I plan on using the K12 Odyssey books. My DS is on the young side for Logic stage and he needs more narration, less encyclopedia. We are doing a US history year with American Odyssey this year. We haven't actually started yet, but I've been reading the text and I'm really happy with it. This is the first year I'm trying to do TWTM science and history, and I am having a hard time just using these reference books as a spine. I guess it's on me to add the "oomph" but I'm not getting it yet, for logic or grammar stage. (With the exception of Logic history, which I'm not doing according to TWTM resources.)

Flying with food allergies totally sucks. We flew with DS when he was 13 months, I held him on my lap, and when the flight attendant came around and offered us nuts, both DH and I told him "no thank you, the baby is allergic." There was an older gentleman on the aisle seat, (I had the baby by the window) who then declined nuts, looked at us and said he wouldn't want to do anything to put the baby in danger. We told him it would be ok, we were comfortable with the buffer, and it was a short flight. He insisted and the flight attendant brought us all pretzels, unprovoked by us. :001_wub: I get that people don't want to change their eating habits, but that interaction has sustained me through almost a decade of dealing with less than supportive people (some in my own family!) regarding DS's food allergies. It means the world to those of us dealing with LTFA's when other people respect the severity and give up some of their comfort for the health of our kids. We fly more now because we are guaranteed to take up at least a row. :lol:

Yes, exactly.

Thank you for the advice! I'm definitely in no hurry. I will keep this in mind for when the inevitable frustration hits. :)

I went ahead and bought AoPS. DS took the placement test with no problems so I'm hoping it won't be too put off by the actual curricula.

I'm way out of my league on this board, but I saw the topic on the main page so I clicked and here I am probably making a fool of myself. Anyways, my DS is doing a logic stage biology year and dmettler suggested Uzinggo to me. We decided to start with the middle school course and my DS loves it. I haven't seen what the highschool course looks like, but they do have one available. I'm not sure if it's a complete curriculum for high school, but the middle school level looks pretty solid. Just thought I would throw it out there since it's pretty visual.

I honestly don't even know what the "readiness" signs are. I didn't have time to give them a thought before my oldest was reading, and I didn't worry about them with my twins.

My son taught himself to read around 2 by memorizing what words looked like. He started intuiting phonics around 2.5 and I helped him with letters and sounds he didn't know. He's highly gifted, his siblings are moderately gifted and read at 4, through direct instruction at Montessori school. They knew their letters before entering but did not leap ahead like their older brother. He had a strong desire and they did not. ETA: To your question, I think there are some precocious kids who show readiness, but in my experience, it wasn't a "oh look, he is showing reading readiness signs," it was more like "Oh crap, the toddler just read me an inappropriate magazine headline."

Mine doesn't have them either. they may get them back around the holidays, i think that is when i bought my first set

Mine is not a math lover or math genius either. However he is good and intuits a lot. He's just.... lazy. :leaving: He's open to trying AoPS, but I do have my reservations. Thank you for the advice on Jacobs, I had a feeling it wasn't what we are looking for, but I can't exactly figure out what it is we are looking for. My husband is telling me to stop asking DS for his opinion because it's messing me up. :lol: He claims to hate math, but when he's actually doing it, he doesn't seem to mind it. Part of the AoPS thing for me is my own curiosity. I want to see if it's the missing piece that will help him to love math. I'm guessing it isn't, but that doesn't stop me from continuing to wonder.

It does! My DS actually liked the wordiness in JA, (he loves Fred for the same reason.) I might just go crazy and buy both so I can see them myself in person.

I see this one is suggested on the high school board, does anyone have any opinions on it? https://www.amazon.com/OMAX-40X-2000X-Binocular-Microscope-Mechanical/dp/B005TJ5CEG/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

We only did one class and it wasn't very challenging. It was SOTW 3 in half a year, so it was fast paced which was good for my 9 year old, but had he been even a year older, it would have been way too easy, instead of just easy. I think the age of AAA skews young so it's tricky. I know and understand wanting something for younger gifted kids online, but it does muddy the waters for middle schoolers who are capable of more output, and more advanced thinking. I don't think we'll do anymore AAA at this point, and I'll avoid it for my youngers who by the time they are mature enough to be online, will be cognitively past the info available.

Thank you for this. There is a part of me that wants to try AoPS just to see what would happen. He's good at math, he just balks at it. He's getting really into computers and I think I might be able to sell him on a "harder" program by telling him it will help him in other areas.

Sorry for yet another post, can you tell I forgot to plan this summer? DS has a few lessons left in Jousting Armadillos. He originally asked to go on to the next books, C&C and Chuckles. I've read here, and even posted about the fact that these are not a "complete" algebra program. I originally thought we would just go through them anyways, and then backtrack and pick up what we've missed. I'm no longer comfortable with this, because I fear I'll miss something, and while "holes" aren't the worst thing in the world, I'm adding in 2 more kids to the homeschool fold and also working more at my part time job. Long story, short - Algebra is causing me undue stress and I'd rather just pick something complete from the get go. As an aside, we are doing LoF pre-A concurrently because DS loves Fred, and I decided to indulge him. He hasn't started it yet and I assume it won't last too long. Anyways, for algebra, I'm considered the following: 1. Move from JA to AoPS pre A - The problem with this is I think he will hate AoPS. He's good at math, but he doesn't like it. He hated Beast, but we tried it 2 or 3 years ago, so maybe it was a maturity thing, but I suspect he just doesn't love math. 2. JA to Jacobs - he liked the sound of this one, but it's Algebra 1, would I need to do a more complete Pre-A? Should we do all of LoF pre-A first? Would that even help? :lol: 3. Foerster? Dolciani? I glanced at these but didn't give them much thought. In conclusion, 5th grader, almost 10yo needs a more formal algebra program that's challenging but not *too* challenging, and any use of humor or "fun" instruction is a big plus.

I would LOVE microscope suggestions! I mentioned getting a microscope and he's very excited about it!

Added both of your suggestions to my amazon cart!

I would do ancients for both! You can mix in some logic stage ancients for the 4th grader if grammar ancients aren't enough challenge. The first SOTW is really written to a young student so I'd probably have something a little more age appropriate for the older. :)

This is really a good point. Also, I happen to have a gifted kid that needs structure. When he has too much say, it all becomes overwhelming and he retreats to his standby of computers and video games. He's happy (mostly) to study things I plan for him, but he just doesn't have the executive functioning at this point to put stuff together himself. Screens are so easy to hyper-focus on, I would really be doing him a disservice if I let him to his own devices. (I've tried, and it goes as I've described.)

I forgot legend of sleepy hollow! thank you!

DS LOVES Uzinggo and there is a hsbc group buy right now

Ditto this.

Haha!! At this point everything is on the table.

I'm so torn! It sounds like it takes a really long time to get through all the phonograms with AAS? My older DS only did level one, he's a natural speller so it was kind of a waste. Neither of my twins are picking up spelling yet, so I am planning on some sort of spelling at least until I see how their spelling is going to progress. So if I'm going to get AAS anyways, part of me does kind of want to start there. I'm not sure how detrimental it would be to go back to AAR after starting AAS.

We are doing US History this semester, so I would like to add some American novels to our Lit selections. He's a little sensitive, so I need to be careful. TIA! ETA: for an almost 10 year old. :)