You can just keep your mouth shut like you did if that makes you comfortable. Honestly, you won't change her mind by just talking to her over dinner about it. She will simply have to be set straight when she sees her IL's kids grow up normal and non-brainwashed LOL! And perhaps over the coming years as your children likewise show no signs of being "indoctrinated" (as if indoctrination *doesn't* happen in the PS LOL) she will lighten up even more. Sometimes our greatest critics are won over to be our staunchest defenders over time! I think you got some good, honest insight into what a LOT of people HONESTLY think of HSers but don't say to us to our faces when they know we're HSers ;-) Fortunately, MOST people have enough manners to keep their opinions to themselves when they know we're "one of those" people. For those who don't, I'm sure you'll learn a few witty come-backs perfect for cutting their rudeness off as soon as it starts. Store them up in your memory now for next time ;-) I think we have a tendency to judge other people's education choices too if we're honest with ourselves. Most of us have seen a dear friend/family with a child who is struggling SO hard in PS and learning such horrible lessons from other kids, and our hearts break, and we think this particular kid would be SO much better off in a HSing setting. We don't say so, and we certainly don't wholesale bash PS in general at dinner parties--but how much of that is because it's PC to bash HSers but UnPC to bash the PS system? Most of us still would never bash PS like some people feel justified in bashing HSers, but perhaps some of us would? Hard to say when we're on this side of it, kwim? Hopefully when she looks back on that careless statement after finding out about your choice, she'll feel silly and maybe even a little ashamed, and it will teach her to tame her tongue in the future.

Yes. The phonetic spelling in my Webster's gives it as a 'sol-jər

Me too, but we were having sex and lots of it, and often also drinking alcohol. Sure, we thought the host parents were cool! Even the ones who watched us and had a no hanky-panky rule eventually went to sleep, even if we had to pretend to be asleep first. They *couldn't* watch all of us! THEIR kids may not have participated in anything, but stuff *definitely* happened! Dd is appalled at the idea of a coed sleep-over (someone at the local school had one and she heard about it) but fortunately, she isn't interested or else I'd have to tell her no. Even if I were okay with it, I'm 100% positive dh would say no way no how no matter what, for dd or ds.

Is this in addition to or instead of her textbook work in those subject areas?

No you can't, and it wouldn't be practical for 99.99% of HSers to SEEK approval for one household of kids--and even for most Coop groups at that! Technically, honors is what you say it is, but I think you are on the right track. I remember reading somewhere that, for instance, the Apologia publishers state that if you do all modules and all labs, the course is "honors." I wouldn't agree with that, but that's what they said. In order for dd to earn Honors in Bio, she must do all modules (minus one that I removed for my purposes) plus all labs (except those for which I've substituted different experiments from other sources) plus read selections from another text (Singapore Biology Matters), do additional labs (about 6 extras from same course), do additional dissections (at least 3 more, but I have many more she can do if she chooses), design at least one of those additional labs to show good reasoning skills and understanding of scientific process, and write a research paper in that class. But I'm the meanest mom in the whole wide world ;-) If you can back it up and defend your Honors title, I think it looks good. I have a course description & book list for every course I'm giving dd credit for, and believe I can defend every "honors" credit she earns. And I'm honest--She definitely deserves honors for the work she does for Lit, History & Bio this year, but NOT for math--that's not a strong area for her. Since I wouldn't expect her to enroll in an honors math course in traditional school, I don't expect her to do honors level work at home. I'm content for her to complete the text with a B or better. So I think you get more credit if you are honest about which courses your child can really do "honors" work in and which courses a "regular" academic course is sufficient. I also don't give honors for elective classes like fine arts, performing arts, etc. For me, honors must include these criteria:1. Complete the "regular" academic course with a B or higher grade 2. Complete one large special project with a significant written component, or a research paper in that subject 3. Complete additional course work above and beyond the spine text (additional novels, additional text selections, additional website reading, additional exercises) 4. Demonstrate strong critical thinking skills in that subject area 5. Go above and beyond classroom work, such as in field work (sci), performance attendance and review (performing arts), interviews (such as in history) etc. That's a good base, but also consider other non-text sources of study, or at least additional text for supplementation. Exactly! And I think one big project/paper/lab is also a good idea--a sort of Keystone assignment, a show piece if you will, of what your child is capable of. Many courses are written in such a way that parents/teachers are encouraged to "pick and choose" which assignments to do and which can be skipped. For honors, go heavy and add to it from outside sources. For regular courses, do at least enough to say you have given it a thorough treatment, and demand solid work. We all are in the beginning ;-) I classify dd as 9th grade for MY purposes, more because she will HOPEFULLY spend a year abroad and this gives me another year to teach her at home, even though she did mostly high school level work last year, too, most of which she could very reasonably earn high school credit for. So I'm quite the newb myself. But this is what I've asked of dd, and so far, 1 semester "officially" into it, she is meeting or exceeding my expectations for her. There's a chance I'm asking WAY more than Jane Doe asks of her kids to give them honors, and you'll certainly set your own criteria. I think that the important thing is to SET criteria, expect them to be met, and make sure they are defendable to someone who questions their rigor.

