I should have said podcasts! I'm glad you mentioned one.I've not heard of Prisoners of Geography. Gatto will do that for you : ). Thanks for responding!

What books have you read that influenced/improved/gave you food for thought about learning/teaching in general? What have you read that has improved your knowledge/teaching in a specific subject area? Thanks, Kendall

I couldn't see any of the new test dates and Sept 12 was full. Did any of you see the new test dates as options?

When it is a novel such as Pride and Predjudice, I am definitely in the read the book first camp. But what about Shakespeare? We are going to start with Much Ado About Nothing this year. It is a play after all. What would you do? Watch first or read first? Thanks, Kendall

Do you know of any blogs, etc that talk about using this especially in a homeschool setting with high school age kids? Thanks, Kendall

When doing Year 4 the last time, my high school kids read Hero of the Empire by Millard. It was so interesting. I want to find some interesting non-fiction books to read in the 1600-1850 time period (though I'll take recommendations for civil war era and beyond as well). They will be doing hard work in history, and I want to maintain their love of history by having something more story/less textbook to read as well. Though Hero of the Empire by Millard was adult level, I'm also open to children's books as well that are non-fiction. I have found some great children's books recently such as Black and White Airmen:Their True History and Bomb but they are WW2. Looking forward to your suggestions, Kendall

I don't have specific suggestions about content, and you've gotten some great ones, but I will share an idea I learned from a sample transcript from someone on these forums years ago. The transcript had 1.5 credit of English and literature each year. I really liked this idea because I wanted my children to read more and write more. 1 credit just didn't seem like enough time to me for such a foundational subject. What I did with my 5 graduates, and will continue to do, is each day they do 1 hour of English/writing and 30 a day for literature reading and discussing. Rather than do an hour for a semester for a half credit we do the half hour for the year for the half credit. Some years literature is tied closely to HIstory (ancients and medieval) the other two years I tie it more closely to English. On the transcript goes Ancient History and Literature 1.5 credits. english 10 and literature 1.5 credits. etc. Usually, they do an elective of their or my choosing the same way - 30 minutes a day for the year for the other .5 credit. Colleges have been fine with this. I relax and don't feel like I am cramming too much into an hour and my kids read and write more. Sometimes they would start an essay about literature during the literature time slot and then I would move it to the English slot and start a new book in the literature time. Sometimes we needed a bit more time to read/discuss and we would short English a bit that day.

I will describe the best way that I have found to review regardless of text, though we do use Foerster. As the year moves along, I write problems on index cards. I don't do word problems on the cards, just representative problems from each section-usually one problem per card. I put the solution and answer on the back. Recently I have color coded the answer side with a different colored dot for each chapter so that I can sort through them and reuse them for the next child. Each day they start with 5-10 minutes of doing problems from the cards. The get shuffled each time they start the deck over.

We did every problem until the Challenger and then just spent a set amount of time(2-3 days I think) and then moved on. My kids have done that book in 7th and I wanted them to do Algebra 1 (A different program) in 8th. So we only worked a year and got as far as we could.

Thank you for all of these suggestions!

I used a guide from commonlit.org for Macbeth and I liked some things about it. I would like to find a guide/set of questions for Much Ado About Nothing. I liked that it seemed very text based. The questions directed you to specific lines/sets of lines and asked questions about them which were also leading to the answer of a larger question about the entire scene or act. Is there anything out there like that about Much Ado About Nothing or any other literature works? Thanks, Kendall

I am grateful that my daughter's AP Calc AB answers uploaded. I hear many teachers whose students had trouble and will have to retake. At least one of teacher mentioned ahead of the first AP week the possibility of students sending answers to their teachers right after the test as backup. Emailing answers immediately to AP is the backup plan for this week, but not retroactively for last week. The idea was given to them ahead of time and they should have had it in place for the first week IMO. I'm just glad we are done.

Thank you. I decided to order the Intermediate Algebra and we'll go from there.

I can't quite commit to only using AoPS because I know my time limitations. But I have been using it with my current 10th grader in the following way. She did most of AoPS prealgebra . then did Foerster Algebra 1 and then did AoPS Introductory Algebra slowly alongside geometry and is continuing that this year alongside Algebra 2 (Foerster). Actually, after a tough year medically with another child, she is just now getting back to doing it alongside. I'm having her do the main sections if they cover something she hasn't already learned and otherwise just the review problems and a few challenge problems. My goal is to give her some more challenging and interesting problems because she goes through the Algebra 2 pretty easily and quickly. It is also obviously a good review. My current plan is to do precalculus (Foerster) next year and continue the AoPS alongside as time permits. I am assuming that I should have her continue on to Intermediate algebra when she finishes the Intro? Or should she move to the AoPs precalc? Thoughts? Thanks, Kendall

Thanks for the input!

If there is a fee, I think you should avoid it scholarship search companies but my daughter read good reviews about mos.com. I do not have time right now to research this and what little google search I have done isn't yielding the info I think must be out there. Have any of you used this or rejected using it? Thanks in advance for any input you can give. Kendall

https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/658850-should-i-teach-augmented-matrices-in-algebra-2/ I knew I had asked this before! I tried to search on WTM for it in my activity, but it didn't show up. I just did a google search for this topic and one result was the thread I started above:)!

Convince me of the value of doing more than a few problems (or any) of solving 2nd order and higher order systems of equations by hand using augmented matrices. I don't want to be lazy about it, but I also don't want to do it just because it was taught for years. We are using the Foerster Algebra and Trig text for Algebra 2 Thanks, Kendall

I think if you decide not to take the test you get a refund less $40. I don't like it, but at least you don't lose the full cost

When I added a 4th, 5th,and 6th child to my school day (and littles underneath!) I did sometimes teach the lesson the evening before and then the next day the child could start his math without me and then during the day I was only needed if he had a question, and I could be teaching another child. It really helped when I did this. With some of my quicker kids, I didn't need to because they needed very little time with me before starting the problems. In my experience, my children much prefered me teaching them to them reading the lesson. YMMV. They did plenty of stuff on their own, but math I taught directly to them.

I just teach my kids the lessons and It sounds like you could do the same, but I have heard that Math Without Borders sells video teaching for use with the Foerster text.

In that situation I might start Foerster Algebra 1. He doesn't need to finish AOPS prealgebra; much of the rest of the book is material that will be covered in geometry or in algebra. You could have him slowly work through AOPS if he moves quickly in the algebra 1, which you may find that he does. This would give him the challenge of AOPS without the pacing frustration. My last few kids have done the first 7 or 8 chapters of AOPS and then done Foerster Algebra 1. It is a very strong algebra 1 text. My other children just did the Foerster text. He will find the first few chapters easy and can maybe build carefulness and reduce discouragement. When my children are missing problems, I check their work or have them check their work after every few problems.

I haven't found the kind of program that does retrieval practice perfectly (see retrievalpractice.org), but making your own set of index cards with the different types of problems (1 per card) and having the student cycle through reviewing them regularly has been the most effective for my children. This works with any program. Also, I don't know what topics are covered in McRuffy 5, but so much of 7th/8th grade math is just a review of grade school. Get that all solid by a regular system of review and Algebra 1 in 9th is quite possible.

I'm looking for non fiction books about anything in the 400-1600 time period. Things along the line of How The Irish Saved Civilization or biographies. I am looking for books particularly for my 10th and 12th graders, but if you have a title that's a little young I'll take that, too. I've got an 8th and 6th grader as well. Thanks, Kendall