I am looking at the Starline Press World Geography set. Downside is it is pretty expensive; upside is it is open-and-go. I am also looking at the HMH World Geography package available through HSBC through the end of the month. At $60 compared to almost $200, the HMH looks like a better deal!

Thank you so much!!

My son can't figure out how/why a step in the problem at the bottom of page 111 in Life of Fred trigonometry was arrived at. I'm no help, either. Can anyone help? To show that 1 + cot2 x = csc2 x Changing to sines and cosines (ok here) 1 + cos2x/sin2x = 1/sin2x Adding the fractions (this is what he doesn't get) (sin2x + cos2x)/sin2x Since sin2x + cos2x = 1 (ok here too) 1/sin2x He doesn't understand how the term in the second step is derived. Anyone? Thanks! Amy

You can use an online graphing utility, but you might want to go ahead and buy the calculator now. He'll need it later on, anyway. There will be other mentions/demonstrations of the graphing calculator as the year goes on. I went ahead and bought the calculator around the same point you're at because I had never used one and figured my son would be best served by taking advantage of all the instruction in its use that Dana Mosely would be providing!

I really have no idea about the question you are asking. (So, why are you responding, woman?!) ;-D I just wanted to say that I had originally intended to use Hewitt's Conceptual Physics, but I ended up signing my son up for the physics course with Derek Owens. I couldn't be happier. DS is learning at his own pace (which is sometimes fast, sometimes SLOW) and doing a great job so far. The instructor doesn't seem daunted by my smart-alek-y son's goofy comments on his homeworks/tests, and has actually responded to them in a humorous way (far cry from the beleaguered public school teachers who took immature boy humor as an immediate sign of disrespect.) Mr. Owens does the grading and is available to answer questions. The physics course is essentially a conceptual physics course with labs; prereq is algebra I. DS has recently spent some time with trig concepts on Khan Academy bc there is apparently some trig in the course; I think there is a sufficient amount of instruction in the course for what is required, but he wants to earn badges and whatnot on KA!! Just wanted to throw another option out there.

Have you looked at Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings? www.homescholar.org

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? I'm sure regular readers of this board are tired of the "which Latin" question. I searched this board for a long time before posting my question, but that only made me more indecisive! Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I thought of having the 9th grader to continue doing the LFC series, which would give him some grammar, and then also have him do the Power-Glide lessons so I feel like he's using SOMEthing that's allegedly high-school level! We're already doing double maths and lots of language arts on top of his LLfLOTR, though, so as I sit here doing next week's schedule I worry whether we're really going to have time to do two Latin courses! Amy

I know that Kinetic books does offer an online homework component, but I don't know if that's "enough." The lack of availability of solutions led me to decide on the Derek Owens physics class for my 9th grader. Amy

Let me preface this by saying we started our school year last week, so clearly I am late to finalizing this decision! Last year was my now 9th grader's first year homeschooling. I already owned LFC A, so I just used that with both boys since I wasn't concerned with awarding credit and just wanted something easy (for me!) for our transition year. We only made it through part of book A because we weren't doing it consistently. It was a bit of a slacker year. When I was trying to decide what to use for Latin this year, I found the info on Classical Academic Press' webpage that suggested that LFC A and B could be used together to constitute a high school credit. "Great! I'll just buy B and have him do A+B." Then I started worrying whether that would REALLY be sufficient. Couple of used curriculum sales later and I found myself the owner of Latin for Children B, the Power-Glide high school set, AND several of the Oxford Latin books (I have a curriculum problem.) "Great! Sixth grader can stick with LFC and the high-schooler can do the Power-Glide set, we can look at the Oxford books for additional info if necessary and we will be ALL SET." Then I started researching Power-Glide and questioning whether THAT was sufficient, since what I am reading suggests it is light on grammar. I like that my son could do it completely independently. My own Latin knowledge is limited to whatever is in LFC A lesson 10, and I don't know how good the Oxford books are for self-teaching. So, WWYD? I would like to be able to use the resources I already own (so we can start Latin tomorrow) but I am wiling to buy something else if necessary. I was looking at Artes Latinae because it looks like something he could do completely on his own (but does it offer an advantage over Power Glide, which again I already own?) I also looked at Latin Alive since it looks like it would have a similar format to what he's used to from LFC and would also be possible for him to do on his own with the videos. I see there are CDs available for Oxford Latin and I could/would buy those if we decide to make Oxford the primary text for his Latin studies (but I don't have them yet, or the teacher's book.) FWIW this is a math-science kid who isn't your typical "classical scholar." In other words, he is willing to work hard at math, science, and computer science but wants to breeze through other topics with as little work as possible. :-P HE just wants to stick with LFC because that's what he started with, and it's fun and easy. Honestly, I don't want to torture either of us over it, either, but I do want it to be rigorous enough that I can legitimately call it Latin I. If you've read this far through my ramblings, I thank you! I'm trying to sort this all out in my own head. I would welcome any feedback! Thanks, Amy

