My ds did the first year of RS last year in 8th grade. He enjoyed it, and I knew it was getting done (completely independently). The only thing we needed to add was the gallon of water (but we didn't get to the second year). I'm not sure how successful it was as he is doing physical science in high school and it's not coming easy...but that could be for other reasons. He is getting an A in the class, but I can't tell how much is review b/c he did RS all on his own. It was great for that purpose alone for us b/c science wasn't getting done frequently before.

Free. Sometimes we pay for supplies. We also have one fee class that my dc don't take.

I have two girls and would love to participate. Thanks for taking this on. Laura

I think we all agree that going to classes that are awful just isn't worth it. For me, the question is whether or not it's worth it if the class is educational and my kids enjoy it, but it's one more chunk of time away from home. I'm trying to decide what to do w/my co-op in January. We're doing SOTW, which my kids have done, but we're focusing on the crafts, which they haven't done. They are definitely learning the material better (I add more for dd12) and having lots of fun with it. We're also out of the house for CC, which I've decided to forgo next year b/c I can do the same thing in a fraction of the time. But it means dd8 and I are gone yet another half day. We also go to a swim, gym, and art session at our Y, which is yet another half day. I view this as extra, but we all enjoy it. Then my youngest has 30 mins. of choir, which is only 10 mins. from my house. This is worth it. We're actually spending more time at home this year than ever before. The evening/weekend activities are a separate issue for us. My kids are very much into sports. It's part of their identities, so it's very hard to cut back. Ds played football, which was a huge time sink. My dd12 is on a travel volleyball team, and once the season hits, we'll be gone every other weekend for the entire weekend. I'm grateful that we homeschool b/c we can chill a bit on Mondays when we come back. We also spend a lot of time w/volunteer activities, plus some just plain fun stuff. We also used to do more night time activities--more than one sport per child b/c being well-rounded has been a priority. My ds is in high school this year, and I've wondered whether our major running around hurt him compared to his peers who were in brick and mortar schools b4 attending this demanding high school. DS gets extremely high grades, but I do believe his life now would be easier if we spent more time on academics before he left for school. However, I don't think the trade-off for all the fun and new experiences we had would be worth it. Bottom line, I agree w/Speedmom and am happy to hear that her dd has been successful b/c of her time outside the home. Laura

How awful for everyone, but your father's story is particularly poignant. I'm reading "The Secret Keeper" right now, and the London bombings are a big part of the backdrop of the story. Thanks for sharing. Laura

Thank you!

It's funny b/c I remember virtually nothing from my elementary school (or high school for that matter) years, except for this rule. Probably b/c it struck me as silly. I guess one of I've wanted to do only one subtopic it probably counted as a detail than an actual topic...but then again, maybe not. Laura

Who thinks up this stuff? I wish I could be half as creative (and musically talented). Laura

We have fun days and work days. Fun days are Mondays and Fridays. Mondays start w/hot chocolate and pancakes. Fridays end w/co-op and gym (we also have swim and gym on Wed., so really 2 1/2 'fun days'). On fun days we still do our subjects, but we use more fun curricula, such as LOF or BA for math rather than Saxon. Language arts is MCT (or write your own story). Latin is Ludere and watch dvd, (LC I), while the text is mid week. History is hands on stuff on fun days;reading on work days. Art is on fun day, as is reading aloud together. You get the picture. Fun days do not happen w/o work days. If you cancel fun days a few times, they catch on. Other privileges fall by the wayside. Sometimes you just have to sit down, roll up your sleeves and work (and even on work days, we really only work for a few hours at dd8's age). Laura

Beakman's World. Very goofy and lots of fluff, but my kids enjoy it and learn a lot. It's on Netflix. Found out about here on the board. It's from a tv show in the 80s. Laura

Lori, Blessings to you for writing this all out. I'm not the OP, but your reply was enormously helpful to me. Thanks so much, Laura

Wow. I am completely shocked by this counselor's rudeness. I can't imagine holding back my own nastiness. Good for you for behaving yourself. I'm sure it was difficult, especially due to the shock of it all. Laura

My ds is in 9th grade at a private school. During football season, he'd be lucky to have a couple of hours on the weekend. Now that football season is over, he has 2-3 hours per night and a lot of time on Sunday.

