If so, I'd love to chat with you about his/her experiences. My dd17, who will graduate next spring, is looking at going into the National Guard for 3 years. She has just started to mention this, but she sounds like she's very interested. I thought this was a part time thing, maybe things have changed. I've got to look into it online but have not done that yet. If your child has done this, could you relate what it was like for him/her and for you? What kinds of questions should we ask? There was something in their literature that appealed to her, not sure what it was, but for one thing, I think she likes the idea that they pay for higher education afterwards... I'm not sure yet how I feel about the idea, I'd hate to think she could be deployed, do they do that? Thanks,

Well, I guess I would say that I have mixed feelings about kids and sleep. I tend to not want to wake the kids up in the morning for school but just let them wake naturally. (Okay, well, that was alright when they were little, but certainly not any more. Youngest is now 12 and has started that sleeping in thing a bit.) On the other hand, I tend to not want to let them sleep in either. I I have heard that teens need about 10 hours of sleep, more or less, and I would like mine to get pretty close to that. So that's my goal. Sometimes, with the older teens, I have to almost nag at them to make sure they get to sleep early enough to get the needed amount of sleep, but of course, there are many nights we go to bed leaving 3 out of the 4 still awake until who knows when. Their problem if they have a tough time getting up for work or church the next day. That's for older teens. I would not let my younger teens stay up like that. All this to say, I think a 14-year-old needs to be allowed the chance to get the sleep he needs, or most of it anyway; he's growing up a storm. I would talk to him and discuss different options, and if he's fairly reasonable, maybe you two could come up with a solution together, given your desires for school, and his need for sleep. Kids are much more willing to go for something they have a hand in deciding (if that would be appropriate for your family and this particular kid). Hey, I heard someone say this about her dh when he was a teen and in public high school: during one summer break he grew 6 inches! She says that during the school year he was never able to get the sleep he needed, and that one summer he slept and slept and slept, much to his mom's chagrin, but I guess he was busy growing. This is not an easy one, I wish you the best!

You go, girl, and I hope dh will be the one to have to get ds up in the morning and take him there. LOL.

Hmmm, that's an interesting problem, I have not heard that before. I would say, first, give him all the time he needs, let him count as much as he needs to, also, let him move around a lot during math, and use lots of props, plus a lot of repetition. I have not used Right Start, but from what I've heard it sounds like it might be a good choice for you. But, as one wise "older" hs mom told me a long time ago, "he'll get it before he goes to college." IOW, it's just a matter of when and of what you have to do to get him there. So glad to have these boards so that we can run stuff by others and get some fresh thoughts. All the best!!

I use small post-it notes to mark pages in workbooks and teacher manuals where I need to use different sections at the same time. I use them kinda like tabs, only they stick out of the top not the side; for many books I write what section it is, such as in the reading tm, I have one post-it for "lesson", one for "quiz", etc., and I move the tabs as needed. That way the bookmarks don't fall out (I hate when that happens). For books we're reading I do the same thing much of the time also, or else I'll just take an index card and use that as a marker.

My dd is definitely not an abstract thinker (understatement ;)); maybe the MUS would be good for her after all. I know that geometry was much easier for me than algebra in high school as well. And she's kinda like me, only more so:D. Thanks so much everyone for all the suggestions!!

With all my kids so far I have put their physical science classes on the high school transcript, even if they took it in 8th grade, because it was considered high school level. The BJU Space & Earth course, in my opinion, can definitely stand as a high school course. It's very meaty.

I do like MUS, have used it for younger grades in the past, am using it now with my youngest, and have not seen any of the high school texts, but I will look at it. And, yes, the "Keys to" books, I forgot about those. I saw them on the same site as "Patty Paper Geometry" that someone else had posted on a different geometry thread on the K-8 board (that looks pretty hands-on). Same company. Okay, great! Thanks!

That's GREAT! I hope it will be a wonderful high school experience for you both!

Didn't know that -- great to know, thanks!

Thanks, ladies. I will take a look at these. She will have a tutor, so, with the tutor's input, I'll consider all these and find out which would work best. Thank you very much!! Blessings,

Yes, and this sounds so good; I am seriously considering MFW for high school when I get there with ds11. Love the progression and the God-focus. I think it looks like the history focus in year 3 is earlier American history and year 4 is American part 2 plus government. It seems to have everything I want; I'm excited to see they have developed a high school program.

