I don't really think it matters that much to use all the same publisher for high school math. If you did well with Horizons through PreAlgebra, go ahead and do their Algebra. It's great! We're using it,and I really love it. It "feels" very similar to Horizons PreAlgebra. In case you're interested, we will be using Critical Thinking Company's Understanding Geometry plus Life of Fred Geometry for Geometry. I haven't figured out Algebra 2 or PreCal yet, but again, I don't really think it's as necessary for upper level math to maintain publisher continuity. I majored in math in college, and never had the same publisher twice :)

I am also a perpetual tweaker. Here is our current 9th grade line up: Horizons Algebra Critical Thinking Company's Understanding Geometry plus Life of Fred Geometry History of the Ancient World (SWB) Hoagland's Exploring the Way Life Works: The Science of Biology D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and Memoria Press guides (other stuff later like Iliad and Odyssey and Aristophanes The Birds) Seton High School Grammar Writing With Skill 1 (SWB) Abeka Vocabulary, Spelling, and Poetry III French: So You Really Want to Learn French 1 by Galore Park Abeka Health from a Christian Perspective

We start Monday, too. I just switched our French book (Abeka) after realizing I don't understand how to use all those books together, so I'm waiting for my Galore Park French, but other than that (oh, and a guide to D'aulaire's Greek Myths -- another last minute switch), I'm ready! Oh, wait, I'm also waiting on Life of Fred Geometry. But really, I'm ready! Promise! Go high school, woo!

I don't know if this helps, but I will share my story: Last year, my dd was an 8th grader. I had decided that she needed more friends, and I would love to not have to teach all her subjects, especially science. We enrolled her in a classical Christian school. They make you sign a contract that you will still owe them, even if your kid stops going, so it was all-in the whole year. We hated it. She did meet some nice kids. Her expanded social life consisted of exactly 4 afternoon parties. Now, she did meet a couple girls she still keeps in touch with. However, there was a ton of pressure on the kids. They already started talking to them about how to look good to colleges. Plus the work was extremely "rigorous" which means they make you do a ton of work and don't help much with it other than to pressure you about due dates. My dd had about 2 hours of homework most nights and then about 2-5 hours on the weekend. Did I mention that we hated it? YMMV, but we are back to homeschooling for 9th grade and plan to continue for the remainder of high school. I don't mind teaching all the subjects, my way. And my husband will take science, as he did such an amazing job helping my dd with all her science homework this past year. At least now, we get to choose what and how much. Best wishes in whatever decision you make!

Teaching Textbooks PreCal?

I was thinking mono/Epstein Barr. http://www.diagnose-me.com/symptoms-of/epstein-barr-virus-EBV.html

I used this for my reluctant writer, just to get her to produce any kind of content. She used a dry-erase marker. http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?productItemID=1%2C689%2C949%2C371%2C929%2C098&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=1437879737592 It made writing painless, but taught her the different kinds of writing.

I'm not sure if they are not to be missed, but some points of interest: Goose Island State Park (in Rockport, 1 hour-ish from Corpus) has a live oak tree that is 1000 years old, surrounded by its offspring. Robert's Point Park in Port Aransas is a nice park. If you ride the ferry between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass, sometimes you see dolphins. We have a not-done Schlitterbahn that has a few things open. Some lazy rivers and a tube slide and a surfing thing. After 3pm, prices are somewhat reduced. We have a Hurricane Alley Water Park that is okay. Festive, not huge, but pleasant. Not super expensive. Do you like used books? We have a Half Price Books. King Ranch in Kingsville (1 hour from Corpus) is interesting. They have tours. Our Botanical Gardens is decent. People visit the beach a lot, usually. We have many, with different personalities. North Beach, McGee Beach, Mustang Island, JP Luby Park, Bob Hall Pier... just lots. Honestly, if you're hitting the Lexington and the Aquarium, those are our major tourist attractions, if you're not beach people. (I'm not beach people. I loathe sand and salt water makes me itch.)

No, you don't get an overall grade level equivalent. Just the gle for each section. (I use Christian Liberty CAT every year.)

My dd went to school for 8th grade last year. The biggest changes were that evenings and weekends were filled with homework. And I had to do a lot of helping (I believe they call it tutoring unless the parent does it) so my brain had to stay alert at the end of the day when I was tired. I hated it, and we are back to homeschooling, but ymmv.

No idea. We use regular all purpose flour.

We used to do a wire with clothespins. So both industrial and rustic! :hurray:

Egg whites are not safe for people with egg allergies. You sort of have to know the purpose of eggs in the recipe. Is it stickiness, leavening, what? Here are some egg replacements: 1/4 cup of light corn syrup = 1 egg 1 tsp baking powder + 1.5 Tablespoons water + 1.5 Tablespoons oil = 1 egg 1 tsp baking soda + 1 Tablespoon vinegar + 1 Tablespoon any liquid = 1 egg 1 packet of gelatin + 2 Tablespoons warm water = 1 egg 1/4 cup soft silken tofu = 1 egg 3 Tablespoons pureed fruit or vegetable + 1 Tablespoon any liquid = 1 egg HTH!

