This sample lesson shows the author's world view: http://www.oneyearnovel.com/samples/OYAN_Lesson_18_Textbook.pdf When my son did the course, there was quite a bit of Muslim bashing on the forum and a lack of tolerance for differences of opinion generally.

Here is John Suchocki's answer (the author of Conceptual Chemistry): http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253084&highlight=suchocki

A People's History of the United States (Zinn); Lies My Teacher Told Me (Loewen).

My son uses the Ginger spellchecker program (we were able to get it through the Homeschool Buyers Coop at a discount). It is fantastic. http://www.gingersoftware.com/ Ginger also has a text-to-speech reader. Many textbooks come with a program, either online or on disc, which reads the text aloud to the student. And, recorded books are great as well (free from the library or internet, or purchased). The student can just listen or listen and follow along in the book. For composition/writing, you can modify assignments to help your dd grow as a writer. I'd suggest not comparing her to where she "should" be, but starting at where she is now. So, for example, if she needs to dictate her thoughts now, and work up to writing independently, that is just fine. If she needs to write five sentences now and build up to an essay, that's great, too. Here's my bottom line: if she is working every day on English and making good progress . . . that is her course. That is enough. Decide what your goals are--love of books? more fluency as a writer? able to construct a logical argument?--and go from there, rather than from a checklist of "must read" books or "must do" essays.

Dh just started using Microsoft Word to type problems for his geometry students. I found advice on use at The Math Forum @Drexel (we were having trouble making the line arrow directly over letters). People are using Word, Math Type and Equation Editor, so you may find some opinions/comparisons on that site. Here's the link: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?...902&tstart=285 (cross post on high school board)

Dh just started using Microsoft Word to type problems for his geometry students. I found advice on use at The Math Forum @Drexel (we were having trouble making the line arrow directly over letters). People are using Word, Math Type and Equation Editor, so you may find some opinions/comparisons on that site. Here's the link: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=970902&tstart=285

Here are a couple of links: MIT Splash: http://uchicago-splash.mit.edu/learn/index.html Chicago Splash: https://splashchicago.learningu.org/

:iagree:

My older son also is taking CC classes next year. He's taking one class first semester and two second. He's thinking about staying at CC after class, finding a quiet spot and knocking off his homework right away. A homeschool friend who just completed CC always did her homework and studying during the hour or so gap between classes. It's a pretty efficient system. It's great that your classes are in the morning, so you have afternoons free for the rest of your subjects. Good luck!

Thinkwell Geometry is working well for my son.

Here are a couple more virtual dissection links (both free): McGraw-Hill Virtual Frog Dissection: http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/BL_16/BL_16.html Miller and Levine's virtual dissections (look at lower right side of page for the links): http://www.millerandlevine.com/intro.html And I thought I'd throw in this link to McGraw-Hill's virtual labs: http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/ Hilary

You may already have these resources, but here are some free online classes: The Western Tradition (and other courses) at www.learner.org List of free online homeschool classes, by subject at http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/online_hs.htm#science Yale Open Course (check under Classics, English, History) http://oyc.yale.edu/ MIT OpenCourseWare Link for High Schoolers: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm NROC National Repository of Online Courses: http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/nrocdemos.html NROC Easy link to courses: Hippocampus site: http://www.hippocampus.org/ A to Z Home's Cool Free Resources links page: http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/materials/FreeResources.htm

I have Thinkwell Biology with George Wolfe on CD. It includes 7 CDs. Unfortunately, I don't have the original cardboard box, so don't have the ISBN. So, my set is complete and does not have an 8th disc.

Fascinating math website and videos (including one about Pi Day, in blog posts) by an artist with a very creative take on math: http://vihart.com/doodling/

Thank you *very* much for posting this. It's really helpful! Hilary

Absolutely! I am so sorry that happened to you. It wasn't right and was terribly hurtful. Completely unacceptable. My husband welcomes every student and makes each student a part of the classroom community. He does not tolerate any put-downs of any kind. Ever. I think I should explain my comment. What I meant was that there is a huge age gap, and that the older students relate to each other in a very different way than kids four years younger relate to each other. In a class with much older students, the younger one is more like a younger sibling than a peer. This may be different in a CC class. It is rare that younger students are eligible for AP physics, because they have to pass the prerequisite, the freshman physics final. For these two reasons, when my husband meets with parents and students for planning, he advises waiting (he told me that "opposed" was too strong a word for his advice). It sounds like you have some very nice options for your son. Good luck!

Yep. :iagree: Secular does not equal "anti-Christian" (or anti-religion).

Kiana, that was the lesson I was going to post. It really killed the course for my son. After that lessson, he decided to work on the novel on his own. I hadn't seen that sample lesson when we bought the course, although I spent a great deal of time on the website. Perhaps it was posted more recently, and perhaps I missed it. In any event, the course is Christian. Definitely not secular or neutral. So, it's a program that fits students who agree with the author's viewpoint, expressed in the sample lesson Kiana posted.

It is a great movie. Very bloody, though, so you may wish to preview it.

I know there have been discussions on the board about college classes for much younger kids. You might want to search "community college" on the board search (or maybe somebody else has a link to the discussions?). Many community colleges only allow kids 16 and up to enroll, and some classes aren't appropriate for younger kids (depending on subject matter, which can be too advanced socially, and the composition of the class, ditto). Just FYI, my husband teaches AP physics (college level class) to high school seniors, and he's opposed to having ninth graders in the classes, as they are too young academically and socially to really get everything out of the class that they can. If they wait even until junior year, their greater maturity allows them to have a much richer experience.

Great advice, everybody! Karin: Thank you very much. It really helps to know which kit you're using. And, Lori D: Thank you so much for sharing your list. :001_smile:

HollyDay, we're thinking of Conceptual Chemistry for next year as well and I had the same question. Great replies, ladies. Karin, which MicroChem set did you use? Thank you!

My advice would be to finish geometry, since you're almost done, and then do the rest of Algebra I. If you take a break from geometry, you'll probably have to spend time reviewing to get back up to speed, so it'll be more efficient to just power through. I've been really impressed with your motivation and organization. Your great attitude really comes across in your posts. Good luck!

We also used Thinkwell Chemistry as a supplement. You are correct that it is college level. So, we chose lectures that supplemented our high school level text (Prentice Hall Chemistry with Oak Meadow--FYI we found Oak Meadow's workload too light for retention, so we supplemented a lot). For ds2, we will probably use Conceptual Chemistry 3rd ed. and the online lectures. We'll continue to use TW as a supplement.

I'd recommend picking up a used copy of Miller and Levine's Biology. It has a thorough high school level treatment of evolution. And, the supporting materials are all free now. http://www.millerandlevine.com/intro-1.html Hippocampus also is an excellent (and free!) resource: http://www.hippocampus.org/Biology;jsessionid=30ACEB11A61D4DED947AAA932F72A646 HTH, Hilary