One of my boys has a basketball game this morning, but I'll come back later and post more about the Well-Trained Mind if you're still interested in classical education. It's one of the best homeschool books ever written. It's basically a how-to-homeschool book. Your library probably has it - it's on Amazon.... Here, she has a bunch of articles: https://welltrainedmind.com She has podcasts that are very informative. This one is all about classical education and how to do it at home: https://welltrainedmind.com/p/the-joy-of-classical-education-introduction-to-classical-education-at-home/ Edited to add: It seems like you're looking for a public school charter where your kid is basically doing public school at home. That wouldn't be homeschooling. There are a few people on this forum who do that -they would know more about that than I would. Most of us on here are homeschoolers - we teach our kids ourselves at home using curriculum we buy or put together. We're legally considered private schools where we live. We don't have anything to do with the school district or a program. We're independent.

What you're describing is going to be very expensive unless you're looking into a public charter school. Also, almost ALL homeschool high school curriculum is written to the student - seriously. I can't even think of one that isn't. If you were attracted to classical education before, I wouldn't give up on that idea. You will have to do some research...

Are you interested in following The Well-Trained Mind? Do you have a copy? She has a new edition out now, too. You said you were interested in classical education before... If you're worried about cost, following TWTM would be so inexpensive. My friend used to say that they probably spent more on public school fees and supplies than our family did on our entire homeschool curriculum (we sat and compared costs one day for fun - lol). Homeschooling high school does not have to be expensive. You don't have to pay for a gazillion outsourced classes. I just bought all of our stuff in November/December (we start a new school year in January) and I probably paid $700...and that was for 4 kids...and I splurged. I bought a level of My Father's World and a MicroChem set that was really expensive. I will have to buy a couple of things here and there over the course of the year, but really, that was most of it. Just sayin' - You could do this for much cheaper if you needed to. There's also Ambleside Online - we have good friends who use AO and she operates on a tiny budget and her kids are incredible with history/literature.

We're more like calendar year homeschoolers, so our new school year actually starts on Monday. Here's my 7th grader's plan. The middle 3 kids voted to continue unit studies this year (they claim they learn more - lol). But, we actually have a very heavy CM influence in our homeschool. New Things: We are going to *try* (key word, here) Morning Basket Time. I've made out a list and ordered books from the library. The first round is going to be: a read-aloud (we always do those, anyway) Artist Study (Shen Zhou 1427-1509) Poetry (Langston Hughes and Sing a Song of Seasons - they're nature poems) Hymn Study (Be Thou My Vision, How Great Thou Art, All Creatures of Our God and King - I plan to cover historical background of these hymns) Geography (Material World) Composer Study (Classical Chinese music from Ming Dynasty time period - to go with Shen Zhou) P.E. on Friday afternoons This is not really a new thing for us, but we did not do PE throughout the entire fall, because of football. It really took away from our time together in the afternoons, so I'm going to make a point of getting my kids and the kids from another family together on Fridays for about an hour at the park to play sports. If we're not doing PE that day, I want Kids #3 and 4 to have a playdate or do something social (they are very, very extroverted). No more checklists/Trying a Loop Schedule For years, I've made checklists for each week of the work I wanted the kids to work on independently. Yeah, no more. I want to undo my checklist mentality and go back to more of a one-room-schoolhouse style of teaching (that I did for several years, before relying too much on independent work). It's made homeschooling the last 2-3 years monotonous and I feel like I don't even know what the kids are doing sometimes. We're also going to try a Loop Schedule. And I have no idea how I'm going to do this - I'll just have to wing it next week and see. My middle 3 kids enjoy it so much more when they're working together in a group (Kid #'s 2, 3 and 4 are very competitive/extroverted - I need to adjust our homeschool for them now that dd18 has graduated). Curriculum/Unit Study stuff (first 8 weeks) Dimensions Math (continuing) Easy Grammar Plus (continuing) Sequential Spelling Case for Christ for Kids + Action Bible Where the Red Fern Grows + Progeny Press Study Guide + narration/copywork Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity Intro to Chemistry Lab Kit (27 Labs) Happy Atoms VEX IQ Robotics Art - a basket of sketching books covering buildings and vehicles Violin (continuing) Our next round of unit studies will probably be on the American Revolution, but I don't have that planned out completely yet. I'm also wanting to cover the French Revolution after that. That gives me about 6 months of unit studies, so that would take us to the summer. I'll have to look around for more ideas.