I have a written grading rubrics that fits on one page, saved as a Word doc. I print a copy of that, and attach it to the back of dd's final essay/paper. It includes room for comments that I either type in before printing or hand-write afterwards. Consider submitting a final copy of an essay with something like that attached so they can see your comments.

Dd is now in Omnibus II. We are VERY satisfied with what we're using. Both kids have used mostly Sonlight in the early grades, and we did a whole lot of supplementing and adding in of WTM suggestions in the very early elem years, and then transition to VP. I loved SL elem Cores but have been unimpressed with the HS Cores. I didn't like VP's early elem courses (they seemed to require more prep time than I had to spare at the time, and prefer SL's lit selections for very young students way more) but LOVE the Omnibus courses! Though dd did Omni I for 8th grade, I would have no qualms about giving full high school credit for it as long as you read all the primary and secondary books, and demand high school level work in the writing assignments.

I think it's very important to understand what's taught in TWSS in order to successfully use SWI. Understanding the why's, not just the what's, may well help you with the follow-through and support your kids need from you with any writing program.

Some people learn on their own, as if they have some innate ability, how to read information-dense sources (such as textbooks, as opposed to novels) carefully, so as to absorb all that information merely by reading. Most people, however, will benefit somewhat from the exercise of outlining, even if they don't *use* outlining later in their education. I think one of the biggest benefits for my dd, for instance, has been to force her to slow down as she reads, to think more carefully in order to sort out the important key words from the filler words, to be more choosey in what she does and doesn't include in her outline (and therefore in what she focuses her limited study time on). Some people are naturally able to pick through the chaff and find the kernels on their own without special training, but some (maybe most?) could use a lot of help and practice in this skill, because it is just that--a skill that can be honed, improved, and learned.

