I love the Tapestry of Grace literature recommendations. It may not make sense to buy TOG just for literature, but the recommendations are excellent and the teacher info/discussion questions are helpful. I think it is a great spine for high school literature. I have used TOG lit recommendations for many years. I don't follow it exactly, but mix and match. I also teach chronologically, so TOG is an extra help there. Because I teach high school English co-op classes, TOG is a safety net for me -- especially for 20th century lit, when so many novels have themes or elements that are dicey (at best). Hope this is helpful! :001_smile: ~Brigid

I couldn't find much last year when I was looking. This site does not have quizzes, but does have some material that you might be able to use. I have attached the general link, and you can drill down to War and Peace. :001_smile:~Brigid http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/index.html#Online%20Guides

Lisa, my ds and I are in the exact same boat. We started CD Precalc today! I have worked out a preliminary schedule, but I will have noooo idea if it is workable until we get into the book. The CD instructions say to assign about 25 problems per section. So if there are 100 exercises, just assign every fourth problem. I have no idea if that is workable, but it sounds much more reasonable for a strong math student than doing 100 problems for each exercise. You may already know about this CD recommendation, but just in case, I thought I'd pass that on. One other thing that my ds discovered today (first video lesson) was that he could fast forward the dvd one click and still understand Dana Mosely very clearly. He did that on the material that he was familiar with, and then played the DVD at regular speed in other parts where he needed to pay closer attention. Just an idea -- I have read some people say that CD videos can be really long and drag on. Might be a way to help with that. :001_smile: ~Brigid

For a timed response, it seems to me that a student will be most successful writing about something accessible -- something that he has been involved with, has read recently, or is reading now. I assigned a compare/contrast paper in my little English co-op class recently (it was not a timed paper though), asking the kids to compare/contrast something between the Iliad and the Odyssey (which they had just read). One of the papers compared the admirable/objectionable qualities of Achilles and Odysseus. There was a persuasive slant to this, because the student had a strong opinion about which one was more worthy of praise and admiration than the other. He established that in his thesis statement, and then used the compare/contrast structure to defend his opinion. The student who wrote on this comparison of two "heros" or "protagonists" seemed to have a lot more material to write about and a much easier time organizing his paper than some of the other students who chose other comparison topics. Just an idea for you. Good luck! ~Brigid p.s. And I agree that a compare/contrast paper should be more than a single paragraph. :001_smile:

We just read both the Iliad and the Odyssey in a co-op class I teach. I chose Fitzgerald for the Iliad and Fagles for the Odyssey, because they had good unabridged audiobooks. They both are fabulous as straight reads -- but George Guidall's narration (Recorded Books) of the Iliad and Sir Ian McKellen's narration of the (Fagles/Penguin) Odyssey were incredible. It helped so much to hear the oh-so-difficult-to-pronounce names read aloud, and both narrations really brought the stories to life. There are other audiobooks of both these epics, but some are abridged, and none seemed as robust and compelling to me. If audiobooks are not of interest I would choose Fagles for both books. Hope you enjoy Homer! ~Brigid

I just posted this on the college board by accident, so sorry for the double post!:001_huh: If your student will be taking an AP exam in May and you are looking for a school to contact and request this -- the link below might be helpful. Last spring I was very frustrated because I could not find a school in my area that offered one of the AP tests my ds needed to take. All the schools I contacted were very nice, and very willing to let my ds take exams at their schools, but they weren't willing to order a test for him if the school didn't teach the AP course and offer the test to the student body. I didn't blame them, it takes extra time and staffing to do that. This AP course ledger will let you search for schools that have teachers who have passed the AP course audits. It doesn't necessarily mean that the school is offering the courses listed for them this year. But it is a big help if you plan to start calling around. At least you will know what schools are possibilities -- and you won't waste time on schools that have not passed the audit (so no AP test is possible). I hope this is helpful and saves you some time if you have, or plan to have, a student who needs to take an AP test. ~Brigid https://apcourseaudit.epiconline.org/ledger/

OOPS! I meant to post this on the high school board. Sorry!

