One of mine did this for a while. He would wake up queasy and didnt feel like eating. Then he would eventually vomit. He was lethargic and pale. He usually felt better and started to eat about lunchtime. No one else ever got sick. I finally linked it to an early supper the night before. If we ate an earlier supper than usual and he didnt snack before bedtime, he would be sick the next morning. I try to make sure he has something within an hour or so of bedtime. And if he wakes up queasy I encourage him to eat something right away. It hasnt happened in quite a while.

Arabella by Wendy Orr A picture book. Neat story including a boy in a wheelchair.

We jumped in at HSA at Spanish 2. After a couple months I realized my student hadnt started their Spanish 2 material. They were still reviewing. I set up a meeting with her main tutor and we worked out an accelerated plan to have her finish the Spanish 2 material by the end of the school year and the end of my purchased lessons. They were easy to work with. I just had to have my student agree to a slightly higher courseload to get it done. It worked out just fine and she ended with a 95ish I think. I would set up a meeting and see if they can help you figure out a solution.

My 8yo is just finishing up Book A. The handwriting style is different than what I had taught him. I just told him to make the letters the way he had been taught. So he's not truly tracing but close enough IMO. One of my older kids did all of AAS and I have a younger just starting it so I have the rules in the back of my head. I just throw them out as appropriate to my 8yo. I refuse to stress about spelling with my younger kids. I was diligent about it with my older kids but it didnt seem to matter much. After 9 years of instruction, my stinky speller is still a stinky speller. My maybe almost average speller is still my maybe almost average speller. I'm guessing this doesnt hold true for every family or the spelling curriculum companies would be out of business! :)

My kids are kind of artsy. I take their picture and then they recreate it with whatever medium they want. I glue a small copy of the photo to their artwork. I am planning to keep them all together in a binder so we can watch their progress through the years.

Yes, horse show fails here too. In my dds first show, her horse ended up hurting itself in the stall before the show. Horse limped threw her event and poor dd wasnt even placed because her horse was lame. The next show which was 4h, the same horse went into heat and was unmanageable for my dd. She had to scratch all events except the first event that she placed last in. This summer was the first time she took her own horse to 4h and was her last year of 4h. Torrential downpour the day before ruined the arena and her events were cancelled. I think my poor dd has maybe only participated on half the shows she signed up for.

My daughter took Architectural Drafting and Design with Mrs. Kaiser at Landry Academy last year. She loved it. Lots of drawings. 2Nd semester they worked some with SketchUp. She was in 10th. Not sure of the lower age limit.

I think this is it. http://beginningspublishing.com/version2/rainbows1.htm

In all fairness my daughter learned a ton. So definitely a good class in that respect. But a combo of the disorganization stress and the amount of work (it seemed like a LOT at times-but it was our first outsourced class so we didnt really know what to expect) that made her freshman year borderline miserable. I felt so bad for her but knew it was good for her to stick it out. She was so excited when that last class came only to find out there were more assignments due. Sigh. I cajoled her into Spanish 2 with Homeschool Spanish Academy. It is definitely more relaxed but she has learned a bunch also. A much more pleasant year for my kiddo. :)

We had similar experiences with a provider. I am assuming it is the same one. My daughter emailed 4 times. I emailed at least twice. The situation was finally resolved. His disorganization was more than we could bear. My very diligent dd was unprepared more than once in class because she "missed" that an assignment was due. Unfortunately, there was no place that listed every assignment and so there was no way to double check if you missed something. I figured we were weirdos because I never saw a negative review but this was such a stressful dealbreaker for us. We also had some other grade discrepancies in which the way he was having the kids score their work was inaccurate. So frustrating. Needless to say, we didn't return. Im not sure why people are reluctant to name names but I will leave that to the OP. I do think he responds more readily to phone calls.

My dd is taking Architectural Drafting and Design 2 from Landry Academy. She took 1 last semester. She really loves the class and the teacher, Melissa Kaiser. I think (not positive though) they have interior design as well.

We didn't have the teacher's book. This was an elective for her and I just pretty much checked that she did what we agreed she would do as far as answering the questions. I graded her more on her projects, notebooking and short essays.

My DD did Equine Science last year in 9th with a high school textbook cleverly titled Equine Science by Rick Parker. This is the 2nd Edition. I think the most current is the 4th but I got the 2nd really cheap. It seemed pretty standard. There were review questions at the end of each chapter and also suggestions for projects or further research. My dd liked it well enough. We didn't cover the whole book but I let her dive into the chapters she was really into and skip or skim the chapters that she wasn't. http://www.amazon.com/Equine-Science-2E-Rick-Parker/dp/0766835316/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451971250&sr=8-2&keywords=equine+science+2e We also used this Dover Horse Anatomy Book. My dd is artsy and really got into drawing the labeling the muscles and bones of the horse. She says it helped her horse drawing skills immensely. http://www.amazon.com/Horse-Anatomy-Dover-Nature-Coloring/dp/0486448134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451971429&sr=8-1&keywords=horse+anatomy+dover We also found this Coursera course covering Equine Nutrition which she thoroughly enjoyed. https://www.coursera.org/course/equinenutrition I had also purchased some James Herriot titles that I would have liked her to read but we ran out of time. It was a fun subject for her!

