I noticed my daughter mouthing the words, a big no no! I told her to look at phrases all at once, she is trying it, but a little overwhelmed by it. May be a bad habit to break..... and she is very much the drifter.... would love to get that behind us, it takes her forever to do her school and she misses a lot of outside activities because of it. Hoping for better next year!

Have you done Geometry recently with the newer teacher? I own Chalkdust, but my daughter has done BJU since third grade. She liked the DVDs for Algebra 1 this year, but towards the end of the year, it went a little slow for her. Does Geometry speed up a little? And, is there calculator instruction and good (but not too much) explanation for proofs? And, did you finish the book? Any other comments? Thanks, Susan

I am looking forward to hearing what people say about this, same problem over here with our daughter. Great student, but the slow reading speed really holds her up.

Let others weigh in, but I would lean towards taking as much at the college as you can, even if it is a 100 class that is only good for high school (100s don't transfer for college credits). I faint at the thought of doing the harder sciences I am reading about here, we did do Apologia Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. But not the harder second year courses. And it was a bear without a teacher....

I have heard that community college calculus is easier than 4 yr. college calculus and the credits are the same. Unfortunately we only have a technical college (that doesn't have calculus) and a 4 yr. That teacher was HARD, no curve, 18 more points would have been a D, which at least still awards the credit. If he has a teacher choice, be sure to ask around for the best teacher!

We can go to that galaxy with you, Scarlett Letter was a big hit over here! We were fighting for the book!

OK, another suggestion. A Beka World Literature is one of our favorite lit books. We did it w/o the DVDs and it was a great course. There is another review of it on one of the lit. threads. Then you can do your own writing. We have used the BJUP Writing/Grammar workbooks without dvds as well, and they have plenty of explanation. Then for Biology, you can get the single course. If you want to go even cheaper, we have used Apologia Biology and really like it. And there is a free online class for it we are looking into virtualhomeschoolinggroup.com. Their biology class starts tomorrow, but you can enter at any time, with the exceptions of modules 5-8, they have to be taken in sequence, and module 5 starts in September. Hope this helps! I have an upcoming 10th grader as well! Susan

I don't want to discourage you, but if he is not getting the text, and getting it fast, you may not have a calculus guy..... if he has to take it, then you are smart to prep him first. I would suggest you springing for Chalkdust.com Calculus 1 dvds, they will sell them separately. My son is whole to part, homeschooled through 12th grade, we got as far as precalc. (and we sweat blood to get him that far....). He is not good with all of those tedious details. He tested ready for calculus, he got his first ever C in Calc. 1, and failed Calc. 2. He is doing summer school to salvage a scholarship, taking poetry and drawing, and is much happier! We have a arts/language/ideas guy!

I also struggled with whole books vs. parts in a lit. book. Both of my kids have loved A Beka and BJUP. My son did World, American, and English in A Beka. He liked the last one enough to do Brit. Lit. in BJUP in his senior year. They get a wide selection and exposure in the lit. books that they wouldn't get reading whole books. Then they can read the whole books of the authors they like. A Beka's World Literature book is very good. (Did w/o dvd). My son liked BJUP British Lit. because the DVD teacher was incredible!

If you are buying the two classes at $399 each, it is cheaper just to get whole grade at $999. You get more books and classes, then you don't feel bad about not watching all of the DVDs. And you can sell what you don't need.

Faithe, Thank you for your reply! Is the link for Write @ Home writeathome.net? Want to get the right one. Just to make sure I understand what writing assignments you pick, is it the composition suggestions that appear at the end of some selections? Do you grade these yourself or get someone else to do it. And yes, my kids would rather me not read their writing at all, and to have me correct it, well...... Susan

Thanks again Anita! Best wishes as you start homeschooling. It sounds like you will do just fine with all of the math/science background you have! And with the junior college allowing 9th graders, wow! Not many places do that!

Thank you for answering! I'll see if I can find out more.... did your kids work through Hewitt Conceptual Physics with the Teaching Co. dvds on their own and have everything they needed? Neither my husband nor I are very good at science. Apologia ran well in our situation, but not sure how well it prepared my son..... it is a very good course, but the conversational tone we liked was not there in college texts and that was a huge adjustment.

Thank you! I was thinking of using the writers workshop in place of BJU writing part, sometimes I don't like their writing assignments. Do you feel they are equal and it would just be repeat? I like their paper instruction, we just don't want to write a hymm.... Good idea to pull vocab. from lit, she looks up everything she doesn't know anyway! Susan

Summaries, paraphrasing, outlining (pre-paper work)

Thank you Grace! Doesn't seem that there is enough difference to warrant purchasing the new when I have traditional. But I don't remember "loving" the traditional book. I would love to hear if anyone else has experience with the two.

