Love John Oliver. One of my favorite episodes has his rant about sports stadiums.

At least in our local cc system, students may not take linear algebra until they have completed calc 1-3. Something to check. eta: pardon me, our local cc's require only calc 1 and 2 prior to taking linear algebra.

Yes, the advanced maths does take longer than algebra 2. However, what Art Reed recommends for most students is to do the odd problems on one day and the even problems the next. The book is meant to be finished in 1 1/2 to 2 years. The first half would be called "geometry with advanced algebra" while the 2nd half would be called "precalculus with trigonometry". The other option, which I don't recommend unless you have a very capable math student, is to use the schedule from My Fathers World, which has the student only do selected problems from each lesson. This is what my Dd did, but only because I knew it was appropriate for her.

Integrated Maths II has the heaviest concentration of geometry topics of the three integrated courses that ALEKS offers. It also has some advanced algebra, as well as probability and statistics topics. My older dd completed it this year while working on Saxon Advanced Maths. In January, she took a placement test for the charter high school she will attend this fall, and she placed into PreCalculus Honors (this was about halfway through Advanced Maths). I felt the Integrated Maths II was a nice review for her to do along with Saxon. For this summer, I'm choosing to have her do Algebra II with Trigonometry because she is nearly finished with Advanced Maths and I feel it reflects what she has done this year better than the Integrated Maths III from ALEKS. HTH. eta: actually, the ALEKS PreCalculus probably covers what Advanced Maths does, but I will have her do that for review over the coming year.

We've been with a charter since we started homeschooling. It has been wonderful -- they have been supportive of us not only financially but with our individual curriculum choices. There is no way we could have afforded the amazing curricula we have used without the charter. One thing though: $600 seems quite low for a charter school homeschooling budget. Up to this year, our budget has been $750 per child, and this year, it will be $1000 per child. I know of other charters that have even higher budgets. You may want to look around before you commit and talk to some other charter families in your area to get a feel for what is available.

My younger dd is finishing up Saxon Algebra 2 this year. This is our plan: This summer, she will do ALEKS Geometry. Then, she will move on to Saxon Advanced Mathematics in the fall. During the year, she will do ALEKS Integrated Maths II as review and reinforcement in her free time. She may not finish Advanced Maths by the end of the year, and that's ok. Next summer, she will do ALEKS Algebra 2 with Trigonometry. I do really like these two Saxon texts -- they are dry but they definitely get the job done. My dds both seem to really grasp all of the concepts, as they always do well and feel confident with the concepts they review on ALEKS (I use it as my backup to make sure there are no gaps in their learning). So far, so good.

Following. :lurk5:

I agree the primary reason for this phenomenon is: Money. The price of a college education is ridiculously more expensive than it has ever been, financial aid is paltry, and the better ranked colleges do not give much, if any, merit aid. Lower ranked colleges give loads of merit aid to good students. So, it doesn't matter if a high school is rigorous and ranks high in the state. It all comes down to what a family can afford to pay for college. The cost is shocking. eta: What I mean is, a public high school can be the best in the nation, but you may not see many of its graduates going to HYPS schools, because the merit aid is just not there.

Well, the new SAT is more similar to the ACT now. That said, it's probably not a good idea to prep for the SAT if one will only take the ACT. That's interesting. I've never heard of a school asking for the ACT in lieu of the SAT. We've started researching schools and haven't come across that - if anything, the schools seem to value them equally.

Khan Academy has free SAT test prep that just started up with the new SAT. You can also have them sign up for the free Daily Question app for the SAT. It's probably the easiest thing you can do right now, and it also seems to be getting pretty good reviews. Start them off this summer with some assessment tests to see where their weaknesses are and you can focus your curriculum on their weak areas. I don't know the exact ages of your kids, but what has seemed to work well for us so far is First Language Lessons 1-4 and then Hake Grammar. We did Singapore Math 1-8 (approximately) and then switched to Saxon. I also have them do ALEKS for review and reinforcement in the summertime. All of these programs have been very solid preparation for the SAT. I would not recommend Growing with Grammar -- although we used it for year 2 of First Language Lessons as additional written reinforcement. It was not as strong of a program as FLL. That said, FLL is very teacher intensive, which may not be what you want. I also sat with my girls and we went through the lessons together in Hake for the first two years. I also highly recommend SAT preparation via Khan, or other printed materials including: PWN the SAT (for math), and Erica Meltzer's books (for the language arts sections). As other posters have said, SAT preparation is important, even for those who are strong in both language arts and math.

I'm not sure I agree with this. I vividly remember feeling, as a child, my NPD mom was crazy. In my teen years, I felt so helpless and wondered why no adults around me noticed or seemed to care. It may be that this kid has to put up with NPD for at least 5 more years, and NPD will hurt that child no matter what the OP does. When people sent me things, my NPD mom would open them before I got them, which is what I suspect this NPD might be inclined to do, as well. (Take money, etc.) Sometimes, my NPD mom would tell me, "Oh, so and so didn't send you anything. They don't care enough about you to send anything." The message I got from the fact that no other adults interfered with this was that I must be the crazy one. A kid of 13 has no idea. It took me a long time to realize I wasn't really the crazy one. So, I kind of feel that OP should continue to give cards, gifts through mom, etc., if only to ensure that the gifts actually get to the kid, but also to send him the message that other adults don't cowtow to NPD's unreasonable demands. It could give the child strength to get through these tough years and move on in the future.

