Ooh, I wonder if that Sit and be Fit lady is still on the air??

My dd wore a lot of cam is with built-in support (I think we got most from Limited Too, now called Justice) early on, but that would not have been an option for gymnastics. That said, dancers and gymnasts usually use undergarments just for their sport, not regular bras, even when very endowed. There are cami-style nude colored under-wear leotards for dancers, or gymnastics leos with built-in shelving units. Kinda like they have briefs just for leos and you wouldn't wear regular undies with leos! Especially at AA, this seems like best option for your dd. Check out Discount Dance dot com for some ideas.

Thanks so much! I'm hoping for something on the lower end there for what would essentially be tutoring for a beginner, less structured, from someone whose formal training is not even remotely related to languages or education.

We have found a potential tutor for dd for Japanese. She is a native speaker and she lives in our area (an extreme rarity here). She's not a professional tutor, but she is well-educated. We hope to do weekly one-hour sessions. One or two of these would be in-person sessions (likely at a local restaurant) and the other two or three would be by Skype. We live in an area where cost of living is easily in bottom 10-15% nationwide but employment is relatively high and economy is relatively strong. Any ideas what we could expect to pay?? She's not a professional tutor, this is a side-job for her (and quite possibly her only tutoring job now) so she hasn't named a price yet. I just want a general idea before going to meet with her to negotiate price.

They look to be primarily workbooks to be filled in with information found through research. Bummer.

Ds tried that same science last year at the same age and couldn't hack it. He's good at math and science, loves science, and was highly motivated to do well with a more advanced "real" science text! And he is a *very* strong reader. Nothing was sticking at all, even though I worked with him to teach him good study habits (vocabulary flash cards, note taking while reading, reviewing notes, etc.). Nothing helped. He had done so well with Sonlight Science 6 the year before, too! His older sister didn't do Gen Sci--she started Apologia with Physical Science and though that one was hard for her when she got to the math (she hates math but is decent at it, and is only slightly more than luke warm about science), she handled it fine, and then did very well in Bio. I think perhaps that book is just off or something. At least for my kids. We ended up dropping Gen Sci altogether and going with a different program last year (which we're continuing this year so ds has that Integrated Chem & Physics instead of Phys Sci which is apparently what's recommended now). I was so sure we weren't even going to *attempt* it again that I gave away the whole program!

I was still play-acting with my friends at that age and even beyond. Heck, I still played with Barbies (and that's play acting and playing dress up by proxy really) until I was 14, and only gave it up reluctantly to avoid being teased about still playing with them. I never felt like I'd totally outgrown dress-up, dolls, play-acting, etc. I just had to move on to grow up (in my mind at that time). I think it's great she can do this and not worry about peer pressure to stop before she's ready!!

Well, I would help him learn *why* the formulas work and how you can figure out the formula by thinking through the problem so that if he ever doesn't have a formula cheat sheet he can figure it out on his own. Formulas are easy to forget or remember just a little bit wrong, but if you understand the how's and why's of the formula, you're more likely to be able to reconstruct it later from memory. Of course, that's a bit much for Pre-Algebra. But it's something to keep in mind as a major goal for when he takes Geometry later on.

Unless she's initiating the crafty projects on her own or especially enjoying them and benefiting from them, I wouldn't put any effort into continuing them on a regular basis. An occasional project like that as a sort of break from the rigors of other work is fine, but it shouldn't' occupy as much time as it did in the grammar stage. If she does want to do lots of project work, then I'd encourage something like a big timeline project where she can make connections between the separate stories she already knows, placing them near each other geographically or chronologically and helping her to better see how they led one to another or how two regions mutually affected each other in a given time. Also, more focus on writing is a very good idea--I always think I could and should have done more writing instruction at all stages of my kids' educations so far! Instead of reading more books *about* a time period, try to start introducing the use of primary resource documents as much as possible. It is hard to find logic-level materials for the Ancients, but perhaps you could find pictures of artifacts online, or snippets of translations from ancient writings that you could read to really flesh things out. She knows the stories, each briefly, but perhaps you could strive to dig deeper. This means you won't be able to study as broadly, so perhaps you could focus your studies more. Use her mastery of the overview as a foundation for teaching her to dig deeper on her own. Instead of you going and looking for books, supplements, projects, etc., help her learn to research and dig and discover on her own. Make sure she has a solid understanding of how to do research online, at home, and in a library. Make sure she is fully using all the resources you have on hand: dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases and maps, references, timelines, texts, biographies, etc. Encourage her to find books on your shelves that perhaps you bought but didn't use right away and maybe even forgot about or passed over completely. This is a great opportunity to hone research and study skills! If she already has such a solid History foundation, then by all means use history study as a mere excuse to hone other skills such as outlining, writing, researching, study, analyzing, etc.

