have tested has NOT known the AP test code. I would make certain that your child knows the # before he goes into the exam. If the school does not bother to provide it, not knowing it could create a LOT of confusion. I just called the AP folks this morning to verify the test code for our state! The AP student pack is given to students at their first AP exam for the year. It includes all of the codes that the students will use on ALL of their tests. Your child needs to use the same codes on ALL of the tests he takes, so he needs to briing the AP pack back to the school if he is taking multiple AP exams. My son is taking AP exams at two different schools this year, at school A and then school B for the second and then back to A for the third. He needs to bring his pack with him from the first exam to the second exam and then to the third; he cannot just use another pack provided by the school.

Pick your battles. You are not going to fix all the issues at once, so figure which ones are MOST important to you. Prioritize. You have many years to deal with the smaller stuff. When you have figured out what is most worthwhile battling over, then come up with a game plan. Will you use incentives? Punishments? A combination of both? Explain to your son that things will be different. Clearly explain the new way of doing things, and then be consistent. Follow through. Only move on to issue #2 when issue #1 is at a "tolerable" level. Do remember that nobody is perfect. We all have our days and our bad attitude moments. But that should NOT be the norm. Please know that we all are cheering for you, and that with time and effort your son can become a wonderful kid. Please let us know what happens.

Free time -- this year I have hours and hours of it! (Seriously.....) But my youngest is 12. Hang in there, all of you with younger ones. I too remember the days when I couldn't move without a little one clinging to a leg. And you know, I miss that!

Sharon, If kids who are accelerated in math are done with both geometry and algebra 2 at the end of 9th, what do they do for the rest of high school? (Obviously a year of pre-calc/trig, but after that???) Does the high school offer AP calculus AB? AP calculus BC? AP statistics? I guess I have always been curious what schools do with these super-accelerated kids. If they do pre-calc in 10th and then calc (AB or BC) in 11th, there is still their senior year -- do they do AP statistics or what? For homeschoolers, if we really accelerate our kids in math we have more options -- we can do advanced math via cc or online colleges or 4-year colleges or whatever.

Our story -- we went the opposite route. We gave the colleges EVERYTHING -- transcript, school profile, course descriptions, book lists, activity sheets..... Our kids applied to competitive schools and received LOTS of merit aid offers, so we are planning to do the "lots of information" with our next child. I think that how much the school wants to see depends VERY much on the school. If your child is applying to competitive schools, more is probably better, though do check with the school. A true story -- Last week my ds and dh attended the Accepted Students' Day for the school my ds will attend (a USNWR top-20 LAC). They talked for a while with another homeschool family, and then were joined by two admissions counselors. Both hs families joked with the counselors about how much paper they bombarded the admissions office with. The counselors responded by saying that they were delighted to receive that much information -- some homeschoolers apply and provide so little information that they do not feel they know the student adequately so they don't accept him/her. What you send depends on the school, but for us even state schools like UVA -- which pleads with students to not send any extra documentation -- and UPitt -- which requires only a simple form with nothing else added -- were delighted to receive additional documentation from homeschoolers. Additionally, if you are interested in merit aid, send ALL THE INFORMATION YOU CAN!!!!! Schools want to feel like they really know the background of students to whom they offer merit aid. I know that others do it differently, but if you are applying to competitive schools I truly believe that more is better.

Congrats -- it's a great school! And a beautiful campus! (Not that we're biased, since we live down the road.....) Come say hi when you're in town sometime!

I would have one concern about scrambling up the sciences -- does the child have the math ability to deal with the science? Honors-level high school chemistry (non-AP) really does require some familiarity (concurrent is fine) with algebra 2. Some of the equations in chem get nasty. Honors-level physics really does use vectors and basic trig. I would say algebra 2 is a pre-req and cannot be taken concurrently; pre-calculus is a nice concurrent math. I think to some extent the old-fashioned bio-chem-physics approach came about because it makes the most sense from a math-ability point-of-view. Any kid who is seriously interested in science would have to retake physics before college if he did a non-math-based physics in 9th grade. Ditto a non-math-based chemistry. Now, if your kid isn't trying to do "honors-level" science work and isn't planning on going into science or engineering or a "elite" college, all of these concerns don't apply!

My younger son dropped out of boy scouts because of the rowdiness of the other boys. He likes Civil Air Patrol, where things are usually significantly more orderly.

Biology requires essentially NO math. Most kids taking bio have had algebra 1 or are taking conccurrently algebra 1, but I don't think it's necessary.

Dd1, ds1, and dd2 will be 18. Ds2 will be 19 + 2months. We held him back this year -- he repeated 8th grade because we didn't think he was ready for high school - level work.