I think you have the better deal with math, both of my kids do better with geometry, but that is only one year, and the rest are algebra :) Have your daughter email Dana Mosely whenever she needs help, he writes back fairly quickly, and doesn't give the entire answer at once, he gives the next step or two to see if they can figure out the rest. You can get his cell number as well to talk to him. That year was pretty much between my son and Dana Mosely. I just figured the assignments and graded tests. It looks like you are already good at writing....I jotted down your book, how would it be for me. I struggle with what to tell them to write about, grading their papers, etc. I will look at it at Barnes and Noble and appreciate the recommendation. You wouldn't happen to know of a vocabulary and/or spelling text that is non traditional like the writing book? Thank you for your input! Susan

I thought community college was free in Va??? We moved from Va to SC 11 years ago, from a wonderful co-op and tons of support to a smaller community with just a technical college (which has less than community) and a 4-year college, where it is $250/credit hour. Ended up doing it all myself. We had a lot of financial challenges, so had to go somewhat cheaply, but sacrificed when we needed to. What grade is your daughter going into?

What are the differences between Hewitt Conceptual Physics and Apologia's Physics text? We did Apologia last year, I was under the understanding that it was conceptual. Need to know for the next kid in line :) But Hewitt would have to have all that is needed and someone to call because we don't know the subject.

I used Rosetta Stone, and the same way, in 9th and 10th grades for my son. I know it isn't the equivalent to Spanish 1 and 2 at school, but it is accepted as that for their transcript. But it preps them for the college courses. They have to place with a placement test anyway, and unless they are very good at the foreign language, they will need to start at beginning anyway.

I used to be a non-curriculum gal, but for high school English, I have used BJUP and A Beka. I like that is all put together and complete and we just do it. A very few exercises seem over the top, so we just skip those. I have broken away part of one year from their writing part (still did the grammar) and used Format Writing. I really like BJUP Writing/Grammar workbooks. My son got 660 on critical reading and 690 on writing after completing them. I have used A Beka high school lit books, the World Literature being my favorite. Last year, my son did 12th grade English with BJUP DVDs, and really liked the British Lit. teacher. A friend of mine really like BJUP 11th English/Grammar/American Lit. on DVD as well.

Saxon has a Geometry text now, just out.

My vote, BJU, it is easier, lots of algebra review, and it moves slowly (was too slow for us, but tons of explanation). Just realize it is easier, I do know two kids that took calculus fine after it, but my son didn't do well in college calc. after it.

Whoa, just saw my post and it rearranged itself, sorry, don't know how that happened, but I have had everyone in the house talk to me while I wrote that! Isn't that how it goes!

We had the exact same problem in 8th grade with our son, and even used the same math as you! Got great grades, but took 3 hrs. a day, and he was really pushing hard to get it. But not retaining very well. But since he was "smart", we went ahead and did video text algebra. Again, he took forever to do it, still got great grades, but something wasn't right. Went on to CD geometry, that went fine, but still a little slow (he has always done better with geometry/trig than algebra). Then tried CD Algebra 2, took 4-5 hours a day, he even started drinking several cups of coffee, tried to plow through it, and "hit the wall." At this point, we had yet to reach 6 classes a school year, we were doing 4.... He was supposedly in 11th grade, but was very short on credits, and burned out. He has an August birthday, so was very young for his grade. I moved him over to BJUP Algebra 2 that a friend loaned. He did alright for a while, enjoyed the much easier problems, and the extra time to explain the concepts. But, again, he stopped and couldn't go further. I called BJUP, they let me speak with one of the authors of the math text. While talking, we discussed his young age, that he was a pretty smart kid, but something wasn't right. At the same time, we both said we should just put the math book away (it was March), and start Algebra 2 the next year. I took it one step further. I rearranged his grade level. I made that year 10th, backed up all previous years, and made sure I made the new 11th grade not difficult. He said if we did music and art, he would go for it, and that he didn't feel ready to start college in a year. It was the best decision we could have made! That year, he said it was the first time that he felt his curriculum "fit" him, and he really enjoyed his music and art. I even stepped back the science and let him do BJUP Earth Science (it is 8th grade, but acceptable for high school). Step ahead to him starting college. He did place into calculus (did precalc in 12th grade). But since his pace is slow, he barely eeeked out a C first semester. Still, he tried the calculus 2. This time he failed. He is having to do summer school to save his scholarship. But every other class he takes in non math and non science, he gets As, even the condensed summer ones! Its looking like we have a liberal arts guy, he is interested in English and Psychology, and maybe business. His SAT scores were WAY higher in critical reading and writing than in math. Whether your son takes precalc or calc in 12th grade, look at his speed, how fast he gets it, and if he needs extra time a lot, if so, start his college math at college algebra or precalc no matter how great he does on the placement test! For next year, my suggestion for you would be BJUP PreAlgebra (or Teaching Textbooks if you like it better, but it is easier than BJUP). My daughter did that, it is great, not quite as hard (the CD is a college text and the hardest prealgebra program I saw). She moved effortlessly to BJUP Algebra 1 with DVDs (didn't use DVDs for PreAlgebra). It will probably be easy for your son, but he will get his confidence back and beef up his basic math skills. Susan So, you can push the math too hard. I went to a prep school in the area for advice (a friend's husband). He told me to never do math even a little above level. I told him that our son was between regular and advanced and he said if he were at that school, they would put him in regular.