With his personality, I wonder if he would be interested in Psychology? DD14 is thinking about going into psychology/therapy. That's actually what my sister majored in before she went to law school. She had a similar personality - deep thinker, procrastinator, geez...just thinks about everything (lol). Similar to my dd14.

I remember you, I and WendyK had kids taking algebra 1 in 7th. Our kids were always unusual/whole-to-parts thinkers.

I'm sorry! And you already ran these kinds of options past him. I would be exhausted, too.

Halcyon - I don't know if you remember me, but our oldest two are the same age (and my original username was starrbuck12 - you and I used to chat sometimes). Our kids were very similar - both tested as gifted, sounded like similar personalities (daydreamers/had trouble gettin' stuff done - lol). My oldest is starting college next week (pre-nursing courses for her BSN). She graduated a semester early, so we went through the college decisions recently, too. She decided not to go anywhere selective, because (obviously), you don't have go to MIT to be a nurse. You just need a good nursing program and hospital (and she wanted to live at home). I don't want to stress you out any more than you are and I don't know anything about those schools on your list. But, in your son's situation, is taking a gap year a possibility? Is there something really meaningful he could do for a year while he figures out what he wants to study? Could he work for a year? My dd was really interested in something like Americorps, but she doesn't want to leave her dog (I know, right?). There's other stuff he could do, too - like travel/work/volunteer. There seems to be so much pressure on all of you right now. He might make a better decision if he has more time. And 20 college applications is going to be astronomical - cost and sending everything in (?). That's so much pressure! And you said his ACT math score wasn't very stellar. I posted this a couple of times, but dd took the math placement test at her college this fall and the advisor was saying that those SAT/ACT math scores are really inaccurate. They said the placement test the colleges give is much more accurate - it's intuitive and it's able to give a more complete picture of what the test-taker actually knows/doesn't know. When dd took it, we could see exactly what areas of math she had a strong grasp of and what her weaknesses were. It was a great snapshot. Just sayin' - don't feel bad. And we didn't do any AP's. She wasn't even remotely interested in doing that. You mentioned the science classes at the cc. Is he currently taking classes there? Is it a good one? Can he just switch to full-time next week and take classes there and transfer? You said he needs two more lab sciences for the university he's wanting to apply to. I know you said there's only a couple of slots left, but maybe he can fit into one. Also, people always drop/add the first week or two every semester, so more slots should open, too. Maybe he can talk to an advisor at the cc to help him with a plan? (And I know everyone says there is an advantage financially to just starting somewhere as a freshman, but there are transfer scholarships. My sister was offered a full ride at a university as a sophomore transfer. I know my sister isn't normal, but just trying to be encouraging.) It just sounds like the two of you need a bigger buffer of time! Good luck with whatever decision you guys make and I'm sorry this has been a stressful school year. Even just starting at the community college, I didn't realize how time-consuming getting my daughter ready to start classes next week was going to be. It literally consumed our entire semester - tours, application, meeting with advisors, getting through the testing, going through all the stations (financial aid, etc), parking passes, picking classes, registering, trying to work out transportation to campus... I'm going to buy her books on Thursday and new shoes this weekend and then we're ready (lol). But, yeah, it really takes so much energy getting them ready for college!

We started doing PE a couple of years ago. I went to the sports store and bought a bunch of sports equipment - basketballs, some baseball gloves and new baseballs, a playground ball (for kickball and 4-Square), a set for disc golf, some pickle ball sets....cones, a soccer ball, a volleyball. We've been trying to do PE together at the park with another family on Friday afternoons for a couple of hours. No curriculum, really informal and just working on motor skills. My kids have loved it. I'm going to try to start back up again on Friday if the weather is ok. Is something like that possible? I did get a Homeschool PE book from the library and it had all kinds of games you could play with just a couple of kids...I can't remember the name of the book, but you could look around on Amazon if that would help. I have 5 kids and the other family has 2, so that's basically 8-9 of us playing games (so I didn't need the book). Oh, yeah, biking around the neighborhood. We do that, too, for PE.

Hey, we missed you! Congratulations on those exams! I was off the forums for a long time, too. My dd graduated in December and starts college in January. Good luck with everything! I always enjoyed your posts - especially since we both have kids about the same age. Tell dd we said 'congratulations!'