In the early grades I didn't grade their work at all. I don't think grades are always even needed in early years, and can have unintended consequences such as encouraging behavior I don't want (doing just enough to obtain a minimum acceptable percentage of correct answers). In the middle years, it can be useful to the parent, but doesn't necessary need to be shared with children as such. In high school, I think it's possibly really needed even if for no other reason than to have a written, defendable and more objective record of your child's work and accomplishments that can be shared honestly with a college for admissions purposes. I think having the children be fully aware of those grades also helps older children prepare better for college where grades are extremely important if one plans on completing an actual degree program as opposed to just taking courses piece-meal for personal enrichment (even in the latter case, which sounds fun to me, some universities expect you to pass most of your classes to maintain enrollment). For quantifiable subjects like math, I simply circle any wrong answers and had it back. If they couldn't find where they went wrong and correct it in one try, we'd work through those problems together, sometimes doing some more similar problems for extra practice. In this way, mistakes were cues for further teaching, and grading only served the purpose of finding areas where they needed more help. This encourages careful work (important in math) because carelessness leads to avoidable extra busy-work! I start "grading" work secretly in the middle grades (ds is here now)--I check their work same as always, it looks just the same to them, but I have number grades I figure out that help me know how well they are progressing and having a more objective measure of whether or not they are ready for higher maths in the coming years. They are useful to me, but not to my children, who I want to work towards the goal of being about to work out the answer of all problems, not just reach a minimally acceptable percentage of right answers. In high school (dd) I assign a percentage grade. Dd has decided on her own that 90+ is HER goal for a first-try grade. Math is tough for her (she is artistic, dramatic, sings like an angel, thinks and loves deeply, is generous, well-read, a thinker and a writer, not a mathematician LOL) so I merely hope for 80+ and hope she averages out to a B ;-) She knows her grades, and has one opportunity, without help, to correct her missed problems and get one more point added to her grade for each (which is about 1/3-1/4 what the problem was originally worth). I also keep her updated frequently (every week or two) about her current grade average in each class. I don't grade things like writing at all until high school--I simply guide them through the editing process, which includes correction by a copy-editor in the "real world" (I do that job for them), sometimes multiple revisions, and seeking feed-back from multiple trusted sources (friends & family, choosing according to who you think will be able to provide useful feedback on a particular type of writing based on their talents, hobbies, expertise). Dd (high school) now gets grades. I have a handful of Grading Rubrics which she has in-hand before each assignment--such as for essays, creative writing, research papers, etc. This way, she can know as she works just how she's doing on her paper, and can use it as a guide to when she has utilized the editing process sufficiently to create a good piece. It also reinforces that drafts are just that--drafts that don't get graded. Real writers aren't judged by their rough drafts, only by their finished works. Draft-writing is a safe time when one can be creative, innovative, daring, and even disorganized at times, and save the restraint and rules restrictions for the editing process ;-) Grading a rough draft is unfair and untrue to real life. "Grading" in early years is simply modeling the editing process-giving feedback, correcting mechanics (spelling, grammar, etc.) and assisting in re-writes. "Grading" in high school involves assignment of a number grade based on a Grading Rubrics (heavily based on VP materials) I've developed that encourages skills I want to develop in my children. Science is rather more unit-study-ish, Charlotte Mason-ish, or even unschoolish in the early years around here, relying heavily on projects, experiments, field trips, etc. How would one assign grades there? I don't. Grades are secretly tracked beginning in the middle years when science is more formal, and involves more written work that lends itself more to quantifiable grades. They are openly assigned and discussed in high school since by then science involves much textbook work and written assignments that are easily gradable. I don't think grades are always

I'd go for the Geography course first -- as you said, it will greatly enhance your later history studies to have a strong grounding in geography first, whereas I don't think you would necessarily take as great of a benefit into the geography course from taking the history course first.

The Calculus required for Bio majors is often different from the Calc required for other majors. For example, at TxA&M the Calc for Bio majors is nick-named "Cowboy Calculus" and is different from the Calculus for Engineering majors. Biology is a great science to study if you are not strong in math.

I'm going to suggest you look into using Veritas Press' Omnibus programs in place of Sonlight Cores. They are similar in that they use great books to teach History, Literature and Religion. Their worldview leans more toward Reformed as opposed to Evangelical/Fundamentalist as Sonlight does, but both are Christian and Protestant, so if you use one without objection, the other is likely also acceptable to you. Though Omnibus I-III are designed for grades 7-9, if you look at the reading list, you can see that many of these books are quite challenging, and even Omnibus I would stand up to scrutiny as rigorous high school level courses in History and Literature. There are plenty of writing assignments including Summas (short essays), Progymnasmatas, etc. sufficient to cover any composition requirement, and many of the writing assignments are flexible enough that you can require that they be longer, include more citations, or involve more research to increase the level of difficulty for older students. Though some of the books in the first year seem rather easy (such as the Narnia books), most of the books are sufficiently challenging, and all of the "easier" books are part of the "secondary" reading list, not the "primary" reading list. The cost of the program is also comparable to Sonlight's upper-level cores. If you are attached to the Sonlight IG's, the Omnibus programs are easy to schedule out over a 5-days-per-week schedule. They are not as open-and-go easy as the SL IGs, but for me, VP's schedules are a perfect happy middle between the IG's easy-to-use scheduling and the greater flexibility we need. (I work full-time so while I need to not spend a lot of time scheduling schoolwork, I also need to have a great deal of flexibility! VP is actually a better fit for me now, while SL was better for me when the kids were younger) If you have just completed Core 6, I'd suggest you go ahead and have your child also do Core 7 since the two are part of a 2-year overview of World History, and then start another cycle through World History with Omnibus I-III for grades 8-10 (this is exactly the course my kiddos follow in fact). This would leave open the option of either choosing 2 of 3 Omnibus courses or returning to SL for grades 11-12. Honestly, I don't yet know what my oldest will do after Omni III next year!

