We like Human Odyssey by the K12 people. You can get it used on Amazon. (We're doing Medieval also, which is partly in HO vol. 1 and partly HO vol. 2). I'm pairing it with Usborne Encyclopedia of World History and Draw Europe. (We actually dropped SWB's HotAW halfway through 9th grade and switched to HO.)

You know, except for spelling and some commas, it's not bad. It sounds about like something my 9th grader would do. My suggestion would be for you to go through and mark it up with proofreading marks, and have your ds make those corrections. Eventually, he can do his own proofreading, but you'll have to work up to that. You might also have him work through Remedia's Proofreading workbooks (ignore the grade level suggestions). (I made my 9th grader do both of them.) As far as content, I really do feel like it's fine. Actually, it's probably better than my dd would do (also not a natural writer) because she's a big picture thinker and would not have included any details at all. So he's doing fine, in my opinion.

I definitely agree that it depends on your kid. I could not work and homeschool my dd. I do a lot of direct teaching. I figure that if she were in regular school, she would get a teacher teaching the lesson in the front of the room. So that's not unreasonable for me to do it. But then my dd does not learn well from the computer. And as part of her learning style, she needs people to learn. So I am that people. :) YMMV

Draw Medieval Fantasies http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Medieval-Fantasies-Learn/dp/0939217309/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464373703&sr=8-1&keywords=drawing+medieval

Umm, no. We're a team. There is no boss. To answer your other questions, we tend to make decisions together. My dh tends to handle the finances as he is much better at it than me (and less work for me. Yay!), although I do a fair amount of the spending. I keep the schedule and generally keep the household running, But my dh is an energizer bunny and will make dinner (if I have things prepped or decided at any rate) and fix things and he always does the dishes. I do think in some relationships, there are "bosses." My opinion is whatever works for their marriage is whatever works for their marriage.

Many schools have microwaves in the lunchroom. Can he bring the food cold in gladware and heat it up in the microwave in the lunchroom? That seems like it would be the best option, food safety-wise.

15y.o. dd: puppeteer tennis swimming Youth Group Teach kinder kids at church VBS music team

I have to tell you that when I'm googling regimental blue, it's more of a teal-y blue. Not navy at all. And not royal blue. Same when I google princess royal and regimental blue.

Is she allergic to pine? Maybe the pine needles poked her and her skin is reacting badly? I'm allergic to pine, and I know, for instance, that handling pine cones makes me very itchy.

If you're Catholic (or don't mind Catholic), you might like Seton English 8 and Composition, Seton History of the United States 8 for Young Catholics, and Seton Life Science for Young Catholics. Or Catholic Heritage Curricula Language of God Level G and Light to the Nations: Making the Modern World and Life Science from the Behold and See Series.

Maybe Botany for the greenhouse stuff? Count the hours. 60-90 would be 0.5 credit. 120-180 would be 1.0 credit. Maybe Agriculture Science for the beef farm stuff? I would look at A&M university websites for course name ideas. Again, count the hours.

Check out abeka.com. This is 2nd grade: http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=95672 1st grade: http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=95230

No, I haven't. But Lakeshore Learning Center has tons of cool math centers. I would buy them ALL!

I wanted to suggest a couple of Schoolhouse Rock videos: I'm Gonna Send your Vote to College and I'm Just a Bill. Plus several of the America Rock videos from those, like No More Kings, Preamble, and Three Ring Government. We are also using See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, and the Race for the White House. Plus a Steck Vaughn workbook called Freedom, Rights, and Responsibilities.

My 9th grader did tons of outlining, several paragraphs, and a 4 page research paper, which was guided step by step by me. I helped her learn to find books at the library on her topic. I taught her how to do note cards (well, I used Seton Composition to do this) and source cards. She took notes from her sources, a couple index cards every day. Then we worked on organizing the note cards into general topics and making an outline from those. Then she wrote her paper, a piece of the outline at a time. It ended up being 3.5 pages, not counting the Works Cited page.

How MUCH curricula do we need, anyway? I don't understand the question. Slinking away to curriculum shop...

I like Seton's Grammar.

I am also assuming you are covering literature in some way. You would need that, too, of course.

I always think a wall clock is a nice gift for a bride. Or really nice towels. I still have towels from my wedding/shower gifts, oh so many years ago. I also have a lovely quilt from that time.

Last time I went to the optometrist, she did that thing where she "separates" the vision in each eye, so you look at the same image in 2 different places on the screen or something. Anyway, when she put them back together, my eyes didn't go back together. The image stayed 2 images. We had to wait a few minutes. She asked if I was tired. I said no. She asked if I had slept well last night. No. Sometimes when you're tired, she said, it takes longer for your brain to go back to synthesizing the different views they see. So I'm wondering if part of your vision was restricted or something while they were working on you, and then maybe your eyes didn't want to synthesize together again right away, due to tired or blood sugar or whatever. Just a thought.

You really only need grammar. I vote for option 2, IEW Fix-It grammar.

Finish tiling the master vanity area. Paint the exterior trim and front door. Maybe the body of the house. We'll see. Take my kid to the pool or water park or beach more than I currently do (which is almost never).

I vote for Human Odyssey. When we used it, I had my dd read corresponding sections in the Usborne Encyclopedia and outline those sections. For other output, I assigned a project. My dd prefers Lego projects (this is a thing. They did it at the classical private school she attended for 8th grade.) For ancient Rome, for instance, my dd did the scene where Julius Caesar gets stabbed by the Senate. She had lego blood droplets and everything. It was elaborate. Maybe your ds might enjoy projects like that.

Personally, I would start with taking all the iphone/ipad photos and making a photo album for the high school years. Probably someone more tech savvy than I will have a better solution, but I would just go to Shutterfly.com and start making an album. If you want to start even smaller, just do an album for the college years thus far. While you are doing this, you can sort through those digital photos, pick the best ones and delete the others.

In that case, yes, I think you are fine.