Has anyone used the High School Chemistry book written by Rebecca Keller? She's the Real Science 4 Kids lady. It looks good to me, but I'm inexperienced. Any thoughts or reviews?

I wouldn't have him repeat any classes he did well in and understood the material. Just move on to the next thing. Call it 7th grade for your purposes, but go ahead and advance his academics. You can deal with his specific placement in ps when the time comes.

You know your kids best. My dd loves "easy" stuff and doesn't care what level it is. I will say that my understanding is that Singapore doesn't even start kids on level 1 until they are 9 years old, so things are done differently there. It's not truly 1st grade in the American sense, I believe.

If you do want to make it more fun, include some fun stuff like The Sentence Family and Schoolhouse Rock for grammar. Maybe Horrible Histories videos on YouTube to coincide with history studies. If they like hands on, you could get those Toobs of historical figures for them to play with while you read SOTW. Get hands on kits for Science. Make it fun! There are tons of options!

I would bail on Saxon, too. For my vsl, we unfortunately moved around a lot for arithmetic (i.e. everything before Pre-Algebra). We finally settled on Singapore Math, US Edition. We started back at book 1A, though, and advanced quickly up to grade level within a couple years. (I believe we started Singapore in 3rd grade.) 1A and 1B are not to be missed, in my opinion, because they really give the big picture of addition and subtraction. I can't remember if mult. and div. are in there, too, at that level, but anyway, for my big-picture thinking VSL, it was better to go back and hit that. We did the textbook and workbook for each level up to about 3A, where we sort of stalled and switched for awhile. But it was great. The thing about VSLs is that arithmetic is usually torture, because it sort of is not big picture at all. My dd really started shining and enjoying things once we hit Pre-Algebra. (We used Zaccaro's Real World Algebra for a couple chapters, the first book in the Key to Algebra series, then Horizons Pre-Algebra. We are now in Horizons Algebra.) If I had to do it over again, I probably would have stayed with Singapore, even after we hit the wall. Just persevering. Buying visual aids, math manipulatives, etc. But hindsight is 20/20.

My dd loved cutely shaped pillows at that age. She has a pillow shaped like a donut that she adores. She got hers from Justice, which, by the way, is girl heaven for tweens (at least where I am. There is a contingent of boardies who loathe the place.) If she's interested in earrings or cute hair things or cute purses or makeup, we recently discovered that Claire's is also girl heaven.

If binders don't work for you, try cute folders. Sometimes those are more motivating, and the littles aren't scared of pinching their fingers. Composition notebooks are fantastic for lefties. We use them for everything. For your kids' ages, I was still buying crayola crayons, fat crayola markers, thin crayola markers, crayola twistable colored pencils, elmer's glue, scotch glue sticks, pink pearl erasers. A good tape dispenser. A good stapler (swingline). Plenty of lefty scissors. Now that my kid is older, I love sharpie highlighters, a wide variety of dry erase markers, (we have giant whiteboards -- thank you, Home Depot), those post-it notes that are sticky across the whole thing, regular post-it notes, cute binders, cute composition notebooks. Hmm. What else? Dividers for binders (a good place to use your sharpie markers by the way). Ticonderoga pencils. Those erasers that go on your pencil once you've used up it's own eraser.

I once had a discussion with a relative about a certain, we'll say, item, that had an 84 percent success rate, and therefore a 16 percent failure rate. That relative was adamant that the success rate was 100 percent and only failed if idiots didn't use the item correctly. I mentioned that my parents had used the item and it failed, and I was pretty sure they weren't idiots. Then a phone call with my parents transpired inquiring into the exact details of the failure (what a painful conversation that must have been for my mother). The relative decided that my parents had not used the item properly and therefore didn't count. So the success rate is still 100 percent. I gave up and let the relative "win" the argument. But I still think, okay, I guess if robots are using the item, it might have a 100 percent success rate. Um, but robots don't reproduce and therefore don't need the item. Whatever. I hope that made sense, as I was trying to be vague but not vague, if you know what I mean :)

I'm in Texas. The rules for public school graduation recently changed, and I'm not entirely clear on them now. The state universities seem to require what the state requires, generally. I know they have IPC in there now, but I don't know about the others. Thanks for the info. That's helpful.

If a kid took Integrated Physics and Chemistry (say, the PACworks one) (or even a different one), would he still be allowed to then do Chemistry or Physics? If not, how to get 3 or 4 sciences in? Biology of course. I guess Geology or Environmental Science. But it seems to me like Bio, Chem, and Physics are the big three. So does IPC eliminate being able to do them? Or would you have to do, like, Advanced Chemistry or Advanced Physics or something? And what book would that be? Who carries it?

You might check with Texas Homeschooling Coalition's website. I want to say it is a gray area, legally, but I'm not positive.

My dd and I are lefties. We LOVE composition notebooks, but we don't find it necessary to flip them over. We go from front to back like righties would. It's pretty comfortable, and there's no metal spiral pushing into your hand. I just bought a bunch of composition notebooks from Walmart last night. Love them! Whatever works for you, though.