We love AoPS -- but as others have mentioned, it's not for everyone. Our favorite was the PreAlgebra book, but we still use the higher level books to supplement our regular curriculum. Do take a look at the samples. It might not have as much review as some students need. One thought I have is this: you said your oldest was doing Saxon Geometry, but placed into Algebra I. That's not unusual -- a number of students might forget the Algebra they previously learned while focusing on Geometry. If you are inclined to stick with Saxon, I would recommend that you go back and use the original Saxon series (second edition), which integrates Algebra and Geometry topics together. I'm a big believer in integrated maths. eta: I'm looking at my younger dd's Alg 2 Saxon book which integrates Algebra and Geometry together, and it is the 3rd edition, while my older dd's Advanced Maths book is the 2nd edition. I'm not sure what comes before these (we used Singapore's books before this year), but my basic recommendation is to stay away from the newer Saxon books that separate the Algebra and Geometry.

We also used the MicroPhySci kit this year -- it is a great kit. The lab book is very nice, with answers at the back for checking. Judging from the quality of this kit, I would definitely get the MicroChem kit in the future. eta: We did every single lab included in the kit. In fact, we are just going to be doing our last lab from the kit tomorrow and we will be finished. They were all worthwhile. I just went through our physical science textbook and matched up the labs to the chapters we were on, and we performed the labs accordingly.

I haven't seen the video, but the song is definitely about a woman saying "No" to a guy hitting on her. I interpret it as a girl power song. But I'd imagine the video is pretty colorful as Megan Trainor is that kind of performer. Now I'm interested.... eta: Ok, now I've seen the video on YouTube. Yeah, maybe not the most ideal thing to be showing on a children's channel when younger kids might be watching. I didn't think it was pornographic, though -- maybe just a little racy. YMMV.

I agree, it is way too soon. I have no idea whether it was deliberate or not. It certainly seems odd.

The Chinese had copies prior to the March exam and I believe some scores for March were cancelled because of it. This time, I doubt anyone could have predicted the CB would reuse one of those tests so soon, so I'm not sure they could prove cheating was done. It begs the question: why would CB even give that test for June knowing it was so widely circulated recently not only in Asia but over the Internet?

I don't think they will cancel scores unless they find there was cheating. My concern would be that the curve is going to favor those who took the same exam in March and punish the rest.

I'm getting nostalgic thinking about read aloud a for this age group and have thought of some more: James Herriot's Treasury for Children All of a Kind Family Aesops Fables The Light Princess The Wizard of Oz :)

Pippi Longstocking Ramona the Brave Trumpet of the Swan A Little Princess

Have any of you heard the chatter that one version of the test was an exact replica of one of the tests just given in March (2016)? I read this on the college confidential boards and also on reddit. Erica at The Critical Reader also took note of this in her blog post from yesterday. It will be interesting to see if this gets any publicity. I know the college board re-uses old tests but to re-use a test given just 3 months ago??? If this is true, it doesn't strike me as particularly well-played on the part of the College Board.

I agree. There is definitely an added layer of parental hopelessness in this story. However, I too see these same behaviors/thinking patterns among many of dds 7th/8th grade girlfriends in two parent households. I think many parents are just clueless to a greater or lesser degree about these issues.

I agree with so much of what is posted here. "Why do you ask?" should be a standard response with this person. But I also wanted to say, I think there is a tendency for people (maybe women in particular?) to feel as if they have to be more accommodating than they want to be. We find it hard to say "No", even when it is in our own best interest. I, myself, practice saying, "No" to things that are really inconveniences for me. It's easier said than done, I know. For a person to know you have plans on a certain day, and then ask to insert themselves into your day by asking if he/she could come over before or after your planned activities, is somewhat presumptuous. This person is only thinking of what is convenient for him or her, and apparently assumes you must have unlimited energy and/or time during any given day, regardless of what your plans are, to fit him/her in. It's ok to just say "No, that won't work for us. Maybe another time!"

My dd had assigned seating too. I must have missed that on the admission ticket, but it was fine. My only concern was that dd would be seated somewhere she could see the clock in the room, and she was. She said she finished every section early and even had time to re-check most of her answers. But then she said she only skimmed the first passage initially, and the second time she went back, she re-read it carefully and found she had to change some of her answers. :glare: Good learning experience. She also said she expected it to be harder than the practice test she took on Khan, but she didn't feel that it was. The only slightly strange thing that happened to her was that she was not placed in the correct room alphabetically. When she checked in to what appeared to be the correct room, they told her that they did not have her name on their list and she had to go back to the front of the school and talk to Mr. So and So who was apparently in charge. She did and found he had grouped her, and all the other kids who were 8th grade and under, in the room with the high school kids at the end of the alphabet (My dds last name does not fall at the end of the alphabet). Weird. I have no idea why this was done -- when my older dd took it in 6th grade, they didn't do this. It didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to make her feel stressed out right at the beginning of the day because she thought there was a big problem when the correct room didn't have her name, and then she thought she might be late getting to the room where she was assigned. Maybe they thought the younger kids would feel better grouped together? But there were only 3 of them in a room full of about 30 kids. Goofy. All worked out fine in the end.

I think you will just know, because you know your kids best.

Yes, 1st or 3rd grade would likely not be a good time to start out with the SAT. I think 12 or 13 is the typical age to think about whether your kids are ready for it. My dds were both accelerated in their math and reading, and they had already done well on things like the AMC8 and Math Kangaroo, so the SAT didn't seem so crazy by the time they were 12/13. I had them take practice tests, and they scored fairly well, so we decided to sign them up. We didn't participate in a talent search, because it was less expensive to sign up on our own. All scores from 8th grade and below are purged from the system, so there's no worry about your child's score from those grades staying on their permanent record. It's nice to have a baseline, and an idea of what areas need improvement.