If your student will be taking an AP exam in May and you are looking for a school to contact and request this -- the link below might be helpful. Last spring I was very frustrated because I could not find a school in my area that offered one of the AP tests my ds needed to take. All the schools I contacted were very nice, and very willing to let my ds take exams at their schools, but they weren't willing to order a test for him if the school didn't teach the AP course and offer the test to the student body. I didn't blame them, it takes extra time and staffing to do that. This AP course ledger will let you search for schools that have teachers who have passed the AP course audits. It doesn't necessarily mean that the school is offering the courses listed for them this year. But it is a big help if you plan to start calling around. At least you will know what schools are possibilities -- and you won't waste time on schools that have not passed the audit (so no AP test is possible). I hope this is helpful and saves you some time if you have, or plan to have, a student who needs to take an AP test. ~Brigid https://apcourseaudit.epiconline.org/ledger/

Wow! Kudos. That is quite a feat! :) ~Brigid

I'm not sure I can help with your questions, but I did want to mention that if you haven't sent in your paperwork for the exam, the deadline is fast approaching (January 16th). The NLE folks are very strict about their deadlines. :) Good luck! ~Brigid

I completely agree. The SAT II curves are brutal. A 650 on the Chemistry SAT II is only the 50th percentile. In our experience, a second year of the same science (advanced, AP, or CC) made all the difference. ~Brigid

If you plan for your kids to take math in 9th-12th grade, I would not be concerned with an accelerated math track, and with the "forgetting factor." If your kids are that good at math, I would assume that you might have them continue right through Calc 2 and 3. At our house, I have math/science guys, so we have been "ahead of schedule" in those areas for a long time. It has worked super-well for us, with my oldest taking math up through Calc 3 at the CC before starting as a freshman in college this year. He also took Apologia Bio/Chem/Physics in 8th/9th/10th, and then went on to take college Chem in 11th and Calc-based Physics in 12th at the CC. If you have a community college option available to you (or if you are a math/science person -- I'm not!), it may be a great way for your kids to stay on the track they are on, and take math and science classes all way through high school. I would not worry about ACT/SAT lag if your kids are in a math class each year in high school. Algebra 1 and Geometry will be so easy for them when they get to the upper levels of math. And so easy to refresh. I hope this helps. If I were you I'd let your kids rise to the level of their interest and abilities. Especially if they are happy campers. Good luck! ~Brigid

There has been an ebb and flow to scheduling at our house throughout high school. I don't think any one system ever worked for my older ds (now a freshman in college) for a whole year. We had to make interim adjustments from time to time. It wasn't until 12th grade that I could really step out of the scheduling-help picture. We started out this year with my 10th grade ds scheduling his own week, breaking it down, day by day. It soon became evident that, while he was making an earnest effort, he was consistently underestimating how much time it would take to complete individual tasks/assignments. So by Friday, he would have massive amounts of work still left, even though he had been working steadily all week. We have currently moved to a system that is working pretty well. My ds and I talk first thing Monday morning and he figures out everything he has assigned in each of his classes. I enter that into Edu-Track and print out a weekly schedule for him that is broken down by day and within each day by task. Ds chooses how to organize his work during the week -- I just help him get it on paper and make sure it looks realistic. As I write this, it sounds like a lot of work, but it really doesn't take that much time. I think this is necessary right now for my ds to learn how to work efficiently. When he was making his own schedule, it was too general, so by Wednesday of each week, he and I were totally stressed out, as we could see the tsunami of work that was going to crash down on our weekend. So. That's what we are doing. Today that is.:001_smile: ~Brigid p.s. I have also found that unless I keep up with checking math homework daily (or at least every other day), it is reeeeally easy to fall behind in math.