I'm starting it this year. Dd knows what she must do in order to receive credit for her classes. The ones that are "honors" require a whole lot of extra work on her part, and she knows that, too, and exactly what that extra work will be. That part isn't optional--she is required to do "honors" work in Bio and Omnibus work because those are strong subjects for her. She is not in math because she is weak in math, and I want her to do solid "regular" work in math, not beat herself up trying to do "honors" work. So Extra Credit... I'm giving her the opportunity to do one or two EC projects for each subject. The projects have to be big and time-consuming, must involve both visual and written components, she must give a public presentation (to fam/friends), she must work mostly independently (using mom only for advice, chauffeur, copy-editor), and the project must involve research that utilizes a variety of sources (print/electronic, book/periodical, owned/public resources). Each project, when completed satisfactorily, is worth one point added to the final grade. Certainly a good opportunity to bring up a grade one letter, but not by any means an easy gimme! I see it as an opportunity for someone to demonstrate dedication, hard work etc. to make up for, perhaps, a bad test, or a time of slipping daily work during the holidays. But I don't want it to be so valuable that it might substitute for simply doing the assigned work! What's your school's policy on Extra Credit assignments?

Daily/individual grades can be rounded (5-9 rounds up, 1-4 rounds down, just like we were taught in elementary math) without much controversy, but I can understand arguments against rounding final grades. If you look at how many higher individual/daily grades would be needed to bring a 92.5 up to a 93.0 then you would see just how much you are "giving" them "for free" when you round up a final semester grade. To me, that is not at all the same as when I round a daily math grade from 96.6666 to 96.7! (ETA I'm just arguing the other side--I agree you should simply be consistent no matter what you choose to do. I personally would round mathematically in all cases--I round to one decimal point on daily assignment, to whole number on final grades)

100 problems in 3 minutes is realistic for 4th-5th graders, in 4-5 minutes for 2nd-3rd graders. My entire 4th grade class and both my kids have been able to achieve the 100/3m mark.

Sharpie now makes writing pens that don't bleed through the paper, but write more like a marker and are not ball-points. Check them out: http://www.staples.com/Sharpie-Medium-Point-Pens-Black-Dozen/product_894448?cmArea=SEARCH Dd uses these. She is a lefty, and these work very well for her. They help her relax her hand because they require very little pressure to make a dark line, and write well whether you have a fast or slow hand, and work well at a wider angle range (as opposed to so-called "roller-ball" pens).