Math Mammoth (or Saxon w/Art Reed dvds for older) Analytical Grammar, Caeser's English, Essentials in Writing Lots of books, science/history dvds.

I'm using MCT's w/FLL w/youngest. With my older two AG worked well. I did like the dvds, but they really were not necessary. It made it a lot easier for me to keep up w/what they were learning and made ds more willing to do it. DD felt like it was a waste of time and went straight to the book. I agree that it helps tremendously to know the names of various parts of speech eg. pred. nomin. in order to learn another language. And while I think you can be an ok writer w/o an extensive knowledge of grammar, you really should know it well to be a good to great writer, eg when to use who/whom. bring take, etc. Laura

I don't do the whole thing. I just use as much as I think she's capable of and try to stretch her and break it into 2 parts. They are exceptionally long and complicated and quite a jump from WWE3. Laura

I had a relaxed approach to hs'ing my oldest who is now a freshman at a rigorous prep school. I kind of panicked in 8th grade that I hadn't done enough to prepare him for high school at this particular school. And you know what...I hadn't. But it's ok. He's on the honor roll and doing well. It was especially hard to get him to do work, so we head butted quite a bit. We did a ton of extracurriculars and field trips. We did swim and art classes, history and gym co-op, and speech classes. In the evening we did several sports. During the day, we focused on Latin (took Lukeion in 8th grade) and math. He did both Chalkdust and Saxon Algebra 1. For English he did Bravewriter for one term in 8th grade, and AG in 8th. He's always read and he read many of the classics at our co-op. He also did CC Foundations in 7th grade. In all this jumble I'm trying to say that our relaxed approach meant going to fun places and focusing on three core subjects: math, Latin and English. Probably the best thing we did was Latin. He's probably about the only kid (possibly one or two others) who is not struggling in his Latin class. He's in an honor's geom. class and that is going ok. I probably should have spent more time on science. We did watch a lot of science dvds, and he volunteered at the local science center. He also did 1/2 year of Rainbow Science. He watched one of the TC dvds for American history (and we both learned quite a bit). While I do regret not spending more time doing science, I am grateful for all the fun we had. We took some amazing field trips, and spent lots of time w/friends and with each other. I know in the future, I will look back on this time fondly. However, that's not to say that I have the courage to pull it off w/my dd12 in high school. Laura

Does it take sanity to feign madness? IOTW if you have the wherewithal to dupe people you must have some basic level of sanity, right??? Just thinking out loud here. Laura

:iagree: I am grateful for the knowledge gleaned from FB. It has colored my opinion of some folks. Laura

We use this in addition to AG. They have it through at least grade 8. http://compare.ebay.com/like/290774776030?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar Laura

My dd got completely hooked on reading this year thanks to Red Pyramid and then the Percy Jackson series. Right now it's her lit. She stays up late reading every night. I'm grateful that there are a lot of them. She, too, liked the Al Capone series and Mara. After this run I'm planning on the Roman Mysteries and the Mysterious Benedict series. I'm so grateful that she's enjoying reading that I'm holding off for a bit for more rigorous fare. Laura

Well it's popular in my neck of the woods. Many hs'ers around here swear by it. I've been reluctant to use it b/c of the comments on this board, but I'm susceptible to the expert advise here b/c I am not a math person. However b/c I am not a math person, Saxon is the easiest program for me to use w/my older dc b/c of all the add ons (eg Art Reed's dvds and the page ref. #s). We tried Chalkdust Algebra w/the dvds last year w/my ds, but he didn't seem to p/u what he needed. We returned to Saxon Alg. 1 after completing CD. He's now in a rigorous private high school using a text I hate for Honor's Geom, Glencoe Geometry:Integ., Application, Connections, which purports to 'apply' geometry to the real world. He scored decently on the ACT (24) w/o having geometry last year. Finally, we know a local tutor who recently retired as a full math professor at a local uni, who hs'ed his kids using strictly Saxon. They're all in math/science careers. It gives me some comfort. Laura

Good point. Laura

Thanks Mrs. Mungo. That's what I was looking for. Laura

I just checked Common Sense Media for a review of the movie "Fun Size" to see if it would be appropriate for my dd. It could not give particulars until the release date. Is there a site that is able to go into specifics before the movie is released? Thanks, Laura