When you're adding numbers, you count the number of significant digits to the right of the decimal place only, and use the smallest number of those to round your final answer (do not round until AFTER you finish addition). The first problem, 12.1 + 91 + 18.693 = 121.793, which is then rounded to 122 (the answer key is correct). The second problem, 900.2 - 89 = 811.2, which is then rounded to 811 (again, the answer key is correct) Both 91 in the first problem and 89 in the second problem have no significant digits to the right of the decimal place, so the final answer will be rounded to also have no significant digits to the right of the decimal. Your son is not entirely wrong, btw. He's just got the rules for determining significant digits for multiplication and addition confused.

Theory (I'm a scientist who frequently has to explain what theory means to a scientist when confronted by people who insist it means a guess, so I'm only half serious here, but I do think it would make for a good essay)

Your best bet, both for the vertical alignment and showing the work, would probably be to teach her to look at each problem as a proof. She has to show WHY it works that way. However, I agree with everyone else here that, once she's proven that she CAN show the work, insisting she show work for skills she's mastered it just a recipe for frustration.

Agreed. I had excellent grammar instruction in school, but I still learned a lot more in the process of learning Latin. SWB's grammar curriculum is very thorough, which means even people like me have forgotten a lot of it over the years. I figure I'll get almost as much out of it as DS by the time we're done.

I'll second this recommendation. HWT narrow is just about perfect for that - by the time you finish the pack you should be ready to move back to regular paper. My kid also doesn't like wide-ruled, but at 12 he's definitely ready for college-ruled. Narrow-ruled, if you can find it, is awesome (it's what I used in high school and college when I could find it). I write small, so even the college-ruled seems a bit big for me, but it does have the advantage of more space for proofreading marks.

I'll have to find a copy of Nester - the name is familiar, but it's not on my shelf, so I either never had a personal copy or it was so old I tossed it.

I've looked at the syllabus and schedule, and this is very typical for Calc 2. However, the condescending attitude is completely inappropriate. I'd have been reprimanded for that in a heartbeat.

Without knowing exactly what she has and has not learned yet, I can only guess as to how she's supposed to solve it, but the answer is indeed 0. [It looks like she tried to use the quotient rule without taking into account that she can't use it if the denominator equals 0.] You can use the quotient rule, but only if the denominator doesn't equal 0... lim (x->0) [(1 - cos x) / (sin x)] lim (x->0) [((1 - cos x)/x) / (x/(sin x))] - multiply by x / x to prevent the denominator from being 0 later, and separate just like we did above [lim (x->0) ((1 - cos x)/x)] / [lim (x->0) (x/(sin x))] - apply the quotient rule lim (x->0) ((1 - cos x)/x) = 0 and lim (x->0) (x/(sin x)) = 0 0 / 1 = 0

As a microbiologist, I would recommend finding an introductory microbiology text (it will be a college textbook) meant for a semester-long survey course and planning to use it for the whole year. Labs are a bit more complicated unless your instructor has access to the materials needed. I can make suggestions for alternatives here and there, but there are reasons why you rarely see microbiology taught at the high school level. As far as specific titles are concerned, can't help you - I've used several that would be appropriate, but not recently. Most of what I have on the shelf is either too involved or too old and you'd likely to be able to find it anymore.

We just worked through it one page at a time until we either ran out of time schedule for Latin, or DS ran out of interest (which depended on how tight our schedule was for the day). I put the vocabulary on Quizlet as well as index cards so he had options. We never worried about what that pace ended up looking like, because the plan has always been for that to be a year-round activity, with BB2 starting as soon as BB1 was finished. Foreign languages and math are two things that both benefit from continuing over the summer.

Big Book of Lively Latin seems to work well for that age group - it takes things slowly enough that it doesn't overwhelm, and you can easily adjust the pace to the student.

Thank you, this was very helpful. DS is very STEM-oriented, so this is reassuring.

We did for some things - at least we tried to. I also scan everything into PDFs periodically, and before we discard anything. Science - I basically ignored all the recommendations because to me (a science educator) they made no sense. We use an integrated science curriculum, heavily supplemented with some of the resources SWB suggested and a few others I have handy. DS is a Boy Scout, so we also integrate a lot of his STEM merit badges. The binder layout that SWB suggests for science would never have worked for us, mostly because of the level of integration. He keeps a binder to collect his work together but our organization is as integrated as our curriculum. In the rhetoric stage that will change significantly, since I will essentially be teaching him introductory-level college courses. Math isn't binder friendly - at least not the program we use. I made him keep notes and problem sets neatly organized so he can study from them, but that's it. Language arts are another area where we skipped the binder in the grammar stage - for the logic stage we're using binders for writing only. We used the workbooks for the writing and grammar programs SWB and her mom wrote, so I either kept them in a file folder in my desk or kept them in the workbook until he was finished. Reading and spelling didn't add enough to justify a binder, either. None of this is something he refers back to, so I keep them for my records only. History, on the other hand, was well-suited to keeping a binder. It's more than just a record of his work, it's his own reference to remind himself what he learned. Since I periodically scan everything it's not a big deal if something gets damaged beyond repair. I may offer to have the entire thing reproduced in bound volumes one day if he expresses any interest in keeping them.