1. If your kid spills maple syrup on the book because they were reading during breakfast, you already own the book, and it was probably a cheap paperback as opposed to an expensive Library Binding book that got destroyed. 2. My kids re-read books all the time, sometimes several times. 3. When little kids visit, they can pick up my kids' outgrown picture books we own, and then my kids get all nostalgic as they read them aloud to those little visitors. 4. My husband and I also re-read books all the time. 5. When we want to look something up really quickly, we can do so because the books are *right here* on hand at all times. 6. I can lend books out to friends and family to read, and don't have to ask for the books back in 2 weeks. 7. We can each have our own stack of 10 partially-read books on our nighstands that we can pick from each night to read without being pressured by a due date to finish one over another. 8. We can pick and buy the exact copy we want (hardback vs paperback vs leatherbound, edition, etc.) 9. We need fewer pictures for our walls because most of our wallspace is occupied by bookcases. Fortunately, this doesn't take up that much space. Most people have bookcases in their houses, they just fill them up with non-books, which we don't understand at all. 10. We have an extensive reference resource including history books, encyclopedias, various bible translations, multiple dictionaries and thesauruses, science books, and a couple large collections of reference periodicals and books for some personal hobbies of ours (such as saltwater aquariums). 11. Noone can erase our books off our shelves like Amazone erased some books of people's Kindles. 12. Physical books in public libraries are centrally located and more easily found and rounded up by book burners ;-) 13. ILL is great if it (a) is free (b) gets you your books quickly © includes a large pool of books. In our old home, that was the case. Now, our teeny library's kids' section is smaller than our home collection of books, the fees are high, you can't renew online, ILL is limited geographically, costs money, and must be set up in person and is a tedious task. I used the library much more in Harris Cty than I do now. In fact, I don't use the library at all now. 14. My children's book collection is roughly organized by reading level & topic of interest, so the kids have a pretty easy time of finding new reading material, which they do all the time. Our library's fiction section is organized strictly by author, which isn't always known, and sometimes the best books are located on a hard-to-see bottom shelf where they'll never be stumbled upon. 15. Just *seeing* a beloved book on a shelf brings back memories of all the stories, the characters, the adventure, the information, the wonder... these memories, when triggered, improve our long-term retention of the info in those books. 16. If you fall asleep reading your favorite book, and roll over it in the night, you don't have to pay repair fees ;-) 17. Dog-ears, highlights, and marginalia, baby!! 18. When your children grow up, they will want to take old copies of those most-beloved children's books home with them to share with their children. There's something especially wonderful about reading The Very Same Book your parents/grandparents read. 19. Library books, when old, are sometimes sold, but most often are destroyed. 20. Too many library systems today are neglecting their BOOK collections in favor of other library perks, such as wifi hotspots, coffee shops, free computer access, preschool and afterschool programs, etc. Those things are all well and good, but when the list of activities like "Teen Cyber-Night" and "After school Arts and Crafts" and "Movie and Popcorn Night" far outnumber reading groups, book clubs etc. then I become very hesitant to support that particular library. more to come...

We have: - CIA World Factbook (useful for logic & ret stage reference), - Usborne Encyc of World Geography (useful only for grammar stage or as very basic jumping-off point for logic stage) - Rand McNally Answer Atlas http://www.amazon.com/Rand-McNally-Answer-Atlas-Geography/dp/0528838725/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292190562&sr=1-1 (we got more mileage out of it in late elem years, less now) - several historical atlases like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-Ancient-World-Haywood/dp/1586632388/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2RWM9V7EHT2QN&colid=19RF4N7JM7E6F - Holman Bible Atlas http://www.christianbook.com/holman-bible-atlas-thomas-brisco/9781558197091/pd/97095/1152437312?item_code=WW&netp_id=113420&event=PPCSRC&view=details (the text is more impressive than the maps) I want: - Hammond Historical World Atlas http://www.amazon.com/Hammond-Historical-World-Atlas-Corporation/dp/0843713917/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I36WGHBLL60NW3&colid=19RF4N7JM7E6F - The best world atlas available, so far it looks like this one is the winner, but we'll see

I *just* signed up for Netflix so I plan to start viewing/previewing soon. Perhaps we can post again soon to review some plays?

I love art, and I'm a rather visual learner, so for me Apologia wouldn't be a good fit. I often take things I read in texts and turn them into tables, charts, graphs, illustrations, labeled diagrams, etc. as study aids. You can encourage her to do this as well! This way, note-taking is more about drawing and labeling (this works well for biology) and less about outlining and summarizing. I'm supplementing Apologia Science with Singapore Biology Matters this year for dd, and I'll tell you that SBM has some really fabulous illustrations, and includes some fantastic photographs as well. It may well be worth the $30 investment for your daughter to have more visual input to go with Apologia's word-intensive text. I have about 1/2 of Sonlight's schedule for Apologia Biology coordinated with supplemental readings and work from SBM if you are interested. E-mail me if you want a copy, but be warned it could take me a week to get it typed up and sent back to you as I have it written on the SL schedule in pencil only right now ;-)

Twine/string. We needed it today, and I didn't have any, so we had to use thread (the alternative would have been to wait until dh got off work and could bring us some, or for me to run to Walmart). Yarn doesn't count because it's too stretchy!