I have not used Chalk Dust, so I don't really know anything about it except that a lot of folks like it. I do have Lial's Basic College Math, and, like the title says, it's really geared toward college. I would not use Lial's with a 6th grader, as it really is quite adult-ish in appearance and content, imo; i.e., the examples and word problems revolve around adult-ish type situations such as car insurance or mileage, or bank accounts -- things young adults would be able to identify with. The writing is very small, and there is a lot of print on each page. There can be as many as 60, 70, 80-some-odd problems in the problem sets. We are not mathy around my house, so I wouldn't use this with a youngster of mine. Maybe some others would. I bought it for one of my high school kids to do as a mathematics review prior to doing algebra. We started it but it didn't take long for both of us to figure out it wasn't going to be a fit for her. I would not use it with an elementary student; I really think it's better for older students. That's just my opinion of course. HTH!

Nope. Not only I have I not looked at these, I have never heard of them (that I know of, lol). But just thought I'd chime in so you don't get the idea you're invisible. Hope you find out what you need to know. Blessings!

Looking for geometry that's on a bit slower track or is a bit less rigorous, for a dd who has learning issues. High school geometry is probably high school geometry, but is there a book that's maybe simpler/easier to approach b/c of maybe its visual qualities, or maybe a slower pace? If you know of anything, I'd appreciate hearing about it. If I don't get any recommendations, I think I'll just pick whatever seems best and just go slower. Thanks so much!!

Covenant Home Curriculum has wonderful Bible courses, really meaty and thought provoking. For their history (and science) courses they use Bob Jones books, but they do their own answer keys and comprehension questions (and tests), in which they have a stronger (imo) emphasis on God as the author of everything (I'm not really giving it justice, you should look at samples on their site). It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it would give you what you are looking for in terms of an integrated study of God being involved in everything. My Father's World would give you probably the same type of thing in their high school level courses, using totally different materials than CHC, but with the same level of God-honoring study. Those two would be suggestions to look at in terms of curriculum. For individual books, I'd suggest Thinking Like A Christian by David Noebel and Chuck Edwards. Blessings to you as you figure out what would be best!

An ABeka rep at the convention told me that it's mostly just an update; there are very, very few substantive changes.

Thanks for asking; I would like to know that as well; I just got a 1998 World History for free:thumbup1:.

I was interested to read these posts, too. Good info. And, I'm SO glad I can subscribe to as many threads as I want and the subscriptions don't have a limit like the private message boxes!! LOL!!!

I was wondering about this too, since we will be starting with ancients next year in 6th and I only wanted to take two years to do the entirety of history, and, after considering the advice I got from the experts on this board, I decided to go with BJU 6 for my spine, adding in a few SL6 books (including SOTW 1 and 2) and lots of movies from the Netflix list that was posted here. I'm REALLY excited about my plans! That is why I absolutely can not look at this tread.;)

Hi, My 11yo son is also a reluctant writer -- very! I had not done much of anything with him for writing because of it. This spring I had the opportunity to have him tutored using IEW. I really wondered what it would be like, because he HATES writing and he has almost no experience with it. Well, I was pleasantly surprised! He really took to it. We had only a few weeks of instruction, but he got into Unit 3 (I think?), where the students do the longer selections. Actually I was blown away with how he did. All this to say that from my experience I don't think it will matter what you do to "get him ready" for it. If your IEW instructor is good, I wouldn't worry about getting him prepared; the tutor will guide him through it. Use the MC that you already have but don't stress over it. I will bet that he'll be fine. It's amazing what a kid (especially a boy) will do for someone else that he won't do for mom :glare:. I hope it goes swimmingly for you both!!!

Are you emailing the completed list to folks? Then, "Me too!" And thanks! Or, were you going to post it (that would be easier for you, lol). I, too, appreciate you putting this together!

I think your plans look good, but do also plan some recharging time for yourself into the schedule. BTDT with the overwhelming life circumstances; if it's not getting any lighter any time soon, make sure you give yourself some extra space. All the best to you!

ABeka has a program with two levels, starting with grades 3-4, then grades 4-5. It's music theory plus recorder. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw in the book. Have not used it, though (one of those many things I did not get to, sadly). Anyway, I would recommend taking a look at that. All the best to you in your search! Hope you find just the right thing!

I just looked at the Rainbow Resource site after reading the op found the books there, and WOW! Boy do they have a lot of resources for this series -- teacher books, student workbooks, game card books -- yikes, you could spend a fortune for one of each x 10 volumes. Wow. [but they do look good, lol]