I went to download a copy of this to my new computer and discovered it's inaccessible. I still have a copy, so it's not that big a problem for me, but this was very helpful even though I mostly used it as a skeleton to create my own history program using SotW. Does anyone know what happened? I know the creator stopped developing it before she was finished with level 2 because of health problems (can't remember where I heard that, because I don't know her personally), but it seems strange to me that what there is of level 2 is still available, but level 1 is stuck behind some kind of login page.

I'm torn between Dimensions Math and Math-in-Focus - it would help if I could find a comparison between them for grades 6-8. They're both Marshall Cavendish (I have copies of the teacher's guides for MiF on loan from the university), but because one isn't published directly by them they act like it's not theirs and they know nothing about it.

As a veteran, I strongly recommend that you get everything in writing that the recruiter tells you. If they aren't willing to put it into writing, and it's not an Army reg you can actually look up to verify, assume it won't happen or at least it won't be as simple as they'll make it appear. They are not your friend, your buddy, or your counselor, they are doing a job, which is to recruit soldiers. Yes, they care that the people they recruit will work out, but they absolutely are not above telling you things that are not necessarily accurate to encourage what they see as a good candidate. It could be as simple as telling you that you can bring your dog once you get out of training, without telling you that's only if you qualify for family housing or off-base housing, or as misleading as telling you that if you don't sign up for a specific MOS now, you'll still have some say once the Army decides where they need you (you have no say in your assignment unless it's in your contract, and you only get a say if the Army offers you two or more choices). GET IT ALL IN WRITING IF IT'S IMPORTANT TO YOU!

Stay strong and remember that your first obligation is to your husband, daughter, and yourself. The rest of your family gets in line only if you have something left to give. Your husband and daughter need you more than your mother needs you. It doesn't matter if she doesn't like her options, that's not your problem, it's her problem. Your problem is taking care of yourself, your husband, and your daughter. That core group of three is your number one priority.

I just wrote a long answer for you and when I hit submit it reverted to the original attempt I never posted. I give up. Short answer, pick your favorite. What the rest of us do isn't relevant unless it works for you and your son. The only other consideration is how much writing he'll be expected to do for whatever it is he wants to do with his life. If he wants to be a chef, it's safe to go light on the writing. If he wants to be a lawyer, he's going to need a much heavier writing program to prepare for that.

Math and languages are subjects that benefit from regular review over the summer anyway, so instead of review, if I were in this situation, I would just continue. Of course, if you do things differently, and most people do, this get more complicated. If she's ahead on other things, I would add more math as she finishes other things until she's just working on math. If it takes her past when the public schools let out, it shouldn't be by too much. If she's on track for other things, I would divide what's left for math into the number of days left for the public schools, plus one or two additional weeks (depending on how far behind she is) and try to increase the amount of math she does in a given day. I wouldn't double it unless she's finished with other things for the year already.

Well, I'm obviously late to the party, here, but here's my two cents for anyone still following this thread... If you're using her suggested filing system for the completed work, you may want to keep a red, blue, and brown (or green, since it would be easier to find) pen handy to put a colored dot on each paging indicate what color the border would have been (this was meant as an aid to filing them). I personally don't have any trouble deciding which section something should go in based on the content, but I've also studied Latin before and her sections make perfect sense to me. In either case, referring back to the original on the PDF will tell you what color the border was, so don't feel like that's a reason to print in color. Other than the artwork, I don't see any reason to print any of it in color unless you want to. Even the art pages I would probably feel justified in printing in greyscale, then finding larger versions in color (as I do for all curricula that use these works, even if they're in color already). Sometimes this means printing them separately, sometimes it means finding it in a large-format book of artwork, or sometimes it means looking at it on the screen. On rare occasions we actually get to see the piece in person if it happens to be in a nearby museum. The bigger the better, within reason of course.

You can do BFSU without any supplemental books, but if you really want one, I'd pick up good science encyclopedia (Kingfisher, Usborne, and DK all have good ones).

These are amazing - looks like very minimal tweaking will be necessary, but otherwise these will work nicely for us. Thank you!

You can still upload CDs to iTunes - I'm actually in the process of doing this right now for an audiobook.

Yes, it takes up where FLL leaves off. Well-Trained Mind Press may have it earlier than Amazon, from what we were told, but I don't know if that means Amazon won't get theirs until after the 18th, or WTM Press will get theirs before the 18th.

Highlights has an interesting geography series with a magazine for each state. They include a map, state facts, stories, puzzles, and so forth. The biggest drawback is it can be a bit expensive to get the entire set, compared to other geography programs. On the other hand, it's a lot of fun for the kids and they learn something about each state without it feeling like schoolwork, and I've never met an 8-year-old yet that didn't love getting mail addressed specifically to them. That's the only resource I know of that specifically deals with only U.S. geography, but I'm sure there are others I'm not aware of.