Thanks for sharing these.....The snow is beautiful, even if it is unwelcome at this time of year! I'd send you some of our Virginia heat if I could! ;)

I'm jealous! You have a child that just does Latin and then moves on? WOW! My kids do and redo and redo Latin 1. Each of my kids has spent at least FOUR years at the Latin 1-or-under stage. Maybe this has to do with poor choice of textbooks. Maybe this has to do with poor teaching. Maybe this has to do with deficient brain growth in whatever area of the brain Latin skills reside. But they each seem to need years to digest the concept of Latin. (We're an engineering family -- maybe that has something to do with it.) So we have NO experience with what to do with a child who is actually reading Latin by 8th grade. I would say to enjoy it -- and then start a tutoring service for those of us who can't seem to get beyond Latin 1! Our stories -- Dd1 really did get a 5 on the AP Latin Vergil exam, so she got somewhere with Latin. She did do 2 years of online Latin 1, as well as several years at home prior to that. Ds1 quit eventually and is finishing up Greek 3. (He said three years of Latin 1 was enough!) Ds2 is on his third year of online LATIN 1 classes. (This is getting expensive! But it looks like he will actually move on to Latin 2 next year! Hurray!) Dd2 is finishing up her second year of Henle and will take Latin 1 online next year. We are PRAYING that she will move to Latin 2 the following year! If she doesn't, I will be absolutely convinced that we suffer from a Latin deficiency disease.) Sometimes things in homeschooling just don't work out the way you thought they would -- and for us Latin is our big hiccup. Do you have any advice on how to get beyond Latin 1? :001_smile: The one positive about all these Latin disasters -- they make for GREAT family stories!

I totally agree with you that the Holt text handles evolution horribly. I hated the way the text changed the definition of science and even of a scientific theory and a scientific law. However, the textbook did such a horrible job presenting the pro-evolution side of the debate that dd1, who was still undecided on the creation/evolution debate (she considered herself a creationist but only because dh and I are) became a confirmed creationist after working her way through this text. She figured that if the arguments for evolution were really as weak and as fantastical as they were presented in this text, then she HAD to be a creationist! (God works in mysterious ways!) I got the worksheets by poking around on the Holt website. The sad thing is that I just tried to re-find the material, and they have totally changed the website since early March! Even after typing in the ISBN, I couldn't find the workbooks. I would call Holt and ask for help if you want the supplementary materials. Sorry I can't point you to the right webpage. I can give you the ISBN's if you are interested.

Wow -- I've never heard of chemistry - physics - biology. That's a new one! There is a HUGE move in many schools towards doing physics in 9th, then chemistry in 10th and then biology. My niece, in a "stellar" public school system in MA, is doing physics in 9th, much to my brother's consternation! (He was raised in the old-fashioned bio-chem-physics days!) If you google "physics first" you can find a lot of information about this educational movement. We're not going that route, but a number of strong school systems seem to be changing to the phsyics first mode. I guess you can find support for whatever way you want to do science. I will say that my dd read through Conceptual Physics before she took AP physics, and she was very impressed with CP.

Sometimes family doesn't come around.....All the relatives love our kids...but they think they are wonderful in spite of homeschooling, not because of..... But vent here -- and ONLY here! :glare: My son had to turn down his first choice college (U Chicago) because of money.....and that was hard. God willing, your kids will be able to go where they want to (and the admissions office agrees!) That is an absolutely awesome gift your father is giving your kids!

Congratulations -- it is so good to hear from rolks who have been there...and survived!:001_smile:

The ISBN for "Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course" by Mary Dolciani, Robert Sorgenfrey, and John Graham (Houghton-Mifflin) 1988 is: 0-395-43050-X We really like this text.

I read the book. I hated it....I hated her attitude of "gotta win at all cost." I hated her attitude of "the prize (getting into a good school) is worth sacrificing everything..." I still have the book on my shelf. Why? Because it gives the best description I have found anywhere of how to find/create opportunities for your high school child. I use the book VERY selectively. There are GREAT parts to the book, but I have practically x-ed out parts of the book. I recommend the book for parents of high-achievers......but I recommend it with the caveat that I disagree with about 50% of the advice given! I love the advice of the previous poster -- remember why YOU are homeschooling and stay true to that. Seek all kinds of advice (including this nasty book), but then throw out everything that doesn't coincide with your goals and your desired path to achieve the goals.

I am so impressed with the level of planning you ladies are doing! Keep it up! Lynn, I thought your "rant" was right on target. Obviously :) I have no clue what admissions people are "really" looking for, but looking at my own kids and what they did in high school and where they did and didn't get in, I think your "rant" was really great! Stanford has an absolutely amazing write-up of what it is looking for in homeschooled students. I think probably all "top' schools are looking for similar things, but Standford just has done the best job of verbalizing its expectations for hs'ers: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/applying/extras/1_2a4_homeschooled.html

In Newport News, VA, there is a neighborhood with oddles of parakeets -- supposedly the largest population of parakeets living in the wild anywhere in the US. They are excaped pets and their offspring!

Thank you -- this is just the sort of website I was looking for!