What do you need? You could try posting in the wanted section of the sale board! Amy (who has some Singapore stuff she ought to list for sale!)

Thank you for your response! In that case I think I am going to be best served by ponying up the $$ for the intermediate text. That's what I get for trying to be clever. :)

Before I reinvent the wheel here, I thought I'd see if anyone had already figured this out. We used the actual Chalkdust Algebra I (2nd edition) last year, and this year my son is doing both Geometry (old, on VHS) and Algebra 2. I bought the Houghton Mifflin combined DVD set and the Larson 5th edition combined Elementary and Intermediate Algebra book figuring I could use that with my younger son for Algebra I and II when the time came. Well. Now I don't know what to do in the combined volume for Algebra 2! Somehow I thought it would be an easy split, and the book would be split into two parts, but it seems to actually BE a combined course! Even looking at the table of contents for just the intermediate book doesn't really help b/c there seems to be a great degree of overlap from beginner and intermediate. We had done chapters 1-9 in Algebra I, which just left quadratic equations. Eyeballing the table of contents of the Algebra I 2nd edition vs the combined course 5th edition I can see that complex numbers (ch 9) wasn't covered in Algebra 1, but if we start with that we would cover only four chapters plus the complex numbers section for Algebra 2! That doesn't seem right. I'll have to sit down and look more closely at the preceding chapters and see if they cover new content that we will need to go over. Thus my post and my question: Has anyone sat down and broken down what is new to the intermediate edition and not included in elementary? I know a certain amount of review will be necessary, but not an entire COURSE worth, esp since we are doing 1 and 2 consecutively rather than with a year off in between! Probably should've just bought the intermediate book! Amy

I have searched on "Spielvogel" but not used the tags; have to figure out how to do that. :) I agree the book is intimidating--in fact, my son said "aghh!!" when he saw it. LOL! Thanks for the feedback--I am reassured that it will be ok to do it in two years. I find myself kind of paranoid about what is sufficient for a high school credit. I KNOW we are not going to be good about recording time spent on a topic, so I want to be sure that the materials we use are "good enough!" Amy

I had originally planned to use this text over two years using the mental rationale that they also sell it as two separate texts, but now I'm questioning whether that would be sufficient for two credits. I'm also going to be using the TC World History videos and having him do map work and other reading. Thoughts? Amy

Students sue college professors? For WHAT?

They clearly don't value the business of the homeschool market, do they? It's kind of surprising, because there is clearly a need/desire for a product such as theirs in our community. I guess they figure there's more money in catering to...who? Virtual schools, I guess. Hm...interesting. I wonder if I could register and get course guides for classes he'd take in future years? Hadn't thought of that. I know Kolbe asks you not to resell their materials, but since Kinetic books holds the copyright on that (and CLEARLY Kolbe doesn't control any aspect of it) I think you're free to do with it what you wish. Let me know if you're interested in selling it! I'm also considering the Derek Owens physics course. My son likes technology more than people, though. ;-D (Aspie much?) Amy

Resurrecting an old thread....I contacted Kolbe and was told that in fact, solutions manuals are not available to families registered for the single course only. The email is on a different computer, but IIRC the person who responded to my question said that Kinetic books won't sell THEM the solutions manual anymore, and they've been trying to buy them back from previous customers so they could rent them to enrolled families, but the response has not been what they had hoped. So, how the heck are we supposed to grade anything? Even with single course enrollment you only send stuff in once a quarter, right? Is this a case where you'd have to pay for the enhanced evaluation to get any grading? Or are there any answers in the course guide? I was leaning toward using Kinetic Physics, but now I'm leaning back toward Hewitt b/c at least I could get teacher's materials. Amy

So, what was your experience using Basic Math? Did it feel like a year of marking place, or did it feel like you went into more depth than with Singapore 5?

