We are using the General Science one this year. It seems to help solidify the lesson. It has the experiments written out on the page, so the student only has to write and answer the questions. It makes for an easier lab report. Answering the on your own questions are there as well. For my older daughter, we used Live and Learn Press. It worked as well. Many people use Knowledge Box Central. I think any of these would be a good addition to the book. It gives the student a specific plan to write a bit and retain some of the knowledge.

I found that purchasing the kits each year saved a lot of energy in returning to the store. For Chemistry, you will want to add the toilet bowl chemical; it can no longer be purchased in stores. You should be able to find it on the supply list. We never went through the physics books, so I do not know much about it. The kits have been a help for Biology, along with the microscope slides and a good microscope. Without a good microscope, it is hard to see the images.

The college is in the town we live in. We need to set up a meeting anyway, so I will put that on our list of questions to ask. I hadn't thought to ask to see student portfolios. Thank you.

My daughter is finally interested in college. She has a good chance at a scholarship from the art department. She will need to provide a portfolio. What kinds of items should she include? I have been making a list of things I think would work: comics published, painted ceramics, drawings, sketches, colored drawings, paintings, textiles of fabric designs, jewelry, a set design from a play. Most of these would be photographs due to either not having the item anymore or for some of them, it would be easier to have a photograph. Any other ideas or types of work that might be missing? Thanks, Lisa

I am laughing as I read this thread. I am definitely an art supply snob:) Several years ago I was chairman of an art committee and we held classes each month. made sure the supplies used were of excellent quality. Then our local group had an artist come in who held workshops and had her curriculum for sale. The supplies she used were the lowest quality you could find. Then a mom talked to me briefly and told me that I had the kids spoiled. They were used to the quality supplies and were just not enjoying themselves at this workshop. My girls have used Prismacolor pencils and markers, sketch book paper, and now as they are getting older, the supplies are changing to more artistic type materials. I find the better the quality, the better the little artist enjoys creating. If the quality is not good, they will not enjoy the process as much.

We used the schedule from Core Foundations (http://corefoundations.wordpress.com/scheds-math-science/) for Biology and many other sciences. I know I found it on this forum, so whoever posted originally, THANK YOU.

My daughter used it in grade 9. It was very thorough and just what she needed. She needed specific writing guidelines, from what I remember. I had purchased their British literature as it went along with her history time period, but it was way over our heads at that time. So I took a look at LL8 and it seemed to fit. I think I read several threads on here before doing that.

I can't address the physics DVD, but can address the Chemistry DVD. My daughter is using the Chemistry DVD by Rusty Hughes. He explains things thoroughly. He goes through the experiments, step by step. He talks slowly, but it is good. She is learning and doing well. If she wishes to continue with Physics, I will purchase this DVD for her to use.

We have Map Trek. One of the nice features of this is the schedules you can get to go along with it. My daughters use Truthquest and MOH and there are schedules for each of these curriculums as well as many others. I have the book which has a CD-ROM included in it. So it is very easy to use both to locate a specific map. There is also a schedule printed in the book as well, which does not correlate to any specific curriculum.

My experience is that when you change programs, there is a learning curve with each program. MUS is no different. Having gone through many levels, I see the way it is taught different than other programs. I was concerned about this student jumping into Algebra without any prior knowledge of the way MUS is taught. It has been two years since my daughter went through Algebra I, so I am not remembering anything specific at this point. But there were places where the reference was to something she learned in Pre-Algebra. Yes it is basic algebra. It involves more graphing than I remember learning in Algebra, but that way many years ago. Lessons 7 and 8 seem to have most of that. Sorry for any confusion.

That's why I'm considering the MUS Alg as Pre-Alg though for this fall. Your note on MUS is what I am concerned about. Pre-algebra is just what is says Pre-. Entering Algebra directly from another program in MUS can be frustrating. Maybe you know MUS and have used it before, so you would be good to begin there. It seems that if one is to stop MUS, they should stop after Zeta and before Pre-algebra. Also if one begins MUS at a later point, they should begin at Pre-algebra. There were a lot of the same words used in Pre-Algebra as in Algebra, so it helps to have that word foundation. Just a few thoughts.

I'll chime in here as we used MCP Phonics for a number of years. Also, if you search by my name, you will find a few previous posts in regards to MCP, and one has pretty much a table of contents. My older daughter began MCP with Level D, which is word study. She is very literature oriented, so it was basically a good vocabulary program. She used it from levels D - F. The younger daughter began in K. She really liked K and A. We began B, but it was repetitive as to her reading program. She did some parts of level C. Younger daughter liked the bright colors, the little books to be made, and I think we had flashcards. I had all of the teacher's manuals. They do give some extra help if needed. I used them some, but not much. If you wish to purchase a TM, you need to contact the company and fill out a form for them. They keep this form on file and you are registered as a teacher. It basically says you will not share the answer key with the student. I purchased two from them; the rest came from a garage sale. For my daughters this was a stand alone program. There are some good things in these books. I remember latin roots introduced in Word Study. The books helped with spelling rules; this was probably in the phonics books. We liked it and found it helped. When it was outgrown, or just wasn't the best fit, it was dropped.

My daughter used every resource we could find when she went through General Science. (We only did all of the resources as using a text book was a new learning experience. We usually do literature based studies for most things.) She uses the audio book to listen while she reads the text. If using version 2 of any Apologia book (Gen. Science and above) it is marked when to refer to the multimedia CD. In addition, there are the notebooking components available. She used Live and Learn Press. I think it is a nice visual way to go through the On Your Own questions and then the study guide. Other people use the Knowledge Box Central resource as it has the labs with it. Now that she is in Chemistry, we have added an instructor (the one that Apologia has) along with the full-course CD-ROM, so I can read along with her. She tends to read and listen to the material, then go the the instructor. So far, this is the hardest one we have encountered.

I think you can skip Physical Science okay. The one thing my daughter remembers is that it made Physics look interesting to her. The big item to consider is math. A working knowledge of Algebra 2 is needed for Chemistry, and some trig functions are needed for Physics. So, if you can get the math down, you should be set. Good Luck!

My daughter used MUS Geometry last year. She did great with it! Math is not her thing and I didn't have to help her understand anything at all. If you need more permission, I would say go for it!