Hmm...well I think I didn't express myself as well as I could have, but Lori's response was so complete that I do think I have my answer. :) Thanks, Lori! I definitely fully intend to have a numerical GPA. It was just the small chart at the bottom that indicated what I considered an A, B, C, etc that I wondered about. I see it would be better to just go with the standard numerical values there as well. You are a wealth of knowledge, Lori! Thanks again!

Yes. Most transcripts list a grading scale to indicate what constituted an A, B, etc, yes?

We are just starting our high school journey with dd. Has anyone ever used a non-numerical grade scale on their transcripts? For instance, A=Excellent Work with Best Effort, B=Above Average Work with Good Effort, C=Average Work, D=Below Average Work with Little Effort, F=No Work with No Effort. Is that an option or is that too subjective and "mommy-ish" or outside the norm? I was thinking I could give 4 points for A assignments, 3 for Bs, etc then I would average them to come up with a grade for the semester. I am just thinking that it was hard for me to give a numerical grade on English, History, and other electives last year, which was the first year I gave grades. I think I wasn't consistent across assignments. Some days I gave 100% for A work; other days it was 95%. We don't tend to do a lot of exams/tests for those subjects. Math and science seem easier, more cut and dry, more numerical. :) I would still like to use a A=90%, B=80% for Math and Science, if possible. Maybe the grade scale would say: A=Excellent Work with Best Effort and/or 90%+ Hmm...a mouthful? I realize I've got plenty of time to work this out. Just planning ahead a bit. Anyone have any thoughts?

I am no expert here, but thought I would chime in. We have been homeschooling from the beginning, but this will be our first year of high school with my dd. We are thinking a little outside the box for next year. We are currently excited about what we are planning for next year. My dd owns a horse and has always loved horses. We had already planned to do Equine Science this year one way or another. We were thinking of outsourcing but decided to do it ourselves with the textbook Equine Science by Rick Parker as a spine. I, also will have an 8th grader next year. I've always put them together for history and science. But then I started thinking about how next year 9th grade dd's history would count for high school while 8th grade ds's would not, and so decided that I would wait for the more traditional/required social science classes (US History, Gov't, etc) until ds can make them count too. I thought wouldn't dd LOVE to do a History of the Horse! So I'm working on putting resources together to do that. One thing led to another and now we've decided to tie our literature into horses as well. Also thinking about Horses in Art as an elective. It's really very fun putting it together and finding resources. So this is our potential line up for next year: English Composition with Horses in Literature (1 credit) Geometry (1 credit) Conceptual Physics (1 credit) History of the Horse (1 credit) Spanish (1 credit) Bible (prob .5 credit) - Elective Art/Horses in Art (prob .5 credit) - Fine Arts or Elective? Equine Science (prob. .5 credit) - Elective I think it will be a fun year for her that kinda shows who she is but that isn't too far out there (I don't think?). She doesn't really know what path she is going to take after high school yet, so I do want to keep the basics in place so her options are as open as they can be.

It looks like it may be a good idea to get my hands on the high school version. Thanks so much for the input!

I have an upcoming 9th grader and 8th grader. I am planning to do the physics first sequence with them and so plan to use Hewitt's Conceptual Physics next year. I have read many of the threads on this course and didn't find this specifically, so hopefully this isn't a repeat question. I found a cheap used copy of the 9th Edition (orange/red sunset cover with rocky cliffs) but now I see the High School Edition (with the ferris wheel) and wonder if that edition would be better. My kiddos are average to above average and do well with their school work overall. The younger one definitely has gravitated more toward science than the older. Both are good readers. This will really be their first course with an actual textbook (other than math). Reading through the first couple chapters of the 9th, I think it might be a slow start for them but I think they would adjust. I am planning on using other resources to supplement/enforce. I want them to enjoy the course and learn a lot! Could anyone compare the two for me to help me decide which might be a better fit for my kids? What are the differences in the texts? Is the high school one substantially easier? I've seen cheap used copies of this one as well so it won't cost me much to buy it too, but was just wondering if anyone has any insight. Thanks so much, Michelle in IL