Singapore Math has a Chinese curriculum, but I have NO idea how much chinese it expects the teacher to know! Perhaps it would work well *with* RS... http://www.singaporemath.com/Chinese_Language_for_Primary_Schools_s/78.htm Now, if he wants to learn Japanese or German, I can help you ;-)

Dd just listened to Julius Caesar using Shakespeare Appreciated from Audible.com and really enjoyed it. I listened with her, we paused often for discussion (often at her prompting), and we both got a lot out of the play (I was able to see a few things very clearly this time through that escaped me in previous read-through/viewing). While I think any reading of a play should be followed up with a viewing IF one is readily available, I don't think anyone should avoid a particular play just because a viewable version isn't available. The truth is, many of us live in rural areas where local theatres NEVER do great plays and the local library doesn't have a good selection. Realistically, BUYING all of these plays on DVD can be prohibitive for many of us, and an extravagance we won't indulge in for many more who *could* afford them but choose not to buy them all anyway.

There is no need to start SOTW 2nd semester, and your instincts are spot-on that you will want to keep all the kids in the same time period at the same time rather than have one in Middle Ages and another 2 in Ancients! Instead, you can do pretty much anything you want for the rest of this year! You could allow your daughter to have one semester to unschool--find out what SHE wants to learn about, and let her lead you. This will give both of you time to adjust to being home together, and give you time to plan for next fall, while using this as a trial-run. You can introduce her to various products you'd like to try and see what fits your style best. You could do a rapid one-year read-through of a one-volume work, such as Hillyer's Child's History of the World (which I think is even MORE enjoyable of a read, but is not as long or detailed, and has major issues if you get the original instead of the modern edited version). You could do a year of geography using an Usborne book or two, the internet and the library to read around the world. Do lots of map work, let her play on Seterra (freeware you can download online), and maybe use Audio Memory Geography Songs as well. You can include your other 2 school-aged children in this geography adventure after school, and then they will *all* get so much more out of history studies, starting with the Ancients, all together next year. Then your 7 year old can *ease* into other subjects such as English/Grammar, Math, etc. I'll give you the advice that I give to *all* new Homeschoolers looking for advice: When you pull your child from school, do not do ANY formal schooling for at least the first month or two. Instead, get to know each other--you haven't been together all day in a long time, and it will take some adjustments. Instead, just hang out, snuggle up on the couch and read to her, cook together, do special favors and projects for the family members who aren't at home. Start trying to figure out how to keep the youngest two boys busy so you guys can get work done when the time comes. Best to tackle that issue now than to wait until you're trying to get through a touch math lesson to realize things are out of control! When you do start formal schooling, start with only one subject, maybe two if they are closely related (such as history and literature, or even art & science for very young children). Do just that one subject for at least a month, and only then can you add just ONE more subject. Do just those two for another 2-4 weeks before adding in another subject. Add the important subjects first, the "elective" stuff like art & latin last. When you have enough work to fill 8a-3p, as long as you have at least all the core subjects incorporated, stop adding subjects. Art, music, latin, dance, art history, theatre, greek, etc. are all very important, but we have to be realistic and only do one or two each year if that is all we can actually handle, and trust ourselves to get to other very important extras in other years while we let the first ones fall by the wayside for a time. It is SO TEMPTING to start everything all at once because, well, you read this fabulous book (WTM) that describes a FULL school day, and you've bought all these AMAZING resources that are all glossy and new with that new book smell and you can't wait to get into ALL of them RIGHT NOW! Hold fast to that zeal, and the anticipation you create through a slower start will help it burn longer and more steadily, and will give you guys a stronger, sturdier foundation in your first year.