Not to offer you another curriculum, but have you seen Dimensions Math? We are really liking it. It's brand new, so I think they just now got all the levels out. I'm only able to use it for dd12, because it only goes to a certain point. Have you seen any of these sites? And, yes, I taught awhile without using a curriculum for math when they were little. You just have to kinda know what you're doing (or do a lot of reading). I still have an entire bookshelf of living math books, math dice, math games - they were awesome. A lot of fun. Math doesn't have to be painful. lol https://www.livingmath.net/# http://www.educationunboxed.com https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20503283-murderous-maths-box-set-se (It's on Amazon) https://www.goodreads.com/series/71584-sir-cumference (these are all at our library) http://www.drwrightskitchentablemath.com/ https://pambarnhill.com/flying-without-parachute-math-with-no/ https://blessedlybusy.com/how-math-without-a-curriculum/ https://www.navigatingbyjoy.com/2014/04/07/maths-without-curriculum/ http://nourishedandnurtured.blogspot.com/2016/02/teaching-elementary-math-without-formal.html

Yeah, we get really upset when people let their sick kids come around our kids, because both dh and I have horrible immune systems (he's from a country overseas where they were basically starving and I was born to someone who had anorexia while pregnant). Both of us have had pneumonia that started as some stupid cold someone's kid gave us. And he's in charge of like 50 people at work and it's a clean room environment, so he's not allowed in the facility if he's sick. So, he ends up missing a ton of work and they get mad. I'm getting to the point where I can't even get rid of simple things anymore. My son was sick for 3 days last week and then it just went away. I had it for a week and had to drag myself to urgent care, because my throat was closing and I could no longer eat/drink. I ended up on steroids and antibiotics. Ugh! It's frustrating! Elizabeth86 - I hope Baby is feeling better this morning and was able to sleep through the night!

I'm glad most of the kids are ok now. Our urgent care center had a four hour wait today! (I eventually dragged myself over there). There is a lot of stuff going around right now!

When dd18 started high school, I basically ruined our homeschool for a couple of years. Everyone goes overboard on homeschooling high school/preparing for high school/preparing for college. It feels like there's so much stress even around "what's a credit," record keeping, etc. So, instead of enjoying homeschooling like we always did all those years, I became very rigid about reading the right books, making sure there were the right number of writing assignments, making sure we filled the "hours" so we could count something as a credit and I made decisions about what we would study based on how it would look on their transcripts. Making sure we could back everything up with a textbook of some kind...ugh Yeah, in hindsight, that was so stupid. And totally unnecessary. It would be ok if you go back to your relaxed way of doing things. We're back to homeschooling like we always did and we are much happier. I made a point last year to do things like PE again (which we were doing with another family once a week and it was a blast - playing volleyball, basketball, baseball, etc), adding art and music back in. Scheduling playdates and field trips back into our week....those things are important, even for high schoolers. I have 4 teenagers (well, one is 12, but she's an honorary teenager) and they need those things, too. They still need field trips and PE and art.... We did 10 field trips this year (probably the most we've ever done). It was awesome.

Me, too. I also don't see my kids as accelerated, even though I know they are, so I don't view this board as much as I probably should. dd18: Starting full-time college a semester early (in two weeks). She's very excited. We went on campus and found all her classes (it's a maze in there!). We're going next week and buying her books. It's the community college for two years and then she's transferring to a local university. It doesn't sound glamorous, but her first semester's tuition was like $830. That was IT. We paid cash and she's living at home (she doesn't want to leave her dog). No loans/no debt. It's a great feeling. She also did so well on her college placement tests that she only has to take one math class for her Bachelor's degree (which the advisor said to take it the first semester and get it over with). ds16 and dd14: these two are about at the same level and they do everything together, except math (dd14 is actually only one math class below ds16). We are continuing unit studies, because they are really enjoying them (and I'm enjoying them). I want the unit studies to be shorter this year, though. We did a unit study last year that basically lasted all year (and it was just a little too long). I'm going to try to limit them to about 6-8 weeks now. They are currently working on robotics as a team (which is harder than it sounds!), we're going to learn to use a 3D printer, they're going to work through the MicroChem Kit and read several books about the Manhattan Project and Albert Einstein. This spring, I want to do a unit study on the American Revolution and the French Revolution. I'm thinking about doing a huge Mark Twain unit study this year at some point. I am focusing on adding art this year (we stopped doing art for some stupid reason). dd12: also doing unit studies. She's also working on Robotics with the older kids right now. I want to get them doing a little bit of coding with the robots, too. We downloaded the software to get the computer to communicate with the robot brain. We're getting ready to build a crane and then we'll see if they can write a program for it. She is also working through the Intro to Chemistry kit from Home Science Tools. I also have started gathering resources for her to study the American Revolution this spring. ds4: started My Father's World Kindergarten. He loves it. Artsy/creative things they are doing (we have a very artsy family): dd18: taking art classes at the college. Opened an Instagram page to sell her artwork. She does fluid art on wood - it's this thing where you mix paint/chemicals and set it on fire. ds16: playing guitar, sketching dd14: waiting for results of Scholastic Art & Writing Competition (Southwestern states). She places every year and this year, she sent in some incredible artwork (her best ever). She also taught herself how to play the piano this year and she's getting pretty good. Still plays violin. dd12: doesn't like art, but we're trying to get her to do more. She can solve a Rubik's cube in under a minute, though. So, I bought her a set of competition cubes and I'm going to see if we can take her to one of the competitions. Oh, well. That's what we're doing this year.