I listed the CC courses right along with the high school-level courses on the transcript in the semester that they were taken. Right after the course name, in parenthesis, I put the abbreviated CC name and course number, followed by the grade in the appropriate semester column, and final grade column. So it looked something like this: -------------------------------------------------Sem 1---Sem2---Final General Chemistry I (CCName: CHM-151)----A------------------A [i have to put the hyphens in for this to show up formatted correctly, but I didn't use them on the transcript] As far as listing College Algebra, was the Advanced Math taken in the same school year? If so, I would list it for the first semester math, and College Algebra as the second semester. If not in the same year, you could still do that, or list Advanced Math as a year-long course (I'm not sure what percentage of the text 30 lessons is). I would list the college algebra course exactly as the CC has listed/named it. I have heard that College Algebra is considered Algebra 3. I would not worry that it looks like a repeat of Alg 1, 2, and Advanced Math. It is college, after all. :-) ~Brigid

I don't know that I can answer your questions about twice as many credits. My ds had 21 CC credits, as well as 12 AP credits, so his sophomore status was not entirely due to CC courses. When we started down the CC path, it was to fill an academic need for advanced high school math and science courses, so the CC courses fit neatly into the math and science "slots" on my ds's transcript for his junior and senior years. The CC courses were the logical next step, since my ds had completed all of the traditional high school courses, through precalculus and physics. So I don't think my ds looked like a transfer student on paper. However, I think that if he had had twice as many credits, it might have looked that way. I can only speculate -- I really don't know. We never spoke to any colleges about this issue. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. Good luck! ~Brigid

My ds took multiple Calc/Chem/Physics cc classes. I gave one credit per semester AND weighted his GPA as regular classes A=4.0/honors 5.0/AP or CC 6.0. Seems like as long as you are consistent, you should not have a problem. No school ever questioned our methology. Or if they did, I assume they just adjusted the credits and reweighted the GPA according to their own standards. My guy had loads of CC classes and was offered significant scholarships at both Georgia Tech and NC State without a concern about his apparent "sophomore status" (based on the credits he brought with him). I have heard others talk about scholarship/credits problems, but we never found it to be an issue. Good luck with the scholarships! ~Brigid

As others have said, you cannot take SAT IIs on the same day you take the SAT. What my ds did, and it worked for him, was to take the tests in May and June of his junior year. We wanted him to have as much school under his belt, so we did not choose earlier spring dates -- but that is certainly an option. We decided he would take three SAT IIs in May and the SAT in June. This worked well, because for two of the SAT IIs, he was also taking same-subject AP tests in early May, so he was prepping for AP/SAT II at the same time. Some folks advocate the June date for SAT IIs, to allow additional study time, but we felt that after the AP's and final exams were over in mid-May, it would be very hard to continue studying the SAT II subject matter. My ds did not find it too tough to take three SAT II's in one day. They are "only" :001_huh: an hour long, each. And, he really was motivated not to string out the testing over more months. :001_smile: (Very few students take three SAT IIs in one day, so if your student chooses to do that, the last exam may be just one student and the proctor.) One other side note. My strong-science-guy took the chemistry SATII right after his first high school chemistry class, and did only average. He took it again after taking advanced chemistry and did much, much better. So I would be careful to diagnose how prepared your student is to perform well, by taking practice tests and scoring them. The SAT II curves are brutal. A mid-600 in chemistry is only 50th percentile. The testing maze can get pretty icky looking by the junior year! Good luck. ~Brigid

If it were me, I would not worry about making the Apologia course more rigorous. Apologia has worked so well for us, that I would hesitate to tweak it. I tell my kids that "'easy' means you've learned it." If you are worried about the rigor, just be sure to do most, if not all the labs, ramp up your lab report expectations, and insist that your kids do the work with excellence. Just my .02. :001_smile:

If your student is planning to take biology and chemistry in high school, then I think this would be perfectly appropriate in 9th grade. If you are not planning to include 3-4 years of science in high school, then I would look at the expectations of the colleges that your student might be interested in. It seems like most colleges like or want to see biology and chemistry, and if you are on a science/engineering track, they will want to see physics, too. So if you have a liberal arts-oriented student, and plan to "check the box" with bio and chem, I suggest that Apologia's physical science is a great option for 9th. Our public schools start with "Earth Science" in 9th grade. I find it hard to believe that that would be any more rigorous that the phys science option. (Plus, we love Apologia at our house -- we've gone from General Sci to Physics once, and are about to complete the cycle again with the second ds. Your student will learn a lot!) Good luck! ~Brigid