Ds is just starting 8th grade now, and dd just finished a short time ago, so this is all big in my head. My list is "stuff I want my son to be able to do" and "stuff I wish my daughter had learned to do or that she did learn to do" combined. 1. Write an essay: a simple one-paragraph essay such as to answer a question on a test, a well-organized 3-paragraph essay, and a solid 5-paragraph essay. While dd is a more accomplished writer now, and I'm pleased with her progress so far, I do wish I had assigned more Summa and Progymnasmata assignments to her when she was in 8th grade doing Omnibus I. 2. Make solid progress in math. Wherever they are, I want their progress up to that point to be solid such that they are well-prepared for the next level. This is what I've always wanted for them in math. It's not about getting to the last lesson in the book--they must have understood all of it very well or we will just have more trouble and delays further down the road. This means ds is only on Algebra 1/2 lesson 30 or so, and dd just started Algebra 2 today. The important thing isn't how far along they are in which book (within reason) so much as that what they've covered, they've covered well. 3. Be able to use a wide range of real laboratory equipment safely and correctly. Also want them to know how to use, clean and store our equipment and supplies. We have invested a lot of money in real lab equipment, so on one hand I feel protective of our investment, but I also want them to get lots of experience using it. 4. I want them to discipline themselves to read large volumes of challenging material with good retention and understanding. Mostly this comes from simply reading large volumes of challenging material every day! High school level work means lots of reading to take in a huge body of information. But not just passive pleasure-type reading: reading for retention and understanding, which requires constant attention and vigilance during reading. That takes discipline which is gained only through intensive practice. 5. I want them to be exposed to a variety of art forms such as dance, painting, sculpting, music, drama and more, and to see if they have an interest and aptitude in any of them, and then help them explore these. I also want them to have a variety of experiences from hiking and snorkeling to operas and ballets to volunteer work and charity to summer camp and intensive classes.

It depends on the lab and what it involves. I did all labs with them all the time from the start, and then over the last probably 1 1/2-2 years I've been working hard to teach them proper care and use of lab equipment. It's just been in the last maybe 2-3 months that 13 yo ds dose some basic labs on his own (simple things not involving chemicals, delicate glassware, open flames or other hazards), and 16 yo dd has done maybe 1/3 of her Bio labs alone this year (she had help on all dissections and stuff involving hazards such as flames, chemicals, etc.). Looking through her Chemistry labs she's just starting, it looks like there are very few she'll be able to do without at least supervision. Still, I'm working hard to keep my hands off and to merely supervise without helping except when absolutely necessary. It is hard to stay so hands-off!!!

I don't think the problem is with the material being uninteresting. I think the problem may well lie within the bored minds of the students who are incapable of getting excited about *anything* academic. I think some students do still love to learn, but not most. Perhaps it's always been that way, or perhaps it's new. In any case, I don't think it's necessarily the fault of the profs for not jumping through hoops to make org chem "fun and exciting" for their students.

We didn't start using Saxon until dd started using it for Algebra 1, but I've heard that there's lots of review in each textbook of previous textbooks in the elementary levels. Is this also true of the transition from Alg 1 to Alg 2? IOW can I somehow test dd out of a few lessons of Alg 2 right off the bat? Really don't want her annoyed and bored. Thanks!

It is a great program, and reasonably priced. Not hard to teach without DVDs which makes the program MUCH cheaper, but the DVDs are nice! I'll second this thumbs up.

@ dd's first choice college, their website states that homeschoolers should submit a transcript along with a list of courses with course description and list of major texts used. I imagine most colleges would request something similar from homeschool applicants. The Omnibus reading list is impressive. In fact, I would find it difficult to argue that Omnibus I reading list isn't up to high school credit par. I don't think AP will impress them since you wouldn't be able to list the course as AP unless your home course were certified as AP. I think that if you require extraordinary work, then you can call a homeschool course Honors, but we all need to be careful and not pretend that a course we teach is AP when it is not--that is actually a proprietary title conferred on courses that meet criteria. If you want to lend a couple of your homeschool courses legitimacy (you don't have to do this for all--just a couple will prove you weren't playing around for 4 years) you could have your children take SAT-2 tests or CLEP exams which actually give credit (as opposed to AP exams which will bump your little college freshman into a Sophomore or Junior level course their first year away from home, but won't give them one lick of college credit).