I thought I"d resurrect this thread because I am trying to make the same decision. DS#2 is entering 6th grade and we've used Singapore since he started homeschooling midway through 2nd. I've been very happy with it and would just continue with 6A/6B except for two things: The home instructor's guides aren't done (we use the Standards edition) and I already own both Chalkdust Basic Math and Pre-Algebra! We used a couple of the basic math videos this past year to help supplement my teaching in fractions and decimals, and it seemed like the level of Basic Math was pretty similar to the level of SM 5. I don't want to spend a year going over things that have already been mastered when we could be pushing ahead, but I don't want to push him too hard. I don't think he needs to be doing algebra before 8th grade, but he's probably ready for pre-algebra! But-we don't need to spend two years doing pre-algebra! I'm thinking this through as I type; bear with me. Looking at the contents of Singapore 6 vs CD-BM I definitely can't just do the Basic Math. Too much review, not enough new stuff. Pre-algebra looks more similar to the content of 6A/6B. I had been thinking I didn't want to do pre-algebra because it would put him on track for algebra in 7th grade, but it looks like doing Singapore 6 would ALSO pretty much put him on track for algebra in 7th grade! I guess it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend money on the SM set when it seems to overlap so much with pre-algebra. It looks like SM covers more geometry than CD-PA does, so I might need to supplement with something if I go the Chalkdust route. I don't know if I am emotionally ready to separate from Singapore. :-D Amy

Do you mean they took the CLEP at the end of 9th grade? I have to confess it hadn't occurred to me to have them do that until much later! I took some in the summer between HS graduation and starting college, so that's what I had in my mind.

To preface this, I started out looking for online programs that would allow me to be hands-off with my rising 9th grader's HS work. That process led me right back to where I was before, which is where I put together my own program of different things and am Chief-Mom-in-charge-of-the-universe. It will be fine. Really. :) One thing that steered me toward this route was my desire to use the Literature Lessons from Lord of the Rings for our LA this year. I found a copy at a recent used curriculum sale and can't wait to get started! But now I have to make some history decisions. Local HS does two years of World History for 9th/10th grade (this is relevant b/c he might end up back there at some point) then US History, then Gov't, so that was my plan at first. But b/c of the vagaries of public school (k-7) and our floundering through 8th grade at home, son hasn't had much "recent" history from, say, the Reconstruction onward. I had decided to cover American History this year starting with the Civil War because that's where my 6th grader is and it would make life simpler. But! Lord of the Rings would seem to lend itself better to ancient/medieval history, and I would like to be able to coordinate American literature with American history. So, maybe I should start with ancient and medieval history now (he's had a bit of both, but not in depth) and try to informally catch him up on the modern world, or maybe I should not even stress too much over that b/c he will learn it eventually. Thoughts? If you read this far through my ramblings, I thank you! :) Amy

I am trying to figure out the whole deal with being an "enrolled family" with Kolbe Academy. I know you can't get a *diploma* from them if you don't take the required religion classes, but can you still register/enroll and have the other benefits of being a registered family (such as the transcript and course outlines) without ever intending to take the diploma/do religion?

Can't figure out how to delete this!

I don't *necessarily* want something that looks like public school, though there is a certain comfort level in having that b/c I'm not 100% sure we will make it all the way through high school. I grew up in Indiana, but don't live there now. My parents still do, though; maybe he can go live with them and get a virtual charter school for free! :)

amtmcm--Which LabPaq set did you get? We will probably be using Conceptual Physics this year as well, and your list of ancillary resources is very useful. Are there tests in the teacher's edition?