Alpha Omega for High School

Question:
My oldest starts 9th grade next year-have any of you got any comments about Alpha Omega as far as high school level goes? We are sticking to Saxon Math for algebra but are planning to try Alpha Omega for Bible,Social Studies,Language Arts and Science...I have used them on and off in the past for Language Arts so but wondered if anybody out there has experience with using them for upper grades...the reason I am asking now is that I can get 20% off the order if I order in April.(15% if I wait till May.)

Answer:
-I'm going to use Alpha Omega for my 11th grader and 8th grader this coming year, for Social Studies and Science. I'm thinking that if I like it (or if *they* like it) I'll do it again for the next grades. It all depends on how it goes over. I always experiment with my two older ones and settle down with my two younger ones!

-I have a comment or two. As I mentioned before, I was homeschooled as a not-so-youngun (11 years and up). After the first year or two of "eclectic" homeschooling, my parents chose to purchase the Alpha Omega LifePacs for all subjects. We later switched to the Light Units (Mennonite version with the exact same format). My personal opinion is THEY ARE AWFUL!!!!! First of all, my older brother (2 1/2 years older than me) never completed any education whatsoever once we started using these. With access to the answer keys, he filled every single one of them in that way. I didn't know this at the time, we have only talked about it as adults. I, on the other hand, not quite as crafty and sneaky as he, completed almost every single one (except for one time when I was really behind on science and was grounded on a camping trip - I sat in my tent and filled in all the answers). However, I don't think I learned a darn thing from them, even though I actually read the things and filled in the answers and took the tests. For one thing, even though I happen to be one of the fortunates who learns well from reading material, I found them extremely dry and boring. I was not provided with any motivation whatsoever to learn, I was given no type of anticipatory sets, hands-on activity, etc. Of course I can learn that way now, but as a teenager I shouldn't have been expected to. I was extremely anti-homeschooling for quite some time. Now I am beginning to believe that it can be done effectively (not by my parents, but...) However, I believe workbook curriculums are extremely dangerous for homeschooling parents!!! It is far too easy just to give the kid the workbooks and say, "Let me know when you're ready to take the test," or, worse yet, "Give me the test when you're done." These probably COULD be used effectively but it would take a lot of work, which kind of defeats the purpose of workbooks. I hope I haven't offended anybody with my vehemence. I have no idea what this curriculum is like for the younger grades. My only experience was with the high school workbooks. By the way, I was always a very independent learner - that was not the problem with the curriculum. I was way ahead of my classmates at my private school even though I started at 4 and skipped second grade. After homeschooling I began taking only junior college courses at the age of 15. I took the California High School Proficiency Exam to graduate, because I wanted the diploma. After rebelling and screwing around for a couple years I got back into school as a single mother at 19 and graduated with the highest GPA in my department. I am now almost finished getting my teaching credential (ducking thrown objects). After completing my first quarter of student teaching I am lightly considering homeschooling my now four year old (I am married now and pregnant also so I am not currently doing my last student teaching assignment). I believe he is very bright and I have seen that there is far too much time wasted in the classroom, regardless of the talent of the teacher, public or private school, or the size of the classes (due to class size reduction). I haven't discussed this with my husband yet (all he has heard from me about homeschooling has been negative) because I'm not sure how serious I am yet.