I have the flu, too. It's miserable. I hope you guys feel better soon. I'm on Day 4 and I'm sort of feeling better. I still can't swallow without a ton of pain. I actually lost several pounds, because I can't eat. I would cancel the visit if you can.

We really liked the biology book and labs, but the chemistry book made my daughter absolutely hate chemistry. I don't use a textbook for chemistry anymore after that (that book ruined it and she retained nothing- it was sad). I'm not even willing to buy the physics book - that looks even worse.

It looks more like you're looking for an online course or a video course, so I didn't post. But, there's Sonlight 300 Modern History and Literature. We did that core last year and my kids learned a ton. I had to cut about a fourth of the books out, because my kids couldn't keep up with the reading schedule (it moves very quickly). We used the questions in the IG as writing prompts.

The Reggio Emilia approach was developed in Europe in the 40s. The author of the Project-Based Homeschooling book that was mentioned here founded and ran a Reggio Emilia school (I'm not sure where? - boy, this lady really dropped out of cyberspace!). Both Project-Based Learning and Problem-Based Learning sounds to me exactly like Montessori schools for older kids (but that's just from looking around at Montessori high school websites). My oldest graduated and starts college in a couple of weeks. My time discussing educational philosophies is probably over. At the end of the day, no one at the college cared what kind of homeschoolers we were. During the college tours, the admissions advisors looked at me like I was insane when I asked if they wanted a booklist. *sigh*. Oh, well. lol

I have her book, too. Here's the blog: http://project-based-homeschooling.com/camp-creek-blog I'm not sure why she's not updating it much - probably because her kids are older now and she's busier. I think they were like 7 and 4 when the book first came out (if I remember correctly). Other blogs/pages for the OP or anyone else interested: http://project-based-homeschooling.com/resources https://fearlesshomeschool.com/project-based-homeschooling/ https://blogshewrote.org/using-project-based-learning-in-high-school/ https://mamaofletters.com/project-based-homeschooling/ https://blog.mamaliberated.com/sew_liberated/project-based-homeschooling/ https://www.thesweetersideofmommyhood.com/blog/art/2013/03/project-based-homeschooling-interview-with-lori-pickert/ https://www.movingbeyondthepage.com/curriculum/strategyprojectbasedinstruction.aspx

I posted about this before, but it's been awhile. When dd12 was 8, she was jumping around on her bed (yeah, just like the song), fell, hit the wall with the top of her head and knocked herself unconscious. She missed almost an entire YEAR of school. For the first month, she wasn't allowed to read, watch TV, do sports/physical activity or anything. I tried reading books to her and she would start crying, because it would cause headaches. For basically the entire year, she would start getting headaches right after lunch and have to take a nap. She had post-concussive syndrome. At one point, I just packed up and put all of her school books away. ☹️ Anyway, yes, I was in a panic for several months. I was also thankful that we homeschooled, because there was no way she would be able to get through a long day at school. She would've been miserable. The headaches eventually did go away and she was able to enjoy working on school again. When we started school again, we were able to pick up right where we left off. In fact, I was surprised by how much she had learned that year just through everyday life. She caught up and she ended up just fine. Several years later and she isn't behind at all (and no headaches).

So, looking around, I found The Duel: The Parallel Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Anyone read that? Looks interesting. After reading the summary of My Brother Sam is Dead, I am totally sold on that one. lol I would like to make a list of primary source documents to read also. Obviously, the Declaration of Independence.... I'm seeing that the Library of Congress website has a big list of them - along with pictures of the originals.

The sample for 1776 by McCullough looks very good. Does it only cover the start of the war?

Has anyone read A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution by Johann Doehla? It looks like it's only available used, but the samples look interesting.

Thank-you! I think Progeny Press has a study guide for that, too. I kept seeing it, but never knew what that book was about.