Mine didn't like AOPS pre-algebra, either. We went straight from Singapore 6B to Jacobs Algebra and Geometry, then Foersters for Algebra 2 and Trig. My husband's a calculus teacher, so they've used his/his school's materials for that. That worked very well with my oldest--perfect scores on everything math-related, and he's now a math major. My next kid is much less mathy, but just got a 4 on Calc AB after this sequence, so it's worked out well for him, too.

I typed in "home school" and my zip code and some kind of statewide thing popped up for me to select--it says "Georgia Home School" under my name now when I log in. oh, I did have to upload my declaration of intent, too, at some point.

oh good! I think it was Andy Slavitt that listed Vermont as a state that wasn't allowing mask mandates the other day, but then in one of the responses someone pointed out that was an old policy and likely to change.

Right--there's no nationwide tracking of breakthrough cases (which is frustrating), but some places ARE tracking them--he's been following data from San Diego county and Virginia because they're still tracking breakthrough cases.

Thought this post from Josh Marshall on twitter was interesting, especially the chart from San Diego county: It's the first thing I've seen that compares rates in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated people instead of just giving everything as a percentage (i.e. figures like on the right--.0008% of vaccinated people were hospitalized--without giving the same figure for the unvaccinated). I imagine the numbers aren't entirely reliable for cases because vaccinated people are probably less likely to get tested (and, relatedly, probably less likely to be symptomatic), but it's pretty stark.

Absolutely. But particularly as we stare down another academic year dealing with this, I'm very sympathetic to the idea that we need to accept some trade offs with safety so that kids can go to school. But why not make the risks as low as you reasonably can?! Particularly since outbreaks and quarantines cause a whole lot more disruption than having to wear masks indoors.

The variation between different regions is HUGE. Another issue is that people quote total population rates and adult rates without distinguishing very well between them. The 70% figure is only for people over 18 (so not even teens who are eligible for vaccines), but you'll see the rate for the total population frequently, too, which obviously is much lower.

DH back to school today (for planning; no students until next week). No mask mandate in his school; my old nemesis, the superintendent, just modified the masks optional policy to make it masks mandatory in areas with an incidence rate of more than 100/100,000--which isn't DH's school...yet. I'm surprised/disappointed by the places that are going masks optional in schools, particularly elementary schools. Places like Massachusetts and Vermont--not just the usual suspects. I don't get approaching covid by figuring out a minimum level of safety and then deliberately doing less than that. We found out last year that schools WITH A LOT OF SAFETY PRECAUTIONS could open fairly safely (for students. Numbers were always higher than the overall community for teachers and staff, even in places with low numbers for students) and that when there were outbreaks it was because of a lack of such precautions. So...why not, like, try to prevent outbreaks? DH is vaccinated and teaching high school (and will mask even though he's not required to), which is keeping my rage level at a low simmer. If I had a kid I was planning to send to elementary school this year, I'd be LIVID. It was a total bait and switch; parents had to decide whether to do virtual or in person learning in the spring when there WAS a mask mandate, and they're not allowed to switch now. It's pull your kids out of school altogether or send them to the schools that are pretending there's no pandemic anymore.

Awesome--thank you! I suspect this will be one of those "why didn't I do this years ago?!" situations. I'm midway through doing the course audit now, and I'm waiting on my high school teacher husband to talk to the AP gov teacher at his school and see if he can check a textbook out for me for the year so I can fill out that section.

My kids have done about a zillion (hold on, let me count: more like 11, I guess) AP classes/exams on their own at home, and I've never submitted a syllabus before. But I've finally gotten too jealous about people who have AP classroom access, so I think I'm going to do it this year. Is it true that I can just use the sample syllabus from the college board's website, more or less? (I would modify it where needed--like where there are group activities or resources I don't actually have access to or whatever).

I think the CDC messaging has been pretty consistently terrible (in all different directions) from the beginning. I feel like they just throw different things at the wall every month or two, trying to get something to stick.

yeah--I first saw it because Nate Silver linked to it, but I don't consider him a trustworthy source on covid stuff. And I haven't been able to find the same argument elsewhere, just people taking the 39% and running with it. So I don't know. But I definitely would need to see other analyses supporting that 39% figure before I take it as gospel.