Thank you all. I am going to look at these suggestions. It's good to hear the endorsement of Chalkdust, because otherwise I would hesitate to invest the $. I pulled my ds from his online class officially today, so we are going to take a two week break from math, and use the Christmas break to regroup and assess the alternatives. Thank you for sharing what has worked for you. ~Brigid :)

First -- I have surfed the threads. :001_smile: So I know there has been a lot of discussion about this. I just would like to confirm what I have read, and get suggestions about Precalculus options for our situation. My very-strong-in-math ds (just got a 65 on his PSAT as a 10th grader) has had a disasterous first semester with a Potter's School precalc class, and we have determined that the text and approach are just not working for him. So we are trying to plot another course (the beauty of homeschooling). What would you recommend for a very capable and advanced math student, who has always sailed through math and (previously) loved it? He will probably go to into a math-intensive field (like engineering or physics), and we plan for him to take Calc classes at the local CC when he is old enough. The one caveat -- mom is not a math person. So there needs to be enough explanation or a great solutions manual, so that it is homeschool-friendly for us. Any advice would be so appreciated! ~Brigid

I recently found this nifty free online grade book, and I wanted to share it, because it is working really well for me. I teach a literature and composition co-op class to eight high school kids, and this online program lets me enter all of the individual graded assignments, sorts them by sub categories (like lit/comp/vocab), and -- based upon the weighting I put in -- averages the grades. The students all get their own private passwords, so they (and their parents) can go on line at any time and see individual assignment grades, and their cumulative grade to-date for the semester/year. I did a lot of surfing to see if this was a reliable option. I didn't want to enter lots of grades and then find that the data evaporated in cyberspace one day. From what I can tell, a lot of teachers have used this for some time, with great results. So, if you are teaching a co-op class to other homeschool students, I just wanted to share this. I don't think it would work well for an individual student across subjects, but it might. My students and I love it. Just wanted to share this, since it has worked so well for me. (And I promise I have no vested interest in this. :)) ~Brigid http://www.engrade.com/

Our experience with the CC testing process was different from some others. My ds had completed Algebra II, and after taking the placement test, the CC folks said he placed out of precalculus and into calculus. :ohmy: That, of course, seemed way too ambitious, and a scary thought for his very first CC course ever. After looking at the precalc textbook at the bookstore, we determined that he could probably skip the first semester of the two-semester precalc sequence, but since this would be his very first CC course, we opted for the easier route. He took Precalculus/Algebra as a summer class, and then Precalculus/Trig in the fall. This helped him ease into the CC environment. The first class was not rigorous, but did introduce material that he had not had. Most importantly, he learned a LOT about how to use a graphing calculator. As it turned out, the second semester of precalc was VERY challenging -- a long-time instructor who cut students no slack. If my ds had started there, as his very first CC course, I think it would not have been pretty. His very first exam grade was a 67%. :blink: He worked very, very hard, and ended up with an A. The point here, is if he had gone straight into calculus, as the CC testing indicated, I am sure that it would have been a disaster. I have often wondered how many kids struggle or fail because of CC test results that inflate reality. I would consider the benefits of easing into the CC environment. I would look carefully at the textbook at the student store, and determine how much is new material, and how much looks like review. I'd also remember that there is a whole lot of learning that goes on that first semester -- much more than just the class content, but working independently, working in groups, taking notes, managing the workload (including staying on top homework that doesn't have to be turned in for a grade), etc. CC courses have been a wonderful option for us. Good luck with your decision, and best of luck to your ds! :) ~Brigid

I think there is no higher compliment from an instructor. Wow! A university course, no less. Kudos to your ds (and to you for helping him get there)! ~Brigid:thumbup:

We also used the youtube videos that OLG posted the link for above (for the ACT science section). However, you will need the 2007-2008 test prep booklet, which is a little hard to find now. Here is a link for it: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED499163&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED499163 Virtually all the links for the free test prep booklets now take you to the 2009-2010 version. You will need 2007-2008 to track with the excellent youtube videos. I'd save the PDF of the test on your computer if you plan to use it in the future. It was hard to track down when I tried to find it on the web recently. Hope you find it as helpful as my ds did. :) ~Brigid