Just saw this topic pop back up. We ended up doing a bunch of different things over this past school year. BTW, I also have a dd 1 year older than ds. They work on the same math level. She is not a VSL. Over last summer we did quite a bit of Hands On Equations. That was a big hit with both kids. I'm so glad we did it. Everything really clicked with them. I had decided to do a mix of Math U See Algebra and AoPS PreAlgebra starting in the Fall. Then I panicked that they were not ready for MUS Algebra so we zoomed thru MUS PreA 3 days week until Christmas while doing AOPS PreA 2 days. Both my kiddos were really struggling with AOPS. They begged to just watch "The Old Guy" as they call Mr. Demme. We started MUS Algebra after Christmas also 3 days with AOPS 2 days. MUS was good for them. They both liked the presentation and were doing well with the MUS. I was getting frustrated because I loved the AoPS and they were NOT loving it. I do admit it is pretty tough and can make things a little more confusing than it needs to be but it just goes so much deeper. That's what I want for my kids. Deep understanding of math. Anywho, I finally decided that maybe we were going back and forth too much. So I dropped the MUS for a while to see how they would do with just the AoPS. Once they started doing it daily, they started to see it as more of a challenge to be conquered instead of dreaded hard math problems. I was so excited. I was researching what to do for the upcoming year for their official Algebra year. I asked them about doing AoPS Algebra and they totally wanted it. So that is the plan for next year. Along with some Patty Paper Geometry on Fridays. How boring and easy to only do one math program. LOL. I feel like they have made some great progress. They have been stretched. My VSL ds is still making careless mistakes though. He tends to work slower and I need to remember to remind him to check his work. We work together on it and my dd and I are usually waiting on him so he doesn't always get the opportunity to double check. He is showing his work more than he used to. We are still working on that. He is all over the page sometimes with his work and will avoid writing it if at all possible. But he is recognizing that it is necessary to do as he advances in math. I'm excited as I look over the AoPS Algebra. We have covered a lot of the material already and so it won't be brand new to them. I'm sure it will go way deeper than what we have done so far. Looking forward to this year. We attended an Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois in Feb. He was able to talk to some students there who stressed how important math is. I wasn't sure if he choose to hear that or not, LOL, but this summer he brought it up and asked if there was something, a math book, that he could read ahead in. He was thinking he would like to be introduced to some new concepts ahead of where he is now so that he will kinda know what's coming and will be familiar already. Woooo Hooooo!!! Interest!!! I bought a used copy of Barron's Algebra The Easy Way which is set up in a story format. Sounded cool. He was enjoying it. I had to laugh when he took it to a sleepover. Geek! I love it! Not sure how far he got. Gotta check with him. So that's our story. :)

My kids are not there yet, and I'm not sure if I will use it or not when we get there. If we did, it would be for my STEM guys 8th grade year instead of 9th. Is the OP interested in Living Books for a STEM-oriented student?

Heart of Dakota is currently working on their first High School Guide and has posted a "Sneak Peek" at what the science is looking like for that guide. It is not finished yet but they are very reliable about finished a new guide every year. This one should be done in time for fall 2013. Their sciences always have a living book feel (sometimes to a fault for our family as I have a STEM-oriented ds). The spine of this course is "Integrated Physics and Chemistry" written by John Hudson Tiner. Tiner is the guy who has written all the "Exploring the World of..." science books which have a living book feel to them. Take a look to see what Carrie at Heart of Dakota has to say about it. http://www.heartofdakota.com/board3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12932 Just a thought.

Oh so much to think about! Checking out all the links provided. Thank you! Wow! That Crewton Ramone stuff is very cool. Need to seriously consider getting some blocks and fraction overlays. I feel like it could really solidify fractions for him. Thanks for the insight into AoPS. Still considering. Hmm... I had Patty Paper Geometry on my list also. Maybe if we only did math every day we could do it ALL! Thanks so much for the responses so far although I may be farther away from deciding. Too much good stuff out there! What a problem to have! :001_smile:

I am discovering that my 11yo ds is a VSL. Well I guess I’ve kinda known it all along. This learning style totally perplexes me as I am completely the opposite. I have done some online reading and have ordered a couple books to read through as well. I am trying to figure out our plan for next year and am researching curriculum and brainstorming what I can do to help him better. He will be 6th grade. He has always been good in math conceptually but computation is hit and miss. He is very easily frustrated and math ends in a struggle more than 50% of the time. He resists showing his work but has done it when pushed. When he does it carefully, he is very accurate but it is painful for him. He knows his facts but gets frustrated doing "bigger" numbers or long decimals. He likes to do things in his head (and is fairly good at it) but can't keep enough in his head to do longer problems. So question is if they know their facts and they know how to do the problems conceptually, is there a point when you just let them whip out the calculator? And what do you do once you get to Algebra with these VSLs? Don’t they have to show their steps? I was leaning heavily toward Kinetic Books PreAlgebra for him next year. He did the sample and liked that it was on the computer and said the visual part of it helped him tremendously. He also liked the game in the sample, but I don't know that that is a part of each lesson. I am trying hard to wrap my brain around this whole to parts thing. It is so foreign to me. I know KB is very visual but is it considered whole to part? Because he gets math concepts fairly easily, I have recently been wondering about AoPS, but he is so easily frustrated I just don’t know if it would be a good fit. Any input there? I've also thought about MUS for PreAlgebra or possibly even solidifying Fractions and Decimals the MUS way first. Also considered sticking in RS Geometry. Grrr. Sounds like I'm all over the place. :glare: Oh and for background, we did RS B-D and then Singapore US 3-6. We’ve also been working through Hands on Equations this past year. He is a sciency kind of kid. Loves to build things. He’s done some robotics. Likes aerospace. I see him being an engineer so I want to make sure his math is solid. Any advice?

Oh and I do remember letting one sit once and it did come off easier. But where do u let that stinky thing sit?? Sorry, my brain apparently needs step bt step here. Maybe in a plastic bag?