Have we talked about this yet? (I'm back from our big summer trip, so apparently my break from obsessing is over!) https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/covid-boosters-cdc-group-weighs-third-shot-for-immunocompromised-people.html This seems sort of huge to me (although I'm curious what percentage of hospitalized cases in the UNVACCINATED are immunosuppressed people); it indicates that we really need to get on it with boosters or other protocols for people who don't mount a strong immune response to the vaccine...and it also says that the hospitalization rate for vaccinated people who AREN'T immunosuppressed is even lower than straight up hospitalization numbers tell us (maybe that's all obvious. But I've wondered for awhile now to what extent breakthrough infections, particularly serious ones, are about people never having developed antibodies. I.e. they are in some sense not actually vaccinated. That is all my very not-an-immunologist take on it, anyway, which certainly may be deeply flawed.)

According to this guy, the 39% figure from Israel is "mostly because we got the denominator wrong." My brain is too tired to fully follow what he's saying, but thread is here:

DS18 was surprised to see two of his three scores (from the June online tests) tonight, too. 4s in AB calc and in Physics 1; the physics in particular was a relief--he prepped for it all on his own, and we really had no idea what to expect. He and my 15 year old are still waiting on APUSH.

We'd hoped to do a Disney trip as the kids' xmas present last year, but then of course that didn't happen, so we were hoping for this year instead. I'd almost talked myself into spending the money, but that was back when I was hopeful that numbers would stay good and that DS8 would be able to be vaccinated in the fall. Now there's just no way. My kids REALLY want to go see all the stuff that's new since we were there last 3 years ago (even my 20 year old can't stop talking about it), but...no. Another year. It sucks because we used to go every year in September, and I miss it and also feel a little sad that my youngest hasn't had the same experience (which is silly; we've traveled much more widely with him, just not to Disney nearly as much). And we definitely had a much smaller travel budget back then; the prices are out of control, but people keep paying them, so.

This was for fall of 2019. Maybe the candy started getting too expensive!

For the histories (at least APUSH), they do have test prep specific videos where they go over a sample DBQ, long essay, etc.

We've used a ton of Khan for some things--world history and APUSH and art history. We haven't used it at all for math or science stuff.

Mine got his vaccines at his college (1000 miles from home) and has always had his own card. Honestly, he's less likely to lose it than I am 😂 (I hold on to everyone else's in the family, because I'm the second least likely to lose them person).

I've had 3 kids do APUSH at home now--my oldest mostly did it on his own using Pandia Press's US History (which they're not publishing anymore, although I think you can still buy a printed copy?) With my two current high schoolers, I was somewhat more involved; they read Jill Lepore's These Truths and then did Khan Academy stuff, plus we did a lot of primary source stuff. They want a particular kind of skillset for the exam--both for the multiple choice and the FRQs....just knowing the history will only get you so far; all of the multiple choice are "stimulus based" --so they give them a primary source passage or a picture or graph and ask a series of questions about it. And the essays have a specific rubric that they should be very familiar with. So all of that to say make sure there's plenty of test prep and practice essays. But my oldest got a 4 by pretty much studying on his own with a non-AP specific curriculum and adding in some test prep, mostly toward the end of the year. There's SO MUCH material out there for review, so that's nice (if a bit overwhelming).

Manaus is definitely concerning and a good reason not to get cocky just because numbers are down right in the US right now (or to be too confident about natural immunity): https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(21)00183-5/fulltext

Re: tips...there's a place on the college board website to search for schools that are offering the test you need (I need to bookmark it; I have to look around and try to find it again every time)--although government is a common one, so most schools that offer AP classes at all will probably have it. I'd ask around on local homeschooling groups to try to find out what schools people have had luck with in the past--that could save you a good bit of time. Good luck--we've always found somewhere, but I think this is my 6th year doing APs and it's a PITA every single year somehow or other!

I'd do it a few weeks after schools start up for fall near you, whenever that happens to be (but definitely by mid-late September). We've done public and private schools, and it doesn't really make a difference; I'd just start with wherever's closest to you.

I think so. I use the admission requirements for my state flagship as a guide when I plan out what we need to make sure to get done. In general I've found that they're more rigid than private colleges and universities, so as long as we hit those we're probably good.